The 'Techniques for making techno' thread.

[danielmarshall]

You're so right. Boosting bass before you compress leads to a paddocks' worth of mud.

Something I've realised lately is that side chaining the bass with a longish decay on the kick is often a good way to reduce the ammount of overall compression you'll have to apply to your mix to get it to sound full and loud.

So much of this stuff is common sence, but all too often I forget to apply these basic principles...

[DJ Z]

well you can't really separate compression from eq..it's kind of a symbiosis thing...many good advices here about compression..i would just add a little advice about EQ-ing: try getting your sound by cutting frequencies not by boosting..i get the best results that way
:newstyle:

[DotMatrix]

yeah I have read alot on subtractive eq. So I do understand the theory behind that, but I am having trouble putting it into practice. It's all fine if I hear something in the mix that I don 't like I can isolate that and take it away. But when it comes to eqing my highs I have alot of trouble knowing what to remove.

can anyone give me some advice on this? I'm looking for hands on advice as I do understand some of theory but I need to know how to put into practice.

[danielmarshall]

Subtractive EQing is useful when you're using low quality EQs which introduce less artifacting to the signal as compared to boosting. Cheap filters create combing when you boost em basically.

It works by cutting the inverse of the frequencies you want to boost, then pushing the gain back up again. So say for example you wish to boost the bass a bit, you'd put a rather dry low pass filter on the signal to deminish the high end a tad. The result will be a signal that has more bass in it than mid and trebble.

Perosnally I don't find this technique to really be of much use, because I usually end up ruining my sound in one area whilst trying to correct it in another. IMO Just use boost when you need to and drop the overall gain. Make sure you're using a decent EQ though... There are plenty of options (some free). If you can't tell the difference, then who cares!

[Sinister_Minister]

all I can is wow...here I am, an isolated technohead from Toronto, with my brandspanking new copy of Reason and my X-station in hand, ready to make my first track...and I find myself in here with my techno brothers basking in their collective wealth of knowledge in regards to production...i'm a lucky guy

[MARKEG]

:)

[fresh_an_funky_design]

You're so right. Boosting bass before you compress leads to a paddocks' worth of mud.

Something I've realised lately is that side chaining the bass with a longish decay on the kick is often a good way to reduce the ammount of overall compression you'll have to apply to your mix to get it to sound full and loud.

So much of this stuff is common sence, but all too often I forget to apply these basic principles...

interestin bit of advice about side-chaining, been really getting into it recently, great with the software but only 1of my hardware compressors has a side chain input which is really annoying

[Mindful]

all I can is wow...here I am, an isolated technohead from Toronto, with my brandspanking new copy of Reason and my X-station in hand, ready to make my first track...and I find myself in here with my techno brothers basking in their collective wealth of knowledge in regards to production...i'm a lucky guy

haha I know how you feel mate.
when i first hit this place I had one freind who was in to making music(well techno and electronica music)
So when I found this place I was so happy(looking thru old topics in this forum was more of an addiction than actualy making music for me)

The best advice I can give is to post the results of your music making in the production files and take every comment on your music on board, be it positive and negetive and use it as you see fit.

Also do your own thing :)

welcome to the board.

[Sinister_Minister]

quote" haha I know how you feel mate.
when i first hit this place I had one freind who was in to making music(well techno and electronica music)
So when I found this place I was so happy(looking thru old topics in this forum was more of an addiction than actualy making music for me)

The best advice I can give is to post the results of your music making in the production files and take every comment on your music on board, be it positive and negetive and use it as you see fit.

Also do your own thing :)

welcome to the board.[/quote]

Appreciate it mindful...everybody on here has experience on me so I'd be fool not to listen and sift thru what I can use huh? Guess I'm in a good spot as newb...can only get better :)

[Jay Pace]

This is probably the friendliest and most informative place on the internet.

Use it wisely. Welcome to the board!

[tracatak]

:clap:


i have to really go back and save all of this..lol..well done guys..

[MARKEG]

i love this place :)

[Elvio Neto]

me too! :)


i dont have friends in producion or djing

when i found this place is like i found god :)


thanks all amigos.

[danielmarshall]

My main quam with outboard anything is that I can't have a project file to save the settings. Like the idea (and sound) of allot of gear, but sometimes it's hard to replicate that sound you had a couple of days ago even with all the knob numbers written down. Not only that, but I feel that I loose my ideas very quickly (don't do drugs kids), so if I can't have things up and running in minutes I'm lost. That, and with digital technology being at the point is is, and only getting better I'll take the hit in sound quality for the usabilty/ flexibility tradeoff anyday. Mind you, some valve compressors/ distortion units still make me wet...

i find i'm much more creative with my outboard than with software.

If i apply software compression i usually go for standard compression settings, wheras with outboard i really mess around doing slightly crazy settings and often get really good results.

I've started really battering my compressors recently, getting the overload lights glowing, get such a lovely distortion. not that heavy like the distortion you get from a lot of plug-ins, just a really nice warm sound

Yup, I agree, some valve equipment just can't be replaced... My guitar amp doesn't use transistors for a good reason. But I usually write tracks over the period of a few weeks, sometimes months rather than just one afternoon. I also like to jump around between projects so that I don't get bored to often and keep my motivation levels up. You can't really do this effectively if your gear is always in a state of flux, and so you really do need some way of keeping things consistant. I guess it's just dependant on how you write tunes and wether or not you're keen on revisiting them later.

[danielmarshall]

me too! :)


i dont have friends in producion or djing

when i found this place is like i found god :)


thanks all amigos.

Well I have a tonne of freinds DJing and a few producing, but nobody in my area seems to like techno much :(, so I suppose I'm in your book too mate... I feel like since I joined here I've really had my standards stretched, not to mention getting some ace technical advice. Group hug :P

[thetonewrecka]

Even my gear is happy in the studio these days.
Check it Click it

This thing is ridiculous. All of my hardware jumped off the shelves and popped out of their racks to line up to get hooked up to this multitrack, multitasking sequencing party machine.

www.genoqs.net

[fresh_an_funky_design]

My main quam with outboard anything is that I can't have a project file to save the settings. Like the idea (and sound) of allot of gear, but sometimes it's hard to replicate that sound you had a couple of days ago even with all the knob numbers written down. Not only that, but I feel that I loose my ideas very quickly (don't do drugs kids), so if I can't have things up and running in minutes I'm lost. That, and with digital technology being at the point is is, and only getting better I'll take the hit in sound quality for the usabilty/ flexibility tradeoff anyday. Mind you, some valve compressors/ distortion units still make me wet...

i find i'm much more creative with my outboard than with software.

If i apply software compression i usually go for standard compression settings, wheras with outboard i really mess around doing slightly crazy settings and often get really good results.

I've started really battering my compressors recently, getting the overload lights glowing, get such a lovely distortion. not that heavy like the distortion you get from a lot of plug-ins, just a really nice warm sound

Yup, I agree, some valve equipment just can't be replaced... My guitar amp doesn't use transistors for a good reason. But I usually write tracks over the period of a few weeks, sometimes months rather than just one afternoon. I also like to jump around between projects so that I don't get bored to often and keep my motivation levels up. You can't really do this effectively if your gear is always in a state of flux, and so you really do need some way of keeping things consistant. I guess it's just dependant on how you write tunes and wether or not you're keen on revisiting them later.

when i make a tune i start it and the completely finish it before starting anything else, wrecks my head trying mixer, compression & effects settings back after altering them for another tune.

[MARKEG]

This thing is ridiculous. All of my hardware jumped off the shelves and popped out of their racks to line up to get hooked up to this multitrack, multitasking sequencing party machine.

www.genoqs.net

for gods sake paul.

has anyone got a spare 1999 euros they can donate to me???

:)

[machina]

Even my gear is happy in the studio these days.
Check it Click it

This thing is ridiculous. All of my hardware jumped off the shelves and popped out of their racks to line up to get hooked up to this multitrack, multitasking sequencing party machine.

www.genoqs.net

mine just arrived too. very. happy.

machina

[vadarfone]

So, I read about some of you guys EQing before compressing...

Erm, how does that work then?

Compression is dynamic range controller... EQ in my mind is the final shaper of the sound; kind of like a rope or boundary to keep all the bad sounds out... surely distorting after this process will make the boudaries fuzzy and not what you originally set them to be?

If I am missing something here, please fill me in... :)