Music Production

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#singer #musician #songwriter

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.studio/post/2255587

Inspired by Koan Sound I wanted to record some double bass and get creative with it. Fortunately, I have a very old and kind of broken double bass at home. However, I have no idea how to play it properly and decided instead of trying to play it how it is supposed to be played, record a bunch of sounds & noises (I apologized to the double bass afterwards) and try to arrange them into something afterwards. This is the result. It's not perfect but I am fairly happy with it. :)

What I took away from this project: Starting with a few samples can really spark creativity for me. I would have never come up with this on a blank canvas. Listening to the double bass recordings I noticed variations in volume/articulation/... which gave me ideas where to place percussion and other accents. Then the track built itself from there.

Let me know what you think!

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Looking for a unique way to promote your music? Let me create a stunning animated music video that captures the essence of your song. learn more: https://cutt.ly/EwZaqKwa or whats app me : +880-1621487540

I know there's a lot of distribution services to choose from, but if you spend a few days or a week googling and/or searching u-tube for the best one, I suspect you'll conclude that Distrokid (DK) is the most popular distributor for mid-to-nobody-level artists like me.

I didn't start with DK. I went with CDBaby for my first album because the pay-once-and-you're-done model really appealed to me. Just google "CDBaby", and you'll see in the first result that they are advertising "No recurring fees" because they know musicians don't want to have to continue paying distributors for distribution that has already occurred.

So, I logged into CDBaby in order to start entering all the data that would support album #2. However, things weren't the same as they were with album #1. CDBaby, like every successful company wanting to increase earnings, had added to its offerings as well as its conditions. I get it; you're doing well, and you want to do better.

Maybe some of y'all are strong with industry terms like "mechanical distribution", "publishing", and whatever the term is for songs that are made available for TV, movies, or commercials, but I'm not. I certainly tried to learn what these terms mean, but these expressions don't find a long-term home in my brain without a special effort, a multi-day effort I decided I didn't want to make. Maybe that was a mistake. Either way, all the legal talk motivated me to give up CDBaby and go with DK since so many people seemed to really like it.

Of course, I checked out Tunecore and some other slick services. They all seem to be enthusiastically seeking ways to increase satisfaction for their investors. I am not against capitalism, but I am sensing opportunism at work here - an effort to increase income by hook or crook.

I REPEAT: I'm aware it's on me to learn about it all. I'm just disgusted that I have to protect myself from companies acting like "We're awesome! Source: Trust us". That's why I watched many videos and read a number of comments on Reddot and u-turb about distribution services, and that's when I decided to say, "Bleep it; I'm going with DK cuz they're so easy." So, album #2 went out via DK.

However, DK seems a little sneaky in their approach. Just this week I got a charge to my credit card in the amount of $11 for "DISTROKID EXTRAS". I googled that very expression, and found a website that really jumps into the issue. (FYI: I have not vetted this website; looks safe, but could be a hacker site for all I know.) For example, they have a product called "Store Maximizer", which takes note of the fact that new streaming providers come to exist. Pay for "Store Maximizer", and your songs get pushed to the new providers. I also found a DK support article that kind-of addresses the issue.. I guess the conclusion I should make is that the internet is a very dynamic and changing thing and that these charges keep my songs relevant to the internet as it becomes and not as it was.

I realize that CDBaby doesn't give artists 100% like DK, but I'm starting to wonder which is truly the better deal.

I know about "Leave A Legacy", which keeps songs online after our credit cards stop working. I certainly would like to leave the door open to releasing more music in the future, but I just don't understand why anybody would remain a DK member for that purpose.

Anyway, I don't think I'm the only DK customer here. Please let me know why you keep paying DK's ongoing fees. Thanks.

...

What software/hardware did you begin with? What were your biggest hurdles? Was there a moment when it suddenly "clicked" for you?

Howdy!

I've got a question that isn't explicitly music production oriented, but it seemed the most relevant. All my music is completely vocals-lacking so I've always shunned a mic, but now I'm working on a series of tutorial videos. Given the target audience is musicians, I want to get the audio right, and that includes my talking.

I was dabbling in mics and I've landed on the Rode Procaster as overall it seems to offer the best sound for my purposes and seemed to play the best with my room acoustics so far. My problem now though is that I do still get a little (tiny, maybe imperceptibly to everyone but me) echo in my recordings, and I know that is easier to clean up before it gets into the recording.

The room I'm in is an apartment bedroom (well technically it's set up as an office, but I digress) about 10'x10' in dimensions. I have desks and a bookshelf in there, but otherwise the walls are fairly bare. Given it's an apartment I can't really glue stuff to the walls.

What would be some suggestions for addressing this? Right now I'm considering either putting some foam up using some thumb tacks, or just cleaning it up in post using RX9 since I have that available too. Thoughts?

If it would help, I can cough up some recordings for reference.

Thanks in advance!

I know this isn't strictly music production related, but it might be a good way to share what we make with the rest of the fediverse. If people don't think this belongs here, let me know and I can delete the cross-post.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2650755

We Distribute is bringing in a new feature - The Mixtape! We create playlists of songs that broadcast through Radio Free Fedi, and share it with the wider fediverse. It's an opportunity for people to discover music by Fedizens, and help support artists on the network.

Our first playlist is themed around hot summer vibes.

There are a lot of great stereo imaging tools and spectrum analyzers. Most of them aren't free though. Having a good way to visually analyze loudness, frequency distribution and stereo image is incredibly important. Unfortunately, it is often the case that most default or free solutions are barely functional. They don't provide you with enough information to shape your mix or don't present it in a simple, clear and understandable format. (I'm looking at you, FL studio visualizers!)

SPAN is a spectrum analysis tool that will let you monitor your peak volume, RMS and LUFS. It shows you the frequencies that are passing through the plugin and you can customize the spectrum view by changing time, frequency and level ranges. If you want even more precision and control, you can adjust the fast fourier transform sample size, it gets that technical! You can also compare channels, left and right of the same channel or two different ones. Two channel comparison is the limit of the free version, SPAN Plus allows you to display as many channels as your DAW will allow. It also features a correlation meter that measures your phase alignment (1=fully aligned and -1=completely misaligned). It can also track your loudness stats thoughout the playtime to iron out any kinks. Handy, functional and no-nonsense tool.

MSED is a stereo analysis and encoding tool. It can help you manange your side and mid channels: your stereo image. It comes with a basic set of tools that allows you to pan, change levels, swap left-right channels and flip phase 180 degrees. The visualizers are pretty simple, you have your correlation meter from before, stereo pan meter and plasma-style vector scope. You might think you don't need it if you DAW provides stereo imaging functions of its own, but often times you're going to be playing guessing games in terms of how that audio will actually get processed: some DAWS merge your stereo tracks to mono, some don't. MSED takes care of that ambiguity and puts all of the necessary tools and monitoring in one spot.

These plugins are available in VST, VST3, AU and AAX for free! I really can't recommend them enough if you're starting out producing or are in need of simple tools that won't take a toll on your CPU with fancy advanced processing.

SPAN Product page: https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

MSED Product page: https://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/

cross-posted from: https://waveform.social/post/241390

Dubstep growls may sound like they’re simple, but getting a good growl sound is way more than just distorting some waves to all hell (though it may be a part of it). Using your envelopes and LFOs to shape the sound through filters, distortion and other effects will get quite a bit more complicated.

Noah will show us how to get a high quality, clean and powerful dubstep growl in the style of Virtual Riot, so you can put those skills and ideas to use in your own synth patches.

cross-posted from: https://waveform.social/post/154053

EQ is a really simple tool, but the way it works is anything but that. Different equalizers use different algorithms to process your audio, and most of them will affect your sound in unexpected ways.

The video will give you an overview on some technical reasons why phase weirdness happens with most EQs and also how an asymmetric EQ setup can give you unexpected Haas effects.

And man, does Sage Audio’s video feature some sick beats!

cross-posted from: https://waveform.social/post/136498

I was looking for some good videos on automation and it surprised me that there’s not a lot of content relating to the decision making process, despite automation being a standard feature in any modern production software.

Automation is an important tool in any music producers kit and learning how to use it well is just as important as arranging your tracks, if not slightly more so for electronic tracks. One could say that in electronic music it is a part of arranging.

There are a lot of fun ways to automate your productions, like creating macro effects for your synths to use as buildups or additional texture. Today though, we’ll take a look at how Fabio from Noize London approaches making transitions, building and releasing tension, and working with emotion through gain automation.

cross-posted from: https://waveform.social/post/129146

Mixing in mono is one of those production "tricks" that have solidified in my mixing routine to achieve clearer mixes. It's a really easy shortcut to hearing levels and even frequencies of everything in your track without the distraction of stereo imaging. It also helps to figure out phase issues between closely tuned kicks and bass and correct your synth sound design too!

But sometimes the immediate benefit it gives us gets outweighed by a longterm one of improving your critical hearing skills. For example, if you use mono to hear frequency fighting between instruments, you're undercutting your learning experience of properly working with frequencies in stereo. After all, it's not uncommon to pan different instruments asymmetrically. Having stereo means you have two different signals that should be shaped on their own terms.

Michael is going to walk us through some of the things that mixing in mono can be used for and give some perspective on how those particular uses stack up in a more robust or specific production workflow. And, I hope this knowledge helps you in your own productions!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/742906

If you have Abletone live with Max for Live, you should check out the J74 Progressive.

Once you get the hang of the program, it is capable of producing extremely realistic chord progressions and arpeggios, delivered directly as MIDI clips in Ableton Live Session view.

He has a ton of other tools you can check out on his website.

http://fabriziopoce.com/progressive.html

https://www.youtube.com/@FabrizioPoce

This is more of a podcaster/journalist focused resource, but NPR has a whole bunch of publicly available articles with practical recording and production advice - https://training.npr.org/tag/production-sound/

Old school hip hop producer DJ Premier has a pretty great series of videos on what producing hip hop was like in the late 80s and early 90s (think stories about recording to ten pound reels of tape that could hold 15 minutes of audio and carrying around binders of floppy disks with stems to sessions with Fat Joe and Big L)

How do you mix lots of instruments? Do you balance them all out so you can hear every single one that's playing? Then this one is probably for you!

In this video, Gregory goes into why you should prioritize a couple of melodic instruments in a mix and also how to think about mixing with the listener in mind.

Personally, it's been very helpful for me to formalize what I was already feeling. Sometimes I make a track with a focus on a couple of instruments and sometimes I try to balance everything out. Whenever I balance I feel like the track becomes too overwhelming to listen to and I was tearing my head apart as to why it happens on certain tracks and not the others. Now I know why, and I hope this video helps you on your journey too!

cross-posted from: https://waveform.social/post/80742

Sorry if this isnt the place for this but wanted to contribute to the instance.

Drums not finished yet. Need a 6 lug hoop for the tom I used. Gonna fiberglass the drum in place once i have holes drilled for the hoop and gonna try and fashion something neat for the pedals to clamp on to.

Havent decided on whether to cut a port in the back yet but imagine it will need it for micing. If anybody has built one and has some advice re: port or Kickport or something like that Ill take it!

Bespoke is an amazing free modular synthesizer. Check out this video explaining how it works... it's an amazing product of love from the developer.

I'm a dad, so I have no time and all my gear is old. I want to start making music again, but I think I need to more or less start over in terms of gear and software.

I'd like to hear a bit just about what you all are using to make music.

Are we all using Macs and commercial software like Logic or Abelton? Anyone bravely trying to work things with Linux? Anyone kicking it old school and recording to tape? Anyone using light weight set ups like iPads or tiny Zoom recorders?

Amazing video showing how to record Radiohead's "Weird Fishes" in your bedroom.