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

Making a great sounding pad is actually more tricky than getting some cool synth and drowning it in tons of reverb. I know I tried that the first time. And failed miserably. You don't have to!

Will is gonna walk us through different tricks and ideas to flesh out an ambient pad. Using a root tone, texture tones for highs and lows, some effects and simple automations will allow you to create a cool and easily customizeable(!) pad from scratch with any and all wavetables that you want in there!

Hope you find it useful, guys! AMN out!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/1335528

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

Do you ever feel like you can make a great loop but you can't make a great song? I don't know if that's your experience, but I've been there before, and let me tell you, it's a nightmare. It brings to question all of your skills that you have developed so far, because you've been able to cruise through without thinking about it. But now it just isn't enough! I needed more variety in my tracks.

So if you're like me then this video is just for you. Nathan goes into a key concept about arrangement that will help you think about it in a much more constructive way. Every instrument can be played with different articulation, loudness, rhythm, etc. and it doesn't have to play all the time. So Nathan poses three big questions of arrangement: what is playing, when is it playing and how is it being played?

This video will show you how these questions give you insight into what you were doing subconsciously (and how to answer them in a creative way). It will provide you with a simple thinking process for arrangement decision-making that will ease up some of that tension between hearing the song in your mind and putting it into your DAW. So try it out!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/802615

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)

This is one of those techniques that can really push you over from intermediate to pro. You need a good grasp on compression: what it does to your instruments and how it affects their texture. Parallel compression is simple, yet subtlety is what makes it work, you need good ears for compression for this to work in your favor.

The essence of parallel compression is immediate and delicate control of the different textures in your recordings or even synths. You make a compressor for different elements of the instrument. In drums it is your punches, your transients and sticknoises, your long releases on snares and the color of all noises: bright, muddy, etc. Sometimes a compressor will affect multiple qualities (but not all of them). Then you make your compressors exxagerate the elements you choose separately. Then you mix the compressors in a way that you find pleasing.

That's what I've gotten out of the video and if you want to get a better grasp for the subtleties with apt explanations from Gregory, then that's the spirit! Go watch it! If you can't hear the differences, try increasing your speaker/headphones volume. The effect is subtle so don't go too loud, just enough to hear the differences described. To avoid any potential hearing damage (in case you do go too loud and/or you listen on headphones), limit your loud volume listening to ~15 minutes or so.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/664074

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

This one might be obvious to you folk who have worked on pro recordings. Compressing vocals and compressing instruments require different mindsets. Different in the way that you shouldn't be afraid to compress your vocals to -10 and -20db, while your instruments are at a subtle -2 to -5 (and I don't even limit myself there, because I love distorting my drums).

This video will show you every trick you did before: eq, automation, reverb, etc. and compare it to compression in the context of a rock track.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/595211

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/529140

This is a great video overview on just the neccessary bits and nuances of making Drum'n'Bass. What I like about this specific video is that it helps you understand what is possible within the genre and doesn't restrict you like an instruction manual.

It will help you to familiarize yourself with the core concepts of DnB and give you some pointers on how to give your tracks a cohesive structure within it! Highly recommend.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/463052

Understanding how to manage rhythmic patterns is a must-know for any producer. Unfortunately, not everyone has a formal music education, so if you're like me, this video will help you bridge that gap and help you on your music making journey!

EDMProd gives us some insights into the process of finding your rhythm with examples from house music and you can apply these concepts with relative ease to any other genre!

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!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/440501

Compression feels esoteric to anyone who's starting out in the world of music production. Even when we start to understand how it works technically, we just slam on the gain and work that ratio until we can hear the difference as the sound explodes from distortion. But compression isn't just a tool to make your loudness more consistent, it's a tool that can help you shape the texture of individual samples or synths the way you want them to be.

In this video, Gregory Scott, audio hardware and software designer tells us how to listen for compression (in drums, more specifically). Go check it out, and I hope it helps you on your journey!

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.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/378776

Download: https://vital.audio/#getvital

Video guide by In The Mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qQX6YGBQEA

I don't think there is any modern producer who hasn't heard of Vital, and probably even less who haven't heard of Serum. Those are the options when it comes to wavetable synths with great visual interface to give you better insight into your sound design. And from my limited experience with Serum, I think Vital might just be better in more than just visuals and price (Serum is so damn expensive!)

Vital comes feature complete with its free version. The only thing you get for paying is more wavetables and presets as well as exclusive perks from the developers. It's a great boon to hobbyist producers, and these guys have great confidence that you'll donate to support the effort. And I think that confidence is well placed, they deliver.

Vital is not one of those free alternatives that comes just as a way to do something a popular program does, but quicker, dirtier and worse. It's a feature-complete, well-polished product designed for professional use and comes with all bells and whistles you need to get amazing sounds out of it. And even some extras that you won't find in every other popular synth.

If I go over every feature of Vital, we'll be here all day, so I'll highlight some of my favorites and let you decide if you want to give it a chance:

Stereo LFOs allow you to stereoize your patches by desynchronizing your effect modulations. In layman's terms, you can use one control to do two different things to your left and right ears and get some clean (or trippy) stereo!

Random oscillators with tons of customization for all of your modulation needs. They can help your patch sound more organic and fresh throughout your track, or create some whacky, glitchy and/or chaotic sounds. It comes with a stereo feature too!

Great options for keyboard/note tracking, allowing you to keep your effects consistent (or warp them) on different pitches. You got a keyboard track option built into your filters as well as note and note relative to octave controls that give you total freedom over how your instrument behaves on different pitches!

I've been using Vital in my own productions for a while now and it's been a breeze to make the kind of sound I want with it. I hope this little overview helps you take the plunge and play around with it to see if you like it! Good luck!

Edit: I'm still trying to figure out how to format post better for Lemmy, so I had to re-add the link to download after realizing it got replaced by the image. Whoops!

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.