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thanks everyone!

 

 

+1, was disappointed there were only 2 short samples on your Soundcloud...

and these two are horribly outdated or created just as an example for a thread like this one.

 

i cannot post more at the moment because i wrote lots of tracks without bothering to do any proper mixdown in the last years :). so fixing that exactly what i'm working on at the moment.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

really useful and precise tutorial. but at the same time it's totally technical, reminding me of cosmosis' tips to use your ears instead of spectrum analysers and to not overthing technicalities but instead spend more time focusing on the actual music ;)

as always it's good to know skills but even more important to know when to use them :)

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to  use your ears instead of spectrum analysers and to not overthing technicalities but instead spend more time focusing on the actual music ;)

Fair enough, especially today when psytrance is often made like that: 2 months to make a perfect kbbb, then 2 hours to drop random farts, squelches and drug talk samples on top of it and then it is ready to be signed to Nano or Iono.

 

I like making kbbbs as much as I like washing my dishes and cleaning my kitchen. But it needs to be done therefore i'm constantly looking for some shortcuts. Seems that the best shortcut here is to get the actual understanding of the process.

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  • 6 months later...

good if you're comparing it to melodic fullon. ok if you're comparing it to modern progressive that focuses more on bass sound rather than melody. to compete with them you could use a little more low end and a more cohesive sound. right now there seems to be a sort of hole between the layers. maybe not cutting the low mids that agressively would fix this? maybe putting all bass layers though some distortion together?

i find that just dropping the whole thing a few semitones also makes the bass sound more fat and "modern". this is good on festival rigs but makes important sounds disappear on smaller systems...

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Thanks a ton!

I think I'll leave the bass in this track as it is as I don't think I can make it any better now, but I'll take note of your advises when making next tracks. 

Anyway most proggy tracks released in last few years are way too bass-heavy to my taste. I like when bass defines the groove and moves the track forward, but not when it becomes the central element of music. Here is my perfect bassline - it doesn't take more space than needed and works perfectly within the track..

 

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i wouldn't change it too much either. your track is melodic enough not to depend too much on overly fat bass.

it's funny you choose e-clip as example of good bass balance.  i use e-clip's most recent album as reference for too much bass, but i guess e-clip changed his mixing style in the years in between. i rather take logic bomb's the grid as example for nicely balanced kick/bass.

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The latest E-Clip was quite poor in general but for a couple of tracks. I don't remember the basslines because when I don't like the music I don't care about the technical details.This track is from 2014 when E-Clip was still good.

 

Actually I have that mid-00 full-on sound imprinted deep in my mind, so whatever "prog" I may be making it will be a slowed down version of that full-on. :)

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  • 2 months later...

Hey everyone!

I've been reading this thread a lot. Cool to see everyone trying to get "there" in numerous ways.

I'been going down the rabit hole for a couple of weeks now, enjoying it actually :) but I'm getting a bit paranoid. The track was finished but kick and bass were needing work and so does now all else. Lets say it's the start of the final mixdown.

My conclusion is that most of the problem relies on getting the low end right and tight, which I find very hard to do, across genres.

What I wanted to ask is if anyone has tried this stuff out using ARC 2.5 or Reference 3, Subpac M2 or S2 and if you got better noticeable results faster?

Terranoise uses ARC 2 in some producing sessions on YouTube. I friend of mine says it's great.

The subpac might help to perceive better low end and low mids and make it easier to work it.

I use a ref track, a monitor, one normal stereo system, laptop speakers, studio and normal headphones.

I've been thinking of aquiring one of the tools I mentioned for almost 2 years now but a part of me tells me that it might not be all that helpful, the same part that's sure that Dave Pensado will nail the low end better than me and faster with laptop speakers even if I'm using the best studio with the best tools money can buy.

Cheers!

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I'm curious about ARC system myself. Far what I know, it creates some kind of equalizer curve based on the frequency response of your room. I think if you room has no acoustic treatment, ARC may be helpful to some extent, however the problems which may arise with lower frequences in untreated rooms may be far more complex than what a static equalizer curve may fix. Anyway. I would be curious to read some feedback from people who have actually used ARC.

I talked to a professional ME about what can be done in a home studio to improve the monitoring and he believes that there is basically no other way than doing full room treatment with big bass traps. 

On the other hand, as a temporary soultion if you are mixing in an untreated room you may place the monitors close to your ears, around 40 cm or so and listen to your mixes quielty. Thus you will minimize the room reflections - however you should be aware that at lower volumes you perceive the overall frequency balance somehow differently (see Fletcher-Munson curve), so you should always check your mixes against level-matched reference tracks and also make cross-checks on different speakers/headphones etc. 

I wish I learned this much earlier :)

Btw, here is a nice article on budget room treatment.

http://www.masteringmastering.co.uk/cheap-acoustic-treatment-for-mixing.html

 

 

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Thanks for the article, it was eye opening. I read a lot about it myself, but the tone and arguments were crucial. Time to stop being an idiot and invest in some more traditional techniques!

I order some wool Rockwool WLG 040 100mm, not sure if it's the equivalent but hey, I'm still an idiot :) , and manage to find some guy selling 5 packs of sonorock rockwool for a really good price, just got to get a car and get it :)

Im gonna give it a go and see! Maybe Ill get Arc later.

You can still tell the reference sounds great, but you can't see why, I'm conviced this will improve my blindness 100%, the insulation that is.

Enough of white walls!

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys, heads up!

After some work I've managed to do 6 panels and two big cubical bass traps, two corners (kind of triangular my room), windows and sides covered, the difference is astonishing!! Feels like a reverb layer was removed, and the stereo field became a lot more clear, like I could see the mix almost, like an outdoor party with a bad ass funktion 1 PA.

The mix of my track is still sounding good so I'm just correcting some stuff, no more bass insomnia but it's only obvious how it will affect sound design decision. Low end mid-lows are a lot more evident so good bass n kick combos should take less than 3 weeks next time :)

Thanks!

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  • 2 years later...
On 1/19/2017 at 5:41 PM, recursion loop said:

Interesting, curious to hear what it sounds like. Where do you typically hipass/lowpass your layers? Do you spilt the signal from the same synth, or make two synth channels with similar settings?

 

Hamburgers because they are FAAAAAAAT  :D

 

I also love late 00's fullon basses (duh, some people are weird!), right now I have this track imported into my DAW project and I'm trying to make a similar bassline

 

 

That bassline is ES1 synth in logic 100% ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, recursion loop said:

I thought Aqiula were cubase users, so my guess would be the classic vb-1 + quadrafuzz combo

could also be the classic ES-1 + quadrafuzz combo ;)

i do think it's pretty close in character to your typical es-1 fullon bass.

this is what i've come up with in 5min of tweaking es-1 trying to imitate that bassline. i imagine it could get very close to the original with some more tweaking and once you do some processing.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/68xzz0e9rpcipns/ES-1 Bass.wav?dl=0

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