anthromusicnote

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
 

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

[–] anthromusicnote 1 points 1 year ago

Content management bots would be great. A feature I desperately need right now is actually automatic cross-posting. I host my community on multiple instances and post actively to others. Linking posts together to have better reach and having multiple backups in case of one instance going down is incredibly important to Lemmy's continued growth and survival. Lemmy itself doesn't support a lot of redundancy features, so it'd be nice to automate the process a bit. A start would be a script that logs into an account and cross-posts a specified post to multiple communities in other instances. It'd also be nice to have it append the original instance at the end, so that people can follow for discussion.

[–] anthromusicnote 4 points 1 year ago

Modern games have become too focused on providing a clean, balanced and no-real-obstacles experience. Sometimes I want to play a game that is a cohesive experience without being laser focused on some big idea about how I should play it. As an example, I've recently replayed arx fatalis. It's really fun how you can do everything in that game that you'd want an npc for in any other. It's also fun how each playstyle requires its own big chunk of knowledge about how the game works. Modern games try too hard to be minimalistic and fail to see the fun in a truly open experience. Even when you have options, they have all the fun pre-balanced and pre-optimized out of them. They give you too much info. No sense of discovery

[–] anthromusicnote 2 points 1 year ago

lol, I might just put a small image of like 6 of them XD

[–] anthromusicnote 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well that would just be quite unshenanigans of me if I went with a boring example, now would it? :)

[–] anthromusicnote 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Everything can be a poison depending on the quantity and method of interaction, at least that's what I heard. Maybe it's poison in your digestive system, but won't actually kill you if you apply it. Kinda like if you drink shampoo versus using it as intended.

 

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

 

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!

[–] anthromusicnote 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the kind words! I'll keep 'em coming :)

[–] anthromusicnote 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like Michael's channel, he's got a good technical backbone and is able to explain things simply and without leaving important nuance out. He also edits really well visually in his other videos, if you can't catch up to technical jargon you'll just see and hear what's going on. That's how tutorials should be!

Though I totally agree, most youtube tutorials are a way rougher trip, but so are any written blog posts and guides. And those are more difficult to verify because you need to research writer's credentials, where as in a video you can already tell how good the producer is.

I am a really slow and inattentive reader, so visual instructions work better for me. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, so I try to post an overview in text on what the video actually explains. That way, I'm not wasting text that most users probably won't read and try to give a good idea of what the video covers to those who do. Part of it is also done in the title. Let me know if you have any feedback relating to that, I'm always looking to improve my writing style!

[–] anthromusicnote 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, yes, the OTT. I got it up there for ya!

[–] anthromusicnote 2 points 1 year ago

Put it up! Thanks!

 

As you might've noticed if you visited our community page after this post, I made a very cool looking banner (or so my mum tells me). Thing is, I don't use that many plugins on my own, and what better way to make the banner look interesting than to put your favorite plugins in there? This page will also serve as a cool overview of different plugins our community uses, so be sure to post all of your favorites! I'll pick the coolest-looking ones for the banner!

This post is gonna stay up until I decide that the banner is done (and perhaps we'll make it a seasonal thing to swap it out, who knows?) I'll update this banner in my spare time when you guys post some things to add.

To get on the banner, comment the name of a plugin and the company or a name of the person who made it. You can also post a link to its page or your own screenshot of the plugin, if you want.

I don't know what the limit is to how many plugins I can put in the image, but we should have a lot of space (and we're not limited to the amount of spots currently on the list). I suppose as long as every individual plugin is recognizable when shrinked, we're all good!

Right now the banner features:

(in order: columns from left to right)

  1. Pro-Q 3 by Fabfilter
  2. SPAN by Voxengo
  3. Denoiser by Bertom
  4. Vital by Vital Audio
  5. MSED by Voxengo
  6. OTT by Xfer ^posted^ ^by^ ^u/[email protected]^
  7. sforzando by Plogue
  8. Maximus by Image-Line
  9. XO by XLN Audio ^posted^ ^by^ ^u/can^
  10. Sytrus by Image-Line
  11. 1176 Collection by Universal Audio

I'll swap out the placeholders for your submissions and credit you! Like this:

Stuff by Cool People ^posted^ ^by^ ^u/supercoolperson^

And that's about it. Sh.itjust.works and waveform.social will have different banners (in the same style), so we can do something different with both of them! Post away!

 

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!

[–] anthromusicnote 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You made a second post that is the same, mind if I take this one down? Your previous one seems to work just fine, and I suppose if you were to try something else you could try the upload image feature next time? Instance servers allow for uploads.

[–] anthromusicnote 2 points 2 years ago

I see. Though, with the rate we're growing right now we might not stay small for very long, lol. I think keeping the quality bar where people don't just post random stuff with no discussion whatsoever is quite important, and as long as everyone respects each other it should still feel like a small cozy place.

6
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by anthromusicnote to c/musicproduction
 

Alright, I've had some time to think about it, and we're gonna be staying open to comments. Sorry if this post upset you earlier, it wasn't my intention to be dramatic (though I understand that I most likely was). I'm not great at these things.. yet. I hope Lemmy's cross-instance communication options improve and we can get a better way to comment on posts between different communities later down the line. For now, we have to put in work to make this community and fediverse grow, so we can have a place to share knowledge and emotions that no corporation will run into the ground for profit.

Contents of this post before the decision was made, for reference:

spoilerThis community was created when I just started browsing on Lemmy, so I really had no clue about what is the best way to handle a community here. Considering the nature of fediverse, it's not a question that's easy to answer. And I still don't have a perfect answer, but I think I might be closer to it.

What I want to do is to lock all posts from future comments on sh.itjust.works. I have a couple of good reasons to do this and a couple of reasons to reconsider. I'll go over them in a list and try to keep some perspective on them.

Reasons to lock

I want to direct discussion to music instances for everyone's convenience. A single place for music discussion, so you don't have to switch over multiple posts and check if somebody is talking about the same thing. I understand that the idea of the fediverse is to decentralize, which I fully agree with. Unfortunately, the functionality of Lemmy right now doesn't play well with that idea and provides a horrible user experience in return for following it. Compromises have to be made.

Also, having most music-production discussion, communities and posts in one instance will make it easier to find related content. Browsing communities on waveform is way easier than trying to guess all possible names that a music community might have. For example, if you search for "Music Production" on lemmy community browser, you might not find "Ableton" or "FL Studio" communities that are directly related to it and there are many more community names that are not easily guessable (like there used to be on r***it, with places like r/trees or r/worldpolitics, nsfw warning). I hope you get my point there.

Finally, I feel like a lot of users have anxiety over posting at a correct place (same as me, same as it was on r***it), so restricting comments to one instance will help us reduce anxiety and help first-time commenters and posters make the initial push. (Maybe rewriting the sidebar to be a bit less imposing will help that too)

Reasons to not lock

I understand that some people found this community on sh.itjust.works and appreciate the convenience of being able to do everything here. I don't want to take away from that if I don't have to. Good news is, these problems are known by the devs and better synchronization between instances and cross-posts will come, so the measure is going to be temporary while Lemmy is busy getting better developer support from FOSS community.

In addition, there is an argument to be made about archiving of knowledge and redundancy. If we lock comments to just one instance, if that instance goes down (temporarily or forever), all of the history made on that instance could be gone too.

As far as I know, other servers definitely keep records of servers they federated with, but searching for copies of posts might get more difficult in case of one instance going down as not every server is going to have every community discovered to archive it (and I do not know if there are any other limitations to that feature). Again, that's something I can only partially address as a community moderator, as the issue lies in the platform. It's inevitable that we're going to lose some history if the worst is to happen. Sh.itjust.works isn't immune to that either, so that's that.

Locking down comments won't stop me (or others) from posting here either and I'm going to keep posting here for the forseeable future. So if you're here just for the content, you don't have to worry.

I hope you guys can provide me with some input on this, because as it stands, I don't want to upset what we have right now, so this is something I can only do with your agreement. Let me know what you think about this issue and whether you consider it an issue at all. You can comment here, send me a DM or talk to me on my matrix chat, which should be working. Any feedback will be helpful here. Thanks

 

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

 

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.

 

Hey. I've noticed this community has been pretty silent for quite a while. This was one of the reasons I made a music production community over at waveform.social (link below). If you want to discuss music stuff, a specialized instance is way better than sticking to the drama of large instances (a lesson I learned only after creating the community at sh.itjust.works)

I've been posting content over at waveform.social, lemmy.studio and sh.itjust.works, all in their respective music production communities.

Waveform.social and lemmy.studio have other active communities related to making music all about synthesizers, gear and DAWs.

If you want to participate, head over to any instance that strikes your fancy and check it out!

Waveform.social link: [email protected]

Lemmy.studio link: [email protected]

Sh.itjust.works link [Warning - General instance]:[email protected]

On the off-chance that the community moderator here is still active, feel free to delete this post. I'll be happy to post my content here if I know it's still being moderated!

 

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

 

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/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.

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