X-53mph

Hi guys, I've been going back to some older tunes to redo certain parts that I wasn't happy with. Now I've got a new house, new instruments, and new mics, I've been trying to 'up' the quality a bit. In this track I've redone the vocals (recorded using Audio Technica AT2020), recorded a real upright piano (stereo mic'ing using a Rode M3 & AKG C1000S), and I've remastered everything using some new toys (sorry, I mean tools ) to get a bigger chunkier sound. It's been passed through Landr (minimal master) so I hope they haven't crushed it too much. Be interested to hear what people think before I go back and re-tweak. Cheers,

Very nice! Top notch production. Really first class. What is the effect on the vocals? A subltle vocoder? I'm guessing that this is already out there as a single. So you can't go back to it, right?

Thanks guys! Really appreciate it. It's a work in progress, so I'll be going back to tame in that hi-hat (down boy! Yah! Yah!) @emeraldsoul I know what you mean...the verses are kind of expected; I'm hoping the vocals will carry them through - However, I never rule out a rewrite. I'm starting to collaborate more with other vocalists, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with. I'll let you hear when there is something new. Cheers again!

H i guys, Some of you may remember me from the old forum. I used to post under the name 'burgerproduction'. This track is the beginning of a song, but I quite like it as is - Made using CbB and some funky plugins that I picked up thanks to the old forum. I've also started recording my upright piano and this track contains the first overdubs with real piano - I'm planning on taking out all the synth pianos from many of my recordings and putting in real piano - probably a fools errand, but I man needs a hobby, right? Hope you enjoy!

That's a great deal - shame I already have it. Scrub that - I'm currently on version 6, so I went ahead and got it - I hope the update is worth the 9 bucks ?

Cheeky! ? ...and wrong. ?

It really depends on how pro you are. I make music on a laptop in my house with microphones that cost under €100. Will recording at over 44 make the blindest bit of difference? Not if my room is not treated, my guitar is not top grade, and quite frankly my playing is not the best. If I was working in a studio with top grade equipment, balanced audio, peerless mics, and amazing musicians...yes, it might well be worth it, to capture all the delicate details of the session. If you're working in the box with synths etc. It won't make a difference if you start the project at 44, because, as long as there is no wav data, you can switch up later. As long as it's MIDI, it doesn't matter. The issue comes with recording and bouncing tracks. Ultimately, your audio will only be as good as the source, no matter the sample rate.

If you have any older versions of Sonar, you might find V-Vocal does what you want. I haven't checked whether it ports to CbB yet. Does anyone know?

What hardware EQ do you have? A good idea might be to try and find a plugin that mimics your hardware, so the transition from hardware to software to easy. I used Zoom hardware rack effects in the past, and when I first moved to software, lots of the EQs copied that rack mount design (anyone who has used Project 5 plugins will know this look) - nowdays, most plugins seem to have moved away from the 'nobs and sliders' look in favour of graphs and edit points that you can drag around. I personally have transitioned to these modern plugins and would never go back to nobs and dials....in fact, I get really frustrated using dials on plugins, and when I see EQs advertised as "easy-to-use interface" covered in nobs and dials, I laugh. Old-school plugins made for old-school users. But that's me. As I said, think about your needs and work-flow. The last thing you want is something that will take ages to learn and get in the way of you making music.

I think eveyone has pretty much covered all the basses here (sorry, couldn't resist) I would add and echo a few things. Back in the days before amazing virtual drum programs that sound better than most drummers (sorry drummers), there were mountains of articles about side-chaining. this seems to have slipped by the wayside as fewer and fewer people are mixing down the individual elements of the drums to seperate tracks, prefering to use one track for the full drum mix (because it already sounds so good in isolation, right?). The problem with this approach is that the kick drums and sometimes the floor toms) are fighting for the right to those bass frequencies. The end result - a mud bath. Try bouncing down a solo track of the kick drum only and setting up a side-chain/ducking compression to the bass so that each time the kick kicks in, the bass is ducked. this will often help with that conflict. You don't even need to keep this solo bass track in the mix, just mute it and have it working as a trigger for the side-chain. Another culprit can be recorded acoustic guitar. we all love those bass frequencies of the acoustic guitar when played by itself, but in a mix these low bass frequencies can over-ride everything. As it is a string instrument with a big body, depending on how you mic it, the bass frequencies can be really BIG, and even imperceptible to the ear. I would run the acoustic guitars through a multiband compressor and try to see which frequencies are pumping at the low end (the left). Try putting in some compression on those lows and see if it cleans up the mix. The reason why this is so important is because, unlike the kick which plays intermitently, the acoustic guitar is often strummed, so you are swamping your mix with bass. Just my two cents.

Landr has put up a new FREE sample pack for sound design. Apollo Studios brings you the Apollo Studios SFX Library—the essential post-production toolkit. You already know kick, bass, lead and percussion samples are vital production tools for your tracks. But SFX can have just as much impact as a good kick or crisp snare. Add punch to your compositions and reinforce the energy in your arrangements with cinematic pads, bass drones and explosive noise. Learn more about Apollo Studios. Just go to your Landr account and look in the Samples tab. https://samples.landr.com/samples/packs/apollo_studios_sfx_library/ They've got some great content over there.

Not a bad idea for Hardware - though you could just as easily take a photo and put it in the project folder. I did something similar for Virtual Effects, by using the Fn+'stamp' (print) key on my keyboard. I used to do this with my projects when I had a string of effects with a particular sound I liked. Fn+Print > Ctrl+V in project folder. Gave me a screen grab of my project so that I could reproduce it at a later date (if anything went skewy).

I posted this in the old Cakewalk forum, but seeing as all the fun seems to be over here now... I've got extra copies of 2 Magix products: Sound Forge Audio Studio 12 & Audio Cleaning Lab Would anybody like to do a swap for something? I'm quite tooled up, but I'm on the look out for a bass or string synths, or even something esoteric such as World instruments. Something that works in kontakt would be cool. Please, no guitar or piano VSTs....I'm up to my ears in them. Or what about a cool effect? I don't know - make me an offer. That's all folks! Happy New Year