Next time you're wanting some analog stuff to make your mixes better just think of these words, this is the kind of thinking that really got my digital mixing skills much better:


Paul Frindle / Gearslutz:

"I have been part of many discussion about this and posted several explanations of why digital mixing needs to be done with care and how it can mess up without you really being aware.

I have a lot of sympathy with the emotions people have about ITB mixing. But having designed stuff on both sides of the camp (and in between, like large digital consoles) I have become convinced that this is caused by a mixture of insufficient apps (both mixers and plug-ins), misrepresentation of what's going on in your mix from metering - and the biggest and most crucial of all, loss of immediacy during the artistic mixing process. It's just dramatically more tedious and less involving to be fiddling around with a mouse and a screen (or with loosely coupled add on controllers) than it is to have the whole thing right in front of you, responding immediately to the minute adjustments you make almost subconsciously to get your sound. Overcoming this lack of immediacy takes time, effort and the wrong kind of concentration - and the dividends in digital of more integration, better accuracy and predictability - and all the other stuff you can do more easily - does not fully compensate for the artistic 'disconnection' we feel?

But some myths still prevail that may confuse people even more? For instance none of the analogue stuff I have ever designed for SSL or others had significant distortion or saturation. Saturating these would require running at least at +24dB above operating levels!!

The analogue summing stages were just like somewhat noisier versions of a digital summing process - there is no obvious technical difference as far as the sound goes. Adding signals together is something that digital processors can do essentially perfectly.

It is a fallacy that outboard effects are necessarily of a higher quality than plug-ins (even reverbs). In fact it may be the reverse, as (even host) plugs may have access to more processing power than many expensive boxes - and may be running on more highly developed processors.

If you are avoiding inter sample overs by running at -6dB or less and using good quality plug-ins, the performance you are getting is way beyond any analogue system is capable of.

But the inconvenience of the interface might be undoing all that good, as far as user involvement is concerned."

Some really cool samples and midi groove files available here for anyone looking for more of the retro flavor.

http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html

I love listening to something I'm working on the first time in a day. I always get such a better perception of what I have been working. Especially with the flow and the arrangement of the track.

After I work on something for a little while, I find I can loose sight of the overall picture. Does anyone else go through this? I try and take breaks and I find a good shower always give me a little bit of a fresh piece of mind.

So does anyone have any tricks they use to keep their ears and perception fresh?

I have been paying more attention to reverbs lately, mostly cause I felt my music was sounding flat and lacking depth. I started to experiment with Logic's reverbs and Sonnox Reverb. I honestly cant get that natural sound I hear in lots of commercial dance records. I am struggling mostly with adding reverb to percussion sounds , Cant get good results with Logic or Sonnox.
I have installed the Ik CSR demo and it feels more natural and better sounding for my needs.
Question is: should I get the CSR reverb or I would be wasting money since I have Logic's and Sonnox reverbs?
if using the Logic and or Sonnox reverbs....anyone mind to share which presets would work good as starting point for dance music?
opinions about CSR?

For those that haven't seen the post going around, another music distribution outfit bites the dust with a large impact on some major labels. Blame has been put on the illegal downloading and file sharing of music.

I do think that is part of it, but the other cause is the weak economy.

Here is a list of some of the affected:

http://www.pinnacle-entertainment.co.uk/labels_list.php

Not fully understanding what he is getting here. Is there a logic equivalent?

Source: http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/prod...utomation/

Josh Gabriel
Automation is the key element in telling a good story with your tracks.

Since I switched to Live for my productions, the biggest change has been the use of macros in the instrument and effect racks.

By assigning multiple synth and effect parameters, like reverb, filter cutoff - or exotic stuff in Operator, like modulator amount or tuning - you can make a sound completely transform over time.

The idea behind my automation techniques is to set up a sound so that it goes from one extreme to another.

When the macro knob is set to zero, the sound is small and restrained, but at maximum it’s huge.

By continuously varying the value of one or more macro knobs, I can play with the sound over the course of a track, making it build all the way to the peak via automation.

Another great thing about macros is that if you want to add an effect to an already automated track, it’s just a matter of tying the new effect to the range of the macro so it follows the feel of the existing automation.

Seems good portion, if not all of the loops in this popular sample cd series are rips from already produced songs. Explains why everything sounds pre-eq'd and ready to go.

Attached is a few examples of the loops and the songs they came from.

http://www.medwaystudios.com/Vengeance_rips.rar

Did anyone else check this out yet, got a mail for the it the other day but haven't had time to install it yet.

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What are some techniques when it comes to time stretching for the purposes of remixes. I hear all these remixes of pop songs that may not have a tempo close to a dance track but the samples sound just like the original.

I can get a track loaded into ableton and set the markers and change the setting complex but it can still sound really hurried. Is there more to the process?

I am just looking to learn a little more about time stretching, remixing, sampling...