Category Archives: Music Production Journals

What Komplete Unlimited 8 is bringing to my EQ, Compression, and Mixing table

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I’m in a library downloading the stuff that was supposed to come with Komplete Ultimate 8 ( I wrote about the instillation, among other things, and this problem, over here. )

It’s annoying.. I had to wake up early to make sure I’d make it to the library to do this, the library’s wifi is slow so it takes forever.. I feel like I’m getting penalized for being a paying customer… the downloader says I still have more then 2 hours of downloading to do.. and I kinda have to use the bathroom.. and don’t want to leave my computer unattended…

But Anyway

So Komplete Ultimate 8 has been pretty awesome so far. The best word I can use for it is “vast.” It’s vast in terms of the new sample libraries.. the new synthesizers, new effects processors, and updated versions of old favorites.. The vastness somewhat impacted that I was on version 6 prior to the upgrade but…

I’m here downloading the parts of the bundle I most wanted… and I thought I’d get into a little bit of a talk about that.

EQs And Compressors

EQs and Compressors are the most bread and butter tools of the trade for mix engineers. For me they perform two basic tasks

  1. Shaping the sound
  2. Coloring the sound

These two tasks don’t exactly happen independently of one another.. and there’s various reasons why folks seek out vintage unites.. to help impart various qualities.. and shape the coloration of there productions.

Well Komplete Unlimited 8 comes with 1 EQ and 2 compressor emulations of what would be found on certain classic SSL mixing desks (that’s part of what I’m downloading) as well as 3 other classic compressors.. so there’s quite a bit of new stuff here.

Now I should say something about my library of EQs and Compressors

Early on I decided I’d invest in “Liquid MIx” to handle the issue of wanting classic EQs and compressors for my production. The deal with Liquid Mix is you get a huge library of them.. all of which use a technology called “dynamic convolution.” It runs on a DSP chip that’s in a box along with a kind of controller where you can by hand control your EQs and compressors.. and this box connects to your computer via firewire.

Now it turns out there’s a couple problems here.

  1. My version of Liquid Mix limits me to 16 mono instances, and 8 stereo instances… and a typical production of mine probably has upwards of 16 stereo channels.. so Liquid Mix can’t be used on everything.
  2. It runs off a firewire buss which introduces latency into the equation.. what this means.. is if you were to play a note into your computer.. latency is the time between playing that note and hearing it back.. and the latency is such that once you put Liquid Mix into a production, you kinda can’t do any more recording in that production.. which means it forces you to kinda compartmentalize your recording and mixing stages… which is a problem for creativity sometimes.
  3. It’s horribly unstable.. I gather in large part because of firewire buss conflicts.. but.. that’s really only the tip of the iceberg.. and I’m still learning to deal with it.

Now.. Liquid Mix gives me the best emulations I have of this kind of vintage gear.. but the problems it presents also makes me kind of hesitant to bring it into my projects… as a result..  of this and the limited number of instances I can have.. I end up having to rely on other plugins much of the time.

The reset of my plugin folder for EQs and Compressors

Waves

I’m one of them Waves Gold happy campers.. my version of Gold gives me 2 character-ish compressors.. the Renaissance compressor.. which is something of a classic software compressor, and the H-Compressor.. which is meant to, broadly speaking, give you some of the analog warmth coloration producers are always clamoring for.. but I must say I’m not all that in love with it.

For colorful EQs I guess there’s the Renaissance EQ, all though there’s not much color there really.

There’s other EQs and Compressors in my Gold bundle.. but not of the coloring kind so much…. although a few will shape dynamics in interesting ways.

PSP

Just as PSP was coming out with this.. well they came out with this bundle of EQs.. all kinda sorta inspired by classic EQs.. but not really trying to be uber accurate.. they are great in terms of the color they can impart and in terms of not really using a lot of processing power in the process.

IK Multimedia

IK Multimedia has this here T-Rex mastering software that comes with all kinds of compressors, EQs, limiters, and other goodness.. that they also offer as individual products.. and sometime ago I scored a deal on some of them individual products..

So I have emulations of 2 classic compressors, 1 classic eq, and an interesting limiter.. these sound great but are processor hogs.

MOTU

Motu make my main DAW, and as such, what they offer I can’t actually use in other programs like Ableton Live or Maschine… but since I work with Digital Performer more then anything else.. I usually can work with these.

The Master Works EQ is really kind of my favorite EQ.. gives a kind of british color if you will.. but I like it most for the user interface.

There’s a leveling amplifier which is a kind of “optical compressor” which is.. basically smooth sounding.. that for no good reason I rarely use.

Well… that’s about it.

Implications

So what this basically means is outside of Liquid Mix.. I have a lot of EQ options for coloring, but not a whole lot of compression options that I really like.. and in both instances I do feel somewhat limited.. and so this is an areas that’s needed improvement.

So the question is.. how well does Native Instruments emulations work for this stuff? So far, from what I’ve played with.. they’re not too rough on the processor and seem to sound pretty good.. but I really need to play with them a whole lot more before I really have a strong opinion.

Master Buss Compression

In my last post I talked a bit about master buss compression, along with a little about what compressors are and how they work. Well.. putting a compressor on the master buss, which is to say pretty close to the end of you’re audio chain.. is a technique I like to use a lot.. probably in nearly every production I do these days.

At the moment there are really only 2 compressors I’ll put to the task.. the Renaissance compressor from waves, and the SSL master buss compressor that’s a part of Liquid mix… which presents the problems I talked about before.

So.. I feel like I don’t really have a lot of options for the Master Buss.. The good news is that  Unlimited 8 does indeed give you an emulation of an SSL master buss compressor.. so that’s exciting.. that I could use that compressor without having to turn to Liquid Mix… pluss they offer another compressor that is popular for master buss compressing.

On the subject of emulations

Different technologies, for emulation classic EQs and Compressors, all have there strengths and weaknesses.. well this is true for modeling almost anything really.. and so having a collection that uses different techniques.. or is simply from different companies.. often even if they’re emulating the same piece of gear.. is nice to have.

I should maybe add that with analog gear.. you can take to pieces of gear of the same model and there will be some variation… and here where we are somewhat talking about two emulations of the SSL master buss compressor.. but I believe these are actually different models of SSL master buss compressors.. so there’s more color variations then simply modeling two members of the same model, or the business of there being two different techniques for doing so.. or even just two different modeling algorithms.

And a final conclusion

I have 1 hour and 3 minutes now.. for the downloads to finish.. and I think I need to download a Guitar Rig update on top of this!!! So Native Instruments is annoying me..

But I’m excited from what Unlimited 8 might bring to to the table.. with respect to EQ, Compression, and mixing. And really, I can’t wait for this download to finish so I can run home and get started with it.

With any luck.. this will cover these bases well enough so that this wheel stops creeping..

Now if I can only find away to afford Slate’s Virtual Console technology.. I’ll really be golden!

Adventures in Komplete Unlimited 8: Instillation, Mixing Drums, Master Buss Compression

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Slightly after Instillation I noticed certain key stuff, that’s a part of Komplete Unlimited, missing.. and these were in fact, for me, some of the most desirable stuff…

  1. The Solid Mix Series: Dynamics, EQ and Buss Compressor emulations from one of those wonderful SSL mixing consoles.
  2. Retro Machines MK2: This is a sample library of vintage synthesizers from the 70s and 80s. (One of the areas in my sound pallets I’ve most wanted to upgrade)

I haven’t gotten a chance to message Native Instruments Tech Support to figure out what the hell the story is.. and given that I don’t have internet access in the home.. this is probably going to be quite a mess…

Err.. I should maybe say something about the instillation?

When you get your self ether Komplete Unlimited, or the upgrade to Komplete Unlimited, you get a USB hard drive.. and you install all the software directly off that Hard Drive.. which is actually really cool because the instillation process takes a few hours.. and it used to be that you had like 15 DVDs to go through and to have to switch though the DVDs while installing… this kept you tied to your computer, and waisted your day away.. with just the hard drive. .you can actually screw around on your computer doing other things.. (though it’s probably best not to do anything with the drive(s) you’re installing onto), or you go do other things with your time.. which is nice.

(Perhaps I should mention that the instillation is like 240 GB, so enough to max out your typical laptop hard rive)

So that part was pretty cool.. and the process of authorizing was, actually kind of bizarre to be honest. NI uses this AIR app called “Service Center” and in it you put your serial numbers.. which of course have to be painfully long, and easy to screw up, and if I screw it up.. well the deal is, if your trying to authorize it on a computer that doesn’t have internet, once you’ve put in those serial numbers, it generates this special file.. that I then have to put on my laptop, and drive to the closest open wifi I can find.. I double click on it.. and get a response file.. that I then go and bring back to the computer I’m installing the software on, in order to authorize it so I can actually use it.

So the issue with the long serial number is that it’s very easy to put in the wrong number… and you wont find out until you’ve driven away.. and so it could have turn into this painful back and forth, but fortunately I got it right on the first try….

It used to be.. you’d have a demo mode so even if you were having some trouble with the authorization process, at least you can begin playing with your new toys….. Now the demo mode lets you play for 5 minutes before it stops working. (I grow more empathetic with pirates everyday it seems)

What is bizarre is… in the Service Center you literally have like the serial numbers for every product you’ve ever bought from Native Instruments.. so we are talking stuff that came out..  I don’t know.. maybe 12 years ago.. which you can’t actually run on a modern computer… (well maybe you could under Windows XP)..

And for some reason.. though I’m just trying to authorize Komplete 8.. the thing it gave me was to authorize both Komplete 8 and Komplete 3.. the latter of which was probably from more then 5 year ago, and again probably needs XP to even run..

So I thought that was kind of strange.

Getting to work in Komplete Unlimited 8

Well as annoyed as I might be about the issue of there being missing parts to my madness.. parts I REALLY want to play with.. the truth of the matter is there is still a crap load of new stuff to go and explore.. and that’s going to take me a while.

To some extent I would compare it to.. well years ago.. I owned Reaktor, and then I upgraded to Komplete.. and I would say it probably took me about a year to get up to speed on all the stuff that came with Komplete.. it’s seriously that vast, complex, and sophisticated.. particularly if you’re new to this kind of technology…

So what I’m saying is you can compare what Reaktor is to say Komplete 3.. as being something like what Komplete 6 (the last version I owned) is to Komplete Unlimited 8.. in terms of there being just that much new stuff on hand.. or at least that was my initial impression…

Actually.. they try and give you a bigger impression of what you’re getting your hands on then what you’re actually getting your hands on.. or at least that was my second impression.

But really this post is about the 3rd impression

So one of the first things I did was fire up my DAW and load up “the sampler known as Kontakt 5.”

See.. the way Native Instruments is working these days.. is they have these.. kinda.. lets call them “major programs” that then go and host other programs… or something like this. My guess is this makes it more cost effective for them to deal with changes in operating system and other things they need to do to keep there software up to date… then having a zillion individual instruments and effects…  But no one really likes this hosting scheme too much.. although when it comes to Kontakt hosting sample libraries.. it’s not really an issue.

Kontakt 5 to me.. the upgrade.. is pretty exciting.. although I still haven’t really explored it much at all. Kontakt is a modular sampler.. which is to say there’s lots of modules you can string together to shape your sound with.. and so.. there’s a lot of excitement in the new modules.. which.. well to start off with I’m just mucking about with factory presets and the expanded library that Komplete Unlimited 8 gives you.. so I haven’t really had a chance to explore the inner workings of Kontakt 5… Another nice aspect to Kontakt 5.. is there is apparently a whole new system for bussing / routing around audio inside of the sampler.. which.. is kinda a big deal.

Anyway, haven’t played with that ether.

So, my first project (which I haven’t done too much more then audition and select some sounds)

I started out with an Abbey Roads 70s Drum Kit.

The Abbey Roads stuff was recorded in Abbey Roads using the gear they were using at whatever the time period in question was.. 60s, 70s, 80s, or modern… and then you have some tools to further shape the sound inside of the sample instrument..

See if we are talking about drums there’s a variety of approaches to record drums.. but usually you got your self the overheads microphones.. which is where you start out.. and then you add the directly miked.. umm.. snare and kick usually.. anyway.. the point is that by mixing and process different channels of a drum recording, thats how a mix engineer shapes the sound of a drum kit.

Well the Abbey Roads kits aren’t that sophisticated.. (although maybe Kontakt 5′s new bussing system could allow you to get around this) basically your limited to adjusting the volume and pan positions of the direct recordings of the individual drum pieces… then theres a volume and stereo width control for the overheads.. and then for the “room mic,” which gives you the sound to the rooms ambience..

This and you can control snare bleed.. which is the sound of the snare… when you hit some other drum and the snare rattles as a result.. this results in “a more authentic” drum sound.. which is why you might want to keep some.

Finally there’s an options panel.. that.. well I used this randomize control.. to slightly randomize how hard I’m hitting the notes and the timing of the notes.. again.. to give a little more authenticity for when I get around to programming out the parts.

=====

A couple days latter:

Yeah.. it turns out that the internal bussing system of Kontakt 5 does allow you to deal with the Abby Roads stuff with a whole lot of control.. although at some point along the way you realize you’re loosing the authenticity of that 70s drum sound. (They didn’t have what we have today, nor did they apply today’s mixing techniques, to drums in the 70s..)

Oh… and really I would say the reason that the Synthesizer sample library and the SSL emulations.. EQ and Compressors.. were left out.. was to make it harder for pirates to pirate.. because I checked my email today and saw a link for the downloads. This is annoying because #1 I don’t have that much space on my laptop and #2 The only way I’m gong to get enough bandwidth to download this stuff.. is to go to the library.. which keeps kinda crazy hours on Fridays and weekends, so it all has to wait.

This brings us to another subject, which is the implications of this on the production I’m now working on….

Master Buss Compression

There’s this technique called “putting a compressor on your master buss.” So I shall have to explain compressors and master busses.

You master buss… well what it is is.. whatever tools your mixing with.. you have this giant mixer that’ll mix, like, a gazillion channels down to 2 channels.. for your left and right speakers.. you know… stereo? So.. the technique we are talking about involves putting a compressor on that last stereo channel..

So compressors.. there’s a lot of different designs.. and whatever.. especially when we are talking about the emulations of classic vintage gear.. but basically… the way it usually works is you have an incoming signal… and then you got like a knob with the word “threshold on it.” The threshold knob looks like a volume knob but really what it is.. is… well once the volume of the audio coming into the compressor reaches the level you’ve set your threshold knob… the compressor engages.

Ok.. what does it mean to engage? Well generally speaking.. a compressor compresses the dynamic range of the audio.. which is to say the fluctuations in how loud that signal is… the range from silence to loud is “compressed.”

If you’ve heard of the loudness wars, that’s people squashing the dynamic range.. and then turning the whole thing up so you have a higher average volume level.. that then sounds kind crappy compared to if you were using the whole dynamic range.. but I digress.

So that’s the 101 of compressors… but besides the threshold knob.. there’s how much compression the compressor is going to apply to the incoming audio.. there’s how long / gradual it takes for that compression to totally kick in once the threshold is reached.. and then there’s a decay control to control how slowly the compressor disengages once the signal goes below the threshold.

Ok, so that’s hard to conceptualize… but basically you can use compressors in a lot of different ways to.. and that gives you the tools to use them in a lot of different ways.. and not all compressors have all those controls and blah blah blah.

The technique of putting a compressor on the master bus.. is a special kind of thing… and its somewhat.. controversial in some circles.. but.. kinda probably form the 70s on up.. every hit record had the SSL Master Bus compressor on it (the compressor I’m missing right now.. at least in terms of Native Instruments emulation there of..)

So.. what happens is.. you set the master bus compressor up.. and you got audio going into it.. and.. it does a bunch of things..

First of all it’s said to “glue the mix together.”  When ever you put multiple audio signals through the same processor.. they do tend to glue together a bit.. but this particularly true for compressors

Second… the compressor does compress the sound.. it makes it “more punchy.” For many mixers.. the implication of putting a compressor on the mix bus is that you then compress other elements of the mix less.. because you’re already lightly compressing the mix as a whole.

3rd: You are now mixing into the master buss compressor.. so what you hear is a result of what the compressor is doing to the audio.. so all the choices you make while mixing are effected by that compressor.

Now… most of the time you probably don’t put the master buss compressor on at the very start of the project.

So…… getting back to our story

I don’t usually have any kind of problem getting my mixes to “glue together.” I read about people talking about the issue of glueing mixes together.. and how this is such a big deal… and blah blah blah… but its not a problem I’ve ever ran into.. so it seems to me sorta crazy.. that everyone in the industry seems to be having so much trouble glueing stuff together when they’re mixing inside of the digital domain..

But.. it may be that the reason I never have this glue issue… is A, I don’t even notice the problem in my mixes but.. more probably.. B, I mix in a different way / style form everybody else.. so that it’s actually a lot easier for me, at least with respect to the glue issue.

However, all that said..at least in terms of how I’ve started working on this project.. I’m actually running into the “oh no, I need glue” problem.. so I’m really feeling the need for that SSL buss compressor.

Mind you.. I have other options in my studio… and a part of why I’m having the glue problem is that I haven’t actually started mixing anything… too much.. so…

But umm.. yeah that seems long enough for todays post.

Revising Plans of Attack

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So.. my plan of attack seems ever evolving.. I’ve now got some kind of a studio thing set up using this computer which is.. perhaps “good enough for government work…. under the Bush Administration” if not good enough under any other circumstances.. We’ll have to see how that goes.

In the mean time.. what the real priority item seems to be is building the web presence the right away… I’ve sorta tones down my expectations in relationship to the last time I post on the subject… and am now thinking more in terms of “iterations” of the site.

Basically the plan is get my music into online distribution.. from what information I’ve been able to get on the subject.. it seems reasonable that one can actually earn a living from nothing but making music in a studio and running a web presence.. maybe not a great living.. but… making more then $500 isn’t exactly too high a bar to exceed… err though as soon as I start making money I start loosing benefits.. so I’m not really sure where the real bar is, but it can’t really be that high, right?

So that would at least seem to be the primary objective of the site… other objectives would include:

  1. Trying to sell myself / services as a producer / engineer
  2. Attract team member of both the creative and business persuasions
  3. Have some kind of online portfolio to potentially get jobs as a web design, graphic designer, animator, photographer, video production person, social web strategist, and whatever the hell else..

To do this I’m attempting to learn the latest greatest ( or “cutting edge” as they say in the cliche biz ) web technologies and techniques…

So basically my time ought to be divided up into collaborative adventures, learning web technologies, web design, music production… and all that stuff about getting my life in order as far as keeping the car on the road, avoiding homelessness, and um.. all that good stuff.

And hopefully somewhere in here I can do some networking

Self doubt in the creative process: My Remix Project

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So.. its late at night.. and tomorrow is the Boston Media Makers.. which means a couple things… #1 That it’s been a month since I’ve written a blog post.. and #2 I should go tomorrow.. but it being as late as it is.. I may not be able to find it within myself to wake from my comma to make the venture out… though it would no doubt be good for me…

Err….

So right now I have to “pimp” my music.. well actually ask you for your vote. All this amounts to is clicking on this here link….  at the end of which is a remix I did for this contest.. and so what I’m asking is you take a listen.. and if you dig it.. to vote for me… as of my last check I’m 28th out of 184.. although I’m not entirely sure how real that number is.

I guess to limit folks making multiple votes.. they ask for your email when voting…

Marketing is story telling: The Story of the Remix

But I should tell you about this production.. and I should.. or plan to.. do a number of blog posts about the production of this remix.. the story.  It seems that every jump into the arena of music production / art making.. for me.. it’s always a story, a drama.

How good am I?

The plot is many fold and I can’t give it all to you here and now.. But.. well here’s the question “How good am I?” For me.. that’s a question that fills me with a certain amount of dread.. My sorta.. response / thoughts / feelings.. with respect to what I think the answer might be.. well there’s many levels to it.

There is a part of me that is confident.. and a part of me that.. well where my feet don’t always touch the ground and I have these grandiose feelings about my work sometimes… but that grandiosity seems kind of bipolar because.. it also swings down into these dark depressive states of wondering who the hell am I kidding.. to think I’m good enough to even bother really….

And so it is that in making the music, making the art.. its like I find that I have to do battle with this question.. these fears… the demons that lye waiting around.. for me surrounding the question… this is my inward psychological challenge.

The other part of the challenge

The next part of it… is that I have no business calling myself an artist.. or this is what I believe.. if I’m not working my ass off trying to make it happen… Now this part of me sorta believes this question of “how good am I?” is sort of a bullshit, besides the point question. It’s the part of me that doesn’t exactly believe in talent.. but believes in muscles… that the more you work out on a muscle group..  the stronger it gets.. and so the point is I need to really work my ass off.. when it comes to this muscle group of music production.

The trouble is I have to fight my way through the demons of self doubt in order to obtain a state of… working my ass of… I have to kind walk on fire.. and.. all this sorta madness.

The measure of success

So on this level the remix was a success because.. I did indeed work my ass off on it. And not only did I work my ass off on it.. but I believe I also grew a hell of a lot from the experience… so there we go.. two victories.

Of course there’s another part of me that says “Look, it was a full time job that ended up taking about a month’s worth of work, and if you win the contest.. you only get $1000… and is that worth all the work you put in? And when you then see that there’s 183 people that I’m up against.. It starts to seem like a really mad thing to try and do.

But… but.. if I were to win.. that would be powerful.. It would be powerful because I put everything I had into this project… and so it would be a kind of affirmation towards working so hard.. towards putting everything you’ve got into a project… and not only that.. to all the fears of not being good enough.. it would say “um dude, you just won in a contest where you were up against 183 other people.” Not only that.. but then there’s the prize money… and your work getting released on an album where you get some kind of exposure and do some kind of reputation building…

And to the degree to which getting into remixing is something I need to do.. as it could be a source of money.. it would be a hell of a first step.

So of course that’s one reason why I’m asking for your vote.. and hell.. even if I don’t win.. but do well as far as people voting for me.. that would mean a lot to!

So what I intend to do is spend the month promoting my remix.. and a big part of that will be writing these kinds of blog posts.. on the story of the production.

So I guess this is one story.

Anyway… so once again.. here’s the link to my remix where you can vote.

My Music and Off to the Boston Media Makers

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I’m about to leave for the Boston Media Makers.. in less then a half hour. I haven’t been able to make it for ages.. cause I haven’t been able to afford the gas to come into the city.. and.. well cause its so freaking early in the morning that normally I can’t pull myself out of bed / be at all cognizant for the event…

The big issue now.. for me and the Media Makers.. is my sever social anxiety. We go around the room.. and there’s a crap load of people in the room.. and we talk about what we do or who we are or something or other.. and or maybe give a demonstration… with only a few exceptions.. my anxiety has made this exercise.. painful for me…  a bit of an understatement…

Well #1 this will be something like only the second time I will have gone through it on anxiety meds.. and #2 I think I’ve worked out some kinda of an idea about what I’ll say of myself.. which will be to focus on the music part of my equation.. and never mind trying to get at any of the sorta madness I normally might try and reach for.

So.. with this in mind.. (and perhaps to help prepare me for speaking)

Lets talk about the Music

So before you listen to this.. well try and get really good headphones on or the best speakers you can get.. because this is music that’s… really engineered to sound great on great systems..

Here’s the track that I normally show folks:

So.. what’s this madness all about?

I suppose there’s two things to talk about here.. one is the “style” of the music, or something like that.. and the other is the subject…

Style

Music theory is really a kind of schema system, or like.. a theoretical frame work for how to organize sound into music. The sorta conceptual tradition of this music comes from like.. Jazz into the Avant Guard.. folks like John Cage.. and takes various ideas from painting and modern art more broadly.. as well as a hell of a lot of other places.. particularly Jungian Psychology.. and lets say the rest of psychology.

The way I would describe it.. versus a more conventional music.. is that it’s a bit like going from newtonian physics to sub atomic particles.

In a way.. I think of it like social media.. this idea that what we are experiencing is fundamentally a shift in how we categorize stuff.. this is a power shift.. that is dramatically more democratic.. so that the organizing principles via which we compartmentalize knowledge.. the way we frame reality.. is fundamentally exploded (kinda like how Piccaso painted accept it’s sorta post post modern)

Err.. this would take a kind of philosophical treatise to fully explain.. but basically what we are hearing in the music is something like the future…  it’s how technology, the internet, and what have you.. is fundamentally changing society and culture.. and it parallels the structural systemic shift.. in terms of it’s schema system.. the music we are used to is like modern air craft.. this is a flying saucer.

Subject

It’s a dream I had.. that for told my future.. which is now my present… a kind of warning of the challenges to come.. I’ll leave it at that.. for a future post… But lets say it has to do with commercial challenges of this conceptual radicalism

And another piece of music

At the time I created this.. a fellow had gotten really excited about my music.. wanted to sign me to a recording / management contract.. I guess a 360 deal.. and one of the things he suggested…. as a means of both building my reputation and making some money was to do remixes.. and this bit with Steven Cobert and Lawrence Lessig was one suggestion.

The trouble turned out.. that about this time.. it would take me about a month to finish a track.. and considering that when you do a remix.. you generally don’t own the music.. can’t put it out.. or there’s various copyright issues.. it sorta made remix competitions.. unrealistic.

At any rate.. after I had mostly finished it.. and posted it.. I didn’t really think of much of it.. didn’t think it was up to the standards of my work… or what I would like my standards to be.. and so I hadn’t really thought about it for a while.

Well then said fellow.. a couple weeks ago I guess.. emailed me. He had been looking for Lawrence Lessig when he came upon the track.. really dug it.. and wondered how I was doing.

I’ve often been sorta suspicious of why he would like my work.. I’m terrible with compliments don’t cha know.. but it caused me to revisit it.. and wow.. yeah.. I really like it.

Older work

If you’re interested.. I have a lot of older work online to.. I think mostly available for free download.. here’s a link to much of it on my last.fm account.

[I may be taking this down sometime in the not too distant future on account of a project to commercially put some music, so you know.. while supplies last and all that...]

This old work.. a lot of it is rather rushed.. as a part of a challenge to finish a record inside of a month.. kinda deal.. and so its not really well curated as far as.. well there’s crap in there with the gems I’d say….

If you’d like to use my work

If you’d like to use my work for something you’re doing.. say a youtube video or whatever.. well.. I think most of this is under creative commons.. but if you want to use it for commercial / profit kinds stuff.. well just contact me.. leave a message for me here.. or hit me up on twitter..  twitter.com/mattsearles.. Generally all I ask is to be credited and a link back to this web site.

Err.. I guess this wasn’t too bad a post? Yeah.. I’n not sure.. but screw it.. I gotta race out the door for #BMM

 

Turning to the Scopes: A mixers delight

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You always hear this.. “mix with your ears, not your eyes.”

But I found myself in a situation.

My mix was going through a master buss compressor.. which is followed by a limiter.. which is a bit of a no no.. but whatever.. and.. I have this area in my production where I want.. to drive stuff harder.. on certain beats.. and do certain things… and playing it by ear… just wasn’t working.

So I throw a Motu Master Works EQ on my master buss.. which will gave me a visualization of the spectrum… turned out to be a brilliant thing to do…

What I found was.. well I found the sorta gaps in the frequency space.. there wasn’t really much in the way of gaps.. for the most part.. the frequencies were pretty well balanced… but I saw two opportunities to create the musical effect I was shooting for.

Opportunity 1

The first.. and “duhhh” thing was the sub bass frequencies. I say “Duhhh” because.. I had kinda spent a lot of time trying to keep the sub bass area empty accept for a synthesizer playing that roll.. and indeed the kick drum wasn’t really getting into those sub frequencies… This section of the track… in effect.. was still an intro.. still a.. we’re moving towards something… kinda part…

So you have a situation where everything’s been set up to clear up some frequency space.. and you got nothing in that space.. so there’s an opportunity for you….

Now my first reaction to this was to throw some basses in.. in that sub range.. see what happens.. and low and behold.. it worked.

But then I began to think… “hmm.. how am I EQing that Kick?” Like maybe what I should do is somehow set up the kick so that if I’m shaping it to work with the bass.. in the sections leading up to the entrance of the bass.. I should not be shaping the kick in that way.

But then I thought “wait.. the composition at this point is in part about the gradual increase of intensity, and so if the kick is already taking up all that space.. and then I take away from it as the bass comes in.. that might work against the compositional framework stuff.”

So I haven’t touched that element yet.. but I am thinking about it.. it may just be a question of how I balance these issues.

The second opertunity I found was actually in the higher frequencies.. probably starting around 1K… and really becoming more so around 2-5K…and in the 10-20k region.. there was a tun of empty space…

If you don’t mix regularly.. this probably all sounds like greek.. and so allow me to give some explanation of the implications and what nots.. of what I’m talking about.

Bass / Low Frequencies

Where I’m at with mixing right now.. I think of the real bass frequencies of being about 100Hz down.. and the sub bass as somewhere above 20Hz and down.

For both the bass and sub bass areas.. you gotta be kinda careful.. You want your stuff panned centrally.. you’ll very often need to be cutting stuff in there.. to add clarity.. you can’t really have over lapping elements in there… or over lapping elements represent a challenge.. of course most every bit of music you hear.. at least… will have the issue of the kick and the bass.

With the kick and the bass you really have two choices.. which is.. one of those elements will take up the sub bass area.. and the other will be cut before hand.. and you gotta do something so you can hear both elements together.. should they play at the same time.. and there’s.. well a lot to talk about with this.. but that’s not the issue I’m fighting with today.

So… this sub bass region.. the thing here.. well there’s basically 2 things here.. #1 the sub bass is felt more then it’s heard.. and #2.. whatever’s going on in the sub bass area.. it’s the nature of the sub bass frequency space.. that you can’t really have stuff going on super fast.. if you want a super fast kick drum, for instance.. it’s going to have less sub.. and there will be some kind of upward extension to give you that click…

The 1K and up range

There’s a lot to talk about here!!!

Our Ears

The first thing is.. the human ear.. is really able to get the most details.. really.. in this here 1k and up range.. that’s where the ears really do well… so this is usually where you want most of the production / focus / whatever… to take place in a mix.

So.. that my mix is sorta starting to be a little less loud around here… is kinda odd… and probably the ideal thing would be to change that.

20k… and maybe 10k to 20k.. but really 20k.. is the theoretically highest frequencies we can hear.. although ears do vary… and we tend to loos are ability to hear up this high as we age.

Analog Vs Digital

Now.. analog based mixing, recording, and production.. the nature of tape.. and how an analog works.. well one of the things about it.. is it’s always gradually taking off a bit of the high end frequencies.. and this is one of the reason people sometimes think of digital as sound harsh relative to analog.. and it’s a complaint among some critics.. lets call them.. that mixes really need to push this area less then they currently are.

There for.. there’s some reason to.. put a low pas filter.. around here.. and make it so there’s not really anything going on.. or not much going on.. which happens to be about what is happening in this production..

The Depth Issue

Now.. the other thing I’ll say.. is that when we are dealing with these higher frequencies.. these are frequencies that play a big roll in how you create depth in a mix: As sounds get further away from you.. they loose top end frequencies… One way to make something sound more in your face is to just add a little of these higher frequencies.

In how I’ve been mixing for.. I don’t know how long.. my technique for creating space.. involves sounds moving around in space.. including from far away to close up.. and very often nearly all the sounds in my mixing will move around in this depth plain.. there for nearly every sound.. just to make it easier for me.. will have a low pass filter on it.. that I’ll automate..

A low pas filter means that the frequencies below your target frequencies pass through.. the above frequencies get cut…  I probably should have explained that earlier.

So.. even when I have the low pass filter’s frequencies set to as high as it’ll go.. it’ll cut off a bit of the top end.. which isn’t a negative.. because you probably want to cut that a bit anyway… just to keep stuff from sounding harsh, right?

So this probably the reason why the frequency balance of the track has the frequencies getting a bit quieter post 1K…. because so many of the sound get cut in order to create depth… and for the most part I never book anything as a part of all this…

Well.. times are a changing.. and how I work is in flux so…

The implications

Basically.. there’s a limited amount I can do with the sub frequencies.. but when I put in the sub bass… and had it more or less playing quarter notes.. what I was going for.. well it really worked.. but.. I couldn’t use speeding up the pace.. terribly well.. as a means of increasing the energy still further..

The high frequencies.. I took a look through all the synth patches I had recently added to the production.. looking for ones with a whole lot of high end.. and there was really only one that was really harsh that way..

But my thought was… that I’d have these sorta high frequency sounds.. coming from far way.. and then getting super in you’re face.. in the area where I was trying to really hit things hard.. and they would hopefully fix my problems…

So this would really have to be thought out.. in terms of the composition.. in a more complex way then the bass stuff.

Also.. it turned out that these were my Absynth patches that I had recently programmed.. and I had them set up so they all went through a kind of master Absynth channel.. and I was thinking of adding some high frequencies in there.. to help the cause little,

Artist’s Depression Journal.. thing, err. confession?

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I don’t know how to fucking write.

I mean I don’t know how to write something that I’ll actually post.

I’m staring in to my head.. its 7 26 AM.. I haven’t gone to bed yet.. and I’m in a kinda dark place.

I haven’t really been able to put my finger on it.. on what’s wrong.. and still.. Jesus, wtf is wrong anyway? Maybe it’s just some kinda brain chemistry strangeness… I’m not sure that it has anything to do with outward material reality.. to be perfectly honest.. I think it’s just those inward demons.

Often when people talk about Demons it’s vice related.. this isn’t that kinda demon.. Maybe that kinda demon is one you don’t wrestle with well enough.. and so it manifests in your material reality.. confronting you that way.. but this… this is more of an inward thing that.. I wrestle with too hard for it… to materialize totally.

As I say that.. I realize.. who the hell am I kidding.. what is my life if not a materialization of the demonic! I mean lets gets serious.. my life sucks.

Hmmm…

And why does it suck? I mean.. not the surface explanations.. I mean the really deep truth, what is that? Maybe I should just sit down and pray.. maybe that would reveal it to me.

Hell.. I don’t even care what the reason is.. I’d just like to get to a better place!

Anyway… so this is what I’m feeling right now.. the thoughts that are going through my head right now.. it’s.. my sense of things right now…  Accept that to explain it by writing is to be forced into some sorta of linear path to creating an image.. and I’m having a hard time expressing it really.

So.. I’m in bed.. sitting up… my cat by my site.. me sitting here with laptop in hand.. and down stairs.. that’s where the studio is.. that’s where the real shit takes place… or where the real shit should take place.. where it would take place if I could just muster the courage.

Or find the inspiration.

I’m working on a music project.. but mostly I procrastinate working on the music project.

I can’t even tell if I’m moving forward on it at all right now.. to tell you the truth.

I’m not sure about my judgement on it… I’ll tell you. Sometimes I’ll take a listen.. and I’ll think “holy crap, listen to that!!!” It’s like some amazing sonic experience.. something very special that I’ve crafted.. and some times I feel like some master artist.. making magick happen.

Other times? Yeah.. total fucking crap.. or not crap.. just.. just how do I find my way through this problem.

That’s the real gist of it.. all art seems that way to me.. .and epic battle.. you go and try and make something.. and what you make is crap.. and you go “oh shit, that’s crap” and you wonder.. what can you do to transmute it into something less crappy.. or.. why is it crap?

It’s like this puzzle you puzzle over.. and slowly you push through it.. you just keep at it.. and over time.. by a process of confronting the problems.. you eventually remove the problems.

See.. it’s all about your perception as the artist.. your aesthetic reaction.. if you hear it and think it’s great… you keep it, if you think it sucks, you change it.. for every element you work with… unless you get lazy or something..  so what happens is that you’re basically imprinting you’re aesthetic reaction onto the sonic canvas.

Now the surrealism of it is.. the way what sounds you’re attracted to, what you’re repulsed by.. has to do with your mood, your psychology.. and so in this way the music becomes like a confession of your experience… and confession that is not necessarily just the confession of the conscious mind.

And so the problems you struggle with in the work.. those are your demons.

But also interesting.. it might be slightly peculiar to music.. especially when the mix engineering bit is a part of the art it’s self.. that there are multiple paths your ear can take through the sonic experience.. and this is really one of the huge challenges in the production.

What happens is you can loose the big picture focus and dwell on these details.. that may or may not matter at all. Hell.. you might be ruining it as a result…

It’s like there’s this giant multiplicity of potential sonic experiences.. at every moment in the music.. and what happens as you’re working is.. you just get stuck on this one… spot. One pathway through the sonic art.

Err, I’ll get more specific in talking about what I’m doing now.

Basically I started out trying to do a drum and bass track.. but got lost somewhere around the way.. in any event I roughed out part of an arrangement… and now I’m going through and.. creating like.. the next level of polish… But it’s really a whole lot more then polish.

I think… I have these first kinda section nailed down pretty well.. and there needs to be a few more sections kinda worked up a little better.. and I think I need to do something with delays in a few points.. like really huge delay where it sounds like… just some giant space or explosion.

Or at least that’s the solution that comes to me.

But I’m also not sure of what’s going on in the bass frequencies.. or if the snare is hitting through hard enough.. and every time I add a detail.. I get really afraid that I’m muck something up.

So what I’ve started to do is the old “lets make each element tiny so that we can have this lush huge experience,” this is an engineering thing.. if in a given moment in the mix.. there’s just one single acoustic guitar playing.. that acoustic guitar can take up all of the frequency space of the mix.. but as soon as you start adding elements.. you have to take away frequencies from that guitar.. and give it to other stuff.. so the guitar becomes smaller and smaller…

And then.. via automation… what you’ll do is.. make that guitar sound bigger, maybe.. when there’s less stuff playing, and smaller when there’s more stuff playing.. and it’s really just a way of crafting the focus.. you don’t really experience it as getting bigger or smaller if you’re the typical music listener.

The album example I always think of for this is Slayer’s Seasons of the Abyss.. the way the drums.. when they are alone get huge.. or the guitars when they are alone get huge.. and the whole thing is like some giant brilliant symphony.. the way the elements play with one another and the way the music flows…

The Next Night:

I woke up at 7 PM “this morning.” It’s 11 40 AM, and I plan to go unconscious soon.. with any luck anyway.

Today I really didn’t get shit done… DP.. my production environment crashed a few times.. work was lost.. and I worked  to bring in a whole bunch of Absynth patches.. into the project.. but kept running up against this memory limitation.. and it was around this time that I learned that my version of DP… the current version…. doesn’t support 64-bit.. it’s 32-bit.. meaning much of my ram it can’t access.. thus the memory problem.

That pissed me off.. cause it’s like hitting you’re head against a wall.. you realize.. you can’t go any further really.. or you cant go far or.. you’re going to have to fucking figure some shit out.. or wait till the next version comes out and you’ve somehow managed to get the money together for it…

Anyway.. I eventually gave up on the project and went to start a new project… and then sorta drifted back to the old project.. to take another look…

I don’t know.. I don’t if the project’s any good or not.. I don’t if it’s just ok, if it’s great.. if it’s a steaming turd.. I just don’t know.. and I guess I have to live with that.

Whats up in my land.. story of passion and art.

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It’s been a long time since I posted.. have a bunch of crap on deck to post.. but it hasn’t been posted yet, so it might just never get posted… and anyway.. I got about 15 minutes till I gotta leave for my therapist appointment.. so I figured… Why not try and spit out something.

I guess the biggest theme that strikes my fancy.. or just seems important for me to hear and hold onto is “believe.” Believe in the stuff of.. well I don’t know what to call it and don’t have enough time to get into it.. but dreams.. and.. passions.. and who you are in the deepest sense and that feeling of purpose you have about life…  about your ability to get where you need to go.. in order to actualize..

So.. that’s maybe one of the biggest themes.

Another big thing is this whole box of philosophical whatever… I think of it as a kind of toy box.. for the intellectual kids.. right? It’s this kind of complex way of understanding stuff that gets beneath surface phenomenology. It’s some badd ass shit.. and its sorta structured into this kind of critique of society.. including stuff like how we run business and whatever.. like critiques of management theory…. good stuff.

And then there’s the art… which is almost like applied philosophy… Like that’s the best way of putting it… Or its as if the philosophy was the theory and the art the practice.

I’m jumping of a giant cliff into the unknown with my art.. It’s pretty scary stuff in a lot of ways.. but.. I’m starting to see certain things emerge… that are like signs of things to come.. where all this jumping into the unknown is heading…  basically it’s heading to… knowing a whole bunch of new shit.. I mean that’s probably what it comes down to…

But it turns my music into something wholly new…. It totally changes the game.. and there’s a larger integration with the media stuff… I see a really kick ass potential here.

Ok.. so lets move onto points of anxiety….. about the art.

The main thing is i gotta keep at it.. and keep at it strong.. and work and work and work.. and find a way of making this stuff.. a lot of it really is coming down to craft..

Craft is like.. well some art is all about craft.. It’s like genera conventions and its about how well you do that genera.. not what concepts you bring to the table… you can roughly divide up artists, and other types for that matter, into the conceptualist’s and the crafts folk…. and in a lot of ways my work really rocks it on the craft level.. that’s always been a big part of my shtick.. but the concepts.. yeah.. that stuff is strong to I think…

But anyway.. .the craft is the thing I’m worrying about now.

I’ve been looking at a whole lot of dance music production.. the techniques.. how you do it..all the little pieces.. and sorta integrating that stuff into my work.. and trying to move my work in a more dance friendly direction.. but it’s not totally been working out.

And then I guess it’s like bringing the mix engineering stuff to the next level.

And really.. more then a lot of all this.. I’ve been focusing on sound synthesis.. Absynth, Kontakt, Massive, Omnisphere.. those have been my main virtual instruments that I’ve been busy programming..  and really the heart of the craft issue for me is.. gaining some real mastery over these instruments.

What else?

Oh.. there’s the subjects of words.. and they can do.. little captured bits of audio.. of life of people talking of whatever.. cut into the music to tell a story.. and all that goes into that kind of story telling and how it integrates into the music and everything.. that’s big stuff… anyway, lets edit and post.

 

Some of what’s going on musically in my world at the moment

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I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted on here.

It’s now 1:19 and I have to get to the food pantry… probably.. ought to leave in… well 10 or 15 minutes I guess.. so as to not be late for my therapist appointment.. which means not much time for a post.

So.. I guess I’ll just give a kinda journal-ish update on what’s up…

I’ve been uber focused on music making.. music production.. the tools, thinking about music composition and song writing.. dance music….

I’ve been doing these tutorials for creating the drums and bass for various dance genres. It’s really a kind of paint by numbers approach.. but you end up with a new perspective or it adds something to your current perspective. So right now my goal is to finish all the tutorials in this magazine and then… well listen to music from those genres and try and make finished music out of them that sorta fits there genres.

After that my goal is to see if I can get it so I can more or less create a finished track inside of a day. These tracks might not be totally 100% finished.. in terms of polish and what not.. but the idea is to get so I can create a lot of work fast and then go back and see what I have, what I like.. and then maybe bring the good ones to fruition.

Other then that I have a remix I’m meaning to work on… a contest.

I guess what I find myself focusing on, or what I think will be my focus.. are these really subtle details. It’s like.. barely audible things.. the kind of game where it’s a game of inches.. and now is the time to work on those final inches.. that that’s where my focus ought to be.

I also have tun of unfinished works.. in progress.. and I’m thinking of taking a look at them.. and even some finished work.. .and think about brining those inches to those works.. because.. I have some stuff that I think is really great work.. but has these big parts that I’m not happy with on one level or another.

There’s other ideas worth talking about, but I gotta proof read this post once over and then post.. and get out of here…

A day in the life of a sick music producer

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I spent today sorta trying to work on music but running to annoying technical issues of computers not behaving the way you’d like which.. well between that and being sick… is just kinda hell-ish.

I’ve actually been feeling pretty inspired to work on new music on account of my recent RAM upgrade… which suddenly opens thing wide open for me.

And then I started watching videos like this one from Tom Cosm

Even if you don’t know anything about Ableton Live or electronic music.. you can really learn a good deal from videos like this.. I mean he really explains things down to the most basic levels…

Tom Cosm is really THE guy to learn Ableton from and I can’t really recommend him enough.

Anyway watching this video was like a real eye opener for me. In part cause I’m just not that handy with Ableton.. and other videos I’ve seen don’t really show you how you would work with the software if you were like… working on a sorta pro level? Or they are more like “this does this” and it doesn’t really show you the production craft.. or the tool in the context of the production craft.

But also.. I guess I come from a much more conventional kind of approach and this just really opens me up to thinking in different ways about production and sorta shows me how much more I have to learn.

Though oddly in all of this I didn’t really spend anytime in Ableton today… more just in Digital Performer..

But watching how Tom works with Operator in Ableton.. which is an FM synthesizer.. I quickly got inspired to try and work with Native Instruments FM8 in a similar way but.. well this would involve me spending a lot of time in manuals and all that kinda stuff.. which I suppose I should be doing!

Anyway.. so yea.. watched hours of Tom Cosm’s videos… and worked a bit.. picked up some groceries… and I guess that was my day basically.