Lets get a tips, tricks & steps 2 help Produce STICKY PL

[tw3ek]

ight cool...

 

[buggz05]

Originally Posted by TW3EK

Originally Posted by buggz05

Yea I was thinking about screening applications too. Maybe even offer a mastering so that everything on the site sounds legit. This would be hard to do though.

If anybody else is interested don't hesitate to make request on what you would like to see.

But basically I'd like to use the grip of NT talent to break in the site on the beta version, and give you guys first crack at it sense I know there are some officially talented people on here. This would be better feedback wise since we are all pretty much in the same circle. Plus NT has a knack for keepin it real...

indeed

there's TOO many cases of when keepin it real goes wrong on here

ninjahood/laney for example

the mastering sounds like a good idea... although im not fully aware of the amount of work involved or whats needed... ive heard that u mix the song wit effects and all that... then that 2 track wav gets mastered... then ive heard that u send everything in tracked out(but that would just be a mix right? i mean they ARE 2 different things...arent they? or do some people just misuse the terms?)

@ ultraclip.

Yea the two terms do get misused. I guess I'll put it like this...there's a little bit of mastering involved with mixing, but no mixing involved inmastering. But let me explain.

Mixing is basically mixing your tracks, samples, loops w/e together, in order, in a DAW sequencer. Once you get the song exactly how you want it to be allthe way through, and you have the final mixdown...that's when you start mastering. So you may apply effects while your mixing such as compression andreverb etc..to make the individual track sound exactly like you want it to.

So mixing in a nutshell is taking different pieces of the recipe (the drums, bassline, melody, rhythm, ambient sounds, vocals) and "mixing" themtogether the way you like it. Mixing is basically beatmaking really. And mixing is where clipping comes into hand. This is where you make sure nothingclips.


Mastering is after you have your final bounce exactly mixed the way you want it. Some engineers request that you bounce each separate track individually(it gives them better options to work with), but some will work with what you got...even if it's just one simple wav file of the multitrack mix. So forinstance if you sent your multi mix to get mastered and your mix involved 32 tracks, you would send 32 separate wav files for each track: one wav of just thebassline, one wav of just the kick drum, one wav of just the hi-hat and etc for each separate track.

The point of mastering is so that your song's levels are high enough to play in the same league as the professional competition. For instance if youlisten to a professional album, and you switched CD's to your own non-mastered album...you'd prolly have to adjust your volume up to compensate fornon-mastering. Mastering brings the master volume up. It also involves eq'ing to take out bad frequencies and give an overall desired character. And thesame with other effects.
You usually don't get things mastered until you have a full albums worth, or EP. Mainly because when you want your songsmastered so they will blend smoothly, while transitioning between songs.






My suggestion for starters is to do some research on headroom. When you are recording and your making sure you get good levels you want to leave head room. You don't necessarily want the signal level to go right up to unity or 0db and just under clipping. You really want your signal level peaking around -5dbto -3db. The reason for this is because when you do add effects while mixing/mastering, the added effects will cause your audio signal to go over 0db. You wontsee it happen on the meter, but it will cause some artifacts. That's why you want to leave head room so that your added effects have room to do their job.

Some people say "ahh it's just small artifacts and you can't really hear them anyways..." but when you have your audio broadcasted over theradio/television etc...they often show up more apparently, as opposed to not really hearing them in the control room and on your monitors. Sample rates and bitrates play an important factor in artifacts too. Always make sure your sample rates are the same when dealing with separate audio sources.

My other suggestion is to always have a Master fader track in your DAW. I'm not familiar with reason...it may already have one, but in protools you have toadd it to your tracks. I say this because your levels on the individual tracks may not be clipping, but when all those tracks are added together the signal ismuch stronger, and your master fader will show you your vo meter with all the tracks together.






Sorry for the essay, I hope that cleared things up. I swear I'm an audio nerd so I could go on for days about production theories.

But yea mastering EVERYBODY's tracks would be a problem. But me and my business partners who are thinking about doing this, may end up hiring some peoplefor upkeep etc anyways. It would take a 5000 dollar investment for servers/bandwidth in the first place.

I guess this would mean that I would have to be very selective on who is allowed to have a profile/site.

 

[tw3ek]

yea u expplained it the way that i believed was right... and yea reason is set up exactly like a DAW... u sequence in a multitrack view and everything... thenu have ur rack or mixer view wit the faders and actual sound modules... and yea there's a master... just like pro tools and digital performer... thanks forclearin that up for me...

btw that ultraclip was back in my FL days where i didnt use the mixer wit the master fader

 

[buggz05]

Has anybody tried a protools keygen? From what I've read it won't work with out an ilok or m-audio interface. I just bought an m-audio interface thatis compatible with 7.4...so am I cool or do I still need the ilok?

EDIT: Also does it have to be m-powered to work with my m-audio interface?

EDIT 2:

@ the difference between the mixers sound and the computer's soundcard (...

)...got my 20 dollar surround sound from wal-mart sounding like someJBL's

You guys should check these things out, I highly recommend them. I wanna see yall succeed; be at the top.

[h3]M-Audio NRV10 8x2 Mixer with Built-In Digital Interface[/h3]
The NRV10 combines an 8 x 2 analog mixer, 10 x 10 24-bit/96kHz digital audio interface and a VST-compatible live mixing application in one convenient package for computer-based recording and performance. Route mixer channels discretely to and from tracks in Ableton Live, Pro Tools M-Powered and other software. Learn More...


Mixing and recording capabilities seem endless. And they are going for about 400-450 street price on ebay.

 

[beatjunkie5]

buggz, from what I remember about the m-audio interfaces you would still need an ilok to run PT...but honestly I'm not too sure..i'll ask a friendwho runs m-powered tomorrow. and i'm not really understanding your second question, m-powered to work with m-audio interface? if your not using adigidesign interface (mbox2, digi003) than it has to run through the m-powered version of PT...

and about the whole mastering proposal, i'm hella down to help some of my fellow NT folks out...my school just built a brand new mastering studio which isamazing...ATC monitors which weigh like 150lbs each, sound dope as hell...a bunch of out board gear to master with, and a couple of mastering DAW's andthey of course run PT in the studio...

Pics::
Chander EQ's/Compressors, Manley EQ's/Compressors and some other #$*+ that I forgot the name of...

Some limiters, I think they were Chandler, Manley and some other types of EQ's and compressors..

the ATC monitors..

New digidesign control24..

 

[buggz05]

^What school do you goto? How much access do they give you?

But as for my question. Basically I've found Protools M-Powered 7.4

....and I just bought the NRV10 firewire interface which is compatible with 7.4...and I just installed the m-audio drivers for the NRV10/M-powered 7.4

And on "TPB" they are saying you need an ilok OR an m-audio interface. So I'm thinking it will work, but I can't seem to figure out how todownload it now...

So I was hoping some of you guys have experience with "TPB"...

and

damn @ those monitors. How do they compare to say mackies??

 

[beatjunkie5]

so did you download the M-powered Pro Tools yet? you could probably find it at like piratebay.org or something...I don't think you need an ilok form-powered, you should be fine with your NRV10...if they say its compatible with PT...

I go to a school in the Bay Area called Ex'Pression college, doesn't have the credit as a Full Sail or SAE yet but they offer a unique learningexperience...its an accredited college, meaning they offer a bachelors degree, which doesn't really mean too much in an industry like this I guess...butits a nice title to have, PT certifications, Logic Certifications (

), 3 PT Experts are teachers here so you learn a lot of PT...as far as access to thesestudios, each student is offered 12 hours a month of time, as long as the studio is available (meaning no labs going on, or its not booked already...thefacility itself is running 24/7), alumini to the school are offered 8 hours a month...I'm graduating in about a month

but check it out at expression.eduif your interested...

those ATC speakers are amazing, they are probably the most accurate monitoring system I've heard so far...and the room itself is amazing, I didn'treally take pictures of the room but the studio was designed by John Storyk, who is basically the MJ of designing studios...oh yea, the tweeters on the ATC islike the sub in my car size wise

 

[buggz05]

^so wait are you allowed in the studio at anytime or are you limited to 12 hours? How many studio/suites do they offer to you? And can you check out equipment?

Also does it cost more than 12,000?

Cuz I think I'm just gonna drop the money for PT certification straight from digidesign instead of going tocollege for it....





But I dl'd the .rar files from a different site than TPB and I can't figure this stuff out for %@$....

Says I'm missing this file:

C:\Documents and Settings\Valued Customer\Local Settings\Temp\Rar$DI25.157\a-pm74.r00


IDK....

 

[tw3ek]

^it wont work without the ilok... no ilok programs can b cracked... PC FTW...

 

[beatjunkie5]

You are limited to 12 hours a month, as long as you reserve time...if you get cool with some of the instructors you can just ask them to get in a studio if itsfree which is what I usually do...they have a lot of little studios with MIDI keyboards and Logic/ ProTools HD, then they got about 5 studios in the facilityto record bands with a live room and stuff, and the new studio they just built which has a drum iso booth and a vocal booth...then another studio which was aclassroom, that has just a vocal booth...so about 7 professional studios and then the little rooms...

and the school costs more than 12k

in all honesty though, the certification is a nice title to have and it does kinda seperate you from others in thefield, and it looks nice on a resume and business card, but if I were you I'd save that 12k and invest in some equipment if you really want to make thisyour profession, especially since you have a dream of opening up a mastering studio. Just my opinion though...

 

[young dr0]

Originally Posted by buggz05

Young dro what is your budget? I can't really recommending anything w/o knowing budget.

ALSO what do you guys recommend for RAM on your PC?? I have no clue, I just know mine is probably not enough (512 MB).

[color= rgb(255, 102, 153)] Hmmmm ... I'm not sure ... I'm thinking $1000 to start off with ... I'll beinvesting in that MIDI Controller soon ... prolly won't worry about a mic now b/c I don't really wanna f with that part ...[/color]

 

[buggz05]

Originally Posted by young dr0

Originally Posted by buggz05

Young dro what is your budget? I can't really recommending anything w/o knowing budget.

ALSO what do you guys recommend for RAM on your PC?? I have no clue, I just know mine is probably not enough (512 MB).

[color= rgb(255, 102, 153)]Hmmmm ... I'm not sure ... I'm thinking $1000 to start off with ... I'll be investing in that MIDI Controller soon ... prolly won't worry about a mic now b/c I don't really wanna f with that part ...[/color]

A stack is a nice little starter budget. Now I can recommend some things for you. Firewire Interface (I recommend the NRV10 but it will hog yourbudget....). Monitors (mackie mr5's or mr8's depending on how big your room is).
Check out the akai 49 controller...it's a controller with drum pads.

Also what type of productions are you trying to make?






And yea beat junkie...I see what your sayin. But really I don't think 12 grand will do much for me concerning professional equipment...

Really my plan is to start this small production business to help me pay for these certificates and some college. Use those certifications to get a good 9-5job with benefits, and then use my networking and earnings to invest in a bigger studio. So really I got a long way to go...

But your right I may scrap the PT certificate and invest...so many options..

 

[buggz05]

Somewhat hypothetical question: Would you trade OG Foamposite Ones for an iLok w/ all waves bundles authorizations on it?

 

[tw3ek]

ummm...no.. id rather buy a pc, keep my foams, and download pro tools and the wave bundles...

 

[buggz05]

Originally Posted by TW3EK

ummm...no.. id rather buy a pc, keep my foams, and download pro tools and the wave bundles...

already dl'd them all but I can't figure out how to get past this iLok.

 

[tw3ek]

thats y i said buy a pc... lol

 

[buggz05]

I have a PC tho...PT still won't work on it. I can get the waves to come up in certain applications tho but not all of them...

Does waves work in reason?

 

[tw3ek]

^nah its vst isnt it... and u should have no prob runnin pt on pc as long ur sound card is compatible...

if u need wit help wit that lemme know ur aim and ill try to help u out...

 

[stuntastic020]

If you talking about Waves plug ins.....No they do not run in Reason.

 

[buggz05]

Aight next question:

Thoughts on copping used monitors??? Say 150ish for a pair.

Or should I use that 150 for something else like a microphone, and stick with the headphones until I can get brand new monitors?

 

[beatjunkie5]

^depends on what you plan on doing more...if you mix a lot i'd suggest in getting a pair of monitors, cause I've mixed with headphones before and thetranslation to other set ups are way different then mixing in headphones...

but if you produce your own beats and do a lot of recording then i'd suggest using that money to get a good quality mic...all depending on what you do moreof...

 

[flossb15]

to tell you the truth, i got some dt770 headphones and some monitors, and my mix from the headphones comes out better 9/10 times...so i wanna sell my monitorsbut cant because i record people frequently and they like hearing the monitors blast loud

Only if they knew, they basically props in my lil setup

Depending on the quality of your headphones, i'd get the mic,
how much do you record?

 

[buggz05]

I record alot but I usually just borrow mics from my school. And I'm going through withdrawals from the break....got a couple more weeks before schoolstarts back up...

My bedroom isn't exactly flat or dead acoustically either so that kind of makes me think that headphones would be better.

Even if I go with the monitors, yall don't see nothin wrong with coppin them used??

 

[stuntastic020]

Depends how used an if you have heard them and made sure they are in good condition or not worth buying.

 

[tw3ek]

stuntastic what do u do? i see u popped up and got some knowledge... u producer, rap, engineer, or what?