[teacher voice]ooooooooookay. welcome to class, keep quiet, pay attention, no passing notes, no joking, japery, fun or frolics.
so for this first assignment (no groaning there, you asked for it) we are going to be looking at what i am going to call sonic error correction. you will follow the instructions to the best of your ability, and return the work to me by email. late submissions will not be accepted, details of your deadline will follow.
this is not a competition. i'll be giving individual marks out of ten for how well the task has been achieved, using the tools provided, on a case-by-case basis. obviously some will be better than others though, and someone may score a higher mark than everyone else. that's the way it goes. however, those who put hard work in yet score poorly stand to learn the most so everyone's a winner.
to the task then;
today kids, open your breaks book at page 459, that's right - the 'soul brother testify' page. the sound material required is located here . please note that as it's missing a kick at the start of the loop, i've very roughly filled in the start with another kick. while initially it may throw you, remember that it has nothing to do with the purpose of this exercise. this is not an editing exercise.
we're going to be using the nyquist eq, found here.
the aim:
the purpose of this exercise is to see how well you can clean this signal up using the nyquist eq. again, this is an exercise in error correction. the task here is not to make a super-highly-polished-mid-scoop-radio-friendly-smiley-easy-to-mix-sounds-great-in-the-club version of this tune as you would have in an actual finished tune (dnb or otherwise).
this particular version of this particular break has some unholy god-awful resonances going through it. somewhere behind these atrocious signal defects lies an aggressive but still decent sounding drum kit, recorded in a moderately live room. your homework is to find it and reveal it as best as you possibly can. put another way, it is your job to make it sound as if you are in the room listening to the geezer play it, and it never went through all the nasty shit, the nasty mics, bad eq, bad pressing and all that other shit that you can hear in this sample.
in the real world, or at least in my studio, this would be done prior to even thinking of chopping. after the shit has been removed, chopping becomes easier, and a nice eq can be used to further accentuate the nice parts - but that is a pointless exercise unless this process has been done first.
so, one final time; i want to hear the drum kit - a clangy, aggressive, metal-snare kit - as it would sound were i standing there in the room. not a hyped-up dnb dancefloor ready bass and treble fest, but not the poor-sounding muffled whiney irritating ringy entity presented in the original sample either. so it won't sound totally nice, but it won't sound like shit either.
the method:
you will use no more than three instances of nyquist eq to clean the signal up. this equates to 15 bands of parametric equalisation. no hi/low passes, no shelves. no crying at the back, jenkins. if you only need one band, great. if you need more than 15, chances are you are wasting a band or two, or three somewhere in your chain.
a great thing about nyquist eq is the absence of any numbers from the gui - you are going to have to use your ears here. please don't use fft/paz analyser/span etc etc - there's no numbers in nyquist eq so it wouldn't reeeeally do you much good anyway.
the nyquist eq has no in or out gain control. as such it may be necessary for you to apply a gain change to the initial signal in order to give yourself headroom in the plugin chain. that is down to your discretion - be aware that the plug can clip internally and you'll never see a red light.
to make things a little more interesting, after the eq is done, you are permitted to use a modicum of digital clipping to control the signal and give a little extra volume. care must be taken not to mess up all your hard work... use as much clipping as you like, but i do not want to hear it.
once the clipping is done, you will normalise the final sound to -6db (half scale) and email it as a rar file to me. pm me only when you are ready to email the file, and i'll send my email address right back. if you have my email already, then just send it over.
the rules:
1) no editing of the sample/waveform. no snipping, no touching, no moving, no splitting into frequency bands and mixing together, no fading. you run the sample through the eq and clip - no more, no less. you are allowed to apply a gain change to the initial sample, and to normalise to -6db after eq and clipping. no more.
2) no other plugins or processes may be used. no frequency analysers/spectral/fft plugins, no maximisers/enhancers/auto eq/filter/multibanjangledoodahs/magic spells etc
^^ you can cheat on these if you like, but frankly, cheating in something like this is rather sad. do it fairly - it's best
3) you work at 16-bit all the way.
4) the final result will be sent to me as a 16-bit 44.1khz wav file normalised to -6db, in a rar/zip file. the audio file will be named '[username] soul brother testifies.wav' (eg macc soul brother testifies). any submissions over or under -6db due to incorrect normalisation will be rejected. any sample found or suspected to have been directly edited in contravention of rule 1), or treated in contravention of rule 2) will be rejected.
5) marks can be gained by: providing a cleaner version of the break. removal of certain problem elements is the main aim, however care must be taken not to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'.
further marks can be gained by restoring elements to the drums that would be there in actuality but have been lost in the recording process, or at some other point in the sample's life, and also by getting a decent amount of power/volume without detrimenting the signal with the clipping.
6) marks will be lost by: too much clipping, failure to remove the main problems, overhyping and trying to make the most incredible hyped drum track ev00rrrr, exacerbating any lower level problems when trying to bring out good parts.
7) keep your work to yourself, no trading presets, no helping each other out, sending wavs etc. feel free to talk about things in this thread of course.
8 ) this is a fairly subjective exercise. however, this is not about sitting something in a mix. this is about error correction, and as such there is a certain degree of right and wrong. my decision/taste/opinion is just that - i was asked to do this, i'm not going to row with someone about any of this - but in the end, my decision/s are final.
the deadline:
the sample is available to download for the next three days - the sample will be removed at around midday (my time) on saturday march the 24th. that's enough time for people who are really keen to get it done. if this goes alright, we might do some more things, other tasks etc in the future, so if you've missed it, don't fret.
all submissions must be made by midday on tuesday march the 27th. no late submissions - even if you have a doctor's note - will be accepted.
once they're all done i'll check them all out in comparison to each other (and my effort), compile some brief notes on each, and give marks. maybe some more analysis too if i can be bothered.
away you go...
so for this first assignment (no groaning there, you asked for it) we are going to be looking at what i am going to call sonic error correction. you will follow the instructions to the best of your ability, and return the work to me by email. late submissions will not be accepted, details of your deadline will follow.
this is not a competition. i'll be giving individual marks out of ten for how well the task has been achieved, using the tools provided, on a case-by-case basis. obviously some will be better than others though, and someone may score a higher mark than everyone else. that's the way it goes. however, those who put hard work in yet score poorly stand to learn the most so everyone's a winner.
to the task then;
today kids, open your breaks book at page 459, that's right - the 'soul brother testify' page. the sound material required is located here . please note that as it's missing a kick at the start of the loop, i've very roughly filled in the start with another kick. while initially it may throw you, remember that it has nothing to do with the purpose of this exercise. this is not an editing exercise.
we're going to be using the nyquist eq, found here.
the aim:
the purpose of this exercise is to see how well you can clean this signal up using the nyquist eq. again, this is an exercise in error correction. the task here is not to make a super-highly-polished-mid-scoop-radio-friendly-smiley-easy-to-mix-sounds-great-in-the-club version of this tune as you would have in an actual finished tune (dnb or otherwise).
this particular version of this particular break has some unholy god-awful resonances going through it. somewhere behind these atrocious signal defects lies an aggressive but still decent sounding drum kit, recorded in a moderately live room. your homework is to find it and reveal it as best as you possibly can. put another way, it is your job to make it sound as if you are in the room listening to the geezer play it, and it never went through all the nasty shit, the nasty mics, bad eq, bad pressing and all that other shit that you can hear in this sample.
in the real world, or at least in my studio, this would be done prior to even thinking of chopping. after the shit has been removed, chopping becomes easier, and a nice eq can be used to further accentuate the nice parts - but that is a pointless exercise unless this process has been done first.
so, one final time; i want to hear the drum kit - a clangy, aggressive, metal-snare kit - as it would sound were i standing there in the room. not a hyped-up dnb dancefloor ready bass and treble fest, but not the poor-sounding muffled whiney irritating ringy entity presented in the original sample either. so it won't sound totally nice, but it won't sound like shit either.
the method:
you will use no more than three instances of nyquist eq to clean the signal up. this equates to 15 bands of parametric equalisation. no hi/low passes, no shelves. no crying at the back, jenkins. if you only need one band, great. if you need more than 15, chances are you are wasting a band or two, or three somewhere in your chain.
a great thing about nyquist eq is the absence of any numbers from the gui - you are going to have to use your ears here. please don't use fft/paz analyser/span etc etc - there's no numbers in nyquist eq so it wouldn't reeeeally do you much good anyway.
the nyquist eq has no in or out gain control. as such it may be necessary for you to apply a gain change to the initial signal in order to give yourself headroom in the plugin chain. that is down to your discretion - be aware that the plug can clip internally and you'll never see a red light.
to make things a little more interesting, after the eq is done, you are permitted to use a modicum of digital clipping to control the signal and give a little extra volume. care must be taken not to mess up all your hard work... use as much clipping as you like, but i do not want to hear it.
once the clipping is done, you will normalise the final sound to -6db (half scale) and email it as a rar file to me. pm me only when you are ready to email the file, and i'll send my email address right back. if you have my email already, then just send it over.
the rules:
1) no editing of the sample/waveform. no snipping, no touching, no moving, no splitting into frequency bands and mixing together, no fading. you run the sample through the eq and clip - no more, no less. you are allowed to apply a gain change to the initial sample, and to normalise to -6db after eq and clipping. no more.
2) no other plugins or processes may be used. no frequency analysers/spectral/fft plugins, no maximisers/enhancers/auto eq/filter/multibanjangledoodahs/magic spells etc
^^ you can cheat on these if you like, but frankly, cheating in something like this is rather sad. do it fairly - it's best
3) you work at 16-bit all the way.
4) the final result will be sent to me as a 16-bit 44.1khz wav file normalised to -6db, in a rar/zip file. the audio file will be named '[username] soul brother testifies.wav' (eg macc soul brother testifies). any submissions over or under -6db due to incorrect normalisation will be rejected. any sample found or suspected to have been directly edited in contravention of rule 1), or treated in contravention of rule 2) will be rejected.
5) marks can be gained by: providing a cleaner version of the break. removal of certain problem elements is the main aim, however care must be taken not to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'.
further marks can be gained by restoring elements to the drums that would be there in actuality but have been lost in the recording process, or at some other point in the sample's life, and also by getting a decent amount of power/volume without detrimenting the signal with the clipping.
6) marks will be lost by: too much clipping, failure to remove the main problems, overhyping and trying to make the most incredible hyped drum track ev00rrrr, exacerbating any lower level problems when trying to bring out good parts.
7) keep your work to yourself, no trading presets, no helping each other out, sending wavs etc. feel free to talk about things in this thread of course.
8 ) this is a fairly subjective exercise. however, this is not about sitting something in a mix. this is about error correction, and as such there is a certain degree of right and wrong. my decision/taste/opinion is just that - i was asked to do this, i'm not going to row with someone about any of this - but in the end, my decision/s are final.
the deadline:
the sample is available to download for the next three days - the sample will be removed at around midday (my time) on saturday march the 24th. that's enough time for people who are really keen to get it done. if this goes alright, we might do some more things, other tasks etc in the future, so if you've missed it, don't fret.
all submissions must be made by midday on tuesday march the 27th. no late submissions - even if you have a doctor's note - will be accepted.
once they're all done i'll check them all out in comparison to each other (and my effort), compile some brief notes on each, and give marks. maybe some more analysis too if i can be bothered.
away you go...