Clipping/distortion/lim/comp - what you do to your tunes

100 Replies, 19993 Views

They use that effect in a 'rhythmically pleasing' (ie shit IMO) way though.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Macc Wrote:They use that effect in a 'rhythmically pleasing' (ie shit IMO) way though.
Hahaha

True. Well, I like it. But yeah, they're not just trying to make their tunes bare phat and messing up the compressor settings...
Wow im impressed Mr Macc.... Truly thou art a studio Jedi!

With disortion/compression I just tweak things till I like the sound of them mainly..... not very scientific i must say.... Icon_sad

I'm going old skool Joe Meek style hehehe
I dubbed the sheriff
nothing wrong with that Smile but still try to do it at the same subjective level Yes
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
macc Wrote:nothing wrong with that Smile but still try to do it at the same subjective level Yes

yep i would agree with you bro Cool

although there are a lot of wicked producers out there who arn't engineers and just "busk" it as it were... but i think as you say a healthy mix of your own intuition and understanding of the tools at hand! Cool
I dubbed the sheriff
morphy Wrote:with disortion/compression i just tweak things till i like the sound of them mainly.....

Xyxthumbs Xyxthumbs

nothing is more important than ears and how it sounds. Cool

all production talk is irrelavant really, if it don't sound right to the ear.

i come accross so many people that have applied a technique or settings they read about somewhere thinking it is good. when in reallity whomever wrote that setting doesn't know what you are trying to do.

eg. if there is a set of comp setting on the web or mag somewhere, and people use that setting but what has that setting got to do with what you are trying to compress.

same with presets in any dynamic, how that fuck does the preset know what sound you are trying to comp.

my tip for the day - "fuck presets in dynamics, use your ears to do it manually"

i didn't quite explain that well but hopefully peeps know what i mean.
Yeah man, dynamics presets are a proper chocolate teapot.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Macc Wrote:chocolate teapot.

Homerdrool
nice little audio file man explains it really well Smile

quick little Q

do people ever automate compressors?
People do, yes. The most common usage that springs to mind is adjusting the threshold for a vocal compressor on 'the big chorus bit'. If the singer proper belts it out the threshold may need to be eased off to stop it sounding overcompressed, or perhaps brought down to ensure extra dynamic control (if it doesn't sound too compressed of course).

Not a particularly useful practice in making/mixing dnb though IMHO, unless you're doing it for 'effect' purposes... But if you ask me you are better off bouncing new files with different settings and chopping them in.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
btw i forgot to say...

@ tyler and whoever, the whole 'too short release modulating audio and not gain' thing is exactly the reason why the 'massive fat compression magic release time' trick works as it tells you exactly where you can set your release, in an audible way.

and i totally agree with shiva that your ears are the boss, that when you're actually mixing you should forget all this theory nonsense and use your ears. however it is very very true that sometimes, as shown here i think, theory can help you to educate your ears such that when mix-time comes, they are better educated in what to listen for.

Xyxthumbs all round. good job people etc Teef
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Macc Wrote:However it is very very true that sometimes, as shown here I think, theory can help you to educate your ears such that when mix-time comes, they are better educated in what to listen for.

i agree with that sir yes sir

bit hard to use your ears if your ears in the first place havent got a clue what to be looking out for (or listening because theyre ears and not eyes Baffled )
Anyone got any more questions before we move onto the next thing?

This next one will really fuck your head up Hahaha
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Macc Wrote:Yeah man, dynamics presets are a proper chocolate teapot.

Haha i love that phrase!

Completely off topic but Macc your track "non linear phrasing" has just popped up on my itunes random shuffle while im typing hehe! (quality track btw) Cool
I dubbed the sheriff
Macc Wrote:Anyone got any more questions before we move onto the next thing?

Attack? is that just down to your ears or can you accidentally fuxx shit up with that too? i assume there must be but i cant quite figure out what

Quote:This next one will really fuck your head up Hahaha
what is what is? Hyper
attack is a little more tricky with regard to the specific 'too short' problem demonstrated in that audio file. to be honest i need to think about whether a super-short attack has a similar modulation effect to that of the release or not... Chin

of course, in general, too short (musically speaking, rather than down to the wavecycle timescale) an attack will kill all the punch in your music, but then you all knew that, right? :d

the best option for all of this is simply to use the neve 33609, so you can compress the living balls off anything and still have it punch through like a hammered chisel to the face Lovesmilie and you don't have to worry about fiddling with attack :d
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Macc Wrote:The best option for all of this is simply to use the Neve 33609, so you can compress the living balls off anything and still have it punch through like a hammered chisel to the face Lovesmilie AND you don't have to worry about fiddling with attack Grin

A little more than my pocket money would allow! Icon_cry

Have to make do with TLA ivory.... chalk and cheese Icon_cry

lol
I dubbed the sheriff
attack times on bass get me scratching me head constantly
morphy Wrote:A little more than my pocket money would allow! Icon_cry

Have to make do with TLA ivory.... chalk and cheese Icon_cry

lol

UAD ghuy. An unfeasibly - UNFEASIBLY I TELL THEE! - close replication of the original. I genuinely still get a little warm feeling (even as I type, haha!) and a little smile on my face thinking about it.

Okay, so it doesn't work on everything. But mostly it does.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
djfada Wrote:attack times on bass get me scratching me head constantly

Why?
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
generally seems to be i can never get the attack long enough
What makes you say that? Not punchy enough?

What compressor are you using generally? Smile
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
U.R.S 1960/70 or 80 usually


yeh man really lack of punch and overall power


had some ok results with ik T.racks but generally its far too clunky crunch boxxy and only works on dingy duty sounding stuff

i dunno tho you know compressors arent my strong point Smile
should you really be compressing bass anyway? if its synthesized at least
macc Wrote:however it is very very true that sometimes, as shown here i think, theory can help you to educate your ears such that when mix-time comes, they are better educated in what to listen for.

this is true Xyxthumbs

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