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Dear dirtyrat. Who are you and why do you keep
posting useful messages? You are like some encyclopedia of music production or
something. Go write a book.
Regards, Your Mom.
; )
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 6:52
PM
Subject: [dnb-prod] All Producing Is
Mixing (warning-gets unnecesarily deep)
All Producing Is
Mixing
Some tips regarding mixing:
1. Do not use EQ
unless absolutely necessary. EQing (on your mixing board or on an
equalizer) is a way of "sweetening" or fine tuning, NOT a way to get a sound
to do something its not "meant" to. For example, lets say you have a
kick drum thats conflicting with your bass. The natural tendency is to
reach for the mixing board. JUST PITCH THE KICK DRUM UP IN YOUR
SAMPLER!! A much more natural and "real" way to get the proper sound. Or
better yet, choose a different drum sound. Personally for DnB I
always use punchy, "mid" sounding drums- they sound better anyway and Ill be
guaranteed of no problems. Pitching in your sampler, changing sounds,
arranging properly ( playing problematic sounds at different places), these
are all better options than EQing.
2. It is always better to CUT
than to BOOST. Boosting EQ can often result in unnatural sound,
especially considering the quality of most home mixing boards. For
example, it is better to remove troublesome mids from your hats than to boost
mids in your snare.
4. MIxing is about CONTEXT- That mega-phat
bass sound or "symphony in a box" pad may sound awesome on its own but
in your mix, it will drown out everything else. Thin out your sounds by
filtering out unnecessarry frequencies ( mids for hats, sub-bass from kicks,
etc)- this may make the sound unnatural in isolation but if it sits well in
the mix noone will notice or care.
Make the above rules part of your
way of working and youll realize- all producing is mixing. Producing is
the act of collecting sounds, then playing them together in time so that they
sound good together. Mixing is not something you do after your done
making a track, it should be considered throughout- as a producer you are
essentially "filling the sonic spectrum" with sound- Bass over here, hi hats
over here, pads go over here, synth pops in here then drops out here to make
room for other synth here, etc.
All right, lets get real deep:
ALL SUCCESFUL ART IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS. The most important
development in any artists journey is when he moves beyond becoming enamored
with individual elements, and begins to think about how the elements RELATE to
each other.
"How does my break sound against my bassline? Do they
groove together?"
"Maybe this part of the track can get darker than the
last"
"Maybe this part can get prettier instead of darker like everyone
else always does"
"Does my synth line sound awkward against my rythym?"
"This sample is great, how will it sound playing after that FX?"
"This
sample is great, will it take up the same frequencies as that FX?"
It
gets even deeper: The above pertains only to matters of TECHNIQUE.
Beyond that an artist must consider how what he is doing relates to the
cultural whole. His or her goal is to create tension between the STRANGE
and FAMILIAR, which is the foundation of cultural growth (This is why that
white painting with the single red dot costs millions of dollars- in its
expansion of artistic language it becomes an artifact of human history).
"Does my break sound different enough to be my own yet familiar enough
so they can dance?"
" Did I use sounds that theyll recognize and vibe of
off yet blow their minds with new ones?"
"Did I contrast strange,
inorganic (synth) sounds, with familiar, organic human ones (vocal hits,
percussion)
"Does my track break new ground yet follow convention enough
to be considered good DnB?"
Ow, my head hurts...
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