Thread: Ask Me About Music Production.

Originally Posted by Artelis

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Hmm.. Is there any main rules a producer should follow?

It depends on what style of music you're producing, and your purpose. If you are going for a mainstream, top40 approach, then there are definite rules you need to follow. If you are doing something more underground and for creativities sake, then all of the rules CAN be broken. Most of the time, though, a lot of rules are followed until it is creatively necessary to break them.

What role do you have in the production? If so, what's the most famous person/band you've produced music for?
(Not the actual music, you should know what I mean )

I'm actually a sound engineer right now. I do a lot of assistant work for the producer. I'm working my way up right now. The most "famous" project I've ever worked on was probably a studio album by Number One Common. Not like I work for Abbey Road Studios or anything.

How much does those fancy mixing boards and stuff actually cost? I suspect more than I can ever make.

price for a mixer can vary anywhere from $100 - $25,000 - Quality

I'd like to know how you got started with music production, what sort of equipment you need etc.

Originally Posted by Alex

I'd like to know how you got started with music production, what sort of equipment you need etc.
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There's a funny story.

How I got started with music production was I was over at a friend's house while I was still in high school, and he gets on his computer and fires up Fruity Loops. I was like "what the eff is this shit?" So he showed me around it a bit, etc etc. Basically, he really sucked, but so did I. So I went home and pirated it (shhh, don't tell anyone) and started messing around with it non-stop. I made more shitty techno than is good for anyone. Then I read up on a bunch of stuff and started really getting into it. I bought a pair of monitors and a firewire mixing board. I got it all set up with cubase on my computer so I could start recording. So, my very first home studio consisted of:

Sound Card - Audigy 2 ZS platinum
Software - Cubase SX (pirated, I was poor in high school)
Mixer - Some M-Audio firewire mixer that I don't have anymore
Monitors - Bose something that I don't have anymore
Instruments - electronic piano, guitar, bass, drums (drum mics), etc.

Nothing too serious. Another piece of equipment I was I had was a compressor to help with a lot of the pre-amp problems I was getting from shitty input.

I didn't just use recorded instruments though. I used these handy things called VSTi's (Virtual Studio Technology Instrument) which is basically a software synthesizer. You can set them up in cubase (or fruity loops or buzz, or any other piece of software that supports VSTi's) and then program them to play notes. Cubase actually gives you a staff that you can notate on. Fruity loops just gives you a piano roll - the piano is on the side, and then you program the notes into it (hard to explain, look up piano roll).

Well, this is a lot of rambling, but if you're interested in what you REALLY need to get started, here are the bare essentials.

A computer with a sound card for audio input
A microphone or some sort of direct input
recording/sequencing software (Jeskola's Buzz is free. VSTi support, but I'm not sure about direct audio recording)

OR if you just want to make electronic music

Jeskola's Buzz is free, but has a steep learning curve. Plenty of online tutorials
Cubase SX is the industry standard for recording/sequencing. Very expensive.
Fruity Loops is cheaper and easier to use. Good for beginners that are looking to learn.

These are just a few DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) packages that can give you a simple all-in-one feel. Today I use a few software packages:

Cubase SX - recording/sequencing
Abelton's Live - beat slicing/mixing
Reason - rewire this into Cubase for the NN-XT and Combinator
Countless VSTi's - lots and lots of synthesizers to choose from. I generally only use 0-2 per song, though. (these can include drum machines, etc.)

I have no idea if this answered your question, but these are all things I messed around with when I first started out. Last thought: A really hand thing to get is a midi controller. This is basically a small keyboard (piano keys) that you can plug into your computer via midi (or usb, if you don't have a midi port on your computer). This allows you to play on the keyboard and have the computer record what notes you are playing. You can then edit the notes directly on the computer (move the notes around, change the notes, change the synthesizer, etc) Very very very useful. I found that once I got one of these, my melodies started sounding less like I was sitting there clicking the notes on the screen.

This isnt strictly a music production queston but in eitehr case.

Both my sound inputs have horrible noise. I mean, really, bad. Yet its supposedly High Definition audio. Is this a problem with the card or with my mic/keyboard lead?

Originally Posted by Techboy

This isnt strictly a music production queston but in eitehr case.

Both my sound inputs have horrible noise. I mean, really, bad. Yet its supposedly High Definition audio. Is this a problem with the card or with my mic/keyboard lead?
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There is probably a very easy solution to this. You may have your input on your soundcard turned up too high, or your keyboard may be turned up too high. As a general rule of thumb, you should use your computer as a pre-amp. So, record really quietly, and then use your computer to digitally boost the sound (turn it up&#33. This should help with a lot of your noise problems.

Compression.....

any hard 'n fast rules, particularly for making percussion sequences more "punchy", or is it just trial and error?

what is "brick-wall" compression?

compress individual tracks only, or apply an overall compression to the final mix-down?

Muchos grassy arse

Compression. Bitchy topic.

A brick-wall limiter is a way to compress the peaks to increase the overall 'loudness' of a track.

To make a more punchy percussion track? I'd go with a 4:1 compression with a high output gain. Then experiment with you threshold until you get the desired sound.

Hard fast rules - Don't over-compress. People tend to start slapping compression on everything and turning it up. This will create a very hollow sound for the song.

I always apply a final compression to the finish mixdown, but only to turn the overall volume up - brick-wall limiting. However, I use compression on select few tracks to bring out a desired effect. Use this sparingly, though.

thanks,
also, is there any *real* advantage to using balanced outputs / inputs over normal unbalanced?
I know you get far greater cable lengths, but anything besides that

ooh,
and the ubiquitous "Hardware Vs. Software" question, as well

Originally Posted by Ynot

thanks,
also, is there any *real* advantage to using balanced outputs / inputs over normal unbalanced?
I know you get far greater cable lengths, but anything besides that

ooh,
and the ubiquitous "Hardware Vs. Software" question, as well
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From my experience, there is no advantage to using balanced. I don't have much experience in this area, but our lead producer always uses normal unbalanced. I'll probably ask him about it tomorrow.

Hardware vs. software: Completely based on opinion. There are RAM problems on both, programming restrictions on both, and just about any other problem you can think of on both. In recording, I prefer to use software for more control. If I was to perform live, I would definitely go for hardware, as the rack is much more reliable in a high-heat situation.