Hi,

at the mo, im working on a quick tips section for a site. I was just wondering if any TA's have any quick tips or advice when making tunes?

anything about synths, fx, mixing , melody etc????

Looking forward to any gems of info!!

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Kuroi
@ web/Kuroi Music
@ myspace/Kuroi Music

promo track: Mirco de Govia - Voller Sterne (Kuroi Remix)

Hey DjSound - havent seen you here before!

yep - music theory is defo necessary. Im trying to learn hehee
stuff like inversions + shit like that. Gonna do an article later on, once i understand it.

Anyone have any gems of advice/techniques or something they do that would be useful for other peeps?

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Kuroi
@ web/Kuroi Music
@ myspace/Kuroi Music

promo track: Mirco de Govia - Voller Sterne (Kuroi Remix)

my personal advice:

1) to get a kick drum that punches through a track, export a normal one from reason, or any other program, and EQ that thing to perfection, especially on the lower end around the 40-80 range., and do some light compression.

2) for a hi-hats, apply alittle amount of echo and slight reverb.. and pan certain hats to get a wider stereo effect.

3) if using a NN19 sample in reason (esspecially for synths) add some reverb and echo, make sure the "spread" mode is on jump and turn up the dial to about 1/3.

4) layer multiple synths to achieve thicker sounds for Basses and Leads.

5) Get your hands on some form of Apeggiator, hard ware or software, they are EXTREMELY usefull in making trance music.

6) To master your mix, do a light graphic eq to bring out the lows and hi's, and then do some compression to maximize volume.

I agree on that your sounds must not all be one sonic blur, but besides panning I'd say pick your sounds so that they don't sit in each others way. Like if you have a saw lead, and you want a little counter melody going on in the background, don't use another saw and especially not at the same octave.

umm what else

To make your mix sound a little more "hi-fi", mix in a (very suble!) track of white noise, filter out low and lo-mid and most of mid, put a phaser on it. It shouldn't really be hearable, only when you take it out.

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All rhythm evolves around a kick...

wicked tips peeps.

Interesting one Pjotr, ill have to give it a try. It might be why tracks always sound so full, when theres nothing in them. But its not reverb as thats too thin.

Anyone have any more????

*wiggles eyebrows scarily*

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Kuroi
@ web/Kuroi Music
@ myspace/Kuroi Music

promo track: Mirco de Govia - Voller Sterne (Kuroi Remix)

Thanks Pjotr, that sounds like a good idea I'm gonna try it out.

Chrono, what arpeggiator do you use?

Want your stereo mix to sound mega-wide?

take the master file

delay the left channel from the right channel by a couple of milliseconds, about 5.
I don't mean an echo type of delay, I mean the left channel plays 5 millisecs later than the right channel.

Put on your headphones and find out

And watch out that it's not played on stereos that downmix to mono cuz it'll sound like poop

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All rhythm evolves around a kick...

I just use the arpeggiator on my supernova.. its got alot of cool mono and polyphonic presets, plus you can program your own.

I tried the delaying the track about 5 milliseconds behind before.. it works well for synths, but not for drums! trust me

#1 Sometimes less is more. Having for example one or two hardware\software synths you know well is better than having 20 synths you do not know at all.

Try to do best of what you already have.

#2 Try to make a decent mix before mastering because then your track will sound even better after mastering.

#3 Have fun

Don't put too much pressure on yourself

#4 Buy the best speakers you can get because having good speakers is extremly important. What good is million dollar equipment if you make music on shitty pc speakers? Your speakers is the link between you and your music..

#5 When you have mastered a track, try to play it on as many medias as you can. Play it in your car, on some shitty pc speakers, on a club system if you have access to one (I'd really like to hear how my own stuff sounds in a club ).. and yeah, you could also go in a audiophile store where they have mucho expensive speakers and test how you stuff sounds there too

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Check out my latest track:
enLounge - Secret Beach

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G Want your stereo mix to sound mega-wide? take the master file delay the left channel from the right channel by a couple of milliseconds, about 5. I don't mean an echo type of delay, I mean the left channel plays 5 millisecs later than the right channel. Put on your headphones and find out And watch out that it's not played on stereos that downmix to mono cuz it'll sound like poop

This gives a wide sound but watch out with this trik on the hole track. Do not do it on the end mix if it is gonne be put on vynil It can create out of phase sounds that a record cant hendle because the way the sound is reproduced from vynil.

If you want to use this effect you can do it on the synths and stuff but do not put it on the kick and the bass. The are always panned in the centre of the mix.
If you want a bassline with a wide sound layer 2 on top of eatch other pan one in the center and bup the delay effect on the other and mix them together.

you're right in that panning basses cannot be cut into vinyl....but who here makes vinyls?
but ok you're right

here a cool little trick for making fat claps, take a pretty big one, and make sure the left channel is played one semitone lower than the right channel (hence about 5% slower). It will sound a bit like a chorus, but different. works for hihats too

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All rhythm evolves around a kick...

Good one the gated reverb tip.

Tip on making vocals sound big.

after recording the vocal compress in to get the volume straight.
Make a copy of the vocal track and put a small bit of autotune on the copied track. them mix them together. If you don't have an autotuner you can get this effect also with a chorus on the copied track. but that sounds a little more fake then when you do it with the auto tuner.
If you like you can make more copies of the vocal track if you want and create extreamly wide vocals.