What is some new production related skill that you recently learned, that you didn't know last year ?

Vocal Ghosting. I knew how to do it using tape but in Ableton..well, I never tried.

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cant really think of any new tricks per se, just mixing tweaks...

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I learned how to pose for promo shots

Limiter press every sound for consistency, learned it from some brostepper.

quote:

Originally posted by MSZ Limiter press every sound for consistency, learned it from some brostepper.

I like that one.. makes the waveforms nice and uniformed, tight, and they look good in smexoscope.. Gets rid of some nasty artifacts too.. The strangling pieces of nothingness that just pops out of nowhere..

I just invented a most ingenious way (if I do say so myself) for getting rid of plosives (boomy "p" or "b" sounds) using phase cancellation*:

- clone the vocal track with the plosive

- reverse the phase on the new track so that the audio on the two tracks are phase-cancelling each other out

- zoom into the plosive on the second track and delete everything to the left and right of the plosive; the original track will now play back normally, except for the plosive, which will be silent.

- put an EQ or filter on the new track (i.e., the one with the plosive) and set one band to low-pass (or band-pass)

- bring the frequency down to around 300-500Hz

- keep the section looping and sweep around to find the best frequency that isolates and attenuates just the plosive

- use the volume on the second plosive track to dial in the amount of plosive reduction

Basically, the second track is using phase-cancellation to cancel out just the boomy frequencies in the original track, and the volume control is essentially acting as a "ducking" control to allow some of the plosives back in (in case it thins out too much). Between the frequency cutoff on the EQ/filter and the volume knob, it's pretty easy to dial in as much/little plosive reduction as you want.




* I'm guessing somebody else has thought of this before, but I've never seen it, so I hereby claim credit for it.

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quote:

Originally posted by scorpradio Vocal Ghosting. I knew how to do it using tape but in Ableton..well, I never tried.

I was playing around with some vocal ghosting a few weeks ago and just updated it with MicroShift:

http://www.cryophonik.com/files/ghost_vocals_test.mp3

After I re-reversed the reverb part, I added some little delay, then spread it out left/right using Microshift. Then, I blended the original (dry) vocal back in over the ghosted vocal part, and sidechained/ducked the ghosted part with the lead.

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik I was playing around with some vocal ghosting a few weeks ago and just updated it with MicroShift:

How are you finding the Microshift plug? Do the extra parameters and functions give it much more of an advantage over the little microshift?

Reason I ask is that I have been using little microshift a lot over the last few months and want to know if it's worth upgrading to the full fledged version, I know it's currently discounted and all but I'm on a pretty tight budget now seeing that I'm a student again.

I guess giving the demo a crack would be the best way to find out!

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Last edited by Teezdalien on Feb-23-2014 at 00:46

This one is more for the noobs as I'm sure everyone with a bit of experience does it, but I know some things we take for granted are still useful to others:

Removing resonant frequencies fast and easily. This will help with sounds one that is "ringing" a little and making a mess of your frequency separation by clashing with others. This happens especially with sounds that have a wide frequency content, especially those which have a lot of resonance such as hang drums, bells , chimes or even mid basses etc.

1, Load up your preferred EQ dial in a band pass peak at 24db with a very tight Q so it's quite a precise spike.

2, While on loop, starting at the LF, sweep the peak slowly upwards through the sound until you hit a point of resonance - this will sound like a ringing that sort of clips your speakers.

3, Dial in that exact point, then turn +24db in to something like -6db and and dial the other way on the Q, until it's a shallow dip (but not totally flat - about half way).

4, How whatever frequency you just dialed in to, double it and make another sharp spike there, flip it and smooth it out. Yep, that's the next harmonic point of resonance.
This one however will need slightly less reduction maybe only -5 or -4db.

5, Now with sounds that have a lot of resonance you can repeat this up the frequency range until you have 4 or 5 increasingly smaller "dips" at each resonant harmonic.

Ringing/unwanted resonance solved!

designing envelopes in tools like cable guys midi shaper then using pre made environment setups that allow them to be plugged to any parameter. Lots of nest surprises/.

Resampling using absinth or harmour for interesting sounds.

using a spectrogram to basically steal the groove from classic tracks. yields about 5 midi templates which provide that tension.

spend lots of time making channel chains just experimenting.

using modular synths as processors for other synth inputs.

using iPads as fx processors for external synths.

using lots of guitar pedals , multi fx and stuff like line 6 hd5000 , and axe tx 2.

using nebula.

and trying to use as little material and changing that material making the most of it. basically , trying to make things as cohesive and parsimonious as possible.
using real instruments guitar , bass.

using lemurr to alter dousands of parameters in ways you don't expect giving you interring results.

and i use 3 computers for offloading processing, it makes things more compartmentalized. so 2 mac pros , iMac and a pc. although i don't really use those heavily except when doing sample stuff were you have about 40 gigs of ram in use. i also have 2 mini drobos with 8 512 ssds in a raid 0 setup.

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Last edited by Looney4Clooney on Feb-23-2014 at 04:53

quote:

Originally posted by Teezdalien How are you finding the Microshift plug? Do the extra parameters and functions give it much more of an advantage over the little microshift? Reason I ask is that I have been using little microshift a lot over the last few months and want to know if it's worth upgrading to the full fledged version,

Absolutely. It's worth it for the Focus control alone, which is essentially a crossover point for the width split. The few extra controls really extend it's range and usefulness. If you use it much and can find a way to swing the extra $49, I'd go for it.

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Last edited by cryophonik on Feb-23-2014 at 05:25