quote:

Originally posted by Low Profile Oh.... dear.... GOD! You rule-based music-monkeys, what's wrong with you!? you are making music, it's supposed to be a fucking ARTFORM! rules do not apply. you make things sound the way you want them, that's the whole idea behind making you own music in the first place! Obviously setting the lead to -40dB or +25dB won't sound great, but just use your instinct. If you don't have instinct then you shouldn't be making music in the first place...

There's a lot of formulatic EDM music that can stick to technical patterns. Most trance songs feature a kick, bass, clap, and leads... after a while you begin to see a pattern of loudness ratios coming into play. Then you begin to see where art meets science.

The numbers that are initially discussed, especially eluding to Cybernetica's post, are 'guideline' numbers that are basically ratios for the loudest sounding mixes that stay below a comfortable ceiling that is below 0db.

Writing commercial trance is a lot like writing 3-paragraph essays in gradeschool. It almost becomes a mundane science unless you really start digging into the thesauri and dictionaries. Nevertheless, what sounds good and what doesn't sound good in terms of stereo image can be translated, mutated, twisted, reworked, and recycled into other genres of music. Once again you will begin to see where art meets science. Songwriting is art... mixing is the bastardized cybernetic form of your right brain.

___________________
...On college-driven hiatus...