KVR Audio

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:13 am

seismic1 wrote:Latest mix/master is up.

I listened twice at high volume. No more unpleasant distortion at 468Hz. No more rumbling bass. Unlike previous versions, I didn't feel the need to lower the volume at any point. Sounds great and, of course, the music is still excellent. Mission accomplished.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:06 am

Frantz wrote:
seismic1 wrote:Latest mix/master is up.
I listened twice at high volume. No more unpleasant distortion at 468Hz. No more rumbling bass. Unlike previous versions, I didn't feel the need to lower the volume at any point. Sounds great and, of course, the music is still excellent. Mission accomplished.

Hey, Frantz. Glad you liked it

I didn't particularly mind the stuff at 468Hz, although I could see it in my metering, and the Subs didn't bother me either 'coz my monitors only go to 40Hz (I think the Missions only go down to 48Hz). These were relatively easy fixes anyway.

Once I went back into the project I started listening to it at quite a high volume, and something that had been bothering me for a while began to reveal itself. I've made 3 or 4 "ambient" pieces over the last year and they all had a sound that I would now characterise as "overcrowded", bordering on distortion, but I had been unable to recognise it as such. Whilst remixing this I decided to back off all of the levels by approx 0.5 dB. There were only 3 channels feeding 4 instruments into the master bus due to the routing I had used, but that slight drop in levels has given the resultant master a much cleaner/clearer character, which is more pleasant to listen to at high volume. Another 4 remix projects are now lined up for later this year, in addition to 6 others I had already scheduled.

This was a very useful, and educational exercise.

jethrobull · Post by **jethrobull** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 7:09 pm

Absolutely gorgeous track.I am loving this style.Brilliant,brilliant work Sir!!

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:13 pm

I listened to the new mix twice today and it still sounds good.

seismic1 wrote: Once I went back into the project I started listening to it at quite a high volume, and something that had been bothering me for a while began to reveal itself. I've made 3 or 4 "ambient" pieces over the last year and they all had a sound that I would now characterise as "overcrowded", bordering on distortion, but I had been unable to recognise it as such.

I think you are using a mastering chain with vintage emulations. Maybe it is coloring the sound in an unpleasant way if you send in a hot signal.

For my stuff, currently I just have a transparent limiter on the mastering bus to prevent clipping. I have so many effects on the individual channels that color the sound, I feel it is unnecessary to use additional effects on the master. Kind of unorthodox but it seems to be working for me.

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:27 am

Listened tonight, this is dark and creepy. I like it this way.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:57 pm

jethrobull wrote:Absolutely gorgeous track.I am loving this style.Brilliant,brilliant work Sir!!

Cheers JB. Really glad you liked it

Thanks very much for listening and commenting.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:45 am

Frantz wrote:I listened to the new mix twice today and it still sounds good.

seismic1 wrote: Once I went back into the project I started listening to it at quite a high volume, and something that had been bothering me for a while began to reveal itself. I've made 3 or 4 "ambient" pieces over the last year and they all had a sound that I would now characterise as "overcrowded", bordering on distortion, but I had been unable to recognise it as such.
I think you are using a mastering chain with vintage emulations. Maybe it is coloring the sound in an unpleasant way if you send in a hot signal.

For my stuff, currently I just have a transparent limiter on the mastering bus to prevent clipping. I have so many effects on the individual channels that color the sound, I feel it is unnecessary to use additional effects on the master. Kind of unorthodox but it seems to be working for me.

I'm using the T-Racks Linear Phase EQ and the EQP-1A here after applying some desk-mode Satin. No Limiter. Over the last couple of years I have been slowly backing off the gain on the mixer channels. Until recently, I was aiming for a -9dB peak volume on the master bus pre-master for non-ambient stuff and -6dB for the more relaxed ambient style pieces, but things seem to sound smoother at -9dB here too. I'm actually looking forward to revisiting some of the older tracks using this approach.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:24 am

Zombie Queen wrote:Listened tonight, this is dark and creepy. I like it this way.

Thanks very much for giving this a listen and for commenting. Glad you liked it.

Dark and Creepy sounds good to me. Although this is a minimal piece, It was more "composed" than is usual for me. I had to "force" it to move in the direction I wanted, instead of my normal "make it up as I go along" approach. The next one is also quite dark, but in a rather different style.

nasenmann · Post by **nasenmann** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 9:20 am

as far as synesthetic adjectives go, this is somewhere between warm and cold, or both simultaneously. it's a warm cozy cold spooky place.

it's really hard to talk about ambient innit? but i'm liking it, it's a weird womb to be in.
i think i'd call my ambient album that if i ever made one, ambient womb or something.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 9:29 am

Nice work on this seismic, lots of great organic sounds in this one.

Sounds like the soundtrack for an apocalyptic place.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 9:50 pm

nasenmann wrote:as far as synesthetic adjectives go, this is somewhere between warm and cold, or both simultaneously. it's a warm cozy cold spooky place.

A dichotomy, with the delineation slowly shifting, in order to accomodate my errors. Glad I'm getting away with it

nasenmann wrote: it's really hard to talk about ambient innit? but i'm liking it, it's a weird womb to be in.
i think i'd call my ambient album that if i ever made one, ambient womb or something.

I'm not even sure whether this ambient, in the accepted sense, but I know what you mean. It seems to contain some of the requisite elements

Thanks very much for listening and commenting, nasenmann. Glad you liked it

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:37 am

V0RT3X wrote:Nice work on this seismic, lots of great organic sounds in this one.

Sounds like the soundtrack for an apocalyptic place.

Thanks very much for checking this out, and for commenting, V0RT3X. Glad you liked it

The soundset on here was put together before I began working on this track, and "drove" the composition.

tl · Post by tl » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:33 am

a great track produced with a great amount of finesse...
such an overwhelming ambigous atmosphere lies in it soundwise.
got sucked up completely by this strange mood of a "pleasant apocalypse".
great work!

cheers,
tl.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 1:36 am

tl wrote:a great track produced with a great amount of finesse...
such an overwhelming ambigous atmosphere lies in it soundwise.
got sucked up completely by this strange mood of a "pleasant apocalypse".
great work!

cheers,
tl.

Thanks very much for the wonderful comments, and also for listening, tl. Glad you liked it

Most of the ambiguity in my music is accidental, although I hope to become proficient one day

tl · Post by tl » Thu Mar 05, 2015 11:01 am

seismic1 wrote:Most of the ambiguity in my music is accidental, although I hope to become proficient one day

music - in my opinion - is not all about craftsmanship.
not only the possibilities of digital production widened my perception of arts in general.
sampling etc have redefined the assessment criteria of artistic expression.
the reproducibility of a fortunate coincidence doesn't belittle its value
and as far as i can see you are proficient in crystallizing this value.
so... great work.

cheers,
tl.

Breathe, and They May Hear You - ElectroProg (Seismic Displacement)