KVR Audio

J.Ruegg · Post by **J.Ruegg** » Tue May 31, 2016 2:16 pm

There is still time to submit a entry , rigth?
About 18 hours I think.

I will skip math class today, I want to finish my track at all cost.

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Tue May 31, 2016 2:30 pm

J.Ruegg wrote:There is still time to submit a entry , rigth?
About 18 hours I think.

I will skip math class today, I want to finish my track at all cost.

Yup, all good

rghvdberg · Post by **rghvdberg** » Tue May 31, 2016 3:40 pm

J.Ruegg wrote:There is still time to submit a entry , rigth?
About 18 hours I think.

I will skip math class today, I want to finish my track at all cost.

That's the spirit

rghvdberg · Post by **rghvdberg** » Tue May 31, 2016 4:03 pm

Ok, I just have to ask. I feel dumb and nooby but I just don't know how to fix this or where to listen to. I don't even know if I'm using the correct terminology. I don't know if this is the mixing stage or mastering stage I'm talking about ..

This is really, really, really bugging me and I really need some hand holding here.

When I listen to tracks from for example Z' and Jasinski (and other people, but these guys spring to my mind first) everything sounds bright and clear.
When I listen to my own tracks there's allways a cloudy fog. I have to 'search' for a specific sound or melody in the mix. I guess this is the 'muddy mix' I often read about.

Now I believe/read/youtubed that it is common practice to use a HP about 150 hz and trim around 450 hz. When I look at the 'track default' EQ in reaper there's a notch at 315 hz.
Ok fair enough ..
When I use this on my (single) synth track I listen and think .. "that's not the sound I made or that I want. It's sounds very thin."
The end result is .. well ... muddy I guess

Tell me I'm not the only one.

Any help is welcome.

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Tue May 31, 2016 5:09 pm

rghvdberg wrote:... I don't know if this is the mixing stage or mastering stage ... everything sounds bright and clear ... my own tracks there's allways a cloudy fog. I have to 'search' for a specific sound or melody in the mix. I guess this is the 'muddy mix' I often read about ... When I use [HPF] on my (single) synth track I listen and think .. "that's not the sound I made or that I want. It's sounds very thin." The end result is .. well ... muddy I guess

So there are different things at play here. Mostly, this is the mixing stage. But it also can be largely affected by the mastering stage. In general, the clarity of tracks is handled by how you EQ them together in the mixing stage (I'm still learning this every day, as I try to get "that super clean sound" that I hear other producers have).

The overall track sheen is often helped in the mastering stage - stuff you stick on the master channel, in most cases. Podolski is a tricky beast because the filter sounds pretty bad (to me) and the synth has very little high end without being very harsh, so in this case, I ended up boosting the overall high end in my track to make up for it. I had to do this to the extreme on a couple other synths. Some synths just have a good amount of high end, though, in which case you might not have to be as extreme. The only way to tell there is to compare with 'pro' tracks that you think the mix sounds good. But this is the last, final stages to bring the track up to overall sound of what other people might be listening to. I actually spent a while on this process this time around. I also found some harsh spots to cut, to make the track overall much smoother.

Now, the rest of the clarity comes from the mixing, which is probably much more important. You should definitely LPF every single track that shouldn't be in the bass frequency ranges, up to the point it has the sound you're looking to include. Sometimes you have make the individual sounds more tinny so they can fit together in the mix. You can always automate the LPF frequency if you need to, to give more bass in certain spots, let's say where the sound is playing solo (or just layer a sub bass in those parts). Don't listen to things individually and decide where to cut there, but rather with related tracks (this is a technique I just learned, from the video series mentioned below). Not really sure why I didn't think of things this way before, or do this, but the mix is all about relationships between tracks. You can always solo a pair of related tracks and listen to them together, see where you should cut in each, make them clear, then add the next track and repeat the process. I think this is mix secret of the decade... all about the mix mindset you have: a great mix is made by relationships between the tracks. Another tip is to apply smaller EQ "moves" to get rid of harsh frequencies and even out the individual sounds. Do this on the track-by-track level, so you don't get them adding up in the mix and have to try to fix it in the master, at which point you can't really.

One other thing to think about is the stereo space. Having a big, smart, stereo mix can help to make sounds audible rather than all being squished together in a mono field or 'the same' stereo space - e.g. what happens when you just use widener plugins on everything. Auto panning hats, for example, makes the high end *sound* more bright because you hear it more, even if it's not really louder or boosted on the high end. Thinking about where your sounds sit in the stereo spectrum can go a long way to making a mix sound less muddy.

Now, I don't normally recommend things that cost money (except Serum and Bitwig, because they are awesome), but for whatever reason I was having a bad day and sprung for this Hyperbits guy's tutorial, because I thought his mix sounded so clean: http://edmprod.com/future/. Although it *is* a few dollars, it is definitely worth watching and has some great information. He creates a complete track over the course of a few hours and describes what he's doing quite well along the way, including how he's EQ'ing tracks, mixing, mastering, and deliberate use of FX. His track isn't something prolific, but the techniques can translate to most types of music immediately.

So there are all my secrets. I'll go back to being the mediocre song creator that I am, and you can make great mixes with your wonderful melodies and chord progressions...

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Tue May 31, 2016 5:26 pm

Very well said Z.

z.prime wrote:
rghvdberg wrote: So there are all my secrets. I'll go back to being the mediocre song creator that I am, and you can make great mixes with your wonderful melodies and chord progressions...

Do I smell the perfect collab?

Quaoar · Post by **Quaoar** » Tue May 31, 2016 6:26 pm

Here's my entry for this month challenge.

Quaoar - Frontiers

DAW Live 9

Podolski 17 instances

Ableton FX used :
Delay
Reverb
Gate
Compression
EQ 8
Limiter

Had a hard time making drumsounds with Podolski ( I asume everybody had that problem). For the hihat & crash I used Mr. van de Bergh's hihat as a start, Thanks!

Hope you like the track!

Quaoar

https://soundcloud.com/quaoar-1/quaoar-frontiers

rghvdberg · Post by **rghvdberg** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:10 pm

bjporter wrote:Very well said Z.

z.prime wrote:
rghvdberg wrote: So there are all my secrets. I'll go back to being the mediocre song creator that I am, and you can make great mixes with your wonderful melodies and chord progressions...
Do I smell the perfect collab?

well ... one can only dream ...

rghvdberg · Post by **rghvdberg** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:17 pm

Thanks Z' for the response.
I'm gonna need to re-read that post several times.

And thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it.

MTLE · Post by **MTLE** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:45 pm

A lot of tracks already. Here's another play around from me.

14x U-HE Podolski are making all the noises.
DAW is Reaper

3x ReaComp, 9x ReaEQ, 1 ReaVerbate

1x Limiter No6

Master: 1 ReaEQ, 2x ReaXComp, 1xTL Maximizer, 1xRPJ 12 band EQ (off), 1x MSED, 1x D2, 1x Span, 1x, Anspec

https://soundcloud.com/mtle-1/mtle-strange-times

Good luck everyone

zarf · Post by **zarf** » Tue May 31, 2016 9:47 pm

Hi OSCers

My just-in-time track for this month.
I would like to blame the mix on lack of time, but it is definitely lack of skillz

Still, I'm learning lots each month forcing myself to actually finish stuff

https://soundcloud.com/zarf/zarf-spring-fade

33 Podolskis, with some from-scratch sounds and some preset-tweakage.
Lots of Ableton EQ, compressors, reverbs, delays, a little saturation here and there.
LoudMax and Ferric TDS for 3rd party stuff.

Looking forward to listening to all your tracks, the little snippets I've heard so far have been great!

Good luck all.

Meakaale · Post by **Meakaale** » Tue May 31, 2016 10:07 pm

Here's mine!

Track specs:

All sounds made from initialize preset

~30 Instances of Podolski
DAW: FL Studio
DAW FX: Maximus, EQUO, Fruity Parametric EQ 2, Fruity Peak controller, Fruity Reverb 2, Fruity Filter, Fruity Compressor, Fruity Delay, Fruity Stereo Enhancher

https://soundcloud.com/meakaale/meakaal ... e-podolski

mcaitch · Post by **mcaitch** » Tue May 31, 2016 10:38 pm

Here is my entry for this month:

mcaitch - locomotive

https://soundcloud.com/mcaitch/mcaitch-locomotive

Enjoy

Good luck to everyone!!!

----------
OSC#87 Entry: mcaitch - locomotive

DAW: Logic Pro X (10.2.2)

Synth: Podolski, 29 instances

Sounds: Modified and unmodified presets. Kick layer includes “PRC 909 Kick AJ”, thank you AJ for sharing!

Logic Pro X Plugins: 1x Adaptive Limiter, 23x Channel EQ, 2x Chord Trigger, 15x Compressor, 3x Expander, 8x Gain, 5x Stereo Delay, 1x Tremolo

Free 3rd Party Plugins: 5x A1StereoControl, 1x Limiter No6, 1x OTT, 18x Saturation Knob, 11x TAL Reverb III, 7x TAL Reverb 4, 1x TDR VOS SlickEQ

RichardSemper · Post by **RichardSemper** » Tue May 31, 2016 11:31 pm

Hi everyone

My 24th OSC entry is a Late night journey, with a slight detour in the middle. Nice synth, made a lot of patches for it, most of which did not ultimately get used in this track. Oh, and I really like that 'fall/rise' knob in the envelope.

https://soundcloud.com/richard-semper/r ... rive-osc87

No of instances of Podolski - 25
(4x Factory patches: HS Plectronics modified x2, TUC Guitar Picker 2, TUC Heartbeat Seq, TUC Pluck Rhythm ARP modified) All the rest hand rolled from scratch. Patchbank to follow when I've tidied it up.
Crash Cymbals made by playing all notes A5 to C6 on a thin metallic high passed sound.
Strings made by stacking 4 instances of a saw with 3 of them slightly detuned and one down an octave.

DAW - MuLab
DAW Fx Used - 3x EQ, 3x Limiter, Master Channel - HiPass and LoPass filters, EQ, Limiter.
3rd Party Fx:- 1x TAL Reverb 4 (for Snares), U-He Protoverb, Voxengo Span

DR= 11

For anyone interested the Mulab project file is here:-
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aeadqvu037wgt ... s.zip?dl=0

jasinski · Post by **jasinski** » Tue May 31, 2016 11:51 pm

https://soundcloud.com/jasinski/jasinsk ... land-osc87

35+ instances of Podolski
Ableton Live, built in effects, reverb, compressors, limiter, multiband compression, saturation, eq, dynamic tube, redux (lightly used)
Tal Reverb 1,2,3

Lot's of time spent on this one.

One Synth Challenge #87: Podolski by U-he (Jasinski Wins!)