KVR Audio

rghvdberg · Post by **rghvdberg** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:25 am

Good tip! Will do.

Laxplanet · Post by **Laxplanet** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:42 am

So, finished my track hope it sounds ok, went back to the mix and master several times
Here it is
https://soundcloud.com/laxplanet/helmut-and-yo-yo

Helm is a cool little synth, I would nice to see it worked on some more. even simple things like being better able to fine tune controls or type in values would be nice.
Ableton crashed several times on opening and I did have to roll back to an old version at one stage because it would not open at all.
Other than that I had no real issues

Laxp

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 2:18 pm

eraze the borders wrote:I have a question on mixing / mastering. ... how to boost the loudness and presence. When i'm mixing in my DAW it seems alright to me. But as soon as i bounce and upload the song to Soundclout it seems to lose a lot of loudness and presence.

So the obvious thing is that MP3 compression is going to take out most of the high end above, say 13-16khz. So if you were to put a LPF on your master around there, you could tell more closely what it will sound like when listening on soundcloud. You can boost a bit of the high frequency ranges from 5khz-10khz a bit to compensate for it sometimes, but often it comes down to a bit of experimentation to see what sounds best for a particular track. As Taron mentioned, also... when you push it through the limiter, things start to change in sometimes unexpected ways. You could have a great mix before, but then certain parts start overtaking the mix when the limiter and multiband compression comes into play. So you may have to go back and fix the mix some more or adjust eq on the master to account for it... but adjusting eq on the master should be reserved for overall tonality, when you have a good sounding mix and then you A/B it with a pro track, for example, to get the overall high/mid/low balance consistent with a target sound. There are entire books dedicated to this stuff, it's easy to go on and on

liqih · Post by **liqih** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 2:29 pm

Fatigue and stress with this synth. As many of you already know,
as I see by the comments. Anyway I'm happy I was able to do something.

About my entry I quote what I friend of mine said about it after listening:
"like an arcade machine having become self-aware and went mad!"

https://soundcloud.com/liqih/chic-chap-farts-to-the-sky

title : Chic Chap farts to the sky

DAW : Ableton Live 9 with 9 synth instances

Ableton FX:
EQ Three
EQ Eight
Auto Filter
Gate
Utility
Limiter

Non Ableton FX:
Tube Gain Booster

Too many automation lines,
up to 9 per MIDI track!

doctorbob · Post by **doctorbob** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 2:56 pm

z.prime wrote: ... You could have a great mix before, but then certain parts start overtaking the mix when the limiter and multiband compression comes into play.

Yeah, I know all too well how multiband compression can play havoc with your once nicely rounded mix!! Be careful with these - but they are really useful things, just listen to the overall mix balance as it comes into play.

... So you may have to go back and fix the mix some more or adjust eq on the master to account for it... but adjusting eq on the master should be reserved for overall tonality ...

+1 here Z', I only use the EQ on the master for overall tonality - if something stands out as wrong in the mix, then you should go back to the mixing stage with the master chain OFF ... I always like to think of the master chain as a separate process in the mixing regime. That said, some people mix into their favourite master chain directly, others frown on this ... there's probably no right way - but I do know it takes time, patience, a good ear, and lots of help from knowledgeable people. I once had a comment that the track "was an overcompressed noise" - it was right and I started to think a lot more about how I was doing things.

The main thing I do at mix phase now is to try to allocate frequency space to the various instruments/sounds I am using. More by cutting other bands rather than boosting the one in question. This interactive chart is quite useful for me - your mileage may vary of course, but it does give useful clues/guidance on how to work with specific sounds.

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn ... isplay.htm

dB

eraze the borders · Post by **eraze the borders** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 3:31 pm

Taron wrote:Well, when you use a limiter on your master, you should make sure that you have a proper balance across the frequency spectrum, because it will not distinguish between what creates the peak, but once the peak is reached it will only boost everything in proportion.

Thanks Taron. That's a good tip. I am also not going for loudness mainly but i really want to improve my mixing. I will keep a better eye on frequencies and balance for future songs.

z.prime wrote:So the obvious thing is that MP3 compression is going to take out most of the high end above, say 13-16khz. So if you were to put a LPF on your master around there, you could tell more closely what it will sound like when listening on soundcloud.

Thanks Z. Also very helpful. I will try that out in the future.

Meakaale · Post by **Meakaale** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:05 pm

Here's mine!

Track specs:

All sounds made from default preset

~25 Instances of Helm
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, Fruity effector(only "STEREO")
EXT FREE FX: A1 Stereo Control

https://soundcloud.com/meakaale/meakaal ... -happyland

BlitBit · Post by **BlitBit** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:19 pm

Found the time to create something for this month's OSC as well:
https://soundcloud.com/blitbit/strolling-through-caves

I tried to go for a Synthwave vibe but some elements of game music creeped in as well.

Title: Strolling Through Caves (Put Your Helmet On)
BPM: 86

DAW: Reaper v5.23
22 Tracks / Folders

Instrument: Helm (15 instances)

Effects:

1 x TDR Nova
1 x Limiter No6
4 x Softube Saturation Knob
5 x TDR Kotelnikov
7 x ReaEQ
1 x ReaVerbate
1 x ReaComp
1 x ReaDelay
2 x TAL Reverb 4
1 x PTEq-X

For me Helm crashed quite often when opening the project but once it was opened it behaved (at least as far as I can remember).

ssj71 · Post by **ssj71** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 8:36 pm

Thanks all for making my first OSC a pleasure! I've long thought about doing one so when rghvdberg offered to do a team entry, I had no reason not to! Its great to have one with full linux support.

So here's our entry:
https://soundcloud.com/ssj71/ssj71-rghv ... -of-dreams

Plugins used:
21 Helms
1 Calf comps
7 Calf eqs
2 Calf Haas Stereo Effects
1 Calf Multiband comps
1 Calf Limiters
7 CS10QSs
6 EQ 10Qs
2 Ping Pong Pans
2 X42 4-band EQs
3 A-compressors
2 Tal-Filter 2s

and if you want to play with it yourself, our entire Ardour project (with the patches as presets in a zip) is all on github for anyone to freely remix at
http://www.github.com/ssj71/OSC90

version782 · Post by **version782** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:09 pm

https://soundcloud.com/user-766823111/version782-83116

using REAPER

8x Helm
2x ReaEQ
1x Tal Reverb II

jasinski · Post by **jasinski** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:25 pm

https://soundcloud.com/jasinski/falling_down

"I feel like I'm falling down... When ever you go."

+45 instances instances of Helm in Live 9. Using Ableton EQ8, Reverb, Delay, Compressor, Saturator, Limiter. Third party free plugs, Rough Rider, OTT, Luftikus, Nova-67P, LoudMax.

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:31 pm

ssj71 wrote:... our entire Ardour project (with the patches as presets in a zip) is all on github for anyone to freely remix ...

As long as you're using Linux, darn Calf plugins.

zarf · Post by **zarf** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:35 pm

Hi everyone

Early in the month I wrote quite a nice track with chords, melodies, structure and some percussion sounds I liked a lot. But...
...this is not that track

...I've had no time to mix that, and it is beyond my mixing skills anyway to be honest (as usual! )

Instead, here's something I've pulled together tonight around some sounds that came from messing around with Helm's cool modulation possibilities. Somehow I don't think this will be my first winning entry, but I didn't want to miss a month. Enjoy the madness

https://soundcloud.com/zarf/zarf-helm-o ... ark-rabbit

9 Helms. Ableton EQs, Compressors, Delays, Reverbs.
Ferric TDS.

davetbass · Post by **davetbass** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:23 am

Hi,

7 instance of Helm in Reaper, Helm effects only, W2 limiter

Cheers!

https://soundcloud.com/davetbass/davetbasskvrosc90

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 2:06 am

Yo, after many tries of throwing in the towel, I finally came up with something, too.

https://soundcloud.com/z_prime/zprime-go

Here are the details:

Bitwig, Helm * 69

Bitwig FX:
EQ-5
Delay-2
Peak Limiter
Transient Control
Reverb
Compressor
Dynamics
Tool
Blur
Distortion
Multiband-FX 2

Other FX:
OTT
TDR Nova
Freeverb 3
Limiter 6

Enjoy!

One Synth Challenge #90: Helm by Matt Tytel (Jasinski Wins!)