Music production : why noobs are noobs ?

[thecontrolcentre]

Always liked this hit - not sure about the kick but I think this a Vengeance snare.

Yeah. Everyone used Vengeance samples in the 80s.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'm sure there's a great parody thread lurking in there, somewhere. If only I could think of a word that rhymes with "boobs"

Toobs!

They mk my trakcz snd moar analogly, worm and fussy. Pro tip!

Analogly...Worm??

Had to go back and fix my post. Was so fixated on boobs (Ain't that just life?), that I screwed up my own joke

[AnX]

Always liked this hit - not sure about the kick but I think this a Vengeance snare.

Yeah. Everyone used Vengeance samples in the 80s.

its actually from 79, but i think he may have been joking

[jancivil]

So again, it makes me believe that the reason why noobs tracks sounds bad is because of a lack of musicality and logical ideas.

Even if someone has no knowledge at all in production, he could get "decent" results (in terms of sounds) just by finding the right samples.

These two sentences don't really agree.

"the right samples" for what?
And then there is something which may sound swell in and of itself which doesn't blend with something else in a mix.

But we see this all the time here, 'this synth sounds better "in a mix"'. What mix? What music?

These are not workable notions. You may find that what you've done mixing, say drums which suits the mix as a whole, because of several or many factors, now you've soloed it for some reason and find out it is kind of rank.
So you could build the project from drums, which sound great. Then other things follow this decision. The notion that there is this wonderful "sample" which in and of itself has to work is problematic.

Music always works contextually. We can fall so in love with a riff or lick, or what-have-you that it takes away from the whole, nothing else you have suits it now, and you have to be ready to lose it. And so on and so forth.

"decent results just by finding the right samples" is not very good logically. And there is no inherent "musicality" there, necessarily.

[vurt]

So again, it makes me believe that the reason why noobs tracks sounds bad is because of a lack of musicality and logical ideas.

so what?
theyre "noobs" as you put it.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with being new to something. everyone starts somewhere.
yes, its different today than when i started out, not everybody had the ability to record and share anything, so yes, these days we do get to hear "more" of those peoples works.
but for the most part, theyre often asking "where did i go wrong?" "how can i improve this?", which as people who have been there and "done" it, many of us are willing to share and help where we can.

putting people down at the start of a journey, is no way to encourage them.

[Bombadil]

Not even my wife will get to hear the earliest surviving tape of my best friend and I, recorded January 6, 1975. I can't even listen to it.

And I agree 100% with Vurt.

[Frantz]

Back in the day, the Beatles, the Stones, and the Kinks all used the same Abbey Road Vengeance Producer Pack. And those primitive DOS DAWs could only play one kick sample at a time. These spoiled kids today have no idea.

[jancivil]

Yeah well, there's literally new to it all and there's perpetual noobs. My whole interest in saying some shit is my usual, if you never did music for real, your expectations of being able to complete a track we should care about, like at all, should be pretty much at the bottom. But no.

I was reflecting on my starting with a modern-day DAW and how overwhelmed I was, and how long it took to get going, particularly in digital mixing.
And I'd been a musician familiar with recording studios for... 30 yrs.

[vurt]

Yeah well, there's literally new to it all and there's perpetual noobs. My whole interest in saying some shit is my usual, if you never did music for real, your expectations of being able to complete a track we should care about, like at all, should be pretty much at the bottom. But no.

i did try to highlight i was talking about people looking to improve, however they choose to.

of course, the "i bin a producah for weeks man, this beatz is gonna rock your world!" we get those also.

tbh, im not even sure what the op is arguing? its like he has a bee in his bonnet about noobs, but im not sure of the actual reason.
is he being imprisoned by the cia and forced to listen to the work of noobs till he cracks?
is he a noob and hates himself because of it?
or is he in love with a noob who doesn't feel the same way and is lashing out?

[thecontrolcentre]

Always liked this hit - not sure about the kick but I think this a Vengeance snare.

Yeah. Everyone used Vengeance samples in the 80s.

its actually from 79, but i think he may have been joking

Me too ...

[jancivil]

its like he has a bee in his bonnet about noobs,

It doesn't pay to care very much about what other people say to do. It's ironic the OP posted something here around the same time as this (where do the claps happen), which can't have been dealt with mix-wise _much_ more poorly but cares enough about people who overbake everything and the sort of internet/Youtube arguments people follow which lead to that very result to be irritated.

[original flipper]

Hi

one of the areas that people often talk/ask about is mastering - this is especially true for those starting out.
You could write a book on this and I am pretty sure there are a few!
My first experience of mastering (or seeing it take place) was back in the late 70's - I used to hang out at a 'dub cutting studio' that a lot of the Reggae boys used to go with their tapes to cut an acetate - for those who do not know what an acetate is: it is basically an aluminium (?) disc coated in plastic that is literally 'cut into' by a mechanism which transfers said music onto the disc.
Typically you would call this a 'master' and send it to the record pressing plant from which they would then produce a press to produce plastic copies (vinyl) ... or something like that!
The engineer (Terry Newman) would generally use a basic set-up of a relatively basic (M&M?) mixer to rejig the EQ of the tape he was about to 'cut' - invariably he would apply cut to the bass (too much bass at this stage requires larger more open grooves to be cut in the acetate) he would also perhaps make some slight adjustments to the mid/hi frequencies and that was that!
No compressors, hi end EQ, NR or anything of the kind.
Many of the masters were destined for record pressing - many were also used as records for sound systems (reggae version of a DJ/disco set up) who had no other way of playing the music than via a turntable.
Admittedly all the tapes brought to my friends studio would have been mixed at (predominantly) JA recording studios, but to be fair they were not exactly mixing for the connoisseur record collector and at least in the 70's most JA studios would not have been using much outboard beyond effects (delay, reverb...)- compression may have been available here and there .
So, what is my point?
If your starting out do not get your underwear in a twist over mastering, don't go and break the bank on goodness knows how many different app's which claim to put your mix right.
What to do?
IMO balance your tracks at the mixing stage (this is not brain surgery - this generally means you bring the tracks up in level until they gel together, some tracks may be more prominent than others depending on what you want - some tracks may be almost 'ghost' like - (hardly discernible to the ear), be aware of any noticeable peaks in the frequency range - use an EQ/analyser on the master out and use your eyes and ears - any major discrepancy might best be solved by (for example) lowering the bass synth track because your EQ/analyser is clearly showing your bottom end 'clipping' - perhaps it might also be the bass drum track or something else.
And so it goes on - you could ignore the above and just whack a limiter/compressor on the master buss or make wholesale EQ cuts to the whole mix...
My experience tells me that this stuff can be relatively simple, but can get complex, especially if you 'gear-up', because you will want to use all your tools.

[thecontrolcentre]

Great post.

[AnX]

i think these days, everybody tries to do too many jobs

when i first went into studios, the band played, everyone else had a diff job.

recording engineer
mixing engineer
producer etc etc

and then the mastering house

not all of this even happened in the same city sometimes

of course, now you can have more control over what you do and sound like, but if you don't know what you're doing....

[Bombadil]

"Want to use all your tools." Another noob mistake, one that I fell into more than once.