My Questions about making music

[Heavenly Sounds]

I am actually thinking of subscribing to the PA Mega bundle. Seems to have some good plugins and after a year you get a 249 dollar voucher to buy the plugins you like and want to keep forever. Seems like a good deal to me...
I already made an account and got some plugins for free and used one to enhance my kick. Worked very nice and worked also good on bass and it was a free plugin...
The problem is that it has so many plugins, I do not know where to look first. Will think about this. The plugin you suggested is also in the bundle. Maybe its better to subscribe to the bundle and after a year when I get the voucher buy that and other plugins I like when its a sale?

[imrae]

The problem with the mega bundle is that you can get a lot of good stuff from PA for $250 by buying things one at a time when they are heavily discounted. It's difficult to spend a $250 voucher all at once and get the same value. My favourites have been bx_opto, XLA-3, nvelope, fault, dent, E765, ADA Flanger and I don't think I spent more than $30 on any of them.

The other problem is that as you say there are a lot of plugins. A lot of these are hardware emulations that are useful for people familiar with the original hardware, or looking to recreate a particular workflow. There's no point in using 6 different channel strips; it would make more sense to demo them all and pick one. That can still be a mistake; I have purchased several channel strip plugins but still tend to use separate EQ and compression.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'd advise agains throwing any more money at this problem, as everything you need at this stage is in your DAW, and available freebies.

The only thing I might recommend would be to get Izotope Ozone Elements (and possibly Neutron Elements). These both have assistants that will analyse your music, and suggest/make adjustments to improve your mix (Neutron, for the channels/tracks, and Ozone for the Master). They are both good eq.comp tools, that you could use to learn what you're doing, And if you can't really work out what's going on, at least the assistants will improve the sound of your projects, with little more than a couple of clicks

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -in-bundle

[Mushy Mushy]

I'd advise agains throwing any more money at this problem, as everything you need at this stage is in your DAW, and available freebies.

The only thing I might recommend would be to get Izotope Ozone Elements (and possibly Neutron Elements). These both have assistants that will analyse your music, and suggest/make adjustments to improve your mix (Neutron, for the channels/tracks, and Ozone for the Master). They are both good eq.comp tools, that you could use to learn what you're doing, And if you can't really work out what's going on, at least the assistants will improve the sound of your projects, with little more than a couple of clicks

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -in-bundle

This. The last thing you need are more tools, you have everything you need. At the end of the day a compressor is a compressor, an EQ is an EQ*


*Yes, I know colour and all that

[Heavenly Sounds]

I'd advise agains throwing any more money at this problem, as everything you need at this stage is in your DAW, and available freebies.

The only thing I might recommend would be to get Izotope Ozone Elements (and possibly Neutron Elements). These both have assistants that will analyse your music, and suggest/make adjustments to improve your mix (Neutron, for the channels/tracks, and Ozone for the Master). They are both good eq.comp tools, that you could use to learn what you're doing, And if you can't really work out what's going on, at least the assistants will improve the sound of your projects, with little more than a couple of clicks

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -in-bundle

Do I have both programs in the bundle link you shared? I used it before as a demo, was not so happy about the virtual assistant. But I could try to learn it on my own.

Another question I have is: I always see people when they use this kind of plugins, that have converted their midi files to audio files. There probably is a reason for this: does it make the mastering easier or why do they do that?

[jethrobull]

I'd advise agains throwing any more money at this problem, as everything you need at this stage is in your DAW, and available freebies.

The only thing I might recommend would be to get Izotope Ozone Elements (and possibly Neutron Elements). These both have assistants that will analyse your music, and suggest/make adjustments to improve your mix (Neutron, for the channels/tracks, and Ozone for the Master). They are both good eq.comp tools, that you could use to learn what you're doing, And if you can't really work out what's going on, at least the assistants will improve the sound of your projects, with little more than a couple of clicks

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -in-bundle

This. The last thing you need are more tools, you have everything you need. At the end of the day a compressor is a compressor, an EQ is an EQ*


*Yes, I know colour and all that

Think I will +1 this till it sinks

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'd advise agains throwing any more money at this problem, as everything you need at this stage is in your DAW, and available freebies.

The only thing I might recommend would be to get Izotope Ozone Elements (and possibly Neutron Elements). These both have assistants that will analyse your music, and suggest/make adjustments to improve your mix (Neutron, for the channels/tracks, and Ozone for the Master). They are both good eq.comp tools, that you could use to learn what you're doing, And if you can't really work out what's going on, at least the assistants will improve the sound of your projects, with little more than a couple of clicks

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -in-bundle

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Do I have both programs in the bundle link you shared? I used it before as a demo, was not so happy about the virtual assistant. But I could try to learn it on my own.

Yes, they do both come in that bundle. However, to clarify: The ONLY reason I am recommending those two plugins are for the assistants. If you aren't going to use them then, like I said, you already have everything you need, in your DAW.

Another question I have is: I always see people when they use this kind of plugins, that have converted their midi files to audio files. There probably is a reason for this: does it make the mastering easier or why do they do that?

Some people like to separate the two processes of mixing and mastering, similarly to how you'd do it if sending off your mix to be mastered. So, once you have the mix ready, you can bounce the track down to a stereo mix, and deal with mastering as a different process, and in a different head-space.

The advantage with doing things like this is that it removes the temptation to keep fiddling with elements of the arrangement, mix etc. The big disadvantage is it removes the ability to go back and tweak the arrangement, mix etc. And certainly if you are not very good at mixing, you're better off leaving the project open to adjustment, and not turd-polishing a master.

There are benefits to bouncing each track to audio e.g. If you are finding that the project is suffering under too much CPU/Memory consumption. However, again, you make it much more difficult to go back and edit the midi if something needs changing.

[Heavenly Sounds]

Okay thank you, I bought it. Will check it out and use the assistant as starting point to learn from

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Okay thank you, I bought it. Will check it out and use the assistant as starting point to learn from

I have both Neutron and Ozone Elements packages, but find that Neutron is a bit too cpu-heavy for my old laptop; at least, to use more than a couple of instances. If you find that to be the case, use track-freezing and bouncing tracks to relieve the pressure.

Also! Try to use the assistants as a test of how close you get to what the algorithm might eventually suggest. For instance, once you have a mix how you like it, run it through Ozone's assistant. If the suggestions it offers end up with large amounts of frequencies to be cut, or huge amounts of compression to keep things in check, then don't allow it to make changes. Go back to the mix to try to correct the areas that it wanted to correct for you.

[Heavenly Sounds]

Thank you

[BertKoor]

> When I bypass to hear how it sounds without it, it sounds as good as the same...

Some possibilities:

1) you are not able to hear any difference, because your equipment is not sufficient (eg no bass)
2) you are not able to recognise difference, because you don't know what to listen for
3) your mix is not as bad as you thought! (in terms of spectral balance)

[Heavenly Sounds]

Sometimes it seems to sound worse. But I am gonna invest a bit more time in it later. I think its best I try to take a break now for a few weeks because things do not sound that good to me anymore and I lost the will to care a bit. I had that before too, a few days/weeks of break should do the trick.

And yes, I do hear changes on some instruments, like the kick I heared a change and for some other instruments like a lead I heared a very minimal change. Other then that it just sounded the same to me.

Its also a reason why I did not like the virtual assistant. I had demo's of the program in the past and I did not really hear a lot of improvement, many times things even seemed to sound worse...

I only used the assistant now on each track, next I will use what is suggested as a starting point and play with the plugin a bit on each track to try and change the sound, and see what it does. But not now I think. Maybe later, maybe in a few days, maybe in a few weeks.

[Heavenly Sounds]

Yeah break my ass, I guess I am trying it again now already. But instead of the assistant I used the presets now for each track. Seem to hear more difference in that then in the assistant. Will play around with that a bit and see how it sounds.

[BertKoor]

Did you ever have an MP3 player with EQ presets named Pop, Jazz, Rock, etc? You know which EQ preset always sounded best? It was "None". Unless either the song already sounded crap, or your earbuds were crap.

The same with mastering. On a good track not much needs to be done, and presets never will let the hammer fall where at that instance the nail is.

Like was said already: time spent on mastering for a musician is time lost. There are far more important things to do.

Also money spent on tools is lost, went down the drain, cannot be spent on more important things. All you need is already in your DAW or you can get it for free elsewhere. Working within such limits will stimulate your learning and creativity. You can make killer songs with only 16 tracks, but it does take some creativity.

[Heavenly Sounds]

Yeah I had a bit enough of this to be honest. First I get adviced to EQ it, then I do that and I get adviced to drop the mastering. I drop the mastering and I get adviced to download a mastering and mixing program. I do that and then I get adviced again to drop it.
Yeah maybe you all should try to get along before giving advice because you all are playing me like a jojo.

I am gonna do what I want now okay? At least that is less confusing. It might not be good to some of you but at least I can make my mind up about what I need to do. I am sorry, this post will get thumbs down again like always when I speak my mind but come one. Master it, drop the mastering, master it, drop the mastering. And then you all want me to listen to your advice but as soon as I do I get adviced to do the opposite. And that goes on in infinity.

I am gonna do what I want now. Less confusing for me. Okay, my songs will not sound that good to some of you probably but why should I still care? You all can not make up your mind about what I need to do and that is very confusing and frustrating because that means I can never do good to you all.

I tried this listening thing now for a bit and all it does is confuse me. I will ask questions but in the end I will do what I want. And I want to try this program now, I bought it and I want to try it out. And thats what I am gonna do. And if you all want me to follow your guidelines maybe you all should first come to a touching point about what it is you want and then tell me what it is. But not like this.