KVR Audio

alphuris · Post by **alphuris** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:54 pm

Irion's got the right idea. When I had the snare as a single instance centered on a track it lacked depth/width, so I duplicated the track, panned one completely to the right and one completely to the left. I had tried panning a single instance with an LFO but it didn't have the same feel.

re: mastering/DB, I'm not quite certain. I'm not a good mastering person at all. This was actually my first true effort at mastering. I set LoudMax to -3.0 DB if that's what you're referring to. Some of my tracks went to +1-2 before mastering due to compression and effects, but nothing actually clipped and if I pulled all tracks below 0.0 it was too quiet.

IrionDaRonin · Post by **IrionDaRonin** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:08 pm

alphuris wrote:Irion's got the right idea. When I had the snare as a single instance centered on a track it lacked depth/width, so I duplicated the track, panned one completely to the right and one completely to the left. I had tried panning a single instance with an LFO but it didn't have the same feel.

Hi alphuris, besides of use your own technique, you could use this too.

I encourage you to use:
-Compressor, for giving powerful and slappy substance.
-EQ, for giving to it more body and presence.
-Stereo tool, for giving it more width and expand the stereo.

All free.

Compressor = Roughrider, is nice with mid and high frecuencies, it gives extra high frecuencies to the sound. So the snare sounds slappy and with presence. Maybe a bit extreme or "rough".

EQ = Any parametric one works, i will use EasyQ from now. Mid frecuencies for more body, and high frecuencies for making it clear.
EDIT: Also here goes a post where someone was using some free parametric EQs and comparing all of them.
Free Parametric EQs comparison post
Pretty interesting.

Stereo Tool = You can see it in any host generally, but there is a couple of free external stereo effects which goes good. One of them i called Flux Stereo Tool and the other is UpStereo.

Anyway, you are free to use your own technique, of course, it was just a tip.

Have a good day

bzur · Post by **bzur** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:17 pm

alphuris wrote:Irion's got the right idea. When I had the snare as a single instance centered on a track it lacked depth/width, so I duplicated the track, panned one completely to the right and one completely to the left. I had tried panning a single instance with an LFO but it didn't have the same feel.

I usually adopt a similiar procedure in order to deepen the lead synth, and to give it more character.
I double the track, but in a asymmetric fashion, i.e., if you have the main lead in the center, I move the pan a little to the right, then I transpose the duplicate by 7 semitones up (could be 12, or what you want), and lower it by some dBs (it generates a subtle "harmonic effect"), and move it in the left.

I'm just doubtful about the effectiveness of duplicating and using an extreme panning: this could bring to the so called "big mono" effect, which doesn't deepen the snare, as far as I know.

alphuris · Post by **alphuris** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:01 pm

bzur wrote:I'm just doubtful about the effectiveness of duplicating and using an extreme panning: this could bring to the so called "big mono" effect, which doesn't deepen the snare, as far as I know.

Very possible. I believe I may have unsynced the delays on them which would account for the widening that I heard.

JoeCat · Post by **JoeCat** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:15 pm

IrionDaRonin wrote:How many dB headroom space do you usually let before mastering your tracks?

I mix to around -3, but sometimes a little less if I'm sweetening the master with a little tape saturation, etc.

Still not quite sure of the correct final output post-limiter - I've read -.1, -.15, 0, etc. - seems to really depend on if you are mastering for CD, mp3, etc.

gorgorgathgorgorgor · Post by **gorgorgathgorgorgor** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:55 pm

IrionDaRonin wrote: I have a question for all of you.
How many dB headroom space do you usually let before mastering your tracks?

I have to say that I never actually "master" for the OSC, because It's always just one song, and I don't think of "mastering" until I'm putting together an "album" or an "ep" i.e. a group of songs that will play together. For me mastering starts with ordering the songs, then matching overall levels between songs (so no one song sounds quiet next to the others), and finally setting "Tops and Tails" i.e. fades and the space between songs. This means I generally leave my processing on the main to be pretty minimal. I use ferric as my limiter, and that's about it. I just use my ear to determine if I'm hitting ferric too hard, and if I am, I just back down my kik and re-balance the whole thing. my two cents!

bzur · Post by **bzur** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:26 pm

gorgorgathgorgorgor wrote: I have to say that I never actually "master" for the OSC, because It's always just one song, and I don't think of "mastering" until I'm putting together an "album" or an "ep" i.e. a group of songs that will play together.

I totally agree with you: maybe we could call it "finalizing".

alphuris wrote: Very possible. I believe I may have unsynced the delays on them which would account for the widening that I heard.

Maybe "unsynced delays" is the key, or any element that brings a sort of asimmetry.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:31 pm

Really enjoy the tips coming in, thx for sharing.

About mastering, it's not necessarily connected to a series of songs as legend Bob Katz has in his book "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science" already written about the coming death of the CD and emergence of downloads etc, which means he wouldn't raise any eyebrows if someone came to him asking to master a track for iTunes etc.

petedako · Post by **petedako** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:48 pm

HEY HELLO everybody... i have been working on my OSC zebralette track!
mister bill showed up today and loved my "Earth Needs More Cowbell" track so much that he recited his poem
There's a (HOLE in the MOON) on top of it:

http://soundcloud.com/misterpete/theres ... n-the-moon

i hope you like it too!!!

i have used a few of the presets from SM and tas of course, one from Dennis Bronto Scorpio too i think -- i hope there are enough drums for you guys, since you seem to love them so much - ihave featured irion man's percussive oddity on Space COWBELL and a kick... there's also a Urs "UH" vocal sound for a kick and URs snare from this thread and some of my own variations on that snare. I also made a bunch of variations on some of the presets esp. love howards musical saw which everybody seems to enjoy too. I came up with the 'Holy Modal Majesty' like plastic keyboard sound here and the Keithy (emerson) Lead with double octave portamento slide etc... oh and my pulsating LFO zap zap sound and some other goodies.. so if any of you would like to try out my Zebralette patches tell me what's the best way to share - i don't want to use my limited free space on soundcloud for uploading patches but maybe there is somewhere on KVR?

':hihi:'

Stonail · Post by **Stonail** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:06 am

Hey all
Nice tracks

)
but the last one petedako-HOLE in the MOON,
I never heard a human voice in the history of KVR OSC .
Is this a new rule or ...?

Stonail · Post by **Stonail** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:08 am

alphuris wrote:Irion's got the right idea. When I had the snare as a single instance centered on a track it lacked depth/width, so I duplicated the track, panned one completely to the right and one completely to the left. I had tried panning a single instance with an LFO but it didn't have the same feel.

for stereo imaging :
this is the way i use to do in Ableton of course many of hosts can do the same.

step 1----->insert 1 midi channel for the synth(zebralette) and 2 audio channels for imaging

step 2----->pan the first audio ch to left and the second to right
and set both monitor (default auto)to In

step 3----->in the input section of both audio channels (default Ext. in)select your midi channel .this helps you to route audio signal from midi to both audio channels avoid duplicating whole contents of the midi track.

*----->make sure that the track delays option is on and visible

step 4----->in track delays section of two audios(default 0.0 ms)change ms to sample for better accuracy because 1000 ms = 44100 sample depend on your sound driver setting ,mine is 48000 .the safest range for imaging is between -300 to 300 sample.so set first audio track delay -30 and second audio track to 100 .

look at your stereo analyzer ,change the delays and see what happens .

tip---->if you don't want to hear the original midi ,set the midi channel output (default master)to send only.
also audio channels can receive post mixer or pre mixer this helps when you want to send dry sound to one track and wet to another.

*(at the right of the main mixer volume there are some buttons track delays is marked with capital D tern it on)

alphuris · Post by **alphuris** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 1:49 pm

Stonail, thanks for the tip. I'll definitely try this. I really only get a small amount of time to try and learn ableton along with the synths (two kids, wife, job and school) so all help and tips are appreciated.

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:59 pm

petedako, what patch did you use for the voice? Pretty advanced synthesis,

On serious note, I think that wasn't a patch, and must be a sample, here is the rule for 'voice' samples: "No external samples or live sounds like voice, guitar etc allowed."

https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/rules

gorgorgathgorgorgor · Post by **gorgorgathgorgorgor** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:32 pm

petedako wrote:HEY HELLO everybody... i have been working on my OSC zebralette track!
mister bill showed up today and loved my "Earth Needs More Cowbell" track so much that he recited his poem
There's a (HOLE in the MOON) on top of it:

http://soundcloud.com/misterpete/theres ... n-the-moon

i hope you like it too!!!

i have used a few of the presets from SM and tas of course, one from Dennis Bronto Scorpio too i think -- i hope there are enough drums for you guys, since you seem to love them so much - ihave featured irion man's percussive oddity on Space COWBELL and a kick... there's also a Urs "UH" vocal sound for a kick and URs snare from this thread and some of my own variations on that snare. I also made a bunch of variations on some of the presets esp. love howards musical saw which everybody seems to enjoy too. I came up with the 'Holy Modal Majesty' like plastic keyboard sound here and the Keithy (emerson) Lead with double octave portamento slide etc... oh and my pulsating LFO zap zap sound and some other goodies.. so if any of you would like to try out my Zebralette patches tell me what's the best way to share - i don't want to use my limited free space on soundcloud for uploading patches but maybe there is somewhere on KVR?

':hihi:'

I'm afraid vocals are not allowed, only Zebralette! Please re-submit a mix without the vocals, also you have not included some important information in your submission, like the host you used, the number of instances, and any effects used. You may want to re-read the rules here http://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/rules to be sure you have not missed anything else. good luck!

JoeCat · Post by **JoeCat** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:31 pm

This has probably been asked (and I can't find it 'cause I'm getting old)...

Can we load external waveforms in Zebralette? Seems like a gray area between samples and not-samples. Of course, one could always view the waveform and hand-draw it...

One-Synth-Challenge 32: Zebralette - Submissions and gossip