TUNA WEEK

[Sonika]

okay, just posted the first batch of tunes, I know we just had a week off but seriously? 3 tunes? come on guys, let's do better

[nowaysj]

I've got a track for you. Having trouble opening the song file right now. very sad face.

[Hircine]

My under the train rail picture is cooler than yours

Listening to the tracks, will give feedback in a sec.

[Sonika]

My under the train rail picture is cooler than yours

Listening to the tracks, will give feedback in a sec.

ooh retro lol

nowaysj, I'm going to bed in a mo (really jetlagged), so if I don't get yours up today, I'll be on it tomorrow.

[Sonika]

guys I just put up nowaysj's entry, go ahead and pop on over to listen to his!

[lloydy]

nowaysj,care to share any of the techniques you used in your track,that intro the way you got it that it almost sounds like you tuning a radio in.
Care to explain or what plugs you used to get this effect???????????I like it.

[nowaysj]

nowaysj,care to share any of the techniques you used in your track,

Feel like I'm really closing in on how I like to make tracks. Kind of a song within a song. I make a song, or sections of a song, record them, process them, then subject them to abuse, cut it up, pitch it around, saturate, distort, slow it down, speed it up. There are any number of things that I do to get to a point that I'm happy with.

Once the song is kind of broken down again, then I start in with midi and fresh clean audio and press back into the mangled mess. At this stage I use mainly volume and filter automation to create space and even beat structures. Also use a very healthy amount of sidechain compression.

The transitions in this song, and all my songs is and are, totally fucked. I really need to actually work on the transitions. What happened here is that I had major arrangement issues, essentially cut out two main sections that actually were the meat of the track, so the flow is really really fucked up. I like that to an extent, but I seriously need to think more about arrangement and building a progression through the song.

that intro the way you got it that it almost sounds like you tuning a radio in.
Care to explain or what plugs you used to get this effect???????????I like it.

Can't tell you 100% what I did there, because I don't remember. Part of this process is letting go of the past, very hard to do, but I'm getting good at it.

But this track started with an sp404sx sampler and an animoog synth running on an ipad3, so entirely out of the computer. Think I used some sp404sx fx on sections of the beat, maybe some vinyl noise and maybe even cut the beat up a bit with the 404's fx. So, I got a fucked up beat down, then brought it into the computer through a stereo tube preamp and compressor.

In the box, the main thing I did with the audio was abuse Maximus, ImageLine's multiband limiter/saturator. Then I started cutting up the beat, rearranging it, I think I pitched it down an octave at one point. Hehe, durty stuff. So likely what you're hearing in the intro is multiband saturation of abused kick, snare and synths with vinyl noise pushed through some tube gear that is then slowed/pitched down an octave.

There is an automated reverb send (WaveArts' Master Verb) over top of it in sections, as well as some filtering automation for Simplon (FabFilter). There was some hoky bassy type sound that annoyed me, but was printed into the audio, so had to use some profound filtering to pull it out. That's actually one of the advantages of working with audio, if there is something that you don't like, taking it out is going to leave a hole. Holes are good. They can then be filled with other things and you now have complexity and strangeness, or you leave it a hole and you have absence and again, a kind of weirdness.

I don't know man, think that is pretty much it.

[lloydy]

Well that didn't really help me to be honest but still is a quality tune,you have some serious skills mate i was well impressed.

[Sonika]

Is soundcloud not working for anyone else?

[lloydy]

Is soundcloud not working for anyone else?

Working cool for me mate.

[nowaysj]

Well that didn't really help me to be honest

haha, fuck I don't know man, what do you want to know? What do you really want to know?

[lloydy]

Well that didn't really help me to be honest

haha, fuck I don't know man, what do you want to know? What do you really want to know?

Nah i was only playing mate,just really impressed with your sound design.That is most definitely one of my favourite tracks i have seen come out of these weekly tunes.
What i basically got was you really mash you sounds together,so it is one off them things that are more of the cuff than a set technique you use which i have got huge admiration for.I love my tracks that just fit together by me fucking around.Its just a lot more creative.

[nowaysj]

Yeah man, I'm really not mix hygienic. The challenge is to restore some clarity to the mess. I do that with automation and sidechain compression mostly. I've got a lot of time in this song actually, I know it doesn't sound like it, but there is a lot there, and there probably needs to be 10x more if it were to be a "real" track.

I do take a new path each track, but I'm also really honing in on tools that I like to use, as well as processes I like to employ. But that kind of thing is really individualized, everyone needs to find their own process. After years and years, I'm just starting to take my first baby steps. Really embarrassing that it has taken me so long to get anywhere... but whatevers, is what it is.

[lloydy]

After years and years, I'm just starting to take my first baby steps. Really embarrassing that it has taken me so long to get anywhere... but whatevers, is what it is.

Mate i've been doing it 10 years and only in the last 13 months started finishing tracks.

[nowaysj]

Mate i've been doing it 10 years and only in the last 13 months started finishing tracks.

I've got 20 years and am still not finishing tracks!

[lloydy]

Mate i've been doing it 10 years and only in the last 13 months started finishing tracks.

I've got 20 years and am still not finishing tracks!

I'd give up
It is no matter what an artform which is pretty damn hard to grasp.If you notice in how many interviews do the "pros"(i fcking hate that term)say about when they finished uni.
That flux pavilion one the other day he said he had been uni,also the dodge and fuski tuts on the tube they talk about going to uni,reso,ctrl z,rusko fcking hell can't think of no others but they all mention in interviews and vids that they went and studied some form of music tech or got brought up playing some form of instrument.
Teaching yourself is no easy thing to achieve,also staying motivated when all you make is 16 bar loops and have no idea how to progress it or your synth skills are a bit poo and thats all before mixdowns and blahblahblah fcking hell i'm waffling.
But yeah mate i still want you round mine to show me how you made that track

I got my dog put down yesterday,was pretty damn traumatic for me and the fam and its been real therapeutic chatting shit to you boys,its taken my mind rite off the fact.If you notice i think i've posted about 50 times today to try and stop myself from welling up So cheers lads i love this forum.

[nowaysj]

One thing I remembered about Those really staticy sounds that I've got throughout the track, it's all that external audio, but with multiband saturation OVER multiband upwards compression... I really raised the noise floor of the iPad into the 404sx, into tube gear, then I saturated the crap out of it.

Just rediscovered Maximus, pretty awesome, you can design your own compression curves, so can really easily do upwards compression, and other really odd things And it is multiband so you can really Fuchs your highs and keep your lows clean and solid, etc.

[lloydy]

What tube gear you using?

[nowaysj]

Re your dog, two of the most important people in my life have been dogs, I know where your coming from.

[lloydy]

Maximus is pc only,good damn sometimes i hate being mac bound it is almost like being grounded.