I think I'm retarded.

[Sharmaji]

1. I put a high-shelf on the EQ to only boost everything about 18khz on all drums.
2. I low-shelf the mids and highs on kick-drums and basses, by 2 db or even 4 db.
3. I was once told that I shouldn't boost things in the EQ, only cut everything down around it.

Easiest solution? don't use EQ. seriously. get your ideas down first, then eq them to fit. EQ'ing while writing, beyond simple hi/lo cuts and boosts, is a waste of time. You've got more important things to do while writing.

5. I have an extreme obsession with my kick drums being super short, minimal, almost like a small click, and hit loudly around -6db.

not a bad obsession. Not a particularly amazing one though, either. challenge yourself, write a tune with a really wooly kick sample and go from there.

6. I can never use reverb or delay effects properly or even understand how to use them without them sounding so shitty. So I never use them - resulting in a dry track with no pads or any ambiance.
7. I don't know how to side-chain or compress things. So I almost NEVER do that. Resulting in mucky/muddy sounding tracks that could sound so much cleaner and better on the drums.

don't use reverb or delay, then, until you can understand and hear them. practice, practice practice. same w/ compression-- if you can't hear it and don't understand it, don't waste time on it. practice compression outside of writing music.

best bit of reverb advice i've ever heard is from Tony Maserati, an amazing mix engineer. basically, you should be able to "see" the space you're creating with reverb. you should be able to imagine that the sound is in a small room, or in a huge concert hall, or on a mountaintop, or underwater, etc.

if you want drumsounds with reverb, just use samples that already have reverb.

9. I don't have a job now. (I can't afford fancy fucking plugins and shit everyone uses. Like those fancy equalizers and blah blah shit. )

no one needs fancy plugs to write or mix music; in almost any daw, the stock stuff is far more than acceptable these days. I use plenty of fancypants stuff because i know the tools inside and out and i know the effect i'm looking for, and I can get it faster with X tool than Y tool. The chosen tool is as often a stock DAW plug as it isn't.

10. FL Studio doesn't have much of a community.
11. I think DF is a pretty Ableton and Reason based community full of people who could be nicer. I think I prefer the Trance and Gearslutz forums over this one. IMHO.

online "community"-- especially message boards--is vastly overrated in terms of "community." W/ that said there's a ton of info on the boards. Gearslutz's Q&A's are an endless source of inspiration, i think i've read and re-read Dave Pensado's one from 2005 at least 1,000 times. Same with Michael Brauer's. However, it's not a community and can't replace real people who give real, honest feedback.

[Augment]

Just wanted to say that you should read the manual for fl studio, and that i also use fl. I think alot of the guys on here do

[Shum]

cheeze louise, sod the technicals mate and write some tunes. this thread is depressing.

[Terpit]

[NinjaEdit]

[Marzz]

9. (I can't afford fancy fucking plugins and shit everyone uses. Like those fancy equalizers and blah blah shit. )
10. FL Studio doesn't have much of a community.

1. You don't need them, use standard FL plugs
2. FL has a community on this forum for questions. Here: http://dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=91074

[mthrfnk]

9. (I can't afford fancy fucking plugins and shit everyone uses. Like those fancy equalizers and blah blah shit. )
10. FL Studio doesn't have much of a community.

1. You don't need them, use standard FL plugs

Proof:

[dublerium]

cheeze louise, sod the technicals mate and write some tunes. this thread is depressing.

This! I think I've read seen two threads by this guy and both have been equally depressing, your not going to be able to enjoy it if your being this negative and anal about numbers and do's and don't. Why are you worrying about decimal figures when you say your not even using reverb in your tracks, not that it's a must but use it and experiment, then make rough guidelines as to what you do. Sounds like your totally missing out on the honeymoon period. I would get off dsf posting these downbeat threads, read up, watch youtube tuts, experiment, make a few tunes in the process and try and enjoy it.

[masterchief]

are you being serious?

[street_legal]

cheeze louise, sod the technicals mate and write some tunes. this thread is depressing.

Bet op makes some dark shit! Or wishes he could...

Seriously though, pull your thumb out your arse and try harder. Only jesus was born with mad skills, everyone else has to practice to get better.

[crunkedxup]

No wonder youre so upset about it, it's music mate, make some music!

Forget all the technical engineering bs because lets face it if you can't write a good tune then you've got nothing to EQ anyway. All that steez should be an afterthought (unless you're an engineer)

Focus on melodic ideas, inspiration and the creative aspects of music. Those are the most important things because they cannot be taught (easily). They aren't an exact science like where your kick drum should be peaking.

I think you should sit at a piano and make some music purely for the sake of making music. Get some of your boys together and have a jam session or something. A computer is just another instrument you need to remember the thing that makes the good music is in your head (literally).

[Monowan]

Did someone actually listened to the guy's soundcloud ? Because I think the fact he doesn't know every production trick in the world makes for some damn original music. Your stuff DOESN'T suck man. And it's actually more soundcloud friendy than a lot of semi-pro tunes that are drowned in reverb, mine included.

[street_legal]

Did someone actually listened to the guy's soundcloud ? Because I think the fact he doesn't know every production trick in the world makes for some damn original music. Your stuff DOESN'T suck man. And it's actually more soundcloud friendy than a lot of semi-pro tunes that are drowned in reverb, mine included.

thread titles like ' I think I'm retarded' do not inspire confidence in someone's production ability...

[BYTEME]

Please give me small opinion on how I've been doing, this is my recent track, I spent all night on 0_0!

Soundcloud

I didn't use any tutorials or inspiration from anything. I just went with what I think sounded good, and tried really hard to make the sounds I wanted to make.
I usually started with just Squares. Everywhere.

And 909 drums. Love them 909 drums.

-Another note: I think the LFO is off, the wubs have this sort of bad off-timing or something in the attack of each wub. Oh well.

[hasezwei]

you certainly have a thing for melodies
loving the use of vibrato, nice.
lfo sounds good to me, but looking at the waveform i wonder if you limited the heck out of everything

and towards the end the drums get a bit dull
but still, its better than most stuff i find on soundcloud cause it's actual music rather than a techdemo of 10000 plugins aka overproduced cliché preset-fest

[travis_baker]

8. I don't have Abletone.

[Kilo beats]

this video gives me the motivation when i feel like you described

[Triphosphate]

Yeah, I guess boosting could cause clipping going into the output, which you then just turn down (and not see the clip). I cut first, then boost if nessecary. The correct answer to everything is "whatever sounds best."

Gost, see what happens if you boost that hotspot at 50-100Hz, which might be the fundemental.

I think it's less about the fear if clipping and more about introducing unnatural phase when boosting with a non-linear/non-graphical eq. But I could be wrong. But like you said, "do what sounds good"

Does someone have the Ira Glass quote handy? The OP could probably use it. The gist of it is that the process of making the quality of your work match your taste is hard and painful, and the only way to do it is perseverance.

Edit: I must be the retarded one, I respond to a much older post thinking it was the most recent, and the irony is that the Ira Glass quote is the last post in the thread.

[BYTEME]

looking at the waveform i wonder if you limited the heck out of everything.

I only have 3 limiter presets I made. Which are probably entirely wrong and squeeze the hell out of the track, now that I think about it.

1. Max Vol but hitting the master vol at -3 decibals.
2. Max Vol, 0 decibals.
3. Max Vol, NO NOISE. (Noise filter at the very bottom to reduce those crunchy sounds between 6khz-10khz. I always find those very annoying and they hurt my ears a lot.

[Kilo beats]

looking at the waveform i wonder if you limited the heck out of everything.

I only have 3 limiter presets I made. Which are probably entirely wrong and squeeze the hell out of the track, now that I think about it.

1. Max Vol but hitting the master vol at -3 decibals.
2. Max Vol, 0 decibals.
3. Max Vol, NO NOISE. (Noise filter at the very bottom to reduce those crunchy sounds between 6khz-10khz. I always find those very annoying and they hurt my ears a lot.

I would not use presets on either limiters or compressors, the reason being that whoever made the preset (including your own presets) does not know how loud the material being run through it is going to be..

the attack, ratio, release, and knee settings will all be usefull if you are using template presets, but always change the threshold to suit the material being run through it, because as i say the threshold will always need to be adjusted to suit the material being run through it, depending on the input volume of that material.

sorry if i missed your point. just my 2c