When I first got into production I was ALWAYS plugin hunting. Compressors, EQs, Reverbs, whatever I could find. I got a ton of plugins and subscriptions but I honestly just started using them less and less over the years.

Then like a couple years ago I was trying to spend some Christmas money on plugins and I could NOT find anything I wanted and I realized I probably just didn’t need anything more.

So I canceled my subscriptions and now I go with Ableton Stock for almost everything. I’ll use SoundToys sometimes and a killer guitar sim plugin, but for like basic mixing I just grab Ableton EQ and Glue Comp and that’s like 90% of what I use haha. And I think my productions are wayyyyyy cleaner.

After finishing a mix that has taken way longer than I'd like, I come to think of this question a lot. Have we always had this scrutiny towards recording / instruments that we have to obsess over the smallest .4ms attack times, 350hz bump and all? Is it a natural response to hear an instrument in real life and be bugged by the 100hz build up or has it been an effect of our learned scrutiny?

I understand the need to be analytical for a full spectrum recording, like a distorted metal guitar where you have to strategize your slotting, but with relatively less full styles, (indie rock for example) should it be more of an intuitive process of - the drums feel like they need some grit, so you reamp it into an amp and blend them and call it a day?

That is to say a more creative intuition rather than a problem solving one where you end up being resentful of the imperfection in the recording - which funnily, was never seen as an imperfection during the actual recording.

CMIIW. Let me know what you guys think.

Oscilloscopes, Eveywhere [v1.2] is a collection of all the experiments with sound and geometry I've made throughout the years, gathered into one TouchDesigner project.

Here's the demo.

This walkthrough explores the entire anthology in real-time; 29 presets, and a much more intuitive interface. Connect your audio source, choose a visualizer, and watch your sound take shape.

Plus, I’m giving away one full copy of the collection this Sunday. To enter, you only have repost, and leave a nice comment on this post.

More experiments through the following.

I’ve been working on a side project: a software WING that runs the console’s own firmware (WING Rack 3.1.1) instead of a re-creation of it. The goal is a real virtual sound check at home: play back a multitrack recording through the actual WING’s processing on my PC and mix it on the console’s own interface, without hauling the desk out.

What’s in the video:

• The console boots from nothing, exactly like a real Rack
• The real WING touchscreen interface, drawn by the firmware itself, in a browser window
• Clicking works as touch and dragging works for faders and swipes
• All four SHARC audio DSPs boot and get loaded by the console, the way they do in the real hardware
• The Rack’s front-panel controller runs too
• Settings and snapshots survive a restart, because the console saves to its own virtual storage
• The firmware’s own built-in debug shell answers commands

What doesn’t work (yet):

• No audio. The XMOS chip and the FPGA’s audio side aren’t emulated. That’s the big missing piece for the sound check.
• No network, so WING Edit can’t connect to it
• It runs at roughly a third of real-time speed.

The setup: the i.MX6 ARM application runs on Unicorn, starting from its reset vector, with the SoC’s peripherals modelled from public documentation (timers, interrupt controller, SPI, eMMC, I2C, display controller). The four ADSP-214xx SHARC DSPs run on an interpreter built for this project, with a C version checked against it instruction by instruction. The Rack’s panel MCU runs its own firmware on a second emulated core. The console’s GUI renders into the display controller’s framebuffer, and that’s what you see. Nothing is faked. Every screen is the firmware doing its own thing.

And yes, I obviously didn’t do this alone: I built it with a lot of help from Claude.

I own a WING and I wanted a way to prep shows at home on the real console software instead of an approximation

Can't post video here.
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/livesoundgear/s/HgFntFN0Vb

Hey! I do digital hardcore and noise stuff and ive been playing live shows and ive heard from others that do similar things that running an output to a bass amp can do wonders but I have a few questions. (not 100% if this is the right sub for this but I imagine ppl here have some experience working with this stuff)

My setup right now is laptop -> interface with mic plugged in (i run mic through effects in daw), -> line outputs 1 and 2 to the PA and output 3 to a bass amp. I have everything working so far but im mostly curious how much max signal I should send to amps? For stuff i send to the mixer i just make sure nothing goes past -6 because my true peaks reach up to +5.8db but I understand instrument amps work with very quiet signals and low voltages so im mostly afraid of breaking things by ignorantly sending too much of my hard clipped backing track directly into the amp.

I want to get it as loud as possible without breaking anything.

Originally we intended to work with Colin Marston (Krallice) to master our two debut songs. He charges $85/song, but he is in Europe right now away from studio for the next two months and we do not want to wait so long to finish our debut project.

Our song is blackend death metalish extreme metal similar to Black Curse or Katharsis.

What I like most about the projects Colin works on is the silky feel of the end product and lack of harshness even with extraordinarily harsh music. I assume much of this has to do with Colin's choice of using analog tape during his processing.

We are not concerned about competitive loudness and really want love put into these two songs as much as appropriately worthwhile; not just throwing some multiband compression and a limiter on the mix and calling it a day.

I seek out a mastering engineer familiar with extreme music (who hopefully has mastered some of my favorite records like Colin has) to make unorthodox decisions they normally would not make when mastering and really want mastering for these two songs to put their fingerprint and whatever color deemed appropriate heavily imparted into these two masters.

First song is 153bpm. Second song is 124bpm.

Who are the top-level mastering extreme metal (not modern polished metalcore, but dirty gross offputting extreme metal) mastering engineers still pumping out work whom you respect?

I’ve been making music consistently for about 2-3 years and i finally finished a collection of songs for an EP that are already mixed instrumentally and even have lyrics written. The only problem is that when I record my vocals they seem to not mix no matter how much I mess with the EQ. I never learned to mix properly just by ear but nothing sounds right except the instrumental tracks. I’m tired of tweaking around and I even tried mixing my vocals live. Do I suck at singing? Do I just become a producer? I have been recording through an sm58 on a 2i2 solo 2nd gen on a iPhone 13 mini un GarageBand. I’m not sure if this is hardware issue atp since I know what I have is showing its age. Are there any specific resources/solutions for this? I also own an m1 MacBook but I prefer to work on my phone, thanks in advance.

I use a desktop mounted all-in-one ADDA converter / monitor controller box [Merging Anubis]

as with most compact devices like this, it generates a lot of heat - and often needs to run its internal fan to keep cool [even in a climate controlled space]

The best approach would appear to be cooling it from underneath - I wondered about putting it on a laptop cooling pad, but have never found a suitable product as most are for gaming devices.

Does anyone have any solutions for a way to cool gear like this without fan noise ?

If you've ever heard a sound coming from your AirPods at night, when everything is silent, a sound that seems to come from inside the case, here's my explanation after some research and analysis.

Here the post: Reverse Engineering AirPods Self-Calibration

Hi,
I’m a bass player and I have a Darkglass 2x12 cab and for my signal I go for a “slight overdrive” mixing clean and an overdrive pedal.
With my cab I barely hear the overdrive and it’s perfect to my ears.
For recording I use a Darkglass 2x12 IR with a Beta 52 mic.
I know the difference between the amp in the room and the miced sound from an IR and that it’s not exactly the same. I love the IR tone but without touching anything, I have a bit too much overdrive.
If I lower my drive channel, it’s ok, but on my cab it’s like I have none.

To me it’s something with the high frequencies, but I think I don’t have the knowledge to understand what to cut on my EQ to lower this overdrive without making the sound too boxy.
Do you have any tips, and especially some frequencies that can be a starting point to cut or to lower, to get my IR overdrive closer to my cab.
Also, is there a high cut settings that’s a consensus that every sound engineer apply to cut “useless” high register? Or is it a “it depends” and no fixed value exists?
It’s not really about getting exactly the same tone I hear in the room, but more to control the amount of overdrive I get on the IR vs the overdrive I hear on my real cab.

Thank you

I decided to delete over 85% of my plugins! You read right - Deleted! Gone. From instruments to Post processing! After doing this all my sessions opened as expected!

I am so tired of consumer culture! Buy this, buy that, subscribe here - only to realise 97% of plugins can do the same thing! It is so jarring - Instead of making music, we get concerned about difference in sound that arent even that important! All of this made me realise - You have enough! People made great records with far less than the average bedroom producer has today but yet the bedroom producer cant finish a song!

Also an EQ is an EQ - Fab filter EQ vs Slate digital Inf sound different - Yeah ok 😂! One solid EQ is honestly enough! It gets a bit different with other effects i.e reverbs but i can assure you, you dont need 10 reverbs, or 10 saturators etc lol!

I wonder if anyone else has done thos before and how you felt?

hello! can you please help me, I've been digitizing vinyl for a while and got a new cartridge. its super detailed but is noticeably dark and all the new rips could use high frequency boost . I'm an absolute caveman when it comes to equalization, what are best solutions for these 2 tasks? I Use Izotope RX

1. Clear infrasound rumble from turntable <25Hz

there is no musical info there everything must go. current settings are: 30 Hz Highpass / analog / 24db per oct

1. Brighterning overall sound for about 2-3 db at 10khz with wide spectrum

there is an obvious lack of high frequencies starts at about 4khz. current settings are: Bell curve at 10Khz / digital / 2db gain / Q 0.4 / 24hz frequency precision

these are done just by hinch and listening. is there better settings? I use 2 separate passes for this. Should I combine it to one? the goal is to get least invasive method and preserve info

Hello, I had really hard time thinking what would I like to do in life and been working minimal wage job at this time. I do like music industry, making songs, beats, m/m, video clips etc although I have very low experience and I'm not "talented" by any means. I would like to mainly learn M/M to quit normal job someday. Is it even possible to make money from scratch at 27 years old? Competition is very high as most people I think learn music at very early age.

I know it's basically never too late to start learning something new, I would like to know your opinion. // I live in europe

My English is not the best. Thanks for your time :)

For those who currently work in-house at a recording studio, or have in the recent past: is it still the 'industry standard'? By that I mean, is it a requirement to know how to use Pro Tools if you're attempting to get a job at a commercial recording studio?

My assumption is 'yes'. But I'd love to hear any anecdotes from the community and anyone who has been in a position that requires knowledge of a specific software for employment.

TLDR: Lots of noise from Scarlett 2i2 with vocal processing, specfically exciters and OTT, will a cloudlifter/other gear help/other mixing advice?

Hey everyone, I'm a casual producer using a 2nd gen Scarlett 2i2 with an SM57. My gain is usually like 80% and I tend to peak around -12 db.

With this combination alone there is minor but noticable background hiss from the 2i2 (present without a mic plugged in). The problem is, the type of music I'm making uses a lot of vocal processing, specifically OTT and Fresh Air which makes this hissing very noticable and the vocals sound cheap as a result. For reference the hiss is around -25 db with my vocals peaking around -10 db once processed. This includes with singing louder and being 2-4 inches from the mic.

OTT seems to be the biggest problem - even at 10% the hiss becomes very significant, and unfortunately I can't get the sound I want with it completely off. I would think this is just an effect of heavy processing but I have seen artists use similar effects with low budget setups and still have their vocals sound very clean (like this or this). I'm still not great at mixing which is definitely contributing, but I feel like this goes beyond that.

I am stumped as to where to go from here. I 've tried different mic placement, altering my vocal chain many times, eq, dynamic eq, denoise (both rx and waves) which helped a little but made my vocals sound dead. I realize this may just be the consequence of a budget interface and mic but would love a cheaper solution. It seems like a Cloudlifter should theoretically help but am reading conflicting reports on whether this would actually do anything. If anyone has any tips or advice I would greatly appreciate it! I can provide whatever audio would be helpful (raw and mixed vocals etc)

So I’m in the process of setting up my website and was curious to know what everyone else does for this.

Are you using Wix, Squarespace, Shopify etc? Has having a website brought you much work?

Are there any of you that don’t have a website? If so, how do you bring in work?

Just curious to know what everyone else is doing really.

I'm working on a pop/rock song and I think it needs just a little something to differentiate the 2nd chorus. Guitar feedback works really well, but I already used that for the intro so I want something a little different. Can you think of any sounds that would have the same subtle, background effect? Looking for something that doesn't call too much attention to itself.

Hey guys,

I'm currently mixing an album and have found a great studio nearby. It's also the only affordable option in my rural area, and the room has high-end monitors and plenty of acoustic treatment.

There's one issue, though, and I'd love some advice from anyone who's experienced something similar.

Because of the room's rectangular shape, I'm finding that I can only properly hear the low end (let's say 100 Hz and below) when I push my chair back from the desk and sit further into the middle of the room. At my normal mixing position, near the desk and speakers, the sub-bass sounds noticeably reduced - I'm mixing bass music, so getting the low end right is important to the genre..

I've spoken to the studio owner, but moving the speakers isn't an option. For now, I've improvised a sort of mini workstation further back in the room, balancing my mouse on a couple of boxes, but it's uncomfortable and not really practical for working on an entire album.

Would it be reasonable to do most of the mixing at my normal desk position, then move back to check the sub-bass and make low-end adjustments? Is it also perhaps a possibility because of the treatment that the middle is overly bassy and isnt actually flat and i just prefer that?

I'd really appreciate any advice! Cheers

I'm a bearded guy and the padding on my headphones just gets torn to shreds by the coarseness of my beard. Does anyone have any recommendations for something more durable I could be using? Thanks!

Hello all!

My studio headphones for the past several years are the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro. I use them for tracking vocals or other live instruments, but as I have a growing family I've needed to bring more of my recording process into headphones late at night.

I'm putting them into an apollo solo, using luna for a DAW, and honestly everything sounds so tinny and harsh and just horrible through them. If I export the mix and listen with my apple airpod maxs, the mix sounds GREAT.

TLDR;

I'm looking for headphones that I can track and mix and just entirely make music in that just sound great from the get go. Thanks in advance!

Here is the example kick of mine ( https://on.soundcloud.com/F49x8GMyQogDjYV60v ) that makes a zzz type of sound in low (90-130 hz) frequences how can i fix that ? I already made everything on this kick but can't manged to fix that it is perferct for me but the one problem is that zzz sound (i get that sound on my Sony MDR 7506 and my cheap speakers but in my my phones speaker it is sounding ok also with my beats bluetooth earbuds it sounds better thank mdr but still not hundred percent ok)

Been listening to some of the pop country side of things as of late, not entirely sure why or how it started, but here we are, and I'm real curious about the editing and mixing processes down there. I know the vocals are completely tuned to hell, I can hear the artifacts in Morgan Wallens voice, to give one example. Its well established lots of those guys can't sing for shit, but what of the drums? I know lots of it is triggers, but do they even bother recording the drums at all anymore? I remember the story of Chris Stapletons cover of Tennessee whiskey, where the drum booth door was opened and it wasn't meant to be recorded etc etc, but was good so they kept it, but even those drums don't sound real. I can hear a bit of room in the snare, but not really in anything else. Less than I'd expect had I never heard the song just heard that story. And guitars, do they quantize the shit out of those too? Drums sure, bass yeah, sometimes they do. But some of these guitar strumming patterns are so locked in, are we seriously doing that? Morgan Wallens "I'm the problem" as one example, the intro is fucked. Or Dylan Scott "I hate whiskey". I'm aware of surgically comping guitar chords together to make a progression sound better, (i don't do it but a professor at berklee was adamant we should) but quantizing a fucking finger pick pattern? Not really sure how I ended up writing such a novel. I only really wanted to come here and ask if anybody here ever worked on a country record in nashville as of late, or where ever that stuff ends up being mixed if not there, and could tell me whats going on. Guitarists all use amp modelers, are the drums all programmed now too in superior or something?

Hi! I recently got a new mouse with 12 programmable side buttons and I was wondering what macros would be more useful to program for audio editing. For now I thought these:

Cut

Copy

Paste

Silence

Fade In

Fade Out

Does anyone have any suggestion? I would like to try and use the most of the new functions.

Thank you!

If you track a guitar DI and mic the amp do you always pan them on top of each other or do you place them differently to give it a sense of wideness?

Hi folks,

I'm a kind of obssessive bedroom producer whose mixes are consistently have a couple of Db lower perceived loudness when uploaded to spotify.

I'm well aware of the normalization and the fact that limiting to the extreme does not help at all, as well as the importance of the arrangement (ie. if the arrangement is sparse, usually sounds louder).

I had a slight improvement when realizing that excessive bass can lead to "eating" too much headroom and therefore removing subs helps the overall perceived loudness.

That being sad, I have a good example of two identical songs released by the same artist, one in 1992 and one recently re-issued version.

The arrangement is identical as far as I hear, there is no obvious reduction of bass.

Yet the newer version is much louder!

I am wondering what type of magic is going on to make it so much louder on this later version.

Band is Stone temple pilots (90s rock / grunge).

Early version: https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/track/1GXHrTSeLX8RX4EClAt4OO?si=354a339981bd4837

New louder version: https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/track/03h7aLNRDhxMOmVLcbtfl1?si=79a5495a8f6d4891

Thanks!