[sephfire]

I know we've already got a daunting collection of stickied threads in this forum, but I think if there's any other topic that needs a sticky, it's production. The problem with the art of production is that it's an art that takes many years to truly master. As one of many upstart musicians who lack experience in this field, I say this forum needs a database of production knowledge.

What we need are links to training resources. We need book recommendations, tutorials, and other forms of study media. People can ask questions about concepts, hardware, genre-specific tips and other related issues.

Mastery of this skill is a long-term commitment, but with a thread like this, we can at least help to accelerate that process.


COMPILED RESOURCES:

Websites:
Dave Moulton's website w/ articles
The Loudness Race (server down much)
Waves site 1 & 2 (guides and plugins)

Tutorials:
general tutorial from Gamedev.net
Dave Moulton's Golden Ears training

Books:
Digital Recording, Software & Plug-Ins by Bill Gibson
The Art of Mixing, 2nd Ed. by David Gibson
The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, 2nd Ed. by Bobby Owsinski

Hardware:
KRK rockit powered speakers
Creamware products
Powercore Element
Powercore PCI MKII & plugins
Virus/powercore synthesizer

Plugins & VSTs:
Inspector plugin suite
Firium mastering EQ
Har-Bal EQ system
Interruptor delay
Arts Acoustic reverb
Kjaerhus Golden Series plugins
Ohm Force plugins
Sonic Flavors R66 reverb
Audio Damage products
Elemental Audio plugins
URS EQ plugins
s(m)exoscope
Optimaster (creamware)
UAD-1 (creamware)
Vinco compressor (creamware)
PSY Q processor (creamware)

Other Resources:
zircon's Production thread

(Also read through the thread. Remixers have shared many helpful tips!)

[Spc1st]

Here's a nice little general tutorial about how to make stuff sound good from gamedev.net. The guy even puts up examples of how the piece sounds after each stage of production.

[SnappleMan]

A better way than following a step by step guide to making a shitty cookie-cutter master is to actually learn what every method used to master a song does. That way you'll know what you want your song to sound like, and know exactly the tools to make it sound that way. But I'm just an asshole.

[sephfire]

Originally Posted by SnappleMan

A better way than following a step by step guide to making a shitty cookie-cutter master is to actually learn what every method used to master a song does. That way you'll know what you want your song to sound like, and know exactly the tools to make it sound that way. But I'm just an asshole.

Agreed. Which is why I don't think a few tutorials are sufficient to cover this topic (although they do contribute). This is where the book recommendations and concept/theory discussions come in.

[Zoola]

Originally Posted by SnappleMan

A better way than following a step by step guide to making a shitty cookie-cutter master is to actually learn what every method used to master a song does. That way you'll know what you want your song to sound like, and know exactly the tools to make it sound that way. But I'm just an asshole.

While I agree with you on both counts , I looked through that guide and found it to give some nice tips, if nothing more. Looks like a nice staring read if you really are terrible at production.

[the_nihilist]

Some general tips:

Get a quality compressor and EQ.
Roll off frequencies not used by instruments.
Learn to turn stuff down, things don't need to be as loud as you think.
Turn the reverb OFF.
Don't be afraid to really carve stuff up with the EQ to make it fit in a mix.
Remember to pan stuff.
Don't overcompress... except for drums. Ratio's low, threshold a couple db below where it's peaking.
And most importantly, use your ears.

[zircon]

Originally Posted by the_nihilist

Some general tips:

Get a quality compressor and EQ.
Roll off frequencies not used by instruments.
Learn to turn stuff down, things don't need to be as loud as you think.
Turn the reverb OFF.
Don't be afraid to really carve stuff up with the EQ to make it fit in a mix.
Remember to pan stuff.
Don't overcompress... except for drums. Ratio's low, threshold a couple db below where it's peaking.
And most importantly, use your ears.

I have to disagree with the excessive use of EQ, and frequency rolloff. I've tried this method a number of times and I've found that minimal EQ is almost always preferable. really "sculpting" a sound is OK for purely synthetic stuff (leads, pads), and I do encourage that, but for anything else I think it's a bad idea.

Excellent points otherwise. Reverb on the master track is a terrible idea. Typically this is my final signal path for the master;

* Parametric EQ (only making very small modifications, +/-3db, and usually only to the lows/highs)
* TRacks compressor (I love the sound of this, and I set it so that I get a nice, saturated mix given the type of music I do)
* TRacks limiter (some colored limiting to keep my levels in check)

[sephfire]

I'm already finding this thread helpful. And we're only 7 posts in.

[SirRus]

Originally Posted by zircon

* Parametric EQ (only making very small modifications, +/-3db, and usually only to the lows/highs)
* TRacks compressor (I love the sound of this, and I set it so that I get a nice, saturated mix given the type of music I do)
* TRacks limiter (some colored limiting to keep my levels in check)

Could you or somebody else elaborate on compression. I have found that a lot of the industry audio-engineers are frustrated with being asked to make CD's as loud as possible through compression. On OCR, the judges also tend to look down on overcompression of tracks as it loses the natural audio quality of the instruments. So my question is what is a "nice saturated mix" setting on a compresser such as the TRacks compressor. Also, do you not generally compress individual tracks like your drumset, guitars, vocals independent from each other? How do you achieve a good balance with this if you are only applying compression to the master track?

As for what I can contribute, I found a really great series on mastering through workbooks and associated ear training from Dave Moulton (one of the top audio engineers in the world):

Some Links:

About Dave
Dave's Website with GREAT mastering articles
Golden Ears Training

[zircon]

Originally Posted by SirRus

Could you or somebody else elaborate on compression. I have found that a lot of the industry audio-engineers are frustrated with being asked to make CD's as loud as possible through compression.

Well, that's extreme compression and limiting - reducing a normally large dynamic range to virtually 0 and then maxing the whole thing out at around 0db. It's difficult to do that without actively TRYING to so I wouldn't worry about it.

On OCR, the judges also tend to look down on overcompression of tracks as it loses the natural audio quality of the instruments.

I don't think this is the case. We rarely make a big deal out of compression, in fact more often than not I would say it isn't used ENOUGH.

So my question is what is a "nice saturated mix" setting on a compresser such as the TRacks compressor.

I have an FL mixer preset called "SimpleMaster" that I created for Impulse Prime. I use it in all my projects to date.

The compressor is set to a 12.4ms attack, 702.7ms release, 2.47 ratio, .7db stereo enhance, -15db input drive, and 12db output.

The eq is a little boost of 1 or 2 db in the very low and very high frequencies.

The limiter is set to boost the lows slightly (again), release time of 200ms, 2db input drive, -.2db output.

Also, do you not generally compress individual tracks like your drumset, guitars, vocals independent from each other? How do you achieve a good balance with this if you are only applying compression to the master track?

I compress a lot of my tracks besides the master. Bassdrums, snares, leads, harmony synths.. etc