the_nihilist

Quoted for truth. Doing the same mixdown between hosts will give you phase canceling output. What I think happens is that working in one host compared to another just makes you approach the process of mixing differently. For example, I hardly layer, pan and automate in FL, wheras in Cubase I do those things alot because the things are right there on the timeline. Other sequencers should just copy FL's piano roll. Cubase's works well, but it's still nowhere as easy. Where cubase DOES kickass is it's logical editor and other kinds of midi editing functions. Sonar's MIDI editing is pure hell. You can't even do basic stuff like only adjusting the midi velocity of selected notes. Sure, you can (eventually) do most of the things you need to do with midi, but it's sometimes a long and frustrating process. I disagree here. I've always found that cubase has a rather nice bussing system, and if you get clever with your group/fx and send channels, you can route most anything into anything else. It's not obvious at first, but it's there. Reaper probably has the most flexible routing system out there for a non-modular host. And if you really find you NEED complicated routing, an Energy XT liscense is cheap and you get all sorts of awesome stuff with it, like the EXT sampler, a standalone sequencer, a free upgrade to EXT2 and the best arpeggiator ever. EXT doesn't have rewire support.

Oatmeal is lovely, probably one of my favorite synths to use. Getting a different skin for it is essential if you want to be able to program it easily, though. Have you tried: Drawing your own oscillators? Using the chorus as a flanger? Modulating the PWM of the drawn oscs? Playing around with the mod matrix and XY pad? The RANDOM button, which quite possibly makes the best patch names ever concieved?

1) Listen to some Amon Tobin 2) Realize you will never, ever be as good at programming drums as he is. Not ever. 3) Curl up into a ball and weep.

Look around for good used stuff. Some of the older roland and korg romplers can be had for great prices and have alot of functionality, especially if you're a decent synth programmer. Maybe a Korg XP-30? A roland JD-800 could go far as well. Lots of options.

The Genesis had a 2 Operator FM synth and 1 PCM channel for voice and stuff. Closest thing for the FM sounds would be the free MDA DX10, which is almost dead-on as far as sound goes.

Practice to a metronome. It will be increadibly frustrating for the first few weeks, but it really, really, really makes things easier in the long run.

two things: 1) A book like the drummers cookbook is pretty useful, as it's just a cheap thing that has all sorts of basic rock beats in it. Great in a pinch. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0871668262/002-6072506-9178420?v=glance&n=283155 2) Alot of the groove in a drum beat is in how you play the cymbols. Pay attention to where the open hat is going.

http://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm Found this link quite a long, fascinating, useful read.

I don't see how compression emphasizes dominant frequencies any more than simply turning up a volume knob would emphasize dominant frequencies, as it's just affecting dynamics. Maybe I'm missing something. This just seems a bit misleading. The loudest frequencies will hit the threshold first, this is why you always add EQ after the compressor in your chain when you compress bass.

You can also really compress a drum track in a sub channel, and then submix it back with the main one, giving things a bit of an edge while still retaining most of the dynamics. The trick is compressing hard (around 10db or more of compression), the boosting around 100hz and 10khz on the submix about 6-10db for both. Blend it back in with the uncompressed signal to the point where you can barely hear it. As for whether to compress seperately or whole... it really depends on your preference. If you're trying for room-heavy drum tracks, like say... "When the Levee Breaks", then of course you're going to compress it all as one track (and compress after the reverb you're using, which should be a nice, big, boomy stairwell IR). If you're going for punchy, tight drums, then you'll probably have a little more luck compressing and EQing each individually. Remember, compression will emphasize the dominant frequencies, so you can get away with alot of tone shaping if you add it some EQ before you compress. This can really help sculpt your drum sound to perfection.

Protip: Overcompressed drums are awesome.

Best $50cdn I've ever spent on a music book. It explains in great detail the methods used by recording engineers to make a great sounding mix. It starts off with explanations of basic things, such as arrangement, compression, EQ, and panning. The real nice thing about this is that it doesn't just go over the "how", but it also goes into quite a bit of depth about the "why" behind things. From there, it has a brief chapter on surround mixing, and then interviews with 20 of the best producers in the world. Anyways, the book is a damn good value, and I'm certain it'll improve mixes.

Good mastering compressor settings to start with: Threshold -6.0 Ratio 2:1 Attack around 200ish ms And release about the same Listen for audio that sounds squashed, and adjust to taste. Depending on your preferences, you might want to end up using a compressor that can color things a bit, I find that this can really "glue" a track together. Then just run that into your limiter. The output ceiling should be around -0.3 to avoid clipping. Again, listen for stuff sounding squashed, and try to avoid it.

Give it to me, of course.

Do drugs?