SnappleMan

Well, while I totally agree that cutting unwanted frequencies out of your reverb is a must, I don't think all applications of reverb call for a low cut. In the case of a piano though, I think it would be best to cut some of the lows out.

You shouldn't have to cut any frequencies, it's already slotted for you. The only time you cut piano EQ is when you need to fit it into a mix. I limit my piano EQ to just adding a little bit of high end sparkle. For reverb, I'd first try a hall setting, play with the early reflections to get some more character out of it. If that's too distant for you, then try a small room setting, that should really put the piano all around you.

Yeah, I don't know why you're looking to EQ to solve your problems. Everything we know and love about pianos is performance based. Intimacy comes from the player. There really is no good way to draw in velocities by hand, or timing offsets by hand, you just have to play it. There are, however, aspects that add to the "intimacy" which you can control like reverb and compression. A solo piano performance really needs a wide dynamic range, forcing the listener to turn the volume up so they can hear everything. Then when the performance intensifies, it's that much more powerful because of the difference in volume. So if you're doing a solo piano performance, don't use compression. Also, reverb can help place the piano in a room, but sometimes you don't want it that far or that ambient, so you A->B it and see which feels more intimate to you. As far as EQ goes, when I record pianos, I don't have much headroom with EQ because room noise always comes out more with high EQ, but when I use samples, I can really play with the high end EQ till it sounds just right. But overall, the piano is made to be self EQed so you really shouldn't mess with it. It's all in the performance.

The most heavily compressed song I've ever mixed: http://www.rockednloaded.com/media/04_BRICKWALLER.mp3 I think it sounds great, but only because the song itself calls for such heavy compression. Considering I got all 70 tracks to be crystal clear AND got the song that loud, I'm pretty proud of it! Point is, that song is called BRICKWALLER because it's brickwalled to hell but still sounds good. It's all about context. You can't mask lack of musical depth by making things ultra loud, which is what most bands try to do. If you're gonna make something loud, give it a reason (in this case the reason being a completely intense composition). And as for Death Magnetic, the Guitar Hero version still has the same clipping and distortion problems as the album version. This tells you that the album was MIXED poorly, not mastered poorly. It's the same shitty mix only not as loud.

The Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic is the same, just normalized at a lower volume... :\

PM me a link

Oh yeah, that's right, they're called Hyoshigi. They're clappers usually made of bamboo and whatnot. I've been looking for samples of those things for years. Your best bet is to do what I did and rip them out of SNES Goemon soundtracks.

Actually that sounds like those japanese knocking sticks,what the fuck were they called....

They've all been shipped. You just gotta wait for the mailman to bring em to you.

Upated, check first post. Friend me on KRUNKbook and let's rock oat.

Getting things as loud as possible is essential to good mastering. The problem is that most novices see that as "BRICKWALL EVERYTHING!" when in actually "as loud AS POSSIBLE" really means "as loud as something should logically be in context". The goal should always be to get the most out of the elements that make up the song. When mastering the C4 album I was very aggressive with it because the material called for it. When I'm mastering an acoustic session or something more intimate, I leave a good amount of headroom for ambiance and so that the listener can turn his speakers up past 2... :\

I master at -0.2dB or 0dB.

Kleenex+Lotion combo down below. Nice.

Thanks but no, I don't use sfz anymore. I got like 500gb of unused drum sounds as it is :\ ...

I'd ask to have them powered up. Put your ear to the drivers and listen for humming or buzzing. Keep in mind though, if you do hear something, it doesn't mean the speakers are bad, it could just be the shitty dirty power running through the guys shop, but if the noise is severe then you have a good indicator of damage. Also, bring a decent source you can plug into. If you're serious about these monitors (and you should be because that model is FANTASTIC) you should stop into a music store first and pick up a phono-TRS cable (make sure it's TRS and not unbalanced) and plug in your mp3/cdplayer to em and listen for more problems. (just to be save bring a PC power cable with you in case the dude "doesn't have any" in the back)

I've gotten the best results from layering drum sounds. The first kit sounds very natural and roomy, which is great. The second kit is very processed and made to represent only the most quintessential elements of what people look for in a drum sound, so if you use that kick, consider layering the snare and toms from the edirol kit under the session drummer kit (just be subtle with it). But yeah, that kick is fucking nice

I know who GrayLightning really was.

You have it backwards there. You only need ONE MIDI track to control the synth. To get EQ on separate channels you need to create more audio outputs for the synth. So yes, you need to let Session Drummer use more audio outs, then route the kick drum to its own audio output, and then you can add EQ to just that one piece.

FM7 and FM8 make programming FM patches really easy with their matrix view, I don't think it's too convoluted for an inexperienced person. It does come with a manual and not only that but you have PDF scans of the original DX7 manual and a major internet fanbase that keeps up to date info and tutorials on it. And there's no rule that says you MUST use every operator.

So who do I send a WIP to?

Korg Legacy Collection and FM8 are all you need.

Teach the pentatonic scale and be done with it, it's all anyone uses anyway