VIDEO TUTORIALS! What do you want to see? (New videos posted)

[Zephyr]

I agree with most of the ideas here, I'm glad we finally have someone to do these things. I think a video that covers most of the questions people new to FL Studio ask (you know, the extremely basic stuff) this would help us on the remixing boards to just post a link to the video rather than try to explain it over and over again to every new person. Great Job, keep it up.

[Torzelan]

As you said, pretty much nobody would have all the plugins and sounds, but it could still be incredibly interesting to have the .flp to look at. F.e I would really like to see what's done with all the EQ's, which would be possible since you're using the default ones.

Just a request which should be easy (guessing the .flp isn't very large), unless you don't want to which is obviously fair enough.

But great watch, and thanks whoever recommended the "Zoom Player" that aaalmost (better than all my other ones including VLC, MPC etc anyway) played the video like it should.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

well the other alternative is creating new projects expressly for the purpose of serving as tutorials, using only FL builtin plugins + external samples.

Unless of course, you want to bounce a bunch of stuff to wav. But I wouldn't want to...

Also @ zircon, do you remember where those big free drum packs labeled "Bass Drum", "Snare", "Hats", came from? I have those too and I remember grabbing them from -someone- here who was kind enough to post them, but I can't really recall who and was curious.

...was it YOU? ^^;

[zircon]

Yeah, that was me. I've had them for years... awhile back I just put together all my samples (at the time), most of which were just found on the 'net in various places. I have WAY more samples now but those folders are unchanged.

I suppose I can do some shorter vids just showing off different sounds and more technical information about the mix. I'll work on those tonight.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

much appreciated~

those sample packs helped me out so much when i was an FLnoob...o_o

"finally something to use other than C_Kick and C_Snare!!! 8D"

[Random Hero]

I like the idea of individual techniques/topics being highlighted in videos, BUT...

I'd also like to see a series of videos on the mix creation process, charting the development of a ReMix through to completion, then having that mix posted on the site. Something that explored different arrangement approaches, starting with a MIDI, going by ear, etc., showed how a couple different genre approaches to the same theme, then picked one and carried it through to the end. That's something that, while obviously more involved, will tell more of a story, and put everything in context.

I don't have a video, but I have, for all my songs, a lot of the early version of the mix. Like for Battle of the Hylian Hero, I have 30 version of the song, starting with the original concept, which lead into a techno version, then to the Star Wars-esque version and so on. It's actually fun to go back and listen and see how far the track came over the period of 4 months.

[MaCe]

I suppose I can do some shorter vids just showing off different sounds and more technical information about the mix. I'll work on those tonight.

that sounds good, tech stuff are always welcome,i agree with most here,core basics would be very useful for noobs like me,and i suppose that more advanced mixers wouldn't mind to repeat some basic stuff...

[SnappleMan]

Cool idea. It could be useful for beginners to get an idea of how to set up a decent arrangement of a song. Though it's lacking in any real advice...

[Lunahorum]

I want to see a tut from snapple man now haha. That would be cool.

[Zephyr]

By the way, on the Monstrous Turtles vid (I watched it in WMP) after about one second of watching, the video drifted far behind the audio, after watching for thirty seconds, the video was probably about 10 seconds behind. It was a great video anyways, but I just thought I'd let you know.

[Nekofrog]

I'm probably going to make a Line 6 POD guide (hardware and software interface), since they usually come up around here once a week or so.

[Scaredsim]

I want to see a tut from snapple man now haha. That would be cool.

Yeah, that's a cool idea.

[zircon]

New video! This is just a quickie (relatively speaking)... sorry for the weird audio quality. The audio wasn't anywhere near maxed out in my export but YouTube's sound compression is just... bad I guess.

NOTE: Click the video and add &fmt=18 to the YouTube URL to play a better quality version!!!!

You can also download the full resolution, highest quality version (with no sound problems) at:

http://www.zirconstudios.com/video/zircon%20-%20DNB%20Track%20WIP.avi

I used a different encoder this time so everyone should be able to play it NP.

[po!]

I like the idea of individual techniques/topics being highlighted in videos, BUT...

I'd also like to see a series of videos on the mix creation process, charting the development of a ReMix through to completion, then having that mix posted on the site. Something that explored different arrangement approaches, starting with a MIDI, going by ear, etc., showed how a couple different genre approaches to the same theme, then picked one and carried it through to the end. That's something that, while obviously more involved, will tell more of a story, and put everything in context.

i was actually planning on doing that for the track that i'm working on now.. doing a "making of" vid. it turned out to be really difficult to get the camerawork that i wanted though. instead of just doing vidcaps of my screen i wanted to actually film me working at the computer, so i could do some sort of vlog and also for when i record instruments

it was hard to find a good angle though.. one that would show me as well as get the content on my screen. so in the end i abandoned the idea.... for now. i still wanna find a way to do it tho

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

zircon,

thanks again for the work, however I would request that for the purposes of -tutorial videos-, focus less on WHAT you did and more on HOW and WHY you did it. This last vid was interesting, but it -didn't- give me any insight into your actual workflow (since you didn't actually do any further work on the song) and the "production tips" you mentioned were alluded to but not explained in any appreciable depth. If I am missing something, please explain to me specifically what I was supposed to get out of this vid that is supposed to help me produce better.

on the flip side, if you were aiming to show us how your projects looked in terms of playlist/pattern layout, and give us a taste of what you have in the works, you did an A+ job (b^^)b

also, dBlue glitch for the lulz. 8D great plugin, but yes, so easy to use terribly...

also, the avi works fine, aside from slight video/audio desync issues which IMHO are not that big of an issue.

[audio fidelity]

zircon,

thanks again for the work, however I would request that for the purposes of -tutorial videos-, focus less on WHAT you did and more on HOW and WHY you did it. This last vid was interesting, but it -didn't- give me any insight into your actual workflow (since you didn't actually do any further work on the song) and the "production tips" you mentioned were alluded to but not explained in any appreciable depth. If I am missing something, please explain to me specifically what I was supposed to get out of this vid that is supposed to help me produce better.

on the flip side, if you were aiming to show us how your projects looked in terms of playlist/pattern layout, and give us a taste of what you have in the works, you did an A+ job (b^^)b

also, dBlue glitch for the lulz. 8D great plugin, but yes, so easy to use terribly...

also, the avi works fine, aside from slight video/audio desync issues which IMHO are not that big of an issue.

+1

watching you work on a track that your serious about would be interesting

[zircon]

Trust me, the actual work process is incredibly uninteresting. I mean, I could record 30 minutes of me looking through samples if that's what you want, because that's what I spend most of my day doing With me, 95-99% of my time working on music is spent figuring out what I want to write or do, and then the remainder is spent actually doing it. I can work incredibly quickly if I know what I'm going for, the problem is that I hardly ever do. So, it makes more sense for me to explain what I did after the fact...

That being said if you want more depth, I can do that. I'm honestly worried about simply being boring though because I seriously could spend 20 minutes talking about any given aspect of the process, eg. synths, mixing, drum samples, and so forth. Any specific requests...? Original, remix?

[audio fidelity]

i thought about saying something about not minding if the video was boring, but i didn't want to offend. ha.

all that other stuff (drum samples, synth design, mixing) is great to talk about, and you really should start having videos where you focus on a specific topics. but i still want to see your whole creative process in all of its glory.

although, the problem that sort of arises when your working on a song is that you may start to feel like you have to explain yourself more thoroughly over basics for all the cats who are new to recording, which will also probably kill the work flow a bit. i would like to see you do an advanced video where you work with a song and just stress creative and production issues. and then maybe have a more beginners video for people who are new daws, where you give them ideas to build a remix - which your first video kind of was. speaking for myself here, but i really think the more experienced will benefit in their production from watching you in action, in terms of the choices you make while creating, and the beginners will too no doubt, its just they will have to come back to understand it better.

big up for what your doin, respek

(been watching too much ali g)

[Patrick Burns]

Interesting stuff. Judging by the speed you handle that interface, I guess it's safe to say you've spent a little bit of time doing these things. I'm pretty surprised at how simple your volume increasing habits are. I always assumed it was some complicated arrangement of sidechains and multi-band compressors.

I'd like to see something about mixing with an emphasis on EQ. Maybe talk about how you handle sixto's guitars or pixietrick's voice; do you handle that stuff by ear or rely on spectrum metering tools; where do you usually roll off the low end on different instruments, etc.

[The Pezman]

That being said if you want more depth, I can do that. I'm honestly worried about simply being boring though because I seriously could spend 20 minutes talking about any given aspect of the process, eg. synths, mixing, drum samples, and so forth.

Anything which helps to answer the aspects I suggested would be incredibly helpful. Not sure if you're catching them or not.

[zircon]

Interesting stuff. Judging by the speed you handle that interface, I guess it's safe to say you've spent a little bit of time doing these things. I'm pretty surprised at how simple your volume increasing habits are. I always assumed it was some complicated arrangement of sidechains and multi-band compressors.

I'd like to see something about mixing with an emphasis on EQ. Maybe talk about how you handle sixto's guitars or pixietrick's voice; do you handle that stuff by ear or rely on spectrum metering tools; where do you usually roll off the low end on different instruments, etc.

Sure, maybe I can go into the Nuclear Flash project and show a bit of that next. Also, I do sometimes use sidechaining + multiband compression... but it's not always needed.

Anything which helps to answer the aspects I suggested would be incredibly helpful. Not sure if you're catching them or not.

I think the only way I could really address everything the judges evaluate would be to make a remix from scratch, which I do kinda intend on doing at some point, but probably not in the immediate future.

[The Pezman]

I think the only way I could really address everything the judges evaluate would be to make a remix from scratch

Really? I don't see why that's necessary.

Like I said, compare one of your newest songs to one of your oldest. Point out the differences, explain what they are and how they work, and then indicate the settings in your project which allow them to sound as good as they do.

[zircon]

It doesn't really work like that. The difference between stuff I do now and stuff I did years ago is more than plugin settings. I do everything differently now. There's really just not any comparison - my approach to arrangement, my writing ability, my musical ear, my software & hardware setup, my knowledge of synthesis.. you get the idea. Not to mention, I've switched setups/computers enough times that I don't have access to any old project files so it would be very difficult to do any kind of comparison, you know?

[MaCe]

First, nicely done video, but what i would really want to see is a basic rhythm/drums/beat tutorial,as far i can see trough your music,it is always done excellent and you seem to be very good in that area,so it would be nice if you could make some basic, and advanced beat tutorials,example: how to match music with beat or reverse,which plugins/samples fit best for specific genre and so on...i think it would be useful for most noobs;-)

[The Pezman]

It doesn't really work like that. The difference between stuff I do now and stuff I did years ago is more than plugin settings. I do everything differently now. There's really just not any comparison - my approach to arrangement, my writing ability, my musical ear, my software & hardware setup, my knowledge of synthesis.. you get the idea. Not to mention, I've switched setups/computers enough times that I don't have access to any old project files so it would be very difficult to do any kind of comparison, you know?

Well, I wouldn't expect you to have your oldest project files. You could play the old song and go shtyjdgtfgt over the biggest production issues: these drums are too mechanical, the soundscape is very narrow, the synths are not clear at all, etc.

Then, you point to the corresponding elements in your newer song. Odds are you have to apply a number of effects and a decent amount of compression (and I'm not entirely sure what compression is) to get it to sound the way you want it. How do you know you've got a quality sound at this point? These are the things I think you can do.