Hey Dev, (and of corse all you lovely people!!!)

Massive / Huge fan of yours... and have been for many many years...
1) Thanks for all the music!!
2) You have defiantly inspired me!

I have been producing music for some time now, using all sorts of applications throughout my life and college and now have PT8.. which I am fairly happy about..

I just wondered if you could perhaps give me / us here.. some tips on your production and how you go about mixing your records... Of coarse I am not asking for your trade secrete!! but just some guidance of how you manage to create such beautiful mixes.. Something like how you would compress drums, or guitars, or group them together and effect etc.. or what plug-ins you use...

also

I hear time after time a good mix is in the recording and engineering and not in the mastering.. however i am seeing a lot of bands using heavy mastering? What’s your thoughts on this?

I know this seems like an endless and very open post, and I am not expecting a huge response as I know your a busy guy, I think a lot of us here would be generally interested in how you approach these things.

Can’t wait for KI !!!

thanks again Dev..

Regards

Pro tools.

eck.

I'm no dev. But I'll tell your I haven't had your fancy schoolin and I found out how to record, mix, master etc etc all by ear and experimentation.

Just go fuckin crazy. Experiment with effects until you find something you like. and then figure out what you did, write it down, try it again. If it doesn't work the second time go back, see what you missed, try it again on something ELSE, see if it fits. Keep doing the right step in this crazy process and eventually you'll find your own technique.

I use Cubase by the way. And WaveLab for mastering. I think dev uses PT now. and I think he still uses WL. But I really can't remember. He posts a lot of the programs/hardware he uses on the forums here. Just search for it.

Mastering in my opinion is just about making the music loud as fuck. Possibly adding a little bass or treble to the overall mix. Depends on what your doing though. I've always mastered in multiple steps. during mixing and then the final master.

But it's really just a matter of opinion. When you want to do when etc.

The only limits in music are the limits you set

[The Dev]

I have a big, stupid protools rig and just got pt8, thinking it would be the 'end all..'

You know, the more I use it, the more I like Logic. And it's 450 bucks.

Play it quietly in the background, anything that distracts you from what youre doing, make a note of and change.

I did Ziltoid on an imac with basically one preamp and a pod, and it sounds decent...

With Ki, I built a big fuck-off studio and spent a butt load of money I didn't have thinking that it would solve the problems...

I ended up doing 40% of the mix on my imac with a tcKonnekt 24.

Don't believe the hype! Mastering? I've got a buddy who does it really well, quick, and reasonable...(Troy at Spectre) just make it a bit louder, and take whats already there and make it better...(not different)

Compression and eq are a trap (new discovery for me...) mic placement and levels are the way to go.

Hope that helps.

dev

I have a big, stupid protools rig and just got pt8, thinking it would be the 'end all..'

You know, the more I use it, the more I like Logic. And it's 450 bucks.

Play it quietly in the background, anything that distracts you from what youre doing, make a note of and change.

I did Ziltoid on an imac with basically one preamp and a pod, and it sounds decent...

With Ki, I built a big fuck-off studio and spent a butt load of money I didn't have thinking that it would solve the problems...

I ended up doing 40% of the mix on my imac with a tcKonnekt 24.

Don't believe the hype! Mastering? I've got a buddy who does it really well, quick, and reasonable...(Troy at Spectre) just make it a bit louder, and take whats already there and make it better...(not different)

Compression and eq are a trap (new discovery for me...) mic placement and levels are the way to go.

Hope that helps.

dev

I've used a lot of EQ and compression latley. But I've been messing with mic placement. I know it makes the world of difference. Have you ever used Guitar Rig 3? Theres a lot of cool digital stuff you can do in it. Makes for a nice piece in a cheap effective studio.

I thought you hated macs?

[The Dev]

No no...

I fucking hate pcs's.

Different strokes though, right?

No no...

I fucking hate pcs's.

Different strokes though, right?

PC for Gaming, Mac for music making. =D That's how I roooll.

No no...

I fucking hate pcs's.

Different strokes though, right?

oh, no, Maybe I just suck at reading. Or maybe i read it in a dream and it was untrue. who knows.

Fuck PCs. Every time I've used them I've lost hours and hours and hours of work because of something stupid like someone gets on it goes to watch some porn and then the whole damn thing crashes.

I love my mac because if someone wants to get on it, I switch it to windows and they can get all the viruses they want and I can still keep my hard work.

Damn, to think of all the music I never finished because I was too stupid to start it on windows. Like that obama techno remix.

EDIT: Oh and the whole, "Oh, sorry Tor. I accidentally spilled monster/coke/pepsi/Diet fanta on your PC tower" thing sucks too.

No no...

I fucking hate pcs's.

Different strokes though, right?

You just need someone to build you a good one

I wish I could afford a mac though...=/

Of course...a friend of mine has a PC with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of plug-ins he got for free.
Something you can't do with a Mac.

maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaac comon dev

what do you hate so much about pcs?



*Edit*

and when do we get a taste of Ki?

[The Dev]

PCs are for people who truly understand computing, and are better in alot of ways for those folks...

Me, I just want to get shit done, and I'm very bad at actual computing.

I want my warning message to sing to me and say 'your firewire cable is unplugged' and not DAE 1246-12kjhgsd assertion in qually phooo (or whatever)

I guess I'm not very computer savvy.

Macs are guitar player friendly...(ie...dumb) ...ie...me.

I wasted MONTHS trying to record audio on a custom built super pc...and I sounded like a scientologist while I was using it...trying to convince my mac buddies that they were deluded.

Then I got a mac, and made 8 records...

different strokes.

If I had money I'd get a Mac. As it is, I grew up messing with pcs and know how to build and configure them, so that's what I have. Getting parts and building it yourself is cheaper too. But I really want a Mac. If there are any older ones laying around the studio, I can give you my mailing address.....

Production question: I can't get my sub drops to come through like yours do. I'm just generating a sine wave at the appropriate frequency for the song and dropping it in the mix on its own track. When it hits it ends up clipping everything, but if I lower the volume it doesn't really come through enough. Do you duck the rest of the mix and then bring it back up as the sub is fading or what?

Macs are great for when you just want shit to work, I just prefer PCs because they're cheaper, there's more compatibility with software, and there's more room for expansion. If I ever get really into recording though, I'm definatley getting a Mac.

I have no problem recording on my pc. Of course I just use my POD X3 and run it USB...

I have a macbook pro and I love it, except that ever since I upgraded the OS, my Pro Tools is broken, and to get it updated to PT8, it's gonna cost me around 270 aussie dollars. (With a DVD, like hell I'm gonna download 4 gig. Thats half my monthly usage allowance.)

I need to upgrade my comp soon, but my only gripe with macs are the prices aren't as flexible as PC's. With PC's you can shop around and build one for a cheap price, whereas with Apple its more 'this is how much, son. You don't like it? Too bad, Steve Jobs needs a new hummer.'

I'm also thinking about getting either Cubase or Logic. I wish the US dollar would come good again.