Just finished a new track with FL, within those 21 hours, only about 9 were used to compose the track, the rest being mixing, mixing and mixing.......... It just takes so many times to get the best sounding...
What do you mean? Trouble with likie the EQ, recording itself and getting the audio lined up, or reverb and stuff?
I rarely use EQ or compressors or limiters. Reverb now and then. Once I start getting more into vocals I'm sure all of that will change.
The Fruity Reverb 2 is perfect for vocals, it gives it that soft echo thats on virtually all songs today, I use Reverb 1 for snares and claps. I don't really use the compressor or limiter either, but I use EQ for the kick sometimes, or to bring depth to vocals.
Let's just say that sometimes the strings were too loud, or the piano was too 'out-standing' etc. It's hard to find a balance between instruments.
What are you using to monitor? That's next, a hardware thread. I've just got basic logitec speakers with a sub and some skullcandy headphones. Thinkin about gettin some nice Seinheisers (however u spell that) and some Beats Pro. I know what you mean but I think good hardware has a lot to do with it.
You just need a good ear for that stuff. I feel like I can mix volumes really quickly now. I have shitty headphones (don't know why I haven't bought new ones yet), but they are ok for everything but low frequency. So after I feel like I'm done mixing I'll go out to my car and bump it and then re-mix everything based on how bad the bass was off in my headphone mixing. I've been meaning to buy some Sony MDR7506 headphones for a couple months now. I heard they are still better than the 709's, as well as cheaper. Just been too lazy I guess. Supposedly a lot of people say you can mix solely with those and get high quality results. It'd be nice to buy some really nice speakers/monitors, but I'd be waking up all my neighbors if I got those.
I've got large home speakers at home and an AKG K81DJ headphone so hardware shouldn't be my problem. I assume I got good ears By the way, I occasionally use Fruity Multiband Compressor because some of my tracks were of low volume.
Yeah Trav as you know I'm a pretty conservative guy, and don't think u need all the fancy stuff. And compressing is about the only thing I don't have down in FL, I've seen tutorials, but I haven't seen a need for it. I know it gives a little snap to the snare, but I can't hear much of a difference.
I use compressor to up my tracks a few dBs, nothing else~~ That aside, do you guys have any clues on where to find those heavy epic hitting drums? Pretty much like the ones on the start of this track and especially the one kick at 1:00 http://www.mediafire.com/?mfbb0g9hdkt8075 WAV samples are okay but I prefer sf2 or vst plugins as they come in more handy. Thanks!
Sorry I'm at work, Mediafire isn't the best place to visit, do you have a youtube link? I have a good 808 pack for FL, and adding bass in Fruity EQ 2 and Reverb 1 always helps for big kick sounds.
Here you go : [video=youtube;TSLpUZ9cWE0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSLpUZ9cWE0[/video] It's like those epic drums.
The kicks seemed like somthing 'tribal', you can just search google for 'tribal drum packs' or something. It sounded like a live kick with a tinge of reverb. As for the other drums, I don't think you were asking about and i'm definitely not an expert, but was just lots of 'LP' , bit lowering, and reverb effects.
Thanks man, in fact I did once try to search for tribal drums and ended up finding African ones, the really tribal ones lol.
No probs. A little bit of reverb might help for the 'epic' effect. Its all about your ear, not necessarily what someone else thinks, but that should be a start! And if you want the kick harder of course just deepin it in the EQ.
Sometimes I feel that computer generated soundfonts have no soul, pianos for example, they just don't sound like real performance no matter how I adjust the notes...
Yeah, that's for sure. Unless you really take your time with sequencing the volume of each separate note it won't sound great like a real piano would. Guitar is another really hard one. Chords are impossible. But everything else can be done fairly easily.
I have yet to hear a convincing guitar VST/soundfont. Piano, at least for me, is easy now. You just have to look around for good sounding VSTs and take the time to humanize the midi a little bit.