Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
beats me
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by beats me » Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:00 pm

How about a "Timothy Allan RTFM" podcast series?

Apparently reading PDFs on my iPhone while driving is dangerous behavior or some such horse shit. Pfft.

For the video aspect I'd greatly enjoy a slideshow of pictures from your childhood. And try to have a bit of fun with it and have your wife giggle in the background periodically. Nothing says comic genius like a female laughing in the background at everything you say.

timothyallan
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by timothyallan » Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:47 pm

I'm going to put a laugh track on it and tell awful jokes the whole time I think. :)

Some very good food for thought here guys, thanks for the input. I'm off to add some of them to my increasing excel file now!


edit: Saxer, do you have any vocal content I could use? I don't have the preamp/mic setup to record 'proper' acoustic/vocal sessions here. I'm mainly electronic.

broken_specs: Groove3 did a music theory video already, theory is theory really, electronic music or not. It might be worth looking at?

funken: getting a professional modern house sound takes a lot more than a 5 minute tip. Every little thing you do from conception to final mastering will influence that :)

Bizon
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by Bizon » Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:02 pm

Tarekith wrote:- The proper way to use a side-chained compressor.

- How to do a remix.

- How to clean up a project to send to a collaberator.

- Basslines, how to be big without being over-powering.

Yes! +1

Rave
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by Rave » Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:03 pm

I think we need a video on why macs are better for music production. :twisted:

How about one on preparing your shit for live play?

timothyallan
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by timothyallan » Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:10 pm

Rave wrote:I think we need a video on why macs are better for music production. :twisted:

How about one on preparing your shit for live play?
I thought everyone knew Macs were better, maybe I'll do a quick slideshow on the extra warmth you get.


The live thing isn't a bad idea, and it's been mentioned a few times. It's just that everyone has their own vision of "live".

For example: When I first started preparing for live gigs, I had 12-16 tracks of everything from my kick/bass/perc/synth etc all split up and I had massive control of everything, filter/eq on every channel blahblahblah. When I actually gigged with it, it was way too hard to keep track of everything that was going on, and I couldn't structure the tracks the way. Trying to do a breakdown and slam 16 faders/knobs down with two hands was hard, trying to slowly build up those 16 knobs and faders was even harder. However, some people might like doing it that way. Some people do Toms "meegasit" ;) way which he spent hours and hours explaining.

Soooooooo in a nutshell, I probably couldn't make it generic enough so everyone would get something out of it.

William
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by William » Fri Dec 24, 2010 4:27 pm

I'd like to see high def videos that demonstrate using eq to solve frequency masking in a myriad of different situations. All examples shown would be "in the mix".
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Bizon
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by Bizon » Tue Dec 28, 2010 2:37 am

Can you do a tutorial on Warping?

I know there is lots of videos on warping but they do not do a good job. They mostly do a beginners approach. I would like to see one that is more advance.

For example, can you take vocals from a Rap, pop, or alternative song and warp it to 4 on the floor. Or similarly, do the same with the instrumental.

Thanks

alex.the.forge
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by alex.the.forge » Tue Dec 28, 2010 3:32 am

Bizon wrote:Can you do a tutorial on Warping?

I know there is lots of videos on warping but they do not do a good job. They mostly do a beginners approach. I would like to see one that is more advance.

For example, can you take vocals from a Rap, pop, or alternative song and warp it to 4 on the floor. Or similarly, do the same with the instrumental.

Thanks
not to hijack, but I've covered warping pretty thoroughly in other Groove3 videos from "Live explained" and "DJing with Live" - I've also looked at using vocals. I've devoted a lot of time to it really, and it was pretty involved, so there's probably no point Tim re-inventing the wheel here.

If you can be more specific about what you feel is missing maybe we can point you in the right direction.

We actually talked about offering all the warping videos as a separate title at one point for this very reason but we never ended up doing it. I think Groove3 felt that as you can have access to their entire library for a whole month for $30 (including all videos, not just Live) or you can rent individual titles for a month for about $10 then people might as well do that and then they have the choice of watching all the extra stuff as well. If it would cost the same for a title just covering warping then it might feel a little light on info. But yeah the down side is maybe "DJing with Live" covers some things that "Live explained" doesn't and vice versa.

But as always, we're always very keen to hear where people feel things could be improved.

Another thing to consider is due to copyright we can't just take any track we like and use it as an example, and as there are so many people out there into so many different styles we can't always be all things to all people. But personally I usually go out of my way to be as non-specific as I can and focus more on the process than maybe just one particular style. For example, if we did "warping rap vocals" then people who aren't into rap might not bother looking at it when essentially the process is the same.

Khazul
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by Khazul » Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:25 am

nopattern wrote:
Tarekith wrote:- The proper way to use a side-chained compressor.
setting lookhead to 0 and maybe selecting post mixer for the sidechain to do it old school style is a good way to go for dance music

ableton's sidechain still has never quite worked right for me, i use cubase or reason with a perfect result
If you want very heavy pumping - I do one fo the following:
1. Pull the threshold right down below the minimum level of the kick and enable bandpass EQ between 600-2Khz to get mainly the attack of the kick hammering the compressor (so you get lots of time adjustment range on the release and curve, tune attack, release, ratio, curve to taste).
or 2. Use several sidechained compressors in series.
Nothing to see here - move along!

timothyallan
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by timothyallan » Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:09 pm

wrong video funken, my videos have 0 acoustic anything in them :)

get a track to a 'pro' sound level/quality involves every choice, every step of the way... it's not just a mixdown unfortunately. It just comes with experience.

alex.the.forge
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by alex.the.forge » Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:31 pm

timothyallan wrote:wrong video funken, my videos have 0 acoustic anything in them :)


I think he meant my "effects plugins explained" one.
timothyallan wrote:get a track to a 'pro' sound level/quality involves every choice, every step of the way... it's not just a mixdown unfortunately. It just comes with experience.
yeah I was just about to say the same thing… the thing most people want when starting out is some magic tips and tricks that will produce a "pro" sound immediately, but at the end of the day there's no substitute for years of practice and experience.
funken wrote: By the way I have the groove 3 one on effects but a lot looked as if it was for acoustic instruments, maybe I should watch it again and not skip stuff?

Must get round to that skype session!
Yes there are acoustic drums and "regular" instruments used as examples, (and also electronic drums) but ultimately it's all just audio engineering, so the science behind it is largely the same regardless of the examples. Put another way, if you grasp what is covered in it then you should find your mixing improves.

anybody human
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by anybody human » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:28 pm

Picking up on a couple of points, Tarekith's point about bass being big but not overpowering and Funken's point about hearing each instrument; Basically I think clarity and definition in a mix just come from experience but one can always use some help.

Setting aside rigid dance music genres, which for a long time have been so traditional as to have rules and templates, or current pop and rap music that borrow heavily from dance production, these are hard enough to achieve but less subjective. So much goes into it but atleast you'd know when you've approached that kind of sound.

The mixes that really interest me though are what I guess you'd call electronic pop music and things that fall under the umbrella of idm. For instance, the clarity of each instrument on the Fever Ray album or the low end definition of Pantha Du Prince "Black Noize". It blows my mind the clarity people are achieving in mixes like these.

Fever Ray "Seven". 1st is audio, 2nd is the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW972em87MU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN3oOo7bpks
Pantha Du Prince "Behind The Stars" & "Bohemian Forest".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S184ugE0jcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqv0rvk_ ... re=related

Perhaps the low end definition could be addressed in a tutorial. Getting the kind of mix placement and clarity of the FM bell type sounds in Fever Ray's "Seven" would be harder to explain. As Timothy & Alex have said, great mixes come from every aesthetic decision made from the ground on up and can only come from years of experience. If I had to describe a good audio engineer in one word I'd say "experienced".

anybody human
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Re: Things you want to see explained/worked through in video?

Post by anybody human » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:37 pm

BTW Thanks for doing this stuff guys. I'm glad people are out there sharing their knowledge and helping build community. I always get something out of it and find a hint of inspiration to start a new idea.

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