Ableton Forum

All producers want that world standard sound.

Since production has gone digital, this is possible from a home studio with the right knowledge.

I attempted to achieve the fullness of sound created by top producers. I ended up adding so many sounds and effects that I had a murky clipping production of an album. The frequency was spent.

I know the big answer could be, do more with less. I've come to understand that better.

At the same time, there are still techniques that give sufficient fullness so that one can do more with less e.g. adding reverb with low damp for percussion instruments.

I was wondering what other tricks you know. Another example I can give you to expand is Skrillex. There are a billion Dubstep artists out there using run of the mill Massive synths. He's getting an extremely unique 'fullness' out of his synths.

It means he uses the same programs and same synths doing similar things e.g. using synths in three octaves as the only synth in a powerful section of the song; but he's obviously getting noticably better results.

Please provide me with some of the secrets you've found that could allow me the confidence in doing more with less.

Just curious by what you mean when you say "low damp" in respect to reverb.

All producers want that world standard sound.

Sorry, but that is plain wrong.

Mediocre producers try to sound like other producers, but great producers sculpt their own sound. Talk about setting standards vs. obeying them.

How this is achieved? Simpler than you think. Carefully listen to the inherent beauty or ugliness of your sounds and how they blend. I mean: really listen. Try to catch the musical essence of your ingredients.

Sound engineering, in many ways, is like cooking. What you really try, is to come up with a new recipe. If you know the inherent qualities of your ingredients you may envision a new way to combine them. I always found it extremely original that blending egg yolk with oil yields mayonnaise.

But how does this translate into music production? The secret seems to me, to work with less ingredients, i.e. less tracks/clips. A blend of four sounds, that's mainly what your looking for.

There is a rationale behind it. Mixing less sounds makes each sound louder, or as you put it, cleaner. Everyone knows that, it's a very basic experience. When you solo a track, it sounds loud and full and lush. If you add another track, two different things might happen. Either, the first track suddenly becomes pale. This happens, if there is too much overlap between the two. (I do not only mean frequency-wise, or psychoacoustically, but also musically, eg. if you just repeat an idea with another voice). Or - second possibility - the added track kind of complements the first, such that the first changes character. It might change from being static to jumping around. Or from being harmonic to being tense. etc.

But it all boils down to you, listening and developing a vision from what you hear into what it might sound like and how it would blend with other ideas. Just two or three other ideas. Thats about it.

So simple, so difficult to achieve.

don't forget that nomrally, tracks you hear have been mastered, which can make a huge difference between how the track sounded before and after mastering.
Sure, years of experience plays an important role, and last but not least sound design is an art per se. I think that sound design is half of the mixdown... if you try to mix too many sounds which have most energy in a tiny frequency range, you'll hardly get a good mix.

störgeräusche wrote:don't forget that nomrally, tracks you hear have been mastered, which can make a huge difference between how the track sounded before and after mastering.
Sure, years of experience plays an important role, and last but not least sound design is an art per se. I think that sound design is half of the mixdown... if you try to mix too many sounds which have most energy in a tiny frequency range, you'll hardly get a good mix.

Not so sure about that...
I know a reputable mastering engineer and he has told me that if the eqing and compression are done correctly at the mixdown stage, Then the mastering is mainly only about adding a bit more punch and overall boost in volume.

If the mixing is crap at the production stage then the mastering engineer has to work harder to make it sound decent.