Page 42 - Zone Magazine Issue 012

STUDIO TIPS 002
Myths & misconceptions Music Production >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Daneil Daly
Myths and misconceptions can be found everywhere and music production is no exception. These beliefs can often hinder your progress, as they send you down the wrong path with no way back.
The aim of these articles is to clear up some of the more popular misconceptions and hopefully provide you with a better understanding of the truth. Since there are a great deal of misconceptions within the music industry, we obviously cannot fit them all into the space of one article.
Instead, these will be spread across a few different issues of the magazine. Hopefully these articles will answer any questions you have and motivate you to research more into the subjects.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 1. “The More the Merrier”
When it comes to producing music, it can often be tempting to add more elements if your track is not going in the direction you want it to. This can lead to a muddy mix and a clash of conflicting frequencies, which creates more problems within the track than you need. If you can achieve your desired sound with just a few elements, you will have a much easier time balancing your mix. The idea of “Less is More” can be applied all across the music production spectrum, from sample selection right through to the final master stage. If you scroll through some of your favourite artists Instagram or Facebook accounts, you will often see screenshots of their DAW along with them boasting about using 100+ channels to create their track. This may seem impressive, but more often than not, will create a sense of self
doubt when it comes to making your own track. The idea of the more channels you use the better, cannot be more further from the truth. If
you rewind back to the early days of house and techno, the artists were fairly restricted to what equipment they could use. Often times utilizing hardware they found in a pawn shop or if they were lucky enough, thrown in a skip. However, they may only have had a limited number of tools to work with, but this restriction enabled them to be more creative and push the constraints of their equipment to the very limit. Here are a few tips to combat overcomplicating the production process, in a now over crowded world of endless plugins and sample packs.
• Limit yourself to X amount of Synth plugins and Y amount of Effects plugins per project. Have you ever taken a look at your plugin folder and wondered why you have several compressor plugins but only ever use 1? Choose 1 or 2 plugins and get rid of the rest, the more options you have, the more you feel obliged to using them.
• Make a folder just for your favourite samples and build up your own unique sample pack. This will shorten your time scrolling through endless amounts of sample packs, making the time from initial inception to finished product a lot faster.
• Solo and unsolo channels within your track. If you can't hear it or it does not add to the track, delete it.
• If you are spending a lot of time drastically eq'ing a sound trying to make it fit, 9 times out of 10 it won't. You are much better off creating a new sound that will fit that frequency spectrum, than trying to excessively force a weaker sound to do so.
• Bounce similar elements such as hi-hats and percussion down to one single audio file. Since hi-hats and percussion will be occupying a lot of
the same frequencies, bounce these elements down to one single track to make the final stages of your production a lot less time consuming.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2. “Louder is Better”
A popular myth that thankfully is becoming less prevalent in the audio world, is the idea that “Louder is Better.” The idea behind this myth, is that the louder you make your track, the better it will sound compared to other tracks, thus making it more popular. It is understandable to think this way as naturally you would perceive something louder as being “better.” But if we use the example of being at a restaurant with some friends, everybody is chatting and having a great time. If somebody at a table on the other side of the restaurant starts speaking considerably louder than everybody else, it may seem acceptable for a short period of time and you take no notice, but after a while it becomes annoying.
This is similar to how you perceive loudness in the audio realm. You might tolerate loud levels for a certain length of time, but over time you will eventually want to turn it down, as the lack of dynamics becomes quite fatiguing to your ears. When reaching for dynamic processing plugins such as compressors and limiters, you should use them sparingly and occasionally A/B the dry and wet signal to really see if you are improving the sonic characteristics of the sound or if you are simply making it louder. In the case of using a compressor, one trick would be to duplicate the track that you are compressing. Keep one channel clean with no compressor on it and on the other duplicated track, add a compressor with your desired settings.
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