[lofi techno] let's talk about politics

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rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

22 Feb 2023

and another one



I was kinda trying for a mid to late 80s Trax Records sound? I dunno if that worked or not. But the production's pretty sweet, on the whole, I'm quite pleased with it. Shame about the album name though, it's shit. What was I thinking.

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TritoneAddiction
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Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

23 Feb 2023

I listened through all tracks. It's a fun record.
Is that the sneezing panda I hear? :puf_smile:
Yeah the album title could be better. The word "politics" just has serious tone to it that doesn't really match the playfulness of the music. I say change it if you come up with something better.

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

23 Feb 2023

TritoneAddiction wrote:
23 Feb 2023
I listened through all tracks. It's a fun record.
Is that the sneezing panda I hear? :puf_smile:
Thanks!! It was quite fun to make, quite different to my normally more dark stuff.

Yup, that's the sneezing panda, nice catch. In other bits I sampled some dialogue from skyrim, an interview with Gina Torres, and a couple of random YouTube videos.

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

23 Feb 2023

uh, also, I've reworked the first track and updated it on bc - had another listen last night and one of the synths was too loud in the mix.

Popey
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Joined: 04 Jul 2018

25 Feb 2023

Production wise everything sounds great to me.

Every song is good with my personal fave being little growing man (hope i remembered the title right). Really good album and each song had a common theme but were varied from each other.

First song gave me x-press 2 vibes and then i listened to their old muzikum album and realised it was nothing like them :lol:

Great work.

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

25 Feb 2023

Thanks man, glad you liked it!

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Kov
Posts: 467
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

05 Mar 2023

[quote=rorystorm post_id=632586 time=1677123172 user_id=16384]

I was kinda trying for a mid to late 80s Trax Records sound? I dunno if that worked or not.
[/quote]

I definitely did. Good work!

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Superology
Posts: 215
Joined: 24 Nov 2022

05 Mar 2023

What I heard seems true to you and because of that it seems a bit true to me.

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

07 Mar 2023

Thanks for your thoughts!

This is doing quite well, 476 plays since its release as of this morning.

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moalla
Posts: 541
Joined: 20 Oct 2017
Location: DDR WEST

07 Mar 2023

I listened several tracks from you rory and your sound comes perfect on most, at least all speaker/headphone systems
What speakers your using, what kind of mastering gives you this magic, form completed sound, it´s fantastic, better than professional :clap:
So it would be realy nice if you could give us some hints on how to do this :?:
https://soundcloud.com/user-594407128
Reason12.5, Yamaha EG112, Ibanez PF10, RhythmWolf, Miniak, Ipad+SparkLE
SE2200t :arrow: VAS micpre MOTO:better repair-mod well made stuff than buy the next crap

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

08 Mar 2023

Hi Moalla, thank you for your kind words. The mixing/mastering process is my least favourite part of making electronic music and I'm not very confident with it, so it's great to get some encouragement. However I"m really pleased with the recording on this project, I'm not quite sure what I did differently but I agree it sounds pretty good - for something I've made, at least.

To answer your question... for mixing: I do some on the fly eqing while recording, mainly using the eqs on the SSL - scooping out the mids around 500-600 htz, and some aggressive high pass filtering for the synths and leads, and also on the high hats.

In the past I've had problems with my mixes being too murky. So I put some high pass filtering on the kicks as well so they're more in the mid range and don't interfere with the bassline. (As well as sidechaining the bass to the kick using Pump). I also pushed the high end frequencies up a little further than I normally do.

After finishing all the tracks I normally go back and do the mixing all in one day long session. I try to use the same eq for at the end of each device chain so that everything has a consistent sound (although I know a lot of people wouldn't consider this good practice). For this project I used Kuassa's eve-at1, which I really like as it has a really nice, clear high end sparkle. After that I put a Selig Gain and set the fader so that the signal peaked at -12 db. I also used a Softube Tsar-1R reverb as a send on the drums and some of the synths, as again I like the clear high end. (In other projects I also use Synapse's Fat Space for is great for room sounds and Deep Space for more ambient sounds - they are both extremely good).

Across the master section I put a SPK Sugar-Q eq. This has a great tone if you subtly tweak the levels, especially if you turn the 'Mojo' setting - it's basically a drive - up to about 25%. It also has a nice low end. Then there's another Selig Gain set so the track peaks around -6db.

In terms of checking levels by ear, normally I do the drums first as they cover all the frequency range. Then I do an initial mix of each instrument solo'd, and check it against my drum mix, and maybe another equivalent instrument. I do a couple of full run throughs adjusting levels and eqing at full volume - I do this quite loud. Once I've turned the Gain down on the master section so the overall gain of the track is much quieter, I do another full run through. I find that listening at a quiet volume is actually really helpful for ensuring all the levels are consistent.

Once that's done for all the tracks, I import them all into T-Racks, a really good mastering program. I have a preset set up that I use consisting of an eq, a compressor, some light saturation and a tape emulation. All the settings are pretty light except for a 30 htz roll off on the eq. This is the only bit of compression I use - I hate compression, I can't get my head around it and I can't ever seem to get anything that sounds good. So, that's a thing. I do another full run through of each track, possibly slightly adjust the eq if needed, and head back into Reason if there's anything terrible. Normally I do this process in one go as well a few days later so I've given my ears a rest and had a bit of a reset.

Lastly I put the wav files on my phone and give them a listen through firstly on some headphones and then on my stereo - I'll take some notes and make any changes if necessary.

It's a pretty exhaustive process, time consuming and like I said I don't know how much of this is good practice and I don't love it much. However big the temptation is to skimp out on parts of it, it's worth the time and frustration. I did experiment with using Neutron but I was really disappointed with the results, very dull sounding and too loud.

In terms of hardware I have a really basic set up. For recording I have a pair of Beyer DT 770 Pro headphones. They're... alright. A bit tinny - I figured out the reason my mixes have been sounding flat is because they have a quiet low end and emphasise the high end, so I'd been mixing the bass too loud and the highs too quiet. For this project I used some Harmon-Kardon computer speakers I bought about 20 years ago - they have a good sound and the results were good, so I'm gonna keep doing that in the future. Like I said, I have a listen to a rough mix on my stereo and I have some vintage Pioneer speakers on that.

Okay, that was kinda an essay, hope it's interesting. Thanks once again.

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Quarmat
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Location: Europe

09 Mar 2023

rorystorm wrote:
08 Mar 2023
(...)
Okay, that was kinda an essay, hope it's interesting. Thanks once again.
It definitely was interesting. Thank you for sharing your workflow!

Also I listened to a couple songs of this album while working, so I wasn't 100% on focus, but I had my feet stomping and my head bobbing all the time, so i guess it's an thumbs up from my part!

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

09 Mar 2023

Quarmat wrote:
09 Mar 2023
rorystorm wrote:
08 Mar 2023
(...)
Okay, that was kinda an essay, hope it's interesting. Thanks once again.
It definitely was interesting. Thank you for sharing your workflow!

Also I listened to a couple songs of this album while working, so I wasn't 100% on focus, but I had my feet stomping and my head bobbing all the time, so i guess it's an thumbs up from my part!
:thumbs_up: :-) happy to be of help!

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moalla
Posts: 541
Joined: 20 Oct 2017
Location: DDR WEST

11 Mar 2023

rorystorm wrote:
08 Mar 2023
Okay, that was kinda an essay, hope it's interesting. Thanks once again.
Big thanks for your rorystorm realy informative short essay, how your working. I´m still getting crazy in mastering some times ago and did nothing since this moment to remastering my tracks. Now i know after reading your skills / attitude / you don´t like this so ....I realized for myseld I did to much finalizing shaping, compressing at every track with my over presicely Eve Sc205 speakers in the final process that electronic music mixing didn´t work that it sounds like bumbum porridge :lol:
So your low dynamics tip tracks, all levels down small speakers at maximum level seems the best way to tame electronicmusic dynamics ...., what is the real maximum factor of loudness at the end for headphones, internal pc speakers etc. :lightbulb:
So i snapped some logitech X140 closed pc speakers for 5bucks yesterday and yeah this is working now, far better than neutral professional chesse who are fine if your searching for the holy grail of tune a voice :!:
I´ve got tips at gearspace when i asked "Im crazy with mastering in electronic music" what can I do, last answers i´ve got like try izotope ozone, load up your stuff at AI Landr shissl missl .... weird discussion lastly.... Your practical advice is the best i´ve read since I´m thinking about this problem.

DANKESCHÖN
https://soundcloud.com/user-594407128
Reason12.5, Yamaha EG112, Ibanez PF10, RhythmWolf, Miniak, Ipad+SparkLE
SE2200t :arrow: VAS micpre MOTO:better repair-mod well made stuff than buy the next crap

rorystorm
Posts: 777
Joined: 06 Jul 2019

12 Mar 2023

Thanks!!!

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