10 Tips For Better Basslines From Attack Magazine

This article link has a bunch of great tips, explanations, images, and mp3 examples of how to get better bass. Via Attack Magazine.

Using Parallel Compression For Mastering

A parallel compressor brings out the quiet parts in the mix just like regular compressor. But what is the difference between parallel and normal compression? A parallel compressor can work without limiting the peaks or transients artificially. You adjust the ratio of quiet sounds to loud ones and retain all dynamics. How it works is by mixing Dry & Wet signals to taste.



First of all what is compression?

Compression can make all sounds in the mix the same volume. It does this by reducing the signal when it goes past certain threshold (the threshold control).

- A low threshold compresses everything.

- The highest threshold compresses nothing.

The ratio you set the plugin also determines if the signal is compresses or not. It controls the amount of gain reduction directly.

- A low ratio, or 1:1 compresses nothing.

- The higher you set the ratio, 2:1, 4:1, or infinity, the more gain reduction you get.

- The attack and decay controls only adjust timing of when compression happens. Not the loudness of the signal. Long attacks delay the compression from happening. Short decays turn it off quick when the signal leaves the threshold area. Long decays keep the compression on for longer.

Tips:

- We may not realize that compression doesn't make the signal loud. Its job is to reduce it.

- Gain / Output controls may give us the false sense that compression itself is making things things loud after the fact. After the gain reduction, we usually boost the signal back to normal levels.

- With Parallel compression, one of the signals can be totally compressed. Notice how my threshold settings above have are set to compress the entire signal.

- You can use Parallel compression as the final effect in the chain. I have it post eq, exciter, and multi-band-limiter.

Paralell Compression:

If you mix a totally compressed signal back in with the original, you get a louder, airy sound that is not crunchy from normal compression or  hard limiting. We are controlling the ratio of loud sounds to quiet ones. Gone are the typical artifacts or distortion from typical compression plugins. Both signals must be synced properly however, so the wave forms lay over eachother perfectly. Its probably best to use a single plugin than doing it yourself. A plugin with Wet / Dry controls will achieve the desired effect. Try it on your master bus.

Another Tip: You should manually ride the faders afterward.

If you've reached the end you'll have a perfectly cooked burrito, ready for an on-the-go lifestyle.

Multiband Limiting To A Loudness Curve & NS10s

This is a mini tutorial that will attempt to explain the fletcher-munson loudness curve to get a better sounding mix.

Things you should know before we start:

1. Human hearing is not flat. Our monitoring system may be flat, but our ears aren't. The human ear canal resonates around 3k. We perceive sound between 1k and 5k as louder than it really is. Sound in this range can become painful when we turn our speakers up. This is the same range that guitars are played in.

Already knowing this will help us get better mix translation. We know not to boost sound in this area too much.

2. Humans have trouble hearing at extreme ends of the spectrum (at low volume) We can't hear treble past 10k as well as we think. We can't hear bass as well as we think either. We like to boost our stereo. BUT....

3. How we perceive sound changes at different volumes.



The large upward bass curve represents what we can't hear well. The lowest sections on the curve is what "sticks out" to us. The louder music gets (higher up on the graph), the better we can hear bass. The curve gets flatter.

If your music is meant to be played on a club system or stadium, it doesn't need as much bass boost as you'd think. Notice the top curves are flatter. That means we have no trouble hearing it. Mixing on a flatter curve could encourage the listener to crank up your music, if you desire that. Also remember that people have EQ'd their sound systems themselves. This adds a monkey wrench to the situation. Since we can't know or rely on these different systems its up to the mix engineer to use the loudness curve (and consider dynamic range).

Now on to the multiband limiter.

Limiters allow you to change audio gain for custom bands. (Top graphic). Before limiting, You may want to decrease 2k to 6k bands by as much as 10db. This can be done with the gain knob. You can also increase the bass & treble range. Since I want to play my music loud, I might only boost bass by 3.5db. However if my bass kick is already loud I will leave it alone. At this point I'm not trying to get a competitively loud mix. Adjusting the mixer is probably better than using the multiband limiter, but we may not have access to that when we master! When I'm done making the mix sound right by approximating my loudness curve, I can try limiting with the main slider (makes the entire signal louder).

Now you should have a better mix!

Why do I use a multi-band limiter instead of EQ? The ones I use don't color my mix like many EQs. They have easy band controls. I can solo each EQ zone I set up. That helps me hear whats going on seperately. Later on, the compression & limiting function can help me shape the bass and the entire mix. I'm killing three birds with one stone. One plugin to mix to the loudness curve. One plugin to compress my bass peaks. One plugin to brickwall limit my volume.



The Yamaha NS10

The reason that Yamaha NS-10 speaker  translates so well is because they have just the right frequency bump in the 1k to 5k range where we can hear just fine alerady. Its a forwardness you don't want to hear at high volume because it causes pain. As a flat playback system the NS-10 is a failure, but when mixing, the exaggerated nature of this range makes a good tool.

Don't have NS10s? Just do the opposite of this tutorial. Bump the 1k to 5k frequency range by 8-10db instead of decreasing it. Ajdust your mix. Just remember to bypass it when you are done mixing!

So why did I bother getting a flat monitoring system? 

1. Good for playback at higher volume. Great for movies & video games.

2. Mixing & mastering at medium to high volumes.

3. The flat response serves purely as mental reference. No second guessing as to what it might be.

So with this knowledge we know that mixing at low volumes could lead to error. However if we add some EQ or loudness on our playback system, we can compensate a little. Even knowing this, the end results should always be checked on a flat system at a higher volume. The multi band limiter's single band gain control might be the right tool to get you there.

Why does Tron 2's soundtrack sound like a loud piece of junk? Perhaps it was mastered at lower volume, on a small system. This caused over compensation. Or perhaps they know not everyone turns up the volume on their junky home DVD system.

(8) Best Plugins For 2013

1. Korg Monopoly  Korg Monopoly is a great option for subtractive synthesis. I like it much better than Diva. It has better presets, more presets, better CPU economy, and doesn't give you that paranoid feeling you get when you've been synthesizing too long. Something about the filter & overall character is much more agreeable.) Go with Korg. With the Monopoly software you can crank the resonance all the way and not feel "disturbed." Korg has better effects too.



2. Cyclop This is the best bass synthesizer. It has the modern tone most people are looking for. There is a somewhat steep learning curve, with odd control labeling, but its worth using. There is not another plugin on the Mac thats quite like it. It is much better than NI Massive.



3. Heel Audio Mix Ref

This is a free Mac OS X plugin that is basically a speaker emulator. If you need to tame a sound or check an entire mix this gives you a virtual reference.



4. Amplitube 3

This classic plugin suite has so many good effects and amp simulations. Its a must have for any producer. The stomp boxes are useable, even with the rest of the chain bypassed.



5. Addictive Drums XLN

A very good interface for creating your own customized drumset. If you have no room to record drums this is your best option. The samples are very responsive. The level of control is very good.



6. Toontrack EZ Mix

If you have no idea what you are doing, and don't want to screw around with FX, this is an easy and fast solution. Its also a decent deal. Everything is labeled and it can make you more creative in record time. The level of FX control is not deep, but its not supposed to be. All the presets generally sound good. You don't need to learn a mixing tutorial with this plug.



6. Oxford Sonnox & Inflator

Great compression and mixing plugins. They make everything you run through them sound "better."



7. Izotop Ozone

I still use this for mastering when time is tight. The presets provided get you 80% of the way there, and with a little tweaking, make your mixes sound more commercial.



8. SoundToys & Filterfreak

A fun set of filters & effects that provide a wild character. Sounds Great.

9. Channel 3

This is mixer / channel emulator designed to replicate expensive consoles. Its kind of an audio exciter or EQ? It puts a nice touch on your sound. It is Free.

10. Elysia MPressor.

This is an excellent plugin for drum compression & pre-master effects. It can do the Daft Punk Homework fast attack and bring up the detail in your sounds.

11. Waves L3 Ultramaximizer. By far the best audio limiter for an extreme sound.

12. PSP Vintage Warmer Plugins Another must have for the end-chain in your mastering arsenal. This plugin inflates the stereo field and bumps bass.

Analog Synthesizers Don't Need Dynamic Compression.

Analog synthesizers don't need standard compression. You are lucky if your sound has any dynamics to compress in the first place. Dynamics usually have to be programmed into the sound. Dynamics are the result of amp envelopes, resonance modulation, and effects. Without these you don't have much range and material to compress. In a lot of tutorials, that were first geared toward mixing acoustic sounds, this knowledge might have been lost. Compression on synth sounds in EDM can be a waste of time.

Natural percussive sounds can have huge transients. This is a case where compression helps a lot. It can help on drum machines sometimes. But if you notice, when you put a synth in the mix, its super loud already and cuts through everything. It doesn't need to be louder. You could just bump up the mixer knob instead. Don't bother compressing and making it louder unless you really know what you are doing.

You should try compression on drums, so check out this article which helps explain mixing techniques for drums a bit better.