Barbara Jean English - "You're Gonna Need Somebody to Love You"

[Iron Keys]

Mike Chief - "Midnight Hour"

Dope. Thoroughly enjoyed that

Proper Just Blaze vibes.

 

[Iron Keys]

Any secrets on how you're able to push the volume so much? I've been trying to gain stage and follow other tips but I still feel I'm losing big time in the loudness war.

Clip.

Saturate.

Steal a decibel here and there everywhere you can in the mix. If you can make everything even a dB louder without incurring distortion or losing headroom, your loudness will start creeping up.


Don't worry about 'gain staging', it's pretty irrelevant in regards to loudness. It's fairly irrelevant fullstop if you're working in-the-box.


Lemme know how you get on or if you got any other specifics.

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

What do you know, a few weeks later and I'm working on a beat haha. I will say though, I'm actually making an effort to play what I make in this one, and I think it's turning out pretty good so far.

 

[Mike Chief]

I really like your flip, man. My only thought is that it's a little repetitive at certain points, but it could just be my personal preference.

Any secrets on how you're able to push the volume so much? I've been trying to gain stage and follow other tips but I still feel I'm losing big time in the loudness war.

Thanks man. And honestly, all I did was do a little EQ and then use a limiter to help boost levels. One of my things is to ignore the loudness war - everything is always pushed to the max but I find it unnecessary sometimes. Depending on vibe of the track, you my not want to participate in the loudness war. I find it better in some situations to abandon that desire to compete with everyone maxing their levels and focus on putting forth something clear clean and comprehensive rather than being the loudest one in the room.

 

[Dusty B]

Thanks man. And honestly, all I did was do a little EQ and then use a limiter to help boost levels. One of my things is to ignore the loudness war - everything is always pushed to the max but I find it unnecessary sometimes. Depending on vibe of the track, you my not want to participate in the loudness war. I find it better in some situations to abandon that desire to compete with everyone maxing their levels and focus on putting forth something clear clean and comprehensive rather than being the loudest one in the room.

Appreciate it! Do you use a limiter on individual channel or the master (or both?)? Thank you!!

 

[Mike Chief]

@Dusty B Well, in this instance just on the individual channel. I try to keep the master as clear as possible. Only thing I really like to put on the master is a parametric eq to chop off either end of the frequency spectrum, and in some cases a limiter. Other than that for some quick glue I'll throw on Ozone and use one of their presets.

 

[Dusty B]

@Dusty B Well, in this instance just on the individual channel. I try to keep the master as clear as possible. Only thing I really like to put on the master is a parametric eq to chop off either end of the frequency spectrum, and in some cases a limiter. Other than that for some quick glue I'll throw on Ozone and use one of their presets.

Appreciate this. I think over the last couple weeks I've been trying to fuck around with too much shit. Thanks for the reminder that I really just need to make sure I'm doing the basics right and that there's no magic VST or preset.

 

[Mike Chief]

@Dusty B Yeah man, with certain things I try to minimize the amount of plug-ins for the sake of not putting too much icing on the cake. For me, the end goal is to have a mix that sounds like its mastered already using minimal techniques. Most drum packs/instruments are already eq'd and need minimal tweaking unless youre looking for a super unique/specific sound.

Another note on the samples - instead of downloading straight from youtube, I'll try to find a more direct source/download the whole album to avoid possible degradation of quality.

 

[2GooD Productions]

I would mix the exact same kick differently on two different tracks, because mixing is about the context of the track you are working on. Especially its bassline and anything in the low frequencies that might compete with or mask the kick. This has nothing to do with loudness, its about balance and clarity. A loud master is entirely dependent on the quality of the mix, not a few plugins. The plugins are just tools, while I agree, less is more as everything you add to the signal chain colours it, and its very easy for people that dont understand what they are doing to make their mix worse, but thats a part of the learning process. You need to make mistakes to learn from them

 

[Mike Chief]

I would.mix the exact same kick differently on two different tracis, because mixing is about the context of the track you are working on. Especially its bassline and anything in the low frequencies that might compete with or mask the kick. This has nothing to do with loudness, its about balance and clarity. A loud master is entirely dependent on the quality of the mix, not a few plugins. The plugins are just tools, while I agree, less is more as everything you add to the signal chain colours it, and its very easy for people that dont understand what they are doing to make their mix worse, but thats a part of the learning process. You need to make mistakes to learn from them

Absolute facts

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

Here's what I got so far. I'll probably keep working on it, but I've grown bored with working on it for the time being. A hell of a lot slower this way but it's coming along. Like I said in the chat, RX 10 is fuckin awesome. I love being able to take any part from the beat and putting vocals where they weren't originally. Super handy.

 

[2GooD Productions]

@iDeaLoGiK dope flip

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

Thanks. I've tweaked it a bit, and added new loop of that weird pitch bendy synth to the 2nd section as well. I also took half of the first loop completely out of it so the changeup comes sooner. I have this habit of making verse sections 16 bars long every time, but for this particular case it doesn't really make sense.

I must have stumbled into a bot network for some reason, since uploading it I've gotten almost 400 views on it.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Thanks. I've tweaked it a bit, and added new loop of that weird pitch bendy synth to the 2nd section as well. I also took half of the first loop completely out of it so the changeup comes sooner. I have this habit of making verse sections 16 bars long every time, but for this particular case it doesn't really make sense.

I must have stumbled into a bot network for some reason, since uploading it I've gotten almost 400 views on it.

If you have a pro account on soundcloud now you get 100+ free listens.

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

If you have a pro account on soundcloud now you get 100+ free listens.

Per upload? This is the second time I got hundreds of views in a short amount of time.

 

[Dusty B]

Per upload? This is the second time I got hundreds of views in a short amount of time.

Perhaps you're blowing up

 

[Dusty B]

I would mix the exact same kick differently on two different tracks, because mixing is about the context of the track you are working on. Especially its bassline and anything in the low frequencies that might compete with or mask the kick. This has nothing to do with loudness, its about balance and clarity. A loud master is entirely dependent on the quality of the mix, not a few plugins. The plugins are just tools, while I agree, less is more as everything you add to the signal chain colours it, and its very easy for people that dont understand what they are doing to make their mix worse, but thats a part of the learning process. You need to make mistakes to learn from them

Thanks @2GooD Productions @Mike Chief

Do you try to target a certain RMS or don't worry about that?

 

[iDeaLoGiK]

Perhaps you're blowing up

Hah, nah, it doesn't happen for everything. Last thing I uploaded that this happened to got 200ish views in its first day, and then like 600 views in a week, and then dropped off dramatically, and also in my insights the views ended up getting removed (although it still showed it on the beat itself). This one got nearly 200 more than that by the end of the day. I uploaded something in between that only got 20. I've only uploaded 3 things in 3 months, and 2 out of the 3 got this kind of viewership. A lot of it in ukraine for some reason. Maybe I'm just popular there, but it feels like a bot network thing.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Per upload? This is the second time I got hundreds of views in a short amount of time.

yes, per upload

 

[2GooD Productions]

Thanks @2GooD Productions @Mike Chief

Do you try to target a certain RMS or don't worry about that?

When mixing it dont aim for any LUFS. But once the mix is done I will try to push it to -9 LUFS Integrated. If I have done a decent mix then there shouldn't be any problems.