1 Jun
2010
1 Jun
'10
8 a.m.
Hi everyone,
I've been try to compose for several months/years now and i'm never pleased
with the mix and with the synth sounds. My use of effects and filters are
more or less random. I'm self-educated here but not very well ;-).
More, each time I listen to my tracks on a new system, it sounds different.
So I'm willing to learn some mixing techniques (and some synth techniques as
well). I'd like to have a better understanding of sound mixing and synth. A
little studying will do me good.
Do you know any good book references about these subjects, french or english
? Of course if they tackle the subject of free audio software as well I
would just be great.
Thanks for your help !
jy
1 Jun
1 Jun
8:24 a.m.
Salut Jean-Yves!
There is a book by Bob Katz - I think his name is - on mastering and
probably mixing.
I've found some synth manuals very helpful concerning synth techniques. A
very nicely written one was the Clavia Nordlead 3's. You should still be able
to download it on www.clavia.se or www.nordkeyboards.com. Of course there's a
lot about the synth. But all its controls are directly on the surface, so they
talk about how to use the features. the NL3 is a typical virtual analogue
synth, supporting subtractive and FM synthesis.
There are also some nice tutorials about Linux audio, including at least one
about mastering for loudness by Ron Parker, they can be found here:
http://quicktoots.linuxaudio.org/
Well generally speaking: It's not too disturbing that one piece sounds
different on different systems. It happens to my pieces as well. I found these
few basic tipps helpful:
1. Always remember, that headphones don't reflect that much base. So don't
make your sound too brilliant, when using headphones.
2. when mixing it's a good idea to distribute sounds across the stereo
panorama, especially when they are around the same main frequencies.
3. When deciding on sounds: Perhaps start out with instruments in different
frequency ranges, and try not to use to many instruments with similar
characteristics at the same time.
Very basic Iagree, but helpful for a start.
I hope, this helps a bit.
Best wishes
Julien
--------
Music was my first love and it will be my last (John Miles)
======== FIND MY WEB-PROJECT AT: ========
http://ltsb.sourceforge.net
the Linux TextBased Studio guide
======= AND MY PERSONAL PAGES AT: =======
http://www.juliencoder.de
8:41 a.m.
On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:00:17 +0200
Jean-Yves Poilleux <jypllx(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Do you know any good book references about these
subjects, french or
english ? Of course if they tackle the subject of free audio software
as well I would just be great.
Bobby Owsinski: Mixing Engineer's Handbook (2nd Ed.)
* more geared towards analog recording but there are plenty of
fundamental concepts that apply regardless.
Bob Katz: Mastering Audio - the art and the science
* _the_ book on mastering audio.
These are two I always come back to.
Sorry, no suggestions for synthesis - has always been a black box for
me.
David
9:08 a.m.
Great ! I'll look into that!!
Thx !
jy
2010/6/1 David Santamauro <david.santamauro(a)gmail.com>
On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:00:17 +0200
Jean-Yves Poilleux <jypllx(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Do you know any good book references about these
subjects, french or
english ? Of course if they tackle the subject of free audio software
as well I would just be great.
Bobby Owsinski: Mixing Engineer's Handbook (2nd Ed.)
* more geared towards analog recording but there are plenty of
fundamental concepts that apply regardless.
Bob Katz: Mastering Audio - the art and the science
* _the_ book on mastering audio.
These are two I always come back to.
Sorry, no suggestions for synthesis - has always been a black box for
me.
David
9:19 a.m.
On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 10:00:17AM +0200, Jean-Yves Poilleux wrote:
I've been try to compose for several months/years
now and i'm never pleased
with the mix and with the synth sounds. My use of effects and filters are
more or less random. I'm self-educated here but not very well ;-).
More, each time I listen to my tracks on a new system, it sounds different.
So I'm willing to learn some mixing techniques (and some synth techniques as
well). I'd like to have a better understanding of sound mixing and synth. A
little studying will do me good.
Do you know any good book references about these subjects, french or english
? Of course if they tackle the subject of free audio software as well I
would just be great.
Bob Katz has already been mentioned.
Porbably the most efficient way to learn this sort of thing
is to work under the supervision of someone who knows what
he's doing, either formally or unformally.
Apart from that, again 'know what you are doing' - that is
don't just turn knobs blindly, but try to understand why
things work or don't work, and learn the relation between
'the knobs' and 'the sound'.
If something sounds OK after you have been tweaking it for
a long time, the chances are that I will disappoint you when
you hear it again next week. The reason is that your hearing
will adapt even to the worst ideas if you give them enough
time. This improves with training and lots of very conscious
listening. But an essential part of being able to set e.g. an
equaliser or an effect is to do it relatively quickly and
without too much 'exploration'.
Ciao,
--
FA
O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
E guerra e morte !
11:23 a.m.
On the synthesis side, I recommend Curtis Roads' _The Computer Music
Tutorial_. It covers various other topics related to digital audio
and computer music as well.
For free, there's also Miller S. Puckett's _The Theory and Technique
of Electronic Music_. It's focused on PureData, but the general
concepts apply to any synthesis environment.
micromoog
On 6/1/10, fons(a)kokkinizita.net <fons(a)kokkinizita.net> wrote:
On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 10:00:17AM +0200, Jean-Yves
Poilleux wrote:
I've been try to compose for several
months/years now and i'm never
pleased
with the mix and with the synth sounds. My use of effects and filters are
more or less random. I'm self-educated here but not very well ;-).
More, each time I listen to my tracks on a new system, it sounds
different.
So I'm willing to learn some mixing techniques (and some synth techniques
as
well). I'd like to have a better understanding of sound mixing and synth.
A
little studying will do me good.
Do you know any good book references about these subjects, french or
english
? Of course if they tackle the subject of free audio software as well I
would just be great.
Bob Katz has already been mentioned.
Porbably the most efficient way to learn this sort of thing
is to work under the supervision of someone who knows what
he's doing, either formally or unformally.
Apart from that, again 'know what you are doing' - that is
don't just turn knobs blindly, but try to understand why
things work or don't work, and learn the relation between
'the knobs' and 'the sound'.
If something sounds OK after you have been tweaking it for
a long time, the chances are that I will disappoint you when
you hear it again next week. The reason is that your hearing
will adapt even to the worst ideas if you give them enough
time. This improves with training and lots of very conscious
listening. But an essential part of being able to set e.g. an
equaliser or an effect is to do it relatively quickly and
without too much 'exploration'.
Ciao,
--
FA
O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
E guerra e morte !
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Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
6:58 p.m.
On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 11:14:16AM +0200, fons(a)kokkinizita.net wrote:
On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 10:00:17AM +0200, Jean-Yves
Poilleux wrote:
+1 on this. It's a craft, best learned through apprenticeship. I've only figured
this out very recently. Get an experienced engineer to show you the ropes; you'll be
very pleased with how much difference it'll make.
I've been try to compose for several
months/years now and i'm never pleased
with the mix and with the synth sounds. My use of effects and filters are
more or less random. I'm self-educated here but not very well ;-).
More, each time I listen to my tracks on a new system, it sounds different.
So I'm willing to learn some mixing techniques (and some synth techniques as
well). I'd like to have a better understanding of sound mixing and synth. A
little studying will do me good.
Do you know any good book references about these subjects, french or english
? Of course if they tackle the subject of free audio software as well I
would just be great.
Bob Katz has already been mentioned.
Porbably the most efficient way to learn this sort of thing
is to work under the supervision of someone who knows what
he's doing, either formally or unformally.
Apart from that, again 'know what you are doing' - that is
don't just turn knobs blindly, but try to understand why
things work or don't work, and learn the relation between
'the knobs' and 'the sound'.
If something sounds OK after you have been tweaking it for
a long time, the chances are that I will disappoint you when
you hear it again next week. The reason is that your hearing
will adapt even to the worst ideas if you give them enough
time. This improves with training and lots of very conscious
listening. But an essential part of being able to set e.g. an
equaliser or an effect is to do it relatively quickly and
without too much 'exploration'.
It's amazing how much different something can sound just the next day, let alone in a
week's time when it's like a totally different peice. There's no substitute
for time and patience.
This isn't just true of music. A few decades ago I was in the printing business, and
one night we were shoving a rush job out the door, finally finishing it at around 1am. The
next morning, we were boxing it up for shipment, with the UPS guy standing there tapping
his foot, and were horrified at how awful it looked. One of the guys who had not worked on
that job, picked up one of the pieces, studied it for a minute, and said, "Yeah, at
1AM, this'd look *just fine*."
I'm don't have a ready Deepwater Horizon analogy here, but, suffice to say,
neither rushing to beat the clock nor pinching pennies-- nor, worse, the combination of
both-- are conducive to producing quality work. Take your time and it'll be
fantastic.
-ken
2 Jun
2 Jun
8:39 a.m.
On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 10:00 +0200, Jean-Yves Poilleux wrote:
So I'm willing to learn some mixing techniques
(and some synth
techniques as well). I'd like to have a better understanding of sound
mixing and synth. A little studying will do me good.
There's a book called "How to Make a Noise" that I found good when
learning the basics of synthesis; an older version of it is up online to
download:
http://noisesculpture.com/how-to-make-a-noise-free-download
I haven't read any other books on the subject, but there are other
websites I found helpful. The main one is the "Synth Secrets" series of
articles on the Sound on Sound website:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
The author goes in to a _lot_ of detail, which can be intimidating at
times, but it's fascinating to read. I also have some video tutorials
covering basic synthesis under Linux if that helps:
http://blag.linuxgamers.net/category/music/tutorials/
Thanks
Leigh
Thanks for your help !
jy
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8:45 a.m.
Great !
Thank you all, I think I have enough references and web links to get me
started.
By the way Ken, I tried taking my time, creating several versions, but then
when I listen to it again each new version is worse than the one before ;-)
I think Fons makes a point when he is that there is no need to spend too
much time on each knob. Here's the quote :
"If something sounds OK after you have been tweaking it for
a long time, the chances are that I will disappoint you when
you hear it again next week. The reason is that your hearing
will adapt even to the worst ideas if you give them enough
time. This improves with training and lots of very conscious
listening. But an essential part of being able to set e.g. an
equaliser or an effect is to do it relatively quickly and
without too much 'exploration'."
A good balance between your two views (not too long and not too quick)
should be just right ! ;-)
Thanks again
jy
2010/6/2 Leigh Dyer <lsd(a)linuxgamers.net>
On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 10:00 +0200, Jean-Yves Poilleux
wrote:
So I'm willing to learn some mixing
techniques (and some synth
techniques as well). I'd like to have a better understanding of sound
mixing and synth. A little studying will do me good.
There's a book called "How to Make a Noise" that I found good when
learning the basics of synthesis; an older version of it is up online to
download:
http://noisesculpture.com/how-to-make-a-noise-free-download
I haven't read any other books on the subject, but there are other
websites I found helpful. The main one is the "Synth Secrets" series of
articles on the Sound on Sound website:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
The author goes in to a _lot_ of detail, which can be intimidating at
times, but it's fascinating to read. I also have some video tutorials
covering basic synthesis under Linux if that helps:
http://blag.linuxgamers.net/category/music/tutorials/
Thanks
Leigh
Thanks for your help !
jy
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8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
David Santamauro -
fons＠kokkinizita.net -
Jean-Yves Poilleux -
Julien Claassen -
Ken Restivo -
Leigh Dyer -
micromoog