Lessons with PhantomOftheOpera

If you feel better with an uncompressed and dry set of drums, then this is of high priority - important thing would be to understand why it sounds better to you that way. A heavy drum set, heavily compressed and with a massive power is one that can play in the foreground as a main instrument and other instruments accompany it. Vice versa if you feel fine with yours; it

Well I did mess around with equalizer a bit.

I found that I needed some mid to high freq boosts to enhance strings and horn sections (i also tried some wave shaping on horn) to get that nice metal buzz out on horn and and some bowing feel to the strings. I'm trying to find a way to make the strings sound more aggressive, more staccato. I think I need to find a good deal between dynamics of strings and equalizing. I tried some compression on strings but I didn't like the result. Any advice on that?

I also found that if I have a string channel with strings playing in bass (1st and 2nd octave) and something higher (3rhd and 4th octave) the same set of parameters for compression doesn't work well.

I

Ahh, thanks, I'll try that.

Well yes, I actually used some real equalizers before in real hardware mixers so they are not that unknown to me. I also know what are the ranges of most instruments so I know what I need to do if I want a certain effect.

If I want to add some real distorted guitars recorded on my project, do you have any suggestions on how should I treat the recording?

I guess recording it with the cleanest set-up would be the best. Make it either a clean line-in recording, or - if you happen to have the equipment - record the amp with a proper mic, but make sure that there is not too much sound of the recording room that comes with the signal.

After that, once it

Ok, I will think about it some more, I'm not really sure if I want some guitars on this, tho' I have some ideas. I was just asking to know it for my future works.

Do you want me to upload an mp3 or a project file of what I have done so far, so we can continue with whatever you have in mind for me next?

Yes, this would be very good, although i wanted to write a short post about filters and equalizers first. I will do so soon, but if you already have another finished version, then feel free to upload it!

Filters:

Great! This is really interesting :)

Sorry, I haven't been available last few days, I will upload my project today/tomorrow, I just have a few more things I want to try.

Cheers!

Here is the project file.

Just change the .mid to .flp, I did this to be able to upload it on the forum since it wont let me upload the .flp extension.

I didn't really like what I got but I could see that it was better than before. I just could get the sound that I heard in my head, but you know... you can't have it all.

I also started a small project much more electronic orientated, I would love if I could get some feedback on that. It just has an intro and a small 30-sec section for now. But I could use any advice you can give me.

Oh yeah, concerning the filters... If I'm not mistaken some of the filters are basically gates designed to filter out a certain frequencies, right?

current project.mid

action.mid

I haven't read the whole thread but when you come to the "Sytrus" matrix part, please let me know.

Sorry, Phantom, I am also a little distracted at the moment. I try to be able to listen and look at your uploads tomorrow.

Sys, I will send you a message once you can find a post here that relates to the Sytrus.

Np, T, I'm not in a hurry. Actually the time off is really good since I am trying to put all that I have learned so far to good use.

About Sys' post: he's not looking for lessons himself, I asked him something about a song of his I liked which he had done in FL, I liked the sounds he made with Sytrus, I guess he thought he can post here.

I sent him a message to check with you if it was ok.

Sorry, Phantom, the thing with changing the .mid to .flp doesn

OK, I let you continue, I'll keep my eye on the thread, I was just saying about the sytrus because I really would like to learn more about it, it's a terrific generator,(6 osc, envelopes, filters, Matrix..... one of the best ones).

but, please... don't get distracted with me... continue and we'll talk about this later....

luck.

Ahh bummer... it worked in my computer, I tried it... I don't get it. I will upload them again, I'm not at home today, so I will do it tomorrow. I have an mp3 of a piece I'm working on, I'll upload the project file tomorrow too.

Here is the link:

http://www.box.net/shared/l4c3llyx8d

Edit: Here are the project files:

http://www.box.net/shared/kj7ru6nx27

http://www.box.net/shared/v2qm4ngmrh

I am currently listening to your project files. You have done quite a lot to the previous project file. First thing i noticed is that you added plenty of reverb. The piano intro sounds quite a lot different from your previous attempts - well done! And i also like the other project. You

Well, I know about alt+x tool, but I mostly just use it when I want to change the velocities of group of notes which need to have the same velocity.

I totally forgot to change the lengths in the first verse-section of the piano. Sorry about that, I know you mentioned it earlier.

The things that I don't like are mostly strings... I had this weird problem with them in the last part of the piece, when the hits are kind of playing the harmonic theme, I put some staccato strings after each hit. You'll notice that after the first hit, the velocities of the string chords are higher than the first one and the volume is lower. I just copied the chords after that and they just sounded very softer than the first one and they where at the same velocity. I had to adjust the velocity of the other chords to the max and still they sound softer. I have absolutely no idea why that happened. And another thing about the strings is that they do have a very quick attack time when playing single notes on max velocity, but when I make chords that are supposed to play staccato they start sounding lame, it's like their attack time increases.

About the horn part, I think it sounds off because of my lack of patience to make a better counter-melody, and the fact that hits play very choppy rhythmic pattern which when combined with the rhythm of drumline which is 16th notes in the bass drums, it sounds very out of place. But after listening to it over and over again I kind of gotten used to it and thought I need not change it. Which obviously wasn't a good idea :D.

But I will try your advice and move the whole horn line slightly back.

Maybe I could try to extend individual note lengths there too?

Another thing is that it seems I can't get the sound in the mixer to go down bellow 0db, and I don't hear any clipping, and basically none of the instruments has a high value in the master meter itself, but when combined it goes very high.

I tried decreasing this and that, but didn't found a way to adjust it to be bellow 0db constantly without almost totally shutting of a certain instrument.

Is the master meter in fruity always reliable concerning the loudness and clipping? Because sometimes it tells me there is clipping and I don't hear it.

And yes, I became a fan of synths, as of not so long ago. Earlier I hated them because they were not "real" instruments, but after hearing some pro's using them in their works (symphonic soundtracks) I totally fell in love with the aspect of having a new instrument which can sound differently each time, and the amount of tension and power it can convey when used as a lead solo instrument. Kind of like an electric guitar. And the mix of traditional with new kind of high-tech is in itself very exciting just by the fact that it hasn't been done that much and gives you a lot of freedom of expression.

Okay, this might be the right time to focus a little on specific parts of your project, or even better focus on specific instruments. Let

Hey T, here is the mp3 of my project:

current project.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

I think we can continue now.

The reverbs are pretty much very clear to me, I just have one question. Since I've read that most built in reverb plugins are not very good, you should get some stand-alone ones, I'm interested in your thoughts on the subject? I mean they all basically do the same thing... so thats a bit unclear to me.

Yea, basically they all work the same way. The statement sounds a bit harsh to me. There

Well actually there is. There is some emptiness in it, which I don't quite know how to fill out. It might be a problem in composition itself, given the fact that I didn't do this project with any kind of inspiration, I just basically tried to make a song quick so we can play around with effects so that may be it.

On the other hand I did some songs earlier with a lot less instruments, just drums, bass and piano, and they sounded quite fuller.

There is one thing that interests me and its about the master meter.

Is there any rule on which instruments raise the meter a lot when combined and which don't?

For example if you have drums at -10 loudness and guitars at -10 when you combine them how loud will they get (how much will they raise the master meter and leave room for other instruments without clipping)?

That kind of knowledge would be pretty useful in my opinion since you would know on what level of loudness to start with and with which levels of velocity to work with if you have a plan on how many and which instruments you would be using.

Oh, I totally agree - this is something that needs to be discussed properly!

Unfortunately this can get quite mathematical and there are also a lot of things that are not as easy to understand as it seems. I

Sorry for the delay... busy week...

Seems my last question really needed to be asked, since you had a whole lotta of answer :D

The volume thing can be quite annoying at times, it never acts the same. I've had projects that clip with less instruments, than the ones with more on a higher volume, stuff clips in Fl, but not when I render it... I will have to take this into more serious consideration in future.

Here is my project file finally: current project.flp - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

So where should we go next?

Your question was related to one of the most fundamental aspects of mastering and the relating problems will still concern you, even if you manage to gather years of additional experience.

The rendering problem is something that bothers me too, from time to time. I got a hunch that the different interpolation methods of rendering do random stuff to your instruments concerning the processing of the digital effects. You can change the way you hear FL Studio do the live processing of your track - Linear or 6-point are the fast ones that can be used without killing your CPU, so if you render your tracks with the same setting as in the audio options everything should be fine, though the sync depth might create an interesting warmth, but this heavily depends on the choice of your instruments.

By the way, this is where I would like to start to talk a little about the project of yours.

I took a closer look at the main part of your project. I was just playing around a little with the mixer set-up and the overall loudness. Well now, there