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One more single from me, again kinda down tempo, spacey stuff. Enjoy...

10 years soon

Hi everyone, I am a new(ish) arrival to the psybient scene, and this is the first time I have posted on the forum. It is not usually my thing, but I don't have social media. My experience so far of this community is that the website is such an amazing source of information, especially concerning new releases, and the end of year polls. I really value this. The music I have found via all these sources has quite literally kept me sane during COVID. I also think some of the forums are really helpful for those wanting to explore this very broad genre (such as the 'best releases of all time' or the 'what releases are available on vinyl'), and as has been noted above, this provides an unparalleled historical record. I also listen to the mixes on the webpage sometimes. I suspect in non-COVID times that there will be more information on events/festivals etc which would be great for those of us not on Facebook. How to take this forward? Perhaps narrow down the forums (it looks quite overwhelming to someone new!) so that it is easier to find discussions and add to them. @gagarin and @timeisart, thanks, and please (despite the lack of activity currently on the forums) know that I am sure lots of people find the website and resources invaluable. I'll try and post more frequently, and happy to also discuss other things we might do together.. Take care, Kevin

I EQ as I go, but I don't worry about getting it "perfect" right away. Unless I have to render the channel for some reason, simple EQing doesn't take much CPU, so I can mess around with it as needed until I'm ready to render a track. Kicks may get EQed to sound punchier/less boxy/more subby. Snares may get EQed to have more bite or sizzle. Hats usually get EQed to take off the low end. I'll EQ my drum bus before it goes into a few layers of saturation/compression (to control what gets distorted), and I'll EQ it after if it needs it (for overall drum balance). I ruthlessly hipass anything with too much low end energy if it conflicts with the bass or kick. I try not to EQ using EQ plugins if I can help it. If my saturator has a filter built in, I'll use that, for example. Or I'll just use different distortions themselves to boost/cut the lows or highs. Synths and recorded sounds will get EQed if they need it to fit the mix, but while I don't think there is anything wrong with a 16db cut or boost if you need it, major EQing to fit a sound into the mix is often a strong sign that I should have chosen sounds that didn't clash so much. Usually, I'll just change a synth or take something out entirely rather than try to wrestle with infinite mud. I have a nice gentle EQ on my master because I see no reason not to. I used to avoid this because everyone told me this is a bad idea. But more often then not, a 3db cut or boost on the master actually sounds better (to me anyways) than going back and working with individual channels. An EQ on the master really makes me feel in control of the overall feel and vibe of my mix. YMMV. Everyone seems to do their own thing or have their own "rules" for EQing. Curious to see what other people's workflow is. But I do think blanket advice like "never boost more than +6db" is misleading, especially with synthetic music. Who is anyone to decide what a squelchy space fart is supposed to sound like "naturally?"

Hey OP - can you post an example of anything you are making (or, an example of a song that does this really well that you like) ? Some ideas for pads: - Are you layering stuff? A lot of great pad sounds are 2 or 3 or more pads layered (with one pad providing the low-mid warmth, another providing maybe the mid-range melodic component, and another providing the top-end shimmer). - What synths are you using/ are you only using synths? Stretched-out melodic sounds, especially reversed, drenched in reverb can make amazing, organic pads that no one has ever heard before. Synths like Omnisphere or Alchemy have lots of samples already for doing this, but you can just do it manually using warping in Ableton / Flex Time in Logic / etc. - You said you are EQing out the mid frequencies - which ones? I usually use pads to add extra warmth, movement, and depth into the mid frequencies. - EQ the left and the right channel differently! I like to boost and cut a few frequencies differently on left and right channels to increase width. Even better, slowly automate a different peak on each left/right channels. - Delay, chorus, reverb are all good for this, but can maybe sound bland if they are just used as static effects. Do you automate your reverb sends or chorus amounts? Some ideas: -- My favourite: I like to automate the reverb send up while automating a lo-pass filter down on the original pad. This will make it sound like it is moving farther away, giving a great sense of front-to-back depth. The reverse works well, too. Or with a hi-pass filter. -- Try a chorus with a very low rate but high intensity, automate the mix from 20% to 80% every 1/2/4 beats, then quickly back down. This will make it sound like it is "pumping" from centred to wide with each pulse of the beat. I like to combine this with regular side-chaining to a kick etc. -- Old trick: automate the delay send, and then send that delay to itself. Be careful because this might get loud, but if we do it carefully, we can make a pad (or any sound) turn into a completely different, ultra organic ambient soundscape of throbbing echoes. If you want width, use a stereo delay (or maybe a flanger/phaser on the delay channel). - Panning rather than widening... less is often more in production. If you make everything detuned and wide, your song doesn't sound wide - it sounds like stereo mud. Panning some sounds left and some sounds right - and especially automating the pan - is often way better than just making something wide. - Autopan plugins are great, but I like to automate the rate or width to keep them from sounding static. - Sometimes mono reverbs work really well for localizing a sound in the mix. I like to make sounds panned left, send it to a mono reverb channel, panned right. On its own, this isn't as impressive as a big wide wet delay. But in the mix, it is sometimes so much more spacious. We can do the same with delay - then maybe try automating the pan of that delay from right to left again. - Same philosophy, polyphony: too much polyphony can also make things unfocused, especially when working with bass/pads/atmospheres/multiple melodies. Sometimes I like to think like in jazz, where the bass can play the root note and the pads can play the 3rd/7th/9th etc. Leaves a lot of harmonic space for melodic instruments. - My other favourite: you need a microphone to do this, but even a cheap microphone is fine because we are trying to make weird sounds anyways right? Solo the pad you want, put the microphone somewhere in the room, maybe pointed at a wall away from the speakers, or even in the hallway, whatever... record 8 or 16 bars. Move the microphone around to a totally different spot, do it again. Then, pan one recording left and the other right. We should have a very wide sounding pad, with lots of room echoes and reflections making it organic and interesting. I have a million more ideas if this is helpful at all. Just remember - there is such a thing as too wide. 1 ultra-wide sound and 4 sounds swirling in automated panning will sound bigger and more spacious than 5 ultra-wide sounds.

Independent blind A-B tests have showed that about 30% of listeners are albe to distinguish 16bit sound from 24 bit sound, and 0% of listeners were able to hear any difference between 24bit and higher bit depth audio. There you have it. As for 16 vs 24bit, the larger dynamic range is a major benefit, quiet sounds becoming audible and / or much more detailed (due to DAC computation bias towards the high end of amplitude range). Remember, this is not only for render/mixdown and playback but all processes (recording / use of samples, plugin processing, outboard gear, converters) throughout the entire production. Main disadvantages use to include size, but actually less so in regards to file storage, more so related to lower realtime file transfer rates (from your drive to your DAW through USB, FW400, etc.) and realtime file processing (playing back 50 tracks in your DAW at 24 bits were more demanding, so was 24 bit processing in your session). Which are not real concerns anymore, as long as you have a decent multi-core processor and FW800, USB3 or TB connections and 7.2K rpm or faster HD.