scruffy said:

agreed, but, drifting back towards the topic…

whats your production methodology, lucem? 

or, anyone else?

I usually just end up messing around with the keyboard until something sounds good then I think "I should make this into a beat".

Then I take the riff or tune that I created and apply it to the instrument or synth that I want then usually end up equalizing it and providing the effects i want on it (like echo or reverb or stereo) and sometimes, if it really needs it, I'll compress it.

Then I usually add another instrument that gives it polyphony, usually a tune or riff that either compliments the original one or a copy and paste of the same exact riff as the original one.

Maybe I might add another instrument, I usually keep a few so the verse has stuff to come in and build on. Also keep in mind that I have the same ritual for each new instrument I introduce where I equalize, add effects, and sometimes compress.

I usually add a bass and the beat before I start constructing the first verse. The bass's riff is decided like any other instrument, usually a repeat of the original tune. (if the main tune is made up of chords then take the key from each cord that makes the biggest difference when it changes). The beat is usually repetitive through out the song, maybe starting out with just the kick and snare then adding some hats. During the hook I usually add something to it to make it more intense.

When Equalizing the drums (which I usually take every drum and put it under the same insert) and the bass be careful because these two things are the bass of the whole song, you want the drums and the bass (of course) to have bass. What I do is I give the bass just regular bass (not too much) while I turn down the sub bass then I give the drums the sub bass while I take turn down just the regular bass.

Always add something extra or something less to the chorus to give it a good feel.

None of this is actually set in stone though, I just really do what I think will sound good.

Oh, and when adding a reverb to the drums, try to make it so low that you can barely hear it. It might seem weird but it tends to sound better than just dry drums. Gives the drums that extra pop.

Edit: I forget to warn why you have to be careful with the bass and drums, if you equalize them wrong then they will distort when both are playing at the same time, it will have a bass overload.

scruffy said:

Lucem Ferre said: 

Edit: I forget to warn why you have to be careful with the bass and drums, if you equalize them wrong then they will distort when both are playing at the same time, it will have a bass overload.

two words:  headroom.

okay, so its one word, but, yeah...

Yeah, awesome thing about FL is that it has db meters for each insert so you can see when it goes over the limit or not. Plus, when you use the FL Equalizer 2 it has a little display that shows what exactly is causing the distort, between highs, lows, and mids. Didn't know what it was called though, just going off of what I observe.

scruffy said:

i tend to prefer low end bass when mixing, so the kicks get no cutoff.  the rest of the drums, i cut off almost every time.  contributes to the aforementioned headroom.

for eq and other purposes, i like to seperate drums into:  kicks and other low freq effects; snares, blocks, claps and other hits; and hats, crashes, etc.  after that, i usually premix them, and use that for the dry signal going to reverb or tape echo.  oh, and when applying reverb [and other effects, but especially reverb], i do not like to have the wet and dry signals mix before output.  this invariably leads to beading, phasing, all kinds of problems.  wet only output.  if i really have to, ill set up a seperate sidechain.  way better control, that way. 

 Yeah, awesome thing about FL is that it has db meters for each insert so you can see when it goes over the limit or not.

when building up the track, ideally none of the meters will get anywhere near clipping.  maximizing volume should be held until near the end.  really, thats a function of the mixdown.   

Now that I actually broke down and got the pirated version of FL I should start separating all of my low freq drums and my high freq drums. I've already started getting into the detail (with just the trial version) of going into the piano role and adding each drum individually so I can add spots where the pattern will change a little or where the beat just drops so I don't have 50 different patterns.

scruffy said:

i dont use directwave too much.  i suspect that the content library keeps trying to get online and rat me out for using stolen software…  that, and its kinda processor and memory intensive.   

flslayer isnt too bad for rockdafied guitar stuff, as long as youre attentive to the settings that youre tweaking.  after that, dw.  after that, hire guitarist. 

choir voices are problematic with flstudio.  the packs are extremely overused, and as such require lots and lots of tweaking to sound both original and good.  in this case, the best thing is probably to start with the sytrus presets, and see what you can come up with, using very minor, incremental adjustments.  still takes a lot of time.  if you are the shit, it is utterly possible to build a killer voice from scratch using sytrus or another synth, but god, its difficult.

that actually applies to guitars, too.  in fact, any fm synth with as much capability as sytrus can make literally any sound there is.  assuming, like i say, that you school the fuck out of it. 

I don't know if I'm good at actually making sounds, but I could try. I'd definitely try it out on Harmless, shit on Harmless sounds 10X better than shit on Sytrus. The organs that they have on Harmless sound just like the real instrument. Possibly Poizone, Biohazard too.

For guitars now what I do is get one of the acoustic DWs or the synths and plug them into the Hardcore effect which works like an amp. It sounds much better than the presets on Slayer which you usually need to tweak so people can't automatically tell it was made in FL. Plus, I can get that old school 70s metal effect and that distorted Korn effect.

You can mix the acoustic FL Slayer to the Hardcore too, get some great shit out of it. Hardcore is great for some industrial distortion though, for that crispy OG CombiChrist sound. That and the distortion preset for the Fruity Love Philter. I also, before I got the full version, used to use Green Machine too. Green Machine is like a shittier Hardcore. Green Machine is to Hardcore like Gsnap is to AutoTune.