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Jellycrackers

Member
Oct 25, 2017
582
I was approached by a publisher wanting me to do an album of Trailer Music (just big, energetic, epic, punchy music targeted at movie and game advertising) earlier this year and it just came out. Unfortunately this particular publisher doesn't have its own mastering engineer, so mastering was all on me, but I think I did okay. I've written plenty of trailer tracks for other publishers, but this one is my first full album, so I'm pretty happy about it!

https://prime.hdmusicnow.com/en/production-music-library/oblivion-trailer-music-/

I wrote the music and named the tracks, and the publisher named the album, did all the metadata and stuff, and got the artwork done (Fallout much?). Now he'll push it to trailer editors and hope for the best!
 

SBit

Member
Feb 25, 2018
138
I was approached by a publisher wanting me to do an album of Trailer Music (just big, energetic, epic, punchy music targeted at movie and game advertising) earlier this year and it just came out. Unfortunately this particular publisher doesn't have its own mastering engineer, so mastering was all on me, but I think I did okay. I've written plenty of trailer tracks for other publishers, but this one is my first full album, so I'm pretty happy about it!

https://prime.hdmusicnow.com/en/production-music-library/oblivion-trailer-music-/

I wrote the music and named the tracks, and the publisher named the album, did all the metadata and stuff, and got the artwork done (Fallout much?). Now he'll push it to trailer editors and hope for the best!

Congrats :))))
Sounds very professional.

Which plugins do you use in your production?
 

Jellycrackers

Member
Oct 25, 2017
582
Congrats :))))
Sounds very professional.

Which plugins do you use in your production?

Thanks for the kind words!

All the FX plugins I used are freebies or stock Cubase plugins. The only one that wasn't free is Ozone 8 Elements on my mastering chain. I'll list the freebies I used here:

EQ - TDR Nova
Compression - TDR Kotelnikov
Reverb - Orilriver
Stereo Control - A1 Stereo Control
Ridiculous multiband compression (used lightly on the master) - OTT by Xfer

As far as sample libraries and virtual instruments, my most commonly used ones in this album are:
Omnisphere 2
LA Scoring Strings
Spitfire Albion One
8dio Century Brass
Keepforest trailer stuff (AizerX, Evolution, Vikings)
Audio Imperia Cerberus
Heavyocity Master Sessions
... and various other little sample packs and smaller libraries that I forgot to mention.
 

Chris Metal

Avatar Master Painter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,579
United Kingdom
I was approached by a publisher wanting me to do an album of Trailer Music (just big, energetic, epic, punchy music targeted at movie and game advertising) earlier this year and it just came out. Unfortunately this particular publisher doesn't have its own mastering engineer, so mastering was all on me, but I think I did okay. I've written plenty of trailer tracks for other publishers, but this one is my first full album, so I'm pretty happy about it!

https://prime.hdmusicnow.com/en/production-music-library/oblivion-trailer-music-/

I wrote the music and named the tracks, and the publisher named the album, did all the metadata and stuff, and got the artwork done (Fallout much?). Now he'll push it to trailer editors and hope for the best!
Would be cool to master a one or two of your tracks at some point, trailer music is so awesome.
 

SBit

Member
Feb 25, 2018
138
Thanks for the kind words!

All the FX plugins I used are freebies or stock Cubase plugins. The only one that wasn't free is Ozone 8 Elements on my mastering chain. I'll list the freebies I used here:

EQ - TDR Nova
Compression - TDR Kotelnikov
Reverb - Orilriver
Stereo Control - A1 Stereo Control
Ridiculous multiband compression (used lightly on the master) - OTT by Xfer

As far as sample libraries and virtual instruments, my most commonly used ones in this album are:
Omnisphere 2
LA Scoring Strings
Spitfire Albion One
8dio Century Brass
Keepforest trailer stuff (AizerX, Evolution, Vikings)
Audio Imperia Cerberus
Heavyocity Master Sessions
... and various other little sample packs and smaller libraries that I forgot to mention.
Thanks for the info :)
Always nice to try to figure out people's "secret sauces" :P
 

toku

沢山特別
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,121
Ne Monde
Dropped my first album or tape on friday. No physical like my last ep but still happy with it:



Did a mix for cr/nts that aired thursday but they haven't put the recording on sc yet.
 

Midramble

Force of Habit
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,451
San Francisco
So I've written ~1000 tracks for music libraries, usually just small batches of tracks for TV shows or contributing to multi-writer albums, but I wrote a full album for fun and got it published, so I'm pretty proud of this one.

http://evolution.sgl.harvestmedia.net/album/EMM168/EMM168-Inspirational-Beats

It's kind of this inspirational storytelling music with Hip Hop beats. Targeted toward advertising and some TV stuff. I also have a full album of trailer music that will be released within the next couple of weeks I'm pretty excited about.



This is probably way too late, but sync licensing is my field. Did you get this figured out?

Probably even later on my end. Went with my gut going with a base price that the lead singer first asked for with a per-play royalty cost segmented at rounded up 30 second fractions. Their manager said it looked good, but I'm not sure they know what they are doing. Hell, all I am doing for the contract itself is taking a rocket lawyer generated contract and adding things like a morality clause and whatnot. Honestly I'm just trying to look out for my friend (the lead singer). I'm buying the sync and master rights to one of their songs via my startup and am trying to map out the contract so that if anything happens and I somehow lose control of the company they don't get screwed by new owners. Admittedly it's been fun learning all this stuff about IP contracts.

Edit: Also are confidentiality clauses in these contracts more to the benefit of the licensee or the copyright owner?
 

kev.wav

Member
Oct 25, 2017
131
Does anyone here use Reason? I tried using it when I was a kid and couldn't figure it out, but think it might fit my workflow better than Ableton these days
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,279
Minnesota
Just want to say that a few weeks ago, or month or whatever, when this was on the front page of Era, I got some good advice on how to handle my stringed sections and minimize a few things. I've been putting that into practice, and while I don't have much to show, I just want to say I'm glad y'all were here to help me. It really has been for the best.

https://soundcloud.com/chad-waller-513060169/the-eighth-circle

Would be an example. Still a lot to tackle, and I'm using mastering presets.
 

Deleted member 9317

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
9,451
New York
I'm getting better at these 6am sound mixing. Would still get help from a sound engineer down the line once songs are complete.

https://soundcloud.com/printouts/mr-white-v2-demo

I've heard this on 4 sets of headphones and it sounds clean to my ears maybe not to your ears. The car speaker test (and vocals!!!!) remains.

Note: The 10 second intro guitar is just an end of a previous song.
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,279
Minnesota
It's kind of frustrating how much mastering can change a song. Was practicing some screams with an actual microphone, and going from nothing to light EQ/mastering preset was a pretty staggering change. Makes me wonder what's going on during live shows.

I'm not sure how to really practice fleshing out my range/abilities then, either. Like my regular lows sound pretty fine on their own, though my brutal lows suck. Gonna just scrap the "deathcore" thing. Or I'm EQing it really wrong, which is possible. Regardless, it's cool but not something I think I"ll need. My songwriting doesn't skew in that direction. My highs are okay if I put a lot of EQ work into them, but still not great. I think my range might just be limited, but it's hard to tell.

Basically why I'm going to do vocals dead last for my songs. Figure by then I'll hopefully know more and also this shit is beyond hard.
 

Chris Metal

Avatar Master Painter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,579
United Kingdom
It's kind of frustrating how much mastering can change a song. Was practicing some screams with an actual microphone, and going from nothing to light EQ/mastering preset was a pretty staggering change. Makes me wonder what's going on during live shows.

I'm not sure how to really practice fleshing out my range/abilities then, either. Like my regular lows sound pretty fine on their own, though my brutal lows suck. Gonna just scrap the "deathcore" thing. Or I'm EQing it really wrong, which is possible. Regardless, it's cool but not something I think I"ll need. My songwriting doesn't skew in that direction. My highs are okay if I put a lot of EQ work into them, but still not great. I think my range might just be limited, but it's hard to tell.

Basically why I'm going to do vocals dead last for my songs. Figure by then I'll hopefully know more and also this shit is beyond hard.
Don't be disheartened, a lot of this most likely will be perceived loudness through the mastering preset influencing how much better something sounds due to a volume increase... and minor eq changes can appear to sound drastically different when they're not as drastic as you think due to this as eq changes are also affected by loudness, it's why you should in general volume match input and output levels of eq plugins because, for example, if you change the sound of a guitar is it actually better or just louder cause you boosted a frequency, if you volume match output to the lvl of the eq in bypass you can make better decisions and not be influenced by loudness. Read a bit on Fletcher Munson curve though I'll go into basics... Mid range frequencies at low volume are more prominent while low and high frequencies are not so, at higher volumes the opposite is true, mid appears soft/quieter, lows and highs are prominent. The FM curve can affect your judgement of a mix v.easily, especially if using loudness tools on a mix. If you volume match post limiter to your previous mix levels you'll find most of the time it won't sound half as satisfying... We like loud music in general over quiet it's pleasing/exciting and only around a 1dB of change louder is all it takes to give the "impression" a mix sounds better.

Also a trick to eq, is sometimes it doesn't need to be done at all. Over processing is real possibility. But for low vox screaming, I'll use minimal eq, high pass at around 35-55hz with soft roll off(going too high sucks out the body of your vox)>comp>EQ to just bring out the mids a little, tighten the boxeyness, and a de-esser around 7-9khz range>plus a bit of saturation: send pre fader to rev/delay fx channels.
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,279
Minnesota
Don't be disheartened, a lot of this most likely will be perceived loudness through the mastering preset influencing how much better something sounds due to a volume increase... and minor eq changes can appear to sound drastically different when they're not as drastic as you think due to this as eq changes are also affected by loudness, it's why you should in general volume match input and output levels of eq plugins because, for example, if you change the sound of a guitar is it actually better or just louder cause you boosted a frequency, if you volume match output to the lvl of the eq in bypass you can make better decisions and not be influenced by loudness. Read a bit on Fletcher Munson curve though I'll go into basics... Mid range frequencies at low volume are more prominent while low and high frequencies are not so, at higher volumes the opposite is true, mid appears soft/quieter, lows and highs are prominent. The FM curve can affect your judgement of a mix v.easily, especially if using loudness tools on a mix. If you volume match post limiter to your previous mix levels you'll find most of the time it won't sound half as satisfying... We like loud music in general over quiet it's pleasing/exciting and only around a 1dB of change louder is all it takes to give the "impression" a mix sounds better.

Also a trick to eq, is sometimes it doesn't need to be done at all. Over processing is real possibility. But for low vox screaming, I'll use minimal eq, high pass at around 35-55hz with soft roll off(going too high sucks out the body of your vox)>comp>EQ to just bring out the mids a little, tighten the boxeyness, and a de-esser around 7-9khz range>plus a bit of saturation: send pre fader to rev/delay fx channels.
Hmm. Never thought about the loudness influencing things more than anything else. I"ll have to figure out how to turn some of that off, I guess. I'm not new to mixing/mastering, but I'm not good at it, either.
 

Chris Metal

Avatar Master Painter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,579
United Kingdom
Hmm. Never thought about the loudness influencing things more than anything else. I"ll have to figure out how to turn some of that off, I guess. I'm not new to mixing/mastering, but I'm not good at it, either.
What are you using for mastering? Ozone? If so a suite like that will have multiple processing going on in a preset. Comp/multiband comp, eq/dyn eq, tape emu, limiting... So a number of factors will increase loudness but also important for sound. Comp/limiters affect the transients so dynamics in music will change more or less, this is true for recorded vocals as the dynamics are so wide transients can be all over the place, so vox sound more consistent with a comp in place to control them. Loudness isn't as important as making your track sound as good as poss. It's all about the end result. Also look what the elements are doing in a preset. What's the eq doing and where, what instruments sound like they're being targeted(hint: it'll be all of them, but how is what's important), apply the changes to tracks in your mix so the result is as close as possible, put an eq on your mixbus and use gentle broad eq on your mix before master, even adding a soft bus comp can help glue a mix before master process. Goal is to do minimal processing in mastering.

Most individual eq plugins will have either auto gain or an output gain. You'll usually have input level and set the output gain which is post eq in the plugin to match input lvl. This also prevents digital overs/clipping in the plugin itself.
 
Oct 29, 2017
5,279
Minnesota
What are you using for mastering? Ozone? If so a suite like that will have multiple processing going on in a preset. Comp/multiband comp, eq/dyn eq, tape emu, limiting... So a number of factors will increase loudness but also important for sound. Comp/limiters affect the transients so dynamics in music will change more or less, this is true for recorded vocals as the dynamics are so wide transients can be all over the place, so vox sound more consistent with a comp in place to control them. Loudness isn't as important as making your track sound as good as poss. It's all about the end result. Also look what the elements are doing in a preset. What's the eq doing and where, what instruments sound like they're being targeted(hint: it'll be all of them, but how is what's important), apply the changes to tracks in your mix so the result is as close as possible, put an eq on your mixbus and use gentle broad eq on your mix before master, even adding a soft bus comp can help glue a mix before master process. Goal is to do minimal processing in mastering.

Most individual eq plugins will have either auto gain or an output gain. You'll usually have input level and set the output gain which is post eq in the plugin to match input lvl. This also prevents digital overs/clipping in the plugin itself.
I'm using the stock stuff from FL Studio. I have some Reaper plugins installed as well.
 

Spine Crawler

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,228
First time seeing this thread.. Never new GAF also had a music community either. I am not a musician myself but my wife is and I am helping her a bit setting up mikes and such, when she is recording, so I will be following this thread. Some of the stuff I hear on this is amazing indeed.




Hey music friends :)
My newest YouTube video is up! And it's completely nerdy.

I just wanted to say thank you to The Kree for giving me some tips on audio editing! Still not perfect but I'm learning! If anyone else has other tips, please throw them my way!! :)

oh wow seriously impressed. you have a great voice indeed.
 

Hamst3r

Member
Oct 25, 2017
104
Hey, just sharing that there's a competition going on over here: https://metapop.com/pages/promos/Native-Instruments-Meta

And that it's an easy one with really no restrictions. So an, upload your best "judge-pleaser" track compo.

Grand Prize: Komplete Kontrol S88 Mk2, Komplete Kontrol A-Series Keyboard of choice, Maschine Mikro Mk3, Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector's Edition, Traktor Kontrol S2, Traktor Kontrol S4, 12 months subscription to Sounds.com, Loop Loft - Artist Series Bundle.
 

plngsplsh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,142
Something that I've been thinking about lately and which I'm curious about: How much do you care about the speakers that your potential listeners might be using, and do you keep that in mind while composing/mastering? For example, a lot of people probably just use their laptop speakers or cheap earbuds while browsing for new music. Obviously, this will cut, distort or lower the volume of certain frequencies. A piece that sounds good on studio headphones might sound like crap on laptop speakers, especially if it's more experimental or drone-y in nature. I wonder if this might be a good test to hear if the piece of music has a certain quality or hook that is so prominent that it will even work with sub-optimal speakers.
 
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SweetVermouth

Banned
Mar 5, 2018
4,272
How much do you care about the speakers that your potential listeners might be using, and do you keep that in mind while composing/mastering?
I do not care in the slightest because there are a gazillion different speakers and devices and then they might even use EQs and built in loudness normalization etc. etc. I mix/master so it sounds good on my monitors and my studio headphones and that's it.
 

Chris Metal

Avatar Master Painter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,579
United Kingdom
Something that I've been thinking about lately and which I'm curious about: How much do you care about the speakers that your potential listeners might be using, and do you keep that in mind while composing/mastering? For example, a lot of people probably just use their laptop speakers or cheap earbuds while browsing for new music. Obviously, this will cut, distort or lower the volume of certain frequencies. A piece that sounds good on studio headphones might sound like crap on laptop speakers, especially if it's more experimental or drone-y in nature. I wonder if this might be a good test to hear if the piece of music has a certain quality or hook that is so prominent that it will even work with sub-optimal speakers.
Yes I care, I test a master on multiple devices to make sure it translates well across different systems. I use cheap audio buds, ok headphones, studio quality headphones, monitors, car system, laptop and an av surround system. It takes little time to do and I can spot where issues might be cropping up everywhere or more on certain systems so to make adjustments. You can never get it perfect, but you can get it close and I try and make mixes sound as good as possible for listeners whatever they're using.
 

plngsplsh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,142
I do not care in the slightest because there are a gazillion different speakers and devices and then they might even use EQs and built in loudness normalization etc. etc. I mix/master so it sounds good on my monitors and my studio headphones and that's it.
This is what I've been doing for the last couple of years. But now that I've uploaded some pieces to bandcamp and listened to them for the first time on my laptop speakers, I was kind of shocked, embarrassed even, at how bad they sound.

Yes I care, I test a master on multiple devices to make sure it translates well across different systems. I use cheap audio buds, ok headphones, studio quality headphones, monitors, car system, laptop and an av surround system. It takes little time to do and I can spot where issues might be cropping up everywhere or more on certain systems so to make adjustments. You can never get it perfect, but you can get it close and I try and make mixes sound as good as possible for listeners whatever they're using.
Going forward, this will be something that I will keep in mind. I never really cared about mastering and naively assumed that if something sounds fine on my studio headphones, it probably will sound fine on other speakers as well. Seeing from your previous posts that you master professionally, it seems like a good practice to adopt.

Thanks for the input.
 

Spine Crawler

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,228
In general, do you guys and gals also do live concerts? If yes, how do you promote them (in case you are organizing yourself)?
 

Pomerlaw

Erarboreal
Banned
Feb 25, 2018
8,536
If some of you guys want to participate in a nice cause, wether as a music fan or as an artist, there is a welfare playlist now up on Choon :

"Artists for Life" is a charity/cause based off the Choon music platform, where royalties are handled by "Smart Music Contracts". This means that royalty distribution is automatically handled and enforced by a smart contract on the blockchain, that pays out music streaming royalties on a daily basis. This is what will allow our cause to flourish in the long run.

How it works

Artists on the Choon platform add "artistsforlife" in a Smart Music Contract (SMC) to contribute.

All contributions of 10% or more, will be promoted in the social channels run by Artists for Life. Effectively helping out both independent artists with a little marketing, while building revenue for the charity itself directly. We focus on protecting and preserving the rainforest, protecting endangered species, and animal welfare.

More details at : https://choon.co/artists/artistsforlife/


If you are an artist and want to join Choon, use this referral link and you will automatically skip the waiting list : https://account.choon.co/join/0erexy6avsc

If you are a music fan, streaming is totally free and you can listen to the playlist here (it is pretty early more song will be added) : https://choon.co/artists/artistsforlife/

Note : I do not work for Choon but my band has given rights on a song for this cause. You can reply or PM me for any questions.

In general, do you guys and gals also do live concerts? If yes, how do you promote them (in case you are organizing yourself)?

It's been a little while, but yes we did. It's a great way to build up your fanbase, you have to start locally.
For promotion, the best at the beginning is family and friends! Facebook posts will only get you so far. I'd say engage directly with people, and get another band to share the stage (even better if that other band is more popular than you are, you can ask them to check out your stuff and see if you could open for them). Then ROCK THE SHIT out of their fans. lol
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
Something that I've been thinking about lately and which I'm curious about: How much do you care about the speakers that your potential listeners might be using, and do you keep that in mind while composing/mastering? For example, a lot of people probably just use their laptop speakers or cheap earbuds while browsing for new music. Obviously, this will cut, distort or lower the volume of certain frequencies. A piece that sounds good on studio headphones might sound like crap on laptop speakers, especially if it's more experimental or drone-y in nature. I wonder if this might be a good test to hear if the piece of music has a certain quality or hook that is so prominent that it will even work with sub-optimal speakers.
I generally do a double check on both my laptop speakers and (higher quality) earbuds after doing a mixdown, but at the end of the day, the best thing you can do is know your setup well and reference other tracks that you think are well mixed. As someone who primarily produces club-based music, I'm not too concerned about it not translating entirely to shitty speakers. If you're making commercial pop music or something, I would take testing across different speakers more seriously.
 

Spine Crawler

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,228
It's been a little while, but yes we did. It's a great way to build up your fanbase, you have to start locally.
For promotion, the best at the beginning is family and friends! Facebook posts will only get you so far. I'd say engage directly with people, and get another band to share the stage (even better if that other band is more popular than you are, you can ask them to check out your stuff and see if you could open for them). Then ROCK THE SHIT out of their fans. lol
how big should a venue be if you are a no name? 100-200 people or even smaller?
 

Nyx

User-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
845
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Hi! This is my first time posting on this thread. I made a remix of Reckoner by Radiohead that I'm proud of. I'm not really a musician, so it's the remix has a lot of blemishes but I think it sounds good. Tell me what you think?

https://soundcloud.com/mercury_rez/reckoner-remix

I wish I could tell you something useful, but this is so far away from my own genres that I have no clue. :(

Since the summer is over and temperatures are going down I felt like producing myself again, picked up an older project, added some things and tried to make a basic arrangement and so far I'm here:

https://soundcloud.com/nyx_1978/george-hefner-eleonora-wip

Going to use some more spare time on this and hope I can do enough to call it finished in a bit.
 

kev.wav

Member
Oct 25, 2017
131
does anyone here use FLStudio? I'm very tempted by the Akai Fire controller to switch to using that
 

toku

沢山特別
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,121
Ne Monde
It's how I started. I don't use it anymore but the nice thing about FL Studio is much like Abelson, it's so ubiquitous that if you encounter any problems or have any question it's super easy to youtube/google to troubleshoot. Modern Trap music basically exists because of FL studio lol.
 

Nyx

User-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
845
Utrecht, The Netherlands
I'm thinking of buying the Akai MPK249 to use with Reason.

I've been using a M-Audio Oxygen V2 for almost a decade now, so it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.
 

Yebele

Member
Nov 2, 2017
1,456
Hey, just sharing that there's a competition going on over here: https://metapop.com/pages/promos/Native-Instruments-Meta

And that it's an easy one with really no restrictions. So an, upload your best "judge-pleaser" track compo.

Grand Prize: Komplete Kontrol S88 Mk2, Komplete Kontrol A-Series Keyboard of choice, Maschine Mikro Mk3, Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector's Edition, Traktor Kontrol S2, Traktor Kontrol S4, 12 months subscription to Sounds.com, Loop Loft - Artist Series Bundle.
the fuck? you get all that!? I gotta enter this thing