FLAC is lossless, MP3 is never lossless. You can always convert anything to anything else, but if you converted to lossy formats that remains lost. So flac is perfect. Dithering is irrelevant when converting one lossless file format into another.
General / Off-Topic Let's Hear Your Stuff
- Thread starter Avago Earo
- Start date
FLAC is lossless, MP3 is never lossless. You can always convert anything to anything else, but if you converted to lossy formats that remains lost. So flac is perfect. Dithering is irrelevant when converting one lossless file format into another.
Avago Earo
Banned
Nice. It reminds me of music you'd here in an intense road movie. You obviously have more experience using Sonar than I do. I can't get that good a recording
I am using low end gear and direct is on the guitars, and hi-fi speakers rather than monitors, so that could be the problem. I think it's experience, though. Good stuff!
Avago Earo
Banned
Some good stuff shared here, nice one guys.
I would classify myself as a metal-head, but that doesn't mean I don't also love Wes Montgomery, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, etc. Hell, I like Sinatra and even Neil Diamond too.
I'll try and dig out some of my stuff later...
Yeah, I'm not a metal head myself but I do go there, along with Punk, Ska, Northern Soul, Techno etc etc etc........
The labels divide and restrain us.
I did have a go at Jazz (Sonny Rollins) a few years ago with a jazz bassist. Loved every minute (and there were a few) of it.
Avago Earo
Banned
Don Drummond... All in!
Avago Earo
Banned
OK, here's some of my ancient stuff.
2nd demo tape by my old band, recorded in 2 days back in 1996 or 1997: https://soundcloud.com/mu77ley/sets/bushpilots-vacant-situations
A cover of Teenage Kicks I recorded at home one afternoon the week John Peel died in 2004 (it was reportedly his favourite song): https://soundcloud.com/mu77ley/teenage-kicks-john-peel-tribute
Apologies for the poorly programmed drums in the latter, it was a bit of a rush job.
Nice one. Cheers!
re John Peel: Anyone up for doing a Wedding Present cover?
Avago Earo
Banned
Yeah, I know. I Should have said 'less lossy' MP3 formats. There is a line, though. As soon as air hits a microphone diaphragm and gets converted to elecrticity via magnets; detail has been lost whether it's analogue or digital from that point on. What I meant is that it doesn't always have to be the highest bit and sample rate to be a decent reproduction of recorded music. In some cases, MP3 is good (not the really low end of it though).
The dithering part I was unsure about (as I said). Thanks for the correction.
FLAC is not lossless. It's as good as, to the youngest ear, so it's fair to describe it as that. It's how many ones and zero's that can be crammed in before you need an electron microscope to really tell.
Anyway, let's hear your tunes.
Nice. It reminds me of music you'd here in an intense road movie. You obviously have more experience using Sonar than I do. I can't get that good a recording
Good stuff!
[up] Cheers man. Experience counts for quite a bit true but the software I find pretty OK to use, like you say, with practice. I certainly never read the instructions though!
I am lucky enough to have a basic set of plug in effects on there, and they do a lot of lifting - especially compressor, every track. Then you pick up tricks I suppose, like tying a loose overhand knot in your leads? (Don't know if anyone else does this but I decided recently it cuts noise?) or using a delay, which sounds a bit more modern as a subsitute reverb. (Always always tuner your guitars of course and laying down your guide track with sonar's onboard click is probably a must too; can be very useful in editing to be playing in synch with the clock). While we should take more care in mastering than we do, didn't have anything fancy on most recording though; Use a Zoom Ps-04 to pre-process all the guitars to this day and likely vocals too. Sm58 microphone for vocals is definitely nothing fancy. I actually found mine, after an outdoor party event, clearing up. Apocalypse proof!
Over time you collect more stuff I suppose and these days have upped the input game to Roland M-16DX mixer. Other fancy kit is Roland TD-30K drums, fantastic aside from cymbals which are always achilles heel on electric kits (difficult to control in the heat of the moment). Got as a ridiculous steal, £400 on eBay (did have to drive to Scotland though) but playing silently on headphones, that's wow. Last hi-tech baby is Roland Juno-G keyboard which has a lot of function for the money; sequencer, squelch filters and even a built in theramin, you can assign to control effects. I'm a one finger keyboard player though; any old pad sound with some distortion, phase and delay .. can get you some really nice weird sounds and I reckon that'll do as a rule, for a mid range polyfilla.
into void (following the lips of the system)
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Mu77ley
Volunteer Moderator
What did you have in mind?
Avago Earo
Banned
'Felicity' (I know it was originally done by Orange Juice) or 'My Favourite Dress'
Now I'm thinking about Half Man Half Biscuit
Avago Earo
Banned
[up] Cheers man. Experience counts for quite a bit true but the software I find pretty OK to use, like you say, with practice. I certainly never read the instructions though!
I am lucky enough to have a basic set of plug in effects on there, and they do a lot of lifting - especially compressor, every track. Then you pick up tricks I suppose, like tying a loose overhand knot in your leads? (Don't know if anyone else does this but I decided recently it cuts noise?) or using a delay, which sounds a bit more modern as a subsitute reverb. (Always always tuner your guitars of course and laying down your guide track with sonar's onboard click is probably a must too; can be very useful in editing to be playing in synch with the clock). While we should take more care in mastering than we do, didn't have anything fancy on most recording though; Use a Zoom Ps-04 to pre-process all the guitars to this day and likely vocals too. Sm58 microphone for vocals is definitely nothing fancy. I actually found mine, after an outdoor party event, clearing up. Apocalypse proof!
Over time you collect more stuff I suppose and these days have upped the input game to Roland M-16DX mixer. Other fancy kit is Roland TD-30K drums, fantastic aside from cymbals which are always achilles heel on electric kits (difficult to control in the heat of the moment). Got as a ridiculous steal, £400 on eBay (did have to drive to Scotland though) but playing silently on headphones, that's wow. Last hi-tech baby is Roland Juno-G keyboard which has a lot of function for the money; sequencer, squelch filters and even a built in theramin, you can assign to control effects. I'm a one finger keyboard player though; any old pad sound with some distortion, phase and delay .. can get you some really nice weird sounds and I reckon that'll do as a rule, for a mid range polyfilla.
into void (following the lips of the system)
I don't want to blame equipment. I do a lot of the things you mention and I think I've got a good ear, but no matter how much I try, I end up winding all the dials up. I'll put a limiter on the Bass so I can turn it up a bit without it jumping into the red and overpowering the rest of the mix. Oh, now the guitar has to compete so I'll put some compression on to get it to sit in the mix. Now I can't hear certain notes in the bass so I'll employ multi band compression. Now the reverb on the vocals makes it sound like it's far away but if I turn it up it takes over the mix.
My good guitar (Les Paul) is out of use atm because it needs a refret, so I'm using a bargain basement sg copy with awful pickups. The Bass is some unknown make with an action that may as well make the strings into scaffolding poles. I can't mic up amps because I live in a council flat so I go direct into my audio device (Behringer UMC 404HD -good for the price though) and use my DAW's amp simulation, and my vocal mic is a no name thing recorded in a booth I made with MDF lined with stapled on carpets.
I think it may be that I don't get a good enough tone before I record, so I end up trying to make up for it in the mix. It's difficult, to me anyway, getting a good tone with the gear I've got.
Cheers for the reply. It's a lot to take in.
Mu77ley
Volunteer Moderator
From listening to your tracks I think working on the way you're EQing stuff would help a lot. Try and make room for all the sounds so they fit together in the mix, rather than stomping all over each other.
This is a great video to help get started:
[video=youtube;EAGC2fUAU1M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGC2fUAU1M[/video]
Avago Earo
Banned
I've got an Alesis Q49. I did the piano and organ and brass on this track with it. Apologies for the last verse -I really had ran out of ideas by then
I was trying for that Madness/Specials/Bad Manners style sound.https://soundcloud.com/geoffcattle/boyseeee
Avago Earo
Banned
Cheers Mu77ley. Cheers for the link.
Yeah I think EQ is a biggie. I know I should set up bass traps as well to eliminate reflections clouding my judgement. And rather than reference monitors, I use Hi-Fi speakers and a Hi-Fi amp, so that will colour my mixes, meaning that on different sound systems it could sound biased one way or the other.
One tip I got was playing mixes on a car stereo. Apparently a lot of people do that as a test bed if they haven't got an acoustically treated environment.
Sometimes (probably all the time, if I'm honest) I rely on visual feedback on my PC's DAW. I see the peaks and 'tame' them with EQ, rather than using my ears. When I used a 4 track tape recorder, I had no visual cues and adjusted according to what I could hear. Maybe, I'm letting the technology judge for me, rather than listening.
Avago Earo
Banned
Thanks again for the link. I understand low/high pass, cut, shelf, Q, as well as swamping and cross talk in a whole mix with the added possibility of phase cancellation between tracks when boosting/cutting.
One of my faults is impatience. I've got lots of songs (other people really like too), and as well as playing the main instruments, I can hear the whole mix in my head. But I can't get it out in a mix. I wrote a song 'Take This Town'. It's really simple. Sounded great live in a pub. Trying to capture that mood on a PC and something is missing...
There's a key trick maybe? If you want more bass, make space; bring everything else down first?
You can turn always your monitor up if the mix sounds low now, normalise the whole mix later as a mastering thing. Go too far with dropping things down and it starts to get noisy but it is surprising how far you can go.
This is Heresy, I like. Stiff Little Fingers influence? You could argue your bass is quite toppy (I suppose) but it's a sound they used, and to some great effect too; (Gotta Gettaway).
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Alien Rocket Science -
So far ahead of the rest, we've gone all the way around and are coming up behind them!
Perfect Black
So far ahead of the rest, we've gone all the way around and are coming up behind them!
Perfect Black
Mu77ley
Volunteer Moderator
Do you have anywhere you can upload raw individual tracks for a song? I'd like to have a bash at mixing something if you're up for it?
EDIT: Actually, didn't you say you use SONAR? Because that's what I use too so could use a Cakewalk Project Bundle.
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Figured I'd use this topic as inspiration for a new composition.
edit: the forum censors the link because there are three potentially naughty letters in there! [haha]
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Mu77ley
Volunteer Moderator
I think I prefer My Favourite Dress from first listen (only heard of the band).
How do you wanna do this? I'm happy to play bass on it, maybe guitar if needed.
New URL, new chances.
Its admittedly quite different genre-wise to what has been posted so far, not sure if people like it. Its a piano quartet inspired by Frontier's concept art of ice planets.
[video=youtube;kKNB_fs8Rb8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKNB_fs8Rb8[/video]
Its admittedly quite different genre-wise to what has been posted so far, not sure if people like it. Its a piano quartet inspired by Frontier's concept art of ice planets.
[video=youtube;kKNB_fs8Rb8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKNB_fs8Rb8[/video]