Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

Ahhhhh I should probably go to bed soon, but instead I think I will email off a
few super secret crazy sleep deprived mixing tips.  Pardon if I mess up a bit ;)

Tips on mixing

1) Take breaks, your ears get tired and you end up overcompensate for it.  Come
back after you have gotten some sleep (Yeah right!)

2) Make sure you have fairly accurate monitors, not only will your mixes sound
better but you will experience less ear fatigue (That's a huge part of why
Genelecs are so expensive! Doh!)

3) Listen to a CD in the same style (mix wise) as what you're doing.  That way
you can keep track of the way your monitors behave or misbehave, and also give
you some reference points on what to emphasize on the mix.

4) Make sure you listen to it at really low volumes, certain things (like bass)
completly dissapear in quiet or background listening conditions.  This can be
OK, as long as you don't rely on those parts to keep the song going.

5) By far the most immediately usefull tip is to occasionally go into another
room, preferably around a corner and listen to your mix there.  Bass has a
really long wavelength and you most likely won't hear what it's really doing up
front, but move around or go in another room and you may find out your mix needs
a lot more fine tuning!  This has saved my but lots of times.  Like five minutes
ago... ;)

6) Listen on a pair of crap speakers, the favourite reference crap speakers are
old Yamaha NS-10's but a nice crappy pair of Radio Shack Optimus speakers will
do nicely in a pinch.  Since most people will hear your music over speakers like
these, try to make sure it doesn't completely fall apart when the speaker has.
(Note: this part is meaningless if you are a DJ and have no intention of EVER
releasing your stuff to be played on, god forbid, crappy speakers.  Dj's and
Live PA's just need to make sure the audience has enough bass to keep the air
out of their chests - not enough oxygen left to note any problems in the mix...
BWAhahahHAhahHAhahahaha)

7) Check your mix over white noise, preferably pink noise.  Most people listen
to music in their cars, and if you have a real commute on your hands you will
listen to MOST of your music in the car, so make sure your mix can sound good
over road noise.  A fan (even your computer fan) will help, but you need
something with some midrange.  Eq some white noise and lay a track down with it
that you can mix against (unless you are naturally lucky and are next to a
freeway onramp or near a busy interesection in Oakland, like me).

8) Convince all your friends to listen to your new track while you can listen in
(that's right keep a CD on you at all times!)

9) Don't overcompress. Period.  No really.

I'm sure there are more, so people I expect an essay by the time I wake up, K?

Andre Lewis
Aka
Bassmeister 3K

andrew thanx for this tips.  i live in front of a very busy road, and traintracks...i kinda saw 
this as a bummer, but you are right, not everyone is going to be chilling in a room 
specificaly designed to listen to my musice(or anyones for that matter).  you did mention 
things about bass, and compression.  for me personally i have a hard time laying bass in 
right.  it always sounds good at my crib, or even in another room in the house, but when i 
burn to cd and listen to it in someones car,  the bass is usually really deep and drowns 
out everything.  sometimes cutting the resonance down on the sound helps, but i feel the 
bass loses its bassyness.  i thought i may need to compress but everyone says add eq 
and compression lightly and as a last resort.  any tips on getting deep bass that sits in a 
track and can stilll be heard  even at low volumes?

A few thoughts on mixing bass...

     1) I don't know if this is current mixing theory, though I have heard that everything below
100 or 150 Hz should be panned dead center.  This clears up phase problems that exist in different
listening environments which might otherwise cancel out certain bass frequencies.

     2) The observations about freeing up some of the bass frequencies sounds right on to me.  I
have a friend in a cover band who happens to have a great sounding setup.  He runs everyone
through the P.A. (vocals, keyboards, miked guitar amps) or the separate amplifiers for bass and
guitar.  The P.A. is about 600 watts.  Then he runs the bass guitar through a high pass filter and
cuts out everything below 200 Hz.  This means that he only gets the upper harmonics of the lower
notes.  Then he runs the kick drum through 2,000 watts of subwoofer.  Yup, you read that
correctly, the kick drum is the only thing in the sub 200 Hz range that's getting amplified. 
Therefore it doesn't get muddied up by anything else.  Since the bass guitar is doing a lot of
stuff right along with the kick drum, it sounds like the bass guitar has all that punch.

     3) The art of mastering is all about creating space for everything to exist.  If you really
care about getting the highest quality sound (and if you have the bucks) you owe it to yourself to
send your stuff to a pro.  Not only do they have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in gear
(gives me a woody just thinking about it all), they also have thousands of hours behind the wheel
so to speak.  Failing that, read everything you can and keep your hands light on the controls.

     Great thread here...

          Stephen








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>     1) I don't know if this is current mixing theory, though I have heard
that everything below
>100 or 150 Hz should be panned dead center.  This clears up phase problems
that exist in different
>listening environments which might otherwise cancel out certain bass
frequencies.
>
>notes.  Then he runs the kick drum through 2,000 watts of subwoofer.  Yup,
you read that
>correctly, the kick drum is the only thing in the sub 200 Hz range that's
getting amplified.
>Therefore it doesn't get muddied up by anything else.  Since the bass
guitar is doing a lot of
>stuff right along with the kick drum, it sounds like the bass guitar has
all that punch.

When mastering tracks, I roll off anything under 40hz. You can't hear it, or
even feel it.  Audio below this level takes up a >massive<  amount of
energy, which you can then use to normalize the audible freuqencies louder
without reducing dynamic range.

>     3) The art of mastering is all about creating space for everything to
exist.  If you really
>care about getting the highest quality sound (and if you have the bucks)
you owe it to yourself to
>send your stuff to a pro.  Not only do they have hundreds of thousands of
dollars invested in gear
>(gives me a woody just thinking about it all), they also have thousands of
hours behind the wheel
>so to speak.  Failing that, read everything you can and keep your hands
light on the controls.

Make sure you know who you are sending the stuff to, and that the know your
music.


bIz
---------------------
www.groovetronica.com - "No offense, but a dated d&b loop with some Holiday
Inn lounge singer hardly wows me technically or talent wise, and I could do
better with a cassette deck and a microphone."
---------------------
site updated: last monday

this group is extremely helpful and knowledgable.  so thanx to all on here.  my 
rig at my house does not include a computer.  so i cannot analyze 
frequencies.   would i be better off getting Sound Forge, or Fruity LoopS(as 
earlier suggested for graphing frequencies) or is there some piece of 
equipment i can buy that will cut frequencies off for me.  dont laugh, but for a 
long time i thought that, that was what a compressor did(solely).  see i ahve a 
huge problem with my apartment.  i am on a 3rd fl in a house, and my ceilings 
have wierd angles, and there are all these little pockets and part where the 
wall goes back and foot or 2.. point being  my bass gets trapped everywhere.  
it rings really really really deep in some pockets, but in front of my speakers its 
no where near this deep.  i am moving very very soon, but right now i am 
kinda screwed on my mix downs.   right now i know there is nothig to do about  
this.  so is there such a thing as an external frequency "blocker", or do i need 
to bite the bullet and bring my computer into the mix?







--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "biz" <biz@g...> wrote:
> 
> 
> >     1) I don't know if this is current mixing theory, though I have heard
> that everything below
> >100 or 150 Hz should be panned dead center.  This clears up phase 
problems
> that exist in different
> >listening environments which might otherwise cancel out certain bass
> frequencies.
> >
> >notes.  Then he runs the kick drum through 2,000 watts of subwoofer.  Yup,
> you read that
> >correctly, the kick drum is the only thing in the sub 200 Hz range that's
> getting amplified.
> >Therefore it doesn't get muddied up by anything else.  Since the bass
> guitar is doing a lot of
> >stuff right along with the kick drum, it sounds like the bass guitar has
> all that punch.
> 
> When mastering tracks, I roll off anything under 40hz. You can't hear it, or
> even feel it.  Audio below this level takes up a >massive<  amount of
> energy, which you can then use to normalize the audible freuqencies louder
> without reducing dynamic range.
> 
> >     3) The art of mastering is all about creating space for everything to
> exist.  If you really
> >care about getting the highest quality sound (and if you have the bucks)
> you owe it to yourself to
> >send your stuff to a pro.  Not only do they have hundreds of thousands of
> dollars invested in gear
> >(gives me a woody just thinking about it all), they also have thousands of
> hours behind the wheel
> >so to speak.  Failing that, read everything you can and keep your hands
> light on the controls.
> 
> Make sure you know who you are sending the stuff to, and that the know 
your
> music.
> 
> 
> bIz
> ---------------------
> www.groovetronica.com - "No offense, but a dated d&b loop with some 
Holiday

> Inn lounge singer hardly wows me technically or talent wise, and I could do
> better with a cassette deck and a microphone."
> ---------------------
> site updated: last monday

Go to a pawn shop and get yourself a parametric eq with a sweepable mid and a
lowpass cuttoff filter.  Should be cheap as all get out and very common.  For
your space you can get accoustic foam, specifically bass traps which are
triangular foam parts that go into those nooks and crannies and keep the bass
from collecting there.  I believe that Musicians Friend and or zZounds has em
for not too much.

>>>> see i ahve a
huge problem with my apartment.  i am on a 3rd fl in a house, and my ceilings
have wierd angles, and there are all these little pockets and part where the
wall goes back and foot or 2.. point being  my bass gets trapped everywhere.
it rings really really really deep in some pockets, but in front of my speakers
its
no where near this deep.  i am moving very very soon, but right now i am
kinda screwed on my mix downs.   right now i know there is nothig to do about
this.  so is there such a thing as an external frequency "blocker", or do i need
to bite the bullet and bring my computer into the mix?

Ok.  I'll go ahead and mention that I haven't actually gotten an XL7 yet.  I'm using an XL-1, but hey, the user group sucks for it.  Also the synth engine is pretty damn similar, so hopefully someone will be able to help me out here.

with that said:

I have a bass, it has like an eight bar LFO routed to the filter.  When I increase the value for sample delay, it responds as it should,  With the sample being offset more as the value increases.

The problem starts when I take the value below zero, into the bpm area.  If I go so much as 1/32 the bass enters a permanent note-on stage causing me to have to power down.  The weird thing is that the tone is produces is pretty wicked, and I really like it.  So I'm trying to figure out how to use some slight bpm driven sample delay without crashing my poor Emu.  

the manual makes me thing it has something to do with the long LFO wave.  But still, it's supposed to offset the start of the LFO, not force it to enter the twilight zone.  

Anyone ever experienced this?  or know what to do?

-WEsley D.
www.evolbeats.com


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Ok, first off get yourself an XL-7 !  ;)

Second (and just a guess) everything below zero is probably expecting an
external midi clock, and hence doesn't find one and plays your note at 0 bpm.
Maybe?  No manual handy
Andre

-----Original Message-----
From: Wesley D [mailto:Serfiss@...]
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 7:48 PM
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [xl7] infinite note-on caused by sample delay


Ok.  I'll go ahead and mention that I haven't actually gotten an XL7 yet.  I'm
using an XL-1, but hey, the user group sucks for it.  Also the synth engine is
pretty damn similar, so hopefully someone will be able to help me out here.

with that said:

I have a bass, it has like an eight bar LFO routed to the filter.  When I
increase the value for sample delay, it responds as it should,  With the sample
being offset more as the value increases.

The problem starts when I take the value below zero, into the bpm area.  If I go
so much as 1/32 the bass enters a permanent note-on stage causing me to have to
power down.  The weird thing is that the tone is produces is pretty wicked, and
I really like it.  So I'm trying to figure out how to use some slight bpm driven
sample delay without crashing my poor Emu.

the manual makes me thing it has something to do with the long LFO wave.  But
still, it's supposed to offset the start of the LFO, not force it to enter the
twilight zone.

Anyone ever experienced this?  or know what to do?

-WEsley D.
www.evolbeats.com


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Word! I'm definitely getting an XL-7.  the bpm is def. something to check, but I'm almost possitive it was set to 128 manually.

I appreciate the lone reply.
 
-WEsley D.
www.evolbeats.com


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The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.

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