Production Thoughts

[Sac]

@_ronzlo

Of the small handful of things that’ve helped my mixes become slightly less shitty over the years, looking at spectral data has been a big one for understanding what’s really going on in a sound.

i already do this

@_ronzlo

Chances are if you look at a tune you think is well mixed it’s gonna have a shockingly high amount of data present in the mids, more so than you’d think, and that’s not just because the mastering “fixed” it.

can you go more into this i’m not sure what you mean?

@_ronzlo

Was thinking this. Poor mid definition makes ppl wanna scoop out, but imhe that’s usually not an issue w the signal so much as the playback format. Cans are notorious for it; the diaphragm is too small to meaningfully reproduce everything actually going on there so it just sounds like mud.

so i use headphone with a flat response curve and use alot of other stuff, cars stereo phone etc to test it out not all the time only if i think there may be an issue somewhere. i guess this is the problem but i cant afford to accousticly treat a room and buy expensive studio monitors and neighbours etc. probably this right.

also you said can speakers not sure what they are tbh, tried googling it got nothing coming up. so if the mids are not coming through properly surely it would be muffled more than muddy? or are you saying if your speakers dont produce alot of mids you overcompensate? but this still doesnt make sense to me

oh so you are saying the device will put out only low mids and less of high mids making it sound muddy?

[Sac]

elaborate please unless ronzlo has already said

[Sac]

i just looked at whole bunch of songs for references on the voxengo span metre and all of them have low mids and mids dipped in them. also noticed there is a 6/8k boost and a roll off on the highs might start trying to aim for that instead

[cyclopian]

You can analyze your fav tune on a graph and it will never translate to how it actually sounds to your ears

Don’t write tunes based on graphs, ever.

An analytical eq is not telling you what the texture is or the composition. It’s telling you the volume of that frequency range at X time.

Make what sounds good to you, on your monitors.

[Sac]

@cyclopian

Don’t write tunes based on graphs, ever.

first of all… fuck you

yeah i agree with you on that its just maybe I’m doing something wrong without realising it. I always gravitate towards a certain shape on the analyser i just wondered if its bad practise to not incorporate as much mid information.

but after analysing loads of tracks earlier i had the same pattern more or less so its eased my anxiety, also thought i might of had hearing damage of some sort sensitive to mid frequencies.

[cyclopian]

hearing damage typically goes from the natural hearing loss curves of losing the high end and going down from there

unless you have a traumatic hearing loss incident from an explosion or just listening to dj wanka too much

one thing that i learned a bit too late, is that being drunk makes your ears more sensitive to hearing damage

[Sac]

@cyclopian

dj wanka

probably this

@cyclopian

one thing that i learned a bit too late, is that being drunk makes your ears more sensitive to hearing damage

is it because of the relaxed muscles in your ears?
i used to work in club when i younger and going to alot of music venues and being drunk and fucked up. but in all seriousness i dont like high frequencies that much so i guess im ok

[cyclopian]

i did a hearing check last year and was pretty surprised. my ears are pretty good still other than the the normal age reduction in the top end

i have tinnitus but ive had it since i was a kid

im about to turn 35, i spent an insane amount of time listening to loud music in clubs from ages 18-30

[cyclopian]

@Sac

is it because of the relaxed muscles in your ears?

apparently yes b2b lack of caring about ear pain while drunk

[Sac]

apparently mdma fixes tinnitus but from my experience its a load of shit

[cyclopian]

mdma is how i got the hearing damage i have now, no regrets but LOL at that advice

[cyclopian]

afaik there is no ‘fix’ for tinnitus, but i could imagine a very structured mdma therapist treatment could help people that are literally about to kill themselves from it.

Just like any other body symptom there can be this overwhelming need to make it go away, i could see how some good therapy would turn that symptom into just “this is me” (at least from my own experience) and maybe mdma could guide that therapy in the right direction, but there is no way mdma fixes tinnitus lol.

[Paralytik]

@cyclopian

hearing damage typically goes from the natural hearing loss curves of losing the high end and going down from there

I’ve lost bass on my right ear. Tinnitus is pretty bad some days, but it is what it is. There can be many different reasons to why you get it. Also gotten very audio sensitive, like some sounds are just physical discomfort or actual pain. Getting ear fatigue fast.

@Sac

is it because of the relaxed muscles in your ears?

This is the reason yeah, alcohol relaxes the muscles that are supposed to dampen the “damage” from prolonged exposure to loud volumes. Also possibly reducing the pain threshold.

@Sac

i just wondered if its bad practise

100% individual. If you like how it sounds, it’s good. Different genres, and different artists within genres, vary wildly in how mixes sound, obviously. A “balanced mix” does not mean an equal balance of frequency distribution.

About tinnitus:
There are so many different ways you can damage your hearing, saying 1 thing will fix it is oversimplifying it to an extreme.

[Sac]

@Paralytik

About tinnitus:
There are so many different ways you can damage your hearing, saying 1 thing will fix it is oversimplifying it to an extreme.

yeah dont read too much into that mate it was a joke
i saw it in a news article which says it all popping a disco biscuit aint going to cure it
this is some random link on google Researchers to Study ‘Ecstasy’ for Tinnitus Treatment (hearingreview.com)

[Paralytik]

I can totally buy that the stress-reducing effect of MDMA can have a positive effect on how some people experience tinnitus, but then you could kinda say that MDMA can “cure” any number of stress related issues.

I can imagine it could be a useful tool in combination with therapy, in some cases.

[Sac]

i think like with any empathogen or psychedelic it isnt a quick fix but can give you a jump start

[Sac]

shrooms are good at addictions like alcohol and heroin

[Paralytik]

Yeah. I think ronz commented on the “de-patterning” effects recently. Makes sense.

[cyclopian]

this is a reminder to ask your doctor to clean out your ears, i thought i was going deaf for a bit

i need to do it again now, wearing ear buds alot, it jams the wax in

also, no drugs are going to help you not be addicted to something lol

addiction doesnt work like that

[Paralytik]

I wouldn’t classify “true” psychedelics as drugs in the typical meaning of the word, but MDMA is definitely a drug, with additional psychedelic properties. Just as ketamine is a drug, with dissociative (not psychedelic) properties.