Yeah, learn as you do tunes, it’s the best way. But even if only learning some technical stuff, save your sounds and presets. 
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Haha yup, already got 'em saved
here’s a random production thought: compression is overrated and transient shapers are underrated
also, nice to see some discussion in production that doesn’t revolve about how to make a growl bass 
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oh yeah, i’ve saved about 20 presets in total over last 5 years… i’m starting to save them a bit more often and it’s amazing to see how much it slowed my workflow down…
That’s something else I want to learn about. So a transient shaper allows you control over the attack/decay in one VST rather than doing it seperately? Is Bittersweet any good?
Attack being how quick/hard the sound comes in, and decay being how quick/hard the sound finishes?
This is good for removing clicks at the start of a sample if it doesn’t start on a zero point yes?
1 BigUp
imo, you’re better off trimming the sample so that it starts at zero point or doing a tiny fade at the the start.
Attack - time it takes for a sound to reach it’s full volume
Decay - time it takes to go from full level to sustain level
Release - time it takes to return to zero volume (ie after the midi note ends)
edit:
In compressors and such attack/release control how fast it reacts to signal passing the threshold
1 BigUp
That’s what I usually do. Just wondered if a transient shaper would make things easier/smoother workflow-wise
If you chuck the sample into a sampler, any decent sampler will have envelope/adsr settings
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been eq’ing every track to make them sound brighter. then i made a track with no eq’ing at all and this is the brightest track ive done in so long.
1 BigUp
came across some old toy commercials, sample time:
(peep :20 seconds into this one 
why is this shit so dark?)
1 BigUp
Been watching the Armin Van Buuren masterclass and got pleasantly surprised when I found out Logic X has a “capture recording” mode, which is much the same thing as Ableton 10s new “remember recording” or w/e it’s called.
In Reaper.
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Do I EQ individual hits of a break I chopped up before importing the hits as midi to a piano roll?
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Can I EQ the hits after they’re in the piano roll?
I recommend working in audio hits in the audio sequencer.
In that case, if you really want to eq hits individually (I just process the whole break for consistency), I would do that before sequencing, but if you put the hits on different tracks, you could do that after.
But I just process the break as one thing, chop the audio (remove the fades) and sequence the break as straight audio.
1 BigUp
Also, using delay like a short reverb effect fattens basically anything. Nice on snares. Add a touch of actual reverb as well and bam.
1 BigUp
Do you mean individual hits within the piano roll?
I’m new to this.
What do you mean here?
Nah like fuckin drag a break onto the track, adjust the playback rate to tempo (some trial and error), process as needed, rebounce it, slice the fuckin thing with the S key and copy/paste shit all over the shop and there you go, there’s your beat.
What do you mean here?
Reaper, like I think basically any DAW, will automatically chuck fades on audio clips (gradual volume increase at start, decrease at end). This is sometimes useful to declick melodic samples, but it fucks your percussion transients, so remove at least the starting fade (in my skin, it’s a red curve on the audio clip). It does this when loading a new sample or slicing samples.
I prefer to remove both start and end fades when chopping breaks.
1 BigUp
Ah yes I get you. Reaper auto fades in and out by a few ms. I edit my samples so they start on a zero point anyway so I don’t need too much fade in, but I keep a little fade in just in case of rogue clicks.
Also: whether or not to EQ the individual slices versus the rendered output depends on the quality and amount of information you want to keep; if the slices are your main hits, then EQ individually like any other drum hit. If it’s a lower layer or lo/fi you might try EQing afterward since it has less detail to bring out.
1 BigUp
