Production Thoughts

@mks @ronzlo big up gents, food for though there. Dsf telling me Dawson’s have em, might be a nice way of integrating kit that’s lying around unused.

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Been listening to artists who got a signature sound, kind of amazing that they stick to the same sounds for most of their tracks

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Yeah. A lot of times it comes down to gear and workflow that makes it sound similar, even if the compositions themselves differ.

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always wanted to get a good sample of an a10 warthog…scary as fk

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Ive really been wondering about amps and the like recently for recording bass sounds in partciular. Or maybe just the Warm Audio Tone Beast preamp.

Read thru the whole thread again and am still interested in this idea of limited tracks and bouncing down audio. Even if there is no literal sonic difference I think the limitations would help w creativity.

Id actually been thinking about just recording a long drum track doing mutes and parameter tweaks then chopping that into an arrangement with the bass instrument and making sure that could practically be the track on its own before adding anything else.

At the end of the day I feel like its mostly drums and bass that make most types of dance music. I hadnt been out to a proper event in ages then spent four days in Detroit for Movement, did a buncha party favors and it all suddenly became clear again what this music is about.

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Defo do-able and rewarding: ime this approach works best with the right gear. So - a good amp is definitely a start, but if possible a decent DI and summing box would really take it a level where you can really hear the difference as far as clarity and noise.

I have a Countryman DI and the thing is fucking awesome. Don’t own a summing box but do know a ninja here who’s got the dreamiest pro studio with one in it … :duncelol:

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I think the craziest thing is when you can tell who made a song you’ve never heard before (especially without a singer) there was one band I used to listen to a couple of there songs (porcupine tree, awesome band) I didn’t know much of their stuff but a couple songs. And I was listening to the radio one day and there was a song on (no vocals) and I was like this sounds a lot like porcupine pine tree. Shazam it and sure enough it is.

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I think Al Green’s recordings have to be among the most instantly recognizable “signature” sounds… drums way up in the mix, especially hats… guitars are at like -22db, way low, just a rhythmic bed… and that big warm organ (heh),

Yeah a lot of “recognizable artists” have more to do with small stuff like how the songs are mixed and that kind of stuff and not the huge things like arrangements and melody.

It might have to do with listening, whether their hearing is balanced etc

their memories and associations as well like the metal gear thing with burial

Just got me wondering if there is any relevance for having a signature sound anymore though. Always been way more fun to keep changing with every track

Really the goal should be quality, not necessarily “distinctiveness” as such. The latter is a two way street. I mean, Whitehouse’s sound is really distinctive (esp. on the old stuff) but you don’t hear many people ripping off that lol.

An example (of quality as being the distinction) that comes to mind is the Weevil Orchestra’s first release:

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What are your guys thoughts on tempo changes in songs? Maybe on like a longish dancey song bump up the bpm on the second drop or something like that.

I basically never do it. I rather just stretch the composition when it’s still in MIDI. Like atm, I’m working on a 140bpm, 4/4-track with a cinematic intro. I stretched all the midi files on the intro by 50% (so that every 1/8 note is being transformed into a 1/6 and so on). This makes it like 93.3bpm if I’m not completely wrong.

Hm that’s actually a really interesting way to handle it.
I was just thinking having like a 6-7 minute techno song and then during the second or third drop bump up the BPM by like 5 or 10 just to give it more pump or something.

Check out the new WWWINGS album if you haven’t already - like the tune ‘Riders’. Tempo change works really well there.

try it and see if it works for ya, no rulez

just dont expect a dj to touch it haha

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Yeah I was just listening to the glasgow boiler room techno sets and I coulda sworn there were a couple tunes that felt like they sped up a little bit at points, maybe Im just crazy tho

Could end up being a transition tool between two tempos/styles

idk how familiar you are with the technical side of dj’ing but tempo changes are made on the fly quite often to beat match to another tune.

Not really at all. Just seemed like it was the same song but probably was a change.