By
cluster
Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:33 pm
1.Add your own Artifacts... Easiest way to spice up even the most generic, quantized beat. Take a Filter (in this case I will use a high band filter, and filter out all the lows), So if it was a Drum track that included the A kick, snare, hat, I will hear the highs..Now Take that Filtered Loop, and Reverse it. Now add Reverb, to your Liking, and then Re-Reverse it..
Now, just mix that with the Original Boring Loop, and you have some interesting High Frequency Artifacts, that have a reversed sound..
You can Use this with Different Filters, and Different Effects other then Reverb. One of the greatest Sounds I love, is the sound of Reversed Reverb Drums... So that the Decay comes before the hit. Chop up the filtered beat as well, and add it in periodical.. The biggest concern with music, is keeping the interest of your listener. A small change in a bar, every bar, will have the listener listen longer, then if left unchanged... IT has something to do with our subconscience, and waiting for the norm, while experiencing difference.
2. When using a sound editor, such as Soundforge I also like messing with my own form of a Chorus... I will Copy the whole Track... Then Zoom in to the highest zoom I can, and Mix the whole track a few dots later. It's really a very small use of chorus, but if you adjust how many dots (soundforge, the closest zoom, has dots) you can hear the change in the overall phatness of the mix, without the stuttering dj echo that occurs with wider chorus and mix....
3. Again if your using a sound editor, If you notice after listening on different sources that your mix is lacking in terms of lows, mids, or highs, the easiest way to fix it, is going back to the final stereo mix, and using a filter, then mix the filtered version with the final..
IE Say your Lows are not hitting, Just use a low band pass Filter, and filter out all the highs and mids, then copy that and mix with your original mix, until it sounds okay... If its muddy, try subtractive EQing, then mix...
4. Before You Mix your own tracks, or when you are listening to your own tracks and mixing, take a break and throw on your favorite song in a similar genere, then go back to your mix.. You'll prolly immediately notice something that could be fixed....
5. A while back I was messing around with unconventional recording practices, and I noticed something. Similar to how people view a ghost hit (snare or kick, slightly faint in terms of velocity) I noticed that the use of a Ghost note is also very viable when coming up with melodies...
Not sure if its true, but in the example I came up with. I had a specific melody, and during the bridge I threw in, by mistake, a specific note, that was lower in velocity, and suprisingly the wrong note. The mistake note made up one of the best parts of the song, and although it was the wrong note (as in C vs B or whatever) it fit, and due to its low velocity it changed tonality. It seemed to match with root note of the song. I then played it too a friend who was a musician, and he at first didnt notice the random ghost note, but did compliment the bridge, I then showed him how the note was the wrong note, and he was admazed, its as if the brain filled in the sound correctly, the mismatch, due to the lower velocity... This probably relates to disonaunce and such, but honestly it wasn't dissonaunt.. It fit, and added energy...
5. If your sampler or midi keyboard, allows you to reverse the keys, try it, playing a keyboard that is reversed, is a different experience, and you may come up with different melodys, then the norm.. (ie instead of C0 to F7 or whatever, it goes from F7 to C0)
