Here’s a story from a tracker who isn’t all that well versed in the audiotechnical side of musical production. Well, I didn’t know what the DC Adjust button in the sample editor did until recently. I had this sample that had a really cool sound to it, but it had one flaw: Its profile kind of veered up and down in the editor. At first I thought it was just a cosmetic problem, but when I rendered the song in which I used the sample, I noticed that the swerving had carried across into the profile of my entire song. Now I realized the problem: It made it impossible for me to normalize my track! I couldn’t get a good volume level because the signal veered “downwards” in all the parts where I used the sample. So I was thinking, “there must be something I can do to alter this sample… I’m sure somebody has made a tool for this…” And sure enough, I didn’t have to look further than my trusted tracker, Renoise. I just clicked DC Adjust to see what would happen, and what do you know. It did exactly what I hoped it would.
Reverb seems quite efficiently amplify this swerving, even on samples that are just barely off the center-digital-zero-line-thingy. If you, like me, didn’t know what DC Adjust did before, now you do: It makes your music better.
First of all, I’d like to say that you make great music, I downloaded “Where do I go” the other day, and it has great drum- and volume work, great job! It could use a better ending tho
About the DC tho, since it, obviously, makes the music better, should I always use it? Or just in certain cases?
I know it’s not your job to answer questions like this, but thanks anyway for the great tip!
Not only is it important to make sure you process your samples (and/or final mix) through a DC filter, but it is quite common to run the final mixdown through a highpass filter during the mastering process. The high pass filter is usually set around 30Hz (sometimes higher, sometimes lower).
The reason for this is that you are not physically able to hear frequencies below this – and few if any speakers can reproduce them. Because of their low wavelength, they take up a lot of dynamic range and so your track ends up a lot quieter than it could be. I’m sure many of you have seen ‘wiggly’ bass-drums, which are a good indication that someone tried to make it bassier by boosting the 30Hz range.
It is common to worry that this high pass filter will take away the bass of your track, but the reverse it true. By filtering out everything under 30Hz allows you increase your dynamic range & EQ frequencies where the bass is (usually around 60-80Hz)
dufey: Thanks very much for the comments , although “Where do I go from here” is not exactly finished - it’s just one of the many almost-finished bits I’ve come up with but failed to pack up and send away (to the songs page, that is). It doesn’t have an ending at all as of now, does it?
Interesting tip there about the filtering, kmkrebs, I’ll have to experiment with that.
, although “Where do I go from here” is not exactly finished - it’s just one of the many almost-finished bits I’ve come up with but failed to pack up and send away (to the songs page, that is). It doesn’t have an ending at all as of now, does it?