Hi! I’ve been lurking for a while and finally decided to make a post.
I have two versions -
The Short One:
Would anyone be interested in helping me improve my Renoise skills, if I i turn help with mastering (/mixing) your tracks? Also might be interested in collaborations in the genres of ambient, house and techno.
The Long One:
I started working in a mastering studio around 2001, 2002, after having been a fan of electronic music (among other styles) since the mid 90s and DJing from time to time later that decade.
In my spare time, I used Logic when it was still available for the PC, hardware samplers, mixing desks etc., several of the popular VA hardware synths from the time, then gradually switched to Cubase and began experimenting with more VSTs and software-based instruments. I considered this more ‘playing around’ or learning than serious work.
I had about a 10 year break from the music biz, during which time I did some more playing around for fun (this time falling into the modular rabbit hole!), I then decided I should actually focus on making tracks and maybe even get something released, which brought me to Renoise.
I’m laughing at myself as I type this, because I’m now aware that I had at first drastically misunderstood what Renoise was about - my plan was to mostly forget about synthesis and sound design, and just use some of the extensive library of weird and wonderful noises I’d already made over the years, focusing almost exclusively on arrangement and song structure.
Anyway, I now have 2 years sporadic experience working with Renoise, so I’m not a beginner. I have a number of tracks I’m working on in various stages of completion. I’m looking for people who have more advanced knowledge, especially in the area of arrangement, organisation etc., who can chat via Meet or similar and help evaluate and improve my projects. In turn I will listen to your tracks, offer help and advice with mastering or mixing issues, and also give them a DJ’s perspective.
Although I’m far from impartial, my view about modern mastering is that to some extent many people seem to be either ignorant of, have forgotten or are disregarding the main point. Nowadays there are numerous companies offering superlative mastering chain suites and plugins - amazing tools are readily available and you don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars (/pounds, euros) to get them almost instantly. However, until AI makes me look a complete idiot, the one thing* you can’t download and install at home are an engineer’s ears and brain, without which, by and large, you are sort of mastering by numbers. Especially if you are working on your own mixes!
If the mix is already good, all it probably needs is a gentle EQing and the appropriate compression, which you don’t need an expert to perform. The question is though - who decides the mix is good? Who decides how much compression is right? It’s not a dark art by any means, but I think if you mixed it yourself, you should definitely have someone else with a different set of ears that you can trust to make those decisions, someone who works on such things on a regular basis.
I’m open to all comments and suggestions, cheers!
- One thing? Ears and brain are at least three things, but you get the point!