can this be done using ! dedicated stereo separation features inside a multiband compressor
thats what i do in maximus i split my 3 bands and set the low band to mono usually ranges down from 120hz and i spread the mid and highs to taste usually spreading the highs even more
Never tried maximus, but may give it a whirl now. I think Ozone has some similar functionality too.
Never tried maximus, but may give it a whirl now. I think Ozone has some similar functionality too.
maximus its pretty unconventional tool it features a graphic almost waveshaper kinda window to set the threshold and ratio of each individual compressor due to this uncommon feature you can perform
downwards and upwards compression de esser and limiting you can use it also as a gater and a multiband waveshaping device its pretty sick
but its expensive AF i have it cause it comes with my producer edition of FL but it alone its 180 buckaros i think
thee most important thing that i learned this year and the thing that allowed me to finish more songs was the incredible …subtle tip of splitting my working sessions into sound design sessions and arrangement sessions
and this is pretty simple to undersand usually when someone hits the mood to start making a tune you only have so much time before you get exhausted
specially if you try to do everything at once like
-make your own sounds
mix as you go
actually come up with chords and melody (the song itself)
-another thing that helps a lot its to have your sample library as organized as possible so you dont spent to much time looking for some weird effect sample or kick drum sample
- another thing and this one was like a freaking revelation !!! is ok to use other people’s preset … yeah it is
its a huge time saver !!! specially if you discover a creator that you resonate with both his music and sound design
in my case the adam fielding Europa relay refill !! best 20 bucks i ever spent
in the case of structuring your working session !!
i usually start making the tune as described :
pick the samples im going to use (my own or from the library)
pick my vsts and sounds i want to use
start making the tune !!!
things like mixing and setting up sidechain can be done when you have all of your arrangement lay down 1st and after that you even rethink some of your sounds and change them for new ones
- last step !! mix in a different session (a diff project file)
it really helps to split the process cause when you are mixing with stems everything becomes so much more clear (at least to me ) it even shows up things that can be corrected in the song like adding a drum fill or automate the gain or panning in diff sounds things like that !1
i would like to hear more tips like this if anyone cares to share
the process of creating the song and get into the mindset its really interesting
edit:
something i would like to add its proper gain stage and grouping make sure you route all of your main categories of sound to the specific bus like synths , bass, effects , and drums …and the drums split them in hats and snares and kicks ,it makes it much more easier to mix
It’s not the first time I hear it, but I struggle a lot with separating sound design and composition. When I find certain sound I usually start messing around in the controller and writing some bars down. Of course then I find very dificult to come up with more things to complete the arrangement, so I tend to start a new project 
I think I just don’t know to work with samples, I tend to use synths in an organ-like way (like Benny Benasi’s electro, if that makes it any clear). But then tracks get montonous.
It’s not the first time I hear it, but I struggle a lot with separating sound design and composition. When I find certain sound I usually start messing around in the controller and writing some bars down. Of course then I find very dificult to come up with more things to complete the arrangement, so I tend to start a new project
I think I just don’t know to work with samples, I tend to use synths in an organ-like way (like Benny Benasi’s electro, if that makes it any clear). But then tracks get montonous.
same thing happened to me bro all the time
thats why i think getting a feel for the song structure must comes 1st even if its all electronic …glitchy beats and effects
jamming with your keyboard or guitar to help you look for progressions and phrases its key to make the song
replacing a sound can come later since you already have the notes and rhytm
same goes for mixing
but it al depends in your workflow and the type of music u want to make
thats why im interested in this stuff cause i think this all changes with the diff genres and styles 
having a mission is more important than anything
Yep, good tips there! I need to focus more on using grouping better myself. I suspect I should be using more group multiband processing too.
Just FYI (and I mean this as a perhaps useful counterpoint to consider, nothing more) I think it’s erroneous to assume one “should” be doing something like multi-band processing just because it exists in the wide world of production tools.
We live in a super-abundant era of easy-to-access production tools, and I think a negative byproduct of that reality is that we think we need Everything and need To Do Everything. When, in fact, most of the great productions of the past / present / (hopefully) future were done with far, far less.
There are ‘pro’ producers, if you do a little googling, who think multi-band compression (as one example) is over-processing at its worst, and in most cases useless if not downright destructive in a production context (I can’t remember which article it was, but one had a producer calling it “Maul-the-Band” processing.
That said, the positive side of the golden age of digital music production is that we can try virtually everything out and decide for ourselves, so from that angle, sure, try it out and decide for yourself if it’s improving your productions. My advice is to just not assume you “should” be doing it.
Sorry for the potentially condescending rant / lecture mode, I’ll shut it down now. But I see a lot of this sort of “oh I should be doing mid-side on everything…” and “oh I should buy fabfilter multiband comp for my master bus…” and so on, and I just don’t think it’s the smartest route to better productions, etc etc.
cheers, -M
@ m.arthur I think youve read too much into me saying should` there.
I`ve had good results with multiband before and it was more a note-to-self, if out loud…
For every expert that wont use it there are ones that will i.e. Ive seen Tony Mazerati claim in an interview that he`s a fan.
sure, try it out and decide for yourself if it’s improving your productions.
This I can certainly agree on.
For every expert that won
t use it there are ones that will i.e. Ive seen Tony Mazerati claim in an interview that he`s a fan.
yeah also in Dave Pensado’s youtube channel Pensado’s place i remember watching his interview with Mike Dean and when he asked about his mastering chain
Dean told him
Eq + Multiband Compressor + Limiter
"its not rocket science Dave "
edit: he actually said EQ + compressor + limiter 
heres the link pretty dope stuff
pretty cool interview totally recommend
yeah also in Dave Pensado’s youtube channel Pensado’s place i remember watching his interview with Mike Dean and when he asked about his mastering chain
Dean told him
Eq + Multiband Compressor + Limiter
"its not rocket science Dave "
pretty cool interview totally recommend
Pensados Place is a great channel to dig into!
Haven’t been there in a while but I really like Dave’s laid back interview style. It`s fascinating to hear from some the engineers behind major records of the last 30+ years!
I’m professionnal producer since more than 15 years, and i understood something so basic, that i’m bit ashamed for having been so long ^^
the lenght of the pattern will determine the power and the feeling of harrasment it gives … let’s explain this completely :
let’s take a simple techno beat loop : if you work on a 16 steps pattern just after the 5th step you will have tendances to don’t repeat the 4 first step, and to make your pattern longer…
when the brain hears that the loop is not finish, start to wait the rest of the pattern, and what ever you put on it to make it feel faster (percs or running HH) it will still feel slower than if you produce everything in 4 steps then ctrl +p
making long loop will make your music richer but less harrasing.
This works for drums but also for mélodies, the rythme of the played note should be repeated after the 5th step, note can changes but not the rythme you’re playing them.
Of course all this don’t concern the end of pattern’s cut, fills etc
I tried to be as clear as possible, don’t hesitate if you didn’t understood, want to explain it better than me or don’t aggree 
IMHO your brain will tingle more if you have intertwined repetition/phrase durations in an arrangement. At least letting one of the elements in the arrangement have a different phrase duration, thereby creating contrast and not making your arrangement sound like a machine gun.
Also important/effective (in pop music) is to introduce contrast of phrase durations between song sections (example: the verse melody being built upon a 2 bar phrase, while the chorus consists of a 1 bar melody phrase). This is probably the most simple and effective way to modulate energy level between song sections. But it often doesn’t come 100% naturally when you already listened to your verse 50 times. It’s a typical case where theoretical knowledge is a practical help, because you can decide what the song needs when “feelings” often aren’t that helpful.
2019 bump!
and new 2019 tip:
Always try a transient designer after a compressor, particularly percussive stuff!
Really has made a difference to make a rule of this.
Mr Bill recommended to always use transient shaping on drums…
He told about it a while back in the bitwig discord
The Multiband Send meta tool is something I’m using more and more to split a signal and then process the lows, mids, and highs on separate busses. That lets me control the EQ of different frequencies nicely. It also allows me to send all bass frequencies through the same sidechain so they move as one instrument. Or, like, to have all the high frequencies feed through the same convolver reverb for a natural ambience. Things like that…
This is why I like to have a wide variety of simple, single-use VST plugins that you don’t have to sound design much with - like a “Bass” one that’ll give you a few good bass sounds, or an organ synth that you can just open up and get a usable sound with so you can keep creating. It’s like having a room full of real instruments you can reach for, rather than one mega modular synth where you COULD do ANYTHING but it takes an hour to dial in a sound you like.
the Cxx command is all you need to make banging electro chiptunes heehe
from bass guitar to step sequencers (renoise)
how much silence between the steps/notes?
load *.gp from internet or write your notes in tux guitar or guitar pro then export as *.ascii
open in editor, see the silence
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/donny-hathaway/the-ghetto-bass-1911441
To be more careful with boosting EQs. Especially after compressors…! What might sound nice at moderate volume might sound etching when played loud… Have to make a knot into my face to try to always remember that in any production stage…
Two useful things I learned for music production:
Production tip:
In EDM music, using two sound samples together help to reach the best sound for a kickdrum or a snare. Simple, but efficient.
Into music promotion:
I finaly realized the importance of social medias and mostly Youtube for promoting music. I’ve quite underestimated this before.
Mmm… my tips looks like newbies tips! 
super tip
one advantage of using the free SPAN by Voxengo it lets you dial in the settings for the visualizer so if you set the ““slope parameter”” at around 3 it essentially makes the mid and high frequencies appear horizontally in the visualizer (similar to pink noise ) that makes the use of reference tracks much easier
a note on this tip
By contrast, in an analyzer set to a slope of -3.0 db/octave rolloff (pink noise looks essentially “flat across”), you typically want everything from about 500-700 Hz looking essentially horizontal. Yes, certain lower mids will poke up when you have a prominent lead sound happening, and yes, the 14-15-16 Khz region will start rolling off in a good mix that isn’t too harsh. But watching the average shape of that 500-700 Hz region and up will look essentially “flat” when you have a good spectral balance. In bass music, of course, the region below 500-700 Khz will definitely slope upwards above the flat line, as you see in all these screenshots.
this advice was given to me by someone in the Bitwig discord
edit : i think the renoise spectrum can do this but none the less good info
