Gotta Quick Question....

[Teacher]

From some critics i've been hearing that my drums loops sound THIN....is there anyway wit Cakewalk that i can make them sound "thicker" i guess...i have sound forge plug ins too

[crosstudio]

when you say thin do you mean no bottom... ie a kick drum that has no thump or a snare with no body? if so, i'd re-record before i start EQ'ing. if you are using a drum machine, which one are you using?

there are tricks that you can use like adding reverb to your snare, or doubling your hats with the doubled part panned opposite the original at a reduced volume (mix to taste, this is an r&b/hip-hop trick).

[Teacher]

i'm using the ASR-X....good looking

[crosstudio]

i've got the asr-x with the hip-hop expansion card. when you record do you have the shelf engaged on your mixer so that you are in essence removing the low frequencies from your recording? you might also want to analyze your choice in instrumentation. i use to have the emu procussion, and my drummer friends would always comment on the lack of 'phat' there was to my beats. since i've been using the asr-x, i haven't had that problem.

once i've got a good beat pattern, i separate my tracks into individual kick, snare, hat, cymbal, toms, and whatever other percussion instruments. then i select individual sound for that track and find the right note to play for that sound. what i mean is... if C3 is the kick for some general midi patch, and i like the sound of the kick, i'll bring up the kick on it's own track wherein every note is the kick, then i'll interpolate (cakewalk 9) the kick notes to the note that i feel matches the tune the best. for instance, on a double kick, i might make the first an D3 note and the second a B2 note so that the bottom on the 2nd kick is really felt.

the asr-x also has some wicked fx algorithms, but i rarely use them because i hate printing fx when i record. i change my mind about everything when it's time to mix.

[Teacher]

here's my site www.mp3.com/beatmakers

check a beat or 2 and tell me if u think so too cuz i think they are fine

tell me more about this interpolate....
and on the ASR-X how do i find the individual sound of that track wit out just looking for it the conventional way?

[UncleThumpy]

I wouldn't say they sound "thin". I would comment that the mids seem kind hot. Enough to maybe overpower the lows a bit. Try cutting your midrange a couple decs. See if you like it. Low end sounds tight, and not over emphasized. you could add little sub if you wanted too. Naw, It's not too thin.

I listened to Neck Breaker, the Dark chant, Caught in the Belly of the Whale, Cipher, Extreme Pens, and Warning.

It's all good. Just a little hot in the mids. What do you monitor with when you mix? You might want to cut a CD or tape and give it a listen on other systems to see how it translates from system to system.

Nice work!

-L

[Teacher]

thanks for the feed back greatly appreciated....

I use a MACKIE Mixer 1402vlz....the only thing is my speakers suck there like 15 watts lol i'm working on getting some real monitors...yea the snares might be hitting to hard