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2. How to make electronic music with computer? Where to start?
3. How to promote your music online? How to make your music heard by lots of people?

PART I: THEORY

When learning the basics of recording, the subject of compression often seems daunting. When to use it? How much is too much? Too little? What ratios and attack times are best? Why compress at all? Or maybe none of the above, you may have a life. In the following article, I’ll try to shed some light on the issue without becoming overly technical, and then focus on real-world examples of how to enhance your sources with the right compression.

First, some history: Compression was developed by radio broadcast engineers in the 1920’s to automatically detect and lower peaks in the program material to “level” or “compress” the transmitted AM signal, preventing distortion. This is why many early (and current) compressors have level somewhere in their name, and those ugly, ugly industrial paint jobs. Soon after, duplication engineers began using them to do the same thing when cutting master discs for wax, then vinyl disc duplication. If a recording was too loud, had too much bass content or the transient peaks were too sharp, the cutting lathe would literally jump out of the groove, ruining the lacquer master and interrupting drinking. Adding hardware compression and equalizers before “cutting” the record made the process much easier and had the added bonus of making recordings more consistent at lower volumes on a wider range of speakers.

Today, mastering is more common than ever, with nearly every recording currently released eq’ed and compressed or “leveled” in some way. Soon, compression moved to individual instruments, especially when close instrument and vocal mic placement became the norm in the 60’s and 70’s. New instruments with a wide dynamic range like electric guitar/bass and the modern drum set would now typically be compressed, and a more consistent volume for each note could be put to tape, making mixing easier while doing drugs.

On vocals, singers with softer voices could be compressed to help every syllable cut through a full mix, signaling the end of big voiced singers until Meatloaf. He actually sang directly to tape. No mic, nothing. Then Bono Highlander-ed him. There can be only one… Different types of hardware compressors were developed, each with its own character, each loved and hated like Pee Wee Herman. Software compressors have evolved frightening quickly to faithfully model classic analog units, sometimes combining the best elements of several designs or doing tricks impossible with hardware.

But I know what you want to know, how do it work?

PART 2: CONTROLS

Most compressors, either hardware or software, have a range of controls that look like Stephen Hawking’s ipod, but in practice, are really simple. Starting with what they do in the signal chain, here they are:

1. Threshold is the point at which the compressor starts to “hear” the input signal and process it. Think of this as your “zero” point. Use the attenuation/reduction meter to help set the compression level. If you see large amounts of compression on your input signal (more than 5db), raise the threshold. If you see little or no compression, lower it until you’re compressing 0-3db on average. This is a subtle tracking setting, mixes may require more, but don’t they always?

2. Ratio is the amount that the signal is reduced (or compressed) based on the strength of the incoming signal. 2:1 compression will compress -2db for each 2db above your threshold point and output only +1 db. 5:1 will compress -5db and output +1db and so on. The first number is the db you want reduced, the second is the 1db of output after compression.
Anything over 8db is generally considered limiting, a process which sets the absolute level of a signal through fast, steep, devil-may-care compression and absolutely precise output control.

3. The Attack and Release knobs determine how quickly the compressor starts and stops affecting the input signal. Auto, Fast and Slow are all curves determining how quickly the compressor reacts to the source. Auto averages transient information it detects from the incoming signal and sets the compressor attack and release “Auto”matically. It is a GOOD THING. “Pumping” and “Breathing” occur when Attack and Release don’t match the transient speed of the input source or when you visit the wrong rest stop.

4. Knee or Soft Knee is a term for a softer sloping compression curve, (like the bend in your knee) that is smoother on attack and release than the more sliding-board curve of the standard settings. It may work with or independently of the main Attack, Release or Auto controls. Hell if I know, it’s your compressor! Read the manual! God!

5. Level, Gain, Make-Up Gain or Output is essentially a volume control which lets you manually set the final output of the compressor, adding or subtracting volume to the processed sound. Use this to set the level to your recorder or mixer fader. Leave 3-5db of headroom for later processing or fader rides during mixing.

There are many types of hardware and software compressors and they all have different strengths and weaknesses, like a ticklish weightlifter:

• Tube compressors give a warmer, smoother compression but at the expense of high-end crispness at extreme compression.
• Opto, Optical or Vactrol compressors have many of the same tonal qualities as tube compressors, but are more transparent and forgiving at high compression rates.
• Solid-State compressors are very transparent and color the signal least at low-medium reduction settings, but at extreme compression settings, the signal becomes highly colored in an unnatural way. Usually, NOT a GOOD THING.

However, unnatural sounds can be of use in some situations. Like many elements in the recording process, distinctive, individual tones can come anywhere in the signal chain. It’s all about using your wits, your ears and finding what’s appropriate to the track to use compression musically. I’ll talk and talk about how in the next segment.

PART 3: PRACTICE

Here’s some general compression tips, and then some more advanced voodoo. Most apply to both hardware and software models. Watch your ears as you experiment, compressors can turn out volumes that will rid a house of varmints for a fortnight.

Lightly compress when tracking vocals and widely dynamic sources. I know that many digital purists claim that at 24bit depth there’s now no need to worry about noise floor or bit-rate, just record lower, compress later. I recommend doing both. The sound of a lightly compressed vocal will immediately give a more produced, polished sound in the artist’s headphones as they track. And as you probably know, a confident, wow-I-sound better-that-I-thought artist is halfway there to a great performance. It also helps a tracks consistency when you mix. No more that 2-3db at a 4:1 ratio though, unless you want to color the track, and that’s HARD to get out. It’s way easier to add more compression later, when you can experiment to your hearts content with more effect-type settings without being stuck with them. Or just record one with light compression and one without to another track. With nearly unlimited DAW real estate these days, why not?

Use different compressors for what they’re best at. A guitar that has a very bright top/thin low end is a bad match for a solid-state tone. Likewise a heavy, deep bass doesn’t benefit much from the softening and warmth of a tube type. Take each sound as it comes, and see what it might benefit from. Same thing applies to vocals. Does the singer get brighter or darker as they go for it, is their tone more edgy and thin, (tube) or round and darker (solid-state)? Again, during tracking, you don’t want to go too far with changing voice timbre through compression, but in mixdown, the sky is the limit. (pun SO intended)

Two units are better than one. If you need 6db of leveling, use a few db of your most transparent compression on really dynamic sources like vocals, bass and acoustic instruments. Then use other, different flavored compressors for a few more db when mixing to get the best of both worlds, rather than a lot of one. Try making copies of the track and using different compressors with different qualities, subbing out one for another or blending them when appropriate for the song.

Do NOT compress your mix before professional mastering. Many mastering engineers, (myself included) have been receiving tracks that are limited or compressed to -.03 or OVER full-code digital signal, leaving no room for eq, multi-band processing or even a decent chance to let the track BREATHE. I know it’s sweet to throw that limiter across the master fader bus, dig in 5 or 6db and hear the magic happen. And that’s cool for making copies for your car or to groove to. But PLEASE take that stuff off before you run out your final, highest-resolution-possible master. Leave -6db for the mastering engineer to do his/her thing and you’ll get results that will make you cry with joy.

Sometimes, move the damn fader, Jim. If you find that you just don’t like any of the post-tracking compression you put on, just manually ride the fader. It’s much more transparent and leaves more of your mic/preamp tone intact, but does require having enough fader gain to work with and Spock-like patience. Make sure to also leave some headroom in your instrumental mix at the master fader for the 2-3db that vocals add. It’s totally old-school retro, man!

Ignore number four! (Sort of). I’ve sat at the elbow of well-known mixers and seen the whole mix go thru a compressor, even with NO compression happening. An $11,000 compressor, but still a compressor to get their “sound”. At a seminar with two multi-platinum producers, one swore by compressors at the master, the other swore at it. Jimmy Douglass: “I just don’t like the sound.” Brendan O’Brien :“It sounds like a RECORD!” and no, he wouldn’t say which one! If you prefer the sound of a classic limiter at the master fader when you print your final mix for mastering, lower the main master fader until you get a peak of -6db. DON’T do it at the output of the compressor or plug-in. Some of these software simulations even mimic output gain structure, so it may change your carefully crafted tone.

Compress before equalizing! By compressing before the equalizer, the eq is applied in a more consistent way across the track. If you’re trying to get more “air” into a vocal or instrument, putting the eq first will result in the air being rolled off or otherwise changed as compression kicks in. Eq after and the air stays constant across the top end. This is also true for background vocals. Send them all into an Aux Bus or sub-group, compress it first, then add eq and effects. “It sounds like a record!” Piano, horns and acoustic guitar also need compression first, to keep the eq sparkle as they get louder.

Equalize before compressing! If you’ve got tracks or mixes that sound good when things are at mid-volume and energy, but the sound gets edgy as the track gets more aggressive, use compression color to smooth it out. Got a singer whose top end is just a little harsh? Let tube or optical leveling take some top end off and add warm harmonics. As some instruments get brighter into their top range, the roundness of a tube compressor helps tuck them in, while keeping them up in the mix. Full mixes can also benefit from this combo, the compression adding a tape-like tone to thin lower mids in a way eq doesn’t. Solid-state’s tonal edginess as it gets hit harder is great for singers or sources that lose high end as they gain volume.

Sub-mix, compress and eq things to gel them together. Set up a Stereo Aux Input and send the drums to it. Or just the kick and bass guitar. Or two guitars. Or reverb. Or background vocals. Then compress and eq the living hell out of it! Then blend them back into your original tracks. I’ve seen hip-hop producers who had the same kick drum in five different DAW eq/compressor channels to make it sing in all registers. This also works great on lead vocals, adding air and bringing out every breath and luscious detail. Use a high-pass filter set around 1k after the compressor to keep things from getting too muddy. Just DON’T use it on everything!

These are just some basic ideas, and hopefully a jumping off point for your own signal chains and concepts. As you can see, there are no hard and fast rules, so don’t let compression intimidate you. It’s a powerful tool in getting a consistent, polished sound. To quote the rapper Cannibus: “I’m never under pressure, cuz I keep the pressure under me…” Feel free to leave a comment here with questions and opinions and I’ll answer them as soon as I can. Good mixing!

Todd Watson is a producer/audio engineer with twenty five years experience in nearly every aspect of audio production, including studio and location recording, mixing and mastering, as well as post-
production scoring, sound-design and audio sweeting for tv and film. His work includes artists ranging from Greg Allman to The Game, and corporate clients as diverse as The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,
Cartoon Network and Yamaha. He is currently based in Atlanta, GA. Check out some of his tracking, mixing and mastering projects and scoring and sound design work

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3. What Is Mastering? Article Of Ian Shepherd.

Also, they’ve created a detailed EQ tutorial on .doc format. Download it here.

All credits goes to AMSoulrecords.com. They have other cool tutorials as well so check out their website.

F.I.X. EQ Tutorial from AMSoul on Vimeo.

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3. Really Good FL Studio Video Tutorials

So, with that being said, why not try to leverage the power of P2P networks to your advantage and promote your music using these file sharing networks? In other words, upload a short preview of your track to a torrent site or other file sharing site. Of course, before doing that, you must make sure you hold all the rights to your track and are allowed to upload it. Also, you must prepare your song first.

• Attach a .txt file in addition to your song itself where you tell people to visit your website for more info about you or your music and pack it with winrar. Or add your website or myspace URL to your song MP3 file info.
• Next, make it as a torrent file (instructions here) and upload to one of the most popular torrent trackers around.

I know some artists do this already and due to it they’re getting more listeners for their music and it has also increased visitor amounts to their website.

Of course, this may be a totally dumb idea and I’m definetely NOT encouraging anyone to hang around on those torrent sites or doing anything illegal. I’m just seeing the P2P networks as a possible channel to promote music for free.

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Let’s face it. Sometimes your synthesizers just don’t cut it. Sampled guitars don’t work and vocal loops can sound stale. You can build interesting beats filled with otherworldly textures and complicated synths patches but if it lacks a human feel then maybe it won’t work so well for human ears.

Your target market are humans right?

When your new electronic song starts to sound just like the one before it, maybe it’s time to record a few instruments to spice things up.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge fan of electronic music and all the interesting soundscapes the genre uses. My respect for people who can create complicated electronic beats and dense colorful synth sounds is immense. But I’m a recording engineer type of guy so here are a few tips you can use when you want to record a few real instruments to complement your electronica.

Microphones

You can record most things with a decent large diaphragm condenser. Condensers are preferable to dynamic microphones, since dynamics have a narrower frequency range and a dirtier sound. Recording vocals over your trance track is easy if you have a nice full range condenser that captures the full tonal range of your singer, with every nuance of the performance coming through. Microphones get cheaper every day and there are many budget options out there for less than $100. Check out a few of my recommendations for condenser microphones here.

Acoustics

Most bedrooms aren’t designed for music recording. The sounds you get out your microphone in the middle of a untreated bedroom can sound ringy, roomy and boxy. And that’s not something you want on the back of your single.

“An incredibly ringy production! The boxiest vocal in modern music!”

Not the ideal result you were looking for from that microphone you just bought. Before you run back to the store and buy some more equipment that you will be convinced that you need, see if you can’t get a better sound out of your room with a little treatment.

High pitched ringing can be dealt with by using blankets to absorb high frequencies. Hanging blankets around your microphone can get you a better sound instantly, without you needing to buy expensive room treatment products. The thicker the better.

Dealing with lower frequencies and bass can be more problematic as you sometimes need to either buy thick bass traps to absorb the low end of your room or you can create them yourself, which is much more work than just hanging up blankets and duvets. Check out the home recording studio page at Audio Issues for more information on acoustic treatment.

Recording

If you have done all you can to treat your room and are satisfied with the sound of it, the next step is to find a good spot to record in. A good trick for recording with only one microphone is to evaluate the width of the instrument you are trying to record and then place the microphone at the same distance. That way, you should capture the full tonal range and sonic information of the instrument. If you have a large room try placing yourself somewhere in the middle and hang duvets and blankets around the instrument and microphone. Do a before and after recording to hear the difference. You don’t want to completely kill the reflections when you are recording acoustic instruments so it’s important to find a spot in the room that your instrument sounds good in.

You can create a dead vocal recording space easily. Closing yourself off in a very absorptive closet can deaden a vocal immensely, enabling you to get a completely dead but very processable sound that you can mix with whatever reverb and effects processors you want. I always go for a dead vocal that will give me more options in the mix down phase. Using some blankets and duvets I created a nice vocal recording booth in my old apartment.

Conclusion

Adding a few acoustic touches to your electronic mixes can give new life and edge to your productions. If you had any doubts as to how you would start adding recorded sounds from your bedroom into your music, then I hope some of the tips above shone some light on how easy and approachable bedroom recording is.

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2. How to make electronic music with computer? Where to start?
3. Introduction To Sample CD’s

I highly recommend you to check out their Youtube channel!

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2. How To EQ Your Mix – Video Tutorial
3. How to promote your music online? How to make your music heard by lots of people?

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• Big Fish Audio – Big Fish Audio is one of the biggest sample cd producers and they have a huge selection of sample libraries covering almost any genre there is and quality is top notch! I have couple of Big Fish Audio products in everyday use.




• Zero-G – Zero-G has also wide range of sample collections on various genres. I have several of their products as awel and quality is awesome.




• Vengeance Sounds – Vengeance Sounds products are MUST for every dance music producer. I think their samples are almost a standard in dance music production. Highly recommended.




• Mutekki-Media – Another manufacturer with professional quality audio sample libraries. Especially for all kinds of dance music.




• Best Service – Best Service has put out some of the most usable sample libraries there is.




• PeaceLoveProductions – I have several PLP’s sample libraries and I’ve used their samples in almost every song I have produced.




• Ueberschall.com – Legendary sample manufacturer.

Here’s a links to online stores where you can buy sample libraries:

• Producerloops.com – Huge selection from almost every sample manufacturer there is! I use them regularly to buy my sample libraries. After you have maid the payment, you isntantly get a link where you can download the product you’ve bought.




• Soundstosample.com – Also a very nice collection of sample libraries.




• Soundsondemand.com – Good collection of audio libraries as well. Been using them also.

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In this two video tutorial I slice up my song in to 16 bar sections and I try to explain the progression section by section.

Some may wonder what is a bar. Well, I’m not expert in terms, but here’s how I have understood it: 1 bar = 4 beats. If you listen to a dance music, you can hear the basskick beating. Four of those beats forms a bar. Take your favourite dance song and listen to it carefully. If you start counting the beats from the beginning of the song, you notice that usually after 32 beats (8 bars) something happens: new sounds comes in, other fades out, etc. That’s how the song progresses. Every certain amount of time something happens. That’s how you keep up the listeners interest.

So when you start to compose your very first trance song, try to progress in 8 bar sections. Add a new element after every 8 bars or fade out current ones.

So a typical trance song structure could go like this:

[first 8 bars: basskick]-

[second 8 bars: basskick + claps]-

[third 8 bars: basskick + claps + hihat]-

[fourth 8 bars: basskick + claps + hihat + bass]-

[fifth 8 bars: basskick + claps + hihat + bass + pads]-

[sixth 8 bars: basskick + claps + hihat + bass + pads starts to fade out]-

[seventh 8 bars: breakdown and everything stops. Start to build up your idea (hook) here]-

[eight 8 bars: your idea (hook) fully presented!]-

[ninth 8 bars: highlight of your song where everything plays together: your idea, drums, basslines.. everything! make it "explode"!]-

[tenth 8 bars: highlight may continue!]-

[eleventh 8 bars: maybe start to fade out elements a bit.]-

[twelth 8 bars: fade out even more]-

[thirteenth 8 bars: more fade outs]-

[fourteenth 8 bars: fade fade etc. etc.]-

You get the hang of it when you start to compose your first song. In my example I’m using 16 bars because I wan’t to build up things slowly.

So, here’s the videos. First Part 1:

And Part 2:

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With that said, I’m going to give a couple of music promotion techniques I’ve found to be very effective in my own music career. So without further ado, let’s begin!

Use discussion forums for music promotion

First you need to find a forum that is related to your music genre and register there as a user. For dance / trance / house music minded people, I recommend trance.nu. They have an artist promotion section in their discussion forum where people can post their musical work for feedback and comments. You can also try to find forums that are dedicated to electronic music genre in whole or other music related forums that have a section for artist promotion. But remember: DO NOT SPAM! If you register in those forums rember to participate and be active. Comment other peoples songs as well.

You also need a place to upload your songs in MP3 format. If you have a own website, you can upload it there. I really recommend you to have your own website because this will benefit you in a long run. Some of the forums allows you to upload your own music straight to their servers. But if not, you can find a lot of free file hosting services by Googling. Mediafire is a quite good.

I produce electronic music and here’s a list of some of the forums I’m using for artist promotion and am active on:

KVR Audio
Imageline Forums
The Flipside Forum
TAXI Forums
Musicradar
Young Composers
Future Producers

Also, you can find a loads of more by googling. Just type for example: trance +forum.

Use Youtube for music promotion

Yeap, Youtube is HUGE for music promotion. If you haven’t registered an account, do not hesitate. I recommend you to create an Musician account there. Next you may think you need to have a music-video to showcase your music there, but you’re wrong. All you need is a still image, your song and a windows movie maker

Here’s an example of how I did a video from a still image and my music in background:

As you can see it’s a simple still image containing the song info and my music plays in the background. Perfect way to showcase your music for a potentially millions of people! It only takes a few minutes to put this kind of “video” together with the Movie Maker. You just need to create a text like that and save it as .jpeg image. I created a video tutorial for you how to do it.

Build your own website (or blog) to promote your music

I really recommend you to have your own website to showcase your music to the world. It doesn’t have to be pretty, basic clean and simple look will do fine. When you set up a site and start to update it, you will eventually start to get visitors there through Google. That’s kind of handsfree promotion for your music: people will come visit to your site automatically

What I really recommend is to buy a domain name (your own name or artist name), webhosting space and install a Wordpress blog platform. Wordpress is a free and popular content managment system which is easy to maintain and update and there’s TONS of free themes, extensions and plugins available for it. My site, for example, runs on a wordpress platform and I have installed various free and easy to use plugins on it: music player for people to listen my music, guestbook for visitors to write a coemments, contact form for a contacting me straight. For more information about wordpress, check out wordpress.org.

Of course, there are free places too to set up your own blogs like blogger.com, but it looks a bit more professional to have an own domain name related to your band or artist name and website around it.

If you need any assistance for setting up your own website or blog, I can help you. Contact me through the Contact Me section.

Use Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation and other social networking sites to promote your music

Create an artist profile on both of these sites, gather some friends and showcase your music. Lot of artists do not have their own website. Instead, they use only Facebook and Myspace artist pages as their ‘homepage’. Of course, these places are crowded by other artists too promoting their music, but don’t worry: there’s still room for more These kind of social networking sites are very powerful for music promotion. I for example, got a placement for my music to an award winning documentary film thanks to Myspace. I really recommend taking advantage of these sites.

Then there’s Twitter and loads and loads of other similar social places to go for promotion. Use Google for such words as: social networking +music etc You will find lots of places. Just remember: do not spam.

‘Offline’ music promotion

You have friends, relatives, co-workers, schoolmates etc. Tell them about your music. In situations like these, your own website or Myspace/Facebook style profile pages come in handy. Just write down your homepage address and give it to them.

That’s it for now. Hopefully this short guide will help you to get going on your music promotion!

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