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Date: 03-Oct-00 @ 03:06 PM -
Your approach to isolation...Please.
Defector Z
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Okay - so here's the thing...
I've been doing electronic music for over 2 years now. When I listen to a lot of professional and semi professional mixes, each "instrument" is well isolated. Everything seems to have a spot in the mix. The kik drum never seems to overlap with the bass line, competing synth lines are separate and distinct. I have a lot of trouble doing that. I don't know if my approach is wrong, if I'm simply selecting the wrong patches, or I am just not thinking out the box well enough.
A couple of things I have thought of that seem to have worked a little.
1. Filter the kik drum - remove anything under 80hz, and roll off the top so it doesn't go much higher than say 200. I'm still having trouble with the bass line though, as it often overlaps on the kik. Like the bass is from 60hz to 150. That's only if I'm using a sine. Use something else with a larger spectrum, and it starts overlapping the punch of a snare, or the lows on a thick synth.
2. Patch selection - I often pick a patch because it has a big sound. If I have that sine bass line rumbling, and the patch I select is a big fat synth, it overlaps on the highs of a sine, and though the hats and snares. If I roll off the lows on the synth, I lose the fatness of the synth part.
3. Am I hindering myself at all by recording everything live into the computer? Right now, when i record a track, I play the whole thing live and record it into a stereo track into cubase. So I have to do all the mixing on the desk real time. People have said that this is fine to do it this way - Mike Clarke scolded me for using that as an excuse, and I can see where he's coming from - but I wonder what other opinions are.
Okay that's for starters. What do you all think?