If you have any frequently asked questions and/or answers, share them here.
Mixing FAQ:
Q: What is a compressor?
A: A compressor is an effect you put on recordings to take out dynamics. its mostly used to unnoticably reduce dynamics in order to be able to turn the recorded sound up louder, but is also used as an effect to make something come upfront more, or bang more (think about hard kicks). what happens is that when you record something, in most cases it will have a big dynamic range. wich is often unwanted. for instance, you record yourself singing. and your lowest part peaks at -15 dB, your highest part peaks at -5 dB. you will only be able to turn the recording up 5 db without it peaking. however, if you reduce those dynamics by compressing them, you could make your lowest part peak at say -12dB and your highest at -8dB. if you do this, you can then turn your vocals up by 8dB without having it peak. Very helpful.
Q: What kind of compression ratio should i put on my vocals? (bit more advanced but frequently asked)
A: Well the most average ratio is 10:1, but that is by no means the law. it should depend on the vocalists recording, your taste, and the style you are going for. The higher the dynamics in your recording, the higher you should put your ratio. and always keep in mind that dynamics play a huge role in the interest factor. the more dynamics you leave in the more natural and interesting it will sound.
Q: What is the difference between Mixing and Mastering?
A: Mixing means literally mixing every sound in your production together, in the best way possible. making sure there are no clashes, and that everything sounds good, not only individually, but together. the art of mixing is making your beat bang even more, and making it sound as good as possible.
Mastering is the stage that comes after it. And the final stage at that. This part is where you make your record ready for release. alot of people think that mastering is only about making it loud, and while making your track loud is also a big thing in mastering, its not the only thing. it also means things like removing final sound issues, making it ready for where its going, for instance, if your record is going straight to the club, cut out all frequencies below 30+-Hz as they will mud up the big subs that they have in the clubs. or for instance making sure that every song on your album has the same volume level and audible loudness, and making sure they run into eachother smoothly.
Mastering FAQ:
Q: How can i make my beats louder?
A: You can make them louder by removing dynamics. if you get rid of some of the dynamics in your beat, youll be able to turn it up louder without making it peak. for this you can use compressors (on individual instruments) and limiters (on the master bus).
Sampling FAQ:
Q: How do i remove drums from a sample?
A: Technically its impossible. at least, not without also taking out a big part of the rest of the sample. what you can do however, is EQ really well and try to make the drums less dominant. you see, a sound has certain frequencies, alot of them mostly, and a song is ofcourse, filled with sounds. some of the frequencies of the drum, might be the same as say a string melody thats also in the sample. if you were to take out those frequencies, you'll also lose a part of the other elements that make use of those frequencies. and it will generate unwanted losses. so try to eq to the best of your abilities and learn to live with whats left.
Q: How do i remove vocals from a beat?
A: Same as the question above, tho when you have a clean studio acapella, you can remove the vocals by playing the acapella and the song at the same time. if the acapella and the vocals in the song are exactly in sync with eachother, you can turn them out of phase by reversing the polarity of the acapella, and both the acapella and the vocals will become inaudible. this can also be done with other things, as long as you have an exact copy of the element you wish to remove.
Music Theory FAQ:
Q: Should i learn to play the keys?
A: In this day and age, keyboards have become essential parts of the studio. to a point where even strings, guitar and other instruments are being sequenced using keyboards. so yes, it would be incredibly helpful to learn the keys and i can guarantee that you wont regret any time/money you've spent into learning to do it, for as long as you make music. apart from keys, other instruments are helpful aswell. From an arrangement side of things, learning music theory is also a HUGE help. and this ofcourse comes with learning an instrument. so all and all, should you play an instrument? definitly.
Sound Design FAQ:
Q: What are the best sounds for hip hop?
A: This is completely up to you. its not what you want to hear, but only you can decide wich ones are the best. i bet that nobody in here can name 5 sounds that havnt been used in any electronically based music type. in the end it all depends on your taste, look for what YOU like, dont let anyone else dictate it.
Q:What is the best VST out there?
A: Same answer as the above question. completely up to you. i like orchestra stuff, so naturally my go-to vst plugin is an orchestra vst. this might be completely different fron what you like. again, it all depends on your taste.
Hardware FAQ:
Q: What should i look for when buying monitors?
A: What good monitors should produce, is a flat frequency range. meaning that the monitors should make the least possible amount of changes in the sound. You are going to want to hear exactly what you are doing when you are mixing, and not screw it up cause your monitors were making you hear the sound differently from what it actually is. The most popular monitors to date are Yamaha NS-10's, wich sound notoriously crappy, but just as crappy on one frequency as it is on the next. so keep in mind that when your looking for monitors, you want to steer clear of the ones that make your music sound better. you want to look for the most accurate sound reproduction instead.
Q: How do i connect my midi keyboard (to work with FL Studio)?
A: Most midi keyboards nowadays are plug & play, meaning that you can plug them in and they will install themselves and become usable immediatly. however, some midi keyboards require drivers. these will often come with it on a cd, if not they will be obtainable trough the manufacturers website. there are small installations that you need to run in order for your computer to be able to communicate with the device. as far as the fl studio part, when you have your keyboard plugged in, powered on and ready to go. click on options -> Midi Settings, in the imput box you will most likely see the name of your keyboard. if not, press Rescan Midi Devices at the bottom of the options. it should show up then. select it, then click the Enable button. it should now work.
Q: Do i need a mixer to connect my monitors?
A: For most new montiros you dont, you can buy cables that will go from mini jack cables to 2 big mono ones, or really anything else, so its not a necessity. however if your monitors arnt powerd you will need an amp.
Q: What is an Audio Interface, and why would i need one?
A: An audio interface is basically an external soundcard just like the one built into your desktop/laptop. They have different Inputs and Outputs and often come with drivers built for music production. the Pro's of having one are that your daw will run better (less pops and clicks) with most of them, you will be able to record, you will have phantom power (wich is required for condenser mics), and you wont have to use the 3,5mm jack cable that causes noise as your in/out. if you want to start recording, stuff, this is a powerfull tool.
Q: How can i reduce noise while recording?
A: It depends on alot of factors, the most basic ones are:
- Better cables. i know, i know, you just bought that expensive mic, figured you'd get a cheap cable and be done with it. well cables play a big role in generating noise. so buy quality ones instead.
- Use XLR when possible. What XLR cables do that makes them stand above the others, is that they duplicate the signal, put it out of phase, then at the end of the cable put it back into phase, thus turning the automatic noise out ot phase. if that sounds too complicated, it mutes the signal, then at the end of the cable, it mutes everything but the original signal and unmutes the original signal. meaning that any noise generated by the cable is taken out.
- Create a shorter signal path. If your microphone is connected to your mixer, wich is connected to a multicable platform, wich is connected to your audio interdace, wich from that point records, you will get more noise. the more stuff the signal has to go trough (ie the preamp on your mixer, the switch on the multicable platform, the input on your audio interface, and all cables in between) the more noise there will be, so try to keep it as simple as possible, i know having to swich cables on your interface all the time is no fun, but its the lesser of two evils.
- Achieve a better signal/noise ratio. this one is important, with capital letters, IMPORTANT. never forget that on the device your recording with, noise stays the same dB level regardless of how high your input gain is. so if you record low, then turn it up, the noise will become louder aswell, but if you record high and dont have to turn it up that much, the noise will stay low. so always, ALWAYS, gain your input signal as high as possible without having it peak. this will take some trying out, but its worth it.
- Reduce noise from the enviroment. Avoid recording in the same room as your computer (if you do record there cover it up, but watch out that you dont fuck up the cooling systhem that way), politely ask your neighbours to stop playing music for an hour etc. etc. and alyways make sure that if someone else is in the room while your vocalist/instrumentalist is recording, they are as silent as they can possibly be, dont even let them text on their blackberries, the sound of them pushing the buttons will be under the recording and while it doesnt seem like a problem, come compression time every low sound becomes louder, so while it didnt seem like an issue first it can become hell later on.
Q: Do i really need a Motif to sound professional? (Or any other piece of hardware)
A: No, while it is never bad to have more hardware, it is not at all a nescessity. You can sound just as professional using only FL Studio with stock sounds, the only difference is that it will take more work.
In todays music there are few essentials, a computer, a daw, a pair of monitors, and doable acoustics. the rest of it, in my opinion, can all be considered luxury items. meaning that you are not missing out on anything you really need in order to sound pro, but they do make life easier.
General FAQ:
Q: I'm having problems getting alot of clicks, pops and other noises on playback, whats wrong?
A: These clicks and pops are often caused by a shortage of RAM memory. If you load a whole lot of sounds into your project, your computer will have to calculate more in order to play it and turn the data into sound. The most common way to prevent this is to increase your buffer size (in fl you can find it in your audio options) your buffer size determines how much time you give your computer to calculate. the higher you set your buffer size, the longer it takes for the computer to respond to your action, and the more time it will have to process your request. this can be very helpful during the mixing/mastering stages, but keep in mind that it can cause annoyance during sequencing.
Also, if you are using your built-in soundcard driver, you might want switch to Asio4All. it's a freeware driver that tends to work better.
Q: What is a soundfont?
A: A Soundfont usually contains multiple samples of one instrument. these samples are all in different pitches(tones) and they are spread across the keyboard as they would be with a piano.Typically a soundfont will only contain a few note samples, in order to keep it from taking up alot of space. SF2 (sound font 2) files have a systhem that replaces the empty notes with a pich shifted version of the nearest sample. meaning that with only 6 different samples of an instrument you could play your keyboard and use every note.
all in all their a very usefull thing.
Q: Help! i have producers block, how do i get rid of it?
A: Well firstly you will want to stop stressing about it. a very wise man, but not the 1st one, once said: ''As you progress, your progression naturally starts progressing at a lower rate'' ... or something like that.
Anyway, what is happening is that you have been learning alot of new things about music, and have developed yourself. after a good spree of creativity there always has to be some point of rest. during this period you might feel like you've completely lost your touch and are unable to produce anything hot. this isnt true, all thats happening is that your changing. remember when you used to have a high pitched voice as a kid, then couldnt talk normal for a while, and then suddently had the sexy deep isaac hayes voice? well that is similar to whats happening now. the important thing is to not stress about it. if you feel like you lack inspiration, go out and expand your musical horizon. make something totally different, listen to some music you would normally turn off right away. as you yourself progress musically, your taste in music will become alot different, most cases it becomes alot wider. stimulate that.
and last but not least, eat some kentucky fried chicken©.
Q: How do i use a .zip file?
A: You will need a zip extractor. the most common ones are winRAR and winzip. they are free to download, just google it and you'll find your way. when you have one of these programs installed you can open the .zip file and extract it to the desired folder.
Sidenote: if you are using it to extract drums, extract them to C:\Program Files\Image-Line\FL Studio #\Data\Patches in order for them to show up in the FL Browser (replace # with the number of your FL Studio Version. if you have fl studio 9 replace it with 9.)
Q: Is Reason better than FL Studio? (or any other DAW compared to any other DAW)
A: That all depends on what you want out of it. every program has pro's and cons. its just a matter of trying it out and seeing wich ones you are comfortable with.
Unrelated FAQ:
Q: How can i make my noodles taste better?
A: Be creative, use some herbs and spices you never tried before, add some stuff you wouldnt normally add and try it out (but not skittles.), you could also look for some recipies on dishes based around noodles and vibe off that.
Q: Noodles?
A: Yes, Noodles. |