yo, as the electro one took so long to get ready and get out the next one will prob hit next week, expect a video this week though, possibly a tech tip!
bry
[quote]newsc2 (7/7/2009)[hr]Hey Bryan,
Just got through the whole tutorial. Learned a lot of tips, and especially liked the Arrangement.als template, but if I could say one thing…
Some of the videos and steps feel like they read like a paint-by-numbers tutorial. I’m really not interested in hearing that I need to tune a ping pong delay to 3kHz (or whatever it was), I want to know why and where I should be tuning it to for my own tracks and sounds.
You kind of just told us what delay time we should set up, and what compressor release settings to use, etc. I can copy the steps easily, and read the settings from your Ableton project. But I’m really just trying to figure out what I should be experimenting with and what’s tried and true.
Same goes for a lot of the sounds. It was nice of you to provide the presets, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a ground-up build of the individual sounds, with experimentation and mistakes included (turning a knob too far, or going back and editing a sound). It’s not like synthesis hasn’t been covered in other tutorials, and you did discuss some details, but it’s the little side comments like “when I’m going for an electro lead, as opposed to a trance one, I really like to do _______” and comments like “when applying said effect, this knob is really useful” instead of “turn knob to 3.5” that really teach us a lot.
Anyway, sorry for the mini-rant. Please take it with a grain of salt – like I said – the tutorial was very good, I learned a LOT, and I’m super excited to see the Minimal one :P:D
Keep up the great work!
[/quote]
I felt exactly the same, like in the saturator bit on the drums, i could see we were moving knobs but i wasn’t really understanding why we were moving them and what they did.
But I do appreciate that it would take longer to do this, but maybe instead of saying ‘move this to there and move that to there’, we just had explanation as to what each process did, so we could then decide ourselves where we wanted to move it to.
Great tuts though don’t get me wrong, would just be nicer to be understanding what each process did rather than following a step by step.
How annoying - I have no time to go through this at the moment and I REALLY want to.
Anyways I’ve watched the intro and holy crap it looks good. It’s worth it for the drugs frenzy inspired lyrics which are truly random!
hey bry this is a great tutorial but it started to feel a bit “paint by numbers” in places, still learned a lot of info and appreciate that it would have taken 40 or more videos to explain every thing you are doing.
personally i didn’t really need much of what you was moving explained, but im sure some have been left in the dark with certain parts. its not a complaint just thought you would appreciate the feedback. 
hi guys, cheers for the feedback!
maybe we need to start labeling the tuts in order of using experience? out of 5 maybe
i.e. this one maybe a user level of 3 or 4? - where people already know the basics
and then the fidget one maybe a 1 or 2 - where we explain more about the synthesis?
or maybe a collection of tuts detailing the uses of each effect in Ableton
I don’t think you need that, it’s unfair to label like that. For instance some of the programs you used I was fully aware and compitent with, whilst others i wasn’t so much.
The thing is that i want to see and hear how and why you did that certain process rather than say how i may have done it myself.
Simply moving it to said position doesn’t tell me anything.
“this will change depth of the sound, personally I’ve found keeping it around these areas gets a great warm feeling blah blah…”
Rather than:
“move this knob to 3.45kH”
It leaves us with the questions
“why did he choose that particular frequency / position? Is there anything specialy better about there than say 2.15kH (for example)”
I mean this tutorial Bry is unbelievable, it’s really good so don’t take what i’ve said as any kind of put down, i’m just trying to offer open feedback.
yeah i agree with roben the tutorial its self was top quality and its always hard to say something with out it sounding like a put down.
when you choose to either compress, eq, distort some question are left really open for people to guess at.
for instance when you put a compressor over the entire drum track instead of just the kick, why are you doing this? is it to give punch to the drums, pull them together or help them cut through the mix.
why would you pick the distortion unit over the over drive unit? do they have different characters? is one better suited than the other.
the videos are all top quality and we learn so much from them
no problem guys, i appreciate the feedback so dont worry about it!
ill try to be more in depth when it comes to those areas in the next tut!
im possibly recreating this for a cubase tutorial and will def keep it in mind!
bry
Thats cool bro, you know we only have love for what you guys do
I think this brings up a new point. This is a “how to sound like”. This song is almost exactly like the original track it was pulled from. I think that Bry was probably in the mindset while making this tut to tell you what to tweak and where to tweak it to get the sound the same. I’m sure he spent countless hours tweaking it to get it just right and by the time he got it, he was like, “just do this”… I would honestly think that the ABSOLUTE best way to achieve a full on tutorial with all necessary info, would be for one of the SA guys to make an original track, not a walkthrough, from the ground up, and go in depth about each process. I feel that as long as they’re chasing a sound for us, they’re only going to be able to show us how to RECREATE that sound. Whereas if they were writing their own tunes they would be forced to create instead of recreate. It would probably make more sense how the actual creative process works as they would be tweaking it right along with you saying “I don’t like the way this is sitting in the mix, so I’m going to cut a notch from 60Hz to 110Hz for the kick because this is where the kick lives, and the tail is long, so I’m going to pull back the release, because that’s what makes the length of the sound” etc etc etc… This doesn’t even have to be done with a monster belter either. This could simply be accomplished with “advanced music poduction for insert DAW of choice”. I see a huge gap between the beginner course that you provide, and the extremely advanced how to sound like. That middle area that needs to be filled would answer all of these questions and needs IMHO!
I feel that the majority of dance music is trial and error, and would bet that 90% of songs sound nothing like what they did in the head of the producer when they started out with the first beat. I feel like this site has given me the technical prowess to achieve anything that I want, but I still don’t understand the fundamental flow. I have seen many artists (that seem to not now jack about what they’re doing) write incredible songs because they understand the flow. Maybe this is where it comes to prove that you truly have to be an artist to do this, because I feel like I can answer any technical question for you, but I still can’t produce for sh*t… I could be wayyyyy off base here, but that’s where I feel the disconnect is with understanding WHY those knobs are being turned…
Big Ups Bry!
Raymond
Great post Raymondsar. I was actually thinking of keeping the tutorials the same, possibly a bit more in depth, but use the tech tips as the insiders view on synthesis and why something was done. Better yet… How about a new series labeled “Why would we do this…” or something to that nature. More of a spin off of the full featured tutorials. These might be a little easier to do like the tech tips and would be a quick(er) vid to make.
Thoughts?
Like I said, I feel that if we had an intermediate or advanced production course for whatever DAW, they could cover all of the technical why and how without having to recreate a sound. Do it from scratch essentially. Then the tech tips could be reserved for actual unorthodox not usually taught tips/shortcuts. Just my thought. Honestly though, it would have to be stellar easy for lack of better words to enhance upon the beginner production tuts to tell us all this info. THEN, you would have ONE tutorial that has all the info you want in it without having to sort through a bunch of stuff trying to remember, where’s that bit on compression again…
Raymond
Right right, but on the other hand, it would take forever to teach even half of all the knowledge in someone like Rob Papens head. I think we might have to actually go to school for that. 
Well in the far extreme yes, but then your talking more about an education than you are a tutorial… I see what you are saying though.
Raymond 
Hey Bryan – just wanted to say that I was arranging a track yesterday, and it was a lot easier after having gone through your videos.
I know I did say your tutorial was a little paint-by-numbers, but I didn’t realize how much else I picked up. You covered the whole automating effects/dropping out lines/editing drums very well!
Thanks a bunch! I’m gonna go back and re-watch the Swedish House Mafia tutorial to pick up more tips again.
awesome stuff yet again guys. keep them coming. watched 1st 7 vids and loving it!!
:D:D
WOW ! COOL STUFF ! 
I think you guys are starting to touch on some of the mysteries of music creation…
talent, inspiration, vision etc.
Its so incredibly hard to describe why when i do “this” it sounds good to me… it just sounds good to me…
there is no right or wrong in terms of a bass sound or a drum sound… i remember hearing Rui Da Silva- Touch Me and thinking those drum are all out of time that’l never work… doh
I still try to keep it in mind when im making stuff to not be too ridged or follow standards as dance music is about pushing things forward and evolution…
what we try to do is show you how to get different sounds and techniques to add to your arsenal so when you think to yourself " i really need punchy drums" or “i think a fizzy warm bass would work here” you know how to do it or can watch a video and find out.
The only way to get good at making tracks is to make loads of tracks. ive made literally hundreds of finished tracks and still have that fear of i dont really know what im doing - every time.
Theres a good book on how people get to be great/geniuses at stuff - Malcom Gladwell - Outliers
It suggests that to become a genius at anything takes at least 10000 hours practice. it also says anyone can be a genius given the right circumstances and enough practice.
Amen! I agree whole hartedly. However, I still feel that what many of us are lacking is knowledge in synthesis. For instance… What does “muddy” sound like? Why would you roll off the bottom end of a kick drum? These are just a couple of the questions that I and I assume many have about music and sound production. It seems to be the lack of the finite details concerning synthesis and sound that get me.
[quote]howiegroove (7/9/2009)[hr] For instance… What does “muddy” sound like? Why would you roll off the bottom end of a kick drum? These are just a couple of the questions that I and I assume many have about music and sound production. It seems to be the lack of the finite details concerning synthesis and sound that get me.[/quote]
hehe i assume that came from my reply to you earlier.
