Hey guys, I'm fairly new new to the world of production and sound design.

When I first started out I read somewhere that I needed a good size library of samples, effects, plugins, etc... which made sense to me at the time.
As a result I've got so much in the way of sounds, synths and plug-ins that I forget what I've got and I find it hard to get into a routine.

So my question is this,

what tools do you use regularly? Both from a mixing standpoint, and mastering.
what could you not do without?

And how have you gone about organising your library for productive workflow?

Any comments would be most appreciated, I'm not looking for one specific answer as to the best way, just ideas so i can make my own plan.
cheers, vince


p.s.
I'm currently using ableton live 9

 

Regarding library of samples I keep most of them on a separate eSATA hard disk in ISO image format so I can mount them and use them easily. I also have a much smaller library of chosen samples that I use regularly, and they're organised into separate folders on my audio recording hard disk. It's just about 10GB of all kinds of mostly drum and sound samples. The other library is about 900GB, but I use it rarely as it's mostly loops and I prefer making my own loops with my own gear. I'm actually thinking of just backing this one up on DVDs and use the HD for something else, but it's such a waste of time to backup 900GB... So I just keep it around like that.

I simply love my "Zennheiza" MD431 mic and I couldn't do without it. I also really like my Shure SM57. Both are extremely versatile mics and sound good on everything. I'm one of those who like dynamic mics more than condensers because they have more character and more rounded sound, but that's the reason why it's necessary to have a nice little bunch of them for different purposes. Condensers sound more alike to each other and having only 2 pairs is usually enough in my humble opinion. Say a pair of large membrane, multipattern ones, and a pair of small membrane cardioid ones. Like AKG C414 and AKG 451B, for instance.

It's also really nice to have at least some analogue outboard equipment, like a good quality preamp, compressor, limiter, tube processor, maybe even a sub mixer to process the tracks with. Even some nice and creative multi FX like TC Electronic G-Major or M2000. Or some Lexicon MX300 or 400, or something dirtier sounding like MPX-1. It's inspiring to have that and it sounds great. Speaking of inspiring I often use various guitar pedals as well to process tracks from a DAW. Usually various overdrive and distortion ones. Well, what you need to buy all depends on what you're doing with your equipment [mixing, mastering, home recording], style of music etc. *yes*

Speaking of headphones, it is always good to have at least one closed pair and one open or semi-open pair of headphones. Like Sennheiser HD280 Pro [closed] and AKG K240 [semi-open], or Sennheiser HD650 [open]. Open headphones sound more natural and are used for mixing and mastering whilst closed ones are used for recording since they don't "bleed" the audio out into mics.

It might seem that I prefer only German audio companies, but yes I do. I really like Sennheiser, AKG, SPL, Neumann, Telefunken. I also prefer Danish and British companies like TC Electronic, Dynaudio, SSL, TL Audio, Focusrite, Neve. You can't go wrong with any of these. *yes* But if a product is good it can be made on Mars for all I care, of course.

Cheers!

 

EQ. If I had to pick a single effect I couldn't do without, it would certainly be a good fully parametric EQ.
Ableton's EQ8 is fine.

My sound library is strictly organized by instrument type. I have a "collections" folder for construction kits and various descriptive folder names that took me a while to find the right names for.
It's like with music CDs:
There is some sweet spot between a too generic naming convention and having too many specific folders, you have to find that for yourself.
I also sometimes re-sort a sample library by instrument instead of by BPM, just for the sake of having more immediate creative choice.

My folder structure is now so deeply burnt into my brain cells that I don't even use the Kontakt Library tab anymore.
I always browse the folder hierarchy, which to me seems more intuitive. Kontakt has a terrible "folder explorer" but I've learned to get along with it.
The nice thing is that you can save copies of Kontakt nki instruments anywhere you like, and only pick the best ones so your list keeps clean and individual.
Also, if you have multiple Piano libs for example, you can have all in one folder etc.

 

thanks guys, I appreciate it


SineWave, I don't do a lot of recording, though I have a Behringer C-1 condenser (surprisingly flat response) and a shure PG48 dynamic for when I do.
I guess I'm more interested in the software and plugins that you use. Mainly due to a limited budget.
The hardware I want and eventually will need isn't cheap.

I'm mainly into commercial EDM at the moment, as well tradition hip hop and hard trance / hardstyle

 

I see you're a wise person, Vince, and investigative, too. It's better to buy just a few tools of good quality than loads of tools of lesser quality. Unfortunately, good quality hardware still costs well beyond a home-recording producer's budget. The cheap ones are just a waste of money as plugins can do just as well and are more convenient to use.

Behringer condensers are a lot of bang for the quid. ;) And Shure is always a reliable go-to for dynamics, although I'd always go for an SM57/SM58/SM7B rather than almost any of the PG series mics, but I'd like to try PG57 and PG58 ones... maybe I'd get surprised. I'm trying not to be a slave to any "standards". What I do is always look at the specs and usability, not the price, but many times it turns out that the tool in question is not really on the cheap side... like AT-4047SV that I'd really really love to have but it's too expensive for me. I don't just fork out the money when something cheaper will do just as well.

Regarding plugins, Valhalla reverbs are something I just cannot do without. If you like Lexicon reverbs then Valhalla reverbs are for you. Especially... all of them. I do prefer VintageVerb to ValhallaRoom, though, but I like a bit 80s-90s warmer and more gritty sound, and when you need an Eventide H3000 type of sounds ValhallaUberMod is great for that. What I actually found out is that about the only hardware FX that I need are dynamic ones. Distortions, Compressors, overdrives, tube processors etc. Quality ones like this outboard [like TLAudio Ebony A2 or Fat Track, SPL processors] are really hard to come by in the plugin world and they use looooads of CPU and still don't sound right! I'm mostly underwhelmed with these ITB. So I'm seeking some SPL stuff currently... it's just worth it.

Other plugins I cannot really mix without are Sonimus Satson or Britson. I use them for gain-staging [so my levels are always within -18dBFS and the peaks never exceed -6 to -3dBFS on the master buss] and they give a really nice colour/saturation to the tracks. Satson is more SSL-ish and Britson is more Neve-ish sounding. Regarding plugins, I use the same philosophy - if it sounds good it doesn't matter what it costs, but interestingly there are many rather cheap plugins that sound better than many much more expensive plugins, like Tokyo Dawn Records, Klanghelm, VladG, Sonimus, ToneBoosters plugins. These are really great! There's no need for any of the Waves, Flux, Brainworx, Softube and other too expensive offers. The only plugins that are on the more expensive side and I yet have to acquire are SoundToys' ones. They are special. But I hate dongles... so I really doubt it's going to happen. I'd rather buy some more vintage hardware instead. *yes*

As for the drum machines, since you're into EDM I assume you like to use 808/909 type sounds, D16 with their Drumazon and Nepheton killed off any of my desires to use Novation Drumstation or JoMox drum machines any more. It's just not worth it. If you want some vintage grit on your drum sounds just use some of the aforementioned hardware dynamic processors with them. Simple. Having too much of the outboard equipment can only make it too confusing and just tedious to total recall everything.

Synths? For me it's the same as drum machines, but I'm looking forward to assembling a nice Eurorack modular as it's all analogue. That's rather different and unique sounding. All these modern DSP synths are just mostly the same DSP as plugins with a fancy hardware interface. If you have some outboard processing you can make them sound even better than these DSP based outboard synths with who-knows-what ADDA converters. Logical, if you ask me. Outboard DSP synths are only worth it if you really value using knobs - hands on performance, but one should really ask oneself "can it be done with a good MIDI controller?". ;) Good MIDI controller/keyboard can make it all so simple - using one controller for all of your synths. I use an AKAI MAX49 for everything. Extremely satisfied. It's also got CV/gate outputs for playing the real analogue synths in the future. My old and cheap M-Audio keyboard has been promoted to a dust collector.

Cheers!

 

Wow! thanks heaps for the info.
You've given me heaps to look into considering I haven't heard of the majority of the tools you mentioned.
def gonna have a look at satson and briston.

as far as synths and drum machines go, I tend to create a new drum kit for each track I start anyway so I find Ableton's drum rack works pretty well, and I bought Serum a couple of weeks ago and am thoroughly impressed.

thanks again and if anyone else has 2 cents to throw in please do.


btw, the PG48 sounds pretty good when play a harmonica through it plugged into my Marshall amp on OD with spring reverb and reverse delay. very cool results

 

No problem, mate!

ROFL, I don't think I've ever heard a harmonica through a Marshall amp! You like to experiment, it seems. That's cool and what makes art interesting for me. I'm also a "tinkerer" and I always try to create my own sounds for everything. Too many people just use the, prepared by someone, common and 1000x over recycled sounds for their tracks. That's why so many bands sound practically the same nowadays. Nobody experiments any more and everybody wants to make a song in a day, an album in a week, and be a celebrity. Well, if you want to succeed in this harsh world you've got to be patient, relentless, persistent, work your arse off, devote to your work completely. Sometimes even starve because you bought a new piece of equipment that you think will help you make better tunes... Just IMHO, of course. I'm always on the 'ard ko' side of the things, walking on the bloody edge, be it music or just - life. It makes it all much more interesting anyway...

Speaking of interesting, there's an interesting article on "The Reg": http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/29/oops_google_somebody_left_a_tape_running/

Cheers!

 

Bump.
any suggestions?

 

I've got a great big library of samples that sees almost no use except for drums and the occasional Kontakt library for when I need something analogue-y.

For almost everything, I go to Fabfilter first. They have the best plugs I've ever used, especially when you're talking hassle-to-results ratio. When I don't need anything fancy I just use the stuff that comes stock with Ableton.

Synths - Massive has a lot of great effects and routing options as well as an awesome system for applying filters/lfos, Fabfilter Twin might be the most flexible synth I've seen in terms of assigning modulation sources. However its interface (like all fab plugs) is kind of minimalistic, so it can be confusing until you learn where everything is hidden. Waves Element is really logical and easy to figure out if you're beginning, and it sounds good with minimal effort and experience.

EQ - Fabfilter Pro Q 2 or Ableton EQ8. Anything with a built-in analyzer (like those two have) is nice for finding problem frequencies quickly. When I need an analog emulation I go for some of the Waves SSL stuff.

Compression - Sonnox Dynamics. I don't use anything else when I can help it. I record in Samplitude which has a native 32 bit bridge so all my vocals have Sonnox Dynamics on them. Unfortunately it doesn't JBridge very well (I get huge CPU spikes when adjusting parameters during playback) so when I'm using 64 bit Ableton I use Fabfilter Pro-C or DMG Compassion

Reverb - My go to is Wizooverb, which has awesome sound without a real confusing interface. Otherwise I like Valhalla stuff, recommendation courtesy of the ASP community

Saturation - U-he Satin is good, but sometimes a little more complex and analogue-y than I need. I use Ableton's Saturator quite a bit. Waves Kramer tapehead is good but I hardly ever use it. Fabfilter Saturn is really good, but has a lot of bells and whistles and can sometimes be a lot more than you need.

 

You have revealed my secret reverb weapon, Cav Emp - Wizooverb. It is great sounding and easy/quick to use. One of the reasons I'm still on XP x86. Just one of many. I find bridging unacceptable. If I'm going x64 then I'm going x64... but I'm not. I wrote good music with samplers that had 128MB or less of RAM, and Atari that had 4MB of RAM. Now I have whooping 2GB at my disposal plus the aforementioned samplers. I feel blessed. Also... having too much of everything is not good for creativity. Minimalism is the best. It gives you more time to focus on creativity and quality of the tracks you're making. How about that for a good creativity tip?

 

Enthusiastically agree on most counts.

Wizooverb is exceptional but I do bridge it when I need to. I use Samplitude for recording and Ableton/FL Studio for beats. 2 of the 3 have their own bridge so no problems there. I like 2C's B2 for bigger, more effect-oriented reverbs on synths but when I need a good drum verb I almost always go for Wizoo unless I'm feeling lazy enough to use Ableton's stock one.

However, my 8gb RAM is a godsend. I like to take sampler libraries of instrumental phrases and filter/process them into synth sounds. That can eat up a lot of CPU.

I strongly, strongly agree with an overabundance of options smothering creativity. Just last night I finished paring down all the plugs I don't need. Being forced to do more with less stimulates creativity in a way that more than compensates for having all the tools anyone would ever need. What I've been doing lately is composing on my laptop which has Live's and FL's stock plugs and very little else. Then when it's mostly done I export it to my music computer and touch up the mixing and processing.