Mornats

It's fairly simple. High pass around 40hz, do a broad cut around 250-350hz and boost highs a bit from 3khz up. It removes unnecessary low end, cuts out a region that's fairly muddy itself and gives some shine to the high end. The actual frequencies will depend on your track of course so play around but I have this as a preset and it's a good starting point. I sometimes dip more of the mids around 500hz if needed.

11 minutes ago, SH73 said:

Nice jazzy and funky sound. I'm jealous of mastering and mixing.  My songs tend to come out mushy.

A few tips:

On your master channel try and EQ curve similar to the one below:

Also, put a high pass EQ on any instrument that isn't needed in the bass frequencies and you'll free up room for the actual bass instruments and it'll stop that area getting too muddy.

9 minutes ago, Skol303 said:

...a dark place laced with manure?  

You've heard my work!

Loving all of the puns  I'm pretty sure mine's going to include a couple of Spitfire libraries - Orchestral Swarm (as heard on the Blue Planet 2 soundtrack) and Albion V Tundra. I have an idea growing rapidly in my head (see what I did there?)

2 hours ago, charic said:

Reaper is extremely capable  as long as you get on with the workflow you'll be just fine.  At these levels we're talking about a preference in how you work rather than quality IMHO (unless you move into ProTools HD territory which is a whole different realm)

I'd have thought you could make quality music in any DAW. The difference is just how easy the path is to get there for you. 

Congrats Lurks and Co!

I have the HS7s in white and they look great  

They sound great too!

Absolutely loved your cover Lurks! That made me grin from ear to ear

29 minutes ago, discreet said:

I've used FL Studio for years and it just keeps getting better and better. Free upgrades for life. But I would agree that the DAW people tend to recommend is the one they use themselves and have got used to over time. Anyone contemplating getting into this for the first time has to realise that there is a learning curve, especially if you're not familiar with studio processes in the first place. But FL allowed me to start simple and work up. Needless to say I've never outgrown it and probably never will.

Yeah it looks like a good entry into DAWs and I simply love the look of the interface! Also this: 

5 minutes ago, Twigman said:

Cakewalk Sonar

Lifetime updates forever package

Not any more I'm afraid: http://www.factmag.com/2017/11/22/cakewalk-closes-sonar-development-ends/

Another Reaper user here and yeah, it's got fantastic value for money. If you're on a Mac then I also think Logic Pro X is good value at £199 (it used to be £140 which I always thought was a typo!). For the calibre of the product, 200 squids is still good value in my mind.

I've been contemplating trying a move to Cubase purely for its much praised midi capabilities as midi is what I'm doing more of right now. However I know that I can persevere with learning how to use ReaScripts to get some nice midi stuff going on in Reaper and I just can't bring myself to a) rely on an iLok - no thanks, I'm not having my ability to create music be at the mercy of one of those and neither do I want to have one stuck in the back of whichever computer I'm using, and I don't like having the burden of copy protection being placed on the consumer who's shelled out hundreds on the software whist those with a cracked version don't require one and b) it's around £400 for the version that's as unlimited as Reaper. That's a big chunk of cash!

I also really like the look of the interface on FL Studio (and their lifetime upgrades policy). I've seen Alex Moukala use it in his videos and it just looks really nice. I've no idea how it compares to Reaper or Cubase though. It's around £140 which is a nice price.

There's also the final point:

You'll create music better, quicker and more intuitively with the software you know well than with "better" software that you don't know how to use. 

And for me there's just so much in Reaper that just works for me it would take me a long time to write it down and check that the other software does it just as well and as quickly (drag your routing from your strings to the reverb channel and set your send volume in around 3-4 seconds for example). 

It's a cover of the Stranger Things theme! Although it's mainly the main synth riff that they use mixed in with some other stuff.

Here you go. Just watched the second series and had that synth riff going on in my head for weeks.

1 hour ago, Skol303 said:

It's a Christmassy version of one of the classic 1993 Doom game themes, isn't it? Isn't it??

At least I hope so anyway

Classic doom soundtrack

Well, you're not right!  I went for something a little different... Hoping to finish it off tonight or tomorrow.

I've got one almost done. I'm quite pleased with it so far. It's my own take on what I believe to a popular and current theme. I was listening to the "source" of the theme recently and I was heading sounds throughout that were similar to the ones I chose for this so I'm happy! I'm hoping to finish it this week as I just need to tweak the ending so that it leads up to something.

I'm really looking forward to the ukulele covers

Addictive Keys is also very good. I have their grand piano (courtesy of Focusrite).

Thank you very much everyone! I really enjoyed composing this one and this competition is really helping me learn and improve. All of the other entries are always inspirational.  I'll get a picture sorted and will send it along for January's.

Something I forgot to mention about my track was that I was trying out a C octatonic scale which worked really well I thought. It's worth checking out all those uncommon scales.

8 minutes ago, the boy said:

Voted, I have to say that it was very difficult to pick one. Mornats got my vote in the end. It was a superb piece of music. I cant begin to imagine how he put it together. Well done Mornats, excellent work. Well done to the rest also, I enjoyed them all. 

Cheers! It's all about layering sounds and instruments on top of each other. I started with Sound Dust Cloud Cello and made some semi-random noises with them, letting them flow organically. That then had the piano layered on top to make it sound like it was all intentional. A few other swarming instruments were added in (from the same sample library used for the Blue Planet 2 soundtrack - Orchestral Swarm). The harsh heavy low strings were Swarm and Albion one running through different ostinatum patches (basically arpeggiators built into Spitfire libraries) with Action Strikes drums. A sheppard tone brought in some tension and then the riser was added in the break in the middle. Then lots of listening to it and constant tweaking of the bits I hated. It follows a similar formula to a lot of my tracks and I'm quite used to it now. The real talent is in the creation of those sound libraries in my opinion.

Got my vote in

Next month's will be interesting. I have an idea for my cover version but I need to see if I can pull it off.

2 hours ago, the boy said:

Any link to Black Friday deals. I’m looking but I can only find full price options at $499....

 

Try here: http://www.timespace.com/izotopedeals and also at https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=3517 for Elements and here for upgrades: https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=3535

Looks around £22 for Elements and £236 for the upgrade to Ozone 8 Advanced. You can also upgrade to Standard for £116 or so.

A few features from Ozone 8 Advanced that I really like:

1. The mastering assistant. Gets you to a good starting point and especially useful as you can set it to master based off a reference track.

2. The ability to load in a reference track and A/B that and your track. You can select which bit of the reference track it plays whilst you're playing yours. It even slices the reference track up so you can easily choose the section you want to compare against.

3. Being able to place individual components on a track. I mentioned above that the vintage tape and vintage limiter find their way onto a lot of my instrument tracks now.

Check for any good upgrade deals for Ozone. There's a few knocking around over Black Friday.

Nice, they seem to have enhanced the elements versions from 7 to 8. Even more of a bargain then

Sounds way better than Ozone 7 Elements! I use the presets on the imager as a starting point then listen for the effect they have.

Here's how Ozone 8 Advanced looks:

Make sure you grab the free Ozone Imager too by the way: http://www.timespace.com/product/IZOIMAGE-120/6/izotope_imager/free_izotope_ozone_imager_(download).html

It's one of the best parts of Ozone and helps open up your mix. I think it's built into elements but it's handy to pop on individual tracks too.