Quick tutorial on how to EQ loops and samples from our sound library. This technique can be applied to any audio source. 

Goal: You want your bass-line and sub-bass, hi-hats, tabla, dhol, drums etc. to have their own space in the mix. 

How: Effectively use Low Pass and High Pass Filters

Plugin: Waves Renaissance Equalizer

In your EQ you will notice a “High Pass” and a “Low Pass” option. Let’s define what they are.

Low Pass: Gets rid of all high frequencies and keeps the low frequencies which is set by you in your EQ Plugin. 

High Pass: Gets rid of the low frequencies and keeps the high frequencies.  

In the music production world, “getting rid” of a frequency is called “cut off” and keeping the frequencies that you want is called “Pass”

Rule of Thumb: For all percussions which included American Drums, dhol, dholki, tabla etc., hi-hats, string instruments which includes Tumbi, Mandolin etc., get rid of the low frequencies (60hz and below).

The reason you want to apply a High Pass filter to instruments and percussions is for your bass-line and sub-bass to sit well in the mix without sounding “muddy”. 

The bass-line and sub-bass traditionally occupy the lower freq. range of 40-60hz therefore you would use a “Low Pass” filter with your kicks, bass and sub-bass to get rid of high freqs and keeping the low freqs. 

Remember, these are general guidelines and you should experiment with the High pass and Low Pass filters until you like what you hear!

Deeps Pabla
CEO, Goldenchild Audio
“The leading developers of Indian audio loops and samples”

If you listened to pop/dance/electronic music in the last 5 years or even beyond, you’ll notice the tracks sound LOUD, in your face, and pump. Here is what typically is found in a mastering chain straight from the mouths of super-producers such as Laidback Luke, Morgan Page, Deadmau5 and more…

Open up your DAW and go to your Master FX Chain. You should do the following in the EXACT order:

1 - Mastering Compressor (we use Waves C1)
2 - LinearPhase (balance the sounds out)
3 - EQ Plugin (we use Waves Q8)
4 - Stereo Expander (if needed)
5 - Limiter (we use Waves L2 or L1)

Read up on our Compression guide if you aren’t familiar with Compression and adjust settings until YOU like what you hear. Ultimately it is your ear, your sound and your project. 

~Deeps Pabla
CEO, Goldenchild Audio
“The worlds leading developers of Indian Audio loops and Samples” 

If you paid attention to music in the past few years or in the last decade with dance music, you’ll notice a “pump” effect. Side-chain compression has many names such as “ducking”, “pumping” and loads of others. We’ll explain what makes the sound “pump”.

What is side-chaining:
A cousin of Compression which simply lowers the volume of one of your audio track when the other audio track gets loud.

Let’s illustrate:
You have  Kick Drum and a Bass Line.  Ideal situation, you don’t want the bass-line to clash with the Kick Drum when played together. So once you turn on the Side-Chain compressor FX, when the Kick Drum is at its loudest, the Bass-Line will simply “DUCK” (sound is lowered). You will hear this term used quite often in the dance community called “ducking” which gives the listeners that “pumping” effect.

How to use Side-Chain Compression: FL STUDIO TUTORIAL
*Update - Fixed & updated the free plugin download address.

Step 1: Download Sidekick3 Side Chain Plugin by Twisted Lemon  (free plugin)
Step 2: Make sure you place the VST into your VST folder in FL STUDIO
Step 3: Create 2 samples: Load a Kick Drum and a Hi-Hat and insert 3OSC
Step 4: Go to your Channel Effect and Insert the “Sidekick 3” FX into Insert 1, Insert 2, Insert 3.

Make sure you do the following:
Route the Kick Drum FX Channel to Insert 1
Route the Hi-Hat FX Channel to Insert 2
Route the 3OSC FX Channel to Insert 3

Now bring up ALL 3 Sidekick 3 FX windows in front you.

You will notice Sidekick 3 has 4 virtual channels labeled A, B, etc..

The Kick Drum will be the “Carrier” of the effect for the Hi-Hat and the 3OSC (Bass-Line). The Kick Drum will tell the compressors what to do when the kick plays, thus lowering (compressing) the volume of the Hi-Hat and the Bass-line giving it the “ducking” i.e. “pumping” effect.

Click here for the screen shot and apply the settings that you see for the Hi-Hat, the Kick-Drum and the Bass-line.

Once you have done that and you’ve added some notes in the 3OSC. Press PLAY. You will notice a nice pumping sound that you probably heard in “One More time” by Daft Punk. It is a great effect. You can also use this effect on pads, leads, vocals etc.

Play with the “threshold”, “release” and “attack” settings to your liking.

Keep experimenting and remember that this tutorial only scratches the surface of what is possible with side-chaining.

~Deeps Pabla
CEO, Goldenchild Audio
The leading sound developers of Indian audio loops and samples
http://www.goldenchildrecords.com

The Compressor

We will go over what the compressor does and an over view of compression settings found on software and hardware compressors.

Let’s get this class started.

What the compressor effects: the volume.

Once the compression is correctly applied, it instantaneously adds life to the track from vocals, drums to synths.

What you should know about compression:
Compressors actually LOWER the volume of the sound. How much the sound is lowered is determined by the compressors “threshold” setting. If the sound exceeds the threshold number, the compressor kicks in and goes wait a minute, this snare going over the threshold limit, let’s lower this bad boy down.

At what rate and amount is that sound being reduced is determined by few more settings you might have noticed called: ratio, attack and release.

There are many other parameters that are often found on hardware and software compressors such as RMS, Knee, Sidechain etc. but we will focus on the basic settings of the compressor: Attack, Ratio, Threshold, Release.

We will be using a term quite often through the compression tutorial called SOUND: Sound is defined as a drum track, snare track, synth etc. Anything you apply your compressor vst to is called the “sound”.

Threshold:
The threshold setting tells the compressor when it needs to kick into effect. Basically, when the threshold setting is exceeded, the volume of the sound gets lowered by the compressor.

Ratio:
The ratio setting tells the compressor how much “volume” needs to be lowered.

Example: If your compressor ratio setting was set to 2:1, for any sound (sound defined as a drum, snare, synth etc.) that comes through the compressor and exceeds 2 decibals, the compressor only allows 1 decibal to come through the mix. Thus, lowering the volume of your sound.

Attack:
The attack ratio tells the compressor how quickly it should lower the sound once the threshold is exceeded.

Example: If your compressor setting was set to 2:1, and you set the attack at 1; the sound gets lowered immediatly. If you dont want your sound to be lowered so fast, you can increase the attack time to a desirable level.

Release:
The release setting tells the compressor when to stop the above effects (ratio, attack, threshold) and let the sound go back to its normal state.

Think of the release as your girlfriend. If you know things aren’t working out, you determine how long (the release) it will take to let her go back to singlehood ;)

Next part: Mastering Effects Chain

Deeps Pabla
CEO, Goldenchild Records