Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Super cool, @detective! Love the beat and how the track is broken down and 1/2-time drums with all that space! FWIW, I was hoping/expecting that the first 2 chords of the pattern would just loop over and over (IV for 2 bars, I for 2 bars, repeat …) which would be a lil more typical for a rap track, which tend to be more monotonous and loop based, rather than traditional-chord-changes based. And I just love the way the MC sounds flowing over those first two chords of your middle 8! BUT … ALL THAT SAID …. I’m offering these comments completely out of context, not having heard the way this middle 8 fits into the larger piece as a whole. AND it’s very cool the way you have it, too, with all the chord changes! 🙌
Keep it up, man!!
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Jesse!! This is so cool and beautiful and unique – never heard anything like this, vocally, from you before – thanks so much for sharing here!
And thanks @detective for sharing your thoughts here as well!
@JLEW I’m gonna stew on this for a bit, but one thing that jumped out to me, mix-wise, is that your guitar solo sounds more “mono” than I was wanting. There is plenty of stereo candy going on in the track for sure at that point, but the lead guitar solo and its reverb all felt mono and I was hoping the sky and clouds would part into a vast, magical, shimmery, stereo, verb-y solo moment. Haha. Just my immediate thoughts FWIW.
You are such a badass! 💜 And I’ll try to swing back around later with any other ideas. Keep it comin’ brother!
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Jesse!!!
What a great question, man. Here’s how I tend to think about the plethora of plug-in EQs out there for your DAW.
- I tend to notice the unique “sound” of an EQ when BOOSTING frequencies, and much less so when CUTTING. i.e. “How forgiving or open or airy or sweet is that 10k shelf you’re boosting 6db? How does that 60Hz bell-curve boost on the kick drum sound? Is the bandwidth narrow and ultra defined, bordering on resonant; or is it wide and warm and wooly?”
- When I’m CUTTING surgically my EQs feel much more like Swiss Army Knives rather than artistic paint brushes. I recognize a frequency (or five of them) I’d like to reduce and I slap a versatile parametric EQ on it — usually the stock Avid 7-band EQ or Fabfilter Pro-Q3 in my case — not because their cuts “sound the best” or better than any other option, but because they offers me either a) the most options, and/or b) the least amount of fuss (i.e. time). For this type of EQ I want many fully-sweepable bands, capable of extreme/resonant/notch/narrow bandwidths (sometimes known as Q), and a hi-pass and low-pass filter, again with as many db per octave as possible.
I hope this helps in some way, brother! Can’t wait to hear what you’ve been EQ’ing lately 😉
Dana
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Look at this fantastic decent human right here!! ⚡️💜🙌
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Good points, Paul!
My hope is that the Member Spotlight will continue to be a safe, encouraging, gentle space for constructive comments, ideas, and high fives, with the overarching caveat that the work belongs to the submitting member and it is their choice alone to “take it or leave it” any advice or thoughtful comments from other members.
…. plus the additional overarching caveat that we’re all figuring out this member spotlight space together as we go 😂💜.
When submitting to the Spotlight we can also feel free to clarify our interests and expectations if helpful. Are we sharing here to celebrate a finished piece (i.e. high fives only🫸 ✋), or seeking mix/production advice, songwriting/arranging advice, or something else? No wrong answers here – just food for thought!
🎚️♾️
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Hahahaha – Dana “Pavarotti” Nielsen here at your service! And love that @phillipbroussard had similar feedback. Can’t wait to hear your latest updates to the piece!
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Pride?? What’s that? 😂. Awesome, man, thanks for sharing the added context. Lookin’ fwd to hearing the full-length with vocals!
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Yes!! Love this sense of place imagery, Alex!!
And, it’s interesting you mention additional vocal — I had the same thought, tho didn’t mention it in my previous post, that it would sound cool with a (female?) vocalist singing the lyrics in the background while @JLEW is speaking them. 💜
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I can’t wait to hear the new “stereo super-solo”!!!! ⚡️
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Fantastic – love having some real-user feedback on this product, thanks @Kenny! I’m gonna check it out!
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Hahaha – well, you certainly shed your ii-V’s MUCH harder than I did, and are a much better player than I, so it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be on the cover of TapeOp or hosting Mix With The Masters, I have no doubt!
Also, for anyone else reading this thread — please weigh in with your thoughts and opinions on Jesse’s question about EQs! I’d love to hear — and welcome — any contrasting opinions. If you’re like, “nah, Dana, the top end boost on the Farfelbanger 5000 parametric plugin is sonically far superior to all other EQs for your DAW!” you best believe I’ma download that Farfelbanger and check it out! 😂 #farfelbanger5k
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Hahaha – way to keep the Christmas spirit alive! Awe, thanks brother – means a lot that you checked it out and so glad u dug it! 🎄🤍
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My pleasure man!
True about the sweet, sweet pultec sounds as well as other colorful EQ models, which add a lot of wonderful mysterious beauty when boosting. Regarding the sonic differences between surgical parametric EQ plugins boosting equal amounts of the exact same frequency and bandwidth …. If you don’t hear a difference then there probably is none! Simple as that. And in my experience that tends to be the case – not much difference if at all. Don’t second-guess yourself or let any of that wig you out – just keep it simple and trust your ears. Most EQs of that type sound the same at the end of the day, and you might end up preferring one over the next due to non-sound-related things like:
- system resources / efficiency
- graphic interface
- metering / visual feedback
- band solo-isolate option while sweeping
- wide range of db/octave options on high and low pass filters
- map-ability to hardware encoders (Eucon, Hui, MIDI faders/pots etc.)
- number of available bands
- Mid-side options (EQing only the mid or the side channels)
- mono-maker (summing all frequencies to mono above a certain frequency)
- “tilt” band option
- specialized processor compatibility (UAD, HDX)
…And on and on. That above list is off the top of my head, and just some of the factors that may lead me to favor one “surgical workhorse desert-island” EQ over another. And incidentally NONE of those factors have anything to do with sound QUALITY. Know wha’mean?
TL;DR: Chances are your stock Ableton parametric probably sounds just as good as the competition. ⚡️
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Same here!! Lookin fwd to hearing the rest of this!
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Haha – well, maybe. For some reason the default view of the video shows the drummer and bassist. But if you move your phone around (or swipe around with your mouse or finger) you’ll see Zelda and us in the control room too.