Entourage Nate Dewart
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i trust your ears and instruments too, paul! ongoing gratitude for your listens, rigor and extra special sauce commentary (i LOVE reading what your words!). you’ve definitively pointed me in the right direction fortunately quick, easy fixes, and its sounds so much better already.
a) the limiter gain was set too high (i was losing perspective, cause i was aiming for loud cause I get suckered into the louder just sounds better paradigm, even if not right for this song.
b) at the top was indeed a pop that i missed. i had forgotten to cut the low end off the vocal.
c) and bonus for the comment on the 300 build up.i’ll be tinkering some more over the next few days including testing out a few mastering settings, and will circle back so you can hear the maybe, hopefully final version.
multiple mahalos!
nate
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hi @-PT curious if you found any clues on the cause of the volume discrepancy.
@dana – one clarifying follow up from our Q+A, you mentioned that for instagram you do -2.0 true peak to avoid distortion. spotify has this guideline as well for anything louder than -14 LUFS and tunecore distribution goes to instagram as well, so hence why i went for -2.0 true peak and seems like the way to go across the board, though on the one hand it avoids the distortion, on the other hand it might not be as loud?
appreciate any further insights. may your close to the year be fulfilling!
nate
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right on @dana thanks for these tips. really interested in checking out melodyne!
as for the blips, i did try the buffer size solution at the time of bouncing but that didn’t seem to help. hopefully just one off issue for this song. LOTS of learning from this process.
thanks again for everything. you’ve really helped fuel me with exactly what i needed. so grateful! 🙌
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Just what I needed, Paul! Your reminder of the low-pass for reverb. Not sure why the default settings in Space Designer don’t have it, cause it was a “medium sweet room.” The EQ is tucked away at the top righthand corner, so hiding from me.
Context – I’m trying sound of me and the piano maybe 20 feet from you in the living room as you open the door. Maybe we’re just moving in, so there is limited furniture, hence a little more bounce. Note I am a sucker for reverb. Fleet Foxes are one of my favorite bands, so I’m going a little heavier on it than your sample and preference (thank you!).
What do you think – did I hit the mark at least in intent (strong reverb opinions aside)? I kept tinkering with the filter range and this seemed about right, but maybe still a little something not quite (in parts feel like the room gets smaller) that I can’t figure out how to resolve.
If only dog catcher! 🙃
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This reply was modified 1 week ago by Nate Dewart. Reason: correcting for grammar
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This reply was modified 1 week ago by
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the sleuthing continues! the vocals is on an aux send, rather than direct. it wasn’t on 100% (was -10db), so i upped it and then adjusted the send and bounced. see attached. not sure if it sounds any different. is what you’re hearing a kind of tinny quality? if not, as an aside something i’ve been wondering about with reverb, how to avoid it.
in case you still hear it, i’ve attached the raw vocal no reverb or bpb saturation plugin, as well as just no reverb, and a screenshot of the reverb setting to see if maybe it’s the either the source or that plugin or the reverb.
thanks for sticking with me on this, dana!
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This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by Nate Dewart. Reason: added a not about the screenshot
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This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by
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many thanks, Dana – especially for the lightning fast feedback!
on House of Love – the piano is actually recorded live as midi, and not recorded at the same time. So the combed-mic sound….could be the original source, perhaps? I thought I had enough sound proofing in my environment – i believe it’s the same set up as born + raised, but maybe there were some minor adjustments. but in related topic, i know for sure the piano doesn’t line up with the vocal perfectly in several moments. i didn’t record to a click track on purpose, for the vibe. but maybe that’s not the issue, or is it? Any other causes diagnosis or ideas on how to correct for it now?
will check out the automation issue.
and born + raised. cello – easy fix! i added a little airy right at the end, but am to now thinking otherwise.
so many mahalos, Dana! so grateful for all your support and time.
nate
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This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by Nate Dewart. Reason: added a note
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This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by
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alright, alright. took me a little bit, but i’m back with quite possibly the finals of both these.🤞
since you were invested and interested, i’d welcome one more listen to help me know how I landed on all your tips – particularly for any last fine points before i put these nuggets out into the world! understand you have a ton of others things to do too. @-PT you too!
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This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by Nate Dewart. Reason: tagged paul
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This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by
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Thanks Dana! I made some progress on this incorporating all your tips, now fine tuning the non-compressed levels and reverb. I also got a little sidetracked on another track with moments of inspiration and excited to share that one, not sure how soon but near future, hopefully. Thanks again for the ongoing encouragement.
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wow @Dana – so grateful for your listens, the vid even (!) and all these insights – every single one is very illuminating to me. and indeed, i’m very excited to jump back into this over the weekend and refine, to help the song shine.
two quick follow ups: noting that the distortion in the intro and ending builds was intentional, to elevate the intensity. that being said, if you as the listener question the choice, that feels like a distraction. any suggestions on that other than adding some distortion for the whole part so it seems more intentional (would rather not take it away)?
also wanted to give props to the cellist – yoed nir, who was fantastic to work with. i hired him for just the cello part and he came back with the full string section for the chorus (and bridge which i ended up not using), for no extra cost. such a dream to hear to a melody played like that (first time ever for strings for me). highly recommend if you ever need such a dynamic, versatile player! https://soundbetter.com/profiles/3305-yoed-nir
multiple mahalos, dana. i’m truly honored by the deep attention you gave the track, and humbled by your appreciation for it. quite a boost!
– nate
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This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by Nate Dewart. Reason: correction
soundbetter.com
Yoed Nir is a Yamaha Performing Artist, Apogee Artist, DPA Artist & D'Addario Artist. He has performed in such storied venues as Radio City Music Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and … Continue reading
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This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by
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Many thanks, Dana! Uploading a fresher version of born + raised and posting here (and deleted the old version above). very fine tinkering on things i was hearing the past few days. appreciate the listens, and support, as always!
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yes please detective, thanks! here’s the full screenshot of the reference track.
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thanks for this @michael and @dana everything was scenario B – same everything but really helpful and reassuring to know that others have tested this )it’s possible that it was a strange psychological effect🙃?) i’ll therefore keep plowing ahead with using logic and keep monitoring it vs. abandoning ship at this stage. thank you thank you!
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hey @detective and @dana !
sending positive vibrations especially this election week. circling back and sharing that old new maps is now streaming in the world. SO appreciate all the insights and feedback. i kept pushing and pushing it through many iterations after your comments. i ended up learning a ton and so grateful i took the extra time – i even mastered the thing myself. looking ahead for next step time, i had some struggles with logicpro at the tail end on and curious if you or anyone else has issues / resolves with three main topics:
1. tuning plugin tips: trying both the built-in pitch correction in logicpro and then antares autotune trial, i couldn’t figure out how to get the output dial to accurately reflect where things were supposed to be, so i still had to do everything by ear. any tips / tutorials for how to better use these tools or other tuning plugins?
2. sound quality decrease from bounce: i noticed that the bounce from logic pro wasn’t quite as punchy, especially on the high end. example: there were cool surprise harmonics from the vocals happening that would only show up on an occasional bounce. i ended up adding tracks to replicate the sound so it ended up okay, it drove me wild for several extra days. in an online course i took on studio.com, ryan tedder said he no longer used logicpro because he had this same issue of the bounce losing quality and spend hours talking to support, so ended up just switching to protools and maybe one other. i looked online for similar stories and saw a little bit here and there. avoidable or is this a real thing?
3. random blips during bounce: after lots of hunting, i figured out there may be some issue with the one of the plugins – PHAT FX – on the main snare perhaps in combination with the reverb that kept adding blips in random spots whenever i’d bounce. and then they’d become permanent in the original source. does this sound familiar and any tips on how to avoid this?thanks so much!
nate