SuperStranger
Offline
Toronto, Canada

I've gotten several comments about the quality of my music in the past year, but I didn't really notice anything wrong, per se. All my speakers and headphones are pretty shit, so that might factor in, but I cannot for the life of me figure out where these comments are coming from.

All I do is plug an aux cable into my prosounded DMG and play it through Audacity, making sure not to horribly clip the audio. That's how I've done it since I got LSDJ years ago. Am I missing something? How do you guys record your music? Do you do any post production to make your music really pop, or do you keep it totally authentic?

Last edited by SuperStranger (Feb 2, 2017 11:44 pm)

e.s.c.
Offline
IL, US

moved to the "audio production" section

to answer your questions: i'd imagine most people do at least some mastering after recording. for me, that means 3-4 passes of noise reduction (because i have good enough hearing to notice even a super low level of hiss and it drives me nuts), some EQ and mild compression (usually have the ratio at around 2:1).. when appropriate i'll multitrack things

donotrunwithpixels
Offline
Swansea, UK

Had a listen on Soundcloud, Ain't nothing wrong with those recordings.

That said, there are plenty of post-production techniques out there, if you want to get a different sound.

I'm a big fan of the Universal Audio stuff for post production. I usually start off with some eq, a bright but very quiet reverb to bring the raw chip sound into the physical world, then some multi-band compression, a little stereo enhancer, and finally a limiter. Following that, I normalise and trim the track in an editor.

That's my way of working, but there isn't a right or wrong way of doing it. Experiment and keep listening!

Before I could afford monitors, I used to mix and master on some HD25 headphones, they've got a pretty flat response and are great bang for buck.

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA
SuperStranger wrote:

All I do is plug an aux cable into my prosounded DMG and play it through Audacity, making sure not to horribly clip the audio. That's how I've done it since I got LSDJ years ago. Am I missing something? How do you guys record your music? Do you do any post production to make your music really pop, or do you keep it totally authentic?

This will always be good enough for Chipmusic and anyone who expects differently doesn't understand what Chipmusic is.

Yes, it will seem like I am a hypocrite because I make complete pop productions now that probably sound nothing like chipmusic to anyone here, but I keep hanging out and sharing my stuff here anyway. I could tell you what I do to make blips sound like they are being played by a device in a room or how I get guitars and other sample instruments to blend, or you could look up other threads where I explained what I do, but I think you should only change if you want to. I don't think you should change your style to suit another person's expectations.

Last edited by chunter (Feb 3, 2017 3:10 am)

Boner
Offline
United States

as loud as possible

nanoloopbandit
Offline
chunter wrote:
SuperStranger wrote:

All I do is plug an aux cable into my prosounded DMG and play it through Audacity, making sure not to horribly clip the audio. That's how I've done it since I got LSDJ years ago. Am I missing something? How do you guys record your music? Do you do any post production to make your music really pop, or do you keep it totally authentic?

This will always be good enough for Chipmusic and anyone who expects differently doesn't understand what Chipmusic is.

Yes, it will seem like I am a hypocrite because I make complete pop productions now that probably sound nothing like chipmusic to anyone here, but I keep hanging out and sharing my stuff here anyway. I could tell you what I do to make blips sound like they are being played by a device in a room or how I get guitars and other sample instruments to blend, or you could look up other threads where I explained what I do, but I think you should only change if you want to. I don't think you should change your style to suit another person's expectations.


You are speaking the truth here brotha, I hope they are listening.

Vault Kid
Offline

I personally master my music as "HiFi" as possible, because I like it to sound as clean and refined as possible. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.

Necrobump...

but one of the common things that folks do when recording LSDJ tracks is to mute all the channels except one, and record them individually, so that you have more control over the various elements when mixing. I tend to do this (synched to the DAW clock by MIDI), then record them all again with external effects (like reverb, delay, whatever) - so I have two of each Game Boy track.

After that, I often record other synths on top, using LSDJ to sequence them using MIDIOUT... add in a drum machine or whatever. It beefs things up a lot. I'm not too interested in keeping things 'pure'. After that, it's regular mixing/mastering techniques as standard for any electronic music.

Last edited by unexpectedbowtie (Feb 15, 2018 1:09 pm)