FTLPOPE is in Da House!

For those of you who don't know him, he's a cool guy on Mix
that does tons of reviews and such. An excellent musician too.
Say hi everyone!

Welcome!!!

Z

AWESOME MUSIC from this man.. VERY cool dude!

Peter...check him when he posts songs..You will LIKE..

WELCOME! POPE!

DACE>

Welcome aboard FTLPOPE

Welcome to the Fortress of Solitude community

Hey FTL Pope......welcome to the community.

You don't seem to be active yet which is a shame.

I know things are quiet here but unless people post something then we got nothing to talk about ....if you get my drift.

Looking forward to meeting you if you should decide to join in

globaltrancemission wrote:Hey FTL Pope......welcome to the community.

You don't seem to be active yet which is a shame.

I know things are quiet here but unless people post something then we got nothing to talk about ....if you get my drift.

Looking forward to meeting you if you should decide to join in

He does a lot of reviews on Mixposure, so I think he mostly hangs out there.
You're right Peter. Without you, me, and Star, we got a big empty cave.

Z

I can understand why people join to gain access to a forum but I just cannot grasp why they never at least bother to make a post or two to try it out.

I guess that this guy just joined to look and decided it was too quiet for him to bother with.

There are other members who post occasionally but the core seems to be you, me and Star......and of course Dace when he is able to.

Still at least we don't have the flame wars that you get on certain other forums LOL

Yeah, we have quite a few joiners who have only been here once.
Partly it's because a lot of them joined back when I first opened this place
more than a year ago when Anubes was about to shut down the first time.
And then Anubes didn't shut down, so this place just hung around empty
until it did.

People get spread pretty thin. A talk to a lot of the people who aren't active
here on Facebook.

I might try to drum up some more business to keep us from getting bored

Talked to Dace's daughter Cara on FB. She says he's ok. Just struggling to
get by. Hopefully he will be online again before too long.

Z

Could be the fact that it's Summer! I find with a lot of forums that Summertime is a lot quieter due to people making the most of the good weather and not sitting at their computers all the time!

Are you trying to imply that you, Peter, and I don't have a life?

Yeah there is a seasonal component to it for sure....

Heck I am sunburned and spent most of the weekend fishing, but I still have
time to check in from time to time. Too far away from my guitars to do a
tune, but I have been known to write songs up here.

In fact, Forged In Pain was recorded up here. That is part of the reason the
vocals turned out the way they did. I didn't have a mic, so I was screaming
at the tiny little built in mic in this laptop....

It is, what it is....

I keep busy anyway. Just published some more stuff on Amazon/Kindle.
And working on other stuff.

REALLY GLAD that at least you and Peter keep popping in.
Otherwise I would just be talking to myself....



Z

I can always find time in the evening to visit here after wading through 3 e-mail accounts and countless messages on all the art sites I belong to!! It's a wonder I have any time at all to make art and music!! LOL The album has really taken up a lot of time recently. I'll be well pleased when it's finally done! Getting fed up listening to it so many times!! LOL

Star4mation wrote:I can always find time in the evening to visit here after wading through 3 e-mail accounts and countless messages on all the art sites I belong to!! It's a wonder I have any time at all to make art and music!! LOL The album has really taken up a lot of time recently. I'll be well pleased when it's finally done! Getting fed up listening to it so many times!! LOL

LOLOL. yeah, I get that way when finishing an album. NOT MORE ME?! He he.
But the satisfaction of a job well done will make it worth it when you look
back on it.

Try to listen to it on a variety of speakers / headphones. It's pretty amazing
how different it can sound. Makes mixing tough.... I normally do the first mix
on good headphones, and then mix on studio monitors during the day.

Stereo sounds way different on speakers than headphones.

Z

I think I'm happy with the overall sound on my Sony headphones. I've got some new headphones on order, padded ones that cover the whole ear, so it'll be good to listen to it on those. Not listened to it on my Hi-fi yet, but I have listened on my PC speakers (quality ones not the cheep and nasty ones that usually ship with a PC) Sounds real good so far.

I was reading all about mastering yesterday and thought WTF! Sounds bloody complicated to me!! What software do I need? Do I have to do each track individually or the whole album in one go?

Star4mation wrote:I think I'm happy with the overall sound on my Sony headphones. I've got some new headphones on order, padded ones that cover the whole ear, so it'll be good to listen to it on those. Not listened to it on my Hi-fi yet, but I have listened on my PC speakers (quality ones not the cheep and nasty ones that usually ship with a PC) Sounds real good so far.

I was reading all about mastering yesterday and thought WTF! Sounds bloody complicated to me!! What software do I need? Do I have to do each track individually or the whole album in one go?

Sounds like you are on the right track.

I use mastering software called Ozone 3. It's pretty slick.
It's just a plugin that I use on the output stage. So I can mix and master
in one shot, or I can master the WAV files later.

At a bare minimum you should be using some compression [optional] and
a limiter on the output stage (to make sure the output doesn't clip, and to
keep the levels about right).

A lot of Artists seem to compress the hell out of their mixes and/or push
the limiter real close to the edge to make their mixes "hot" (sound as loud
as possible).

I think I set my limiter so it doesn't let anything get above -.1db

If you want to see what Ozone does to a track, just email me an MP3 or
WAV and I will run it through. It does makes things sound WIDER by adding
real small delays to certain freq. bands and such.

Z

Just had a look at Ozone 3 It doesn't Look like an app you could learn overnight!! (not that I could ever afford it anyway!) LOL I think Audacity has a compressor, and something called a Hard Limiter (what ever that is!) Think I need to experiment a bit on a track before I do the whole album.
If I balls it up I might need rescuing LOL

EDIT
Just limited a track at -.1dB and applied -12dB compression with excellent results (in my ears anyway!) LOL Will try the whole album using these settings to see if it works. (It won't be long before I'm totally pi**ed of with hearing me)

Star4mation wrote:Just had a look at Ozone 3 It doesn't Look like an app you could learn overnight!! (not that I could ever afford it anyway!) LOL I think Audacity has a compressor, and something called a Hard Limiter (what ever that is!) Think I need to experiment a bit on a track before I do the whole album.
If I balls it up I might need rescuing LOL

EDIT
Just limited a track at -.1dB and applied -12dB compression with excellent results (in my ears anyway!) LOL Will try the whole album using these settings to see if it works. (It won't be long before I'm totally pi**ed of with hearing me)

That should work fine! If it sounds good, it IS good
(unless it's really late, and your ears are burned out -- then listen again later)

Ozone is real complicated. I mostly use a preset that came with it modified just a bit
(4 band Rock master)


Z

Cheers Z I shall be listening later. I've done the whole album using these settings. Now I need to sit back and hear it all in one sitting

Steve,

I use Ozone 3 as well for some mastering. It can cover pretty much anything but I find that some of my tracks master even better using PSP Vintage Warmer.
Both of these are VST plug ins btw not stand alone programs.

Ozone 3 can be complicated if you go deep but if you use the presets...there are lots of variation for all purposes....then it is really quick and easy.

The preset z uses is a good one for Rock but there others for Dance music and for CD mastering. One that I found useful is Intelligent Maximiser which gives everything that boost that you are looking for and brings a track to life.

There some buttonns at the bottom of the screen where you can activate or disable things easily so you can add some more reverb or make the recording wide or adjust EQ etc if you need to.

Thing is though that I can do hardware mastering in my Yamaha HD 16 track recorder before it reaches the computer and I often find that Ozone hardly makes any difference.....but sometimes PSP can still lift it further and make it a bit warmer.
I would recommend either or both. I use them in Wavelab but you could use them in Cubase or any VST sequencer.

Be aware that your headphones and speakers will be giving your sound colouration and the tracks will sound different on other peoples equipment.
It is advisable to use studio monitors or proper studio headphones.
As I cannot use speakers where I live I invested in a pair of AKG 271 Studio headphones for my final mixing. They have a flat response and are used extensively by the BBC ....so you know that you have the best.

If you want any help with anything let me know if I can help.

Thanks peter, I could never afford AKG 271 Studio headphones or Ozone 3 for that matter, but I do have a decent Technics CD player and Cambridge audio Amp and quality speakers. I also intend to listen on a lot of other equipment too, car CD players various stereos, dvd players mp3 players, computers and any other system I can beg borrow or steal from friends!! LOL
Most music seems to be listened on mp3's these days!

Star4mation wrote:Thanks peter, I could never afford AKG 271 Studio headphones or Ozone 3 for that matter, but I do have a decent Technics CD player and Cambridge audio Amp and quality speakers. I also intend to listen on a lot of other equipment too, car CD players various stereos, dvd players mp3 players, computers and any other system I can beg borrow or steal from friends!! LOL
Most music seems to be listened on mp3's these days!

Hey Steve....perhaps you could sell all those systems and buy some AKG271's..LOL.

On the other hand if you want me to give it a listen before you finalise anything just let me know.

Although most people listen to mp3's you will still need to master the wav files to CD quality.

Listened to the whole album through good speakers and a decent amp, Sounds real good to me. Better than through headphones! Just a little bit more vwork to do on the inner sleeve artwork then I'm done!!