The Limit

     A Limiter is a very vital piece when mastering music. Its main purpose it stop sound at a certain decibel of your choosing. For Example, say you have a synth in the back ground of your track, and you don't want it to reach over -10Db. Instead of just turning the volume down till the synth peaks at -10Db, you put a limiter on it, cause it to stay at a constant -10Db as long as a note is being played.

     Ok, now that you know what a limiter does, you need to know when you use them, and when not to. Limiters are great, but you dont want to use them in every single output channel in your track. Limiters are great for synths and basses, because they tend to fluctuate in loudness a lot. With bass, the lower you play a note, the softer it is heard, because the Hz are lowered. Now if you throw a limiter on that bad boy, lets say -8Db for this example, and move the threshold also down to -8Db, you will have a smooth sound, were every single note will have the same loudness and limit.

     Limiters are also used in the master channel, to make sure no sound spills over 0Db and clips the track. I like to set my Master Limiter at about -0.3Db, because when you burn something to a CD, it will raise the sound by 0.3Db. Also i like to take my threshold, and put it at about -3.0Db, this way the track will have an almost constant volume, and will bring in more softer parts of the track.

     Were there you have it. Now you may be thinking, Joe, all this Limiter talk is swell, but where do i get these things! Well, almost always they will come in your software of choice. FL Studio has Fruity Limiter, Ableton has a limiter already in its master channel, as well as most other software. Personally, I use L1+ UltraMaximizer from Waves, because it has Ultra wave shaping, and 24Bit rendering.

So yeah, thats limiters in a nut shell, hope you learned something today! and if you have, please drop a comment! cheers.

DJ Plus

Quaker Orts: Maggot Brain

Quaker Orts: Maggot Brain: This is, perhaps, my favorite song ever. I first heard it when I was about 15, on my first real stereo system, that I bought with money I ea...

Mixed In Key

So i was browsing the interwebz the other day, and i came across this piece of software. "Mixed In Key" a product going for $60 on there website, takes all of your songs and inputs them, reads the key of the song, then organizes all of your songs by key.
Yes it is true! For those of you that DJ, mixing songs in there proper key is vital for a tight, seamless mix. And, if your also a DJ, you know how time consuming and painstaking it is to have to go in and key every new song you get via keyboard or other methods.
If you are like me, and dont have the time to sit down and key out hundreds of songs, and have the extra $60 bucks, i say this is a great buy.

Choosing A Production Platform

{EAV_BLOG_VER:953ca48df41e6e64}

There are many platforms out there that are available to produce music with, ranging from 100-600 dollars. Each one, seeming to offer different aspects and workarounds to do the same thing, But which on is Right?

When choosing a platform that is right for your there are a few things to consider:
     1) How much money do you have?
     2) What OS are you running, and whats compatible for your OS.
     3) What and how, are you looking to produce.

1) How much money do you have?
     Standard platforms for many music come at a wide range of prices. FL Studio comes in at around $100, and also giving you free updates for life. Cubase, another popular platform, $400. And Ableton Live coming in at around $500. But which program is better? Well technologically, none of them are. All of these programs have the ability to read in VST Plugins, like Massive, And Waves, and so forth. So in reality, the all can act, produce, and master in the same way. So really it comes down to what GUI you like best. The plain look of FL Studio. The flashy look of Cubase, or The Live look of Ableton.

2) What OS are you running?
     Usually, most platforms are available via mac or PC. If you are running Linux, i suggest you change your OS before getting serious about creating music. I used to run Linux on the old windows i had. I had wired FL Studio through it using a windows software emulator, and it seemed to work. But, every time i would get technical in one of my tracks, it bogged out and usually crashed the computer. Emulators cant handle the amount of RAM. Any ways, Other then that, OS probably isn't going to be a big deal for you.

3) How are you looking to produce?
     In this day and age, there are many ways to produce music. You can use midi cues from a USB keyboard, or knob. You could record all of your sounds, and re procreate them in the platform. Or you could play out your song live and record straight to the computer. At this point, if you have enough money, you should sit and look at your options. How do you like to make music? FL Studio has a great drum loop feature, for easily making drum patterns and such. Cubase is good for making music via midi cues. and Ableton is great for making music on the fly.

After looking other all these questions, you should be more then able to find a music creating platform that works for you! Yes, there are many more platforms then the ones that i have mentioned, but i used those to show you the variety. Now get out there and start making music!!!

If you still find yourself in need of some help in choosing a platform, feel free to shoot me an email at: pur3house@gmail.com

My First Post!

Hello Everyone. This is my first blog, and well first post in the blog. So, i have made this blog to point out ways to help producers, mixers, remixers, DJ's, and anyone who is interested in producing or mixing music better themselves. Im not saying i have have tons of experience, or that i know everything about music production, but i thought i would be neat to have a place for people to go for tips, hints, help, and links to useful information involving music!

So If you have anything you'd like me to talk about, feel free to comment!