Category Archives: music production

mastering, music production

About “too attractive” mastering deals (and competition in the field)

mastering-

I haven’t written that much about mastering (aside from the somewhat exhaustive post about the process for me), so I wanted to write a few words about very attractive mastering prices and competition in the field. As I’ve been entering the field myself, I’ve seen a lot competition, stories about really low prices, crazy package deals, and some of that classic “My mate does it for a few pounds and a hot dog”.

Recently, another potential client got in touch with me and said he needs some songs mastered. He had got a quote from another mastering studio: 8 pounds per song. That’s not a lot. That’s roughly 11 EUR.
You can go for that by all means, Continue reading About “too attractive” mastering deals (and competition in the field) →

music production

Tip on layering breaks


A quick tip if you’re layering breakbeats: it’s often wise to decide between a “main” and a “layer” break and have the main break dominate in terms of transients. Use sidechain compression on the layer break so its transients duck according to those of the main break. This way the signal often stays clearer and doesn’t get messy.

mastering, music production

A point about mastering / loudness these days

tuubi

I wanted to raise a point about loudness and mastering these days.
I was going thru some bigger label promos today and was struck by the same feeling I’ve got many times before: it’s too loud.
I know, I know – this is actually old news, and I’ve been happy to see a lot of artists and labels going for sound that’s way less crushed.
However, Continue reading A point about mastering / loudness these days →

mastering, music production

About high-pass filtering your songs

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Some time ago I blogged about getting your sub bass right. Another thing worth mentioning relating to having a good sub is highpass-filtering the song – and being careful with it. Sometimes I see this done wrong in the premasters I receive for mastering, and thought writing about this might help producers to get the sub right. This mostly applies to “bass music” where the sub bass is lower than the kick and where we want to achieve the fat, full low end, but can definitely be used with other genres, too.

Why HP-filter your song? There’s two things.

1) To get rid of excess lows and rumble and to gain more headroom Continue reading About high-pass filtering your songs →

music production

A little sampler shootout

samplers-

I wanted to do a little sampler shootout between Akai s950, Akai s3200XL, and E-MU Ultra E5000 to see how different they’d sound.
What I did was I sampled a break into them first at the original pitch. Then it was transposed by +7 semitones in Ableton Live (no warping) and transposed back by -7 in the sampler, and in the last version that was transposed by -12 in the sampler.

I didn’t want to go for full bandwidth in sampling Continue reading A little sampler shootout →

music production, releases

Sample Pack by Fanu vol. 1

Sample Pack by Fanu Vol-small

I am proud to present to you my first sample pack (which hit top-selling spot #5 on Bandcamp quickly after its release).

It’s a compilation of 50 sounds: bass, breaks, and pads.

(NOTE: they’re .flac files if you want full quality from Bandcamp. 
You can convert FLAC into WAV pretty easily. 
However, if you want a .wav version, contact me via fanusamurai@gmail.com and I’ll sort you with a .zip with .wav files)

All of the bass sounds I have created myself using plug-in synths, Moog Minitaur, and Arturia Microbrute analog synths. Some of them have been driven thru a Soundcraft desk, sampled into an E-MU E5000 Ultra sampler, treated using analog emulation plugins, or sometimes a combo of them.

All of the breaks were processed and sourced by yours truly. There’s a BPM at the end of the flename to indicate tempo.

The main focus being in breaks and bass, I wanted to throw in a few pad sounds, too, which I hope are useful. All of them I created myself.

I have always been into somewhat organic drum&bass and hiphop, and Continue reading Sample Pack by Fanu vol. 1 →