Comments on: hyperion

hyperion

kimyo — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:29:41 -0800

definitely born under a water sign.

By: Corduroy

Corduroy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:38:24 -0800

You must make the most professional sounding music on MuFi. It's kinda surreal, next to everything else. I love this. I'm gonna listen again.

By: Corduroy

Corduroy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:44:00 -0800

(That might have sounded a bit harsh on others without meaning to - there are definitely other well mixed tunes on this site, but it's primarily charmingly lofi songs.)

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:43:44 -0800

Digging it. It's almost hard to listen to this in isolation, though: even at more than four minutes, I'm expecting more, I'm expecting it to lead right into another track. Pretty great as a chilled-out soundtrack to my morning. Thanks for this.

By: pwf

pwf — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:50:05 -0800

The drum track needs to be a bit louder imo, and maybe a cymbal or hat would sound great, but that's the only thing wrong I can find... beautiful song!

By: umbú

umbú — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:36:49 -0800

Beautiful. Could you jot down a description of what you do to mix and master your stuff? I would love to know more about how you get that sense of space and breath. Clearly, there are delays and riding the volume faders to create crossfades, but beyond that, what are you up to?

The different sounds seem to occupy distinct frequencies so that they don't end up a muddy mess. How purposeful is that? And how do you use compression? Using compression effectively has always been a mystery to me.

By: kimyo

kimyo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:31:10 -0800

thank you, all, a lot.

and now, more notes than you need....

i've posted a zip on our remix page:
http://www.hotbitcharsenal.com/remix

look for '80.96 hyperion for remixing.zip'

this is an ableton live set and supporting files, if you have a relatively decent pc/mac (1gb ram, <2yr old processor) you should be able to open it and poke around under the covers.

it'll work just fine with the trial version of ableton, which will allow you to mix it up anyway you like, and save a stereomix.

i don't use a lot of compression. i do often use a 'telephone' like eq on piano or acoustic guitar/banjo.

there's a send ('a') for reverb for the instruments, and a couple of delay sends (b,c).

use tab to switch between 'session' view, where i've got the loops that i used to record the instrumental mix, and 'arrangement' view, where i've got christina's vocal against the instrumental mix.

in session view, click the right-facing triangle all the way to the right (next to 80.96bom)
to start all the loops playing in sync.

one of the most helpful tools i use is a behringer bcr-2000 (best $130 i've ever spent) midi control surface. it's trivially easy to map functions to knobs in ableton, once done, setting volumes and pans, delays, eq's becomes much more intuitive. you can make more precise adjustments, and unlike the mouse you can modify multiple parameters at the same time. the bcr2000 has visual feedback, that's a great feature.

oh, and i use ableton's autofilter a lot, i guess i wouldn't describe it as deliberate, more of an organic thing. but that's probably the tool you are hearing me use to corral sounds into distinct frequencies.

thanks again, be well

By: umbú

umbú — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:18:05 -0800

Nice. Thanks for giving us so much detail about it. I'll totally take a look at the ableton live set when I have a chance.

By: robotot

robotot — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:49:33 -0800

Very tasty.