I'm glad this is helpful! I definitely tried to give the explanations a different spin than the more technical channels since as composers we approach things from a writing / musical perspective. I only see these things as tools that are part of my writing and orchestration / instrumentation to get the overall sound I want.

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Bill is 100% right, you over-emphasized your lack of expertise. This was super helpful. 👍 Thanks!

Yes! I love Dan's videos as well! :-)

Half the time Dan's content is way over my head, but I watch anyway for his soothing delivery, hoping I'll absorb at least some knowledge by osmosis. And his "I won the loudness war" vid is amazing.

@@rgallitan I feel his videos on FabFilter cater more to beginners.

FabDupont should be on this list (fabulous Fab) His channel is : Puremix.

@@rgallitan Dan's content stops to be over your head if you connect some dots before. Best to watch in this order: In The Mix (Beginner) > Mixbus (Intermediate) > Dan (Advanced)

Thank you, glad to hear that!

Glad you liked it!

Glad to hear that! Thanks for watching!

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer You're welcome!

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed my score for that movie - it was fun to work on!

Happy to help!

Thanks for watching!

A shaky graphic that at least served its purpose... ;-P

Glad to hear that!

Happy to hear that!

That's good to hear! Thank you!

I'm glad this was helpful! The articulation topic is a bit too broad to cover since it's always dependent on the piece and there are infinite combinations to choose from.

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Thanks! That absoutely makes sense.

Go for it! Thanks for watching!

I see it the same way to be honest. Mixing and shaping sound is part of the process for me. I don't understand anyone who wants to deprive themselves of all the creative opportunities that lie in playing around with technology. There are simply things acoustic instruments and pen & paper can't do.

The dub mixers don't remix the music though. They might clean up a frequency buildup here and there or make some room for other things but musically they don't touch the mix. So any compression wanted on the music for musicality's sake will have to be done in the score mix already.

Thanks for watching! You can put the parallel compression wherever you like depending on how much control you want to have on the individual elements. As long as you're not sending the reverb through it, you're good. I go over my own setup in my template videos so that might clear things up for you.

Yes, all premix effects are in the stems that go to the mixer. The only exception would be reverb - we usually take that off before sending the material to the score mixer. Essentially, the rule is: The stems have be the exact same as the stereo reference minus the reverb.

Thank you! It was a bit tricky drawing without blocking the camera so straight lines just weren't in the cards... ;-P

Thanks for watching!

So glad this was helpful! The song is "Alone" by Emmit Fenn.

Correct. I'd generally recommend using a third party reverb instead of the one in the sampler. The ones that come within the samplers are certainly fine but usually the third party reverbs (even the ones that come with the DAWs) are often much better and allow for more mixing control.

If you do parallel compression, you would typically use the uncompressed signal to feed the reverb, because you (usually) want to retain the natural dynamics of the signal in the reverb. On the other hand, if there's a track with quite extreme volume jumps, you might think about compressing it individually or doing volume automation, because you don't want to have extreme volume jumps being send to the reverb either. As far as I know parallel compression has been intensely used in Motown music and spread from there to other genres. They often would use it on vocals and EQ the signal before sending it to the compressor, boosting the high end to make sure the vocals would cut through in the mix. The compressed signal on it's own would sound terrible - overcompressed and harsh - but it works so nicely in the mix.

@@johanneschristopherstahle3395 Thanks a lot for the explanation, makes sense :-)

Yeah, Dom Sigalas taught me that... his channel is a continuous Cubase goldmine. In every video I learn something new... :-)

It sounds like your template doesn't have proper gain staging applied. I go a little bit over that in my template videos but there are also entire videos dedicated to gain staging in various DAWs. I'd check those out. Nothing is more annoying than constantly running out of headroom. What also helps is having proper routing / bus channels set up so the volume can be easily controlled if the signal gets too hot.

From what you describe, I think you should analyze the following points and account for them in your production process. When working with multiple instruments, in addition to adequate gain staging, you have to keep in mind these problems and their typical solutions: a) Frequency buildup between instruments. It happens when too much sounds occupy the same frequency range. Which can be solved in various ways, like: having your instruments cover different frequency regions; arranging with enough silence between instrument parts; and filtering out frequencies that are not necessary from each sound for it to be appreciated, most commonly done by using hi-pass/low-pass filters and equalization with shallower band Q. There are also more advanced techniques that use the previous principles like dynamic equalization and side-chain filtering. a) Having instruments with super loud peaks. This will cause the average loudness of your sounds to be lower because the peaks will reach the clipping point (0dB) easier. For sounds that are both equally percussive and harmonic, this can be solved by using two compressors in series: the first one should be set to have very fast attack, fast release, and medium/high ratio, with only the peaks of the audio signal breaching the threshold; and the second one should be set to medium attack, slow release, and low/medium ratio with the whole signal almost always breaching the threshold. The aim of this approach is to first reduce the loudest parts of the signal aggressively and then stabilizing the signal as a whole. This will allow you to turn down sounds without them feeling too quiet or to turn them up and not be overbearing. This technique works both with individual sounds being processed by separate instances of the compressors or by sounds being processed jointly in a sub-group by a single instance of the compressors. More advanced techniques that use these principles include using parallel compression as the first stage of serial compression; and/or applying the second stage as part of a mix bus processing scheme. The previous techniques should always be applied in context as there is no magic combination of parameters that will work with everything. That is why having a good reference in all stages is crucial: while dialing the processing, listen to affected sounds in conjunction to non-affected ones; listen to other productions that inspire you, gain-matched to your current one; apply strategies to account for flaws in your monitoring system; and regularly verify how your work sounds in different kinds of consumer devices. I know this is a lot of information but if you start experimenting with the things I mentioned and research how they work, I can assure you, your audio will reflect the sonority you are looking for. Good luck!

You probably just have pretty hot (loud) signals. That's often the case with virtual instruments. Usually you should aim for about -18dB. That's kinda the standard nowadays and what most plug-ins will expect to get. When noise was still a big problem, you always tried to run the signal as hot as possible before clipping, so you are as far away from the noise floor as possible. But modern digital recording does not need this anymore. Actually many DAWs don't clip anymore if one track exceeds 0dB. But you have to make sure that the master bus stays below 0dB. If you don't have the time for proper gain staging, reducing the volume on the main bus might do the trick. A compressor or limiter on the main bus can save the day as well. Waves L1 and L2 are great choices if you aim for a loud mix. There's a freeware limiter that behaves almost identical called W1 Limiter. Hope this helps.

Lol, so I FAILED?!? Oh well... I'll try to do worse next time. ;-P

Is it called a Swiss ball? I used to get shoulder and back pain from regular chairs so I switched to an exercise ball which keeps me moving around more and is better for my posture (though way less comfortable to sit on).

​@@AnneKathrinDernComposer When I was a kid I used to sit on one of those when sitting in front of my father's computer. Spend so many hours there I still can sit on my knees on these things hands free. Not for as long as back then though. 😂