Casque d'Or

Compression: Use a bit of compression to even out the volume of the track. You can see the amount of compression and how the peaks are compressed which can be very handy. Reverb: Use a reverb with a pre-delay which matches the bpm of your track. U use a pre- delay to make sure the vocal doesn't drown in your mix. To calculate the right pre-delay you can use this formula: 60000 divided by the bpm. For a 128 bpm track that would be 469ms for a quarter note. But I prefer the 16th Note (=117ms) Delay settings: You can use the same formula to calculate the delay time (or use a sync button). Usually a bit 1/4 note delay gives a nice flow. Make sure you don't put the feedback to high. Eq: Eq to taste. Body of a vocal normally lies between 200-500 Hz. Everything below 80Hz you can cut away. 

If you make a bassline orientated track you should use a shorter kickdrum. So there is more room for the bass. You don't necessarily need to cut off the low from the kick since it's short anyway. But the kick works better when it has more 'tock' 80- 120hz. Then after you added your bassline and mixed it in with whatever you use (compressors, eq, gate, sidechain etc.) and you are still not happy with the low end. Then you could cut every thing below 50 or 60 hz on that bassline and add a little altered sinewave underneath it with the same midi pattern and put a lowpassfilter on the sinewave to only keep the lowend. This usually sounds a lot tighter and warmer!

The method is pretty simple (this is my current method) Make 2 return tracks. Add an EQ and a Warm Tubes Saturator to both (I just like that preset). Use EQ 5 and hard cut the low frequencies on one and on the other the high ones (I usually bring the high a bit up so I don't have overlap). Set the low end Saturator to "Hard Curve" and reduce the output level with about 20-22dB, the high and mid you reduce with about 8-9dB. Now you can start sending your busses/vocals/drums/basses just about everything through these return tracks adding harmonics into your mix. Make sure you don't overdo it, look for clarity and tightness not overdubbing your entire mix. If everything goes right you will notice barely any difference in output levels but man oh man, the difference it will make to your productions damn!

Things get messy as we explore Live’s numerous distortion effects... Live offers six audio effects designed to wreak havoc with the harmonic content of your audio clips and instrument presets: Dynamic Tube, Erosion, Overdrive, Redux, Saturator and Vinyl Distortion. Dynamic Tube models the saturation produced by three common amplifier vacuum tubes. Erosion uses filtered noise or a sine wave to modulate the time of a very short delay. Overdrive offers band-pass filtered clipping with built-in compression. Redux features both bit-depth reduction and downsampling. Saturator provides waveshaping by six preset curves as well as controls to dial in your own waveshaping curve. Finally, Vinyl Distortion combines even- and odd-harmonic distortion models with a Crackle generator. Screen 1: When fed a sine wave, Live’s six distortion effects produce the wave shapes and frequency spectra in the right column from the settings shown to their left. These six devices offer a variety of unusua...

Things get gritty as we take a tour of Live's varied distortion effects... A flabby kick-drum is processed with Saturator to add some harmonics in the upper frequencies and round out the low‑mids for extra punch. Ableton Live offers many ways to create distortion via its vast array of high‑quality plug‑ins. These processors can be used for many purposes, from warming up digital‑sounding instruments and adding harmonics to dull tones, to completely decimating audio signals for dramatic special effects. This month, we'll be exploring six different distortion effects included in Live 8, giving you the lowdown on their inner workings and on the best ways to employ them in your projects. It's Getting Hot In Here Let's begin with the warm‑sounding Saturator plug‑in. This is a waveshaping device that maps the incoming audio signal to new output levels, introducing clipping as a result. It can be used to increase presence by adding harmonics, while also rounding th...

Dynamic Tube Saturator Erosion Overdrive Vinyl Distortion Amp Redux

Side chain the hi hats with the beat Add distortion: it brings the hi hats up in the mix Ableton MPC swing 59-64 is a good one Volume changes are very important in a hi-hat loop