Deadmau5 2bus Curve

[brandondrury]

Hey dudes,

I'm not sure how many of you listen to Deadmau5. I don't love all of it, but there's enough really good stuff to keep me busy.



In terms of production, the Deadmau5 always has this lack-of-bad-mids going. I'm tempted to say "scooped", but I don't think that's the word. (I'll get to that in a minute.) I think "tightened" is the word. I know that's a stupid word, too. As as if anything unpleasant or "rumbly" is just not there.

The truth is I get closer to this sound with using the UAD Transient Designer than I do with EQ. Using the Transient Designer to reduce sustain on drums is closer to the sound, but that's not really it either.

I have a few of the same synths he does and notice some sounds that are similar to presets in the Moog Voyager or DSI Prophet 08. However, when I record my synths, they always seem to have this lack of tightness in the 400Hz-1k region.

Not sure if Youtube is adequate for this one.

When I've attempted to match the curve with either 2bus EQ or EQ on individual channels, it sounds "scooped", which I'll define as that obviously thin sound when you yank out 3dB with a wide Q on the 2bus. That sound sucks.

Anybody have any ideas on this one one? It's clearly a tactic or a plugin / piece of hardware that I'm missing. My synths, preamps, and converters are all tip top....although it's possible there's a preamp or converter that will get me closer.

Brandon

[cky751]

Hey Brandon,
I have no idea if this will help, but could be worth checking out.
What gear is DeadMau5 using? | Jesse Brede

[brandondrury]

Smart guy, but man is he drugged out. As Bill Hicks said, "I want my rock stars DEAD!". (give or take).

I guess this question isn't exactly a Deadmau5 specific question. His stuff is what me think of it, though. I need to figure out ways to tighten mids further than they already are and do it in ways that my current equalizers don't do.

Brandon

[the evil]

have you tried a multiband comp with a real narrow bandwidth around the frequencies you want to tighten?

[awesome]

i think i know what your trying to describe and it's just the classic housy type tone.

Deadmau5 of course is a lovechild of a couple different electronic genre's ( i think there are more sub genre's of electronic music than metal) but the over all tone is very housy.

Even the words you used to describe it. Using the transient generator to to lop off the muddy tails of kicks makes me think your just going for that super controlled punchy feeling of house/garage music. The way it started to be made was normally just with normal DJ crossader mixers that normally have simple 3 band "killswitch" eq's. Now deadmau5 (i forget his real name) is definatley not restrained by the limits of a DJ mixer, but stylistically is sounds like he has robbed those 400-1k freaks from every instrement that didn't absolutlely need them. The kick is short and probably sampled directly from another track with no compression or fancy work. cut and paste. There is just so much room for it. It even sounds like certian other instrements are sidechain compressed to duck when it hits whic is another classic house technic modeled after when folks would use turntables and a crossfader to add a simple "four on the floor" kick to an already existing song. They didn't used to do alot of surgery. Match the tempo of the song and the kick drum, cut all the lows from the song and add the kick drum and old ube amps would make the song sound like it's ducking when the kick drum hits due to the resistance and overloading the circut bla bla.

So try that. do a little "scooping", throw a kick in there and get some sidechain compression going.

You'll notice when the "dubstep"-esque bassline drops, the song looses it's pumping tight and punchy dynamic feel cuz those freq's fill up and the bassline compermises the low end of the kick (which isn't really that low, it's just punchy, instantly there and gone. I wouldn't be surprised if the kick is hipassed at like 60 or 70 or at least a major roll off round there, which is also pretty common in housy garage UK electronic type music)

[tacman7]

Smart guy, but man is he drugged out.

Why do you say that?

Is he falling off the stage and things like that or just from the sound of the music?

Like, 'you have to be stoned to write that!'.

[brandondrury]

have you tried a multiband comp with a real narrow bandwidth around the frequencies you want to tighten?

I always have a multiband on the 2bus these days. I've tried getting more aggressive with it, but that wasn't the same sound. This, to me, just sounds like some hardware box that has this character inherently and does it in a way that's probably non-linear (which I guess could be emulated via multi-band).

i think i know what your trying to describe and it's just the classic housy type tone.

Maybe, that final curve has not been automatic with any of my gadgets and my intervention hasn't gotten me quite there yet either. I may need to get more aggressive on all individual tracks and rely less on the 2bus.

sing the transient generator to to lop off th

I meant the Transient Designer on 2bus....not necessarily just the drums....although, again, maybe I need to get more serious about "tightening" all individual tracks further than I already have.

but stylistically is sounds like he has robbed those 400-1k freaks from every instrement that didn't absolutlely need them.

I agree, but it sounds like hardware EQ to my ears. It probably isn't. I'm not able to scoop without it sounding non-inherent. I need to keep looking ITB, and see if I'm doing something wrong.

It even sounds like certian other instrements are sidechain compressed to duck when it hits whic is another classic house technic

Oh yeah, I'm doing quite a bit of that.

So try that. do a little "scooping", throw a kick in there and get some sidechain compression going.

Yeah, that's what I've been doing. I'll have to post a clip. Maybe I'm just not scooping enough.

Smart guy, but man is he drugged out.

Why do you say that?

In one of the Youtube videos post above, if THAT guy came to your house, you'd probably call the police.....or record him.