TEEBEE Q&A

Hi Rob, glad you enjoyed the tutorial!

I don’t really follow the -6 rule, but yeah, I would bounce a version and if I was to do a self master, do that in a separate project about a week or so later to re set my ears and maybe hear the track in a different way.

I don’t really use software clippers at all tbh, it was just on there that way to make it not go past 0, not really doing anything byt protection.

However, clippers in combination with limiting is a beautiful thing. About a DB or so of each and that always gives good results.

As far as loudness, it’s not important imho. A balanced, good mix will yield excellent results with only 1-2 db of limiting and 1 db of clipping. The more space you have in your mix, the louder it will sound, mixed the right way. I always identify what the core of the song is, then make sure those elements have the space they need to sound big in the mix. Loudness happens on channels and bus’es. Not master. If you need to limit more than 3-4 DB on peaks, then the problem lies elsewhere in the mix. I explained analyzer targets before hitting 0 in your DAW in my tutorial. If you follow those, and envelope shape your mix well, then the master will be loud.
As far as mastering, a balanced mix will always give a loud punchy master. The style is less important I find. A lot of producers engineer for loudness, but too much of the soul gets lost for me in those instances. Impressive, yes, but this isn’t a science competition ?

–Once I became a dad I wanted to be the person I needed when I was young. I also had many years as a self obsessed touring arrogant young producer and dj. I started playing internationally in 1996, and pretty much grew up on tour. The ego is the enemy, once it is not in check, so once I got older, and hopefully w bit wiser through injury, it was time for a change.

For the rising/up & coming producers, are there fundamental skills that you think they should focus on?

Song structure, not stick to one style, have fun! .

Are there any techniques from 20+ years ago that you think people have forgotten, adn should be experimenting with more? You mentioned your hardware, and how you use some plugins set to mimic the settings of that hardware.

I think imagination is key here. There are no rules. Techniques are there to be abused and miss used. thats the fun bit ?

Q: What are your go to reference tunes by other producers?

-I have none, honest .

Q: What does Larry’s singing voice sound like before processing?

-He has perfect pitch, used to be the lead singer in a choir as a boy. All comes down to his mic tech really.

Q: Do you use a limiter at all or is using Standard Clip as close to limiting as you do?

– I don’t use soft limiters. I just kept Standard Clip on as a 0 protector. But yes, I do limit, quite heavily and clip, a lot. Using hardware and the Bettermaker Limiter

1) DnB in the US: Beside people coming to their senses.. what would help catalyze popularity and do you foresee development in the near future?

— It used to be massive. In 97-2006 I was over at least 3-4 times a year for a month at the time. It has to be organic tho. Dubstep is till massive over there and so ingrained into the alternative angst driven youth movement currently popular that I don’t see us being anything but an afterthought for a while longer, as that click of people is eating well and putting a lot into their brands and production due to the insane amount of potential ticket holders. Dnb is a bit more grown and difficult. We will never hit that level of mainstream.

2) Chancellor Sunak’s short-sighted and out-of-pocket statement to creatives to consider retraining for more “viable” jobs: Im sure we’re on the same page with a big ‘fuck off’, but what kind of impact do you see this having on the industry, your peers, and ultimately how you will approach music moving forward? Streaming and remote gigs are trending, where do you see this development leading?

– The industry is in desperate need of change. It is still a fucking shit show, mind my language. A small group of majors hold 99 percent of the power and controls streaming and playlists to tailor everyone’s listening into their revenue streams. The lockdown simply highlighted how bad that part really is. We had all been chasing the gig “carrot”, getting paid quite well on a weekly basis. Once the gig economy went, we all looked up and said, wow, we are being mugged here. so I don’t blame Risi for much. Decades of systematic abuse from the big corporations is the main problem here.

Curious what tips for Bass Sound Design you would offer. Tools, techniques and tricks etc.

And how do you go about writing your tracks. Is it Drum and Bass first or atmosphere and intro sounds like Dom talks about?

– No rules, ever. why would you put limits on your creativity? I decide on key and go from there. I also make loads of stuff in that key and treat my own stuff like samples. Then combie elements from the different parts into new parts and re process them agai. It’s endless, sampling is fun, but man, doing it yoursef is so much more fun!

Also, do you have any advice for sample selection and pitching and layering sounds?

– I rarely sample anymore, as that is a very touchy subject. I re create samples if I want something similar, but that usually leads to something entirely different.
The rest is pretty basic stuff, play around until you get somewhere.

– How do you make your drums ? You start from Scratch with Samples, Synthesize them or you use things like Addictive Drums for Layering to give it a more realistic feeling?

— I rarely use samples anymore. My library is 30 years deep. I tend to design FM front ends for the bite and the tail can be anything really. Imagination again is key here. Addictive drums is wicked, I have all the kits from that, and those have great raw library sounds that lends themselves really well to processing. A lot of my harts and crashes etc. is spawned out of that.

– And what about the Processing for them which EQ,Comp you use and why this Compressor for sound shaping ?
any tips for Compressor settings aswell ?

This you need to figure out yourselves. compression settings on a individual hit varies in most cases for me. My multiband settings are master bus specific. But usually snares – fast attack, short release/enveloped shaped. Hats – anything goes / Kicks medium attack / envelope shaped