How to make beats sound brighter?

[Eureka]

yo. ive been listening to dillas donuts lately. how are his beats so damn bright sounding? was there mastering outside of the 303 ST did on it? if not, is there a way to get your beats sounding like that within a 404?

[kel]

404 cuts the highs with certain fx... I say just turn up your high freqs with eq.

[Om_Audio]

His work was surely mixed and mastered outside of the SP before release!
Any amount of software and/or outboard gear would have been employed to treat the tracks. Also you could compensate a bit if the 303/404 color or "dull" the samples by pre-EQ to add brightness before sampling. He was also a seasoned producer so could have been paying attention the whole way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donuts_(album)

I cannot believe I can't find full album credits anywhere- so the mixing and mastering engineers get no fucking love whatsoever.
http://www.stonesthrow.com/store/album/ ... nuts-album

There were also many releases with the possibility of remixing/mastering with each release:
http://www.discogs.com/master/68208

You could contact Stone's Throw and ask for any info on production of that album. (I actually just emailed them and asked for full album credits)

As a side note, I still don't get the hype. I like Ruff Draft way more.

C

[Eureka]

As a side note, I still don't get the hype. I like Ruff Draft way more.

C

I think, though there are some great, greeeaaaat beats on it, (gobstopper, the new, two can win, donuts of the heart, twister, etcetcetc) i think the hype comes from the album being both the last thing j dilla did, but also done on his death bed to boot. like literally in the hospital. the beats, by extension, carry this brooding atmosphere to them. certain beats, like donuts of the heart, are heartbreaking to listen to. those strings feel like the end. iunno i think its wild. its not the best j dilla album but its still super rad and it doesnt surprise me thta so many people get more out of it than other things hes done.

[Om_Audio]

Yup, I understand. I knew he did it all in the hospital and passed away 3 days after release. Things like that can def add to the appreciation of a work of art or anything else. Thx.
C

As a side note, I still don't get the hype. I like Ruff Draft way more.

C

I think, though there are some great, greeeaaaat beats on it, (gobstopper, the new, two can win, donuts of the heart, twister, etcetcetc) i think the hype comes from the album being both the last thing j dilla did, but also done on his death bed to boot. like literally in the hospital. the beats, by extension, carry this brooding atmosphere to them. certain beats, like donuts of the heart, are heartbreaking to listen to. those strings feel like the end. iunno i think its wild. its not the best j dilla album but its still super rad and it doesnt surprise me thta so many people get more out of it than other things hes done.

[Krisso The Great]

try using chorus ..always bring life to my sounds ( in my opinion-comapred to without) .. sound treatment .. eq each element different , I.e snare,kick,synth,sample? get them sounding nice as single elements and it will bring a better dynamic to the sound


..can't front on Donuts ,Ruff Draft is good too but doesn't feel like a whole peace,well it is an e.p .. So..

but still Welcome to Detroit ,my fav solo Dilla ,but Donuts from a technical aspect,try figure it out

[Om_Audio]

If I understand you- this is not always the case IMO- I learned this from listening to the multitrack recordings of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"- the bass sound was so wolly and lacking mid/hi that I was really quite surprised. As I added the other tracks in it all sounded -great- together. You sometimes need to allow room for other instruments/frequencies and might not actually mix a certain sound the way you would if you were going to use it solo.

I have the multi I can share if anyone interested- really great to load them in a DAW and solo/mute different things to hear it all. The tracks are also on youtube but harder to get sense of how it blends without being able to solo a track quickly and go back to full mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvEt2oHg7w

eq each element different , I.e snare,kick,synth,sample? get them sounding nice as single elements and it will bring a better dynamic to the sound

[LO-]

yo ucan try looking at the plot spectrum in audacity, still not shure completly how it represents your song, but check it out, here one from paul mccartney, his stuff is 'bright' notice the dip, maybe try something like that to brighten up your stuff, perhaps this is a custom signanture pro master curve, i looked at mine and they are awfully extremly bad in the lows, the rumble lows.

heres paul mcartney
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/attac ... 2-copy.jpg

heres mine for the last track i made that i assumed was bright, but I used vinyl sim at full and turned down the samples in my beat, i was just mad at it so i cranked it full for once.

the dip at 7850hz on mine is an attempt to filter the guitar post master, bad idea. I even used HPF on the LOW end stuff and still look hopw fletcher munson effects you with vynil sim.

[Krisso The Great]

^ as stated previously , yes elements can sound dull on single track then shit hot with the full mix..

do some research on what frequencies to boost and lower for different instruments..will help a great deal .. The mfx eq is pretty nice in my opinion ..

[hseiken]

You can get a bit of glimmering shininess by applying very mild bit crush on your finished track. Don't add too much, just a tad and you'll see your high's start shining without changing the base EQ.

[Eureka]

You can get a bit of glimmering shininess by applying very mild bit crush on your finished track. Don't add too much, just a tad and you'll see your high's start shining without changing the base EQ.

nice, will try this

[Om_Audio]

Re: J Dilla "Donuts" credits:

I asked:

"Hi there,
Stumped I cannot locate full album credits anywhere online. Wiki, your site, AllMusic, Discogs, etc. Would like to know who mixed and mastered the album etc."

ST replied to my inquiry:

"You're the first person to ask this question. The credits listed on the record are this: by J Dilla. That's the only credit to be published.

He produced and mixed the album, of course. Given the nature of the record, a decision was made by the executive producer to put only Dilla's credit on the record.

Jeff Jank was the executive producer, working with J Dilla on the edit and sequence of the album. (He's also the designer of the record.) Dave Cooley mastered the record.

PS - If you haven't seen it already: http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2014/02 ... s-333-book"

[LesPasta]

Re: J Dilla "Donuts" credits:

I asked:

"Hi there,
Stumped I cannot locate full album credits anywhere online. Wiki, your site, AllMusic, Discogs, etc. Would like to know who mixed and mastered the album etc."

ST replied to my inquiry:

"You're the first person to ask this question. The credits listed on the record are this: by J Dilla. That's the only credit to be published.

He produced and mixed the album, of course. Given the nature of the record, a decision was made by the executive producer to put only Dilla's credit on the record.

Jeff Jank was the executive producer, working with J Dilla on the edit and sequence of the album. (He's also the designer of the record.) Dave Cooley mastered the record.

PS - If you haven't seen it already: http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2014/02 ... s-333-book"

Jeff Jank on the music side to ? interesting…

[kel]

You can get a bit of glimmering shininess by applying very mild bit crush on your finished track. Don't add too much, just a tad and you'll see your high's start shining without changing the base EQ.

in audacity?

[Om_Audio]

You can get a bit of glimmering shininess by applying very mild bit crush on your finished track. Don't add too much, just a tad and you'll see your high's start shining without changing the base EQ.

in audacity?

I assume he means knob 2 on lo-fi effect which lowers the bit depth.
C