Nice chilled video. No gimmicks, video effects or desperate efforts to ingratiate yourself as a personality on the viewer. Just good sound advice and in an environment that's professional and relaxed. Well done. And thank you.
I'm used to mixing my upright and vst pianos, mainly Spitfire's Soft piano becuase of how much I've used it. I had the chance to record a lot of good material from a Steinway at my University, so it has been a massive headache trying to figure out how exactly to handle it, and this video was perfect. Much thanks, and hello from 2022!
Thats great! Happy to help... yeah the soft piano is already very dynamically tamed because there are only two dynamic levels recorded. But I LOVE that piano.. but yeah it makes compressing a live piano a totally different animal.. Glad this helps. Keep making music!!
Thank you!! As a concert pianist, it is hard to find mixing resources that apply to me - everything is about drums, guitar, or even just piano in a band mix - which is totally totally different. This tutorial was so specific that now I feel I can actually mix solo classical piano properly (something my engineer friends tell me is quite challenging, due to its dynamic range). Thank you!!
@@GoldenProductions2019 Couldn't find it. i watched a bit of a solo piano video where you're sweeping through an equaliser to find frequencies you wanted to reduce by 3db etc. but that was all. The other piano video i watched a bit of was joined with other instruments.
2:30 Rather than choose the compressor model that suits the instrument (which is hard when you haven't heard it working yet!)...I've found it quite useful to work with what some people the 'vanilla' compressor that comes up as default when we open the plug-in. In this case, the Platinum Digital. Once I'd done my work getting all the parameters to suit the instrument and the part THEN I selected each of the other model options to the right of the Platinum Digital and listened to each in turn, watching the meters for any peaking that a different model might 'cause' at the settings I've made. I actually found that order of play more fun and revealing! :)
You probably dont give a shit but if you guys are stoned like me atm then you can watch pretty much all the latest movies and series on InstaFlixxer. Have been binge watching with my girlfriend for the last couple of months :)
You're the only one who truely understand compression and know how to explain it aswell. Finally I got a better understanding about compression and use your tricks in my workflow. Where did you learn producing? I need to check out if you got more tutorials on your channel aswell.
I went to school for producing but I also learned a ton from making a lot of records and reading a lot of books... and you tube!! I have more tutorials and courses at my website. Let me know if you ever have any questions! www.gomakemusic.org
@@haydncarr9997 I went to a school called visible music college. learned a ton there but also learn a lot from just making music and learning online. I have an entire course on compression if you ever wanted to check it out. gomakemusic.mykajabi.com/compression-masterclass
@@GoMakeMusic I think that your approach with showing examples with different settings is unique and simple, continue doing that man. I can think of 2 main issues with mixing piano. 1. Consistent prescence (without harshness on the high pitch notes ) 2. Consistent Low end (without overpowering lowest notes). I think this is case only for me as i use piano and vocal only what makes it really important. But if you do tutorial on consistency in low end, maaan dayum that would be great
ArturLion Covers :3 gotcha! I will try to do that. But just off the top of my head I would experiment with a multiband compressor on just the low end. (20hz-125hz) use these same techniques as this video but just on the low end. :-)
Very helpful, fast and to the point, thank you! best video on compression I have watched so far! one that finally helped in a real practical setting instead of just explaining it and theories, math and so on...
Hey great piano tips and great video also I do a lot of mixing and recording tips and tutorials on my channel to so if you need any also keep up the great work and keep recording and mixing music sounding great man
I didn't in this video. But basically it is a quick way to adjust the levels going into and out of the compressor without needing to adjust other plugins.
Great vid. I've found that if the attack is too slow, when you add gain compensation it can actually boost any attack transient that creeps through. I found that for my sound even going from 6ms to 10ms boosted a transient at the start, which the taming of was the whole point of the exercise. I can't hear any distortion, so am I good to go with 6ms?
Hi Kirk. Thanks for the great video! I am trying editing EXISTING piano, guitar and flute music which I purchased from third parties. My goal is to make this music softER and smoothER, in order to help listeners to fall asleep. Could you please suggest a kind of "universal" plug-ins which would make the above-mentioned instruments sound softer and smoother? I am using Logic Pro X.
Hey! Honestly the two "universal" plugins for smoother and softer sounds are compression and EQ. Logic stock is fine for this. I would recommend doing light compression and NOT doing make up gain. That will make the sounds softer. Then I would recommend rolling off or shelving down some of the high end of sounds... that would make them sound smoother and less harsh. Finally you could try adding some light reverb... try a dark chamber. That could be helpful for sleepy sounds. Valhalla vintage reverb is amazing and very affordable. Hope that helps
Pruebas Yt this is the Logic stock compressor using the Studio FET style compressor. Like an 1176. And just FYI I just created an entire course on compression. You can check it out here. www.gomakemusic.org/p/compression-masterclass
Hello, great video. I'm just wondering, I'm using the stock Steinway piano instrument in Logic Pro X but it sounds very sharp to me, especially on the higher register. I want to make relaxing soft piano covers but the stock steinway piano just won't do it. Is there a way to make the higher register sound less sharp?
Hey glad you enjoy the video. I am assuming when you say "sharp" you mean the shape of the sound and not the pitch of the sound. To make it more round you could try traditional compression but if you want to get a little more drastic you could try to use the stock enveloper in logic. that could take off some more of the front edge. but that doesn't always work.. the other thing to try is literally adjust the attack on the envelop of the plugin. but this might make the other sounds sound too squishy. The last thing to do would be go in to all the higher notes and adjust the velocity so that the notes are being hit so hard that might soften them up.. if that all fails then you might need to look into a different piano patch. I can recommend spirfire LABs soft piano as a great start into the felt piano world. it is pretty dark and only has two velocity layers so its not too dynamic but could be great for what you are doing in solo piano world. Hope that helps!
I think the Steinway is the best Logic piano by far, but it is a little harsh, especially in the octave 3-4 range, which is where a lot of melody resides. There is kind of a large change to the attack between velocity level 89 and 90, so I use 90 for notes that I want to have a little more accent, while most notes are at 75 to 85. The Bosendorfer has a little bit more lower mid, so what I do is record on the Steinway, duplicate that track to the Bosey, and ride that under the Steinway at about 3 dB lower. That cuts the harshness from the Steinway and is a much better sound than either of those pianos by themselves-a nice clean attack from the Steinway and full rich body from the Bosey. I pan the Steinway to the right six clicks and the Bosey to the left eight clicks, which gives a very wide stereophonic panorama to that sound. That still sounds a little boxy, so I put a 4 dB dip at 400/0.71 and a 3 db dip at 970/0.83, which takes out the boxiness. But the Bosey also has kind of a clank in the low end, so I high pass that out. Those things together contribute to a great sounding piano. Depending on the song, that combination still has a tendency to not cut through the way I would like it to, so when that happens, I also mix in The Grandeur at a level slightly below the Steinway. That piano is worth the money. It has a soaring soprano voice that almost sounds human. What I found really interesting is once I saw this video I went back and looked at how I was compressing that combination of pianos, and I too use the studio FET, and my settings were almost identical to the ones in this video. My goal is not really to use the compressor as an automatic level control. I adjust the MIDI velocity levels to accomplish that much. My goal is to get more sustain from held notes, and those settings seem to do that.
Nice chilled video. No gimmicks, video effects or desperate efforts to ingratiate yourself as a personality on the viewer. Just good sound advice and in an environment that's professional and relaxed. Well done. And thank you.
I'm used to mixing my upright and vst pianos, mainly Spitfire's Soft piano becuase of how much I've used it. I had the chance to record a lot of good material from a Steinway at my University, so it has been a massive headache trying to figure out how exactly to handle it, and this video was perfect. Much thanks, and hello from 2022!
Thats great! Happy to help... yeah the soft piano is already very dynamically tamed because there are only two dynamic levels recorded. But I LOVE that piano.. but yeah it makes compressing a live piano a totally different animal.. Glad this helps. Keep making music!!
Thank you!! As a concert pianist, it is hard to find mixing resources that apply to me - everything is about drums, guitar, or even just piano in a band mix - which is totally totally different. This tutorial was so specific that now I feel I can actually mix solo classical piano properly (something my engineer friends tell me is quite challenging, due to its dynamic range). Thank you!!
You are welcome! Glad this helped.. yes solo piano is a different animal! : ) Hope this helps you release more music year!
Jason Lyle Black I have a piano tutorial on my channel where I teach just how to mix solo piano and it’s mixing with EQ so it you wanna check it out
@@GoldenProductions2019 Couldn't find it. i watched a bit of a solo piano video where you're sweeping through an equaliser to find frequencies you wanted to reduce by 3db etc. but that was all. The other piano video i watched a bit of was joined with other instruments.
2:30 Rather than choose the compressor model that suits the instrument (which is hard when you haven't heard it working yet!)...I've found it quite useful to work with what some people the 'vanilla' compressor that comes up as default when we open the plug-in. In this case, the Platinum Digital. Once I'd done my work getting all the parameters to suit the instrument and the part THEN I selected each of the other model options to the right of the Platinum Digital and listened to each in turn, watching the meters for any peaking that a different model might 'cause' at the settings I've made.
I actually found that order of play more fun and revealing! :)
Thank you soooo much!!! You just changed my life! My records started to sound amazing! X
veoletta that’s awesome!! If you want to go deeper with compression you can check out this course! gomakemusic.mykajabi.com/compression-masterclass
You probably dont give a shit but if you guys are stoned like me atm then you can watch pretty much all the latest movies and series on InstaFlixxer. Have been binge watching with my girlfriend for the last couple of months :)
@Ameer Brennan yea, I have been watching on InstaFlixxer for since december myself :D
You're the only one who truely understand compression and know how to explain it aswell. Finally I got a better understanding about compression and use your tricks in my workflow. Where did you learn producing? I need to check out if you got more tutorials on your channel aswell.
I went to school for producing but I also learned a ton from making a lot of records and reading a lot of books... and you tube!! I have more tutorials and courses at my website. Let me know if you ever have any questions! www.gomakemusic.org
@@GoMakeMusic where did you go ti school for music?
@@haydncarr9997 I went to a school called visible music college. learned a ton there but also learn a lot from just making music and learning online. I have an entire course on compression if you ever wanted to check it out. gomakemusic.mykajabi.com/compression-masterclass
All my covers are piano + vocal, thank you for giving this gold tutorial
ArturLion Covers :3 sure thing! let me know if you ever want to see anything else.
@@GoMakeMusic I think that your approach with showing examples with different settings is unique and simple, continue doing that man. I can think of 2 main issues with mixing piano. 1. Consistent prescence (without harshness on the high pitch notes ) 2. Consistent Low end (without overpowering lowest notes). I think this is case only for me as i use piano and vocal only what makes it really important. But if you do tutorial on consistency in low end, maaan dayum that would be great
ArturLion Covers :3 gotcha! I will try to do that. But just off the top of my head I would experiment with a multiband compressor on just the low end. (20hz-125hz) use these same techniques as this video but just on the low end. :-)
thank you for avery good explanation. For Reaper users I found out that Reaxcomp its a very usefull compressor. Good music fellas!
I really thought you were about to play that chopin etude for a second
Excellent , thanks.
You're welcome!
Superb.Thank you !
You are very welcome!
Thanks for the tips!! Going to make my piano sound better!
Happy to help!
Thank you man ! Very clear explanation
awesome happy to help!
Very helpful, fast and to the point, thank you! best video on compression I have watched so far! one that finally helped in a real practical setting instead of just explaining it and theories, math and so on...
Kuran Mcqueen glad it helped. I haves other free tutorial on EQ if you are interested. www.gomakemusic.org/foundations-of-eq
Thank you!
You're Welcome!
Thanks man, I working with a piano lead so thanks for the tips
Sure thing happy to help!
Thank you! Very helpful. The attack is such an issue.
Lovly explanation ❤️💯♥️💪
Sure thing!
Super useful Sir!!! Can't wait to try some of these techniques now in the home studio! :D 🙏
sweet go for it!
Awesome video, thanks man!! Time to give those soft piano bits the spotlight they deserve.
you're the best man
great vid. keep them coming!
Thx! Yes sir! Will do. Let me know if you have anything specific you want to see!
Very, very good video!
Mr. Lars thx!
Hey great piano tips and great video also I do a lot of mixing and recording tips and tutorials on my channel to so if you need any also keep up the great work and keep recording and mixing music sounding great man
right on thanks!! You too!
Thanks a lot!!
Philippe Labutin you are welcome! Let me know if you ever have any other music production questions!
You just got yourself a subscriber. Thanks a bunch bro :D
You are very welcome thanks for subscribing!
Thx for the great instructional. Did you discuss input and output gain? I have assumptions on what they're for but don't know for sure. Thanks again.
I didn't in this video. But basically it is a quick way to adjust the levels going into and out of the compressor without needing to adjust other plugins.
😊 thanks
You’re welcome!
This was really helpful, thanks A LOT!
You are very welcome! I have an entire masterclass on compression if you ever interested. its here www.gomakemusic.org/
Great vid.
I've found that if the attack is too slow, when you add gain compensation it can actually boost any attack transient that creeps through. I found that for my sound even going from 6ms to 10ms boosted a transient at the start, which the taming of was the whole point of the exercise. I can't hear any distortion, so am I good to go with 6ms?
Yeah thats fine if you don't hear distortion.. unless you want distortion! : ) which some people do...
@@GoMakeMusic Great thanks
Great tutorial man! Thank you so much. :D
Backslash you are very welcome!!
Thank you!! What piano do you using in this video? Can you teach me kontakt library name? It sounds good
You're welcome! Its the imperfect piano faziloli!
@@GoMakeMusic thank you!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🙌🏼
"...which is three"
Hi Kirk. Thanks for the great video! I am trying editing EXISTING piano, guitar and flute music which I purchased from third parties. My goal is to make this music softER and smoothER, in order to help listeners to fall asleep. Could you please suggest a kind of "universal" plug-ins which would make the above-mentioned instruments sound softer and smoother? I am using Logic Pro X.
Hey! Honestly the two "universal" plugins for smoother and softer sounds are compression and EQ. Logic stock is fine for this. I would recommend doing light compression and NOT doing make up gain. That will make the sounds softer. Then I would recommend rolling off or shelving down some of the high end of sounds... that would make them sound smoother and less harsh. Finally you could try adding some light reverb... try a dark chamber. That could be helpful for sleepy sounds. Valhalla vintage reverb is amazing and very affordable.
Hope that helps
excellent video! What is the name of the compressor you use? the name of the plug-in
Pruebas Yt this is the Logic stock compressor using the Studio FET style compressor. Like an 1176. And just FYI I just created an entire course on compression. You can check it out here. www.gomakemusic.org/p/compression-masterclass
Hello, great video. I'm just wondering, I'm using the stock Steinway piano instrument in Logic Pro X but it sounds very sharp to me, especially on the higher register. I want to make relaxing soft piano covers but the stock steinway piano just won't do it. Is there a way to make the higher register sound less sharp?
Hey glad you enjoy the video. I am assuming when you say "sharp" you mean the shape of the sound and not the pitch of the sound. To make it more round you could try traditional compression but if you want to get a little more drastic you could try to use the stock enveloper in logic. that could take off some more of the front edge. but that doesn't always work.. the other thing to try is literally adjust the attack on the envelop of the plugin. but this might make the other sounds sound too squishy.
The last thing to do would be go in to all the higher notes and adjust the velocity so that the notes are being hit so hard that might soften them up.. if that all fails then you might need to look into a different piano patch. I can recommend spirfire LABs soft piano as a great start into the felt piano world. it is pretty dark and only has two velocity layers so its not too dynamic but could be great for what you are doing in solo piano world. Hope that helps!
I think the Steinway is the best Logic piano by far, but it is a little harsh, especially in the octave 3-4 range, which is where a lot of melody resides. There is kind of a large change to the attack between velocity level 89 and 90, so I use 90 for notes that I want to have a little more accent, while most notes are at 75 to 85.
The Bosendorfer has a little bit more lower mid, so what I do is record on the Steinway, duplicate that track to the Bosey, and ride that under the Steinway at about 3 dB lower. That cuts the harshness from the Steinway and is a much better sound than either of those pianos by themselves-a nice clean attack from the Steinway and full rich body from the Bosey. I pan the Steinway to the right six clicks and the Bosey to the left eight clicks, which gives a very wide stereophonic panorama to that sound.
That still sounds a little boxy, so I put a 4 dB dip at 400/0.71 and a 3 db dip at 970/0.83, which takes out the boxiness. But the Bosey also has kind of a clank in the low end, so I high pass that out.
Those things together contribute to a great sounding piano.
Depending on the song, that combination still has a tendency to not cut through the way I would like it to, so when that happens, I also mix in The Grandeur at a level slightly below the Steinway. That piano is worth the money. It has a soaring soprano voice that almost sounds human.
What I found really interesting is once I saw this video I went back and looked at how I was compressing that combination of pianos, and I too use the studio FET, and my settings were almost identical to the ones in this video.
My goal is not really to use the compressor as an automatic level control. I adjust the MIDI velocity levels to accomplish that much. My goal is to get more sustain from held notes, and those settings seem to do that.
Thank you so much man!!
What is the name of that exact compressor plugin?
Its just the stock logic compressor. Studio FET version
@@GoMakeMusic What a shame. Seems extremely convenient
Your input gain was mad loud
LOL JUST 1K VIEWS