You can find some of the stuff I've been working on recently here:

http://www.myspace.com/djillscience

and here:

http://soundcloud.com/illscience

Here is a clip from an IM conversation I had with my good friend (and accomplished DJ/producer) Torin. I heard Sneak play one of Torin's tracks at a show last week and I almost lost my mind .. but I digress:


me: did you mix down your own tracks?
Torin: yeah i do
me: I should say do you mix them down
Torin: best thing you can do is comparative listening
every so often while mixing your track, listen to something you know has great fidelity (Jay-J is an amazing engineer), and compare how yours sounds on the same set up
it will guide you to making better sound
gonna throw my laundry in the dryer
brb
Sent at 5:16 PM on Saturday
me: that's a good tip. any tips on reverb? that's the one thing I couldn't get right. I know that you're not supposed to put reverb on kicks or bassline, but other then that im lost regarding reverb.
Sent at 5:19 PM on Saturday
Torin: first mixing rule I do...
I solo the kick and bassline
mix them so they are even, and prominent
Then I start mixing in the other elements...
then..
I then mute the kick to see how everything sounds without it and mix them more....
I don't put the kick back in until I have mixed most of the track
then...fx
so reverb first...
I put an EQ on my reverb and cut most the low frequencies..
you don't want bass reverbing...it sounds terrible
do you use an FX loop, or do you have separate fx on each channel?
Sent at 5:24 PM on Saturday
me: i have seperate FX on each channel right now .. i do have my kicks and bassline on their own channel and I keep them clear of any master reverb.
Torin: ok...you need to learn about fx loops
saves ram and makes it easier
so create a separate audio or aux input channel
then, make the input on the channel a bus...make sure the channel is stereo too....and output is 1-2
follow so far?
you are making a channel of fx only, and then you will be able to "Send" and percentage of the other tracks to this channel and be able to adjust each one individually
send any percentage
is what I meant
Sent at 5:31 PM on Saturday
me: yep, understand how that works for master FX, but what about FX on the individual channels? you wouldn't have a seperate FX channel for each regular channel would you?
Torin: not for reverb or delay
i usually have 1 reverb...used for vox, snare, percussion, guitars..etc.
and 2 delay channels...one at 1/4 note, and one at either 16th or dotted 1/8th (old Jay-J Moulton studios trick)
me: gotcha .. and how what is the delay setting on those channels?
Torin: and it's not Master FX...it's an FX loop...master fx means fx on the main mix bus
you don't want that...except for limiting or maximizing
or EQ sometimes
Sent at 5:35 PM on Saturday
me: right, that makes perfect sense. so in addition to that you have FX on the individual channels right?
Torin: sending you an emai, check it
me: okay
Torin: see?
me: yep opening it now
Torin: then, you can add additional fx to those channels too and really trip things out
panning, modeling, bananas!
Sent at 5:39 PM on Saturday
me: okay and just to be clear everything except the kicks & bassline go to these delay & reverb channels right?
Torin: well, only if you want all of them to have fx
on your individual channels...you should have a send knob..right?
you can send as much or as little to these loops as you want
what platform are you using?
live?
me: yep .. but as a general rule you never send kicks & bassline right?
Torin: never ever
me: im using ablteton .. im pretty comfortable with it.
Torin: bass only if you are delaying out of a section, but you rarely hear it
it just sounds weird because nobody does it
me: right. twigg mentioned that he makes his kicks and bassline mono.
well thanks for the tips man. i will go over this thread when im mastering the next track.
Torin: word
yeah, there is a reason why kick is always mono...
wanna know the funny history?
me: shoot
Torin: so back when vinyl was the only format....
kick and bass had such large bumps in the vinyl......
that if they were either on right or left, it would make the needle jump off of the record
so they made it mono and put it in the middle
me: no way! that's crazy.

Final mixes of the track I've been working on with Dave's help:

illscience - cloak & dagger (headphone mix)
illscience - cloack & dagger (club mix)

Dave did the mix-down on the club mix, I did the headphone mix. Phew!

Hot fire radio mix from Mark Farina: http://dreaminaudio.com/php/play.php?id=187

I also wanted to include this great e-mail from Twigg where he responds to a bunch of questions and comments that I had. My questions/comments are inlined (by him) with his responses. The technical depth that this guy has never fails to blow me away:

1) "I'm using a multi-band compressor for all my keys "
Typically you use a Multi Band compressor on the Master out. You can use it on individual components but you're better off just using a normal compressor as a multi band compressor expects a full frequency sound and an Keyboard or Drum hit will only be strong in a narrow band of frequencies hence a single compressor will suffice.

A good Multi Band is Ozone Isotope but any will do. I don't have a good enough ear yet for the quality difference on Multiband compressors.

2) "I've also put a compressor on my kick drum"
I haven't had much luck compressing kicks. I know people do it though. I've had more luck with just using envelopes which ultimately results in the same effect as compression except more rigid in behaviour. I try and figure out how long I want the bass decay to rumble for. If its too long, it makes the track just rumble with no room for baseline and if its too short, the kick bass frequencies don't have time to build up (kicks have treble attacks morphin to bass decays). Often I find I like it long when the track is just kick but when the baseline comes in I like it short. But just pick a length and stick with it for whole track.

No reverb and no stereo on baselines or kicks.

3) "Should I put the whole track into a compressor and then turn up the level on the drums"
Yes put it through a multi band but no you don't need to turn up the drums.

First, without the compressor, mix the track to taste. Then use the multi band compressor in ozone. I normally just loop the busy part of the song.

Settings:
Attack: I've come to realize this is the most important setting of the compressor. I like to keep this relatively wide open (about 80ms)
Here's how I think about it.

A house track is 120bpm and therefore there's 1 beat every 500ms. You're kick and kick/snare fire off and will more than likely be the items that are driving the compressor. So whenever they fire off you let 80ms pass through unchanged and then it clamps down. This gives the result of making youre track sounds more beatmatched believe it or not. All those other sounds that are a little bit early and little late that don't fall within that 80ms will be compressed. This compression strengths the feeling of rhythm in your track.

If you start to lower the attack, very quickly you start to loose the attack of your drums which is why I think you describe it as 'loose the high freqs'. The attack of a drum or any sounds for that matter gives it the rhythm and timing, and the decay gives it the tone. So lowering the attack of the compressor can weaken the timing of the sound.

80ms is a good setting for all Frequency bands. Maybe smaller (40ms) attack for the highest band.

WARNING : Too small an attack on your baseline will cause popping because the wavelength of a bass note can be on the order of 80ms. Solo the bass channel and hear if it pops.

Release and Threshold: about 100 ms release. You can experiment with this. Too small a value and you get distortion and too large and it starts to compress the track permanently.

Threshold: until your ducking the signal by about 6db or more.

A good setting for release and threshold is such that for part of the beat there's compression, and for part of it there isn't any compression.

Ratio: 3:1 to 5:1

Output Gain: Now that you've compressed the bands, you've screwed up the mix so you have to compensate with the output gain of each bands compression. Just remix it put turing up and down the outputs.

4) "What I want is a uniform wave, i.e. I don't want the section with just the drums to be a lower level; I want to use all of the available headroom (not sure if that's the right word)."

For "Uniform waveform and use all the available headroom" you use a limiter.
Here's a common misunderstanding. Limiters are a utility, not an effect. Limiters are compressors with extreme settings. Zero attack and ~0.5ms release. This can kill your music. The reason you should use them is to use your headroom efficiently. I told you about how leaving the attack wide open lets through some of the punchiness of the attacks. Well sometimes the chaos of the track will collide to produce a super attack (ie the snare hits at the exact time the baseline with the cymbal with the hats...). This will create an abnormal spike in the sound that will thereby reduce your headroom.

SO: Use the limiter in Isotope with extremely delicate settings. IE 1db of ducking at the loudest part of your song. This will make your track look like an even pipe cleaner without fucking of the sound.

"I don't want the section with just the drums to be a lower level" - If you've setup the multi band properly, then you should find that during the busy part of the song the multi band compressor is working and during the breakdowns its uncompressed thereby giving you even volume.

5) Side Chain compression is amazing and is the best way to make a track sound big and pumping. I run almost everything through it EXCEPT the cymbals and snare, WHY? because these almost always coincide with the kick. If the kick ducks the snare, then when you mute the kick, the snare will spike in volume (very bad and painful)

The most important thing to put through the SC (side chain) compressor is the baseline as it conflicts with the kick so SC'ing fixes this.
WARNING: ONce again, use a slow attack otherwise you'll distort the baseline.

TIP: The biggest tip I can give you though, is don't play your baseline note on the kick beat. Pick the in between notes and it'll never conflict. It has the knock on effect of making your baseline sounding more funky.

6) Layering kicks : I've got a great tip here too.
I typically only layer 2 kicks.
a) I pick a kick from the pool that I just like for its treble (not its bass). Infact once you've picked the kick, High pass it and remove < 100hz to get rid of the base.
b) I follow this up with a kick that's all sub. like a 909 kick or or one of the miami breaks kicks. I pick one with a long sub decay because like I said earlier you can remove the decay with the envelope. You can always remove sound, you can't add.

c) HERE's the trick!: Here's the biggest tip I can give you then. YOu have to tune your sub kick to the melody of your track. You have to pick one note that permeates the chords of your track. How? You take the sub kick and you pitch it up 1 octave. Suddenly its tone is clear you you. Try sliding it up a few semi tones and back again. Once you find a note that matches the melody of your track (preferably between 8 - 14 semitones above its natural pitch) then you pitch it down exactly one octave and now you've got a ~60hz sub kick that matches the baseline and the rest of your track. HUGE! Think about how wrong it is to play an out of tune bass note over and over again and then its clear that tuning your kick is crucial.

d) Layer the two and mix two taste. If you want more base, turn up the sub one.

NOTE: You can do this for any drum. Cymbals, snares and especially conga/bongos as they have strong clear tones. Often you can't hear what 'note' a drum is until you move it around. Then suddenly you can hear its 'tone' and then tune it to the music.

"I think I'm going to try sampling that and overlaying it."

I've tried it but never had any success. The recording is always so dirty from the other drum decays. You get bits of cymbals and hat reverb.

Dave mastered my track for me and it sounds about 100x better then before. I'll post the before and after at some point. My mastering had the track sounds loud but not really pounding; the high/mid range stuff was taking up a lot of the head room. After listening to Dave's mix it suddenly sounded totally off. So anyways, I asked Dave to enlighten me, and here is his description of how he mastered the track:

I did all the mastering in FL Studio just because I like the way it
routes everything.

I used an EQ to roll off the freqs below 25Hz and above 20,000k.
Those are frequencies that people cant hear, but can still effect how
loud you can make the song. Then I used another eq to pull down some
of the midrange around 350hz.

After that I used the BBE Sonic Maximizer. Its a super bad ass
exciter which is part of that 'crispness' that you are talking about.
It does some weird phasing thing to the low end and the high end to
make the highs sizzle and the lows thicken up. I didnt use much of it
though because it's really easy to overdo it.

I also sent the master into a reverb but really quiet at about 9%. I
did that because I've found it tends to give the whole songs a little
more dimension, and also make the high mid range stand out a little
more in rear speakers that usually come with home theaters. I set the
decay super short and had the damping up enough to make it sound like
a short room. The reverb I used is called Arts Acoustic Reverb.

I adjusted the levels so that everything was just barely hitting 0db
then ran it all through PSP Xenon which is a really nice
limiter/volume maximizer. I just used a preset that made it sound
nice and loud without distorting anything.

Thanks Dave! What a difference mastering makes.

Farina live from grooveradio l.a, great mix: http://dreaminaudio.com/php/play.php?id=116

Doesn't get much tighter then this set .. lots of deep and funky grooves, great live set from the heydey of Mark.

Here is a list of tracks that I've picked up recently from stompy:

natural rhythm - saturdays - guesthouse
unkown - nodiggity - gooch
hustlin blow - lifehaschanged - herbalessence
tim richards feat kt - same thing (jedset increasing thing mix) - soulheat
joshua - heaven knows - tweekin
joshua - work it out - tweekin
joshua - steady in - tweekin
the lost boys - mytime - pound music
miles maeda - my world - bump music
the lost boys - for love - pound music
craig hamilton - gonnatake - greenhouse
bryan jones - westsidebump (jon pegnato) - control
Da Cuban Heelz - Keep It Steady (Da Cuban Live Mix) - Aroma
terminator x - if you need a fix - guesswho
pete moss - so sweet - recline
greenskeepers - stomp your feet - aroma
troydon - newyork minute (troydon decosta) - phono shuffle
sonny fodera - in your soul - lingo
sonny fodera - dont wait tool ong - lingo
jack castro - so into me - highjack
oneeyedlongwankswankinmacnastyscab - backyard betty - booty
tracy cooper - uptown - greenhouse

I had the good fortune of sitting down with Dave for a few hours last night and having him show me some great production hints. I didn't want to lose that info, so I've decided to capture it here. I'll also try to throw other music related stuff in here -- tracks I'm buying, gigs I'm getting (or not getting), and mixes etc.

Dave uses Fruity Loops primarily, though he has some experience with Abelton Live. He switched from hardware directly to FL over 10 years ago. Here are a few of the basics that we went over:

• Use of battery: Battery is a powerful sampler, and the respective version 1,2, and 3 have different features and uses. We installed battery 2 and got to work. One of the first things you have to do is enable the envelope on samples, or else you'll have samples playing over and over again. You can hit the panic button (a red !) if your samples are playing out of control; this kills all of the sound. Once you've enabled the envelope you can play with the regular parameters (attack, sustain, release, etc) on each sample in the bank. We brought a long sample (15 seconds, 4 bars) into the sampler. First we adjusted the tempo (or tune in battery) to match the sample with the track (used the metronome). Then we wrote a simple pattern in the piano roll that had the sample triggering on both the downbeat (first 8th note) and one that triggered on a 16th note. The reason for this is that we want to hear how the samples sound on both the 8th notes and 16th notes; we don't want to generate a whole bunch of samples that only sound good on the expected 8th notes. We started playing the sounds and then started looking for little subsets of the sample that sound good (using the envelope). When we found something, we would copy and paste it to another pad, and then keep looking. In this way we quickly generated a dozen small samples from the larger sample.
• Battery continued: Next, we added a simple filter to the samples. We then added an LFO to the filter cut-off. Initially it sounded weird because the LFO was ossiclating to a frequency that was not a multiple of our tempo. So, we enabled 'sync' on the LFO, which synchronizes the LFO with the tempo. Then we enabled 'trigger', which re-starts the LFO along when the sample hits (I believe .. need to check on this). Sounded great!
• Peak controller: Next, we looked at something called a peak controller. What we did was route the kick drum and snare into the peak controller. Then we set the trigger on the filter in battery to be triggered by the peak controller. Now, when the peak controller hits a certain threshold it triggers the filter on the samples, which is an interesting effect. Dave also connected the peak controller to the volume of the sample on the mixing board, which basically made the volume of the samples come up with the amplitude of the kick+snare, and then drop back down when the amplitude dissapears. He described it as a way to tighten up the layering of sounds; if you have too many elements layered on top of each other try tieing them together with a peak controller to make it really tight. You wouldn't really use a peak controller & an LFO together BTW.
• Shuffle/Swing: Okay, this is a bit of a tricky one. So swing basically means taking certain notes and having them trigger a little late. The degree of lateness corresponds to the degree of swing. Note that Abelton has global swing where as FL does not, which is one of the downsides of Abelton in Dave's eyes. He mentioned that they often use the same swing in their track, which is to take every 16th note and give it a slight nudge. Gives things more of a human feel.
• Improving basslines: We went into Abelton to look at the track that I've been working on. One of the issues is that there a note in the bassline that is louder and has a higher frequency, which makes it really stand out. I tried re-arranging the bassline to remove that note but it just sounds better with th note. What we did was add an EQ to that line, create a big gain with a really tight Q on the filter, and then slowly go through the frequency range of the bassline until we found the high-frequency note that I was talking about (it was super loud at that point b/c of the Q & gain, we do this to help find it), and then eq'd it down slightly with the filter. Then we were able to bring the level of the entire bassline up. This is a good technique for reducing the impact of one note or several notes without removing them all together.
  
• Improving keys: The biggest suggestion Dave had with the keys was to actually add some random shuffle to them, leaving the 8th notes in-tact but changing up other keys. This reduces the montony of the patterns. Other suggestions to make the keys more rich were adding compression (to stabilize the amplitude of the keys) and adding a chorus.

Phew, I think that covers it for now. I'll add some more comments if anything comes to me.