Mefjus - Particles Studio Insights: Transit with IMANU

Check out the sudio video about the making of TRANSIT
Stream / Download full track: fanlink.to/Par...
Inspired by Sci-Fi films and ISS night sky viewings during studio sessions, Transit is the first ever collab between IMANU (fka Signal) and I. Super happy that it is finally out on VISION as part of my PARTICLES project. - M
Mefjus
Listen → open.spotify.c...
Visit → mefjus.at
Like → mefjus
Follow → / martinmefjus
Look → / martinmefjus
IMANU
Listen → open.spotify.c...
Like → imanumusic
Follow → / imanumusic
Look → / imanumusic
VISION Recordings
Listen → play.spotify.c...
Like → visionr...
Follow → / visionrecs
Look → / visionrecordings

[@Mefjus]

Hey guys, as so many of you sent in questions on the previous Studio Insights videos, I'm planning on doing a Special Q&A Episode. So, drop your questions in the comments below or dm me on my Instagram. - 🖤M

[@ItsVisceral]

Mefjus i would love tips for creating interesting perc Fx used in drops, it sounds like sounds ran through granulators producing random interesting sounds is this correct?

[@xPuReZHD]

Hey man, love your work! One question, on the 3rd 16 the phrase starts with a sick low mid kind of pitching down bass which I absolutely love, any tips on recreating something similar? Incredible tune and loved your set in London!

[@richardtyson100]

Given that most, if not all club sound systems are in mono, how much time should be spend focussing on the stereo width of our tracks?

[@SiLiDNB]

You talked about how important it is for you to have all in midi as long as possible. I would be interested in what CPU you are using? There‘s not a lot of benchmarks in terms of core count/core speed. So what cpu are you using and do you ever reach a performance limit? Thx

[@sergeys53]

What are your pc specs?

[@kwinkzpower]

Martins accent is like a mix of Austrian with pure london twang. Obviously been spending a lot of time in the UK

[@apoplexiamusic]

i also thought it was interesting with that little London twist

[@naught101]

"Spo-ify"

[@wolfgangrecordings]

it's martin, martijn is from noisia ;)

[@kwinkzpower]

@@wolfgangrecordings my bad, updated!

[@aduken762]

Leopold Black no it’s not

[@krutev]

0:50 Oh project looks pretty simple, nice 🤗 1:10 OOPS!! 🤯🤯🤯

[@takenxtx]

Same reaction here LOL

[@41SMASH]

I'd give up my left ball for a Mefjus bass masterclass.. I'll throw in the right one too if needed...

[@himangshu1808]

💀

[@Terrantulla]

I find it so fascinating that the project is so huge yet the finished track sounds so clean and cohesive. I never would have guessed how much work went into it.

[@coasterfreek219]

Always appreciate artists giving an insight into what they do. Thanks dude

[@lout9231]

That bass riff is just ridiculous. Been producing for just over a year and just so much to take in thanks so much for tyhis man

[@Michaelsongsfull40]

no pun intended

[@ffightus]

I know you covered this in detail but Would love a deeper dive on mixing / routing, bus usage, parallel processing using send fx vs insert on direct channel bus, and automation in this regard - tutorial… long title ;) .. Thank you so much for this. Always go back to it.

[@Kid_Ellipsis]

Incredible work and shows how insanely high the bar has been set for DnB production. Never had the attention span to do this myself for one track...guess I’ll always be just a DJ 😭

[@franksimon8375]

Sicko broski. I've been doing the computer boops since my gf was born and I airfield this a lot

[@refusefntk]

Man, I’m so happy that he speaks English my german is shieze. I just found this interview after listening to him, camo and crooked for years. Im pumped!

[@woopeedyscoop1858]

1:22 - press cotrol and click open folder to open all folders at once. same with closing folders

[@Mefjus]

i did not know that, awesome thx :D

[@tommyhutchinson6482]

62 instances of Serum. 😱

[@blaeke64]

How the fuck does any pc handle that

[@etherealbonds]

Depends on what you do in serum. If they arent very complex (loads of voices on the oscillators for example) a good PC easily handles this. I use a Ryzen 9 and never had any problems.

[@pelagicsky]

That Portal plugin is MENTAL!

[@alexpardon585]

Thank you so much for these videos, its pushing me to aim even higher with the technicality of my productions! Would you be able go into some details into how you prevent all those sends that give the room/space feelings (especially in this track) from getting too washy and in the way of the mix? Also could you show us how you're squeezing all these elements together and still sounding big, is it down to the way you're designing the elements so they each have their place in the mix, do you have multiple clippers working hard etc Thanks again Martin, looking forward to the next one 🖤

[@superwalnuts2855]

I second this question. Even though the routing might be unique to Cubase I'd like to know more about the effects you used and what you automated.

[@BilalAhmed-um1um]

tweak eq tweak mono bass tweak, eq tweak widen mid and highs tweak tweak tweak EQ seriously thats what it is secrets in the tweaking needs practice and good ears and a lotta experimenting , no one way many people do it differently bu EQ is key and widening mids or high is also key

[@StiwieMayday]

These are amazing for advanced producers that need that extra Knowledge! Amazing! Please keep doing theese!

[@John_Smith2302]

Back in the day, we would throw a break beat into recycle and throw it into the S1000 and maybe detune it a few semitones and just eq it on the mackie. The attention to detail is next level.

[@prismaticsignal5607]

I was wondering how to avoid phase issues when using the OTT, distortion, and other effects on the main bass group, especially if return effects (i suppose) are routed into the main bass bus as well

[@shu3684]

Great stuff! Can we expect any videos about creating bass riffs? would be awesome

[@shantmadenjian4172]

How do you process the highs in your tracks? Like hihats, snare fuzz, etc. Treble in general, what is your rule of thumb for mixing it?

[@ItsVisceral]

Shant Madenjian wicked question I find mixing high end harder than low end especially with neuro funk the bass is so prominent and bright it’s hard to get everything to be clear

[@lukejohnston9500]

Your explanation is just spot on.. not just turning dials your given your thought process and how that relates to a track.. and your send effect with manipulating reverb spaces to create movement is just gold 👌 thankyou!!

[@KevinHeiderich]

Cool, sehr überrascht über dein gutes Englisch :) Hab die anderen Videos der Reihe noch nicht gesehen, deshalb entschuldige falls du das schon beantwortet hast aber hast du auch so ne Art Demo Phase wo du mit weniger Tracks en paar Ideen machst und das in so ein großes Mix Projekt entwickelst oder fängst du direkt so an ohne ne groß entwickelte musikalische Idee zu haben? Lange Frage haha

[@shinyisshiny7780]

thank you for sharing!! learned some great info

[@RidesInforests]

Hi. One question that often comes to mind when looking at highly layerd projects like this. Do you sketch out the track with basic drums/elements first then fill in the layers later? I guess this would be down to personal workflow? I tend to get stuck in the early stages worrying about layering and loosing track of the idea. Appologies if you have already covered this.

[@xlnaudio]

Awesome mix breakdown man!!!

[@controlmomentspb3255]

Wow...💨💨💨👍 Very informative and delicious sounds...waiting for the next steps✌️😉

[@sgjong7505]

Do u like Serum better for making kicks, rather tha Kick2? I was wondering why u are seperating the transient from the body.

[@godsdoctor1657]

3.55 English accent for the "A bit Dirty as well" That's Classic It would be interesting knowing who it's picked up off? Obviously, a producer for the words were the twang shows through. Lol Good video none the less

[@monat_son]

tutorials from the bossman himself!!

[@danielneurofunk]

Hey there, what gives a track "fullness" and depth?

[@rikcasado9356]

would love to know how you go about getting the loudest posible volume in your mix, from all you different elements. Thanks a lot, love your work. Ricardo.

[@lowdt]

holy... we are getting old man.. hope to see more soon

[@harrybalboa6840]

Thank you! You are such a humble guy!

[@YaPronin]

Thank you very much!!Danke

[@good23444]

Loving these vids! I would love if in the future you could share more about compression in your tracks - it's a seemingly important element that's not really covered. Thanks

[@eluherlu]

I'm curious how mefjus and imanu collaborate while using another daw. He mentioned here that imanu did come to his studio to collab

[@theresn01here]

I just learned Imanu is running FL and my brain popped 🤯

[@undeaddutch]

@@theresn01here You know Billain? He also produces in FL

[@janemargolis201]

Auf Deine älteren Tracks bezogen, hast Du die Snares (bspw. bei Stutter, Surrounded, Void Main Void etc.) auch nach diesem Prinzip gebastelt? Dieser extrem knackige aber nicht "klopfende" Puch ist mir bis heute ein Rätsel :D Hätte noch soviele weitere Fragen, vielleicht hast Du mal Bock ein AMA bspw auf Reddit zu starten? LG aus Deutschland

[@MDSeldome]

Hey Mef, thanks for your videos 🙌 that’s really inspirational 🎧

[@alessandroscanzioli4382]

what a kind of pc you have ? it s a beast, 62 instance of serum ? unreal !

[@killahertz6765]

And once again, thank you for this learning stuff!!!)

[@salexmatei]

Thanks for doing these man!

[@vroteg]

My question is technical: On your fundamental snare in serum your modulations are coming from env2, L2, L3 and L4. What are you modulating there? Thanks, Mef-whatever 😆.

[@mananzanunnaki6726]

62 INSTANCES? What are your Computer specs? CPU specifically. Thanks

[@johndonoghue9089]

You're the man!

[@carllewis6745]

Man, I wish I knew you had your own YT channel, big up!

[@maladoyvoltage5076]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@necrodawg]

So organized, jesus.

[@JacksonSwaby]

Legend! Thank you for these man

[@pyromaster10000]

Thanks for that recource.

[@angkhornewlan3950]

Hi Mefjus! Thanks a lot for explaining your work which is amazing! I've one question about the routing of your resonance bass sounds. Specifically for the subs. I've noticed that you have a group named "reso subs", is it the low frequencies treatment of these sounds ? 'Cause in the vidéo, when you play the track, all bass sounds and routings in solo, there's no signal coming up in this group. (22m32s) Perhaps this group is not routed to a stereo bus output and the sound lives by send fx as you have mentioned in the video ? Thanks a lot for your answer! Victor.

[@Minimalex1000]

Hallo Martin, was waren damals wie bei der Hello World EP oder Distantia deine Lieblings-Plugins? Und wirst du jemals Unusual droppen? :) Danke und liebe Grüße aus Schwechat

[@adriensauvaget2878]

Great Tutorial ✌️ I just saw an audio track in your project called "sys_ex", do you use this kind of stuff ? System exclusif etc ?

[@korneykretov4668]

Nice one. I believe instead of layering your snare, extending highs, you could sidechain highs of the bass (one band in multiband compressor) by snare.

[@Mefjus]

that is definitely also the case! multiband compression in combination with sidechain works wonders some times :) my point here was just to show that the production process always is about balance between what/how you work on your drums and then on your bass/mids :)

[@wolfgangrecordings]

haha your computer must be a monster to handle over 60 serum instances. nice one for the addictive drums shoutout, love that plugin :)

[@stratagistuk]

Video quality is on point!

[@tracksremastered7796]

amazing insight into this incredible track. If you were going to do another tutorial would be awesome to see more on the bass pluck... And possibly the surrounded bass processing. Really love your stuff man. Absolutely brilliant

[@magmakum4628]

Great insight, I love this kind of videos. Just found your channel, been following your music for a while and is dope! What you said about group channels and routing, you should give a look ar Reaper. It has a similar workflow to cubase, but much more flexible and customizable.

[@dpounder101]

how do you go about starting a track when everything is so layered and so much of the riff requires the effect automations to work? how do you even know enough of where you are going to go with it at the early stages to eventually get to a point where everything fits together like this?

[@shahveerspiral]

thank you for taking the time to create the best tutorials

[@fatalitydnb]

Awesome vid. Love your sound 🔥🔊🔥🔊 🙏🏼👊🏼

[@chasingshadows1543]

Holy shit!! I'm so happy to see you man

[@g1ng3r3131]

Really appreciate you sharing this stuff Mefjus - Big up! 🖤

[@philipppalmer7056]

Schnitzlpower!

[@Kosay]

great video M. thanks! :)

[@paulmcmc4005]

Hi Martin -Thanks for your time and insight into some of your production techniques - much appreciated mate👍 With so many tracks and layers per instrument, especially with all the instances of Serum etc., what spec is your computer in order to handle all of this as this would take some serious processing power. Many thanks in advance🙏

[@Aspire85]

62 serums! You're crazy man ;) Thanks for the vid. Very interesting.

[@TheBlashMusic]

Do you compress/saturate/limit/etc all the snare layers together? Also, Do you have any processing on your drums group? Do you process the kick and snare separate from the breaks/percussion?

[@LazyCloud9]

Hey! Long time listener since 14'. I've always had a love for dnb since I was kid. However, I was born in the U.S. CA, and I never got the chance to surround myself in DNB culture. My question to you is if it is important to emerge yourself in DNB, or any genre, culture to get a better understanding when it comes to hitting the studio. I'm just curious about this because, I've been having a hard time making LDNB or Neuro. It feels like I'm just shooting the dark when producing. Hope you're having a great day btw!

[@aduken762]

If you don’t have a deep understanding of the genre as a whole you’ll never know what you want to make or what the rules are in terms of producing for things like phasing etc

[@NoNameLeft1500]

@@aduken762 which can be a good thing... in terms of creating a new style

[@Dark_In_The_Light]

In my own opinion, you just have to make it. A LOT! Get yourself involved in a community, online, of music producers (bunch of amateurs is fine). Watch lots of tutorials (it's even more open now, than when i started) and just make it like crazy. Mefjus has probably made hundreds more tracks than he's ever released. You can cut it down to the gems and release those. Get curious, cause i have learned and enjoyed making music so much more, when i've just been curious. "Wonder what this'll do" has progressed my music so much more than any other effort i've put in. I'm no professional, but i know all the things i should've done years ago. The biggest one that screwed me...don't worry about the loudness of your track. I would A-B between my track and a Noisia tune and hate that it didn't sound as loud. DON'T stress about it, just make the mix nice and clear. Or, if you prefer a ruffer, grungier air, leave it a little clashy, but the mastering engineer has some incredible tricks and tools at their disposal, so, leave the loudness to them. I'm pretty sure Billain doesn't get mixes that are all that loud, but god knows, you can turn it up on a decent system, and i still enjoy his tunes plenty. Make the music how you want it to sound. Make it a lot. Most importantly have fun 🙂

[@NoNameLeft1500]

@@Dark_In_The_Light well I would say in good production loudness comes from the mix, since also mastering engineers don't have some magical wizard tools. The only thing is they know which tool, when and how much they need to use. Ofcourse you can crank every track into a loud sausage at the end.. but that doesn't always sound so good, if the mixing and design process is not already done with a loud/big approach in mind. Especially on very full projects. However at the beginning don't worry about anything and just do it for fun and gain experience.. read about audio stuff, get knowledge.. try stuff out.. get more exprierence.. more knowledge and so on... Mefjus, Noisia and so on.. are not doing this stuff since yesterday or so... there are quite some years (meanwhile it goes into decades for some) of experience behind.

[@Dark_In_The_Light]

@@NoNameLeft1500 Yeah, that's what i thought too, but i've seen mastering engineers posts online about it. They've sent mixes back because there's sound in the stereo field, but not mono, so the element just dissappears, when they switch to mono, which isn't good, cause there are still radio stations etc that still use mono. As well as that, it's the mastering engineers job to make the song/track loud. It's your job to send them a servicable mix.

[@atomic7680]

Great insights. I am really curious to the snare fundamental in serum, could you show that in more detail?

[@nickdramusic]

BOSS 🔥🖤

[@zacklinton1716]

legend

[@ikeaaron]

I'm dying to know his computer specs, tbh

[@erazemusic7262]

Thanks you so much !

[@Loudmovth]

Long time listener, first time caller Can you a go a little deeper into the music theory you used in writing this track? You said the track root is in D#, but there is so much musical tension that this track exhibits that it can not just be in that scale. Are you using modes? Chromatic (read: wrong) notes? This has been one of my bigger struggles in learning to write drum and bass music

[@BilalAhmed-um1um]

music theory play small role in Dark dnb, use a lotta semi tones, the keys end being oriental arabic ethnic etc.., but some times more FUNK, i..e neuro funk so no real pattern for keys n chords even though they are used , more about sound design, and a lottas semi tones

[@badethos]

How did you get cubase to go back to the start when pushing space bar?

[@Messy_Jesse]

Greetings Mefjus, 60+ instances of serum?? Must own a z820 workstation. What do you use for power management? I think I have a similar setup (3k to 4000 watts) but I keep blowing circuits at my electrical panel. My studio has been 404 for a couple years... I'm scared the house might burn down. Been using my laptop. :( -messy jesse

[@Mefjus]

Intel Core i9-9900K, 8x 3.60GHz Intel Solid-State Drive 660p Series 2 TB SSD M.2 4x Kingston ValueRAM DIMM 16GB nothing too special tbf!

[@Messy_Jesse]

@@Mefjus Interesting, do you bounce down your mix tracks? I like to keep my plugins running at all times for future edits. Kinda sucks when a plugin gets updated and new latency issues arise though. Could be sub bus compression and messing with transients though.. Hey can you send me track stems for - Work it? [e-mail]

[@drivechile3306]

thanks boss

[@SS_BS_TS]

62 friggin instances of serum?? My computer would have a damn aneurysm at 10

[@divrsed1901]

Can you go more in depth about how you do sidechain? I want to know if you do it in a extremely way or not... how you sidechain your snare tails and how you sidechain everything

[@urkrass3258]

Could you please do a few detailed episodes on how to make such answer parts, these amazing rizers and ur big ass stabs that you always have :). Love your shit!!

[@spiff_mercurial]

When you're layering that many samples on your snares how do you go about dealing with phasing issues? Is it worth trying to fix them or just better to use a different sample?

[@gyrofield9963]

i think snare noise layers would not be interfering with each other much unless they're completely identical, if this does happen u should prob just use another sample

[@spiff_mercurial]

@@gyrofield9963 I know there won't be huge issues with phase if the samples are different but they still crop up every now and again. I guess I'm more interested in how mefjus approaches phasing issues because atm Im just fiddling with a phase shifter till it sounds better

[@Buunshin_]

I think the placement of the snare layers sounds good because of good enveloping and good isolation in the FQ spectrum. I dont think it has to with phase at all, unless you are talking about connecting the transient to the body of the snare.

[@spiff_mercurial]

@@Buunshin_ Buunshin defo enveloping and good frequecy spectrum mangement would make it sound good, was just using the snare as an example of layering. I guess a better question would be "If you have phasing issues, how do you deal with them" e.g when you're layering similar samples. Sorry should've been more clear haha

[@definty]

Nice my dude! Thx!

[@setmabl1381]

60x Serum FTW.

[@PharaoTeti]

In what manner and to what do you tune your ghostsnare-hits?

[@asdfasdfasdfasfdsaasf]

What's the synth in front of him? edit: Moog sub37

[@leodreyer3882]

What does the processing on the snare bus look like?

[@malachart8456]

Hola hombre, use google translator to understand Pog : muchas gracias por estos videos son oro puro, otra cosa, como afrontas el inicio de un proyecto con que comienzas y que elementos son los primeros que sueles utilizar

[@jamesdingle2094]

Hey man I've been using Cubase for a couple of years now but I always have a problem with routing, I'd like to learn more about using the sends from each channel but I always get confused by their purpose. Considering I can just control reverb mix etc via Inserts. What benefits does using audio sends give my sound design? In addition *sorry this comment is so long lol* how do you do your sidechaining in Cubase? I've always looked through ways to sidechain groups but I can only do Audio ducking, which has loads of flaws. Pls help, thanks for the video tho v informative

[@yesthisisdonut]

sends are useful if you want to retain the original signal. with inserts, you are commiting to a sound (which does have a time and place) but you can use effects much more delicately with sends than you can with inserts. for example, when using reverbs on basses you can simply highpass the reverb on a send to retain your low end's punch and mono compatibility which, when using reverbs as an insert you wouldn't be able to do (unless your reverb plugin has built-in filters). the same is true for distortion and many other effects, you just get more control over the effects and you can mix them seperatly :) (actually i wrote this halfway through the video and at around 23:00 he explains exactly this)

[@Mefjus]

insert fx vs sends: l2pnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/insert-effect-send-effect.jpg sidechain: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZ2xl3h8ftKna7c

[@KodinMusic]

bigup m8, tnx for info

[@Michaelsongsfull40]

Darf man wissen, wie viele Stunden da drauf gehen?

[@noahbrauner8430]

also 2 Stunden mindestens...

[@SecondUniverse101]

das variiert meistens von Projekt zu Projekt-wenn alles fix durchgeht und man inspiriert ist vielleicht nur 1 Tag also 10-20 Stunden...wenn man ewig rumschraubt und es nicht immer so klappt wie man will kann das aber auch Wochen rum liegen also 40+/- unendlich..soweit mal grob im Allgemeinen-wie das bei Mefjus speziell ist kann natürlich nur er sagen

[@Michaelsongsfull40]

@@SecondUniverse101 Ja kann deine Aussage nur bestätigen, und aus meiner Erfahrung sind die 1-2 Tage Projekte viel schlüssiger und authentischer

[@SecondUniverse101]

@@Michaelsongsfull40 ja da stimm ich dir zu..:)

[@Michaelsongsfull40]

Yo @@SecondUniverse101 scheinst ein echt feiner Kerl/Mädl zu sein, kann man Dir irgendwie abseits von KZbin folgen bzw machst du selbst Musik?

[@dexter5940]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS, THIS IS GOLD

[@mmerc808]

With so many snare layers, don't you get phase issues at some point?

[@Mefjus]

@@TheJohnsofDoes very well expained, nothing to add :)

[@TomFinsterMusic]

great vid

[@pau1_r3d61]

WOW. What an expert. Look forward to checking all your videos. How many Serums? 😂 Thank you!

[@Cuvurs]

is there any hard compression on the snare? to make it really pop out

[@Mefjus]

no compression, but sometimes the master limiter would color a little

[@eliase95]

Sehr cool :)

[@maxvanandel8586]

wait a sec, is Fitz your brother?

[@pezi5835]

Also ich sag enal so. Kensch den mc pidjon? Also vom produktion her.

[@JohannesOfficial]

Subscribed! =)

[@depthaudio4967]

How do you write your breaks?