|
Poizen Jam posted:Another fun exercise when you get a new synth is, for a day (or less, depending on how fast you get!) sit down with that new synth and construct a bunch of common sounds and presets to use. Start with synthesizing a kick, then move onto synthesizing a bunch of other drums, as well as common bass sounds (Say, a bass guitar type sound and a benny bass), leads, and even pads if you're ambitious enough. You should be able to make most of these sounds on any synth, but you'll come to realize the strengths and weaknesses of that synth and what you like to use it for. Oh my yes.
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2013 18:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 03:50 |
|
|
Glad you agree. Not only that but drat it'll make you a guru of sound design. I need to do sound design practice and exercise more often- I think it gets neglected as a skill in and of itself a lot of times. I think a lot of people take it for granted, which I can kind of understand. When I first picked up a DAW, while I thought synths were cool, I was thinking 'drat I want to make cool rear end progressive house!' and not, 'I want to learn about VCOs and frequency modulation and music theory.' It's easy to get ahead of yourself. That's not to discourage people from trying to make a full song after picking up a DAW, because you should. Song writing is another skill. But there are many pieces to the puzzle, and if you cut corners on learning sound design by just using presets or youtube tutorials, you're only hamstringing your creativity.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
if anyone is thinking 'do I use reference tracks?' the answer is unequivocally yes. They make your songs better, pretty much without exception.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 01:03
|
|
|
slardel posted:I made a new song. http://soundcloud.com/mathbonus/a-pale-shimmer This is superb. Dreamy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 18:17
|
|
|
I was wondering if anyone knew where I could get a very good drumkit, or multiple drumkits, that would allow me to have whatever drum I need instead of only a few drums? All I seem to find has very little variety.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 20:46
|
|
|
slardel posted:I made a new song. http://soundcloud.com/mathbonus/a-pale-shimmer Just... just drop the limiters, man. Especially on individual tracks. Don't dial them back, just remove them form the chain altogether. This music has no need for them if you mix it properly. Use some light compression to even things out if strictly necessary. Mixing and mastering are two separate stages. Don't mix against a mastered reference track. And if something needs to be louder than 'in the red', that means you pull down all the rest, even if that means the visual cues on the meters are less pronounced. Mixing in the digital realm is purely relative. And if the whole of the mix needs to be louder to you, you turn up your monitors. This bothers me so much because the music is very beautiful.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 21:29
|
|
|
Awesome you guys have inspired me to dig even deeper into Blue. I really did enjoy making simple scratch synths the couple of times I did it. I think Poizen raises a really good point about the technical side of synthing opening up your creativity, and being a piece to the puzzle. And hey slardel, your track is really pretty. Good work man. The percussion is tight as gently caress, always gets me going. Maybe I could share another track of mine? I'm not used to getting real feedback from people, it's great. This one is about 4 months old but I keep coming back to it. It's a lot simpler than a lot of my stuff, and I am really happy with the percussion. But I do think I could've done better on the lead synth and maybe done a little more variation. Thoughts? https://soundcloud.com/icarus-breathes/capital
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 21:57
|
|
|
Thanks everybody for the kind words!Flipperwaldt posted:This has really, really awful, terrible, painful distortion, making the track wholly unlistenable. I'm not a purist about loudness and crest factor. And it's not like I have magic experienced ears and super de luxe monitors. It's insanely obvious even on the shittiest of laptop speakers. I'm very surprised the two people who commented on the track here didn't mention it. The distortion is mostly due to individual track saturation/overdrive, not due to pushing anything into the red or crazy limiting. I'm at work so I can't look at my project right now, but I think the only limiting I did during mixing was on a few individual drum hits. It was an intentional aesthetic choice I made for the track, but I can dig that it might not sit right with everyone.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 22:18
|
|
|
slardel posted:The distortion is mostly due to individual track saturation/overdrive, not due to pushing anything into the red or crazy limiting. slardel posted:I'm at work so I can't look at my project right now, but I think the only limiting I did during mixing was on a few individual drum hits. It was an intentional aesthetic choice I made for the track, but I can dig that it might not sit right with everyone.  Rms-to-peak range of less than 1 dB without limiting? And that sounds fine to you?  Artistic choice? Okay. It's mindboggling to me, but carry on, I guess. Just one thing that's really a technical issue: don't let your wave peak at 100% if your target medium is an MP3, because that will actually introduce additional clipping, due to how the encoding/decoding process works, and I'm going to guess that isn't intended.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2013 23:03
|
|
|
Oh, I ran the track through a limiter during mastering, not mixing - sorry if I was confusing.quote:Just one thing that's really a technical issue: don't let your wave peak at 100% if your target medium is an MP3, because that will actually introduce additional clipping, due to how the encoding/decoding process works, and I'm going to guess that isn't intended. Oops - thanks for pointing that out, actually. I had my limiter set up to peak at -0.1 dB, but in my mastering chain I used Ableton's Utility after my limiter to shape the entire track and make the intro and ending a few dB quieter than the main bit. Looks like I just carelessly pushed the main bit back up to 0dB.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 00:31
|
|
|
slardel posted:Oops - thanks for pointing that out, actually. I had my limiter set up to peak at -0.1 dB, but in my mastering chain I used Ableton's Utility after my limiter to shape the entire track and make the intro and ending a few dB quieter than the main bit. Looks like I just carelessly pushed the main bit back up to 0dB. And sorry if that was all a bit crude maybe; it really took me by surprise that it was intentional. I'd never heard someone doing that before. And it's obviously a stylistic choice that doesn't sit well with me. As for the shaping, is there a benefit to doing it afterwards instead of using volume automation? Or is that just what was most convenient at that stage?
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 00:48
|
|
|
Here's a song by an artist I really like that has similar distortion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj5i8s6icsQ I dunno, I guess I really enjoy how distortion and saturation obscure the original audio but you can still hear the pitch just fine, so you're left with individual elements that are a little rough around the edges but are still part of a larger cohesive picture. This is the first time I've done that kind of shaping in my mastering chain, so I really don't know what the best method is. I suppose volume automation would do the job just fine for mastering - I just have an aversion to doing that because it's a horrible idea during mixing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 01:08
|
|
|
slardel posted:Here's a song by an artist I really like that has similar distortion - [Shlohmo] slardel posted:This is the first time I've done that kind of shaping in my mastering chain, so I really don't know what the best method is. I suppose volume automation would do the job just fine for mastering - I just have an aversion to doing that because it's a horrible idea during mixing. Anyway, thanks for your replies, it was interesting (to me at least). EDIT vvvv: slardel posted:Ableton's Utility (cubase probably has similar, if not I'm sure there are freeware alternatives) is nice because you can automate the gain on individual tracks and still leave your volume fader free to adjust. Also, for the final mix, I'd have everything bounced to wav, after which sliders wouldn't be moving anymore. Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Mar 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 02:26
|
|
|
I say volume automation is a horrible idea during mixing because it quickly becomes a huge headache if you end up wanting to change the levels in your mix (which you will), and your volume sliders are going all over the place on their own because you've automated them. A quick nudge on a track up or down half a dB takes that much longer because you have to go in and edit your automation points. Ableton's Utility (cubase probably has similar, if not I'm sure there are freeware alternatives) is nice because you can automate the gain on individual tracks and still leave your volume fader free to adjust. But yeah, I definitely squashed the hell out of my track, perhaps a bit too much, and I'm happy for the criticism, so thanks. real nap shit fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Mar 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 02:46
|
|
|
Cubase has a preamp with filters and gain built into every channel. (In 7) OR you can select all automation points and adjust up/down OOOOOR you can bus that poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 03:19
|
|
|
I'd assumed it was an aesthetic choice to have an almost muddy sound, with the thematic elements almost "seeping" through. It gives it a dreamlike quality in the sense that however hard you try you can't quite resolve the words or sounds entirely. Would have been egg on face if it was simply bad production, so glad that wasn't the case. The distortion is perhaps a bit overdone in places, but I like that roughness.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 18:15
|
|
|
How does everyone come up with production names + song names? I feel like an idiot every time I try to name a song or come up with a name to go by.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 21:46
|
|
|
Pick random words that sort of sound neat together. Don't go for overly dramatic stuff. Names of obscure UK villages, stab blindly at a thesaurus, rearrange haikus, crack open biology/psychopharmacology textbooks, or take your pick from a virus signature list (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmG5-g0eYuw )
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 21:50
|
|
|
I am going to get more serious with learning how to use synthesizers. I just need to know how the hell to get all the knobs and bars and whatever to make what I want, so I dont have to listen to horrible saw waves for over an hour. Anyone know of a real good tutorial? My idea is to imitate the lead synths from this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yhpGBAvHl8 I particularly want to replicate the one that starts playing at 1m:35s.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 22:51
|
|
|
video clips like gently caress, or is that how the actual ost sounds? My approach would be to take a solo distorted guitar, play a sustained note, then record that and loop a portion seamlessly in a sampler. Set the sampler to monophonic and enable portamento, and that should get you close. Here's a small tutorial on SA itself: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2974992 alternatively, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzN89Rc_06M very deep and general, forget getting anything about fat dubstep basslines and crap: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 23:05
|
|
|
Laserjet 4P posted:video clips like gently caress, or is that how the actual ost sounds? Yeah, it is supposed to clip, i think? It may just be how it was uploaded, but I have never heard it differently. I am watching the bootcamp videos now, it looks like it might help. Going to read the tutorial in that thread next. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2013 23:42
|
|
|
field balm posted:Hey all, Sorry for the thread archaeology but this track is awesome and everyone who commented on it was wrong!
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 14:00
|
|
|
I am the M00N posted:I am going to get more serious with learning how to use synthesizers. I just need to know how the hell to get all the knobs and bars and whatever to make what I want, so I dont have to listen to horrible saw waves for over an hour. Anyone know of a real good tutorial?
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 19:33
|
|
|
Seconding 'Dancemusicproduction.com', and more importantly, the book that website was based on. Dance Music Manual by Rick Snoman is a great introductory lesson to EDM, kind of an EDM 101 that covers the basics of everything from sound design to mixing and mastering and everything in between. They do a good job of getting you to think about synthesis and sound design differently too, but explaining the typical character of oscillators and combinations in such a way that you can start reverse engineering sounds you hear. My only issue with it is the sequel book was never produced, and the section on genres is a little outdated at this point. Having someone actually explain to you, in plain text, the purpose and function of typical effects and synths is worlds' better than youtube tutorials divorced of context. PoizenJam fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Mar 31, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 23:34
|
|
|
Poizen Jam posted:Seconding 'Dancemusicproduction.com', and more importantly, the book that website was based on. Dance Music Manual by Rick Snoman is a great introductory lesson to EDM, kind of an EDM 101 that covers the basics of everything from sound design to mixing and mastering and everything in between. They do a good job of getting you to think about synthesis and sound design differently too, but explaining the typical character of oscillators and combinations in such a way that you can start reverse engineering sounds you hear. My only issue with it is the sequel book was never produced, and the section on genres is a little outdated at this point. The follow up book got caught in some kind of distribution rights limbo. I still highly recommend the video tutorials and the book for anyone looking to learn production. The biggest problem I have with them is that a lot of the techniques outside of the fundamentals courses assume ownership of various plugins which I don't have.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 23:42
|
|
|
Svartvit posted:Sorry for the thread archaeology but this track is awesome and everyone who commented on it was wrong! Haha, thanks dude, I'm glad someone liked it. I picked up a casio keyboard (ctk-631) for $50au to use as a midi-keyboard, it has some basic editing stuff where you can set amp and pitch envelopes for all the sounds so it is actually working out ok as a sound source. Long shot, but does anyone know how the step sequencer works on this? I'm playing it through a $20 behringer multi-effects pedal (FX100, mainly for stereo/chorus) and it's sounding pretty cool! For the price I really can't complain, I wish there was a way to set the polyphony to 1 for emulating monosynths. Probably going to sample a bunch of the on-board clap and snares through the behringer's pitch shifter. Nothing better than (cheaply/badly) downtuned snares!
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2013 05:17
|
|
|
field balm posted:I picked up a casio keyboard (ctk-631) [...] Long shot, but does anyone know how the step sequencer works on this? Anyway, as was the case then and as is the case now, some good soul scanned the manual, which helped enormously.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2013 20:06
|
|
|
Saw someone selling a VCI-100 (flashed to v1.4 firmware) in SA-Mart and it sparked my curiosity - has anyone here had any experience with Traktor & the VCI-100 / midi jog-wheels ?? edit: seeing a lot of usb soundcard integration with these jog-wheel devices... blehck Any recommendations? Computer Serf fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Apr 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2013 23:30
|
|
|
been liking some songs by a group called africa hitech and a little of them + that schlomo song Do U Right slipped into this https://soundcloud.com/grandpa-ghost/bloom6
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2013 03:07
|
|
|
Thoogsby posted:How does everyone come up with production names + song names? I feel like an idiot every time I try to name a song or come up with a name to go by. Sometimes I just close my eyes and listen to the project and think of a name that feels in tune with the sound. Other times, I have a name first and try to design the song to my title. If I'm using a vocal sample or something from a movie, that gives you some ideas too. That Dang Dad fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Apr 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2013 07:06
|
|
|
Panda Time posted:Saw someone selling a VCI-100 (flashed to v1.4 firmware) in SA-Mart and it sparked my curiosity - has anyone here had any experience with Traktor & the VCI-100 / midi jog-wheels ?? I really like my VCI-100 as a device I can throw in a travel bag with a laptop and take to parties. I use it exclusively with Traktor, and have read the jog wheels are kind of a pain to use with other apps, but it works great with Traktor and everything is ready mapped out of the box. My biggest criticism of the VCI-100 is that I wish the pitch faders were another inch or so longer but they are still pretty usable and not bad given the form factor. The volume faders feel nice and the crossfader is actually pretty satisfying and can do some basic turntablist style cuts pretty comfortably. The jog wheels are about as nice as you could expect for non-motorized platters (e.g. it's weird trying to scratch on them, but they're great for everything else). Anyway I bought mine several years ago when they were fairly new, I only DJ pretty casually but I haven't had any desire to upgrade, especially in terms of something lightweight and portable. The other thing I really like is the construction is super solid without a bunch of lovely plastic.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2013 08:49
|
|
|
So this is very rough and in progress, but I've realized how frustrated I am that it sounds happy as gently caress. I'll probably finish up this track as it is, but for future reference, does anyone have any suggestions for making tracks less happy? https://soundcloud.com/helpimintexas/the-path-is-not-the-goal
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 01:29
|
|
|
minor scales and chords!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 02:07
|
|
|
Quincy Smallvoice posted:minor scales and chords! On IM I told him that he needed to sit down and learn the smallest amount of music theory.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 14:20
|
|
|
Recently took a track I did forever ago and remixed it; completely tore it down and rebuilt it using what I know now. I experimented a little with some (what I consider to be) subtle sidechain compression. I think I like it but I'm not sure if I did it quite right. http://soundcloud.com/killhamster/out-of-here-get-back-in-remix
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 18:55
|
|
|
On a whim I submitted Use Trinkets to the Red Dog Music electronica contest and I guess it made it to the final  They must have been struggling for entries.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 19:19
|
|
|
killhamster posted:Recently took a track I did forever ago and remixed it; completely tore it down and rebuilt it using what I know now. I experimented a little with some (what I consider to be) subtle sidechain compression. I think I like it but I'm not sure if I did it quite right. I don't listen to a lot of this genre so maybe this is a stupid question but have you tried slowing down the BPM? I think your production skills are good but a slower BPM might give the individual sounds more room to breathe. Is this at 145 right now?
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 20:43
|
|
|
WAFFLEHOUND posted:So this is very rough and in progress, but I've realized how frustrated I am that it sounds happy as gently caress. I'll probably finish up this track as it is, but for future reference, does anyone have any suggestions for making tracks less happy? Doesn't sound overly happy to me - I think the track is sounding a lot better, I like what you did with the snare drum. I would use the vocals a bit more sparingly though - they also sound a bit like that Deadmaus song:).
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 20:46
|
|
|
Finished up a bunch of beats and put them all together as a production tape: https://soundcloud.com/spacecampbeats/space_camp-jet-sounds-vol-1. Hope no one can place the samples, as they're mostly mega-nerdy!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 22:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 03:50 |
|
Lump Shaker posted:I would use the vocals a bit more sparingly though They say "Something interesting goes here" for a reason 
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 22:08
|
|