"D" Marks Us Edition
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>"D" Marks Us Edition
What does that even mean?
I'd like to summon our lord and savior to this thread!
(Demarcus get in here, I finally rapped over your beat)
Looking for opinions!
what the fuck you're actually rapping over this shit
and it sounds good
what the fuck
these threads suck
:^) I told you guys the beats were hidden gems.
Also thanks!
You're welcome. I find it completely surreal you actually rapped over my beat though, and not as a joke. Like this actually works really well. Maybe I actually do have some talent.
I bumped up the saturation a bit, EQ'd it so that vocals could have some presence and added some of my own FX.
Maybe I'll turn this into a full song, bc I'm really feeling myself. Full release in a month idk
Keep believing in your talent my friend.
yeah I noticed there were a few changes but it's still really unbelievable to me. I hope you finish it but I do ask that you credit me if you don't want my beat tag on it.
Yeah, of course! What alias do you want the [Prod. ] to be made out to? Demarcus or ?
I know we're not supposed to link to soundcloud but I go by "soryu" or "soryubeats".
clyp.it
I was trying to go for a pre-Love is Rage 2 Uzi sound. I like the melody but I'm not sure of the kick/808.
wtf is this drum pattern lmao
Imagine paying $10,000 to learn to use Ableton
What controller should i get?
Roight, I'll post the song when it's finished for real. Probably in a month.
Heading to bed, ttyl soryu
clyp.it
clyp.it
how's the mix on these? i know they're hard to compare but which one do you prefer?
WHAT TO ADD/CHANGE???
Thanks since i got ignored last thread op, lol
You should post this at 8pm, most ppl are gonna be awake at that time.
I both like it and dislike it a lot. The style is there, but the music theory is lacking
Siren song def over Raindance because of the more diverse sounding melody. It holds my attention better, but the bass in the Raindance is really nice and comfy
Really gonna want to work on the type of drum and the pattern of drums here.
everything feels forced and unnatural, not sure what to do anymore
>clyp.it
this a flylo type beat with those drums senpai
You're welcome, man. And thank you for making me feel less hopeless.
thanks and :( lol
>The style is there, but the music theory is lacking
hmmmm it's all sampled from another song I made... i'll reconsider what i'm playing
then. Thank you
Can I follow you somewhere because I'm not joking when I say this is a real bop, it just zigs when it should zag which throws off my ear. But I'm thinking you'll have other great stuff.
If I'm on tomorrow afternoon I'll post a full explanation
Oh shit, thanks a lot man o__o
clyp.it
first time trying to make a drum and bass style tune. did i fuck up?
yo im learning to mix vocals. this is a freestyle i mixed for my boy. Besides the vocals being too loud, what else can i do to improve this mix or future mixes
soundcloud.com
fuck guess is houldltn have posted the soundcloud oops
>can't compose for shit because no music theory knowledge
>just steal chord progressions from other people's songs and reverse and transpose them so no one can tell it's plagiarism
everyone who says you need to spend years learning this shit is just trying to convince themselves that all that time they spent studying wasn't for absolutely nothing. theoryfags eternally btfo
who else here /never gonna make it/?
Haha true
Anybody else get the feeling that music just isn't "for you" even though it's the only thing you want to do and you already put a bunch of time effort (and money) into it
I can't fell the DnB dynamics.
soundcloud.com
production wise, what do they do to make drums this crisp and hard-hitting? Is it just compression? I must really suck at compression because I can never get anything that sounds this clean and hard
The snare is pitched up.
All you do is add a little saturation and reverb, as in just perceptible. Or run it through a compressor with the release knob up
What do you mean?
>jump up
what do ya'll think of this lil diddy?
Kick is too soft.
Lol you don't even have to do that, chord progressions can't be copyrighted.
Yo.
I been trying to make some metal recording and the guitars keep sounding not big enough everything else sounds fine but somehow the guitars arent just getting that roomfilling sound what do you guys advice?
maybe it depends on how are you recording them, what's your gear?
duplicate the guitar sample and pan one hard left and the other hard right
Try a v short but big reverb
What's wrong with jump up?
autistic screeching with no atmosphere or soul
I don't like it
>no atmosphere
>no soul
Take it you dont go to live shows mate. Real shame.
lately I don't, lack of shows, lack of money and friends getting old but in the past I never managed to enjoy jump up, maybe under mdma I could but drum and bass is not popular in the rave scene here
Its was recorded using a Scarlet 2i4 and the th3 plugin
It was also reamped through Marshall vs100 head with mesa boogie 4x12 oversized miced with sm57, sm58 (no head) and sennheiser 815s
Good but the .22 mid section should have another sound. Too much whaeh whaeh. Also breakdowns should be there to have a pause, introduce new elements and build anticipation for the next dance bit
How many years have you been at it?
HELP
HOW CAN I MAKE MY VOCALS POLYPHONIC WHEN THE ORIGINAL AUDIO ISN'T POLYPHONIC?
copy and paste it
peep your sc dm's
Use chorus plug in and widen, black cat audio has a free one
THANK YOU MANE. YOU ARE BASED
>black cat audio
YOU MEAN BLUE CAT AUDIO??
who got good chill lofi bumps for anime clips on instagram?
u want clout post ur sc
hopefully there are no cucks here
Thanks my man.
Is Hydrogen a good drum machine if I want to make drum beats that sounds like it was made by Mongo Santamaría or Babatunde Olatunji?
original: instaud.io
1st try: instaud.io
2nd try: instaud.io
Tried to EQ drums and lower their volume. Changed a bit the sound of the organ and also lowered its volume. I still don't add the bell sounds. Crancked up the velocities of gutiars' MIDI and ran the samples through many pedals, including a delay on the main guitar riff. They still sound kinda shit on the sustained notes but hopefully a bit better overall.
What could I try/change now?
I listened to the 2nd try and the guitar is too loud. Also you could benefit from learning counterpoint so the organ isn't the same as your guitars high note. No composer in western history would do that. Apart from that well done I guess
>Also you could benefit from learning counterpoint so the organ isn't the same as your guitars high note
what do you mean
COunterpoint is about dividing your voices / instruments into defined seperate parts in harmony with each other. So try starting your organs a third or so higher or a sixth lower than the note they're playing to be in harmony with the guitar instead of playing the same high note
it's good if you know what you're doing
it's not "good" in a sense "accessible"
that'll do frog, that'll do.
will do.
instaud.io
sup
would like some feedback, thanks
Its weird how the kick is so incessant, maybe other drums like toms you could have. Also your instruments are so blurry, reverbed. In the book 'the art of mixing' he talks about the importance of depth. Some instruments with short delays, some compressed so they're a bit harsher, some more mellow, wider, some coming from one small area, the point being, variety is the key to creating a 3d space. Probably why your kick stands out, its the only dry thing and louder. Sounds like a kick solo with music coming from another room. There are youtube videos on the art of mixing too Dave gibson is the author
Noice
>instaud.io
Pretty solid sample-made stuff. You should throw in some kind of proper intro and some more proper distorted glitchy sounds to build around the main idea.
Sounds good. Looking forward to hearing a full version some time
youtube.com
experimenting
>clyp.it
You ought to do some things to change up the beat over the course of the track, make it dynamic. I'm not really feeling it. it feels empty and muddy.
>clyp.it
I appreciate the fact that you're trying to make an odyssey track, but you need the basics to sound good first. Work on your mixing (your lack of compression hurts) and make your transitions shorter, they aren't that spacey or nice, and they're incredibly boring.
>clyp.it
Doesn't have the power in the kick or bass to get me going. Sounds like someone just threw random serum presets at a basic drumbeat without thinking about tone or rhythm. Your bass and drums should play off of eachother, and you should learn how to mix your tracks so they have some power.
>clyp.it
The kick is too hard and bassy, like a dance kick or something, tighten it up. Your sub bass is way too overpowering, tone it down a bit. that little vocal sample you use is cool, but it doesn't melt into the mix properly.
As far as your vocals, the performance alright, but I'm not sure i'm a fan of the slurring and shaky pitch. Also, the place where the voices start overlapping is mixed very poorly.
>instaud.io
Needs better transitions between sections, feels jumpy. It lacks the atmosphere that carries most good breakcore. There are a few decent elements, but it's mixed rather poorly, and the sub is just god awful.
>instaud.io
The kick is super powerful and seems very out of place, it also happens too often. Your main problem here is that you have a bunch of things going on, but rhythmically they're all disconnected from eachother. your drums and chord and melody and percussion need to play off of one another to sound cohesive, otherwise, it's just like someone slapped a bunch of random shit on top of each other and called it a day.
>ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyU6RsF9y9Q&t=42s
Some okay experimental little things going on, but together they don't really do or say anything, and they don't change or evolve, just popping in and then popping out. Also, calling this 5-minute long collection of 30-second beat ideas an EP is gonna be a yikes from me.
The ideas and sounds are on point, but you need to actually build and do something with them.
its true i am very disappointed with my efforts. i was so lazy with the sounds too. waste of okay drum programming
>"""steal""" chord progressions
yeah i believe you when you say you have no theory knowledge
What are good compressors (plugin or hardware) for bringing out snares? Best hardware I've heard is a dbx 165a.
ableton stock compressor :)
everybody knows about the distressor, though i've never tried it
I use molot (free!) whenever I want a more colored sound... tends to be on more rock style stuff though. that's a pretty common one too
you're spot on with rough VCA comps like the DBX. You can get a similar tone with an alesis 3630 that you heavily mod, $20 for the comp + $25 for parts.
For absolutely crushed snares it's usually an 1176. Elysia Mpressor does this even harder.
Bump
I like the Klanghelm mjuc plug in which is I think aping the classic compressors
so i got talked into doing a live set at some local festival thing with other electronic acts. I'm hobbyist-tier and they know that but i'm honestly thinking about backing out. I've got hardware and jam at home in ableton, but dont know much about live sound.
do I just bring my laptop and audio interface with my gear and route everything in my daw like my home setup? is a daw just going to make it more complicated/laggy and instead use a hardware mixer w/effects and use on-board midi/cv for sync?
That's why I hold back on critiquing trap beats because I don't rap or listen to rap so I can't really judge a beat by itself. It's just totally incomplete.
clyp.it
Mighty brave of you. I do a bit of home jamming too but I can't imagine doing it live in front of a crowd or even sharing it unedited.
Anyway I would keep it as simple as possible. They should be able to interface with whatever you bring them but I think using a DAW is asking for trouble unless you have a dedicated laptop without any other crap on it.
Sounds pleasant and nothing really jumps out as bad but it's also repetitive and nothing really stands out as great either. No surprises, little variety, nothing cuts through and grabs your attention.
>clyp.it
This sounds like the definition of copyright free corporate music. So I mean... good job
Rate my jam
It was longer but I cut the worse parts and touched things up a bit. Everything is presets except the miniMoog chord which I made from scratch.
instaud.io
>This sounds like the definition of copyright free corporate music. So I mean... good job
Lmao, he's right you know. It's really well produced.
I'd say it'd do very well one one of those "24/7 chill study music" channels that are on youtube.
Overall 8.5/10.
I like it. I don't think anyone can't.
I've done a few live sets with Ableton and hardware and what says is how I always approached it - keep things simple and avoid using anything in the DAW that works it hard, if you have CPU/RAM intensive VST instruments or effects in your mix try to render those parts out as audio instead, and make use of external MIDI as much as you can.
Live venue AC power (and especially outdoor, generator-supplied AC) isn't the cleanest so prepare for shit cutting out, even if all you have is a render of your live set on your phone that you can temporarily switch to quickly if things get messy.
Yeah i know it is repetitive and kind of boring but i wanted to go for that chillout vibe, im having a hard time experimenting with sounds and expanding my production in general. Im glad it sounds good tho, thanks.
Speaking mathematically, as in signal in -> signal out, is a simple compressor, without attack or release, just a specific case of a waveshaper?
no, why would you think that?
Eh, kinda.
>proper distorted glitchy sounds
thank you, that's a good idea. i'll probably resample more heavily and throw in some absynth stuff i made :p
>Waveshaper: if the amplitude of the incoming signal equals x, change it to y
>Ideal compressor with hard knee: if the amplitude of the incoming signal equals x, change it to y.
What I mean is that you could draw a compressor curve on a waveshaper and baring ANY other function, shouldn't they do the same thing?
Pic related, imagine setting a waveshaper to have an identical input/output curve, why or why wouldn't they do the same thing, again excluding any other function you may find on a compressor?
If you can implement the same input/output behavior of a compressor that acts perfectly according to its curve (defined by ratio and threshold), ie no attack/release or anything else, with a waveshaper, by simply defining the same curve with the waveshaper, then I'd say that ideal, basic compressor is a special case of the waveshapper.
I was trying to do something like this
youtube.com
>excluding any other function you may find on a compressor
Okay I obviously didn't think about it enough before replying. Yeah, I guess you're right.
a little PRO TIP for noobs: while mixing/mastering, try (light) saturation and clipping in place of or in addition to compression....... and now i guess waveshaping!
For real I never even thought of that. What's a good/simple free waveshaper? 64 bit ofc
I would say yes, but pretty much any function you would perform on an audio wave would be waveshaping, no?
Time-variant functions?
EQ maybe? If not, EQing something with a waveshaper would be nigh impossible.
Interestingly though, some distortion effects are designed around boosting the odd harmonics of a signal to bring to make it squarer. So you could do that with a EQ plugin with perfect quality factor on the bands (I know of none that do this). Fun to think about.
Fuck off, this isn't a thread to shill
I went from a scarlet 2i2 2nd gen to this guy, and it works great but I get some crackling/pops only from my synth setup. My sampler sounds fine, guitar/bass sound fine. Could it be the cables? I have to use a couple 1/4 to 1/8 cables for the synth
I agree with most of the stuff you said about >clyp.it
what's your creative process like
how do you start
I have so much shit I want to get out and shit but I don't know where to fucking start and I CAN'T FUCKING THINK
You have to carve out your own framework and principles
>think of vibe
>make drum rack or pull up synth preset i made of that vibe
>play keyboard
>come up with as many parts as possible in like 10-20 minutes for that instrument
>add other instruments for those parts
>mix along the way
>arrange into full song
>master
over and over and over again. ezpz. sound design in separate sessions.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IM A FUCKING RETARD AND THE IDEA OF JUST FUCKING AROUND UNTIL I RANDOMLY GET SOMETHING I LIKE DRIVES ME INSANE
>think of vibe
Do you just record one long track and then cut parts of it later? Or do you record a bar or two at a time?
>JUST FUCKING AROUND UNTIL I RANDOMLY GET SOMETHING I LIKE DRIVES ME INSANE
Thats the opposite of what I said though? By carve out I meant think and plan. Draw on what you have.
Fuck I'm never going to be good at music. Why did I have to be born?
>vibe
I mean pick a genre mostly because I make a lot. Then a feeling
Other times it really just "just fuck around xD" until something inspires me to build on it
I'll often play one idea for a couple minutes. Naturally I end up playing it slightly different every time. Cut that down to 8 or 16 bars of the best for that section and do slight time correction.
... rarely can I actually play the whole song like that lol. Only ever happens when it's piano based or Guitar... but that's not the same
NO U
to suffer of course
What if I don't have anything? What? I want to start releasing music so bad.
>I mean pick a genre mostly because I make a lot.
Oh.
>Then a feeling
How do you transcribe a feeling
Specifically this feeling:
youtube.com
Cheers
What're the specific mods here?
How do you make a drum beat? I know how to place audio samples in places and ive made a few beats, but I want to make rock/jazz drum beats, and I need some help...
Dubs of truth.
Kick, snare, kick-kick, snare, kick, snare, kick-snare.
What do y'all think of his bob Dylan cover?
FUCK THE DEMIURGE
Is this any better?
thanks
how do I make Pharell style drums
how do I produce like Pharell
I don't know, I'm a rockist.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Just got a new machine, but no FL 12.3 DL.
I have a crack, but can't seem to find just the file.
Thanks niggas
download bro im geekd my bad
look on rutracker
I'm not a pharrell expert by any means. I think you would do well to mix electronic single hit drum machine style drums with a real acoustic drum kiit, or at least software like superior drummer where you can emulate one. You can also sample drum breaks for a older sound, or use them as inspiration.
It sounds like someone has listened to too much Metallica (black album)
tried it again, with more dynamics as someone suggested, did i get it good this time?
instaud.io
Other WIP
Who cares
Cool
Do you think it'd be okay to use a 9v 500mA power supply on a pedal that's provided power supply is 9.6v 200mA?
Its an EHX Grand Canyon, and I don't feel like continuing to use the provided power supply. Have a strip thing that has a spot with the first power rating.
why are you posting shit from 5 months ago lol
I mean that's cool but do you develop these ideas?
sammy/10
idfk what it is but your acoustic guitars sound sloppy as shit even for you.
not any of them but wtf are you doing?
did you play them by hand and just have terrible timing?
you have to expand this question and give details of what you're using.... placing audio for drums is really only acceptable for 4 on the floor dance music with premade top loops imo
turn up vocals and please don't use such a shit mic lol
... but the energy is there man. pretty much exactly what people are talking about when they say shitty recordings/mixes of good performances are still more captivating than polished shit
>instaud.io
i'm sorry but this is honestly difficult to listen to
go easy on panning
agree with others but i think a slightly less clicky kick would fit better
>that kick
yeah wtf
i'm not even sure what you're going for here honestly. There are cool sounds here at least
drums mostly good but i'd go with a cleaner snare
bass is pure shit man. chords are nice but feel out of place with that bass next to it.
Sigh.
not him but link and i'll tell you because i only know his timberlake stuff
hurry because i'm not working on anything rn
>Go easy on panning
Thanks for the feedback. Everything is actually panned centre but I do have some stereo effects on. I suspect the mix probably does sound pretty bad on some systems because I've only listened to it with my headphones and earbuds.
what do you mean by as many parts as possible for the instrument, like different sections of the song?
>like different sections of the song?
yes. if it's a lead: different melodies, pluck/pad: chord progressions and so on.
sorry i honestly just didn't know what to say without being too discouraging. If you have something to perform for people it could still be fun for you
I'm trying to make stuff like this.
youtube.com
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>i honestly just didn't know what to say without being too discouraging
Lol that bad huh?
That's fine. I still enjoy playing for myself and I'll keep doing that until I get better before I try playing for others.
>did you play them by hand and just have terrible timing?
yes :(
you downloaded that 9th wonder kit right? and the "uLtImAtE Boom bap?" I keep forgetting what i tell you to download
I mean the stuff i've said about boom bap is mostly true for this as well.
>More emphasis on triplets rather than quints >layer chord hits with kicks
>pitch down snares
>layer cymbals/tambs/woodblocks etc with snare, but don't always line up perfectly and make it audibly flam
(more for the last one)
>hella compressed boomy kick
>More modern (for the style) (from the 2000s) snaps and claps
>foley
The layering with the chops thing is something he does a lot... there's that one thing he does literally all the time where he just gets everything focused on that one beat. check the beginning of this song (it's also pharell)
youtube.com
/watch?v=BhUJal2b4n8
I hate to keep bring him up but if I had to guess he probably also listened to shit like youtube.com
idk exactly what the deal is with those types of snaps/claps.... or like what would probably be described as 2000's bling era type shit. Like I know those sounds existed in libraries like a decade before it was a sound.... probably just the mixing aesthetic I guess?
Overally you really just need to up your sample selection game and get more detailed with your midi dude
lol sorry man :(
Enjoying it is what matters, getting better will follow naturally :)
I sympathize as somebody who also plays very loosely.
Thing is really to go in and correct everything; that'll mean either quantizing your own playing or at least shifting things so that they at least line up when other instruments are hitting on that same beat so they don't "flam" (very close but not close enough" i'm not listening again but it sounded like you were like a 1/16 to 1/32 late pretty consistently... should be an easy fix
>I sympathize as somebody who also plays very loosely.
Thanks. I appreciate it!
>More emphasis on triplets rather than quints
>layer chord hits with kicks
Can you expand on this? Triplets? Quints? And by layer chord hits with kicks you mean put the kick where each chord starts?
>foley
What?
I have the Ultimate Boom Bap kit but not the 9th Wonder Kit, but I remember you telling me to download it.
>The layering with the chops thing is something he does a lot
By chops, do you mean layering a kick on top of a chop of a drum loop, or the chords?
>get more detailed with your midi dude
More detailed in arrangement or using more drums? Cause I feel like the drums are more simple than they seem. I'd consider these Travis Scott songs more examples of what I'm trying to do.
youtube.com
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>Triplets? Quints?
swing
youtube.com
etc. i'm sure there are no end of tutorials on this already.
>you mean put the kick where each chord starts?
yes, but it's not just lining up chords with kicks... it had a distinct sound last decade when dudes would chop like an orchestral or soul sample or whatever and layer it with those kicks and it would just cut off. you can do the same thing by gating or lowering the release time on whatever you're using... the *PRO* way of doing this now is printing once you're done with the song and manually cutting everything off and doing individual fades....of course that's where you can introduce variation and make things slightly more organic with different lengths of tails. (saying this with ma' i don't love here in mind). Id guess he just played it really fucking well and gated there though
foley is more a term used for film I guess... but get a sample or record yourself banging on a trash can or some shit. chop. over-compress. that's that dirty sound in the last song you linked
>By chops, do you mean
chopped audio that isn't drums. idk "chop" is just a generic term for whatever song you stole and then sliced to play back on your mpc 15-25 years ago
>More detailed in arrangement or using more drums?
NAH NAH NAH
MAN the shit is simple as fuck. When I say attention to detail I mean velocity and timing. For simple shit it's not what you play it's how you play it.
pic related is midi I copied from Mayhem. No copy/paste, slight time variation. This is meant to sound much more human than would be appropriate for hip-hop but that's what i'm talking about midi wise
>yes, but it's not just lining up chords with kicks... it had a distinct sound last decade when dudes would chop like an orchestral or soul sample or whatever and layer it with those kicks and it would just cut off. you can do the same thing by gating or lowering the release time on whatever you're using... the *PRO* way of doing this now is printing once you're done with the song and manually cutting everything off and doing individual fades....of course that's where you can introduce variation and make things slightly more organic with different lengths of tails. (saying this with ma' i don't love here in mind). Id guess he just played it really fucking well and gated there though
Oh. That makes so much more sense. I think I kind of knew/noticed that far in back of my head, but reading it and having it explained out makes it a lot more tangible. Cause that's how it would work on an MPC, right? The sample is chopped up and then you hit the pad and it plays a part of the sample that's routed to that pad but then you can layer it with a kick on another pad. Like that video of Kanye at Sunday Service that went viral.
>When I say attention to detail I mean velocity and timing. For simple shit it's not what you play it's how you play it.
I think I might get it.
And excuse me if I'm wrong, but can't triplets and quintuplets be expressed in fractions? FL Studio has an option in the piano roll where you can change the steps and beats from 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2. Is that not the same thing? I've seen people mention "8th notes" and "16ths" in passing in tutorials but I still don't really fully understand what it is or what it means.
>Cause that's how it would work on an MPC, right?
lol yeah. same with all the sp404 lo-fi shit, this kind of playing just has more room to breathe
>can't triplets and quintuplets be expressed in fractions
yes, the 1/6th and 1/3rd would be triplets comparable in function to 1/8th and 1/4 notes. I don't use fl so i can't comment too much on it's piano roll.. though i know it has some cool shit.
triplet swing has been used for completely different sounds (blues, soul, trap).... quints are less common but similar in this type of hip-hop
Thank you again, user. I'm gonna experiment some more after I finish taking some notes on these videos I'm watching.
Is there some sort of basic guide on mixing or whatever? That's always been my weakest point. How do I leave headroom? wtf is headroom even
Plenty of guides on youtube man but a good place to start is your equipment. Got a decent pair of monitors or even headphones? If you're recording off laptop speakers or some walmart earbuds it makes a huge difference since you want the most flat sounding speakers you can find
No problem
Goodnight user! (:
>Goodnight user! (:
Not him but please don't say that or I'm gonna cry.
We all have to move on, user.
I DON'T WANNA
>Songs you always knew but forgot existed
that melody fucking bangs in the chorus and bridge but the verse............ like if somebody posted it here I would honestly think it was par for the thread but well made.
only skimmed the video but it's funny af that they thought it was a dud
Nice.
These guys are legends in Italy.
When I was a kid I listened every day to Gabry Ponte's radio show where he'd play dance and electro house songs, and he's probably one of the main reasons why I got so into electronic music in the first place (I even downloaded Fruity Loops 7, opened it once, got overwhelmed and never opened it again).
Just wait. Eiffel 65 and Gigi D'Agostino won't be the last successful cheesy musicians to come out of Turin.
Why do people say that FL Studio's piano roll is better than the others?
Also, I didn't come here in two months, how's Yea Forums going?
>Why do people say that FL Studio's piano roll is better than the others?
It's mainly known as being better than Ableton's (because of the rivalry between the two groups of users) since it has many more features.
I don't know about other DAWs.
>Also, I didn't come here in two months, how's Yea Forums going?
Not much different than two months ago.
>it has many more features
What kind of features? A piano roll is a simple thing (never used FL).
>Not much different than two months ago.
hmm, I kinda missed /prod/ but it wasn't in good shape when I left
>What kind of features?
I can't be bothered to list them all, just look for a Youtube tutorial on it and you'll get the idea.
If you've used Ableton you know how barebones its piano roll is compared to FL's (even with the midi devices).
How does binaural beats work when most speakers cut off at 20 Hz
sloppy how?
sloppy how?
You're supposed to use headphones for them anyway.
The whole point of binaural beats is to feed your left ear one frequency (so that the right side of the brain is engaged with it) and the right ear a different frequency (so the left side of the brain is engaged).
This way they merge together in your head in a sort of harmony that's created entirely within your brain and not in the waveform itself.
I'm skeptical of its supposed effects, but if it actually worked it would be through the headphones. Speakers would make the whole thing pointless.
>Speakers would make the whole thing pointless.
what are called the round thing with a magnet on the center that produces sound on headphones?
You know what I mean you cheeky fuck.
yes, you mean loudspeakers.
headphones have speakers that's what I meant. so when your headphones say the lowest frequency they sound is 20 hz then its missing below that hence my question
Yes, thank you.
Then use headphones that go low enough.
Any normal pair of earbuds should work.
Which speakers go down to 1 hz? I've never heard of that
I'm no expert on binaural frequencies, but I never heard of them going that low.
If they do, it's bullshit anyway because even if your brainwaves can be that slow, your ears can't input those frequencies in the brain in the first place, so it's totally pointless.
Unless you can somehow use an ultra deep subbass on EXCLUSIVELY one half of your body and a different one on another half.
why youd want to release music if you dont have music
I didn't mean they go that low, just affordable headphones have a cut off is my point. Or do they produce those frequencies in a phantom image way regardless? I actually don't really care but I thought it would be up someone's alley here
Of course headphones have a cutoff, but your ears do too.
Even if your earbuds can go below 20 Hz, you won't even hear it, so while this might have benefits in other ways, for playing pure sines it's pointless.
There's no possible way you'll ever hear below around 20 Hz no matter the equipment.
At most you'll be able to feel it if the subwoofer is loud enough to vibrate your body, but your eardrums won't hear it.
I recorded it in a hurry, the acoustic and vocals were recorded one one mic so I don't have a lot of flexibility. I'll re record it at some point and get the lyrics right. Appreciate the kind words!
Well when a site says eg 13-17hz is for alertness in terms of binaural beats, you have to wonder. Ive heard too that humans can't hear that low. No one's answered my questionstill
The kind of people who propagate the theories about binaural beats are the kind of people who believe in weird metaphysical stuff and possibly look like pic related.
I'm not sure the whole binaural beats thing has ever been proven to work ir if it has some scientific basis.
It wouldn't surprise me if they actually believed that playing infrasounds actually had some effect, and it was all just placebo.
Also, it's possible that by 13 Hz they don't mean tones that are that low, but instead they mean that the difference between the left frequency and the right one is 13 Hz (so the two sines will be for example at 400 Hz and 413 Hz). That would make more sense.
I'm not sure about this though, so you'll have to research a bit more in depth.
>downloaded Fruity Loops 7, opened it once, got overwhelmed and never opened it again
know that feel... had I stuck with it i'd have 10 years experience instead of 3 rn
fl piano roll is a pleasure to use
u forgot the pic :((
yeaaaah
How do you eliminate crackling in subtractive synth? I'm new to this.
What the hell did you do? Also depends on if you have an actual analogue sitting in front of you
>This way they merge together in your head in a sort of harmony that's created entirely within your brain and not in the waveform itself.
t. brainlet that just worked out how stereo works.
binaural beats = complete fucking bullshit.
Ok, so I need to understand this isolation shit for my sampling. How the fuck do you do? I mean, I understand that you have to play with frequencies and filters, but where can I learn how to do it and become an expert at it quickly? How do I even determine that the vocals are at this frequency and the snares are at this frequency? I mean, knowing what is low-frequency, like a bass, seems relatively easy, but the rest...
Also, if I feel like an instrument is at a certain frequency, how do I translate this into numbers? And how do I use EQ to isolate?
Thanks.
>become an expert
>quickly
Choose one only.
Do you mean Subtractive in Waveform 10 or just a general subtractive synth?
Do you mean a virtual synth? If so it's probably your audio buffer settings.
Isolation is a bit of a meme.
>Also, if I feel like an instrument is at a certain frequency, how do I translate this into numbers? And how do I use EQ to isolate?
frequencies are numbers but you probably meant something like this:
pages.mtu.edu
but again, this is a bit of meme. all this does is give you a fundamental frequency.
a piano playing middle C will have the same fundamental frequency as a guitar player playing middle C, but they sound very different.
this is a consequence (of amongst other things) overtones.
this is why if you want to get the bass part out of a track you can't just low pass it and magic. there's information in the mids and near the top that make that bass sound like THAT bass.
if you want to get serious about isolation, look at izotope's RX.
it's still a meme tho.
Damn. Thank you.
virustotal.com
why the hell live enhancement suite comes with a trojan that steals bitcoin???
Ahh, sorry, I should have mentioned. I'm using the Helm synth in a daw, and the crackling comes when I play several notes at a time. It never ever sounds good, so I assume I need to cut it out somehow.
If raising your buffer and lowering the bitrate and frequency of your soundcard to 16 bit 44 khz doesn't help, you probably don't have a powerful enough cpu for that synth.
>When someone says something so scathing about your music, you don't even want to make it anymore.
I'm still really new to this all, can I do all that in the reaper settings? Here's a screenshot if you can give specifics. I get some kind of crackling even with stuff like synth1, so I think I should be able to fix this.
lmao
to add to just render it to audio/record it and there will be no crackling
what did they tell you bro :(
I told you I was new :(
Try to stick to buffer settings like 128, 256, 512 etc.
Another thing to check is if your system is busy with lots of disk access in the background.
So I just tried out Helm. Seems pretty basic with lots of buzzy sounds and the volume too high for some patches. You could do better for free vsts.
Said I was "tone-deaf"
I don't mind scathing, it's when they're too polite to say what they really think that makes me go neurotic about it.
Headroom is basically the amount of space between your peak signal and 0db (the point at which your track will clip in any DAW). The key is proper gain staging, as in ensuring that your signal had plenty of headroom at each stage in the signal chain. The easiest way to accomplish this is by making sure your original audio file or clip or whatever is the proper volume, and attenuating the volume as you process the sound with fx or whatever. Leave faders alone as much as you can
yo where the fuck is my nigga demarcus man
>The key is proper gain staging, as in ensuring that your signal had plenty of headroom at each stage in the signal chain.
I don't get it bro, what is a stage?
fucking prod celebrities ruining everything reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Could you throw me some recs?
U-He's free versions are still great. Viking is a good monosynth, Dexed, PG8X, I still like Superwave P8 and you already mentioned Synth1.
Technically not free but if you pick up an issue of Computer Music you'll get a ton of good VSTs to download.
Forgot EMU Proteus. It's nice to have a sound module for stuff that doesn't fit into typical virtual synths.
I like my production personally but it's too raw and minimalistic which will turn people off. Any tips on how to make a simple solid normie mixed instrumental?
Hauptwerk
youtube.com
Post what you have. If you like it, there's probably an audience for it.
desu "good" production is a meme unless you're explicitly trying to make modern pop or something. Good songwriting is key, plenty of good music out there with absolute garbage production
Ive been making beats for 3 hours... How do I make a banger?!
Also are "Dilla Type" beats still super effective against "Lil Wayne Type" beats? Also when are they gonna Nerf "Jay Z Type"?
>tfw feeling depressed I haven't found someone to vibe with and bounce ideas off of who's on my level skill wise and taste wise and just wants to have fun
There seem to be two tiers: the low tier which can't make decent music for shit and the tier which won't even acknowledge your presence if you haven't had a placement yet.
How do I meet likeminded people who don't just wanna leech off you? Everyone just wants to "make it" and it's fucking me up
"Wayne Type Beats" aren't nearly as powerful as more established and refined formulas like the "Dilla Type". I do see "Future Type Beats" giving a strong showing in 2020, until future's heart just explodes like a pinata full of contradictory psychoactive chemicals, to be replaced with "Juice WRLD type" beats. Then We're gonna be stuck with overpolished Jay-Z Types, or Thugger/LilBaby/Gunna Type and about 20 shitty ones that are really just Dilla Types with stolen SID chip arpeggios
>"good" production is a meme unless you're explicitly trying to make modern pop or something.
I'm going to assume you mean mixing, in which case that's still bullshit because a fuck load of sound design focussed genres are literally just showing off how good at production you are (idm, dubstep and "bass" music) obviously ignoring edm since I guess that's included in pop to you.
This sounds more like a rockiest indie head thing to say
>lost in time
Bro the middle range is fucking huge lol. I'd call it semi-competent or even good but aesthetic and or song writing completely lacking tier (most of /prod/ is below this, but the "best" of us are really just average for what is considered pro or working tier)
If you're that same guy that's been asking, did you have any luck on Reddit?
who is the middle range?
I don't care about making it bro, I'm amateur as fuck tho.
sorry I ordered that pretty weirdly
>semi-competent or even good but aesthetic and or song writing completely lacking tie
is what i meant by mid. Like pretty much everything here that gets a glowing response (with very few exceptions) is, in the scheme of things, fairly good, even if it's mixed quite poorly or lacking polish or whatever. However, there's nothing about it that will make you actually want to follow that person or listen to more of their shit. I would lump the vast majority of "internet musicians" who aren't noobs into this category.
the step above that is distinguished solely by polish and professionalism; what most of us would call "generic." It sounds very nice, but again, nothing that really grabs you. Still, people at this level are able to find work and have reason to be content.
So I would break everybody into
>trash-tier: noobs to "yeah that's cool bro"
>low-mid: good but lacking polish (majority (of people who stick with this))
>high-mid: good and polished, "pro" but lacks aethetic or that "thing" that makes you feel
>high: musicians that people actually give a shit about
just in general.... like obviously there are people with followings who just don't go that extra mile to polish their shit and cultivate an image who make amazing music... like I would say a good chunk of vapor wave artists and metal bands that people who are into the genre like are like that.
are you demarco? Let's collaborate. You please make the melody/sample. I don't trust your drum choices yet, no offence. Hit me up: Werner44 on clypit.
>Like pretty much everything here that gets a glowing response (with very few exceptions) is, in the scheme of things, fairly good
No, a lot of orchestral stuff gets ton of feedback and isn't even particularly interesting. Whereas a lot of great sound design stuff which is pretty next level gets 1, maybe 2 replies if any which is really weird
I think I'm too uncharismatic in person to actually be able to collaborate off of meeting people. Granted, I was only able to play beats for one guy who produced for Travis Scott but back then my beats were just trash
>a lot of great sound design stuff which is pretty next level gets 1, maybe 2 replies
THANKS MAN
>a lot of orchestral stuff gets ton of feedback and isn't even particularly interesting.
I just meant in general. I completely agree about the orchestral thing though, it's fucking weird. Strings just sound impressive... and the majority of what i've heard here is quite clearly a nice library with a bunch of splice risers and booms and drums spammed on it.
this shit is barely mixed ik
Lol, DeMarcus is MASSIVELY invested in "making it".
Kek true.
Weird: here’s my profile: clyp.it
yesterday i heard from a friend that lives off music, that when you get a song to get mastered by a professional they ask the song's legal register number and they will add an inaudible barcode to the song so that it gets recognized by copyright people whenever it gets played around the world
do you know about that /prod/
They might be referring to the way that radio stations (or youtube content ID) use a system for identifying songs that are playing in order to transmit the "now playing" information on your car stereo. I don't think this requires you to add something TO the song. You can extract a fingerprint from the pattern of the song and its compared to an existing database to keep track of what was played, and who is owed royalties. Adding tones to a piece of a media IS a thing though. Films add some tones that can easily be detected even in shitty cam rips. That's how your PlayStation knows you are trying to play a film rip. Not an expert on this topic, but I don't think the mastering engineer has anything at all to do with this process.
Apparently that technology DOES exist. I just don't know how widely it is used. Does your friend make library music for television and similar formats? It may be a useful technology for those fields. digimarc.com
This is just like a first draft because I think there's a lot I want to change about this, but any feedback?
>please make an account
No thanks FBI.
>tfw demarcus never wants to collab
might aswell kill myself brehs
huh? Jordekai? I messaged you back finally, I was just a little distracted by wanting to kill myself and like social anxiety, I guess. I really do need collaborators though, I'll probably go back to college just to find collaborators.
nah bruh im not jordekai how do i contact u
you can DM on soundcloud instagram or just email me
soundcloud.com
Twitter too, I forgot I have Twitter. I barely post on it. The @ is soryubeats but the actual name of the account is "even Hitler had a girlfriend".
>37 followers
wait is getting followers easy if you're any good? I haven't even bothered with soundcloud tbqh
It's only 37 and a fair amount of them are people I know or knew personally. 8 of them, two of them being my cousins. And then I follow my account on my other account of singing clips. Anyway, to answr your question, I think soundcloud is a dying website. People seem to be more receptive to beats on YouTube or Instagram if you're not one of the various beat stores like traktrain or airbit, I find YouTube pretty hard to maintain though. But then again I'm very depressed and everything is hard to maintain.
>I think soundcloud is a dying website
it's turning away from the "community" or small time artists, as evidenced by the only significant changes of the past few years. it's all we have atm though.
> But then again I'm very depressed and everything is hard to maintain.
breh you gotta stop looking for a reason t throw this into every conversation lmao
idk man......... i'm at a stage where I really need to start thinking about putting stuff out seriously but i've completely ignored the public aspect up to this point. I just want to make music and also have people listen to it what the fuck
>breh you gotta stop looking for a reason t throw this into every conversation lmao
I don't mean to sound whiny I just do it to explain myself, all of my actions are. I can't think of the right word so just forget that thought.
>'m at a stage where I really need to start thinking about putting stuff out seriously but i've completely ignored the public aspect up to this point. I just want to make music and also have people listen to it what the fuck
Yeah it's terrible. I really want to start making actual music and rapping but promo is basically impossible and its a depressing ass fact. Buying ads isn't gonna do much. How many times do you as a nigga personally click on music from an ad? And everybody's trying to make music. You basically need connections from the jump or you can try to build a brand off of clout and controversy like 6ix9ine did. It's all shit. Music sucks.
>I don't mean to sound whiny I just do it to explain myself
o
I generally agree with the sentiment but the way you're describing it is pretty hip-hop specific. I still think it's best not to worry about this shit until you know your music is good but what the fuck do i know
>my other account of singing clips
I'm interested.
Is it the one that starts with a P and ends with an N?
>o
Yeah, everything I do and say is done through like the lens of brain damage and. I forgot the other thing I was gonna say. 9 years of untreated depression? I don't know. It's just to give the pretext before people say anything to me that I'm basically working with half a brain.
>I still think it's best not to worry about this shit until you know your music is good but what the fuck do i know
You're probably right but I'm very broke and very anxious.
I was hoping I didn't actually mention the singing account. But yeah, how'd you now?
Man you need to forget about promo for a while.
At least until you can show your work to people without then thinking that something could be better, because until then, nobody is going to pay for music that has immediately apparent flaws when there's tons of music that doesn't.
Not to be disrespectful, but you just aren't "good" yet.
Keep working daily until you get out of the amateur stage, and THEN you'll be able to focus on making money.
If you keep trying to make money at your current level, maybe you'll get a couple of clients here and there, but you'll mostly achieve failure because you're effectively competing with people with x10 your experience.
This is also important because if you show your subpar music to potential customers, not only they won't buy your tracks, but they'll also remember you as "that amateur guy with the subpar music" even when you actually become good, so they won't even click on your music.
The money will come eventually if you put in the work, but only as a consequence of your skills.
Without the skills being on a competitive level you won't be very successful (if at all), and all your promo efforts andinvestments will be wasted.
>I was hoping I didn't actually mention the singing account. But yeah, how'd you now?
I just clicked on all your followers and restricted the possible candidated to the most plausible ones until I found the one that fit the description the most.
>I'm not sure the whole binaural beats thing has ever been proven to work ir if it has some scientific basis.
Bob Monroe.
okay but how do I get good if I'm mostly doing the the same thing every day and receiving no feedback and you don't actually know what you want to do or how to do it ? I have ideas and I write them down, but by the time I sit down to actually pursue that idea I don't care for it much anymore. I'm less concerned with production right now and figuring out how to actually make music like rapping and singing and writing lyrics and making them real because my production will improve as I continue and want to do more but if I'm just making fucking trap beats directionless I'm going to stay stagnant. Or something like that.
I don't even make a song every day anymore. I just jerk off, think about killing myself, and obsess over my friend I'm probably in love with. I can't even consume art anymore. Everything is just in the background. Maybe I could make a song out of that. But can you even transpose a feeling of abject nothingness in musical or lyrical form? It's like the absence of feeling, there's nothing to communicate. It'd just be empty air. Maybe Julia Holter has something that sounds like that. Don't read this.
Sigh.
How can I edit the vocals on this better?
>okay but how do i solve all my life problems guys???
like bro every answer you get is going to be bullshit or what personally works for somebody else (who doesn't have the same goals as you)
I'm in a similar situation too, and I know it's hard, but you need to develop your musicianship first, and there's no better way than to keep consuming great music and getting inspired by it to put what you heard in your own music.
If you have a hard time getting good at one thing, then getting good at multiple things will be basically impossible.
Just focus on your production and on becoming a better musician first, then, after you're good at those, you can brach out (perhaps do them on the side but don't put too much time into them while you focus on your music).
Your biggest problem is patience.
Don't expect to achieve mastery and success in such a short time. It's impossible and you'll only be disappointed and discouraged.
You have a keyboard right? Try to learn the basics and play simple songs.
It will no doubt make you a better musician in general and your compositions will get so much better from it.
>okay but how do I get good if I'm mostly doing the the same thing every day and receiving no feedback and you don't actually know what you want to do or how to do it ?
Keep working and learning new things.
I know this is gonna sound weird, but if I were you I'd try learning EDM for a while just to get those production skills, and then I'd apply them to hiphop (or whatever genre you want to make).
Don't focus on making songs per se, but focus on LEARNING and improving.
In my first couple of years I learned the most by making songs with no goal other than to put what I learned and experimented with into practice.
It was staggering how much faster I was improving compared to making songs just to make a song.
Consider yourself a student and your music as homework. Even if you try new things and they sound like shit, at least you tried and improved on something new, and after a while of this you'll have a huge body of knowledge that will add up to make you a skilled producer.
It will then only be a matter of time.
Hey guys. First time posting in a /prod/ thread. I'd appreciate if some of you checked out my one track. The intro is pretty basic and the shaker/cymbal could be spiced up a little but I think it's pretty decent. Cheers.
soundcloud.com
>what personally works for somebody else (who doesn't have the same goals as you)
I looked at some EDM tutorials a few weeks ago and the gist of it seemed to be "layer your melodies 20 times with 20 different instruments and then add a shit boring 4 on the floor kick pattern". I actually was sort of learning some EDM shit because it'd get me closer to SOPHIE but the only information that seemed to be provided was "use an arp". My laptop can't handle that much shit. I can't have that many VSTs loaded one time.
>just render out bro
ugh.
>In my first couple of years I learned the most by making songs with no goal other than to put what I learned and experimented with into practice.
>It was staggering how much faster I was improving compared to making songs just to make a song.
> Even if you try new things and they sound like shit, at least you tried and improved on something new, and after a while of this you'll have a huge body of knowledge t
Okay. I'm going to start rapping. Because the same concept applies. Don't focus on transcribing a feeling but just making SOMETHING. Because it's all practice. I feel so retarded starting this late though. The idea of not getting remotely good till I'm like 25 is so shit because I don't even want to be alive. Surprised I even made it to 20. Fuck.
You're right I should start learning my keyboard but I'm thinking it might be more valuable (at the moment) to learn structure and.... structure and? sound design. sampling. You know what I'm fucking saying? Because I don't know the words to say what I'm trying to say. Being able to make complex jazzy music with theory is cool, but knowing how to make a song (even a generic song) sound like a real song. Does that make sense? I don't know. Learning theory might and learning structure might be the same thing. But I mean actual shit within the DAW. Like, I don't use any automation clips. Techniques. Production techniques. That's what I'm talking about.
>Judging others because of the music uploading platform they use
That's not what he meant.
Read the OP. Soundcloud (or other sites that have your name) aren't allowed because otherwise people come here to shill themselves and it becomes a second soundcloud/bandcamp thread.
This is a thread to discuss production, so upload your stuff to sites like clyp.it or instaud.io if you want us to listen to it.
Did this instead of job applications.
Just ditch the bad bass and make dungeon synth already.
Or meet me halfway and make some Tolkien inspired raps.
Oh. My bad.
clyp.it
Nice little riff, what's the plan?
What exactly do you mean? Sounds pretty good to me, maybe a bit too much reverb.
I was just looking for general advice on how to improve the mastering thanks man I'll use less
It's more like major elements (bass pad lead) get 3 synths (top mid low) layers and you can do whatever you want percussion wise as long as you have the steady 4 kicks to keep people dancing.
"use an arp"
JUST draw in your own arps.
I find the triangle (like the instrument not the waveform) like synth sound to be quite irritating and when it left I was happy. I rather like the composition in general.
xbox 360
Sounds like you know what you're doing, I really like the soft mallet stuff and (what might be) organ drone in the back.
FUCK dungeon synth and FUCK Tolkein ol racist ass crickety ass bitch
I've never even seen LOTR. None of them. Fuck the fantasy genre.
No but seriously what makes my music sound like dungeon synth as opposed to hip-hop? Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Is it too chord heavy? Too melody based and not enough pauses/silence? Kanye, Tyler, and Andre's stuff isn't as simple as most hip-hop but I guess Kanye, Tyler, and Andre stuff kind of leave the genre behind and go into pop, jazz, and soul territory. Travis Scott too. Maybe I'm just not a fan of straight up hip-hop. TCD is Kanye's most traditional album and it's probably my least favorite.
>It's more like major elements (bass pad lead) get 3 synths (top mid low) layers a
3 synths for the bass, pad, and lead right?
>JUST draw in your own arps.
oh yeah FL Studio has that arpeggiate function in the piano roll
fuck it lets make an "EDM" song
Didn't you originally ask about editing vocals though? What has that to do with mastering?
Is this the general where people would know what these jacks are called
You all seem like a musical tech savvy lot
Speaker binding posts, or "banana" posts, because the plugs are commonly called banana plugs.
>I looked at some EDM tutorials a few weeks ago [...]
EDM can be very simple or very complex, depending on the techniques or subgenre.
You can definitely learn a lot by making different styles of it (and making them well)
Try to do what you can. Even if your computer doesn't allow for much.
For my first few years I didn't even have a computer, and I used my father's during the night while he slept.
That computer was just slightly better than yours but was old and would constantly freeze in a way that you could only unfreeze by restarting (essentially a BSOD), so it was a constant frustration to do anything.
I solved this by using a workflow that I still use today, which consists in having a drum track and a score track where I compose everything in a single big midi clip with a single synth (some times two if strictly necessary) and using basic sounds like saws or sines with no effects.
Once the MUSIC itself is good despite having zero production, and everything harmonizes and fits with everything else, I would then take each line, produce it with the appropriate sound design, print it to audio, then delete the synth (I'd still have copies of the project in case I needed to go back).
This way my computer only had to play the WAVs plus one synth at a time (increasing the buffer size helped a lot, but I've already explained this to you).
Also I only had one shitty earbud (the other one was broken so I could only hear with one ear) with a super short cable so I had to hunch forward to even hear.
It was absolute hell, but the other option was to not make music at all, so I endured it and kept working.
You don't have much choice, do you?
Either you do what you gotta do, or you get a normal job somewhere for a couple months until you can afford proper equipment.
>Okay. I'm going to start rapping. [...]
The sooner you accept that it's gonna take time, the sooner you'll start to actually improve.
Do what you want, but don't try to be a jack of all trades.
Thanks mate. That is indeed an organ drone in the background. I wouldn't say I "know" what I'm doing, I just fuck around in FL studio sometimes when I get bored or I hear music that inspires me. I was initially going for a Clipse coke-rap sort of thing but when I made the guitar plucks it turned into something completely different.
OK good to know, I thought it was just on the verge of being too much myself but I liked the idea of the super high pitch things playing different rhythms in stereo.
I'll blunt them somehow.
That sound is actually the same PPG bell wave that does the little answer melodies to the chords.
>clyp.it
I would tighten up the reverb on the vocals, it sounds too far back in the mix. Also, you should do more effects and stuff with the voice, little callouts and effects like vocal doubling or whatever. It helps make the track feel more dynamic.
>You're right I should start learning my keyboard [...]
If you wat to learn production you need to master at least the basics of each skill that goes into production (theory, composition sound design, mixing, etc), and BY FAR the fastest way to learn all those thins is to read this book:
www35.zippyshare.com
It's centered around dance/EDM music, but the knowledge applies to every other genre as well.
If you don't read this book, you're gonna spent x10 the time learning the same things from a bunch of different sources (with 99% of overlapping information you'll need to go through just to get that 1% nugget that you need), so you might as well just get it in one place and learn it quickly.
>posts in a thread feedback thread
>gets valuable honest feedback
>Take it you dont go to live shows mate. Real shame.
The thing I'm keying in on is synth strings.
Synth strings SCREAM dungeon synth (also flutes).
If you want string sounds for your hip-hop use real string samples and (optionally) make them sound shitty/resampled, don't just start with fake strings.
As far as sound design is concerned: You mention sophie which is an artist that has quite a lot of instrumental novelty and sound design novelty. You will not get that sort of sound using a single lead or bass synth. Don't be afraid to clone one instrument several times and produce several variations of it. Example: you produce a solid bassline patch. Instead of using automation to produce novel changeups, copy the instrument and make variations on the patch that have different filtering, maybe one has pitch shit changing, one has strange chorus or other effects that distinguish it from its kin, etc. trade them out at will. Another common pitfall: aiming for too much complexity from a single patch. You hear people drone on about layering their sounds for a reason. The general idea is: the hyper complex bassline or lead synth contains a lot more than one single synth patch's worth of sounds. It may be constructed from several patches each using the same midi, each adding a small contribution to the complex "how the fuck did they even make this" end product. The individual layers may be quite simple, and when taken at face value as an end product, is an insurmountable task to replicate with a single synth patch. To hear this takes time- you have to develop a critical ear for detail. One technique you can use to analyze tunes that inspire you is to listen carefully to the arrangement. Its quite common for a single layer to be used in isolation in the intro or break down. A simple example of this would be drum n bass tunes with heavily layered drums. The scaffolding on which the drums are made may have been a sampled drum break, with loads of carefully selected single hits layered on them to "fill it out" and make it more robust and powerful. Its quite common to hear the unlayered break at some point in the intro or something. They lure the listener into comfort then reveal the layers to add drama or impact.
So if I wanted to connect the speakers to a more modern turntable this is what I should be getting?
>instaud.io
It's pretty basically competent, but it lacks any real soul or feeling. Also, that high ass synth can be grating, and everything overall is just too repetitive. variety is the spice of life, my dude.
Not bad.
You should compress things more and push everything into a limiter on the master to get some loudness.
Also that quiet synth in the background with the long note sounds out of key and it doesn't fit the vibe of the rest of the song.
Speakers with banana posts tend to need an amplifier to drive them, so you'd need that in addition to a turntable, if the turntable is a standalone one:
Turntable>Amplifier>Speakers
Can Reaper with free VSTs and some hardware compete with Reason? For example, are there free equivalents to the NN-XT and Dr Octo Rex?
Isn't vocal engineering a part of mastering?
What do you suppose I change the "long quiet synth in the background" to? Remove?
speaker side: these guys, that will be screwed in and clamped down on. Here's the thing. Those speakers are probably passive, as in they don't have a power source / cable to power them. That means that they will require a phono preamp to use with a traditional turntable, to amplify the signal. You mentioned a modern turntable though, so I assume it may have a cheapo preamp already inside it. So that may be covered. I don't know your situation though. What do the output jacks on the turntable resemble? I'm assuming the other end of your cable will not be speaker wire as pictured in pic related, that would be highly unusual.
What do you mean when you say callouts? I've seen the vocal doubling thing on drake vocal tutorials I'll definitely give that a try thanks.
I would say it's more a part of mixing and partially arrangement before mastering
No.
Vocal engineering is what you do to the vocal track (or how you create it in the first place).
Mastering is what you do to the final track with all the stems already merged.
So it's more similar to mixing, but it's not completely part of mixing because it involves other things too.
You know how there are those gaps in the vocal performance? usually, most producers fill those with little shouts or phrases related to the lyrics, so they don't sound empty.
No, just change the notes and it'll be fine.
Mastering is carried out on a completed mix, after mixing - I'd put vocal arranging and editing in the arranging stage although you could also say that it's part of composition too if you're doing complex edits that create a melody or harmony from something that wasn't originally recorded that way.
First time doing something in non 4/4 time
instaud.io
I think there's something about the droning chords and drums that's kind of hypnotic, also breakcore.
Yeah it’s a stand-alone turntable, just a little audio technica lp60. Wasn’t aware I needed an amplifier
They’re actually not too big, not tiny though, probably about a foot tall but they aren’t those huge tower speakers. I don’t have the turntable immediately available to take pictures of the back right now and I’m not exactly sure what it is you mean, but if it’s what I think you mean it’s all just standard aux cable connections on the turntable. Sorry, super new to all this
That being said I have never owned bare wire cables like that for an audio system so it’s definitely not like that
A preamp still doesn't provide enough power to drive speakers, it brings a phono signal up to line level so that it can be fed into the amplifier that drives the speakers.
Alright thanks man I'll do that next time
shut up bitch
suck my dick (suck my nuts)
you fucking bop
you better swallow it
can you give me drum advice
I knew you were gonna bring up the book again. I was actually gonna mention it at the very end cause I came to the realization that it's exactly what I was talking about. I have it in my Downloads folder already. Hopefully I'll actually be able to read it.
ohhhhhhhh. Do you know any VSTs with real string samples you would recommend? I have a few guitar VSTs but its shit like Cute Emily Guitar. DSK Guitar. And some Mexican guitar. I didn't even realize I was using synth strings as opposed to just regular synths. Is "regular synths" a thing?
>shut up bitch
>suck my dick (suck my nuts)
>you fucking bop
>you better swallow it
What?
Zampler and Grace are pretty good. I haven't found a good replacement for Rex files though. Haven't looked too hard either though.
I find it very had to pay attention to arrangement in song but yeah I get it now I'll render things out to WAVs. It's really easy to do in FL 20, I'm just a bitch ass nigga.
>variety is the spice of life
I know, but I have lots of trouble making variations. I'm lucky if I get 16 bars of idea to shuffle around (perfect for trance lol), and I've only ever made one track that changed it's chord progression.
I also need to work on emotional-musical connections, usually I just come up with ideas that make me happy.
>VSTs
Meme aside though I don't really use much strings. You can (partially) avoid the DS connection by not putting a chorus/ensemble on your synth chords, that's basically the idea that launched string machines.
youtube.com
Avoid making any of these kinds of sounds.
The key for emotional connection stuff is to always start chords first. If you get your chords giving a particular sound then when you build things around them, they'll reinforce that sound.
As for variety, it's less about things like changing chord progressions and more about things like changing instruments, going from small chords to large chords, adding transitions and fills at the end of looping sections and other smaller things like that.
>Instead of using automation to produce novel changeups, copy the instrument and make variations on the patch that have different filtering, maybe one has pitch shit changing, one has strange chorus or other effects that distinguish it
yeah as one of the sound design autist and sophie ripoff-er I gotta disagree. One of the reasons I love Massive over Serum is actually for how much a single patch can change with the macros (can also be used to swap oscillators, envelope "depths," and other modulation sources more fluidly.) Although I can say the same for FM8 *technically* I suppose your point stands as you could effectively make 4 separate patches within one with the morphing section (And obviously morph between them).
As for layering, that's good advice. Far more effective for harmonically dense bass's where you need a simple sub to layer in to keep things clean sounding.
touche thanks you are right
Hi I'm the drum guy. Link to your music pls?
I probably should have walked it back a bit in retrospect and not sounded like i was shitting on automation in general. I'm more or less thinking about those transition type effects that some ppl are hung up on. Like the sort you hear in those over the top dnb tunes with a dozen alternate ways the reese is treated. I think your approach is fine. I agree re: massive.
It also sounds like based on your workflow you might really dig resampling into kontakt. Feed an empty kontakt instrment a bunch of your massive bounced out sounds and try doing another pass of sound design and filtering on them inside kontakt. Pretty fucking cool. Its also trivial to copy that sound / group within kontakt a few times and now you have two or three instances of the same sound + modulation that you can detune relative to eachother, or give a different filtering pass to. Really a cool way to build multi timbral layered / morphing sounds. Can also give each one a different output to the host daw using multichannel out kontakt, or give them each a different midi channel if you wanted to. Also you can throw a legato / glide script on the whole thing and suddenly your 4 layered morphing nightmare behaves like it would in massive, with natural-ish sounding synth style glide / legato.
Thank you; I've also been looking into hardware samplers but I realize I'm spending all this time looking into different ways to get a sound when I should just focus on making the music itself.
I have that problem too. Always looking for a better synth when I already have more than I could ever need.
>you might really dig resampling into kontakt
lol yeah i've done that. personally not huge on kontakt for this purpose, not because it doesn't sound good but mostly just because what i tend to do with it is done better with absynth (they both have their distinct features obviously). I resample a shit ton :)
is this bad
sendvid.com
In dummy thick, the drum patterns are samey. They use the same four sounds, accompanied by samey chords and melodies. For a 3 minute track, that is too much waiting for the listener. If you are looking for someone to rap over your production, than this level of variety would kind of work, but only with an artist who has different styles/sounds.
I recommend adding shakers, cymbals, and different hat patterns throughout the song, and keep it to 2:15 max.
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thanks
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I asked for your help especially since you said you were trying to go for a Clipse thing (which I can hear) and I've been trying to go for a Clipse thing too recently.
Ah. I think that's where the problem lies. Which Clipse song, specifically? I started my song off as an emulation of Virginia, but Clipse has a bunch of different sounds across Lord Willin' and Hell Hath No Fury.