/prod/ - music production general

slow thread so validate me
clyp.it/udkxgc4z

on a trap kick now wtf man.
also actually playing guitar rn, i go months without enjoying it o__o

>By setting the dynamic range one sets the discrepancy between the loud and less loud sounds.

I'd use maybe "size of the gap" between loud and less loud rather than "discrepancy" - the word "discrepancy" usually applies to an unwanted or unusual deviation from expectation, and dynamic range isn't always an error that has to be corrected. You run the risk of setting a beginner up to believe that any deviation in level at all (no matter how expressive it is) is a bad thing.

I like you, I promise to play with my DAW or synth tonight.

Hello. If you listen to this and give me feedback I'll be your best friend.
clyp.it/xeqxn3u5

At the moment it's not really that useful. AI can analyze music and make something similar, but it basically spits out a MIDI file and someone has to do all the arranging and everything.

Algorithmic or generative composition is a different thing, though. It's as good as the skills of the person programming it.

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask, probably not.
I want to cover a song, i can record every instrument, but i want to keep the original vocals.
I have the original song and the official instrumental, they both come from the same CD so they have the same quality and overlap perfeclty. Is it possibile to use the instrumental to extract the vocals from the original track?

If it's mixed exactly the same, possibly, but likely there's some compression or something at the mastering stage that will ruin it for you.

clyp.it/x1kwoqrc

kill it so i can get better

My music sucks bros

not true
your music is decent at worst

aaaaahhhhhkctually attack and release times aren't, strictly speaking the time it takes for the full effect of compression - they vary from compressor to compressor but 2/3'rds is roughly the average.

see:
attackmagazine.com/features/columns/gregory-scott-demolishing-the-myths-of-compression/

also you should start of by defining dynamic range first.
then define threshold
then define ratios
then define attack times with contextual transient examples
then define release
then define make up gain

actually, your definition is bad. start over.

it's an odd one, but I listened and enjoyed

I don't know man. I don't even know what I want to make, nothing I do sounds like something I would want to listen to myself.
The only thing I've been enjoying lately is slowly noodling around the piano, but this seems to be a dead-end for me, I can't develop it into something that is worth listening to.
clyp.it/l3mgmwmc

nice but needs a more prominent 808 bass and better drum samples
experiment with note dynamics, the organ sounds too midi-y

clyp.it/irkwsf0n

roast me

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Not to sound snarky but there’s no “808”lol
Trap without the same 10 drum samples exist man

i'm aware, it needs one. and yes, but frankly yours are ass. if you're not willing to take criticism why did you post it in the first place?

I'm confused why does the crash have such a long attack

That’s why I prefaced it by saying “not to sound snarky” ; I’m not mad.

You’re saying it needs and 808 which sounds as if you’re suggesting it *in addition to* the bass that is already there (that I wasn’t sure you heard)

I’m perfectly accepting of your opinion; your response sounded as if it were from the perspective of somebody who expects all trap to have a certain sound and adhere to the stereotypical conventions (“808” bass and 808 or cashmoney whatever drums).

not all trap has to sound the same but the drum and bass sounds you have are lifeless and detract from the energy rather than help. the guitar is cool but the lack of mixing makes the track feel fragmented, you could carry on with the current drum samples and just eq them, but imo it's not worth polishing as they're not great in the first place.

okay thanks, at least you like my guitar (:

i'm not going back to this track but i'll keep in mind that apparently 90s akai libraries don't work for drums :^)
kick too? i made a bunch of my own and use them in practically every song lmao. imo they're pretty close to the rack kicks so

What is the pluing that sounds closest to the Blofeld? I know of Largo, but I didn't like its interface and the sound is not the best imho.
youtube.com/watch?v=4axr2ZE5X5k

It's a happy kind of weird. I don't hate it, at least.

clyp.it/zwgjq0zw
Some composition I've been playing around with for a while. Kinda happy with everything up to the last minute-ish. Want to add more.

clyp.it/t5r0zwku

require crits

>clyp.it/zwgjq0zw
Okay, this might be a bit on the harsh side.
Composition aside.
Those midi strings becomes really grating to listen to after a minute or so, I hope you're going to mix up the orchestration or slap some better more nuanced string samples on it later?

On to the composition. Well, it's a 14 minute piece that just meanders between loosly connected ideas without any strong or prevailing idea that grounds it. It get's rather tedious to listen to. Try to fish out the strongest and best ideas out of this piece and cut it down to 5-8 minutes, because you dont really have 14 minutes of material here I would bother to listen to. There are moments where things are going along quite nicely.

And you have some really poor string orchestration going on where basses and cello cross with the violas in the lower register with no thought to how they meet or if it really works harmonically. Again, this might be the fault of the midi strings you're using, but from here, it sounds like a mosh.

Try to seperate the voices more clearly, move them up in the registre, because there are parts that sounds like an atonal mess at time.

>clyp.it/t5r0zwku
Pretty decent, just not much going on to give any real comment. I would probably like a chord shift or two, but maybe it's just supposed to be like a meandering thing that just keeps on rolling. try to mix up the rythm a bit and bring in something that carries the repepetive beat along, just not the same 808's and synths coming in and out.

I don't know but I'm heating some combo of wavetable and FM in a lot of those patches so I might recc Massive X.

clyp.it/o52zp05a

Working on this minimalist string thingy. Cant really get it to gel properly, at least to my ears, maybe some fresher ears can spot it.

The strings sound is definitely garbage, no arguments there. I'll definitely get some better samples down the line and play around with orchestration if it actually needs it.

It's dynamically very flat, probably part of the reason it's a bit tedious. I don't notice it so much since my brain 'knows' how it's supposed to be and 'fixes' it.

I could probably just go back over some smaller sections and work them out more.

What bits worked anyway?

Otherwise, thanks for the reply.

>What bits worked anyway?
You can probably scrap the entirety of 04:02 - 09:30. It's just not very interesting and at times annoying. I dont know if counterpoint was what you were aiming at, but it's kinda all over the place. You can probably keep the initial idea from 04:02 untill around the 6 minute mark, but gets very tedious after that.

I have a cheat sheet for that, in case you were asking for a friend.

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I'll probably try and salvage it anyway. Thanks, though.

>stop producing for a month and focus on mixing and synths
>my music is worse now

g-guys what the fuck, I thought learning more would help?

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I think my edginess is hurting my music. Sometimes I have some good ideas, but I don't use them because they don't sound dark.

>be me
>make decent to good music
>finally learn music theory because I thought it would help and people were memeing about it ruining your ability to make music
>learn it
>everything I make sounds god awful now
I think I’m gonna try to drink a bunch and forget everything I learned

where do I go from here?
clyp.it/vlbfv2ji

dope

You just need to keep learning. It sounds like you only learned the basics and are relying on the simple/obvious choices. Step it up, bruh.

After looking through that link, it seems like the creators have been pretty active dadabots.com/music.php
The piano generated on the twitch stream is about as good as you would expect. What's nice is that you can passively listen and pick out melodies when they stand out. Thanks for the link user

>it's as good as the skills of the programmer
Seems like there's potential there, at least as an aid in production

>add reverb panning and sidechaining
>suddenly doesn't sound like shit
whoa

don't use panning as a crutch to cover up your mix problems, same with sidechaining unless you know exactly why

the drawing board

If it works it works.

OKAY SENPAI I FUCKING LIED
Realized I was being a lazy bitch for not implementing such simple fixes and ended up changing the kick and a few big things on the premaster/master as well, didn't pitch it up this time

clyp.it/04b3yl41

LOVE ME

sounds a lot better, now try adding more percussive elements and experiment with syncopation, needs some rhythmic spice if you get what i mean

Y u do me like this mannnn I’ve got other songs to finish!
this one was supposed to be a quick throwaway lmao

Any suggestions there? The intention was to be chll-ish so I was trying to keep it simple; honestly I thought I was pushing it already

Where and how do you guys apply Mid/Side EQ?

I'm relatively new to M/S EQing and I just found out you can get a clearer bass if you cut the side frequencies on the low end (for example). What are some good Techniques?

>been wanting to buy a mic for recording vocals/samples/acoustic instruments for 4 months
>still haven't pulled the trigger on any despite having enough money
someone end my autism please

yeah that's actually retarded.
that's 4 months of practicing recording you've missed. pull the trigger bro, that's ridiculous

uh... stock ableton eq
one of a billion free bass mono-izers is the onlyy m/s processing i usually do, mostly but not always on the master for the subs... or an octave above the root... sub note. (i've been paying more attention to where exactly to cut lately based on note frequencies)

majority of the time is just getting bass out of the sides of something.... i do a lot of fucked spacial experimenting and occasionally i shelf out the side highs a couple db to tame it a bit rather than narrowing the whole thing.

UUUUNNNNNNNN!!!
NEW RENOISE UPDATE!
FIRSTU UPDATE IN 3 YEARSSUUU GUYYUOOO

Largo is supposed to be an almost exact copy. If you don't like the sound, it's in the programming. The blofeld's sweetspots are extremely slim.

It's 100% correct, I was asking what to add and not what is wrong lmao (the order doesn't represent anything, the practical part of the tutorial isn't written down yet)

Opinions on this? Do the effects and transitions work? And is the pitch bending not too off-putting?

clyp.it/hm4yxnao

Also, how do I stop making shit that sounds happy?

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nigga this shit is bonkers

uuuuhm, senpai!?!?
congrats you graduated from /prod/

In a good way?

Really? It's not too bad? Because I've been feeling kinda bad about it, it's not very well mixed.

Well, i'm only a beginner so i can't really give you much advice but to my novice ears nothing bad stood out about the mix. But i've only listened over headphones. It might lack just a tad bit of direction but imo the momentum makes up for it and the counterplay between those wonky synths that jump from right channel to left during the "descent" are super satisfying to me

haven't heard you in a while, oolgi :^)

going against your proclivity toward happy haps is probably just as hard a problem as making something outside of this sound in general for you i'd imagine... branch out?
idk man you're weird to me; like i went through a similar phase as a teenager but i ended up intentionally circumventing my mimicry by just getting interested in other genres and focusing on other emotions... and states of mind
but now i can't fucking focus on one genre so :^(

but yeah honestly i wouldn't say it's just the pitch bending, it's that happening at the same time as that 303 type synth that makes it a little... idk creepy in some way. starts to unravel the same way at 1:50. upvote 4 bjork

It's well produced but I'm having a hard time following the melodies.
They all seem kinda random and without direction, motifs, or anything that would make me want to hum them.
Sure you don't have to go full earworm and employ extreme repetition to make them stick (especially with this kind of music), but at their current stage they're kind of all over the place.

That was really nice of you to say user, it means a lot to me. Like, a loooooot. It probably sounds ok on headphones because I don't have monitors so I have to mix on headphones. I dread to imagine how it might sound on a proper system.

Hi again :). I hope you're doing well. Yeah, I want to get out of this sound and come up with my own but its hard because this sound is one that I really like, the decisions that go into it "feel" like the right ones.

I think I'm going to take a break for a week or so and just listen to a bunch of Autechre and probably that new Holly Herndon album so maybe that would help. Do you have any suggestions for stuff that might help me think in different ways? I was also thinking of playing LSD Dream Emulator for like 3 days straight.

Also thanks for that comment about it being "creepy in some way" haha, thats a direction I definitely want to go in more.

That's a good point user, I definitely get what you mean. It's probably because I usually don't have any actual ideas on their own, I just kind of go with whatever happens and I'm not good enough at music yet to be able to really tie that all together in a cohesive enough way. That and I've become kinda obsessed with not repeating things unless I have an explicit reason.

>It's probably because I usually don't have any actual ideas on their own, I just kind of go with whatever happens and I'm not good enough at music yet to be able to really tie that all together in a cohesive enough way.
You're good enough at production that spending a period of time focussing purely on composition would be best IMO.
After all, the underlying music is one of the most important elements of a song, if not the most important. Even in production or sound design oriented genres.

>That and I've become kinda obsessed with not repeating things unless I have an explicit reason.
That's the biggest problem I think.
Repetition is an integral part of music and avoiding it only hurts you.
You don't have to repeat whole sections of midi notes, but repeating elements of the composition is extremely beneficial.
If you really hate repetition you could try duplicating something and altering the second part so that it sounds different but still retains the "essence" of the first and the listener can have an idea of where the song is evolving.
You don't even have to make your whole song lke this, but if you use no repetition at all it ends up sounding no different than a random note generator.

>suggestions for stuff that might help me think in different ways?
peeeersonally i focus on different elements or instruments: totally rhythm based, chord focused, timbre focused (minimal "musical elements) or granular, samples only... do something with x effect, only serum or massive...

i'm on ableton so sometimes i don't allow myself to use drum rack.

pick a song or 3 totally out of your comfort zone and rip off elements.

...idk how you compose but i saw iggy on that thing where he makes a song on the spot: i guess he writes pretty linearly filling in top to bottom as he goes.... it's akin to improvising on a physical instrument ime, "fluid" and spontaneous most people would call it: maybe go backwards and see where looping gets you? or write through a songs length using only one instrument

>After all, the underlying music is one of the most important elements of a song, if not the most important. Even in production or sound design oriented genres.

every time i read this statement i can't help but think the person saying it is poorly listened

>every time i read this statement i can't help but think the person saying it is poorly listened
every time i read this statement i can't help but think the person saying it is a bad musician

>every time i read this statement i can't help but think the person saying it is poorly listened
Why?
Would you rather listen to badly produced music with good composition or badly composed music with good production?
Maybe you're too involved with electronic music to realize that it's only producers that regard production so highly. Most other genres only see it as a secondary quality.

All the great electronic music producers have great underlying composition upon which the production is made.
The only well-produced music with bad composition I hear is from amateur producers or from those producers famous for things outside their music who everyone thinks are a joke.
It's very rare to hear bad music being loved because of its production, unless the production is so incredible that compensates for the shortcomings in the composition (which are still shortcomings).

lol i'm not getting into it with you man

sorry for providing fuel for baiters though :S

>focussing purely on composition would be best IMO.

I suppose that's probably true, I just find it hard because texture has always been more important to me than musicality. I have a lot of stuff that is just like, 10 minutes of sounds happening. But I do want to be able to write music as well. What's a good way to study composition that doesn't involve sheet music? I can read it but I hate it.

As for repeating things, now that you mention it there was a time about a year ago where I would do exactly what you said, make a sequence then copy it and change parts of it and I think that's probably why my older stuff feels more musically coherent, if not technically as produced.

That's a really good idea, I have had a few ideas similar to that but kinda stopped doing them because they got hard, although reading this back now I'm realizing that that's exactly what I need to do and it becoming harder is a sign that it's working. At the moment the main theme of a specific track I have is that it starts with 2 sections in 2/4 followed by 3 sections in 3/4, then 4 sections in 4/4 and so on up to 10/4. And it's microtonal so its tough because my brain has nothing familiar to really latch on to and its just kinda been stagnating away on my hard drive.

Yeah I know the video you mean, I do make stuff in a very similar way where I basically just go bar by bar but the thing is, I do like the quality of variation that I get out of that and the repetitive stuff that I do (I listen to Philip Glass and Steve Reich a lot) is just boring to me. That idea about writing a song with only one instrument is a really good one. I guess where I am currently is trying to give the sounds that I like a space and chance to "perform themselves" such that the actual musicality ends up lacking because its recursive. The sounds aren't used to paint a bigger picture, they're just about themselves, if that makes sense.

I also use ableton, that drum track restriction seems fun.

>every time i read this statement i can't help but think the person saying it is poorly listened
Yeah, I'm kinda poorly listened, but am I wrong?

yes

Why?
When you listen to music it's the subconscious "feel" that makes you like it, and that's achieved mostly by the choice of notes.
Take any of your favourite electronic songs and replace their notes wih random ones. Do you think they'd still be good songs?

fuck FINE

play this on a piano. sing it
youtube.com/watch?v=89F5fpvwPr0

that's LITERALLY all i meant. if you define composition beyond pitched elements to include rhythm we've had a semantic misunderstanding- even then, drone exist.

>The sounds aren't used to paint a bigger picture, they're just about themselves, if that makes sense.
that was well put.

happy to give ideas, i hope to hear where they lead you (:

Takyon is not bad music.
Sure you might not like the style and it won't translate well to other mediums, but it's still well made for what it is.

>i hope to hear where they lead you (:
Thats the nicest thing any ever said to me. Do you have any music atm that you would like to share? i'd love to hear it.

>What's a good way to study composition that doesn't involve sheet music?
Critically listening to a ton of music with good composition so that when you hear something wrong with yours, you immediately know that it sounds off and you can fix it.
IMO listening to the same songs/album to the point of being able to "sing" each element is key to have your brain absorb it.
Recreating a song's entire score in your DAW, and thinking about the function of each element in the song is also extremely useful for seeing a song "from the inside"
Playing songs on an instrument (the voice counts) also helps.

I'd tell you to avoid listening to songs with bad or "experimental" composition because of the opposite effect, but that's probably not gonna happen lol

You can watch YouTube videos about how certain songs are made. They usually explain it in a practical way.
Rick Beato has a nice series about this:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW0NGgv1qnfzb1klL6Vw9B0aiM7ryfXV_
There's also this channel:
youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w
But DESU I haven't watched musch so I speak about its quality.

I've been checking out this book for the past few days and it seems good:
anonymousfiles.io/gtuOE9fm/
And this, which is more pop-oriented but still good:
anonymousfiles.io/nUJiOXmh/
The guy who wrote it also has a great YT channel:
youtube.com/channel/UCLtD67ljlaeXQMV4sb-YzNA

well sure since you asked
clyp.it/zbafnwtt

i've since toned down the mix and chopped on a few bits to make more abrupt jumps. the rest of that clyp page is completely unfocused, as I alluded to before

it's 7am here so
g...

people as dumb as yourself should not be allowed to teach anyone anything.

Those all sound like they would help a lot, thank you.

That was great, I really enjoyed it. The whole aesthetic is something I really appreciate and the textures are very tasty. How long have you been doing music for? Because I've never heard anything that's quite exactly like that track and that level of, i guess self-actualization, is something I'd probably make multiple human sacrifices to get.

Whats new

how do I into algorithmic composition?

You don't.
It's algorithmic composition that into you.

damn

clyp.it/fa4w3bxl

>songwriting tips
So reading the introduction, he says his daughter is a musician and helped him write the book. Well if she's so good, and these tips are so good, how come she doesn't have a rym page?

>how come she doesn't have a rym page?
She does:
rateyourmusic.com/~lovelyanimal

I like it, needs a bit more bass though so you can really feel the chord changes. Try cutting the lowest frequencies of the bass and replacing it with a pure sine wave, that's a great way to beef things up and make them sound cleaner.

mine too

keep eggy dood

pg 9 again s m d h

>don't respond to posts
>expect bumped thread and thriving discussion

i'm just here for the bants

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blessed posts

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