The Musician's Gig Room Chat V1 - Songwriting and Sound Design for all! - Creationism Corner

Well it took me nearly 20 minutes to get the reverse transition thing to sound remotely close. Sorry paindoc but those instructions seem more for a different program than ableton. A bunch of things didn't seem to work the way you said so I had to do work-arounds. :frown: After that, I got frustrated and scrapped my project.

[QUOTE=Catsoldier;48819499]Is there anything free that I can use to start trying to make music with? FL Studio is too expensive for me right now, and I haven't heard of any others[/QUOTE] Reaper! Go to reaper.fm, it has a free trial that doesn't run out for some reason? Anyway, on top of that, you'd need some VSTs for instruments. It comes with some kick ass free EQ vsts and stuff tho. EDIT: Also, someone tell me how to do fucking metal drums fucking fuck

[QUOTE=paindoc;48807122]Sounds pretty good, especially for a first attempt. The lead doesn't really fit, notewise, with the song. Maybe up the resonance or make it seem more retro with some detuning, lowpassing, and modulation maybe. Tons and tons of tutorials on how to use starter vst's to make intro sounds, a Kavinsky style lead synth might work? The drum is just right and the backing sequence fits nicely, but the lead synth just seems off somehow. I can't quite describe. Good job in general with the percussion again though, kick is nice and I like how it seems you did a slow filter sweep with it. The sound at 2m mark works a bit better than the other lead synth, but at this point you should add a bit more variety to the bassline. Try playing with [URL="http://www.attackmagazine.com/technique/essential-transition-fx-technique-masterclass/"]more transition sounds[/URL], and add more motion in the sound with light effects processing like delay, panning, phasers, chorus, etc. Overall, nicely done. I look forward to hearing more from you and hearing you improve more, you have a hell of a lot of potential. I made a thing I also don't hate as well, just an intro and WIP as fuck so very little automation and mixing work, but I do really intend to finish this. Just won't have time for a few weeks, probably. [url]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/hey-look-this-is-okay-i-guess/s-d1nCm[/url] Also anyone else use a Xenyx 1204USB mixer? It seems to really ruin the audio whenr ecorded through USB. It just sounds very low quality, and muffled with a lot of the richness of the sound missing. This was recorded with the Orchestral 3 patch also heard [URL="http://synthmania.com/Roland%20SR-JV80-02%20Orchestral/Audio/177%20Full%20Orch.3.mp3"]here[/URL], but it sounds so much worse: [/QUOTE] This is cool, I like the piano that comes in. The start is pretty boring though. The snare gets a little lost in the mix after the drop. Added an intro to my neuro song: [media]https://soundcloud.com/prizymmusic/neurostep-wip[/media]

[QUOTE=chaz13;48834980]This is cool, I like the piano that comes in. The start is pretty boring though. The snare gets a little lost in the mix after the drop. Added an intro to my neuro song: [media]https://soundcloud.com/prizymmusic/neurostep-wip[/media][/QUOTE] dude that sounds like you've been on meth or something nice job

[QUOTE=Adeptus;48835108]dude that sounds like you've been on meth or something nice job[/QUOTE] shh don't reveal my secret

[QUOTE=Adeptus;48835108]dude that sounds like you've been on meth or something nice job[/QUOTE] thats his secret he's always on meth [editline]5th October 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=chaz13;48835124]shh don't reveal my secret[/QUOTE] whoops

this is my folk polka punk band: [url]https://soundcloud.com/the-flintlocks[/url]

Bkegh, I cant seem to think of anything. Usually beats I think of in my head are from songs I've already heard. I know I'm not creative but thats just irritating.

[QUOTE=Vaught;48837847]Bkegh, I cant seem to think of anything. Usually beats I think of in my head are from songs I've already heard. I know I'm not creative but thats just irritating.[/QUOTE] Well, no shit. You just started. It takes time to learn to be really, truly, originally creative and those flashes can be few and far between. For now, take a look at Attack magazines Beat Dissected series. Should give you some ideas on different drum beats, and once you tweak them and use your own samples you'll have your own versions of them. [editline]5th October 2015[/editline] Everyone is creative, its learning to wield that creativity and spur it on that takes time and practice. Try not to fret. Translating the melody you are humming or the beat you hear in your head and feel in how you tap your foot is hard. It gets better with time, the more you write the more you learn and improve.

Play around. Get lost in the process. Don't be so focused on making exactly what's in your head. Try new shit and you'll get more ideas. Get in the habit of doing lots of "I wonder what this would sound like". [QUOTE=Vaught;48837847]I know I'm not creative but thats just irritating.[/QUOTE] Never telling yourself that again is a great place to start too.

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;48838070]Play around. Get lost in the process. Don't be so focused on making exactly what's in your head. Try new shit and you'll get more ideas. Get in the habit of doing lots of "I wonder what this would sound like". Never telling yourself that again is a great place to start too.[/QUOTE] im gonna find that ratebot script someone was using to dumb everything in GGD just so I can agree to this about 500 more times. Vaught you're a psych guy. You know the power of our thoughts patterns and how badly negative patterns can affect you. Breaking these patterns is tough, like fighting depression or anxiety. But its vital you don't dismiss your creativity's depth, validity, or uniqueness. [editline]5th October 2015[/editline] Failing to be able to sound truly creative or unique is not a failing of you being uncreative, its you not knowing how to speak a language. Its like learning to write a novel in a new language. At first, you learn how to draw and write the letters. Make basic sentences. Copy paragrahps. Write your own paragraphs. Write following a prompt. At some point you can be truly independently creative in your writing. Its a step-by-step process and it takes a loooong time depending on how many hours you put in per day or week or month. You can accelerate this process though, by writing more, analytically reading more (as in active listening), and taking classes online or reading books on this subject.

Holy shit, I didn't expect this. Yeah, after thinking about what you guys said, it makes sense to not be good at something I started just recently. A part of me is afraid I'll get too used to mimicking beats without taking off somewhere and..yeah. Maybe I'm just having an off-day, I don't know. Its like, I get these things in my head and go "that sounds cool", but can never get it pitch perfect. It drives me bonkers but in the process I find out there are like 20 other cool sounds I didn't know existed. I found a really awesome synth that was really good for retrowave. By the end of it all, I made nothing, which I was too focused on. Anyway, yeah. I'm mega hard on myself, but I'll do more having fun than kicking myself for not being Mozart :v:

[QUOTE=Vaught;48838153]Holy shit, I didn't expect this. Yeah, after thinking about what you guys said, it makes sense to not be good at something I started just recently. A part of me is afraid I'll get too used to mimicking beats without taking off somewhere and..yeah. Maybe I'm just having an off-day, I don't know. Its like, I get these things in my head and go "that sounds cool", but can never get it pitch perfect. It drives me bonkers but in the process I find out there are like 20 other cool sounds I didn't know existed. I found a really awesome synth that was really good for retrowave. By the end of it all, I made nothing, which I was too focused on. Anyway, yeah. I'm mega hard on myself, but I'll do more having fun than kicking myself for not being Mozart :v:[/QUOTE] Exactly! You can direct your training in musical writing and translation without killing the fun or neutering your creativity. I've gotten to the point now where I can hum fairly well a melody I've heard or thought of and get a decent approximation in my daw (or play it on my keyboard). At the beginning of March, I couldn't tell you what the notes were in the musical scale. If you focus on perfection, you get bogged down and won't finish anything. The most important thing as a beginner is to just churn out tracks. Don't have to (and shouldn't, really) share all of them but going through the composition, arrangement, sound design, mixing, and mastering stage 30 times in a year for 30 "bad" songs is better than pursuing 2-3 "good" songs a year. Once you break the momentum lock and mental brick you have atm, you can get rolling. /r/edmproduction is a good resource, /r/advancedproduction is good too. BassGorilla tutorials have been a huge help for me- check out their $1 month trial or whatever and just do as much as you can and take notes then cancel before full monthly rate. The small selection in $1 trial has plenty of good stuff

Oh wow, there's more resources than I thought. Gonna finish reading up on that mixing bible thing from the op and then check out those subreddits and Attack. I really thought music making was less..."open source"? Iunno if thats the right term, but still.

[QUOTE=Vaught;48838284]Oh wow, there's more resources than I thought. Gonna finish reading up on that mixing bible thing from the op and then check out those subreddits and Attack. I really thought music making was less..."open source"? Iunno if thats the right term, but still.[/QUOTE] Used to be. Rise of the bedroom producer has changed that. Attack magazine has GREAT articles on techniques covering many categories from melodies, basslines, sycnopation, FX usage, sound design, drumbeats, on and on and on. They also do hardware reviews and stuff. Good articles all around. I paid for the $25 BassGorilla monthly fee but had to cancel recently since I'm jobless again (end of baseball season) and coasting. It was worth it though, lots of great info and really well made tutorial videos. One month would be enough to get just the core, if you can devote the time. Excellent songwriting course that covers creativity blocks, music theory, drum beats, sound design, and such. Good mini course by varien (<3 varien) too [editline]6th October 2015[/editline] fuck, meds wore off and I've had a fuckload of espresso. Protip kids: do not place an espresso machine directly behind your workdesk. It ends in fragmented sentences and talking wayyyyyyyyy too much. [I]Not even once.[/I]

Need to slow those wheels down, mister. Gonna smoke up the place :v:

[QUOTE=chaz13;48804431] Neurostep thing: [URL="https://facepunch.com/"]Listen to Soundcloud recording[/URL] [URL]https://soundcloud.com/prizymmusic/neurostep-wip[/URL] [/QUOTE] This is fucked man! You should bring the chanting/whatever from the very start as a prominent element, I think it would go well with the wild bass. Also I really want to hear a different snare on this, thats just me tho, I'm so bored of this kind of snares [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=MrJazzy;48805279]Here are two tracks I've hastily worked on. [URL]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/going-on/s-FiUGd[/URL] [URL]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/aight2222/s-6uuJz[/URL][/QUOTE] Going on is very nice, I like the progression. I do miss some hihats, relaxed raids or something. I also feel that the track until 1:24 doesn't really need drums? Or you could add some slight impact to the track by bringing the drums slowly to it. It's really nice tho, I do love the synthwork. I feel the second track is a lot weaker mainly because the main part doesn't really bring in anything new (or change anything) after the 'drop'. Maybe you could try having a similar synth instead of the one you're using now for it. Keep the lfo and shit the same, but change the oscillators or something. You also have some cute arpeggios going on in the intro and outro, why not use those? Other thing you can try is having the main synth actually come in slowly during the main part, it may sound dumb but I think it could be cool. I hope I'm making sense I'm a bit tired [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] This is dumb but I've kinda taking a liking to it, I think it's the bongos [media]https://soundcloud.com/timopy/108a[/media] [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] I'm tired so I'll try to say a word or two about some more tracks in here tomorrow, everyone in here is getting pretty good tbh so it's getting harder

Full circle moment: Today G-Jones hit me up for a copy of a tune I wrote a couple years ago. I wrote that tune as a result of the inspiration I got from watching him play for the first time haha

[QUOTE=CLungcancer;48844513] This is dumb but I've kinda taking a liking to it, I think it's the bongos [media]https://soundcloud.com/timopy/108a[/media] [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] I'm tired so I'll try to say a word or two about some more tracks in here tomorrow, everyone in here is getting pretty good tbh so it's getting harder[/QUOTE] This is an interesting track simply because I have no idea what I'm listening to. The metal windchime/gong sound effect is an unexpectedly nice sound in all of this. Its all very slow yet aggressive, which I adore. The gong sound effect kinda seems to jump out of tune, though I'm not sure if thats me. I fucked around with more effects and came across vocoder effects. Actually had fun with it and made for some interesting sounds. Still no luck on getting the snares just right but the reverb helps. [url]https://soundcloud.com/muu-558163172/i-dont-know/s-AZZQ3[/url] Also I keep getting followed by this bot with just User <random numbers here> and it wont go away no matter how many times I block them :s:. Soundcloud could really work on privacy.

[QUOTE=Vaught;48846199]This is an interesting track simply because I have no idea what I'm listening to. The metal windchime/gong sound effect is an unexpectedly nice sound in all of this. Its all very slow yet aggressive, which I adore. The gong sound effect kinda seems to jump out of tune, though I'm not sure if thats me. I fucked around with more effects and came across vocoder effects. Actually had fun with it and made for some interesting sounds. Still no luck on getting the snares just right but the reverb helps. [url]https://soundcloud.com/muu-558163172/i-dont-know/s-AZZQ3[/url] Also I keep getting followed by this bot with just User <random numbers here> and it wont go away no matter how many times I block them :s:. Soundcloud could really work on privacy.[/QUOTE] its aphex twin also, im not sure what you're going for (sounds like synth wave), but try putting a gate on the reverb of the snare maybe a lowpass filter too

[QUOTE=Wingz;48846311]its aphex twin also, im not sure what you're going for (sounds like synth wave), but try putting a gate on the reverb of the snare maybe a lowpass filter too[/QUOTE] Yeah I didn't know what I was doing either, I just stumbled across something cool and tried doing something with it. The random saw bass is irking me now that I listen to it more. Might use this idea again in the future. I'll give the gate idea a shot later, play around with the knobs here and there.

[QUOTE=Vaught;48846351]Yeah I didn't know what I was doing either, I just stumbled across something cool and tried doing something with it. The random saw bass is irking me now that I listen to it more. Might use this idea again in the future. I'll give the gate idea a shot later, play around with the knobs here and there.[/QUOTE] sounds like synthwave a lot you could turn the saw into something interesting if u wanted

[QUOTE=Wingz;48846470]sounds like synthwave a lot you could turn the saw into something interesting if u wanted[/QUOTE] Its funny because I actually wasn't trying for synthwave this time but I guess I did it again :v: . I had an idea for the saw, but it came in too jarringly. Like, you had the crash, then the saw would overpower. Changing the volume or boosting the envelope didn't help much now that I listen to it. Maybe an electric guitar would be better suited..

[QUOTE=CLungcancer;48844513]This is fucked man! You should bring the chanting/whatever from the very start as a prominent element, I think it would go well with the wild bass. Also I really want to hear a different snare on this, thats just me tho, I'm so bored of this kind of snares [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] This is dumb but I've kinda taking a liking to it, I think it's the bongos [media]https://soundcloud.com/timopy/108a[/media] [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] I'm tired so I'll try to say a word or two about some more tracks in here tomorrow, everyone in here is getting pretty good tbh so it's getting harder[/QUOTE] Thanks man! I've tried out your suggestions, see below. This track is kinda cool, the main synth at the start doesn't really do it for me but it feels like a good base for something, I think it's a bit too wet for my liking. Those bongos tho' [media]https://soundcloud.com/prizymmusic/neurostep-wip[/media]

anybody got good orchestral horror music i could sample? Preferably one with no tempo changes.

well, i pissed away a fair few hours trying to install logic pro X to a vmware guest lesson learned: don't cheap out with your mate's copy of OS X and expect it to work

[QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;48850717]anybody got good orchestral horror music i could sample? Preferably one with no tempo changes.[/QUOTE] do you need certain notes? Sustain? I have a couple nice creepy/unsettling orchestra patches on my JV1080. Stuff like [URL="http://www.synthmania.com/Roland%20SR-JV80-02%20Orchestral/Audio/012%20Sad%20Vln%20Sect.mp3"]this[/URL], but with more disharmony for that creepy vibe. My xenyx 1204usb only does 16bit stereo over USB, so I'd have to feed it into my JD-Xi and run it through its USB. That means mono only, until my birthday rolls around and I can afford a new audio interface.

Me and My friend Ambivalence made another collab [media]https://soundcloud.com/corn-mouth/heavy-kicks-collab[/media] [editline]7th October 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=chaz13;48849737]Thanks man! I've tried out your suggestions, see below. This track is kinda cool, the main synth at the start doesn't really do it for me but it feels like a good base for something, I think it's a bit too wet for my liking. Those bongos tho' [media]https://soundcloud.com/prizymmusic/neurostep-wip[/media][/QUOTE] Fuck I want those synths so bad. I've been trying to make shit that sick forever and I've been lost. also I like little amen's in there.

[QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;48854577]Fuck I want those synths so bad. I've been trying to make shit that sick forever and I've been lost. also I like little amen's in there.[/QUOTE] Saw waves > distortion > phaser/chorus/frequency shifter/notch filters/anything else even remotely like that > distortion > more phaser/chorus/filters/whatever > distortion > repeat The trick is to keep the effect layers somewhat subtle and use them to push the sound in the direction you want instead of trying to get one or two effects to do all the work. Once you crack it a few times, it's really easy.

The gate effect is wonderful on these snares. Combined with the reverb, it has that right level of smack. Threw a limiter on both the kick and snare so it wasn't so ear-wrenchingly loud. Played around with more effects, but I'm in love with the vocoder :v: