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

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49141116]Perhaps somebody could help me with this synth sound I'd like to recreate? It's a pad synth, you can hear it clearly after 1:30.
[video=youtube;B-R9oAqc0p4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-R9oAqc0p4[/video]
It sounds like a weird kind of theremin, so presumably it should be easy to make, but I have no idea how to go about recreating it. It sounds so cool I'm dying to know how it's made.[/QUOTE]

Nasally sounds make me think of lots of formants, so phasers and bandpasses I think? Your goal should be to go for a tinny sound it seems, so probably a square wave, and the phaser when tuned can fill out a bit. Formant filtering the whole thing is going to really push that nasal-tin sound. I'd give it a shot.

[brooklynlord]

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49141204]Thanks! I'll see if that works.[/QUOTE]

I'll add what I know about tonal quality (from what I've read in instrument creation books and acoustical engineering stuff), but I don't know if it'll help much.

A 'pure' tone is a tone without lots of overtones. Which means that the wave is going to look similar to a sine wave (flutes are an example). The more nasal you get, the more overtones start to show.
(Overtones are frequencies an integer multiple of the base frequency. So, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, etc. of the original).

The clarinet's peculiar sound comes from a specific set of overtones, specifically a lot of the 3rd and 5th overtones, almost no 2nd overtones, very little 4th, etc. In fact, most reed instruments have a lot of odd-numbered overtones and weak even-numbered overtones, that, over the higher frequencies, start to match in strength (but of course still decay pretty quickly).

Meanwhile, the oboe, being one of the most nasal instruments in the orchestra, has lots and lots of overtones.

fun fact: your brain smashes all of these overtones together and says 'that's an oboe/clarinet/violin/piano/trombone/kazoo/whatever!' without you knowing it. That's why you never hear a bunch of sine waves that JUST HAPPENS to be 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, etc frequencies apart from each other. Your brain smashes all of that together and identifies it as a specific sound. So yes you can technically say your brain is fourier transforming everything you hear and is doing a pretty damn well job at it, too.

So finding out the specific sound of an instrument or, in your case, a synth, is all about guessing those overtones and checking if it sounds about right. I suppose.

Good luck!

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=brooklynlord;49143862]I'll add what I know about tonal quality (from what I've read in instrument creation books and acoustical engineering stuff), but I don't know if it'll help much.

A 'pure' tone is a tone without lots of overtones. Which means that the wave is going to look similar to a sine wave (flutes are an example). The more nasal you get, the more overtones start to show.
(Overtones are frequencies an integer multiple of the base frequency. So, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, etc. of the original).

The clarinet's peculiar sound comes from a specific set of overtones, specifically a lot of the 3rd and 5th overtones, almost no 2nd overtones, very little 4th, etc. In fact, most reed instruments have a lot of odd-numbered overtones and weak even-numbered overtones, that, over the higher frequencies, start to match in strength (but of course still decay pretty quickly).

Meanwhile, the oboe, being one of the most nasal instruments in the orchestra, has lots and lots of overtones.

fun fact: your brain smashes all of these overtones together and says 'that's an oboe/clarinet/violin/piano/trombone/kazoo/whatever!' without you knowing it. That's why you never hear a bunch of sine waves that JUST HAPPENS to be 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, etc frequencies apart from each other. Your brain smashes all of that together and identifies it as a specific sound. So yes you can technically say your brain is fourier transforming everything you hear and is doing a pretty damn well job at it, too.

So finding out the specific sound of an instrument or, in your case, a synth, is all about guessing those overtones and checking if it sounds about right. I suppose.

Good luck![/QUOTE]

harmonics harmonics harmonics. and for harmonics, sine waves are bad. Squares are good, and so are saws. Triangles are okay- in between sine and square.

Also getting my track professionally mixed/mastered by some guy looking to get some demo tracks and some footage of him mixing/mastering. He plans to start a newsletter, work on finishing his ebook, and start a YT channel. I'll post a link here to his channel and stuff when its done, it sounds quite good.

He also mostly mixes/masters indie, folk, and more acoustic stuff. I know a few of you here do that sort of thing and all my advice applies to EDM so hopefully that helps. My track is obviously liquid DnB styled though, which was part of the appeal to him.

Should be a good mix of genres and info though, I'm excited to have my stuff professionally mastered. Comparing the first draft to my mix+LANDRmaster is crazy, so this should be really neat :D

[Ms. Gyroscope]

made in less than 2 mins. Fucking lmao what is this

[media]https://soundcloud.com/corn-mouth/what[/media]

[Unkle Dada]

[QUOTE=paindoc;49144175]harmonics harmonics harmonics. and for harmonics, sine waves are bad. Squares are good, and so are saws. Triangles are okay- in between sine and square.[/QUOTE]

Sine waves are p good with FM. Even a 2-operator setup with a sine wave modulating another sine wave can make some really cool sounds.

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=geogzm;49131950][media]http://soundcloud.com/geogzm/camp-and-clan[/media]

i started composing this at like 2am, had a lengthy break to do some sidequests in fo4 and went back to work on it. more dubby bubby whateveryacallit[/QUOTE]

Very groovy, maybe a sort of mellow sounding melody would sound good on top of it? A really nice mix of electronic and reggae in either case.

[QUOTE=Hoyticus;49124688]I discovered how easy and happy and good-sounding the key of C is, so I made this track. Once again, my favorite genre, progressive house. I love long buildups that pay off with a sort of head-bobbing trance-y groove. Repetition is my thing. Also, decided to actually spend a couple weeks on a single project rather than jumping between projects or rushing one in a night, and I think it paid off well.

[media]https://soundcloud.com/thehoyticus/reflection-in-the-water[/media][/QUOTE]

Very nice, the drop around 1:40 is pleasant and the build up from it is great, I feel like it gets a little too messy around 2:30 though, and a base to come in after the drop would have been really cool. It's great though, I wouldn't change it if you're happy with it.

[QUOTE=Hentie;49124382]i made a poo
[media]https://soundcloud.com/kid64/cloudapitechhadoopedition[/media][/QUOTE]

I love your stuff, it's not what I usually listen to but it's so chill and has such funky vibes to it. No part of this song especially sounds really the same, I love the variation.

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49121137]I started making a beat and ended up doing my version of disco balls by flying lotus lol. It wasn't intentional, I didn't have any specific idea about what I wanted to make, so it happened naturally when I started playing keys over drum loop I've created. It was super fun and some lessons were learned - I think second part sounds better with that bass movement. Basically, the main lesson is to not be too lazy with my midi patterns lol.

[video]https://soundcloud.com/mechbgun/mb-doppelganger[/video][/QUOTE]

I really like that synth that comes in around 0:27 it sounds funky as heck, and it goes really well with the beat. Not a super big fan of the base sound, maybe an envelope on the filter cutoff could give it some kick, it's a bit flat and intense at the moment imo.

[editline]19th November 2015[/editline]

I've been experimenting a lot with trying to make early medieval sounding music with some success but I need to get my hands on some more sample libraries, as flutes+strings+guitars and synths end up sounding a bit too modern.

[url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/bom/s-jEVMI[/url] here's one where I tried 5/4 and it sounds pretty exotic, not really fitting the game I'm making this stuff for, but I had a lot of fun making it

[url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/death-revenge/s-MNay9[/url] a bit more skyrimesque
[url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/north-of-here/s-zGxEZ[/url] here's the first one i did, a little more synth based

[notgeogzm]

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49141116]

At first it sounded weird to me, all this detuning felt a bit irratating, but then it grew on me quickly and I started to like it! I think tihs synth works better with the melody that starts after 2 minutes. Pretty interesting tune!
[/QUOTE]

detuning? can you elaborate? i don't remember detuning anything so i'm wondering if i've done something somewhere wrong :v:

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;49144269]made in less than 2 mins. Fucking lmao what is this

[media]https://soundcloud.com/corn-mouth/what[/media][/QUOTE]

very trippy

[pdp]

hope i'm not embarrassing myself. here's something i was fucking around with.
[video]https://soundcloud.com/plazzy-1/another-one-for-the-trash-pile[/video]

it's pretty loud

[Hakita]

seeing a bunch of posts on this page that are people posting music without posting feedback

[img]http://i.imgur.com/qlFuRED.jpg[/img]

[pdp]

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49121137]I love that little bridge before 1:30 a lot, the way white noise and amen faded in sounded super engaging. I also liked the part that comes at 2:45 the most. I only wish mix was cleaner and then it'd be perfect for me. My biggest complaint would be snare drum running through the middle of the track, it sounds flat.

---

I started making a beat and ended up doing my version of disco balls by flying lotus lol. It wasn't intentional, I didn't have any specific idea about what I wanted to make, so it happened naturally when I started playing keys over drum loop I've created. It was super fun and some lessons were learned - I think second part sounds better with that bass movement. Basically, the main lesson is to not be too lazy with my midi patterns lol.

[video]https://soundcloud.com/mechbgun/mb-doppelganger[/video][/QUOTE]

ok, you definitely have a great sense of mixing, i can tell that already. the groove is there, i want to bob my head, there are some nice sounds, but it feels uninspired, like notes were kind of mindlessly plotted in as they were deemed fit, rather than on any melodical whim.

try a fully original composition maybe?

[brooklynlord]

So, auditions just happened.
I'm tired (stayed at school for 13 hours).

Well, I don't know what's going to happen. I've a feeling that I'll make the audition. The cellist played another piece with another pianist but that pianist completely screwed up the ending after huge cuts. To be fair, he only got the piece on sunday.
The only reasons why I think I'm going to make the audition are: i composed the piece, and both of us (the cellist and I) are seniors. To be fair, I did practice a little so I didn't mess up, but I also had the almighty power of making my own part easier (oh the joys and wonders of being a composer haha).

I'll see if I can acquire a recording.

[SentientToilet]

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;49145890]
[url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/north-of-here/s-zGxEZ[/url] here's the first one i did, a little more synth based[/QUOTE]
This would make for an amazing soundtrack. I love it

anyway, quick thing made in less than a day, mostly to test stuff cause this is a new genre I've never explored before:
[media]https://soundcloud.com/venadore/glitch-complex[/media]

[pdp]

[QUOTE=pdp;49150465]hope i'm not embarrassing myself. here's something i was fucking around with.
[video]https://soundcloud.com/plazzy-1/another-one-for-the-trash-pile[/video]

it's pretty loud[/QUOTE]

new page

[editline]19th November 2015[/editline]

[QUOTE=Hentie;49124382][media]https://soundcloud.com/kid64/cloudapitechhadoopedition[/media][/QUOTE]

you're on to something.

some thoughts:

the bell sound at :40 is cheap

the transition at ~1:10 sounds awkward

1:30 is a good melody, but the tape stop is an unnecessary addition imo

from 1:30 onwards i feel things kind of lose direction. it's a bunch of different segments that don't make a cohesivie statement.

all in all, nice sounds, but work on your polish, songwriting, and consistency

[Warship]

[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;49150498]This would make for an amazing soundtrack. I love it

anyway, quick thing made in less than a day, mostly to test stuff cause this is a new genre I've never explored before:
[media]https://soundcloud.com/venadore/glitch-complex[/media][/QUOTE]

Woah nice, I like the melody and drums. I think it becomes a bit repetitive, maybe a break with the drums muted and stuff would be an idea?

[media]https://soundcloud.com/thedanielholt/20a[/media]

Here's something I made today because it's my birthday, RIP teenage life.
Let me do something different and post a screenshot the track above.
[t]http://gabeazo.com/images/1e39a8747ddbd9c4e2b0.png[/t]

[llamalords]

[QUOTE=Warship;49155515]Woah nice, I like the melody and drums. I think it becomes a bit repetitive, maybe a break with the drums muted and stuff would be an idea?

[media]https://soundcloud.com/thedanielholt/20a[/media]

Here's something I made today because it's my birthday, RIP teenage life.
Let me do something different and post a screenshot the track above.
[t]http://gabeazo.com/images/1e39a8747ddbd9c4e2b0.png[/t][/QUOTE]

Happy 20th, sounds real nice. Sounds a lot like if the sonic soundtrack and flying lotus had a baby.

Songs I'm talking about,
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3NR9wQgZOw[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CybO7XtYpdU[/media]

[hentie]

[QUOTE=pdp;49150502]new page

[editline]19th November 2015[/editline]

you're on to something.

some thoughts:

the bell sound at :40 is cheap

the transition at ~1:10 sounds awkward

1:30 is a good melody, but the tape stop is an unnecessary addition imo

from 1:30 onwards i feel things kind of lose direction. it's a bunch of different segments that don't make a cohesivie statement.

all in all, nice sounds, but work on your polish, songwriting, and consistency[/QUOTE]

the theme of most of my music is maximalism (check out "bo en"), i pretty much just try to jam as many genres into one song at once, so being in-cohesive and inconsistent is the point. i'm sure not everyone will like that :)

i dont think i can ever get rid of the 808 toms at :40 though. they're too much of a musical staple haha.

good points though, man. I appreciate it.

[pdp]

i can definitely tell you have a knack for writing hooks. it looks like i was being overly critical, but i wasn't. you're good, just keep improving and you'll be good-er.

[paindoc]

Adius Mercury was neat. Big transition, bass might come down a bit but it doesn't sound too bad on my headphones and these things are made for overdriving the bass range. I like it. Its big in terms of sound too, the amount of expansion here is staggering!

[QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;49144269]made in less than 2 mins. Fucking lmao what is this

[media]https://soundcloud.com/corn-mouth/what[/media][/QUOTE]

I am amused by the audio and the drum beats are ms.gyroscope signature i.e distorted and awesome. I'm not really sure what else to say here tbh :v:

[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;49150498]This would make for an amazing soundtrack. I love it

anyway, quick thing made in less than a day, mostly to test stuff cause this is a new genre I've never explored before:
[media]https://soundcloud.com/venadore/glitch-complex[/media][/QUOTE]

I like the intro a lot, thats a lovely synth sound. Good usage of the genre cliche (bad connotation, mein bad) here of the vocal samples. That bass that comes in is lovely and is distorted just right, and you change the pacing up enough to make it work.

The snare is a bit too loud imo. The transient is almost too punchy, when I think of this genre or style I do think of that sound- but a little more muted with usually a bit of another sound or two layered on top. It is especially noticeable at 0:30 to a nearly painful degree. Have you thought about using even weirder FX on the vocals? One of my biggest musical inspirations, Wolfgun, gets really creative with vocals and its been fascinating listening to him. Things like beat repeat, triggered delay, reversed reverb, reversed delay, distorted and pitch shifted backing vocals, etc. The song off his EP [I]Rise[/I] called Myth is an excellent example and isn't too distant from what you have going here. You should expand this! Also, try layering the snare with some other sounds if you bring it down. Keeps it interesting and distinct without requiring you to punch the volume up into a painful zone :D

Also neat little outro. Damn impressive for a one-day jam regardless!

[QUOTE=pdp;49150502]new page

[editline]19th November 2015[/editline]

you're on to something.

some thoughts:

the bell sound at :40 is cheap

the transition at ~1:10 sounds awkward

1:30 is a good melody, but the tape stop is an unnecessary addition imo

from 1:30 onwards i feel things kind of lose direction. it's a bunch of different segments that don't make a cohesivie statement.

all in all, nice sounds, but work on your polish, songwriting, and consistency[/QUOTE]

Your song is overdistorted, imo. The bass sound seems neat and I'd like ot hear more of it but the rest of the harmonics and texture is drowned in distortion. Successive small amounts of distortion will result in a richer sound than just slamming everything. How heavily limited and compressed was this? To be honest, it has potential but some of the sound design choices seem to be a bit silly. And its loud as fuck fucking ow. What was your intention? It doesn't seem to do much.

[B]Hentie[/B]: Do love the variety in sounds here. Atmos and use of vox sounds is excellent, drums are well programmed and come through pretty well. The kick seems a bit muffled, even though its transient comes through. This may have been potential or mebbe not just noticing it. Seriously though that wide stereo vox patch [I]goddamn[/I]. This doesn't happen to use a freshly released vocal plugin does it? Because it makes me want more vox sounds for that jumpy/random-ish liquid dnb sound. The pumping/rolling bass is neat, and sounds a touch sidechained which works well. Did you consider getting really weird with it? Like having it suddenly cut and jump between modes and get all freaky? It seems to work as an excellent device for building ridiculous amounts of tension and a sliding, flowing feel (counterintuitive to whats actually happening) that would work well here I think. Overall, nice hook and melody and a great piece overall. You keep it interesting with the utilization of the stereo field, and the amount of filter work and stuff.

I personally enjoy the tape stop and the bell sound sounds fine. But as I'm going to mention below if you need cheesy 90s/80s bell rompler samples I can hook you up.

[QUOTE=Warship;49155515]Woah nice, I like the melody and drums. I think it becomes a bit repetitive, maybe a break with the drums muted and stuff would be an idea?

[media]https://soundcloud.com/thedanielholt/20a[/media]

Here's something I made today because it's my birthday, RIP teenage life.
Let me do something different and post a screenshot the track above.
[t]http://gabeazo.com/images/1e39a8747ddbd9c4e2b0.png[/t][/QUOTE]

damn, thats some good shit. happy twentieth! I like the panning and phasing of the synth back and forth, that works really well. It does sound like the bassline is a bit too filtered though, the thud sound just feels a bit rough. Maybe some envelope modulation? Making it into a funkier sliding wet bass as you go into the meat of the song could work soooo well I feel. The chords were solid, and the song as a whole moved very well and felt like it flowed. I wonder if a bit more variety could have been added to the drum beat. It sounds somewhat french house-y to me, so maybe looking that wya for inspiration would be a thought? Claves, cowbells, almost synthwave-type sounds might be a start. Throw a few random hits in every 3-5-7 bars for a noticeable effect (off the even count), maybe swing the drums a touch, and add some off beat rolling percussion to give it a jiving groove yo.

My twentieth is next Wednesday, and I'll be finished with my two last midterms before finals so I'll be celebrating and waiting for my flight home by making jams. Also you ever feel [I]really[/I] fucking dumb? I've been puzzled how my Behringer can make the quality so shit when it comes to recording. Just completely stymied. It didn't seem outright broken, and the fact that is is 16bit shouldn't have resulted in the really weird quality reduction I noticed (and it seems bit reduction for dat 90's sound is the new thing. If old romplers with shitty adc's come back I'm gonna have a hell of a giggle for what I paid for this thing). Also, while it is noisy, that is a well known problem with the headphone outs and my JV1080 is a seriously noisy motherfucker as is (oh good lord that psu whine).

Well today I figured out my problem when I remember that the last time I noticed really weird sound quality fuckery like this was when my JD-Xi didn't have the L channel plugged in and I was using stereo patches and stereo audio. I checked my JV-1080, bam L channel not fully plugged in. Checked windows and it had defaulted to 1-channel mono audio as well, even after I had set it to 2-channel. fixed both of these and BAM muh audio quality. I've been waiting [I]ages[/I] to use the acoustic bass sounds, string sounds, ambient sounds, soundtrack sounds, etc the thing is just versatile as fuck and rare enough that I can preset dive or go mental with full 16-patch performances.

I don't have time to make a song since I do need to study for my exams mon/tues, but I'm going to improv play through my favorite patches really quick and post them in a bit. If a few of you could give them a quick listen and let me know how they sound, in terms of technical stuff, that'd be great. Do you notice any popping, clicking, noisiness? Does the freq response and range seem right? Does it seem muffled or sound off? that sort of thing would be good to get a second opinion on from other ears. I am trying to figure out now if I need to buy an audio interface, or if I can just get myself a Demora delay (srs listen to this thing) with my birthday dosh. Although I may just get a cheap Alesis 1 Plus or whatever it is, someone is selling one with a 3630 compressor and my love of french house and sidechaining demands it (for only $40!)

first two: warning i think SC normalized them to fuck and back they're a bit louder than the original. and the res bass seemingly has completely unlimited resonance at Bb2 so rip. also just me completely fucking around with no preparation so my playing is complete shite

[url]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/fleet-fuchs/s-ELgSl[/url]

[url]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/if-this-is-a-wet-bass-then-im/s-93MAy[/url]

the res bass shakes my everything in my room and has already gotten me in trouble its awesome

[pdp]

i know i shattered the dynamic range on that track. my intention? loud, overcompressed bass.

i've been listening to gesaffelstein.

[editline]20th November 2015[/editline]

mixing is completely subjective no matter what anybody says

you're the artist. if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters.

your average listener won't even scrutinize those points.

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=pdp;49156443]i know i shattered the dynamic range on that track. my intention? loud, overcompressed bass.

i've been listening to gesaffelstein.

[editline]20th November 2015[/editline]

mixing is completely subjective no matter what anybody says

you're the artist. if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters.

your average listener won't even scrutinize those points.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, thats sort of what criticism is ;p

choose to listen or don't listen your choice, just pointing out what I noticed based on what I like and what I produce

[pdp]

i need to finish a song i can say i'm proud of for once, rather than a cheap :30 demo.

i've really been lacking inspiration, it sucks.

all i've been doing lately is opening FL studio and putting ridiculous effects chains on kicks and blasting my ear drums out

[editline]20th November 2015[/editline]

also, i produce when high a lot and come up with some really unprofessional stuff, i mean my FX chains and mastering shit is probably all wrong from a technical standpoint, but it sounds pretty good to me, if i like really polish a track with all my might.

i think that's fine, though. a lot of the "rules" of audio engineering are completely arbitrary. am i being controversial in saying that? i have a feeling some of my favorite producers would have my back on this one. (aphex twin, deadmau5, savant)

i wholeheartedly adopt the "if it sounds good, it is good" mindset

[editline]20th November 2015[/editline]

i totally respect people who have the discipline to learn more about the technical side of music making though. i sure as hell don't have the patience. i'll probably never learn music theory.

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=pdp;49156473]i need to finish a song i can say i'm proud of for once, rather than a cheap :30 demo.

i've really been lacking inspiration, it sucks.

all i've been doing lately is opening FL studio and putting ridiculous effects chains on kicks and blasting my ear drums out

[editline]20th November 2015[/editline]

also, i produce when high a lot and come up with some really unprofessional stuff, i mean my FX chains and mastering shit is probably all wrong from a technical standpoint, but it sounds pretty good to me, if i like really polish a track with all my might.

i think that's fine, though. a lot of the "rules" of audio engineering are completely arbitrary. am i being controversial in saying that? i have a feeling some of my favorite producers would have my back on this one. (aphex twin, deadmau5, savant)

i wholeheartedly adopt the "if it sounds good, it is good" mindset

[editline]20th November 2015[/editline]

i totally respect people who have the discipline to learn more about the technical side of music making though. i sure as hell don't have the patience. i'll probably never learn music theory.[/QUOTE]

The rules of audio engineering aren't that bendable, really. Its stuff like keeping the frequency spectrum clean and making sure the dynamics are wide enough that the key parts can come through. And so transitions actually have an energy difference. Deadmau5's hardest songs, like Ghosts and Stuff for example, use highly distorted organ lead sounds with chords spread across like 3 octaves, along with a lot of backing sounds and FX. He keeps it clean though, so the sound still comes through very pure imo. He's damn good at what he does. A muddy mix is a muddy mix, and clipping is clipping. Unless you're gonna play it all off like DJ Carnage, following them is a good idea. There are no rules when it comes to experimenting with making new sounds by getting weird with FX, synths, patch cables, feedback, routing, etc. But objectively bad audio engineering is a thing.

Adius' earlier post is an [I]excellent[/I] example. The way he controls the frequency spectrum, and changes the range of sounds (plus how he employs masterful FX) means the transition is COLOSSAL. If you're already smushed against the 0db barrier that can't happen. It all sounds the same and not much changes.

The rules of music theory are a set of guidelines at best. Not even that, tbh. More like a vague map or a glossary and thesaurus. it is a tool to be employed and used to make things sound better, or lead you into things that sound better. Things that sound good probably have a name and reason they sound good attached to them. Doesn't mean there are objective rights/wrongs but it can certainly help guide your process. Its made my workflow for writing melodies a load better.

You still have to put in the work of writing melodies and chord progressions though.

edit: here's an example with some of my own shit. The first is nearly the same arrangement, but I hadn't done much FX work yet, had unbalanced faders, and hadn't notched out key frequencies and done other EQ work. There isn't any subbass in the first version, but I think there are still some obvious other differences. Also hadn't cleaned reverb tails:

[url]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/liquefaction-instrumental/s-4rdA4[/url]

Key points to listen to between the first version above and the final below- (0:56 "drop", 1:20-1:40 chords filter swell, 2:20 final movement)

[video]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/liquefaction[/video]

I didn't do anything crazy or that was tons of work. I just balanced levels, cleared up my frequencies, compressed what needed to be compressed (lightly) and added a few more subtle FX in the form of filter sweeps. For compression btw, the best tip I've heard for when to use it/not use it is to use it when you just keep adjusting the fader on one of your audio tracks. If you have to keep going up, then down, then up, then your dynamic range is too damn wide and you need to try squeezing it down a bit until it fits into the mix. Hell, even soundcloud's visualizer shows it better. Less distance between maximum peaks and valleys, and the song actually changes in terms of the peak during key points. Its more even, without completely smashing up against the top of the range.

[pdp]

art is not objective. harsh wall noise, even though it's SHIT, does infact disregard traditional engineering principles. intentionally.

i'm obviously just playing devil's advocate here. maybe think outside of the box a bit. feed me said he intentionally causes his plugins to misbehave, for musical effect. just shit like that.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

you might be right about better planning out songs, though. i need more structure in my workflow.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

the way you guys talks makes me think you think shit like circuit bending is illegitimate

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=pdp;49156687]art is not objective. harsh wall noise, even though it's SHIT, does infact disregard traditional engineering principles. intentionally.

i'm obviously just playing devil's advocate here. maybe think outside of the box a bit. feed me said he intentionally causes his plugins to misbehave, for musical effect. just shit like that.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

you might be right about better planning out songs, though. i need more structure in my workflow.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

the way you guys talks makes me think you think shit like circuit bending is illegitimate[/QUOTE]

do you do this in every thread you come into? pointlessly aggravate the residents by just repeteadly proclaiming "just alternate viewpoint bro just alternate viewpoint bro" more than those "its just a prank bro" mouthbreathers? You did the same shit in FULS as soon as someone called you out on something.

No one here thinks circuit bending is illegitimate. But to disregard audio engineering principles literally based on how humans perceive sound, volume, frequencies, energy, emotion, etc, is just plain dumb.

Making music for the sake of loving the craft, wanting to get emotions out, wanting to share, or wanting to make people dance? great. awesome. making music because you're just dicking around? eh.

Nor did I deny you can make plugins misbehave. Thats sound design. Not audio engineering. Audio engineering is relating to the three core concepts of mixing:

1. volume (the most powerful mixing tool is the fader)
2. frequency spread/range density fuck if i know the right word. This isn't timbre.
3. Dynamic range.

Now there are producers who do make artistic choices about the audio engineering aspect, but that is becaus they have a large amount of knowledge or experience in that topic and know exactly what they're doing. I think Porter's worlds is an example of a much messier mix, its filled with a lot of high frequency chaff but it works well for what he does. It is the anathema of what deadmau5 makes. Honest question, have you listened to his earlier albums? they're a bit more simple and less big-room sounding, but feature more gradual timbral shifts in really neat ways.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

what am i doing I'm trying to avoid FP and at most post in here for things that matter

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

and don't tell us to think outside of the box there are a number of different styles represented here, from halofreak and his almost entirely only-90's-kids-get-this stuff (ilu bro), ms.gyroscopes wicked distorted and moving gabba/speedcore/plscorrectme, mrjazzys synthwave with proghouse influences (or soundtrack works!), adius' kickass beats and chill vibes, etc.

We're not arguing against creativity. But there are aspects that don't change between genres, and there are those that do change. Things like adius' stuff for example are very clean mix-wise, with everything extraneous surgically cut to give it a very clear feeling allowing for large changes in feeling. Ms Gyroscopes works are a lot more dense, and feature a lot more going on in terms of the whole spread of sounds and timbres as this is how the genre works. The intricacy there is in the programming, samples used, and such. also, correct me if I'm wrong please.

also like i could disregard circuit bending halofreak does it (has posted videos here too) and I'm working as the systems integration guy on his analog synth project. so pls. stahp.

[pdp]

dude, chill the fuck out. maybe not misread everything i say as a personal attack because of some preconceived notions you have about me based on my posts on an internet forum.

my presence in a thread is not an excuse to start a flamewar, i wasn't even saying anything inflammatory, just offering my opinion, mind you, which is a very common one held by music producers all over the internet.

and stop fucking saying "we." if anyone thinks anything is going on other than you trying to start a flamewar over nothing because you're mad someone has a different opinion than you, genius, nerd lord of all things music and audio, then facepunch's community at large will lose even more reputation.

you got beef, take it to my PM, but for the love of god, stop fucking using me to shitpost.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

literally nothing i've written in this thread was intended to be inflammatory. i was just offering my perspective, not fucking attacking anybody.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

i have given two people respectful constructive criticism in this thread. i have not insulted anybody. you're just being a pretentious asshole.

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=pdp;49156814]dude, chill the fuck out. maybe not misread everything i say as a personal attack because of some preconceived notions you have about me based on my posts on an internet forum.

my presence in a thread is not an excuse to start a flamewar, i wasn't even saying anything inflammatory, just offering my opinion, mind you, which is a very common one held by music producers all over the internet.

and stop fucking saying "we." [B]if anyone thinks anything is going on other than you trying to start a flamewar over nothing because you're mad someone has a different opinion than you, genius, nerd lord of all things music and audio[/B], then facepunch's community at large will lose even more reputation.

you got beef, take it to my PM, but for the love of god, stop fucking using me to shitpost.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

literally nothing i've written in this thread was intended to be inflammatory. i was just offering my perspective, not fucking attacking anybody.

[editline]21st November 2015[/editline]

i have given two people respectful constructive criticism in this thread. i have not insulted anybody. you're just being a pretentious asshole.[/QUOTE]

cool

because im purposefully being a dick. nop. thanks for pointlessly insulting me.

[killerteacup]

can you guys give each other blowjobs and move o

[pdp]

don't be a dick if you can't handle the retaliation. idgaf if you are sensitive about it, i have my own issues and don't need assholes using me as a punching bag for an outlet of their own insecurities.

let's not talk of this any more here, or we may both get banned for threadshitting. shit, it may happen anyway.

[killerteacup]

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49156660]Funny you mention aphex twin and deadmau5, these guys KNOW their shit.
And Deadmau5 even explicitly said many times he hates sound of dubstep specifically because it was invented by people overusing compressors and most of it sounds like crap and disregards all the knowledge about audio engineering lol.
If you want to disregard music theory and technical knwoledge, that's fine, you just gonna have harder time making something that sounds good, that's all.

Also this way of doing it like "I'm just gonna open DAW and make something idk what" is not very healthy, it'll make you burn out real quick if you gonna be doing that every time. If you want to make something that sounds good and complete, you better have an idea about what kind of track you want to make.[/QUOTE]

bullshit though, some of the coolest stuff comes from just opening a DAW and fucking around. Nothing wrong with that