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

Speaking of the fp collab, I am unfortunately not going to be able to finish my song on time due to personal/emotional things that have come up in the past month.

just sent mine, how many have been sent so far?

[QUOTE=PelPix123;49633254]One of the reasons I don't post here too often is because I start hearing songs in my head and I try to get them out but then lose them. I compose by just writing down the music I hear in my head, but sometimes I can't get the music I hear in my head down. I try to continue, but it doesn't sound right, and the song won't continue until I get the notes exactly write, so I have to just stop cold while recording. [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/songthing[/media] [editline]29th January 2016[/editline] Like the way it works is that if I don't get the notes 100% right I won't hear the next measure of the song. Hallucinating music is weird.[/QUOTE] [img]http://i.imgur.com/qlFuRED.jpg[/img] i tend to have a similar issue, but when i fail to do what i originally wanted, the different result usually gives me ideas on how to build on it, so i don't usually go back and fix it, but instead work out the happy accident into something new

[QUOTE=splenda;49631974]Wow I'm telling the head of Ableton's LA office! (I kind of know him somehow.) But seriously try to save up to buy ableton at some point. Like idk how extent your pirated version is, I never pirated ableton because I bought it very early on so I just pay the $250 or whatever it is to upgrade to the new version every so often, so you probably won't get to keep all your premium packs or whatever, but you will get the sense of satisfaction that you own the stuff you use. If you are a student, you can get ableton for cheaper too. You just need to send them a picture of your student ID/other proof.[/QUOTE] If I send my student ID does it matter what I'm currently doing? I have no idea how this works.

[QUOTE=Plaster;49633340]If I send my student ID does it matter what I'm currently doing? I have no idea how this works.[/QUOTE] I first bought ableton when I was in grammar school, so it really doesn't matter. The ID just needs to be valid.

[QUOTE=PelPix123;49633402]The same thing happened when I was trying to study Hisaishi Joe, Studio Ghibli's composer, in order to learn how he does round: I got the lyrical bed and round offset down: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/in-the-style-of-hisaishi-joe-preview[/media] Added stuff: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/in-the-style-of-hisaishi-joe-wip-2[/media] Then I lost it. So I tried to make a new song with straight beats instead of offset/following beats: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/in-the-style-of-hisaishi-joe-wip-3[/media] But I ended up losing it completely.[/QUOTE] Those all sounded very soft, and fantasy like. They all have a very clean tone to it and very relaxing to hear. Did you record all those strings with an instruments from a program? Also, I've never listened to "Hisaishi Joe" before, so I can't tell how well you matched that style you were going for. Here's what I came up with after learning the basics of Ableton so far. It's a very rough demo, but just wanted to post something on here. The later parts sound a bit harsh with the recording, but I'm trying to go for that 70's horror movie vibe. [media]https://soundcloud.com/travis-cumming-3/hellucination-demo[/media]

[QUOTE=PelPix123;49633402]The same thing happened when I was trying to study Hisaishi Joe, Studio Ghibli's composer, in order to learn how he does round: I got the lyrical bed and round offset down: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/in-the-style-of-hisaishi-joe-preview[/media] Added stuff: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/in-the-style-of-hisaishi-joe-wip-2[/media] Then I lost it. So I tried to make a new song with straight beats instead of offset/following beats: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/in-the-style-of-hisaishi-joe-wip-3[/media] But I ended up losing it completely.[/QUOTE] I really, really like all of them but the first one kinda stands out me because just by listening to that I can imagine an entire scene where that song could fit in. I'm not saying that you can't do it with the other versions, but the first one is just so calm and relaxing it makes me wish you made it longer. I'm also getting some Myst feeling from it, haven't had that in a long time. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Just listening through your soundcloud makes me feel good. Keep doing whatever you're doing because it works.

[QUOTE=4yourmalice;49634106]Those all sounded very soft, and fantasy like. They all have a very clean tone to it and very relaxing to hear. Did you record all those strings with an instruments from a program? Also, I've never listened to "Hisaishi Joe" before, so I can't tell how well you matched that style you were going for. Here's what I came up with after learning the basics of Ableton so far. It's a very rough demo, but just wanted to post something on here. The later parts sound a bit harsh with the recording, but I'm trying to go for that 70's horror movie vibe. [URL="https://facepunch.com/"]Listen to Soundcloud recording[/URL] [URL]https://soundcloud.com/travis-cumming-3/hellucination-demo[/URL] [/QUOTE] sounds like it has a lot of potential, though those same 4 notes over and over again got mad boring i was imagining some sort of heavy techno/metal vibe going on i've been humming this tune for months and i finally got around to recording it. a few flubs but it's just a rough draft. i'll go back in later and re-record some parts, but for right now, i'm satisfied it's a cover; the instrumental is mine, the lyrics and vocal melody were written by valentina cancino [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/sharkalarm/ami[/URL][/media]

[QUOTE=Nitro836;49628149]Is it a good idea to first get a pleasant sounding beat for a song and THEN consider melody making?[/QUOTE] I don't know, is it? Try it out, see if it works for you.

are any of you fine musical facepunchers going to be attending university for CMT in england?

Kill things Burn Shit FUCK SCHOOL

I've been dabbling a little bit with making music, I'm working on a song that I'll post here when it's done. Naturally it will be my first song so it will be bad, I've already entitled it Bad Song 1. I've been using FL Studio to make it. I do have a few questions though, where do you get your creativity from? Outside of getting used to the interface and where to find the sounds I want, my biggest problem has been creativity. I make something and then I try to spice it up a little bit but it makes my song turn into something completely different mid-song. It's also hard to comprehend how much "layers" there are in songs until you try to make one yourself, it's not just a few beats, you're trying to make tons of beats go in harmony with each other which still kind of wrecks my brain. On this, should I know anything that would help me with that "layering" and creativity I'm missing? I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly. I just always feel like there's a background tune missing to what I come up with. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Oh yeah, I'm also buying myself a small Midi keyboard to hopefully help me. Pressing random keys on the screen or on the keyboard to find the sound I want it to make is ass.

[QUOTE=Heigou;49638197]I've been dabbling a little bit with making music, I'm working on a song that I'll post here when it's done. Naturally it will be my first song so it will be bad, I've already entitled it Bad Song 1. I've been using FL Studio to make it. I do have a few questions though, where do you get your creativity from? Outside of getting used to the interface and where to find the sounds I want, my biggest problem has been creativity. I make something and then I try to spice it up a little bit but it makes my song turn into something completely different mid-song. It's also hard to comprehend how much "layers" there are in songs until you try to make one yourself, it's not just a few beats, you're trying to make tons of beats go in harmony with each other which still kind of wrecks my brain. On this, should I know anything that would help me with that "layering" and creativity I'm missing? I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly. I just always feel like there's a background tune missing to what I come up with. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Oh yeah, I'm also buying myself a small Midi keyboard to hopefully help me. Pressing random keys on the screen or on the keyboard to find the sound I want it to make is ass.[/QUOTE] I'm fairly new to it all as well, and I've found that each time I make a song, I learn something new. Try different ideas out with songs and see what fits. Then each time, you can go "well last time I did this, but maybe that would be a better way to go." It's like with most things, practice makes perfect. As for "where do you get your creativity from" I generally have a feeling/vibe I'm trying to get across, and decide what style of music would be a great way to do that.

[QUOTE=Heigou;49638197]I've been dabbling a little bit with making music, I'm working on a song that I'll post here when it's done. Naturally it will be my first song so it will be bad, I've already entitled it Bad Song 1. I've been using FL Studio to make it. I do have a few questions though, where do you get your creativity from? Outside of getting used to the interface and where to find the sounds I want, my biggest problem has been creativity. I make something and then I try to spice it up a little bit but it makes my song turn into something completely different mid-song. It's also hard to comprehend how much "layers" there are in songs until you try to make one yourself, it's not just a few beats, you're trying to make tons of beats go in harmony with each other which still kind of wrecks my brain. On this, should I know anything that would help me with that "layering" and creativity I'm missing? I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly. I just always feel like there's a background tune missing to what I come up with. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Oh yeah, I'm also buying myself a small Midi keyboard to hopefully help me. Pressing random keys on the screen or on the keyboard to find the sound I want it to make is ass.[/QUOTE] Most of my creativity stems from my environment and events in my life. One of my favorite songs I have wrote was about the time I was alone in a desert for 3 days. Like creativity just comes, you cannot really learn it. Although there are some good books about how to learn to read your creativity, check out [url=https://makingmusic.ableton.com/]Making Music by Dennis DeSantis.[/url] I know the book is published by ableton, but it really only mentions Live like once in the whole book, and the book can be used for any music, even not electronic stuff. If you feel there is background missing from your stuff, maybe you are not using enough delays and reverbs and other space-filling stuff. Like just random atmospheric sounds you record on your phone or whatever can add life to your songs, so don't be afraid to go sound hunting outside! Also most big songs nowadays layer lots of stuff ontop of eachother. So for example, a kick drum in a festival dance song usually comprises of like 3 different kicks all played at the same time. Just experiment around and you will find all kinds of cool sounds! Yea buying a midi keyboard is probably the first step everyone should take if they want to really pursue music making, because computer keyboards are just not designed to be musical, and neither is your mouse.

[QUOTE=Heigou;49638197]I've been dabbling a little bit with making music, I'm working on a song that I'll post here when it's done. Naturally it will be my first song so it will be bad, I've already entitled it Bad Song 1. I've been using FL Studio to make it. I do have a few questions though, where do you get your creativity from? Outside of getting used to the interface and where to find the sounds I want, my biggest problem has been creativity. I make something and then I try to spice it up a little bit but it makes my song turn into something completely different mid-song. It's also hard to comprehend how much "layers" there are in songs until you try to make one yourself, it's not just a few beats, you're trying to make tons of beats go in harmony with each other which still kind of wrecks my brain. On this, should I know anything that would help me with that "layering" and creativity I'm missing? I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly. I just always feel like there's a background tune missing to what I come up with. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Oh yeah, I'm also buying myself a small Midi keyboard to hopefully help me. Pressing random keys on the screen or on the keyboard to find the sound I want it to make is ass.[/QUOTE] For one thing, a lot of this comes with time. Sometimes songs feel like they need more and more layers (and you're wrong on this count, for example) sometimes you feel there are too many. Learning what works comes down to experience and trusting what sounds good. I agree with Splenda that you probably need more delays, reverbs, and general time-based effects. One of my favorite things, and a technique I abuse way too much, is to feed my key busses into a dub delay before transitions. That way, the silence of the transition is filled with the weird shifting dub delay sound. It sounds interesting and adds to the tension without completely removing the point of the silence in the first place. For FL Studio, I'd watch a couple SeamlessR videos. Its good to see an experienced composer running through the steps of making music. Go ahead and copy what he's doing and follow along, if you like. Copying is how we learn at first. When it comes to changing the songs vision, remember that you're telling a story. Don't change your story halfway through! I find it helps me, personally, to build the core of the song and the core thing I want to express first. Then, I'll add flair and variation to it. Sometimes leaping right into variation means I worry too much about that and forget what i started with. Also the 74 creative tips book is realllly good.

[QUOTE=paindoc;49639069]For one thing, a lot of this comes with time. Sometimes songs feel like they need more and more layers (and you're wrong on this count, for example) sometimes you feel there are too many. Learning what works comes down to experience and trusting what sounds good. I agree with Splenda that you probably need more delays, reverbs, and general time-based effects. One of my favorite things, and a technique I abuse way too much, is to feed my key busses into a dub delay before transitions. That way, the silence of the transition is filled with the weird shifting dub delay sound. It sounds interesting and adds to the tension without completely removing the point of the silence in the first place. For FL Studio, I'd watch a couple SeamlessR videos. Its good to see an experienced composer running through the steps of making music. Go ahead and copy what he's doing and follow along, if you like. Copying is how we learn at first. When it comes to changing the songs vision, remember that you're telling a story. Don't change your story halfway through! I find it helps me, personally, to build the core of the song and the core thing I want to express first. Then, I'll add flair and variation to it. Sometimes leaping right into variation means I worry too much about that and forget what i started with. Also the 74 creative tips book is realllly good.[/QUOTE] I'm also an ambient/dub artist so rub-a-dub techniques like running sounds through way too much delay is my specialty. (Also by dub delay, paindoc means any sort of tape delay/tape emulation delay.) Tape/analogue delays differ from pure digital delays because they regress the sound every pass, for tape that means saturating the hell out of the delay streams and for non tape analogue (usually just called bucket brigade delays) they crush up the sound. In terms of telling a story, I'll give you some theatre advice, then you can translate it into how to do it musically as you wish. A good story can be told through speech, speech and actions, or just actions. A fun technique to practice is telling stories about things you might want to turn into a song, and then find a way to tell that story without saying a word. Then once you have those mime-like actions down, pick it all apart and think about what those actions make you feel like. Then all you need to do is turn those feelings into sound. It's a pretty unique way of going about things and it really opens up your creativity. Also a lot of the finishing touches of modern dance music is adding "risers" to stuff. These are usually in the form of some sort of noise that is "ducked" by the kick drum with a filter sweep that plays right before a big transition. This type of stuff can really tie your songs together, although it is pretty cliché so I wouldn't use it too much. And again keep in mind that your first song is not going to be an instant club banger/become number 1 on beatport/whatever goal you are striving for. As with anything, you learn by doing, so don't get bummed out if your first few tracks are not festival grade or whatever! Be sure to post your finished tracks here too! We are all happy to give you constructive feedback! [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] I just realized I translated my theatre advice into a musical version in that same paragraph. :v: Oops.

Thank you for the advices. Yeah I'm well aware that my first songs will be terrible and I'm totally alright with that. Even if what I shit out isn't good there's still something fun and calming about just making some noises in FL Studio. Can't wait to get a Midi keyboard. I was thinking something like an Alesis V25 or Akai MPK Mini. Just something small but good to get me started. I still got tons of things I need to learn about too, mostly terminology. Stuff like "Tape/analogue delays differ from pure digital delays" flies straight over my head and there's lots of features I still don't know how to utilize. I remember something about Envelope long ago when I played around with FL Studio but I totally forgot how to add them. I'll check out some of SeamlessR's videos.

[QUOTE=Heigou;49640340]Thank you for the advices. Yeah I'm well aware that my first songs will be terrible and I'm totally alright with that. Even if what I shit out isn't good there's still something fun and calming about just making some noises in FL Studio. Can't wait to get a Midi keyboard. I was thinking something like an Alesis V25 or Akai MPK Mini. Just something small but good to get me started. I still got tons of things I need to learn about too, mostly terminology. Stuff like "Tape/analogue delays differ from pure digital delays" flies straight over my head and there's lots of features I still don't know how to utilize. I remember something about Envelope long ago when I played around with FL Studio but I totally forgot how to add them. I'll check out some of SeamlessR's videos.[/QUOTE] If you can, and space/money isn't an issue, I'd go for a 49 key at the minimum. Its a lot more space and a lot easier to play with, and good for playing piano as well. Learning piano can be a ton of fun and playing piano is just fun to do too, and the extra space helps with playing contrasting parts. For even more piano focus, 61 key is even better. But I can understand if thats not what you want to do, of course.

Recorded a little all hardware ambient track today on a 4 track cassette recorder. If all goes right I'll submit it for the collab so I at least have something there. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] On the topic of midi keyboards, buying a minikey midi keyboard is shooting yourself in the foot. They work as small little travel keyboards for like hotels and stuff, but as a main board you will probably find it frustrating to play on/learn. I agree with paindoc on the 49 key thing being a good middle ground, since you have enough keys to span a few octaves while having it easy to be stored when not being used.

I only have a 200$ CAD budget so that's like 130$ USD. Could I get a 49 key with that much?

[QUOTE=Heigou;49641132]I only have a 200$ CAD budget so that's like 130$ USD. Could I get a 49 key with that much?[/QUOTE] Depends what else you want on the thing, give me a bit to look around and I'll get back to you. Also I feel terrible cus I promised that music theory guide, and I've sent it out to my publisher, but they've changed how things work on their end and want to more fully feature the artist writing (yay! Too bad my soundcloud is BARREN) so I have to do some work to work on my branding (this feels like a weird phrase). Anyways, I'll post it when it comes back. The next batch includes (sorry for clickbait headlines, its how stuff works now thx buzzfeed): "The Best Ableton Live Audio Effects" (just unique effects), "Music Theory tips and tricks: Chord Progressions", and "Understanding Ableton Drum, Instrument, and Effect racks". Also, seen on twitter. Poor Kygo :( [t]http://i.imgur.com/3qZKMfV.png[/t] [editline]31st January 2016[/editline] Would making a few mixes and putting them on my YT be a valid option for filling it out? I imagine its also wise to stay with the genre I intend to produce with the Fuchstraumer account, too? Or at least keep in that vein of music I guess. I got fairly decent at using Mixx, its a lot of fun doing livemixing stuff.

[QUOTE=Heigou;49641132]I only have a 200$ CAD budget so that's like 130$ USD. Could I get a 49 key with that much?[/QUOTE] [URL="vhttp://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ImpactiX49"]yep.[/URL] [URL="http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ImpactLX49"]If you want to stretch like $30 more to get some more control.[/URL] Nektar makes good midi controllers too so these are fairly nice. (They don't have aftertouch though which is a bummer but you can always buy expression pedals to do that for like $20-$50 so it's not that big of a deal.) [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Actually for the first one the 61 key is the same price at sweetwater, but I would go with the second option because having knobs, sliders, and stuff is very useful. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=paindoc;49641156]Depends what else you want on the thing, give me a bit to look around and I'll get back to you. Also I feel terrible cus I promised that music theory guide, and I've sent it out to my publisher, but they've changed how things work on their end and want to more fully feature the artist writing (yay! Too bad my soundcloud is BARREN) so I have to do some work to work on my branding (this feels like a weird phrase). Anyways, I'll post it when it comes back. The next batch includes (sorry for clickbait headlines, its how stuff works now thx buzzfeed): "The Best Ableton Live Audio Effects" (just unique effects), "Music Theory tips and tricks: Chord Progressions", and "Understanding Ableton Drum, Instrument, and Effect racks". Also, seen on twitter. Poor Kygo :( [t]http://i.imgur.com/3qZKMfV.png[/t] [editline]31st January 2016[/editline] Would making a few mixes and putting them on my YT be a valid option for filling it out? I imagine its also wise to stay with the genre I intend to produce with the Fuchstraumer account, too? Or at least keep in that vein of music I guess. I got fairly decent at using Mixx, its a lot of fun doing livemixing stuff.[/QUOTE] Just get your name out there. Don't be afraid to self promote and stuff. You won't get anywhere just sitting behind a computer, even if you are making the best tracks ever. Gotta go tell the world about yourself! [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] O also as a tip, may or may not be good news, but sending your stuff to labels hoping that they listen to whatever you included in your emails is the worst way to get yourself known. Most of the time the labels do not even open your email. Literally the best way of getting known/famous is just to play shows and make a name for yourself in your community.

The nektar actually looks awesome. Thanks, I'll check it out. I might get this one instead, it's honestly not that much more expensive than the 25 keys I was looking at.

[QUOTE=Heigou;49641257]The nektar actually looks awesome. Thanks, I'll check it out. I might get this one instead, it's honestly not that much more expensive than the 25 keys I was looking at.[/QUOTE] Personally I have a 25 key, 49 key, an ableton push, a livid base, and random other drum pads and the like for my main midi controllers. The 25 key is mostly used on the road and stuff because of its portability, or at least it was until I got a push/base, and the 49 key is my main piano-esque keyboard. 49 key is the perfect compromise between amount of keys and being able to fit it on your desk/store it away. While stuff like 61 keys and 88 keys are nice I guess, I honestly find myself usually playing within a 37 key radius, so they would be somewhat useless unless I wanted to lay down some sick piano lines or whatever. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Although the only midi controller I've recently been wanting is the linnstrument, but then I remember I use ableton and for some stupid reason they have not added polyphonic aftertouch yet, grrrr.

[QUOTE=splenda;49640525][editline]30th January 2016[/editline] On the topic of midi keyboards, buying a minikey midi keyboard is shooting yourself in the foot. They work as small little travel keyboards for like hotels and stuff, but as a main board you will probably find it frustrating to play on/learn. I agree with paindoc on the 49 key thing being a good middle ground, since you have enough keys to span a few octaves while having it easy to be stored when not being used.[/QUOTE] i can see how it would be terrible to learn on but i really like my little 25 key thingo for most stuff. i reckon having to work the transpose button while playing actually helps me creatively somehow 'cause it forces me to think more about my choice of notes rather than just noodling.

they all have their advantages/disadvantages I got the 49 key novation launchkeys, it's great for use at home, but I wish I had a 25er for mobility and to be able to control bass line synths separately

Working on another BitBlasted, put [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQAKRw6mToA]Moskau[/url] and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQAyVdnUAWU]Tounges[/url] together: [url]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/965202/WIP%20Music/Moskau%20Tounges.mp3[/url] [editline]31st January 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=inebriaticxp;49634370]sounds like it has a lot of potential, though those same 4 notes over and over again got mad boring i was imagining some sort of heavy techno/metal vibe going on i've been humming this tune for months and i finally got around to recording it. a few flubs but it's just a rough draft. i'll go back in later and re-record some parts, but for right now, i'm satisfied it's a cover; the instrumental is mine, the lyrics and vocal melody were written by valentina cancino [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/sharkalarm/ami[/URL][/media][/QUOTE] As soon as it started I fell deeply in love with it. Following immediately. Just get a pop filter for the microphone and you're good.

[url=http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/3384/auto-critique]This is the max patch I've always wanted but never asked for.[/url] [editline]31st January 2016[/editline] Also I finally got a power supply for my volca sample so I've been messing with that all morning. Probably should've hit record at some point but I guess that's life.

[QUOTE=splenda;49644760][url=http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/3384/auto-critique]This is the max patch I've always wanted but never asked for.[/url] [editline]31st January 2016[/editline] Also I finally got a power supply for my volca sample so I've been messing with that all morning. Probably should've hit record at some point but I guess that's life.[/QUOTE] holy fuck thank you for posting that- i saw it a while ago and wanted to link it here but couldn't find it again. Describes so much crit, lmao.

Got me a keyboard and now I'm kind of lost. Any VSTs you guys would recommend me? Sytrus is fun but I'm missing some stuff, I tried Piano One but I can't get the damn thing to work.