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

So I've a bit of an abstract question. I can make up a tune really easily, just humming or whistling, but I can't translate that to my hands, or even to a sequencer. As I'm hearing the instrument, I can't really do anything with it other than just jam keys until it sounds good. How can I take mind songs and put them into real song is what I'm asking

[QUOTE=Bromagnon;49713588]So I've a bit of an abstract question. I can make up a tune really easily, just humming or whistling, but I can't translate that to my hands, or even to a sequencer. As I'm hearing the instrument, I can't really do anything with it other than just jam keys until it sounds good. How can I take mind songs and put them into real song is what I'm asking[/QUOTE] This might be a weird one, but try humming of whatever into a tuner/something like [URL=http://www.gvst.co.uk/gsnap.htm]gsnap[/url] with the pitch correction all the way down. Then you will see what notes you have in your head so you can more easily translate it to your hands.

[QUOTE=ZephyrSly;49708543]Saweeet, I'll repost my thing then, so at least it's in a better format [editline]10th February 2016[/editline] Alright, this is kinda a rehash, but I wanted to do this in the right format. If you guys could have a wee listen to this track I made, and tell me what I think, that would be aweomse! [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/reaceblack/hi-1[/URL][/media] [/QUOTE] The very beginning (0:00-0:04) has some weird resonating frequencies from the lowpass filter, around 150hz, try EQing those out a bit. Also, as the lowpass sweeps up, there are another couple frequencies between 1,200hz and 16,000hz that are a bit too bright. Take a look at sidechaining (or increasing the amount of sidechaning), the kick gets lost in the mix. [URL="http://www.cableguys.com/volume-shaper.html"]volumeshaper[/URL] is a good option with midi triggering. Brighten up the kick a bit too, it's a bit muddy. Try another sample, or layering another percussion sound with some high end snap on top. Other than that, you've got a solid foundation for a track! Edit: Here's something I recently finished, let me know what you guys think :D [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/theofficialdownshift/downshift-spark-original-mix[/URL][/media]

[QUOTE=Bromagnon;49713588]So I've a bit of an abstract question. I can make up a tune really easily, just humming or whistling, but I can't translate that to my hands, or even to a sequencer. As I'm hearing the instrument, I can't really do anything with it other than just jam keys until it sounds good. How can I take mind songs and put them into real song is what I'm asking[/QUOTE] Learn your scales Repeat them all over the fretboard or on the piano Keep on playing til you know exactly where every note is on the keyboard/fretboard and how it sounds. You can't translate what's in your mind because you don't know exactly where the notes are on your chosen instrument and as such you have to first think of whatever melody you're playing in your head, and then slowly fumble away to find exactly what note your mind is hearing. So, practice. Play over and over again until you can think of a note or whistle it and play it at the same time as you whistle/think of said note.

[QUOTE=crazykyle16;49714209]The very beginning (0:00-0:04) has some weird resonating frequencies from the lowpass filter, around 150hz, try EQing those out a bit. Also, as the lowpass sweeps up, there are another couple frequencies between 1,200hz and 16,000hz that are a bit too bright. Take a look at sidechaining (or increasing the amount of sidechaning), the kick gets lost in the mix. [URL="http://www.cableguys.com/volume-shaper.html"]volumeshaper[/URL] is a good option with midi triggering. Brighten up the kick a bit too, it's a bit muddy. Try another sample, or layering another percussion sound with some high end snap on top. Other than that, you've got a solid foundation for a track! Edit: Here's something I recently finished, let me know what you guys think :D [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/theofficialdownshift/downshift-spark-original-mix[/URL][/media][/QUOTE] Brilliant, thanks man! I'm still strying to find the sweet spot for sidechaining, it seems to be an art unto itself! And yeah, I really need to deal with those awkard freqs, probably need to do some careful automation/EQ work. Now, onto your track! first thing I'd say is damn, that is one powerful bass! in the bass parts though, I think theres a hi-hat in the back giving some interesting rhythm, though it gets almost completely drowned out (maybe you want that?). Also, that second drop is rather ace XD (sorry if the comments aren't to helpful, 1 I'm not to up on your genre, and 2 your track is really good, so I'm kinda struggling to find things wrong with it (as in I really have to try, which is probably a good thing). Let me return fire with a track I fired up today, if you guys don't mind having a wee listen: [media] [url]https://soundcloud.com/reaceblack/heaven[/url] [/media] Cheers!

[QUOTE=crazykyle16;49714209]The very beginning (0:00-0:04) has some weird resonating frequencies from the lowpass filter, around 150hz, try EQing those out a bit. Also, as the lowpass sweeps up, there are another couple frequencies between 1,200hz and 16,000hz that are a bit too bright. Take a look at sidechaining (or increasing the amount of sidechaning), the kick gets lost in the mix. [URL="http://www.cableguys.com/volume-shaper.html"]volumeshaper[/URL] is a good option with midi triggering. Brighten up the kick a bit too, it's a bit muddy. Try another sample, or layering another percussion sound with some high end snap on top. Other than that, you've got a solid foundation for a track! Edit: Here's something I recently finished, let me know what you guys think :D [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/theofficialdownshift/downshift-spark-original-mix[/URL][/media][/QUOTE] some of the sounds feel a bit 'flat' to me, not so much pitch wise as just lacking a bit of depth or space, then again it could just be my speakers being too quiet (it's early in the morning, can't do a proper loud listen atm), i'll have another listen through headphones or something in a bit because I think it's just getting lost to the quieter volume tbh I feel like your main idea could have been introduced with a bit more emphasis, but it wasn't a bad transition at all, quite liked it as far as what I think of the track, little criticisms aside, I like it, I particularly liked the intro and the sense of progression it gave leading into your main idea, though I would have liked to hear that intro again throughout the track with some variation, I liked the ideas you've presented with the sound design, particularly at about 2:37, I really liked the contrast of synths there the drum mixing is pretty solid for the most part, over all everything seems to be mixed pretty well in a way where nothing's particularly too loud or too quiet, but at some points I did feel that maybe the hats were a little drowned out, it was hard to tell once again maybe because of my speaker volume it's pretty sweet though, the style's not what I usually listen too, but it was pretty effective for what it was, good bit of work you've done there I'll have another listen soon enough, come mid day with my volume up and my sub maxed out edit: I've been working on a new track but i'm not sure how i'm feeling about it, I was really into it when I started working on it, but i've kinda lost that mood/vibe and now I just don't have the same sense of it, I still want to get it finished though. [media]http://soundcloud.com/petebound/new-thingo3[/media] This is a WIP upload that I chucked up a bit ago, there's some parts i've messed around with, namely some of the synth tones especially in the later part (second melody where the synths are layered and feel a bit out of time), fixed the droning build up to start softer and emphasize more not start louder then drown out, but otherwise it's pretty much the same

[QUOTE=crazykyle16;49714209] Edit: Here's something I recently finished, let me know what you guys think :D [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/theofficialdownshift/downshift-spark-original-mix[/URL][/media] [/QUOTE] Fuck man this is nice to listen to on bass-heavy headphones. However, the first 40 seconds of so seem to be lacking in body, I have a craving for the bass to be a bit beefier in that section. After that the soundspace fills itself up and it's really nice on the ears. I like how dubstep like this often so closely resembles metal with the aggression of the instruments and rhythm. Nice work, man! By the way I love that snare. Is that a single sample? EDIT: So here's a piece, it has something to do with electronica, stoner rock and some obscure stuff, I don't really know. Either way, I'd appreciate if any of you gave it a listen! Any feedback on composition and production greatly appreciated! [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/haharijs/spilvenmaiss-pillowcase[/URL][/media]

[QUOTE=CupUp;49722288]Fuck man this is nice to listen to on bass-heavy headphones. However, the first 40 seconds of so seem to be lacking in body, I have a craving for the bass to be a bit beefier in that section. After that the soundspace fills itself up and it's really nice on the ears. I like how dubstep like this often so closely resembles metal with the aggression of the instruments and rhythm. Nice work, man! By the way I love that snare. Is that a single sample? EDIT: So here's a piece, it has something to do with electronica, stoner rock and some obscure stuff, I don't really know. Either way, I'd appreciate if any of you gave it a listen! Any feedback on composition and production greatly appreciated! [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/haharijs/spilvenmaiss-pillowcase[/URL][/media][/QUOTE] Its a 2 sample snare, one with a low punch around 150hz, and all frequencies above ~560hz cut, then another sample, only with frequencies above ~360hz, that has a nice snap and tail. Thanks for all the feedback <3

How does Copyright work with sites like Soundcloud and Bandcamp? I mean, right now I'm not too concerned about making a dollar off my music, and just want to get my sounds out there. But if in the future I wanted to sell a product, would you have to copyright each song you posted? I'm from Canada as well, if you anyone knows the laws on this subject up here.

does anyone else here just <3 the shit richard devine puts out

I suck mad dudes.

[QUOTE=splenda;49710692] ...just have detuned triangle waves all over the place. [/QUOTE] so... Superhexagon in MIDI form XD

Happy valentine's day fp [media]https://www.soundcloud.com/jakecrizzle/valentines-day-jacob-critch[/media]

I haven't done any EDM in a while. I am thinking of a music video that plays off of the weird ways you can hear the sample I keep looping: [url]http://wauterboi.com/files/music/wip/Disto-Fuckin'.mp3[/url] If this sounds remotely good in the morning on a fresh set of ears, then I'm gonna call it good and throw it up on my website. As always, after this post I'll be looking at others and will post merge. [editline]14th February 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=LieutenantLeo;49737194]Happy valentine's day fp [media]https://www.soundcloud.com/jakecrizzle/valentines-day-jacob-critch[/media][/QUOTE] This natural singing sounds heartwarming, but if you're gonna go the pop route, consider using melodyne to go for that more synthetic feel. I also think it should be brighter, but that's just me. [editline]14th February 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=PelPix123;49736532]Holy shit, how'd you make that bubbly sound? It's great! I made a quick remake of a Runescape track: [media]https://soundcloud.com/kaybeccab/runescape-ambient-jungle[/media] When I'm bored, I hone my mixing skills by making covers of music from old RPGs and old DOS games. Often times I'll compose additional layers to make the music sound better, but this is one of the more by-the-book ones because I was so focused on the mixing. This is just a quick job. The mixing's not A+ because I'm trying out a new style fo mixing. I'm experimenting with more spatial mixing. I used IRs of an actual forest to make it sound like this was in a forest.[/QUOTE] No criticism here, man. Sounds great. It would totally fit an ethereal fantasy game. Tossing that into my likes and my personal "Good Music" playlist.

[QUOTE=PelPix123;49736532]Holy shit, how'd you make that bubbly sound? It's great! [/QUOTE] Thanks man! It's basically a heavily compressed harmonic synth plug-in for guitar with filter settings set to resemble an auto-wah, I found it by accident. :v:

[QUOTE=wauterboi;49738284]I haven't done any EDM in a while. I am thinking of a music video that plays off of the weird ways you can hear the sample I keep looping: [url]http://wauterboi.com/files/music/wip/Disto-Fuckin'.mp3[/url] [/QUOTE] That idea for the music video would be great! It starts to get almost Shia LaBeouf-ish 1:30 in (JUST DO IT!) Over all it was a clean sounding piece of work, and dirty in all the right places. I'm not too into EDM style tunes, but I could dig this piece. Nice job man! Here's one of the songs I whipped up in the last 2 weeks in learning Ableton. It's not a fine-tuned piece of work, but the main structure and ideas of the song are there. The drums especially could use some fixing I think, but that'll come. I upload 5 news songs total on my Soundcloud page, if you guys feel like checking any of the others out as well. Is there a rule against posting more than one song at a time? [media]https://soundcloud.com/scarletharvest/i-have-returned[/media]

[QUOTE=4yourmalice;49743075]That idea for the music video would be great! It starts to get almost Shia LaBeouf-ish 1:30 in (JUST DO IT!) Over all it was a clean sounding piece of work, and dirty in all the right places. I'm not too into EDM style tunes, but I could dig this piece. Nice job man! Here's one of the songs I whipped up in the last 2 weeks in learning Ableton. It's not a fine-tuned piece of work, but the main structure and ideas of the song are there. The drums especially could use some fixing I think, but that'll come. I upload 5 news songs total on my Soundcloud page, if you guys feel like checking any of the others out as well. Is there a rule against posting more than one song at a time? [media]https://soundcloud.com/scarletharvest/i-have-returned[/media][/QUOTE] Working on the music video. Gotta come up with 250 animations. [img]http://www.wauterboi.com/img/misc/metroid.gif[/img] Sounds like your stuff ain't quantized, my man. Figure out how to snap to grid and don't do live recordings unless you've got the knack for recording live and you've got ASIO enabled. Other than that, I think it's a fun little thing and shows that you're really figuring out how to make stuff interesting. I like the aggressive bass that comes in, and the chords you've got going. I secretly want to mess with that bassline and melody. You can post the other stuff too! Followed ya.

[QUOTE=wauterboi;49743300]Working on the music video. Gotta come up with 250 animations. [img]http://www.wauterboi.com/img/misc/metroid.gif[/img] Sounds like your stuff ain't quantized, my man. Figure out how to snap to grid and don't do live recordings unless you've got the knack for recording live and you've got ASIO enabled. Other than that, I think it's a fun little thing and shows that you're really figuring out how to make stuff interesting. I like the aggressive bass that comes in, and the chords you've got going. I secretly want to mess with that bassline and melody. You can post the other stuff too! Followed ya.[/QUOTE] The first frame is off to a great start. If you can capture that old school arcade vibe with the other 249 images, you'll do great! What do you mean by "snap to grid" and what is ASIO enabled mean? I won't post all my songs and flood the page, but here's a couple more. [media]https://soundcloud.com/scarletharvest/shape-in-the-fog[/media] [media]https://soundcloud.com/scarletharvest/shall-feed-eternal[/media]

I think he was referring to your instruments playing slightly out of time with each other on "I Have Returned" which creates some awkwardness in the rhythm. "Snap to grid" is just automatically lining the attack of a note perfectly up to its respective beat or offbeat or whatever you have your grid set at. Having ASIO audio drivers enabled will probably fix any kind of keypress delay issues you might be experiencing with a midi controller.

That would definitely help me out. I was trying to get the drums all line up, but a few of the notes would always sound off. How do I use "snap to grid" in Ableton to line every thing up? EDIT: I figured out how to "quantize" and I tightened up the drums a bit. How's the new version sound? [media]https://soundcloud.com/scarletharvest/i-have-returned[/media]

reading [I]Ableton[/I] reminds me of bad times when I had time to work on my music but never really understood how that software works. Now I can mix the fuck outta that and I'm being swallowed by academic and professional bullshit. Life sucks sometimes.

[QUOTE=4yourmalice;49746112]That would definitely help me out. I was trying to get the drums all line up, but a few of the notes would always sound off. How do I use "snap to grid" in Ableton to line every thing up?[/QUOTE] in your pattern, right click, set your grid to what you need (1/16th, 1/32 etc) then right click again and press 'quantize', should align everything to the nearest grid unit

I see a lot of people going after old Moogs, and expensive old hardware in general, and if not expensive hardware expensive emulative hardware. Whenever I ask why, or they talk about it anyway, it seems like they're obsessed with the wrong things about earlier music. They think it's the warmth of the record that made the song danceable, or the specific calculations of NES synthesis that made NES chiptune fun. They're obsessing their way [I]around[/I] the actual music part. It bothers me. Now, if they're just going after old Moogs and older hardware for the fun or nostalgic factor, that's fine, but if it's for their literal capabilities, I'm not sure what it has against computer synthesis.

[QUOTE=wauterboi;49747882]I see a lot of people going after old Moogs, and expensive old hardware in general, and if not expensive hardware expensive emulative hardware. Whenever I ask why, or they talk about it anyway, it seems like they're obsessed with the wrong things about earlier music. They think it's the warmth of the record that made the song danceable, or the specific calculations of NES synthesis that made NES chiptune fun. They're obsessing their way [I]around[/I] the actual music part. It bothers me. Now, if they're just going after old Moogs and older hardware for the fun or nostalgic factor, that's fine, but if it's for their literal capabilities, I'm not sure what it has against computer synthesis.[/QUOTE] My take on the whole thing is that people want to sound like someone who came before them. There is a reason why people will do gear shootouts between stuff like a tb-303 and a tt-303, or why a 1959 les paul costs way too much money. While a tb-303 and a 1959 les paul sound good, a tt-303 and a 2016 les paul sound good too, but it is a different kind of good. People have it ingrained in them that if they own the gear of their favorite artists, then they will automatically be as good as them. They cannot see that the gear is just a tool, and if those artists started out today they would be making just as good of music on a laptop. The best artists are the ones who can make anything sound good, from little toy synths to those squier starter pack guitars. There is some truth in some expensive synths sounding real good. When I got to play a Moog System 55, it was basically a religious experience for me. Those oscillators were more well rounded than anything else I have ever played, even compared to stuff like a Moog Voyager or Sub 37 or whatever. It's the same thing if I get to play my bass through an all tube ampeg amp or something, it just sounds nicer than the budget stuff. The thing is, I know I don't need to spend $35k to sound good, because I can get nice sounds out of my moog mother-32, or even monark for reaktor, both of which cost around 1% of the price of the big Moog Modular. At the end of the day, no one listening to your song is going to be like "Oh he used a tb-303 clone and not a real tb-303, what a shit song." Make music with the gear you have, and the gear you can afford. Buying expensive things is not going to magically make someone a better musician.

So I plan on buying my first audio interface and microphone and was planning on getting a Behringer UMC204HD and a Excelvan BM-800. Any thoughts on these items? I understand that there are a million companies that sell these "-800" series microphones (like the Neewer NW-800 which I saw someone in this thread pick up), is there any notable difference between those mics? I was planning on getting the Execlevan because the one I saw is a bundle with an arm and a pop filter for a little bit less than the Neewer.

[QUOTE=splenda;49747950]My take on the whole thing is that people want to sound like someone who came before them. There is a reason why people will do gear shootouts between stuff like a tb-303 and a tt-303, or why a 1959 les paul costs way too much money. While a tb-303 and a 1959 les paul sound good, a tt-303 and a 2016 les paul sound good too, but it is a different kind of good. People have it ingrained in them that if they own the gear of their favorite artists, then they will automatically be as good as them. They cannot see that the gear is just a tool, and if those artists started out today they would be making just as good of music on a laptop. The best artists are the ones who can make anything sound good, from little toy synths to those squier starter pack guitars. There is some truth in some expensive synths sounding real good. When I got to play a Moog System 55, it was basically a religious experience for me. Those oscillators were more well rounded than anything else I have ever played, even compared to stuff like a Moog Voyager or Sub 37 or whatever. It's the same thing if I get to play my bass through an all tube ampeg amp or something, it just sounds nicer than the budget stuff. The thing is, I know I don't need to spend $35k to sound good, because I can get nice sounds out of my moog mother-32, or even monark for reaktor, both of which cost around 1% of the price of the big Moog Modular. At the end of the day, no one listening to your song is going to be like "Oh he used a tb-303 clone and not a real tb-303, what a shit song." Make music with the gear you have, and the gear you can afford. Buying expensive things is not going to magically make someone a better musician.[/QUOTE] there is an aspect about buying new gear that is easily forgotten though, especially when you haven't done so for a while; it's that element of novelty when you get some new gear that can often lead to some really creative results, it sparks a sense of curiosity when you first get it to see what new and cool things you can do with it, and that in it self can contribute to being a better musician, it can be really helpful in breaking out of specific patterns of thinking established on what you currently have, that's not to say it's a necessary aspect when it comes to making music, or that buying new gear is the only way to spark that kind of creativity and break out of those patterns of thinking, just that 'better gear isn't going to make your music better' isn't necessarily the /whole/ truth, but it is probably somewhere between 95-99% true, in that there is something to be said for that 'fresh out of the box' feeling and the way it can act as a bit of a push to get more creative and to improve, though, it's better to not chase that as a means of improvement, Gear Acquisition Syndrome can be very costly and have very short-lived, diminishing returns in your overall results Of course, if we're talking objectively, if you throw someone with no experience behind the most expensive equipment, that doesn't make up for the fact that they have no experience or idea of what they're doing with it, but if you give someone a new set of toys to play with when their current play set gets a little mundane, it can definitely aid in the overall improvement to some degree or another

[QUOTE=elasticity;49752817]there is an aspect about buying new gear that is easily forgotten though, especially when you haven't done so for a while; it's that element of novelty when you get some new gear that can often lead to some really creative results, it sparks a sense of curiosity when you first get it to see what new and cool things you can do with it, and that in it self can contribute to being a better musician, it can be really helpful in breaking out of specific patterns of thinking established on what you currently have, that's not to say it's a necessary aspect when it comes to making music, or that buying new gear is the only way to spark that kind of creativity and break out of those patterns of thinking, just that 'better gear isn't going to make your music better' isn't necessarily the /whole/ truth, but it is probably somewhere between 95-99% true, in that there is something to be said for that 'fresh out of the box' feeling and the way it can act as a bit of a push to get more creative and to improve, though, it's better to not chase that as a means of improvement, Gear Acquisition Syndrome can be very costly and have very short-lived, diminishing returns in your overall results Of course, if we're talking objectively, if you throw someone with no experience behind the most expensive equipment, that doesn't make up for the fact that they have no experience or idea of what they're doing with it, but if you give someone a new set of toys to play with when their current play set gets a little mundane, it can definitely aid in the overall improvement to some degree or another[/QUOTE] I was ranting more on the whole "sounding exactly like things of the past" rather than just a full statement on new gear. Getting new things is always fun, and, for example, if you have been working ITB your whole life, getting a knobby synth will allow you to see things in a totally different light, and make sounds you never would have thought of making on a vst. I don't really even have a problem with people wanting a tb-303, '59 Les Paul, Jupiter 8, etc, because if you have the funds and feel there workflow is perfect for you then more power to you. What I have a problem with is the constant longing for the past that had pushed synth development to go backwards in a sense. Then people will dismiss a new synth because it doesn't sound exactly like one that is 40 years old, talking about the Karp odessy. Like who cares if it is not an exact replica of the old synth, it sounds real good in its own way, and a slightly different timbre will allow you to make fresh sounds! [editline]16th February 2016[/editline] The synth world is nowhere near as bad as the guitar world though, where Gibson can make a molecularly exact replica of an old guitar and then people will complain that the plastic on the knobs doesn't feel the same Also I'm an experimental musician first and foremost so take everything I say from that viewpoint. I'm always on the hunt for new sounds, so sounding like others is not my style.

[QUOTE=splenda;49753336]I'm always on the hunt for new sounds, so sounding like others is not my style.[/QUOTE] That's my kinda style.

Anyone know where I can find that overused sample that goes "get-get-get-get-get down" I guess worst comes to worst, I could just record it myself but I want the one p much everyone uses

[QUOTE=inebriaticxp;49756620]Anyone know where I can find that overused sample that goes "get-get-get-get-get down" I guess worst comes to worst, I could just record it myself but I want the one p much everyone uses[/QUOTE] Might as well use that annoying bed squeaking sound while you're at it. Everybody does it not because it sounds good but because everyone's using it.