Musician's Gig Room V2: Can't Be Arsed - Creationism Corner

I'll go ahead and kick this off. Music production is a recurring hobby for me, I'll get active with it for a few months then drop it for a few months. Just depends on how things are going for me irl. It'd be cool to be a full-time musician, but I'm a much better programmer My most recent track: https://soundcloud.com/taaz/happs

Crayz: I'll go ahead and kick this off. Music production is a recurring hobby for me, I'll get active with it for a few months then drop it for a few months. Just depends on how things are going for me irl. It'd be cool to be a full-time musician, but I'm a much better programmer My most recent track: Taaz - Happs Really great atmosphere. The square-ish plonks that come in at 1:09 seemed to be out of key though, some of the notes were pretty dissonant. The snare was a little out-of-place, but I have no other qualms.

Ott: Crayz: I'll go ahead and kick this off. Music production is a recurring hobby for me, I'll get active with it for a few months then drop it for a few months. Just depends on how things are going for me irl. It'd be cool to be a full-time musician, but I'm a much better programmer My most recent track: Taaz - Happs Really great atmosphere. The square-ish plonks that come in at 1:09 seemed to be out of key though, some of the notes were pretty dissonant. The snare was a little out-of-place, but I have no other qualms. Thanks. I'm still pretty new to music, but slowly figuring it out haha.

Ott: Crayz: I'll go ahead and kick this off. Music production is a recurring hobby for me, I'll get active with it for a few months then drop it for a few months. Just depends on how things are going for me irl. It'd be cool to be a full-time musician, but I'm a much better programmer My most recent track: Taaz - Happs Really great atmosphere. The square-ish plonks that come in at 1:09 seemed to be out of key though, some of the notes were pretty dissonant. The snare was a little out-of-place, but I have no other qualms. they sounded cool to me but my ears are pretty bent right now because I've been doing jazz stuff all week for uni. @Crayz keep it up dude, think of your tracks as stories and read about music theory when you're on the toilet. I'm trying to record a demo of a song I'm writing but I can't get the whistling part to sound good. If I blow away from the mic the level I get is too low and if I blow at or across the mic it sounds like a camcorder video from the beach. I put a sock over the microphone but it's not helping much. Anybody got any tips on recording whistling?

Liam: Ott: Crayz: I'll go ahead and kick this off. Music production is a recurring hobby for me, I'll get active with it for a few months then drop it for a few months. Just depends on how things are going for me irl. It'd be cool to be a full-time musician, but I'm a much better programmer My most recent track: Taaz - Happs Really great atmosphere. The square-ish plonks that come in at 1:09 seemed to be out of key though, some of the notes were pretty dissonant. The snare was a little out-of-place, but I have no other qualms. they sounded cool to me but my ears are pretty bent right now because I've been doing jazz stuff all week for uni. @Crayz keep it up dude, think of your tracks as stories and read about music theory when you're on the toilet. I'm trying to record a demo of a song I'm writing but I can't get the whistling part to sound good. If I blow away from the mic the level I get is too low and if I blow at or across the mic it sounds like a camcorder video from the beach. I put a sock over the microphone but it's not helping much. Anybody got any tips on recording whistling? You want to either maximize volume or minimize noise floor. Either record quietly in a very quiet room (well-padded closets work well) or record loudly wherever convenient. The best advice I can give you is to direct your airflow away from the microphone while simultaneously keeping it as close to your mouth as possible, in the quietest room possible. It's OK to amplify in post.

I've been experimenting a bit with a Casio keyboard I've got in my apartment. It's not too fancy - it has some drum loops on different kits and a bunch of different instrument sounds. I'm not a particularly good musician, but I understand really basic music theory. I don't have any means to record, though, so I'm forced to just remember all the melodies and chord progressions that I come up with. Could you guys recommend any programs that would be good for recording piano tracks from my keyboard?

I don't use it personally, but Reaper is a popular and affordable DAW. It's WinRar-ware as well, meaning you can try the trial for as long as you want if you don't have the cash to license it.

I 2nd Reaper, I don't use it myself but I have a friend who does. It's great for playing instruments/recording, but maybe falls short in places like drawing in notes via a piano roll or whatever. I know Tycho uses (or used) it as well I just published a track, taking in any feedback positive or negative. https://soundcloud.com/taaz/lycopene

I love the variation and atmosphere in this... Very melancholic at some points. Variation is something I seriously struggle with and can never seem to get down. Props to you. I just made a track on my lunch break at work, it's not finished yet but would be cool to get some feedback. Goin' for that wavemob sound. https://soundcloud.com/jaooe/echoes

Thanks for your feedback. I listened to your track, I'm not too familiar with the genre but I can comment on some things. About the music, the drumloop is interesting enough to listen to for a while, and the synth/vocals set a nice tone. Some variation would indeed be nice. My last project file got really messy, I found it easier to add variation if I just toss random shit in and see if it sounds good or if any ideas come out of it. Then proceed to tweaking/fitting that new shit into the track somewhere, or just delete it entirely and try something else. I also like to take 1 or 2 day breaks and come back to it with fresh ears to determine what should be added or removed. The mix could do for some tuning. The bass, synth, and vocal samples are kinda shadowed by the drums, especially the kick.

Holy shit you're thank you so much. The bedroomproducers link was a godsend, especially since they have a huge free sample package for download right now. I got into mixing, producing and making electronic music in the last year, but I started to study abroad during the summer. My time has been mostly taken up by my language intensive courses, other school courses and traveling, so I haven't had a lot of time to make music. On top of that, I don't have a sample library. Before I would use my Zoom H5 to record sounds and make sample, or I would take things into my university's studio and make my own samples. While that method is fun, rewarding and teaches you many things, it can be a hassle if you want to quickly through something together, like a basic beat. Since I usually start my sample making from scratch, it takes quite a long time, since I can be a perfectionist at times. For reference, I also use Reaper. In short, thank you for the OP and thank you for the links!

o boy i cant wait 4 the old guys to come over here

listen to my big sound

have absolutely no idea whether this is the right place to post this, can't seem to find an appropriate thread but it's technically production sorta so I'll post it here: excuse room being messy, overdue for a clean I can't afford a mixer because they're horrendously expensive and I don't want to buy one that's significantly lacking features. One i'm looking at is ~£550. Anyway, so whilst I've got two decks and no mixer, thought "hmm, there must be something I can come up with". Cue a £95 behringer audio interface purchase (ew behringer) - I now have a pleb mixer. Using an old M-Audio Trigger Finger as a control surface - 4 faders and 8 knobs. [t]https://i.imgur.com/l3ZhYvA.jpg[/t] [t]https://i.imgur.com/KEtxD07.jpg[/t] The two XDJ 700s are joined together by a switch which also connects to my computer. All of my songs are analysed in Pioneer's Rekordbox program ( and then the beatgrid & such adjusted by ear and look until I've got an accurate to the second decimal place BPM - don't shit on me for using Sync when I can beatmatch and sync perfectly). Interestingly, the decks shit out quite a lot of track data over the network. [url=https://github.com/brunchboy/beat-link-trigger] Some clever clogs figured out how to listen into the data and expose it to the user [/url] - track names, duration, bpm, even a detailed waveform of the track. [t]https://i.imgur.com/WJxHj7r.jpg[/t] The program can also spit out a midi clock synced to whatever you want - in my case, the [master] track's BPM, which using an internal midi device, can control my DAW Reason with. This means I can put in whatever effects I want, and with some clever tinkering, have every echo / reverb / tempo-dependent effect synced perfectly. Also means I can use whatever instruments and drums in reason and control that with the Trigger Finger. The interface also has two outputs, which with some routing I made an entire cueing system w/ metronome ( as the midi clock is ever so slightly different to the deck's BPM - assuming it's a rounding issue ) as well for my headphones. I've essentially emulated everything I would want from a hardware mixer - in Reason, for a 1/5th of the cost. Even though I could technically pay some money and use the decks as a controller for Rekordbox, this at least opens the environment and lets me do whatever I want.. It's maybe not a good shout to take any of this on the road as any real life mixer would do, but on a budget I think it's a pretty cool shout. Unsure if anyone has done this before.

holy heck. i'm impressed with your ingenuity there. just curious what hiccups have you encountered (if any) with your unique mixing set up while spinning some fat double drops and mashups? Loving the ambience and soundscapes present at the end and used throughout. I feel like with some finetuning of your sound you could really nail that long-runtime techno style that artists like Stephan Bodzin have got downpat. Track itself feels like it could use... more? Like, more FX, maybe an extra miscellaneous pad or something, an effect or two / percussion loop to add drive to the track. Dunno - this has promise! I don't have much for tunes currently, as I'm trying to get into the appropriate headstate for releasing my debut extended play, but these are some work-in-progresses with some ideas I'm enjoying aurally, closest genre specification for these would be 'psytrance'. Feedback appreciated but definitely not required. https://soundcloud.com/sol-tyrannis/bundem/s-DIzsr https://soundcloud.com/sol-tyrannis/solsara-clandestine-v104/s-YZIKe

so far - no. but the whole system relies on my computer, and reason, being stable and not wanting to spontaneously crash. I delibrately bought those two standalone decks rather than significantly cheaper controllers because controllers rely on whatever it's playing on to be stable - I can't guarantee that with anything I own, but I know for a fact that the standalone hardware is ridiculously reliable, and isn't prone to driver issues, network issues, ram issues, soundcard playing up, etc etc.

have you tried experimenting with mixing software i.e. serato, traktor, virtual dj etc?

the decks don't work with serato, some company bureaucracy about licenses. Decks obviously have the capability of midi mapping / HID. Haven't used traktor at all, but given i've a library of 1k+ songs all with rekordbox specific data with them, unsure whether I want to make the huge leap to an entirely new system, given the extra work I'd have to do. Virtual DJ.. don't really trust. I've already spent dosh on a Serato DJ Pro license which seems a bit moot now ( works with my really old mixtrack pro ), but hoping enough XDJ 1000 & 700 users make a fuss on the serato forums about integrating them.

Ugh, that age old question of what fucking key do I put this song in

I tend to write songs in which I sing, so just put it in which ever key I can both sing it in and provides the best richness of both the high and low chords. I also find switching keys cool for making experimentation easier, as I sometimes get bogged down in my previous efforts.

I do songs electronically in ableton, so switching keys is pretty easy, I just find it hard to decide which sounds best

If you upload a few examples, perhaps people here can tell you which they like best?

There may be a couple arrangement differences, just ignore them. Which Key is better? Em: https://soundcloud.com/genets/dete/s-MLGQi C#m: https://soundcloud.com/genets/detc/s-OHJ04

That's fucking beautiful. You compose in a really similar style to me, and I can definitely hear some Yann Tiersen inspiration in there. I preferred the Em version, as I think the bass is more prominent in that key. I have SO many ideas for your tune. Got a vocal hum and some piano parts I've got for it. It's a shame there's no easy way for me to combine them. I'd love for you to develop this though.

I gave some feedback as the last post in the old thread so I'm just going to post my own stuff. This is my new project and im pretty excited about it. I'll be consistent with this one. https://soundcloud.com/harknessmusic/all-the-answers If you are interested in listening on another service: All the Answers by Harkness Hope you guys enjoy.

Thanks! Tbh, it's a re arrangement of the opening theme from Detroit become human. So the main compositional aspects aren't mine, but I'm basically remixing it. I'd love to hear any ideas you have for it though!

I started producing a few days ago. I'm mostly doing it as a hobby, as I know I'm not very good at it, and I don't intend to make it my career or anything, but Id love some thoughts on these tracks (my favorite three)(also don't listen past, like, 30 seconds. It's all the same): https://soundcloud.com/richard-petrosino-842418353/wherethebassat https://soundcloud.com/richard-petrosino-842418353/groov20 https://soundcloud.com/richard-petrosino-842418353/on-the-sample

Ok wow facepunch studios have really pooped the pants on the quote/reply thing, Skeeter here btw y'all That has to be one of the fattest kicks I've heard and I'm a huge, huge fan of your automation skills! Very nice reverb as well, and well, the 3xoscsynth is probably one of the most beautiful ones I've heard as well. I think however, if you want Bundem to be a song that's supposed to cater to the people who have a short attention span you really need to sell the hook a lot faster ; Try and get it to come into play much faster than 0:36. I believe it would be much cooler too, if this was actually meant to be one of those tracks that keeps on going for 4-5 minutes instead of how it is now ; There's too many cool ideas in play for it to be shortened the way it is now!

I like the track overall, but I kinda feel like the mix is a bit narrow, the drums could stick out a bit more and the guitars kinda all sound a bit muddled together, the melody one in particular should be more prominent imo. ---- Here's two tracks that have been sitting in WIP hell for a while now, I might get to flesh them out a bit (especially no. 2) soon once vacation starts. Make sure to crank the volume a bit. my.mixtape.moe/vdszfx.flac my.mixtape.moe/efituy.flac