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 Now online (2)dariusgriffin recycle ...and 419 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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for all the musicmakers: post up your clever tips for making sounds/music. I know lots of people make music, but there is very little chat about the techniques people use, only the finished result. I think it would be cool for people to share ideas, so people new to it all can learn from the 'pros'. |
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ehm, i think you missed all the talk about music making there are quite some threads about that, so if you wont get big response in this thread you can always use a search feature :) |
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Hm, um, work with left and right pans. It's boring to hear all the sounds in the "middle". May sound fuzzy, I know, but hey, I'm a swede. ^_^ |
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i always seem to miss all the good threads. if only i could get online more! my tip: for a wide stereo field, plug a stereo signal into 2 mono channels and pan one hard left, the other hard right, it makes it sound 'wider' |
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There was a thread about this several weeks ago. But I'm happy to continue here when I'm home tonight. |
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make lots of noises and put them together. be unique and dont bite. |
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don't use TOO MUCH reverb. |
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yeah reverb is a killer, but neccesary to make it feel alive. with panning, try to set it out like a live performance, with certain instruments/sounds in certain areas, so it doesnt sound too cluttered. if you actually want to know about making the music, I would say much around with instruments sounds, dont even try to make something up, just make noises, like weakling child said, and then something will click with you. You wont be able to get this little idea out of your head, then it will expand and take u over, till ur frustration drives u to make the track! well, that's what it's like for me..... i get so frustrated if there's no way of capturing my creative-output. even a pen on paper will do sometimes! |
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Sometimes you need to give up trying to recreate the sound in your head if it's not working- use what you already have in a track to move in a new direction. Don't overdo FX- if they're going to be used in such a way that the effect is very pronounced, don't do it for very long- everyone knows how crap those house "tunes" that have a flanger on the master channel/lots of compression on the master sound. Keep it just for a few loops then kill the effect. Don't be afraid of using ready made presets on efffects/filters as the basis for your own. When yoiu're having difficulty being creative actually writing a track, do what I call "donkey work"- reorganise samples, cut up breaks, hit randomize on a drum machine a 50+ times till you get something good then save it, build up a load of samples, FX presets etc. that way you won't be held up when actually writing. I know Luke Vibert has said that he records everything to DAT and then uses samples from them when he's actually writing. If you really can't finish a track, ask if someone else would like to finish it for you as a collaboration- it'll free you up to work on other tracks. Go on sampling sprees- go for walks and record everything to MD, get a radio card for your PC and sample the news every evening. |
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Never discard sounds that you THINK don't sound great. Often, some of the most elementary sounds, sound best together with other sounds. Big, complex sweeping sounds suck up alot of frequency range and can be very difficult to mix into a track. -P |
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These tips will mainly be for pretty conventional music, so behold all yee drill and bassers, and cut-up freaks.... These are my tips: 1 tip: Listen to all of the above!!! 2: Dont try to be too innovative in the beginning. try making something sound ok, in the usual 140 bpm style as an experiment. i always thought it was shit easy, but messing around in this area, will teach you more about making music (at least i find it so). Then if thou wilt, move on to any area you like. Just dont neglect that bpm area (120-145), because its to mainstream... 3: Use compressors a lot, on everything. This will help you to that "produced" sound. They appear boring, but adds a lot to a song! 4: Set of some time, to learn all the knobs in whatever program youre using. Sometimes seing what you can do, will give you creative power, and inspiration. 5: Sing to yourself in the bath. If you get a sudden melody inspiration in your head, humm it into a dictaphone, to permit the tune to stay intact. 6: Try (paco mentions this) to cover the whole frequency area. Basicly, youre on a good start, if you Cover bass,kicks (low) synths, some snares, (middle) and hi-hats. It will please the ear, to percept all the frequencies, rather than listen to some middle frequency synths and nothing else. 7:Hihats!! incredibleto any track (if it has drumms)!! 8: Try experimenting with compressing things, after you've used an effect. it will give the song more drive, if effect processed sounds have an pretty equal amplitude. Hope it inspires! |
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This fåwkin brilliant! USE IT!!! |
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1. play lots of breakcore loops at double speed through tonnes of distortion 2. have a microphone on all the time so you can SCREAM really loud through it when your making the track. Smack it on things and tap it too. 3. get all your mates guitar fx pedals together, daisy chain them, and lie on top of them twitching as you sing/shout into the microphone. 4. carve shapes into old vinyl and play it on a cheapo turntable. Spin tinfoil and any other household materials with interesting surfaces. 5. Junkyards have all the best percussion instruments. Use different sized slabs of meat as melodic toms. 6. circuit bend. 7. immeadiatly throw away all the manuals to a new piece of equipment. 8. ...and last of all, put ALL of your music on 8cm cds cos they're FAR fucking cooler than normal sized ones. sorted. |
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hmph i love reverb :/ thanks guys for bursting my bubble there then! :) but i just play with sounds anyway. your tips cant touch me. :) |
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well, if u plan to use LOADS of reverb, then it's alright.... but my music tech teacher helped produce a cd of pupils at his last school and they're swamped with reverb and it sounds crap. |
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I have some tips: 01: always learn your hardware as well as you can. No sense in having a machine if you can't operate it to the best of your ability. 02: make your own sounds whenever feasible. I prefer my own drum hits, basses, synths. It gives the songs a much more personal touch and the end result is very pleasant. 03: always stick with whole number tempos (i.e., 170, not 170.1,170.5, or 170.7). 04: layers of sounds work well; use tasteful attacks and decays to blend things together. An awkward sound springing up from nowhere can kill a great track. 05: use any free software you can get in addition to your setup. Try to familiarize yourself with several ways of editing sounds and rhythms. 06: chop beats up and reprogram them to your liking--awesome effect. 07: go easy on effects until you've finished your track up--that way you don't have to worry about all these plugins or hardware settings that alter your sounds changing your idea of the song 08: what I always do is tell myself to try other things. i like to get my idea in my head out into my track, but when i'm not having fun doing it, I try to switch it to a newer idea. I update my tracks during their creation, so to speak. 09: take some time to really learn aobut the sounds you've made. find out why they sound how they do. 10: a tip for actually making sounds: altering hats sustains and resonance settings can get a really fresh hat for an accented beat ;) |
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one final tip, and this is a reiteration to stress importance: don't go wild with reverb effects. ifnact, in my opinon, there's not much reason for reverb on drums at all! when using drums, especially, restrict your reverb. |
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"always stick with whole number tempos (i.e., 170, not 170.1,170.5, or 170.7)." whys that then? |
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I agree with steve...Why set limitations on yourself? Music is about expressing emotion, find out ways to make sounds that express the emotions your feeling, and that should greatly improve your music making. And dont put limits on yourself, experiment and try new things that you dont think will work, but try them anyway just to see what happens Find your own sound |
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It is always harder to make good things with bad tools, but once you learn how to work with bad tools you can be a pro on the good ones. |
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concentrate on the sounds themselves. drop all ideas of structure and "songs". not important at the moment. get a real feeling for sounds, textures of sound themselves. get a sample, any sample and show it all corners of the room. throttle it. smash it up. put it back together. etc. etc. save every change you make. this'll make a lot of samples that work together. have fun. |
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Why to stay with whole number tempos: my synth does it, but it doesn't come out well when I try to mix things recorded from synth to a program like say FruityLoops which doesn't support partial bpm. So layering and precision sequencing become a problem. Actually, if you work with halfs, you can just double the speed and use 4 measures at say 60.5 as 2 measures at 121 bpm... but in general, i think it's best to work with whole numbers--it's not going to affect the sound of the song much. |
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I figured the musicians on this board would be all over this thread! |
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TRhis is a bump cause this is a great thread :) |
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sluke: fair enough if practically it means that its easy for you to work with integer bpms, no one likes doing long division to match stuff up :( but i got loads of tracks where i've pitched whole chunks of other tracks up/down and they sound cool at such and such a pitch, but the bpm they're playing in is something like 72.34 or whatever. Not just that though, it makes it tougher for people to beatmatch it :) it'll drift out :) |
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it's all in your head, get the maximum out of the minimum ... you have to tell something ... |
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lol best recommendation : 3. get all your mates guitar fx pedals together, daisy chain them, and lie on top of them twitching as you sing/shout into the microphone. |
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for a nice lofi sound mic your speakers, or record from headphones with a mic. to get nice distortion, like a harsh 50hz tone, lick your finger then put it on the back connections of a turntable cartridge. to get a nice drum loop distorion, add to a send channel send->compressor->distortion->return. set compressor to 16:1 ratio and threshold to highest setting, attack and release to lowest setting. this will feed the distortion effect with a nice compressed sound. overall it sounds very cool. Cut up vocal samples (recycle) then play them normally, but change some snippets to 1/32nd notes or something to get it to sound like a cd skipping sort of typical idm sound. use granular synthesis methods to slow down or speed up vocal samples to create some very cool effects. i.e. use the preset on reaktor or generator to get ideas how. use xlr cables. |
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Smoke weed once in a while while busy with music. Gives weird ideas sometimes. |
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Nah, smoking pot will limit one's abilities to hear high frequency sounds. I say avoid drug use while making music, or doing anything else. :) |
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make ambient when your realy tired and for a japanese feal use only black keys |
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Definately- getting good on top of the range equipment can be bad- if you ever have to use poor quality stuff you'll be stuffed. Lay off the drugs when making tracks, but sometimes you can make nice "bits" of a track (like a good baseline, etc.) whilst you're drunk or whatever. If you're getting nowhere, go for a walk or play videogames etc. even leave it till the next day- a break can sometimes make you see something that is wrong in a track or what needs to be put in. Be harsh with yourself- if an element of a track sounds bad, take it out- keep a copy by all means, you may use it in another track at a later date. It can be hard to do this if you've spent 4/5 hours on one part of a track. Sadly it's one of those areas that requires a little discipline. Try to do something relating to music every day, even if it's just reading a tutorial (or tips like these ;) ) or manual etc. it helps you keep your hand in. With big manuals/tutorials you'll never read through in their entirity, print them out, bind them and keep them as "toilet reading". By just reading a paragraph on the loo you might notice something really cool you can do with your favourite program. Sounds funny/weird, but this last one really works. |
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no offence,ceri jc, but you sound like some sort of music making monk. "lay off the drugs", "be harsh with yourself", "try"... you sound like a an exam revision guide mate. |
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Well, i think Ceri Cj's tips are top notch. Drugs are BAD KIDS!!! Ceri, you look like my piano teacher, and that gives me total confidence in you. |
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Just been trawling through some old sound production threads and I think this one deserves a bump. Some interesting methodological approaches, especially from Mr JC. B u m p. |
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I stand by everything I said in this post, even though it was almost 18 months ago. I still approach music making in the same way. |
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If you're using a software sequencer, get all your patterns done FIRST, before you arrange. Don't get caught into the potential death trap that us arrangement. Make as many variations for every pattern you do, even if it is extremely minor, such as one note played at a slightly lower velocity. |
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that ^is arrangement, I mean. :P |
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Agreed- especially if you're going to render them off to wav for use in a sampler/another program. It's so annoyinh going back, finding the old file, making more loops, re-rendering them and then trying again. Just do overkill to begin with and discard those you don't use (or keep them for use in remixes) |
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Set fire to things and giggle. |
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