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Knowing what your tune will eventually sound like (pg. 2)
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| Subtle |
| the bass is the key in making a good track in terms of chord progression and actuall sound og the bass, i find myself finishing most of the tracks i quickly work out the bassline at early stages, the its the percussions, and i myself knows what i want my track to sound like judging on the bass and percussions ive made on early stages, also, each time i do finish a tune, i do know roughly how it is gonna sound.. i finish most of my tracks 2-4 days after ive started it, but it cant take weeks even month till something interesting enough shows up to be finished |
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| DigiNut |
Funny, I usually know exactly what I want a tune to sound like in my head - it's putting it into digital form that's the tricky part.
I mean sure, I like to experiment, and often my tunes end up being quite different from what I originally intended... but I don't know how you guys can pull it off without at least some idea of what you want. |
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| gr8ape |
| I finished a track in two days once : 8 hours a day, almost non stop........am Im an amateur, if this was my job id make tracks in 3-7 days i think |
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| Axolotyl |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
Funny, I usually know exactly what I want a tune to sound like in my head - it's putting it into digital form that's the tricky part.
I mean sure, I like to experiment, and often my tunes end up being quite different from what I originally intended... but I don't know how you guys can pull it off without at least some idea of what you want. |
I dont know how you can have the exact tune in your head before it exists. I mean it hasnt even been created yet but you know what it sounds like? I agree that transferring it from imspiration to digital form though is tricky. If it was easy, where would be the fun? :toothless |
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| DC- |
| quote: | Originally posted by gr8ape
I finished a track in two days once : 8 hours a day, almost non stop........am Im an amateur, if this was my job id make tracks in 3-7 days i think |
That won't win you any medals. The track should take as long as it needs to take. Generally, you can spot a rush production. The ones that take a long time, you can tell by the detail in them, the little things that most people take for granted, subtle changes in beat battern, rhythm, etc, etc. |
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| mzvirbulis |
| question is when is a track ready? only you can answer that one! |
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| Zombie0915 |
| quote: | Originally posted by GreenLight
I don't use raw dumkit samples ... I use samples Ive made myself ... already EQ'd, so I already know what each one sounds like ... Ive got a bunch diff. of hi hats ... a bunch of diff. kicks and so on ... takes time to make a kick or a hi hat the way you want it to sound ... I'll do alot of FINAL eqing during the final mixdown of the entire track ... and yes, I'll pan and everything( pan, adjust semitones, sample if I need to, et cetera) during my 3-5 minute drum looping basic setup ...
and ... If you'll give me a place to host a small mp3 sample ... I'll show you what a nice, quality drum loop is ... QUESTION: what kind of sequencer do you use ? |
I beleive tranceaddict allows you to attach sample mp3s to your posts, unfortunately I do not have a host you can upload to, the only web space I have is through my school but it only allows me to upload stuff to it. I really would like to hear what a drum loop is supposed to sound like during the initial composition stage though. How do you make your samples? The method I hear about alot is layering a bunch of different samples together and mixing/eqing them together in such a way that a new sample is formed, is this what you do or do you have another sample creation method?
Should I create my drum samples before I even try to compose any music? I have a sort of chicken/egg problem with sound design and composition. I have trouble identifying what specific sounds I need without first having a song laid out, but I also have trouble laying out a song without first having good sounds to use. How do you get around this, do you already have your own bank of sounds to use, do you create them as you go, or do you do your sound design after your music is laid out? Should I be trying to make some drumkits and stuff before I try to make a track or is more productive to first lay the patterns out then create specific sounds?
These are things I have trouble answering for myself. I used to use Buzz and Fruityloops when I ran windows and buzzmachines often came with preexisting samples and patches and stuff, fruity had alot of those preexisting sounds as well. I have since moved on to a linux system that only a few people in this forum are using. Rather than having a large sequencer and a bunch of plugins that are slave to it the linux programs work a little differently. Instead it is several separate programs which can route audio and midi between each other by using a program that is alot like the way assembling an arrangement of buzzmachines works. The center of my setup is a hard disk recorder called ardour, it handles audio only and has most of the features one would find in a pro sequencer except for midi editing. I route the audio from my midi programs into ardour and create midi sequences with a separate program. I have a midi only sequencer called seq24 for this task, it is a very simple program yet it allows one to do pretty much anything midi is capable of. I lay out my patterns for my drum program in seq24, route the drum audio output through a virtual effects rack(sometimes) then into ardour, inside ardour is where all the fx and mixing and stuff happen. I still have alot to learn about ardour though, it has lotsa features. The downside to this setup is that I have very few source sounds to start my projects with and I am not sure if I should take some time to create my own set or if I should just try making some songs with what I have. |
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| Freak |
no idea
an individual sound can take it anywhere....changing an effect can change the direction of a track.
Who knows?
Inspiration and creativity is not something that can be planned |
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| expanded |
Seriously... these subjects are so pointless!
Time doesn't define if a track is good or not.
Some of the greates tracks has been produced under 4 hours while some other has taken several months. It doesn't say ...
And there is no one who can tell how long a track will take, sometimes you just get a flow going and everything suits in your track you're doing...
And everyone works diffrent...
Pro or not, tracks are things you sculpture with your ears and like sculpturing statues/art... there's really 1 thing that matters. If the sculpturer is satisfied with the result, he will give it to the public... and some might like it, while others don't! Or a painting ...sometimes it can take days for a painter to draw 1-10 lines on a painting cuz the can decide if its the right thing to do... but the outcome can still be breathtaking.
And to get back to topic;
I like to tweak the sound while im working on it to get as much out of it as i can. Sometimes i can sit with an eq on a hihat group channel for half an hour to get it flowing with the kickdrum and bassline which took me another 2 hours to get right with eq:ing and compressing.
I find it easier to work with the sound and get it like i want it instead of fixing it in the end, i tend to get more creative when im hearing the sound that im after. And what you guys are missing out here is that, its those little tweaks you do that defines your style your sound (maybe that's why edm sounds so ing dull nowdays. people don't work enough on their own sound,just do as everyone else tell them to do).
But in the end it's really up to you... it doesn't matter how you do it or anyone else for that matters, how long it takes... the beauty about music making is that you can do what the hell you want, how you want it! as long as you think it sounds good it'll motivate you to keep doing tracks and for each and every hour you spend you'll learn more and more! A specefic sound is one of the most beautiful things about music.... wanting to/sounding like someone else is boring!
Art is not time, it's nothing until you've created it... |
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| groundzero74 |
It's quite interesting learning how other TA's get their projects started. I've been giving it some thought , and guess there are several ways i've started a new track in the past. Sometimes its going trough the many presets on my synths, i suddenly see potential in a sound, tweak it to match my will and out flows a melody.
Other times, i'm in the rhytmic mood and start of with a open & closed HiHat loop, and start filling it up with other samples that never even seemed that good in the past, and now just seem to fit right in (maybe somewhere in the back of your head these sounds stick and form an idea that takes some time to surface ? i dunno) ... then get the bassline , and finally the melody , so it completely the other way around.
Of what contact & information i have gathered from "pro's" they each have their own technique .
Until about a year ago i had regular visits with a known Belgian Techno producer, this guy told me a story about how he suddenly thought of a drum loop, and had to get it onto some medium before the idea passed, he actually "beatboxed" the loop into his mic. and finally ended up using these "vocal beats" in his final track(heavily processed of course)... he's always going on about "sound control"
Trough interviews in the media i've heard about another belgian Hardtrance duo, they actually force themselves to produce... they go into the studio on monday morning , start fiddling around until they get inspired by something they hear or that happens... then work out a first draft in before going home to keep the flow going. The rest of the week they spend working out the rest into a new track.
So .. i think they are just like every other TA that has been producing for several years, some of them just force themselves to work hard until something good comes along , others use their "working formula's" and maybe others only work when they are really inspired , so work flows more easily.
Really looking forward to more ways people think while creating ... |
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| Zombie0915 |
I understand that everybody is supposed to have their own way of making things, and that this sort of info is stuff that varies from person to person. The whole metaphor about using your ears to sculpt a sound is all well and good, but what about the people who do not yet know how to do the sculpting? Are they really supposed to just stand there staring at a large rock until they figure it out, or is it ok to ask people for advice on what tool is good to use for acheiving a certain effect?
I mean, its not like we are trying to discover a formula, we(or maybe I should just say me) dont know what it takes to sculp the sound that we desire. I understand we are suposed to just do whatever we want, but what about people who do not know what to do at all? I go though hours of trial and error every day and I get frustrated about how much time I am wasting, so I come here and ask these kinds of questions hoping that somebody will give me the clue I need so that I can spend my time being more productive.
I hear pro tracks and wonder how they are assembled, not because I want to make a ripoff but because I want to stop sounding so friggin bad. I wonder if other ppls productions start off sounding like mine and get better as they continue working or if I am heading in the complete wrong direction with my efforts. I want to make something that a DJ might possibly consider spinning so if I just go off on my own wild tangent trying to be unique then I have a much smaller chance of any DJ hearing a track of mine and thinking that it would fit with their set. There are some limits to that "find your own way" idea, if you want somebody to play your song it has to fit and I just wonder how to make my stuff fit.
I do something similar to your techno producer friend groundzero , if I think of something when I am not on my computer I will call my phone and sing it into my ansering machine so that I do not lose the idea. |
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| GreenLight |
UnWorldy - I use the same method of sample creation as alot of people ... I'll layer a kick two or three times with EQ's, I'll take the Attack from diff. rising crashes and combine them with the release on a completly diff. crash qith EQing ... Hi-Hat Example: I'll Take a royalty free hi hat, sample it and EQ it and save it 20 diff times to make 20 diff. hi hat sounds ...
Unworldy ... I would start with your sound design on your samples, If a Hi-hat has a certain sound you love after you've EQ'd it, I'll promise you you'll respect it and love it more than a preset sample ...
def. work on the way your overall, general Sound SOUNDS !!!
If you want some help ... PM me dood ... I'll be more than glad to give you all the pointers you can indulge yourself in ...
personally ... I wouldn't be on a linux system making music, no offense to you or the system, I find a closed-chain system like windows to be a host for more persistant, more controlling programs ... |
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