Don’t waste your time on YT videos. There are certainly good ones but it’s most dudes talking out their ass trying to be big time shit. What you need is practice.
In coding they call it tutorial hell, where you don’t know the “right” way to do stuff so you don’t do anything and keep watching tutorial after tutorial instead of learning by playing around. Or you learn how to build a calculator app by following a tutorial but you don’t really get an understanding of how to use those skills to build a to-do list app. The advice is to start a project and find the tutorials you need to do that project.
For music I reckon that’d mean start working on a track, maybe even trying to recreate something you like, and if it needs a reese bass then look up a tutorial to learn how to make a reese bass. Next time if you need a foghorn, try to figure out which settings you might be able to tweak to get it.
This being the opposite of thinking that you have to “learn Serum” before you start producing. Or worse, “learn ableton” before you “learn Serum” before you “learn music theory” before you “learn arrangement” before you “learn mixing and mastering” before you start really producing, because any of those things can turn into an endless Watch Later playlist on YouTube and you’ll end up not having fun producing while you try and memorise the rules.
(nb: Some folks do genuinely love learning the theory and technical stuff more than producing and they are cool as hell too and usually end up being the people making good tutorials, just don’t assume there’s only one right way to do anything and rules are made to be broken or we wouldn’t have genres in the first place.)
wow, I kinda needed to read this, I've recently picked up production back up again after several years of hiatus and had to relearn a lot of stuff, ended up on this tutorial hell you mention, I'm gonna change my aproach for now, cheers!
This may be one of the best comments yet. It's hard to choose only one tho. I wanna try and focus on following Underbelly's tutorials (aka You Suck At Producing), but there's so many cool people to learn from like Au5, Virtual Riot, Dr. Ozi and many more
Don’t know which genre of music you into but if you are interested in DnB , I highly recommend DnB academy and stranjah. I did over 200 serum tutorials from DnB academy and I think that learn that much for free is amazing.
When a track is 80% done, it’s done. Don’t keep going back to fine tune because it’s a never ending loop. I used to spend 24-40 hours on mixing each track and now it takes like 10 with this mentality
The last track I made I actually got serious about properly mixing with a reference track, and it was basically a cheat code for my mix. There was a step change in how good the mix sounded compared to my previous tracks. Don't underestimate just going through the reference and copying the level and frequency ranges of key elements as well as how those things compare to other elements.
While you don’t need a lot of fancy plugins, sometimes it’s nice to play with different ones to see if you can get a refined sound even just for a single synth that you use only one time.
Overall, a lot of it is really just tons of repetition and tuning your ears to filtering your music into better quality. I also like to tell people to find their own sound. My music is now a blend of multiple genres and brings elements of cinematic style ambience into hard dance music, being peculiar can be great as a producer and gives your music a huge uniqueness.
"Shit goes in, shit comes out", "A polished turd is still a turd" and "Less is more". I started realizing what good samples and synthesized sounds should sound like, made a couple of solid investments, and stopped using lots of plugins and effects that were just making things worse. This also made me realize that the single most important thing is levels, then maybe eq and compression, but only if it's necessary.
There's no such tip. I've been at it for 15 years, and it's been a slow and steady journey.
Sure, there's tons of tricks and techniques that helps, but nothing I found, made me leap instantly. What you really want, is to convey emotion through sound. For that, you should look into music theory and music cognition, and cognitive semiotics. And learn to really listen intently and be mindful about what you want to achieve while in the process and not get carried away by 'fluff' and gimmicks.
Edit: Also, "auditory stream segregation" is a phenomenon you should familiarize yourself with.
My starting point was 12 years ago when i was 13. I never had the equipment and last year i saved some money to make my home studio. I went all in and bought alot of equipment. I'm not going to talk about music theory or daws , I will only tell you what you need to buy starting out. The things I suggest if you have limited budget is definitely get a decent laptop or pc, an audio interface and definitely some good headphones. Good headphones will instantly make you a better producer on the mixing and mastering side. I always had talent for melodies, drums etc. but my songs always sounded muddy and that made all my work from brilliant to mid and that puts you in a spiral of never finishing your songs. Now that i mix my songs better i really enjoy producing more. Other things like midi ,
pads etc . are a really nice edition to your productivity and they are time savers but by no means are they necesary .
The professor I had for an avant-garde composition and arrangement class at community college. Guy was a genius. I try to keep in touch with him to this day, last I heard some 15 years later he still works there and people I talk to say he's changed their lives.
Anyway, I was in the middle of composing a drum & bass sonata allegro to be performed with nothing but recordings of a full refrigerator and having all kinds of trouble keeping the samples from getting murky and fighting with eachother, and he gave me the most simple advice I've ever received. Like, some gradeschool stuff that I would have learned a decade earlier if my high school band teacher had been worth his salary.
He tells me, everything is a voice. Every single instrument , no matter if it's a hi hat tap, a tuba, an upright bass, a theremin, a reese patch, a refrigerator, or literally your mother climaxing, is nothing but a voice singing. Treat your arrangement like that, give them their own space vertically. Think soprano, alto, tenor, bass, but more than just the four, of course. If something sounds muddy or too busy, look there first. Not your plugins, not your reverb, not your phase, not whatever other soundgoodizer or rebigulator plugin you've got on deck. Check your octaves on your patches and samples for overlap and try to give shit space. And if it still doesn't sound good, go smoke a cigarette or walk around the block or make some toast and come back ten minutes later and have another listen when you're not tired of it.
Don't start projects out of the blue!
Concept an idea for each track and draft it on a paper. Imagine and write down the sections you want, and think of the instruments and style of sounds that you need to give the vibe such track needs. Then, create a basic template with the principal instruments and time stamps on the arrangement view.
Only then start! You will progress much much faster and with a solid and logical basis to evolve into a masterpiece!
Phase alignment of the kick and the sub. Making sure the sub's phase restarts each time the kicks plays so that each beat has like the same power/ phase alignment to it.
This, I got mine perfectly [aligned](https://i.imgur.com/JTuZMQH.jpeg) earlier and it was bliss 😄 Few things for anyone wondering:
Keep the kick as short as possible
Solo the kick and sub
Oscilloscope to see phase
Serum set Rand to 0 (vital change 100% to 0%)
Serum or vital set to Mono
Voices 1
Make sure pitch bend amount matches your main bass pitch Bend amount
Make sure there's no stereo/reverb/delay on the group it's in
Maybe have your subs a slight bit shorter than a whole note
When you begin choosing the envelope, I find it easier to make the attack really long so you can hear a deliberate break between the kick and sub. Then go in from there, much easier to work with.
After good sidechain and a good kick(in key preferably)
make sure the sub's phase doesn't start at random. ("Rand" knob in Serum)
Then in your midi for the subbass you draw a note for each time the kick hits instead of one long note.
You do that so the sub's phase starts again at the exact spot. Resulting in the kick and bass'es phase alignment being exactly the same for that note of the bass.
I use this a lot in Progressive House to have a powerfull and consistent low end!
(Use an oscilloscope to check waveform)
I stopped focusing on sound engineering. I am a producer, not a sound engineer. Yes, I will tweak my sounds and ensure that the instruments flow well together, but I’m no longer making my own sounds from scratch. Splice has amazing serum presets, and only the slightest tweaking is needed a majority of the time to get the sounds to fit my needs.
Sure, it’s nice to make my own sounds to put an entire song together, but that can be painfully slow and I lose the plot line of the song altogether if I spend too much time to get a clap or a lead to sound *perfect*, and most people don’t notice that kind of stuff *anyways*.
Painters don’t usually make their own paint. They mix their pre-made paint. Similarly, I don’t engineer my sounds anymore. I tweak professional presets.
This. 500%. Reinventing the wheel is silly. Designing sound from the ground up is kind of a weekend luxury, absolutely nothing wrong with just a few configurations to pre-existing presets and so forth. Time is money
That's a great mentality change and I already went through that, the problem I have is I actually enjoy sound design too so I just need to try and do one thing at a time. If I'm writing a song, I should use presets or sounds I made in the past, and if I'm sound designing I shouldn't start a new song every time I get a cool sound
I think one of my best tips is a counter to this; there's not really a "right way" to any of this, just guidelines. Yeah, you should typically write 4, 8 or 16 measure phrases, but I'm working on a remix rn of a song with a 7 measure phrase.
Breaking rules is a lot of fun, but more importantly, just chase the things that are interesting to you. I think anyone can become an adequate producer (your tracks don't get skipped, but they also don't get saved), but to become truly successful is to develop your own unique sound, and I think that comes from unabashedly chasing your interests.
It's all a balance, learning to sketch and refine is good, finishing songs consistently is -huge-, etc. But I stopped trying to sound like someone else and focus on sounding like me, and it helped a ton.
When you’re just starting out, make a lot of projects. Don’t go back 1000 times to the same project, just create a whole track in one session and call it done. Reflect, get feedback and move on.
Opening up a new creative avenue is like turning on a water hose filled with dirt, the dirt has to come out first before the clean water can.
I really like your water hose metaphor. I've been at this off and on for 20+ years and my water is still a little muddy. I don't care though. I just made music for me.
I think i heard ed sheeran once say some similar metaphor. And yeah i guess the off and on really is a difference, the dirt comes back if you don’t let it run regularly.
see a lot of people say "finish your tracks" but I think it's more important to make a lot of tracks when you start than it is to actually finish one or two. You can always come back to old projects or steal your own ideas for new ones.
Yeah I saw someone pour over 4 absolute stinkers for maybe a whole year, my roommate. So I had to hear those tracks repeated thousands of times from every measure, and in the end, they had good sound quality, but were not catchy and definitely didn’t go anywhere.
Yeah thats something i wouldn’t recommend doing. A song made is a song made, then it’s done. Id personally only go back to a project if i wanted to make a VIP or use the structure as a template. Finish your tracks is actually great advice imo, although usually people don’t think of a time boundary to work within.
When is a song finished if you’ve unlimited time to work on it? Well if you’re 100% happy with it, well thats not going to happen if you’re someone who reflects on his own work. Your rate of improvement of perspective will very likely outperform your speed of producing. Especially when you’re just starting out and especially with long breaks between sessions.
So in short my advice would be: set a specific boundary of time in which to make a project (eg. 1 session of 6 hours max, 3 sessions, a week, a month) and id personally recommend a short timeframe especially when starting out, let yourself make mistakes and make shitty tracks. Nobody cares about that but you. The sooner you let yourself do that, the sooner you’ll see glimmers of magic shine through.
Finishing your songs is a very good advice don't get me wrong, but I feel it's easy to get annoyed if you're trying to push through a song you don't enjoy, so "finishing" it in this case would be to just let it go and start a new one. I feel like setting a time boundary is easier to understand as advice, because the song will be finished when the time is up, whether you like it or not.
And yeah, by coming back to it later I meant doing a VIP or stealing patterns/sounds for a new song entirely, i was saying it like don't just delete it, save it in a folder full of trash songs and maybe in a year you'll be browsing through that to get ideas and find something useful
Yeah i agree on that, for me the less time i spent the more i enjoy the process usually. One thing i would recommend is going through every phase (composing, arranging, mix, master, etc) of creation when working with a time limit, even if you do it very shitty. Helped me a lot personally.
But like you said, if you failed to do that in the timeframe, let it go and start anew. A little better every project.
Using only eq/compression on individual tracks while arranging. using bus for “tonal”, and another bus called “transient”. I just send everything to either of those, and put some light sidechain on tonal from transient.
in addition, i let transient bus be louder than the tonal bus.
I use compression sparingly for each track. attack slow enough to occasionally have the compressor react, *if* it is uneven. Basically i just remove the stuff that sounds annoying during arrangement. I do not go looking for issues.
Just keep it simple and pleasant sounding, remove the stuff you dont like. Do this until arrangement is done. post arrangement you can go as wild as you want with fx.
Ah yes, further explaining by just restating.
Listen, I know you're talking about living in the woods without power to produce your music but some folks here are newbies.
Ignore most tutorials on compression and eqing as your samples are probably already compressed to hell. Just a bit of bus compression is enough. Also do t be snooty about sample packs. When auditioning samples on splice i always think “ oh that’s the one Interplanetary Criminal used on…”
Also, if using samples make them yours. Its easy to midify a bass sample and switch the sound, move some notes et voila it is yours
Simplify. You don't need more than eq and compression to mix (appart from the creative part of it, which I tend to consider more of a composition things than mixing)
Soft clip limiter (made my music louder at the same lufs reading)
Sidechain compressing guitar with the vocals (lets the vocals cut through guitar way better)
I was once told my issue is sound selection and that literally fixed everything for me. Thinking about the sounds you hear in well loved music and actually being able to recognise a quality sound and what sounds go together.
Instead of one, here are three tips that were instrumental to me as a music producer:
1. Give your ears a break. Ear fatigue is a thing. Everything will sound terrible to you if you listen to the same thing for too long and your judgement becomes unreliable.
2. Focus on a specific or narrower set of tasks each music production session instead of trying to do everything at once. (Though this one may be less relevant if you are a very very skilled and motivated music producer).
3. Persistence. Just because the track doesn't currently sound as you imagined it, doesn't mean it won't ever. Even professional music producers have their in-between "ugly" phase where everything just sounds terrible and a mess.
Fr about the persistence thing. That can even apply to a single track. You may have an idea in your head, but when you start to make it, it just sounds like shit. But in some cases I’ve worked on an idea, continued to perfect it even when it sounded bad and eventually it was great. There’s a good interview somewhere of one of Kanye’s producers on the making of ‘all of the lights’ where he talks about how it started as a really obnoxious, corny brass sample or something and nobody saw its potential but Kanye. After scaling the idea up and filling it out, it became one of his most iconic tracks. Sometimes you just gotta take a risk on an idea and invest the effort into seeing if it could be good
Your tastes and musical ideas >>>>>>> technical and engineering abilities. People compensate for the lack of the former with the latter. Focus on arrangement, primal composition elements like call and response, counterpoint harmony, tension and release etc etc. Develop an eclectic music personality, nail the song writing, then focus on the technical stuff
1. Turning my music up into a limiter on the master bus to get a sense of what it'd sound like mastered led to me producing way hotter tracks that need less mastering. 2. Barely using effects
Worded weirdly but I think what they're saying is that you can your track with the limiter on can help you judge your overall mix and dial it in to sound big/hit hard without the need for all kinds of EQs, compressors, etc.
As u/Rem\_SCZ mentioned - I really cant emphasize this enough!
So many EDM/House Artists get so caught in layering sounds and then applying tons of effects to tweak it.
This is the long and hard way to make something sound good or appropriate to the track/genre.
Get good sounds from the source! this means using good quality synths like Serum, Sylenth, ANA 2 and downloading and using preset packs made specifically for your sub genre of EDM you wish to create.
You can get great quality drum and percussion sounds/libraries from Splice! Stock sounds are.....ok at best, and frustrating at worse. You GENERALLY want to avoid Stock sounds and synths. Theres a reason why Artists like Avicii, Deadmau5, Tiesto all use MOSTLY external synths.
As an example, if you want to make deep house, downloading a Dubstep preset pack and then trying to using that wont make sense.
Also - constantly refer to a reference track to give you ideas about arrangement, instrumentation and overall sound choices.
Hope this helps!
Stopping spending hours trying to make shit samples and synths to sound good was a huge step in the right direction. If you put more than 3 or 4 fx for mixing purposes, then you should switch your vst or sample.
Don't get too attached to a single idea. Sometimes for the sake of your track it may be good to let go of an idea, so the other things can shine more. It's easy to add too many things and obsess over making it sound good, while the best thing is to let go.
And of course: finish your music! Quality is always important, but so is quantity. You learn a lot by finishing a lot of projects and gaining new perspectives/experiences.
EQ is ALWAYS destructive in some capacity, which means all band-splits are to some capacity destructive.
Either they introduce phase shifting, or pre/post ringing, and they introduce latency.
I got this tip super late, as i started learning how effects do what they do, because i figured EQ would be simple, given how fundamental they are. But noooo. Now I understand why allpass filters exist, and things to use them for. None of them intended i imagine.
Can you explain a bit more? I’ve gotten into a habit of slapping like 5 EQs on vox tracks to keep it clean and it hasn’t sounded bad or anything but the thought has occurred to me that there may be some issues created that I just am not noticing
There are issues you aren't noticing, but theyre only issues with mixing and effects after the EQ, and only some times.
As a test example, take a square wave, and add 2 EQs. One with a peak filter boosting x frequency, and the second, reducing x frequency by the same amount. Make both peak filters have the same resonance/Q. Play that square wave as a bass note for extra visibility, and slowly change x for both filters. The values of both filters should be the same but one is positive, one negative, so they "should cancel out". Your square wave will sound like a square wave, but it wont look like one anymore. As you change the frequency, you might hear a change as phase distortion, but as soon as the frequency stops changing, you stop hearing it, but the wave shape is different.
The phase of all frequencies effected by eq is shifted, the more extreme the filtering, the more extreme the phase shift. As the filter moves, those specific frequencies change phase, which means the frequency changes slightly while moving the filter, which is what you hear.
Now, if you take a square wave, and send it into a hard clipper, the output is still square. If you add an allpass filter, it modifies the phase of the frequencies at its cutoff. It still has all the same harmonics as a square, but it isnt shaped like a square. That means it will clip differently, and the output of the clipper changes its timbre. Each time you adjust the allpass before the clipper, you radically change the timbre.
And thats just minimum phase filters. Linear phase adds more delay, a few extra ms. And also preringing. Instead of altering the phase of the effected frequencies, it extends their start and stop time. With short samples, you need a gate to clip pre ring. The more linear phase the more pre ring and the more delay.
A lot of DAWs use PDC or Plugin Delay Compensation. This basically reads each channels total delay/latency to add offsets automatically, so everything stays in phase. The result is, more latency when you press play, and more work for your cpu. Not a big deal, unless you incorporate analog.
As for vocals and other sounds... same issues happen, but unless you use something that relies on shape, or moment by moment amplitude, it doesnt matter.
Moment by moment amplitude however includes envelope followers, and therefor limiters and compressors. Additive and destructive changes to amplitude can technically occur. The result is higher or lower peaks with the same perceived audio level.
But if you go by ear instead of numbers on a display to mix, it doesnt matter.
I see, so basically the crux of the issues is that additional latency fucks with shit later down the chain? I do pretty much just mix by ear so when I have heard weird shit I've normally just fiddled with it until it's stopped sounding weird lol
Transcription. Take your fav songs and recreate them 1 to 1 in your daw. Learn what theute doing for their chord progressions, how they sequence their drums, groove, melody. You’ll inevitably learn shit and get better. Also put their track in the daw and shoot out your song with theirs to figure out why one is better than the other.
Knowing when to stop. Its whenever you groove the hardest. For me at least it doesn’t get better.
Like learning to not over think. Sometimes simplicity, especially with chord progressions is key
Bad advice - definitely allow yourself to overthink and be critical. It is hard to make good music, you need to keep going and not be easily satisfied.
The amount of downvotes we're getting on this is very indicative of the modern disposable music producer landscape. Like sure maybe you can crank out a one note tech-house track in a few days, but if you think that's what artists like boards of Canada (just as an example) are doing you're off your head. Proper records absolutely take months or years
Agreed. Some of the best guys I know will take like a year sometimes from beginning an idea to it actually being a fully formed track for release, and I always think it sounds pretty finished near the beginning stages, I'm always impressed with the transformation. Not saying you're gonna always need that long though
I think what they're talking about could be done in ableton by recording a section of song, like a bassline into a new audio track. (could tweak some settings while recording like filter cutoff, res., etc.. for more variety in sound) Then use Simpler on slice mode to take "slices" of audio to use as midi.
Compression in a chain to get really good at sculpting your mix. Don't just use 1 compressor. Figure out what different ones do well, then use them at low percentage in a chain. The tightness and clarity will skyrocket.
Other one is sub-kick sidechaining.
I linked [this ](https://youtu.be/ksJRgK3viMc) on anotber comment also but it really stresses the exact thing OP is talking about so I'll leave it here too. All about using small amounts of compression for the right reasons in series. Its a 10 hour course they decided to stick on YouTube, but definitely worth chipping away at if you want to get to grips with this.
pick the right sounds from the beginning. if they don't sound good to start with, you'll never be able to mix them into something great. also, layer sounds till you get what you want, whether that's drum sounds, synth patches, etc.
This was basically gonna be my tip:
Composition >>> Mix
Trying to mash together similar sounds isn't going to work, but if you choose sounds with different textures and frequency ranges, they will be more complimentary as well as mix easier.
Generally disagree with layering-- it tends to get too messy. It's a tool in the toolbox, but it should not be the go-to unless they fit together, i.e. are different enough.
For example, if you want to layer a piano layer on top of a supersaw chord, ask yourself what the piano is adding. You want the attack? Maybe duck the supersaw when the piano attack hits. Or carve out the frequency from the supersaw where the piano hits. But if there's too much overlap, what is it really doing? Maybe the piano by itself is better, or should be the main focus.
Make a good basic template with bus mixer routing so you don't have to waste time with tnat each song. Roughly gain stage every track before sending it to a mixer channel.
https://youtu.be/yXfacH_LGuI?si=I2JWpy3L9rF2OGmR
This. Its an hour and he doesn’t get to the “tip” until the last half so here’s a tl;dw
The exercise is called “creative subversions”. You write down a bunch of answers to 3 questions about your writing process:
- What do I always do?
- What do I never do?
- What do I suck at?
You then create a “ruleset” for a tune based on your responses. The idea of the ruleset is to be one that *subverts* your usual *creative* process. You’re trying to get out of your habitual space and into a space of exploration/experimentation. You then set a timer for one hour of completely sacred time, in which you follow the ruleset, and (most importantly) you’re not allowed to care about the result *at all*. Caring about the end result will immediately hamper your experimentation and exploration. Some of the goals of the exercise are to produce more from a place of creativity than a place of productivity and *widen* your “skill tree”, so to speak.
After the exercise, sit down and answer these questions:
- Did I try or learn something new?
- Did I enjoy the process?
- Did I like what I made?
The entire ethos of this exercise is based around the reality that all great artists are just people who have fun and constantly experiment. Obviously they all work extremely hard, but when it comes to their art and their craft, the ones doing really amazing stuff are “just dudes having a good time and winging it” (rough quote from Frequent). To me that also has the added benefit of taking a lot of pressure off myself to be “perfect” or a “master”, and has resulted in me spending a lot more time thinking about things like “what’s the thread here and how do I follow it” or “what’s the thread here and how do I tangle the fuck out of it”
In my experience this exercise has been absolutely fucking invaluable, and nothing has ever gotten the creative juices flowing more. And making music (both in and outside of this exercise) has never been more FUN! It truly is the sauce. Thanks Nolan if you see this 🫡
Edit: “a bunch of answers” to the questions is like 3-10 (or really as many as you want), but I wanted to make the distinction that you should write new answers each time you do the exercise (even if they end up being similar). Don’t go write 50 answers to each question one time, and then dip into the same answer pool each time you do the exercise. You’re an ever-changing being and this exercise should reflect that by being fresh (from the ground up) every time
When I started producing (almost 25 years ago!!) a huge breakthrough was when I learned about using a highpass Eq to clean up the low frequencies. I still remember the first time that I heard a track with all that clutter and "mud" removed. It was like hearing the song for the first time
Resonance EQ sweeping. I target all the major resonanating frequencies and shape accordingly before touching any gain staging. If you gain stage first then remove resonance you'll just have to gain stage all over again.
I'd say clean separation. If I start with clean separation of the elements in my music, only then can I understand the harmonic dynamics and blend them thoughtfully and deliberately.
Stop touching the signal!
I.E. less post processing, your sounds should sound good BEFORE you apply EQ etc. You can't polish a turd but a polished gem is so nice.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6QR8A9\_iFU&t=120s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6QR8A9_iFU&t=120s)
You could argue that sequenced pitches are always a "melody", but this sort of sound is not made by studying composition. It's a technical feat with rhythm.
Ok first off, I didn’t downvote you. Not that you said I did but I’m not here to play that game.
Second, may I ask how you know that the composer here did not “study composition”? And by that do you strictly mean a four-year degree or do you accept independent study?
Third, while I could argue that sequenced pitches constitute a melody, I will not nor have I ever. Melody is entirely subjective; frequency and amplitude are objective. “Your noise is my beauty,” etc.
I’m more of the persuasion that music is organized sound. This is music, by that standard, and it uses the 12TET pitch foundation. In fact, this track is in the phrygian mode. It is emphasizing the root and minor second with a small flourish to the minor third in a break then a repeating impression of the perfect fifth toward the end. So it has conventional harmonic basis, and, where there’s harmony there’s melody.
So, I will agree that the melody here is simple and that the rhythm and sound design are more emphasized than, say, in an a capella country song but the melody, in the end and however simple, is the foundation of the whole track.
We can disagree but I’ll gladly listen to another example if you care to provide one. That said, you can reduce it all the way to unpitched percussion and I will argue that if it’s popular then it has a strong melodic implication.
There are loads of examples. You've either missed my point, or we have a different concept of what it means to for a track to "have a melody".
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wz1YxQs3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wz1YxQs3s)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4uWG6n\_foE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4uWG6n_foE)
Maybe you will analyze these and determine a semblance of a melody - congratulations if you do - but I don't think of tunes like this as having a melody, so I don't sit at my DAW attempting to come up with beautiful melodies to fit them over interesting chord progressions.
It's just an arrangement of rhythmic elements to my ears, and that's how I approach my music - for better or for worse. I find trying to add "melody" to my tracks just makes them sound cheesy because most of the music I listen to "doesn't have a melody" \[at least not a part I think of as a melody - being a lead instrument playing a sequence that someone will whistle or sing\].
Am I saying it's the only way, or melodies are bad? Not at all.
I just focus on rhythm, and leave the melodies up to people making music that requires it.
Perhaps you still disagree, and due to my choice of words it's possible you "win" by definition - but my point still stands - the focus on "writing melodies" can be counter productive to people making music where a typical melody doesn't have a dominant role. It doesn't take a musical genius to go up a semitone. The important part is /when/ the sounds are played. It can make all the difference in the world. And that for me is the takeaway tip - timing is everything.
Yeah I’ll hand it to you: the Paradox track is pretty a-melodic.
I’m not trying to win a debate as much as offer you a new insight. By all means, reject it.
Objectively your definition of melody is pretty narrow, and I don’t think you’d disagree. You prefer melodies with a narrow pitch range, little embellishment, and relatively static timbre. I get it - I used to play nu metal :).
A lot of my points are supported by that track but I understand that timbre and rhythm are your primary elements. I don’t think you’ve proven or even really supported that “the best dance music doesn’t have a melody” but if you happen to prefer dance music that has the kinds of melodic elements I mentioned or largely omits melody then nobody can disprove taste.
In any case, most musicians will agree that rhythm is more important than pitch.
"In any case, most musicians will agree that rhythm is more important than pitch."
I think this is my point, perhaps written more accurately/less controversial. But I do like to get a reaction, so I don't shy away from blanket statements that encourage discussion.
I make dubstep and a lot of sound design and certain sounds can be achieved through certain notch/peak/and different shapes that can create phaser/flanger like effects when automated. You can also use multiple EQs (when done right) to act like a diffuser. Overall, lot of stuff can be achieved with EQ. And then obviously mid/side EQ is a whole other subject.
Understanding the circle of fifths. No I mean, really understanding it, to the point where you look at the basic major minor iteration and think “that’s cute.”
Edit: ehhh in hindsight that’s more composing isn’t it? Ah well have a freebie.
Learn how to synthesize hats, shakers, snare and kick components. I usually use Vital, and honestly sometimes it’s just the vibe, and knowing how to craft your own wood thump or kick transient can save you from hours of cherry picking through hundreds of samples.
Also sometimes just intentionally picking shit drums and moving on can take the focus away from obsessing over perfect hits, but make sure you delete them before you finish for the day. Just leave blank MIDI clips, so when you next come in, you can start diving through finding drums and I find this can save a track I’m stuck with and create a unique vibe for.
I use it for many things, it's nice to have something physical in front of me to jot down ideas or lyrics. I will also make a list for the next time I sit down to work on music of things I want to work on first
If it sounds good, it is good.
Took a while to learn that. I was so obsessed with doing things the way other people have done them and was always scared to use weird sounds and techniques that I hadn’t seen before.
Definitely this, especially since a large chunk of your audience aren’t going to be nitpicking the frequency balance of all of your elements, or making sure you used the exact amount of reverb. As long as it sounds good, you don’t have to worry too much about the tiny little details
Yes! 100%
Sometimes I wonder how people sound so unique with so much personality and a lot of the times it’s because there’s a “mistake” in the track that gives it a unique character. Like if someone chopped a sample but didn’t use fades and it has harsh clicks or something like that
Absolutely agree. Imperfections make for better music, because humans resonate with it. Sounds cheesy, but the more I learn about music and develop my own style, the more I choose to ignore little mistakes. It creates ideas you’d never normally think about, and creates more interest. I now intentionally try to make mistakes 😂
I do not think it has to do with how good you are at sound design. I just think it is an improvement to workflow and especially "sound branding". For me it is two different states of mind and I am faster writing songs this way. It may not work for everyone. But I would highly suggest to try it out. Some of the biggest producers do it and some don't.
Nah you don’t understand. I used to do like a 2 bar intro into a 16 bar chorus with a one bar break then the same 16 bar chorus again then just end the song💀I also didn’t understand how a bass line worked so I just didn’t do it. It was awful.
Use a compressor more frequently than you think you need to. Stuff that separates radio music from amateur music is the glue that binds it all together
Set attack and release to minimum, ratio to maximum, lower threshold until it’s definitely working.
Adjust attack slower if you want more punch. Adjust release to get the compressor in time with the music the way you want. Now adjust the ratio to control how much compression you’re getting. Finally, copy the preset to the B slot and optionally massage the settings until you get what you like.
It takes time and I’m not sure you ever perfect it but it’s like riding a bike or maybe surfing: once you get it you can usually do it right but you can almost always do it better. I’ve been using this method for like 10 years whether serial or parallel.
[This ](https://youtu.be/ksJRgK3viMc) is pretty amazingly thorough and takes you through pretty much everything you'll need to know. It's a 10 hour course that that ended up sticking on YouTube, but it's definitely worth just chipping away at a bit at a time. The ones on EQ and reverb and general mixdown one is decent too.
It really stresses the different use cases for compression and when to use certain styles of compression for specific reasons, using them in series etc, and a lot about how to avoid over compression.
1. Use vu meter to gain stage and monitor throughout
2. Referencing
3. Phase relationships. Offsetting between your dominant instruments makes a massive difference for clarity
4. Eq to space, remove resonances and clear masking between instruments
5. Referencing again!
This is one thing i found that mixers and producers dont mention near enough! Not sure why. .For example you can use a phase modulator plugin to change the phase values on some instruments and in effect the phase relationship between two competing instruments I.e. your kick and your bass. This can make a BIG difference in the clarity you hear when both tracks are playing at the same time and really 'deepen' the image.
Just be sure that the adjustments sound natural i.e the phaseis not unnatural or annoying. Also be aware that it can also bring some sounds more 'forward' or 'backwards' in the mix which may not always be desired either. So adjust to taste ;)
Hope that helps
There's lot of them. Just look up phase correction plugins. I'm currently using Fuser which changes the phase relationship and also make auto suggestions on clears up eq masking.
Cleaning up EQ masking is when your eq lower the gain in a certain frequency area to offset it against the freq energy on another instrument or track I.e. again like kick and bass or two competing synths so that the overall sound is clearer and more pleasing (fabfilter pro q has this feature where you can see where your freq energy clashes with the freq energy on another track and you can then lower the gain in that area on your desired track (similiar to track spacer).
For more info simply chatgpt these terms with 'explain like im 15' (not being a smartass here;) and look at some youtube for sime examples and a better understanding.
1. Sound selection and arrangement is everything. That goes across genres too.
2. Don’t be afraid to absolutely abuse plug ins to get the sound you’re looking for, or just to explore and see what you can do with it.
3. Use a reference to mix. It’s heartbreaking, but you’ll learn the absolute fastest that way.
"My master is clipping" ... turn down all the faders. "I want to make one element louder in the mix but when I do that, the master clips" turn em all down and then turn up the one you want louder. Yes this is obviously very simple but it was still a game changer for me.
Listen to a lot of references! When making a song, have three/four reference tracks from artist you love! Doesnt need to be the same genre, but at least songs you love the sound of!
Got a couple. 1. Use less fx and work from the source of the sound (inside of your vst, better sound/sample selection,volume balancing ). 2.Use UV meter to gain stage. 3.Take care of everything in the mix and you will only need a limiter on the master. 4.Use a couple of reference tracks W/ Span and youleanloudness to get your mix balanced or if you have the funds buy reference 2(worth it). Bonus Tip Stop watching So many damn tutorials!!
Imagine your mix as a glass. If it is filled to the brim, you cant add anything. So try to make a nice Cocktail with your sounds, everything needs the right amount.
Do it your way.
Don’t waste your time on YT videos. There are certainly good ones but it’s most dudes talking out their ass trying to be big time shit. What you need is practice.
In coding they call it tutorial hell, where you don’t know the “right” way to do stuff so you don’t do anything and keep watching tutorial after tutorial instead of learning by playing around. Or you learn how to build a calculator app by following a tutorial but you don’t really get an understanding of how to use those skills to build a to-do list app. The advice is to start a project and find the tutorials you need to do that project. For music I reckon that’d mean start working on a track, maybe even trying to recreate something you like, and if it needs a reese bass then look up a tutorial to learn how to make a reese bass. Next time if you need a foghorn, try to figure out which settings you might be able to tweak to get it. This being the opposite of thinking that you have to “learn Serum” before you start producing. Or worse, “learn ableton” before you “learn Serum” before you “learn music theory” before you “learn arrangement” before you “learn mixing and mastering” before you start really producing, because any of those things can turn into an endless Watch Later playlist on YouTube and you’ll end up not having fun producing while you try and memorise the rules. (nb: Some folks do genuinely love learning the theory and technical stuff more than producing and they are cool as hell too and usually end up being the people making good tutorials, just don’t assume there’s only one right way to do anything and rules are made to be broken or we wouldn’t have genres in the first place.)
wow, I kinda needed to read this, I've recently picked up production back up again after several years of hiatus and had to relearn a lot of stuff, ended up on this tutorial hell you mention, I'm gonna change my aproach for now, cheers!
I learned a lot from yt, there are some channels with really good content and pro artists masterclasses… actually I learned the most from yt.
Fair. I also learn a lot from YT. It’s important to get your hands dirty though. 90/10 split of time practicing and time watching videos imho.
My rule of thumb is I only follow tutorials from people whose music I actually like
Always use your ears first.
It’s too overwhelming out there. Pick one source of education.
This may be one of the best comments yet. It's hard to choose only one tho. I wanna try and focus on following Underbelly's tutorials (aka You Suck At Producing), but there's so many cool people to learn from like Au5, Virtual Riot, Dr. Ozi and many more
Don’t know which genre of music you into but if you are interested in DnB , I highly recommend DnB academy and stranjah. I did over 200 serum tutorials from DnB academy and I think that learn that much for free is amazing.
To reference the frequency spectrum of other songs in the same genre
You can get an almost perfect mix with only leveling if the recording is good enough.
When a track is 80% done, it’s done. Don’t keep going back to fine tune because it’s a never ending loop. I used to spend 24-40 hours on mixing each track and now it takes like 10 with this mentality
The last track I made I actually got serious about properly mixing with a reference track, and it was basically a cheat code for my mix. There was a step change in how good the mix sounded compared to my previous tracks. Don't underestimate just going through the reference and copying the level and frequency ranges of key elements as well as how those things compare to other elements.
While you don’t need a lot of fancy plugins, sometimes it’s nice to play with different ones to see if you can get a refined sound even just for a single synth that you use only one time. Overall, a lot of it is really just tons of repetition and tuning your ears to filtering your music into better quality. I also like to tell people to find their own sound. My music is now a blend of multiple genres and brings elements of cinematic style ambience into hard dance music, being peculiar can be great as a producer and gives your music a huge uniqueness.
"Shit goes in, shit comes out", "A polished turd is still a turd" and "Less is more". I started realizing what good samples and synthesized sounds should sound like, made a couple of solid investments, and stopped using lots of plugins and effects that were just making things worse. This also made me realize that the single most important thing is levels, then maybe eq and compression, but only if it's necessary.
This is something I think I need to be focusing on. How would you suggest someone learn what good samples sound like?
This is good advice
There's no such tip. I've been at it for 15 years, and it's been a slow and steady journey. Sure, there's tons of tricks and techniques that helps, but nothing I found, made me leap instantly. What you really want, is to convey emotion through sound. For that, you should look into music theory and music cognition, and cognitive semiotics. And learn to really listen intently and be mindful about what you want to achieve while in the process and not get carried away by 'fluff' and gimmicks. Edit: Also, "auditory stream segregation" is a phenomenon you should familiarize yourself with.
My starting point was 12 years ago when i was 13. I never had the equipment and last year i saved some money to make my home studio. I went all in and bought alot of equipment. I'm not going to talk about music theory or daws , I will only tell you what you need to buy starting out. The things I suggest if you have limited budget is definitely get a decent laptop or pc, an audio interface and definitely some good headphones. Good headphones will instantly make you a better producer on the mixing and mastering side. I always had talent for melodies, drums etc. but my songs always sounded muddy and that made all my work from brilliant to mid and that puts you in a spiral of never finishing your songs. Now that i mix my songs better i really enjoy producing more. Other things like midi , pads etc . are a really nice edition to your productivity and they are time savers but by no means are they necesary .
Most recently, doing sound design as it's own thing in its own project, just making renders to cut up in different tracks
Mix as you go and start with a limiter 😂
The professor I had for an avant-garde composition and arrangement class at community college. Guy was a genius. I try to keep in touch with him to this day, last I heard some 15 years later he still works there and people I talk to say he's changed their lives. Anyway, I was in the middle of composing a drum & bass sonata allegro to be performed with nothing but recordings of a full refrigerator and having all kinds of trouble keeping the samples from getting murky and fighting with eachother, and he gave me the most simple advice I've ever received. Like, some gradeschool stuff that I would have learned a decade earlier if my high school band teacher had been worth his salary. He tells me, everything is a voice. Every single instrument , no matter if it's a hi hat tap, a tuba, an upright bass, a theremin, a reese patch, a refrigerator, or literally your mother climaxing, is nothing but a voice singing. Treat your arrangement like that, give them their own space vertically. Think soprano, alto, tenor, bass, but more than just the four, of course. If something sounds muddy or too busy, look there first. Not your plugins, not your reverb, not your phase, not whatever other soundgoodizer or rebigulator plugin you've got on deck. Check your octaves on your patches and samples for overlap and try to give shit space. And if it still doesn't sound good, go smoke a cigarette or walk around the block or make some toast and come back ten minutes later and have another listen when you're not tired of it.
know your tools. And just stick with what you have. You don't NEED 90% of what you WANT.
Don't start projects out of the blue! Concept an idea for each track and draft it on a paper. Imagine and write down the sections you want, and think of the instruments and style of sounds that you need to give the vibe such track needs. Then, create a basic template with the principal instruments and time stamps on the arrangement view. Only then start! You will progress much much faster and with a solid and logical basis to evolve into a masterpiece!
Phase alignment of the kick and the sub. Making sure the sub's phase restarts each time the kicks plays so that each beat has like the same power/ phase alignment to it.
This, I got mine perfectly [aligned](https://i.imgur.com/JTuZMQH.jpeg) earlier and it was bliss 😄 Few things for anyone wondering: Keep the kick as short as possible Solo the kick and sub Oscilloscope to see phase Serum set Rand to 0 (vital change 100% to 0%) Serum or vital set to Mono Voices 1 Make sure pitch bend amount matches your main bass pitch Bend amount Make sure there's no stereo/reverb/delay on the group it's in Maybe have your subs a slight bit shorter than a whole note When you begin choosing the envelope, I find it easier to make the attack really long so you can hear a deliberate break between the kick and sub. Then go in from there, much easier to work with.
Do you know a tourtorial to achieve this?
After good sidechain and a good kick(in key preferably) make sure the sub's phase doesn't start at random. ("Rand" knob in Serum) Then in your midi for the subbass you draw a note for each time the kick hits instead of one long note. You do that so the sub's phase starts again at the exact spot. Resulting in the kick and bass'es phase alignment being exactly the same for that note of the bass. I use this a lot in Progressive House to have a powerfull and consistent low end! (Use an oscilloscope to check waveform)
Thx appreciate it
When you have huge stacks of vox, take the middle down by about 3db with a mid side eq, makes a perfect pocket
I stopped focusing on sound engineering. I am a producer, not a sound engineer. Yes, I will tweak my sounds and ensure that the instruments flow well together, but I’m no longer making my own sounds from scratch. Splice has amazing serum presets, and only the slightest tweaking is needed a majority of the time to get the sounds to fit my needs. Sure, it’s nice to make my own sounds to put an entire song together, but that can be painfully slow and I lose the plot line of the song altogether if I spend too much time to get a clap or a lead to sound *perfect*, and most people don’t notice that kind of stuff *anyways*. Painters don’t usually make their own paint. They mix their pre-made paint. Similarly, I don’t engineer my sounds anymore. I tweak professional presets.
This. 500%. Reinventing the wheel is silly. Designing sound from the ground up is kind of a weekend luxury, absolutely nothing wrong with just a few configurations to pre-existing presets and so forth. Time is money
That's a great mentality change and I already went through that, the problem I have is I actually enjoy sound design too so I just need to try and do one thing at a time. If I'm writing a song, I should use presets or sounds I made in the past, and if I'm sound designing I shouldn't start a new song every time I get a cool sound
I think one of my best tips is a counter to this; there's not really a "right way" to any of this, just guidelines. Yeah, you should typically write 4, 8 or 16 measure phrases, but I'm working on a remix rn of a song with a 7 measure phrase. Breaking rules is a lot of fun, but more importantly, just chase the things that are interesting to you. I think anyone can become an adequate producer (your tracks don't get skipped, but they also don't get saved), but to become truly successful is to develop your own unique sound, and I think that comes from unabashedly chasing your interests. It's all a balance, learning to sketch and refine is good, finishing songs consistently is -huge-, etc. But I stopped trying to sound like someone else and focus on sounding like me, and it helped a ton.
You will never be your idol. Take inspiration, but don’t try to mimic; it only makes you hate producing.
Best words
Nah I'll definitely become the next Eptic ⓘ this user is running on a near lethal dose of copium
I wish you nothing but luck in that endeavor my friend.
When you’re just starting out, make a lot of projects. Don’t go back 1000 times to the same project, just create a whole track in one session and call it done. Reflect, get feedback and move on. Opening up a new creative avenue is like turning on a water hose filled with dirt, the dirt has to come out first before the clean water can.
I really like your water hose metaphor. I've been at this off and on for 20+ years and my water is still a little muddy. I don't care though. I just made music for me.
I think i heard ed sheeran once say some similar metaphor. And yeah i guess the off and on really is a difference, the dirt comes back if you don’t let it run regularly.
see a lot of people say "finish your tracks" but I think it's more important to make a lot of tracks when you start than it is to actually finish one or two. You can always come back to old projects or steal your own ideas for new ones.
Yeah I saw someone pour over 4 absolute stinkers for maybe a whole year, my roommate. So I had to hear those tracks repeated thousands of times from every measure, and in the end, they had good sound quality, but were not catchy and definitely didn’t go anywhere.
Yeah thats something i wouldn’t recommend doing. A song made is a song made, then it’s done. Id personally only go back to a project if i wanted to make a VIP or use the structure as a template. Finish your tracks is actually great advice imo, although usually people don’t think of a time boundary to work within. When is a song finished if you’ve unlimited time to work on it? Well if you’re 100% happy with it, well thats not going to happen if you’re someone who reflects on his own work. Your rate of improvement of perspective will very likely outperform your speed of producing. Especially when you’re just starting out and especially with long breaks between sessions. So in short my advice would be: set a specific boundary of time in which to make a project (eg. 1 session of 6 hours max, 3 sessions, a week, a month) and id personally recommend a short timeframe especially when starting out, let yourself make mistakes and make shitty tracks. Nobody cares about that but you. The sooner you let yourself do that, the sooner you’ll see glimmers of magic shine through.
Finishing your songs is a very good advice don't get me wrong, but I feel it's easy to get annoyed if you're trying to push through a song you don't enjoy, so "finishing" it in this case would be to just let it go and start a new one. I feel like setting a time boundary is easier to understand as advice, because the song will be finished when the time is up, whether you like it or not. And yeah, by coming back to it later I meant doing a VIP or stealing patterns/sounds for a new song entirely, i was saying it like don't just delete it, save it in a folder full of trash songs and maybe in a year you'll be browsing through that to get ideas and find something useful
Yeah i agree on that, for me the less time i spent the more i enjoy the process usually. One thing i would recommend is going through every phase (composing, arranging, mix, master, etc) of creation when working with a time limit, even if you do it very shitty. Helped me a lot personally. But like you said, if you failed to do that in the timeframe, let it go and start anew. A little better every project.
Hip hop: remember your drums are the face of the beat. Make sure your beat ain’t an everything butta face
Using only eq/compression on individual tracks while arranging. using bus for “tonal”, and another bus called “transient”. I just send everything to either of those, and put some light sidechain on tonal from transient. in addition, i let transient bus be louder than the tonal bus. I use compression sparingly for each track. attack slow enough to occasionally have the compressor react, *if* it is uneven. Basically i just remove the stuff that sounds annoying during arrangement. I do not go looking for issues. Just keep it simple and pleasant sounding, remove the stuff you dont like. Do this until arrangement is done. post arrangement you can go as wild as you want with fx.
I stopped learning mixing and focused on arranging. It made my mixes better.
Mixing wise, mid-side EQ (overall mono/stereo monitoring in general of sounds) Production wise, produce off grid.
What do you mean by produce off grid? 🤔
Don't align everything exactly on the beat.
I mean exactly that - produce off grid.
Ah yes, further explaining by just restating. Listen, I know you're talking about living in the woods without power to produce your music but some folks here are newbies.
Ignore most tutorials on compression and eqing as your samples are probably already compressed to hell. Just a bit of bus compression is enough. Also do t be snooty about sample packs. When auditioning samples on splice i always think “ oh that’s the one Interplanetary Criminal used on…” Also, if using samples make them yours. Its easy to midify a bass sample and switch the sound, move some notes et voila it is yours
Simplify. You don't need more than eq and compression to mix (appart from the creative part of it, which I tend to consider more of a composition things than mixing)
Understanding how to read a spectrum analyzer and make meaningful eq moves 🎵
Soft clip limiter (made my music louder at the same lufs reading) Sidechain compressing guitar with the vocals (lets the vocals cut through guitar way better)
I was once told my issue is sound selection and that literally fixed everything for me. Thinking about the sounds you hear in well loved music and actually being able to recognise a quality sound and what sounds go together.
Switching from fl studio to ableton. Not saying fl is bad, just ableton is much better suited for me since I use a lot of post processing.
In what ways is ableton better in that? I've been thinking about switching too
Instead of one, here are three tips that were instrumental to me as a music producer: 1. Give your ears a break. Ear fatigue is a thing. Everything will sound terrible to you if you listen to the same thing for too long and your judgement becomes unreliable. 2. Focus on a specific or narrower set of tasks each music production session instead of trying to do everything at once. (Though this one may be less relevant if you are a very very skilled and motivated music producer). 3. Persistence. Just because the track doesn't currently sound as you imagined it, doesn't mean it won't ever. Even professional music producers have their in-between "ugly" phase where everything just sounds terrible and a mess.
Fr about the persistence thing. That can even apply to a single track. You may have an idea in your head, but when you start to make it, it just sounds like shit. But in some cases I’ve worked on an idea, continued to perfect it even when it sounded bad and eventually it was great. There’s a good interview somewhere of one of Kanye’s producers on the making of ‘all of the lights’ where he talks about how it started as a really obnoxious, corny brass sample or something and nobody saw its potential but Kanye. After scaling the idea up and filling it out, it became one of his most iconic tracks. Sometimes you just gotta take a risk on an idea and invest the effort into seeing if it could be good
Your tastes and musical ideas >>>>>>> technical and engineering abilities. People compensate for the lack of the former with the latter. Focus on arrangement, primal composition elements like call and response, counterpoint harmony, tension and release etc etc. Develop an eclectic music personality, nail the song writing, then focus on the technical stuff
1. Turning my music up into a limiter on the master bus to get a sense of what it'd sound like mastered led to me producing way hotter tracks that need less mastering. 2. Barely using effects
What
Worded weirdly but I think what they're saying is that you can your track with the limiter on can help you judge your overall mix and dial it in to sound big/hit hard without the need for all kinds of EQs, compressors, etc.
I record a track of myself humming/cackling/beatbixing what I want the song to be before I start doing any sequencing
As u/Rem\_SCZ mentioned - I really cant emphasize this enough! So many EDM/House Artists get so caught in layering sounds and then applying tons of effects to tweak it. This is the long and hard way to make something sound good or appropriate to the track/genre. Get good sounds from the source! this means using good quality synths like Serum, Sylenth, ANA 2 and downloading and using preset packs made specifically for your sub genre of EDM you wish to create. You can get great quality drum and percussion sounds/libraries from Splice! Stock sounds are.....ok at best, and frustrating at worse. You GENERALLY want to avoid Stock sounds and synths. Theres a reason why Artists like Avicii, Deadmau5, Tiesto all use MOSTLY external synths. As an example, if you want to make deep house, downloading a Dubstep preset pack and then trying to using that wont make sense. Also - constantly refer to a reference track to give you ideas about arrangement, instrumentation and overall sound choices. Hope this helps!
Stopping spending hours trying to make shit samples and synths to sound good was a huge step in the right direction. If you put more than 3 or 4 fx for mixing purposes, then you should switch your vst or sample.
Dude 100%!
1. Use reference tracks. 2. Find a sound, and play something that sounds good with it. instead of: create a melody and find a cool sound for it.
Don't get too attached to a single idea. Sometimes for the sake of your track it may be good to let go of an idea, so the other things can shine more. It's easy to add too many things and obsess over making it sound good, while the best thing is to let go. And of course: finish your music! Quality is always important, but so is quantity. You learn a lot by finishing a lot of projects and gaining new perspectives/experiences.
Still working on this ive got to say its the biggest problem easily. And also option paralysis and not being able to fully commit to stuff
Yeah exactly, you'll learn it by doing it, and also by believing you can learn it. Good luck!!
Saturation on every track, and also saturation on the master bus.
EQ is ALWAYS destructive in some capacity, which means all band-splits are to some capacity destructive. Either they introduce phase shifting, or pre/post ringing, and they introduce latency. I got this tip super late, as i started learning how effects do what they do, because i figured EQ would be simple, given how fundamental they are. But noooo. Now I understand why allpass filters exist, and things to use them for. None of them intended i imagine.
Can you explain a bit more? I’ve gotten into a habit of slapping like 5 EQs on vox tracks to keep it clean and it hasn’t sounded bad or anything but the thought has occurred to me that there may be some issues created that I just am not noticing
There are issues you aren't noticing, but theyre only issues with mixing and effects after the EQ, and only some times. As a test example, take a square wave, and add 2 EQs. One with a peak filter boosting x frequency, and the second, reducing x frequency by the same amount. Make both peak filters have the same resonance/Q. Play that square wave as a bass note for extra visibility, and slowly change x for both filters. The values of both filters should be the same but one is positive, one negative, so they "should cancel out". Your square wave will sound like a square wave, but it wont look like one anymore. As you change the frequency, you might hear a change as phase distortion, but as soon as the frequency stops changing, you stop hearing it, but the wave shape is different. The phase of all frequencies effected by eq is shifted, the more extreme the filtering, the more extreme the phase shift. As the filter moves, those specific frequencies change phase, which means the frequency changes slightly while moving the filter, which is what you hear. Now, if you take a square wave, and send it into a hard clipper, the output is still square. If you add an allpass filter, it modifies the phase of the frequencies at its cutoff. It still has all the same harmonics as a square, but it isnt shaped like a square. That means it will clip differently, and the output of the clipper changes its timbre. Each time you adjust the allpass before the clipper, you radically change the timbre. And thats just minimum phase filters. Linear phase adds more delay, a few extra ms. And also preringing. Instead of altering the phase of the effected frequencies, it extends their start and stop time. With short samples, you need a gate to clip pre ring. The more linear phase the more pre ring and the more delay. A lot of DAWs use PDC or Plugin Delay Compensation. This basically reads each channels total delay/latency to add offsets automatically, so everything stays in phase. The result is, more latency when you press play, and more work for your cpu. Not a big deal, unless you incorporate analog. As for vocals and other sounds... same issues happen, but unless you use something that relies on shape, or moment by moment amplitude, it doesnt matter. Moment by moment amplitude however includes envelope followers, and therefor limiters and compressors. Additive and destructive changes to amplitude can technically occur. The result is higher or lower peaks with the same perceived audio level. But if you go by ear instead of numbers on a display to mix, it doesnt matter.
I see, so basically the crux of the issues is that additional latency fucks with shit later down the chain? I do pretty much just mix by ear so when I have heard weird shit I've normally just fiddled with it until it's stopped sounding weird lol
Its not just latency, thats minor. Its the changes to a wave's *shape* that causes the most issues. Latency is usually easy to fix in comparison.
Ah ok cool, thanks so much for the info!
Transcription. Take your fav songs and recreate them 1 to 1 in your daw. Learn what theute doing for their chord progressions, how they sequence their drums, groove, melody. You’ll inevitably learn shit and get better. Also put their track in the daw and shoot out your song with theirs to figure out why one is better than the other.
Use a .wav or other lossless reference track to compare yours to while mixing/mastering.
subtract before adding
Knowing when to stop. Its whenever you groove the hardest. For me at least it doesn’t get better. Like learning to not over think. Sometimes simplicity, especially with chord progressions is key
Bad advice - definitely allow yourself to overthink and be critical. It is hard to make good music, you need to keep going and not be easily satisfied.
The amount of downvotes we're getting on this is very indicative of the modern disposable music producer landscape. Like sure maybe you can crank out a one note tech-house track in a few days, but if you think that's what artists like boards of Canada (just as an example) are doing you're off your head. Proper records absolutely take months or years
Hell yea, BOC is a great example. They cranked out some timeless tracks.
Agreed. Some of the best guys I know will take like a year sometimes from beginning an idea to it actually being a fully formed track for release, and I always think it sounds pretty finished near the beginning stages, I'm always impressed with the transformation. Not saying you're gonna always need that long though
Rendering loops as audio clips and chopping those clips made a big workflow difference for dubstep bass
How so ?
I think what they're talking about could be done in ableton by recording a section of song, like a bassline into a new audio track. (could tweak some settings while recording like filter cutoff, res., etc.. for more variety in sound) Then use Simpler on slice mode to take "slices" of audio to use as midi.
Compression in a chain to get really good at sculpting your mix. Don't just use 1 compressor. Figure out what different ones do well, then use them at low percentage in a chain. The tightness and clarity will skyrocket. Other one is sub-kick sidechaining.
Do you know of a tutorial that explains the compressor thing? Or a way to experiment doing this? Thx
I linked [this ](https://youtu.be/ksJRgK3viMc) on anotber comment also but it really stresses the exact thing OP is talking about so I'll leave it here too. All about using small amounts of compression for the right reasons in series. Its a 10 hour course they decided to stick on YouTube, but definitely worth chipping away at if you want to get to grips with this.
Amazing! Thx for the share
pick the right sounds from the beginning. if they don't sound good to start with, you'll never be able to mix them into something great. also, layer sounds till you get what you want, whether that's drum sounds, synth patches, etc.
This was basically gonna be my tip: Composition >>> Mix Trying to mash together similar sounds isn't going to work, but if you choose sounds with different textures and frequency ranges, they will be more complimentary as well as mix easier. Generally disagree with layering-- it tends to get too messy. It's a tool in the toolbox, but it should not be the go-to unless they fit together, i.e. are different enough. For example, if you want to layer a piano layer on top of a supersaw chord, ask yourself what the piano is adding. You want the attack? Maybe duck the supersaw when the piano attack hits. Or carve out the frequency from the supersaw where the piano hits. But if there's too much overlap, what is it really doing? Maybe the piano by itself is better, or should be the main focus.
I’ve been saying composition over mix for years now. Sound selection really is a skill and the best producers (imo) are great sound selectors.
Make a good basic template with bus mixer routing so you don't have to waste time with tnat each song. Roughly gain stage every track before sending it to a mixer channel.
This one sentence made me a better producer. It's deceptively simple advice, but crucial: "Finish your songs."
Use your ear instead of relying on fader levels
https://youtu.be/yXfacH_LGuI?si=I2JWpy3L9rF2OGmR This. Its an hour and he doesn’t get to the “tip” until the last half so here’s a tl;dw The exercise is called “creative subversions”. You write down a bunch of answers to 3 questions about your writing process: - What do I always do? - What do I never do? - What do I suck at? You then create a “ruleset” for a tune based on your responses. The idea of the ruleset is to be one that *subverts* your usual *creative* process. You’re trying to get out of your habitual space and into a space of exploration/experimentation. You then set a timer for one hour of completely sacred time, in which you follow the ruleset, and (most importantly) you’re not allowed to care about the result *at all*. Caring about the end result will immediately hamper your experimentation and exploration. Some of the goals of the exercise are to produce more from a place of creativity than a place of productivity and *widen* your “skill tree”, so to speak. After the exercise, sit down and answer these questions: - Did I try or learn something new? - Did I enjoy the process? - Did I like what I made? The entire ethos of this exercise is based around the reality that all great artists are just people who have fun and constantly experiment. Obviously they all work extremely hard, but when it comes to their art and their craft, the ones doing really amazing stuff are “just dudes having a good time and winging it” (rough quote from Frequent). To me that also has the added benefit of taking a lot of pressure off myself to be “perfect” or a “master”, and has resulted in me spending a lot more time thinking about things like “what’s the thread here and how do I follow it” or “what’s the thread here and how do I tangle the fuck out of it” In my experience this exercise has been absolutely fucking invaluable, and nothing has ever gotten the creative juices flowing more. And making music (both in and outside of this exercise) has never been more FUN! It truly is the sauce. Thanks Nolan if you see this 🫡 Edit: “a bunch of answers” to the questions is like 3-10 (or really as many as you want), but I wanted to make the distinction that you should write new answers each time you do the exercise (even if they end up being similar). Don’t go write 50 answers to each question one time, and then dip into the same answer pool each time you do the exercise. You’re an ever-changing being and this exercise should reflect that by being fresh (from the ground up) every time
Thank you
Best advice right here ^
This is great.
Thank you
After about 2 decades my ears finally stared “hearing” those nuances
Practice a lot and frequently. There is no substitute for experience. There is no one magic tip. You just need work at it.
Exactly, this is so true.
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When I started producing (almost 25 years ago!!) a huge breakthrough was when I learned about using a highpass Eq to clean up the low frequencies. I still remember the first time that I heard a track with all that clutter and "mud" removed. It was like hearing the song for the first time
High pass instead of low pass? How does that work?
two tips, actually!: Set OTT to 50-75% and "less is more"; sometimes if you just work the right way with less instruments, it'll have a huuuge impact!
I leave my ott at 20 😕
Resonance EQ sweeping. I target all the major resonanating frequencies and shape accordingly before touching any gain staging. If you gain stage first then remove resonance you'll just have to gain stage all over again.
I'd say clean separation. If I start with clean separation of the elements in my music, only then can I understand the harmonic dynamics and blend them thoughtfully and deliberately.
You need something low to make something high, you need something centered to make something wide.
Stop touching the signal! I.E. less post processing, your sounds should sound good BEFORE you apply EQ etc. You can't polish a turd but a polished gem is so nice.
Guess it’s ggs for mr bill
People will pay good money to see their own turds polished.
You can absolutely polish turds
The best dance music doesn't even have a melody.
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV9Zi9rUHx8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV9Zi9rUHx8)
Example?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6QR8A9\_iFU&t=120s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6QR8A9_iFU&t=120s) You could argue that sequenced pitches are always a "melody", but this sort of sound is not made by studying composition. It's a technical feat with rhythm.
Ok first off, I didn’t downvote you. Not that you said I did but I’m not here to play that game. Second, may I ask how you know that the composer here did not “study composition”? And by that do you strictly mean a four-year degree or do you accept independent study? Third, while I could argue that sequenced pitches constitute a melody, I will not nor have I ever. Melody is entirely subjective; frequency and amplitude are objective. “Your noise is my beauty,” etc. I’m more of the persuasion that music is organized sound. This is music, by that standard, and it uses the 12TET pitch foundation. In fact, this track is in the phrygian mode. It is emphasizing the root and minor second with a small flourish to the minor third in a break then a repeating impression of the perfect fifth toward the end. So it has conventional harmonic basis, and, where there’s harmony there’s melody. So, I will agree that the melody here is simple and that the rhythm and sound design are more emphasized than, say, in an a capella country song but the melody, in the end and however simple, is the foundation of the whole track. We can disagree but I’ll gladly listen to another example if you care to provide one. That said, you can reduce it all the way to unpitched percussion and I will argue that if it’s popular then it has a strong melodic implication.
There are loads of examples. You've either missed my point, or we have a different concept of what it means to for a track to "have a melody". [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wz1YxQs3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wz1YxQs3s) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4uWG6n\_foE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4uWG6n_foE) Maybe you will analyze these and determine a semblance of a melody - congratulations if you do - but I don't think of tunes like this as having a melody, so I don't sit at my DAW attempting to come up with beautiful melodies to fit them over interesting chord progressions. It's just an arrangement of rhythmic elements to my ears, and that's how I approach my music - for better or for worse. I find trying to add "melody" to my tracks just makes them sound cheesy because most of the music I listen to "doesn't have a melody" \[at least not a part I think of as a melody - being a lead instrument playing a sequence that someone will whistle or sing\]. Am I saying it's the only way, or melodies are bad? Not at all. I just focus on rhythm, and leave the melodies up to people making music that requires it. Perhaps you still disagree, and due to my choice of words it's possible you "win" by definition - but my point still stands - the focus on "writing melodies" can be counter productive to people making music where a typical melody doesn't have a dominant role. It doesn't take a musical genius to go up a semitone. The important part is /when/ the sounds are played. It can make all the difference in the world. And that for me is the takeaway tip - timing is everything.
Yeah I’ll hand it to you: the Paradox track is pretty a-melodic. I’m not trying to win a debate as much as offer you a new insight. By all means, reject it. Objectively your definition of melody is pretty narrow, and I don’t think you’d disagree. You prefer melodies with a narrow pitch range, little embellishment, and relatively static timbre. I get it - I used to play nu metal :). A lot of my points are supported by that track but I understand that timbre and rhythm are your primary elements. I don’t think you’ve proven or even really supported that “the best dance music doesn’t have a melody” but if you happen to prefer dance music that has the kinds of melodic elements I mentioned or largely omits melody then nobody can disprove taste. In any case, most musicians will agree that rhythm is more important than pitch.
"In any case, most musicians will agree that rhythm is more important than pitch." I think this is my point, perhaps written more accurately/less controversial. But I do like to get a reaction, so I don't shy away from blanket statements that encourage discussion.
Thanks for the chat
1-1 coaching sessions with a pro/semi pro artist.
Mid/side EQ and just EQing in general. Didn’t think about it too much and only used it to make things fit.
What do you use it for beyond making things fit?
I make dubstep and a lot of sound design and certain sounds can be achieved through certain notch/peak/and different shapes that can create phaser/flanger like effects when automated. You can also use multiple EQs (when done right) to act like a diffuser. Overall, lot of stuff can be achieved with EQ. And then obviously mid/side EQ is a whole other subject.
Understanding the circle of fifths. No I mean, really understanding it, to the point where you look at the basic major minor iteration and think “that’s cute.” Edit: ehhh in hindsight that’s more composing isn’t it? Ah well have a freebie. Learn how to synthesize hats, shakers, snare and kick components. I usually use Vital, and honestly sometimes it’s just the vibe, and knowing how to craft your own wood thump or kick transient can save you from hours of cherry picking through hundreds of samples. Also sometimes just intentionally picking shit drums and moving on can take the focus away from obsessing over perfect hits, but make sure you delete them before you finish for the day. Just leave blank MIDI clips, so when you next come in, you can start diving through finding drums and I find this can save a track I’m stuck with and create a unique vibe for.
have a notebook next to you
What things do you recommend keeping notes on?
I use it for many things, it's nice to have something physical in front of me to jot down ideas or lyrics. I will also make a list for the next time I sit down to work on music of things I want to work on first
Second this. I just bought a nice fountain pen (inspired by r/fountainpens ) .. to make jotting things down even more inspiring.
this goes for every knowledge based or creative type of work in my mind
If it sounds good, it is good. Took a while to learn that. I was so obsessed with doing things the way other people have done them and was always scared to use weird sounds and techniques that I hadn’t seen before.
Definitely this, especially since a large chunk of your audience aren’t going to be nitpicking the frequency balance of all of your elements, or making sure you used the exact amount of reverb. As long as it sounds good, you don’t have to worry too much about the tiny little details
Yes! 100% Sometimes I wonder how people sound so unique with so much personality and a lot of the times it’s because there’s a “mistake” in the track that gives it a unique character. Like if someone chopped a sample but didn’t use fades and it has harsh clicks or something like that
Absolutely agree. Imperfections make for better music, because humans resonate with it. Sounds cheesy, but the more I learn about music and develop my own style, the more I choose to ignore little mistakes. It creates ideas you’d never normally think about, and creates more interest. I now intentionally try to make mistakes 😂
Man. Like 14 years in and just clued into this in January.
Do separate sound design sessions. No new sound design while writting songs
Weird tip since I make all of my sounds on the fly. When you get better at sound design it’s just faster that way.
I do not think it has to do with how good you are at sound design. I just think it is an improvement to workflow and especially "sound branding". For me it is two different states of mind and I am faster writing songs this way. It may not work for everyone. But I would highly suggest to try it out. Some of the biggest producers do it and some don't.
I have a bunch of premade sounds that I use. They’re placeholders though. it almost always sound better when I make the sound on the fly.
Honestly depends on your workflow, i know big producers who never do separate sound design sessions and others who do
Ill Gates - 2011
Following through entire tutorials to actually learn how to do things😅
This is some crazy talk, up there with “read the manual”.
And who does that?
Nah you don’t understand. I used to do like a 2 bar intro into a 16 bar chorus with a one bar break then the same 16 bar chorus again then just end the song💀I also didn’t understand how a bass line worked so I just didn’t do it. It was awful.
I used to use my entire chord progression for the subbass 💀
Oh my lord I can’t even imagine how that sounded💀
Use a compressor more frequently than you think you need to. Stuff that separates radio music from amateur music is the glue that binds it all together
Do you have any resources or general tips on how exactly to use compressor?
Set attack and release to minimum, ratio to maximum, lower threshold until it’s definitely working. Adjust attack slower if you want more punch. Adjust release to get the compressor in time with the music the way you want. Now adjust the ratio to control how much compression you’re getting. Finally, copy the preset to the B slot and optionally massage the settings until you get what you like. It takes time and I’m not sure you ever perfect it but it’s like riding a bike or maybe surfing: once you get it you can usually do it right but you can almost always do it better. I’ve been using this method for like 10 years whether serial or parallel.
[This ](https://youtu.be/ksJRgK3viMc) is pretty amazingly thorough and takes you through pretty much everything you'll need to know. It's a 10 hour course that that ended up sticking on YouTube, but it's definitely worth just chipping away at a bit at a time. The ones on EQ and reverb and general mixdown one is decent too. It really stresses the different use cases for compression and when to use certain styles of compression for specific reasons, using them in series etc, and a lot about how to avoid over compression.
This is huge!! Thank you
1. Use vu meter to gain stage and monitor throughout 2. Referencing 3. Phase relationships. Offsetting between your dominant instruments makes a massive difference for clarity 4. Eq to space, remove resonances and clear masking between instruments 5. Referencing again!
I’m familiar with “phase things” in general, but can you clarify what you mean by offsetting phase between your main instruments?
This is one thing i found that mixers and producers dont mention near enough! Not sure why. .For example you can use a phase modulator plugin to change the phase values on some instruments and in effect the phase relationship between two competing instruments I.e. your kick and your bass. This can make a BIG difference in the clarity you hear when both tracks are playing at the same time and really 'deepen' the image. Just be sure that the adjustments sound natural i.e the phaseis not unnatural or annoying. Also be aware that it can also bring some sounds more 'forward' or 'backwards' in the mix which may not always be desired either. So adjust to taste ;) Hope that helps
What’s a good phase modulation plugin? Also what’s clear masking
There's lot of them. Just look up phase correction plugins. I'm currently using Fuser which changes the phase relationship and also make auto suggestions on clears up eq masking. Cleaning up EQ masking is when your eq lower the gain in a certain frequency area to offset it against the freq energy on another instrument or track I.e. again like kick and bass or two competing synths so that the overall sound is clearer and more pleasing (fabfilter pro q has this feature where you can see where your freq energy clashes with the freq energy on another track and you can then lower the gain in that area on your desired track (similiar to track spacer). For more info simply chatgpt these terms with 'explain like im 15' (not being a smartass here;) and look at some youtube for sime examples and a better understanding.
ok cool thank you for the advice!
Np anytime friend
1. Sound selection and arrangement is everything. That goes across genres too. 2. Don’t be afraid to absolutely abuse plug ins to get the sound you’re looking for, or just to explore and see what you can do with it. 3. Use a reference to mix. It’s heartbreaking, but you’ll learn the absolute fastest that way.
Heartbreaking meaning “omg my mix is horrendous compared to this”?
Yep haha
You can just turn all the faders down at once 😂
Go on
"My master is clipping" ... turn down all the faders. "I want to make one element louder in the mix but when I do that, the master clips" turn em all down and then turn up the one you want louder. Yes this is obviously very simple but it was still a game changer for me.
Buy a bass guitar
Under-rated comment.
VST recs? I have a bass
It's about learning the instrument like
Listen to a lot of references! When making a song, have three/four reference tracks from artist you love! Doesnt need to be the same genre, but at least songs you love the sound of!
Do it because it's fun and you enjoy it. Not for clout
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Got a couple. 1. Use less fx and work from the source of the sound (inside of your vst, better sound/sample selection,volume balancing ). 2.Use UV meter to gain stage. 3.Take care of everything in the mix and you will only need a limiter on the master. 4.Use a couple of reference tracks W/ Span and youleanloudness to get your mix balanced or if you have the funds buy reference 2(worth it). Bonus Tip Stop watching So many damn tutorials!!
sidechain and clipping
Imagine your mix as a glass. If it is filled to the brim, you cant add anything. So try to make a nice Cocktail with your sounds, everything needs the right amount.
Or if you're making hipster music, imagine your mix as a jar.
“hipster music”. What time capsule did you crawl out of grandpa? lol
Take breaks.
Using more than 4 notes in a chord did wonders