ITT: MISC producers gather

[SpiderSense]

Nah.

About $1500.

[justthere01]

i'm also expecting to finalize and drop my album this summer >

sweet, how many songs do you have on it? and what genre?
are you already signed?
are you just selling your music for them use as they wish or otherwise?

[DarkGrey]

sweet, how many songs do you have on it? and what genre?
are you already signed?
are you just selling your music for them use as they wish or otherwise?

i've got nearly 50 songs over half done - i doubt i'll use even 15 of them. i'm an electronica/dubstep/house producer..i am not signed, but i'll be self releasing it on itunes and in physical form.

http://www.soundcloud.com/dj-dark-grey

[excess34]

As far as creative process goes, do you guys tend to go from raw drum beat to melody or think of the melody and write the beat from there?

i used to start with drums when i first started making music but now my work flow goes:

chord progression -> lead/additional melodies -> sound design & synthesis -> drum programming -> EQing/mixdown


if anyone's interested, here's a set we did for our label. the first song in the mix will be released over the summer

http://www.dangerbox.net/2011/06/dan...ra-06-07-2011/

[SpiderSense]

Just learned about this the other day:



Sound familiar?

Have fun

[SpiderSense]

And another:



FF to 1:26

[Lucknow]

Just uploaded a new tech house track if anyone's interested:

http://soundcloud.com/lucknow-music/who-said-who


Every time I upload to soundcloud I always get some clipping kind of noises to the hihats during the intro. Anyone know why this is? Is it just the lower sound quality? Because when I play the original file and the mp3 on my computer it sounds fine. Only when it's been uploaded does it do that.

[DarkGrey]

two big songs finished boys. check out my ****, i'll check you. both are off the new EP, top 2 tracks.

http://soundcloud.com/dj-dark-grey/tracks

[Lucknow]

Bit quiet in here these days lads...

Here's a new progressive house track i made. Didn't spend much time on this one, it's very simple:

http://soundcloud.com/lucknow-music/the-more-you-know

[excess34]

Bit quiet in here these days lads...

Here's a new progressive house track i made. Didn't spend much time on this one, it's very simple:

http://soundcloud.com/lucknow-music/the-more-you-know

sidechain dat bass! also no release of tension due to the structure (consistent percussion and sounds throughout)

with a few touchups this could be a really interesting listen

two big songs finished boys. check out my ****, i'll check you. both are off the new EP, top 2 tracks.

http://soundcloud.com/dj-dark-grey/tracks

standard has potential, what songs are those melodies from?

and fly away is ****ing tough! awesome intro and nicely constructed. vox sit a little oddly on top of the mix but vocals are no fun to work with, lol

[shoobey]

Bit quiet in here these days lads...

Here's a new progressive house track i made. Didn't spend much time on this one, it's very simple:

http://soundcloud.com/lucknow-music/the-more-you-know

My lease is up in 2 months and I need to find a job, otherwise I may have to move . Once I get a job I'm going 150% back into producing/mixing though

[shoobey]

sidechain dat bass! also no release of tension due to the structure (consistent percussion and sounds throughout)

with a few touchups this could be a really interesting listen

I may be out of my element here b/c I am a noob mixer and an even noober producer, but in my opinion as a listener at least, I think that guy's song would sound A LOT better if he used better sounding synths like 3rd party VST ones. If he is already using them then perhaps tweaking his own synths to give them a fatter/fuller/louder sound?

I could be all wrong here though lol.

I may be too noobish to have a "style" yet, but in my "songs', I like to use very distinct and loud sounding synths, but I also use very simple sounding melodies which I need to get better at. I also don't use presets, I just mess around w/ the 3rd party VST's and throw in LFO's and all bunches of stuff until I get cool/weird sounding noises.

Let me tell you that my GF LOVES living with me now, hearing beeps and boops being tweaked all day long

[excess34]

also for anyone interested, a really straight forward tutorial on tuning your kicks / percussion to your track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcuvBG3fkuk

really helpful especially if you just cant seem to get a good relation of bass/kick

[shoobey]

also for anyone interested, a really straight forward tutorial on tuning your kicks / percussion to your track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcuvBG3fkuk

really helpful especially if you just cant seem to get a good relation of bass/kick

The more and more I learn about producing, the more I realize that drums are like 99% of what makes a sick dance song lol. The drums are what get you moving and your head bopping. I am realizing now that you can have the craziest/most banger synth melody out there, but without an equally banger drum melody, it won't come together.

I am getting better at visualizing what professional producers are somewhat doing in their songs w/ the synth melodies. But I can hear a complex drum beat in an electro house song and really be baffled at what is going on in the sequencer lol

[excess34]

I may be out of my element here b/c I am a noob mixer and an even noober producer, but in my opinion as a listener at least, I think that guy's song would sound A LOT better if he used better sounding synths like 3rd party VST ones. If he is already using them then perhaps tweaking his own synths to give them a fatter/fuller/louder sound?

I could be all wrong here though lol.

I may be too noobish to have a "style" yet, but in my "songs', I like to use very distinct and loud sounding synths, but I also use very simple sounding melodies which I need to get better at. I also don't use presets, I just mess around w/ the 3rd party VST's and throw in LFO's and all bunches of stuff until I get cool/weird sounding noises.

Let me tell you that my GF LOVES living with me now, hearing beeps and boops being tweaked all day long

no need to be modest dude we're all learning, anyone can have an opinion or idea and whatever works works - so don't preface messages with "i'm a noob". because we all are

while vst instruments are vast, some powerful and some elegant - they all essentially do the same thing. i would say the issue with his track isn't sound design but more of a mixdown/automation/fx's issue. the sounds he chose actually work well together.

if i were him, i'd split the bassline into two: one a plucking sound, and one an electro-ish grimey bass. pluck bass gets the shorter notes, electro bass the longer ones - it'd make for a far more interesting low end.

also louder does not necessarily equal better. there's SO much that comes into play that makes a sound "better" sounding: EQing, panning, stereo width, and most importantly balance with the other elements of the song.

most edm producers i know write at low volumes, bring the master back up to 0 for mixdown and looking for clipping, then once the general balance of volume and EQ is there, the overall volume is brought back down before it's sent out to the mastering engineer.

as for your last post - i too now realize the importance of a good percussion groove. it really does make everything far more intense and can make a 130bpm track sound like it's far higher in tempo

[ilovejunkfood]

is it possible/easy to record a piano and mic to my laptop? I don't need to mix it really, just want to see how it sounds.

[excess34]

is it possible/easy to record a piano and mic to my laptop? I don't need to mix it really, just want to see how it sounds.

just to record piano you could record from the line in on your laptop. for professional sounds you'll need a lot though - a real soundcard, a good microphone that's suited specifically for that type of recording, an acoustically treated room, and a pre-amp at the very least

[Lucknow]

sidechain dat bass! also no release of tension due to the structure (consistent percussion and sounds throughout)

with a few touchups this could be a really interesting listen

Thanks for listening man. Much appreciated.

Side chaining the bass is something I thought about doing. I don't know why I didn't try it before I uploaded it. I'm still producing on very cheap headphones so it's difficult for me to hear how the bass really sounds. I expect it sounds quite poor.

As for the lack of release, I deliberately left out a proper breakdown just to see if I could make a more laid back track, where the energy is controlled more subtly with the progressive addition of new elements, rather than a big drop and build. I've been listening to Benoit & Sergio a lot lately, so i'm inspired by their chill-house where not much happens, but it still sounds amazing, like this:

[DrSchrodinger]

We need more hip-hop producers in this thread.

No hate to you electro-heads but I gotta have dem lyrics.

[excess34]

if anyone's interested in hearing a work in progress:

http://soundcloud.com/excess/near-life-wip/s-etUK3

major work to be done but concept's there. think i mightve overdone the punchiness on the kick lol

[Lucknow]

if anyone's interested in hearing a work in progress:

http://soundcloud.com/excess/near-life-wip/s-etUK3

major work to be done but concept's there. think i mightve overdone the punchiness on the kick lol

Sounds huge man... very impressive.

What soft/hardware are you using to produce?

[shoobey]

if anyone's interested in hearing a work in progress:

http://soundcloud.com/excess/near-life-wip/s-etUK3

major work to be done but concept's there. think i mightve overdone the punchiness on the kick lol

Amazing! What are you doing around 1:58 to give it that huge sound bro? I'm gonna guess you have multiple layers of kicks on top of each other, and you got the bassline sidechained, and sounds like you also got that angelic choir snyth (the one that goes ahhhhh lol) also sidechained? I'm probably way off, but trying to figure out what goes on is good practice for me!

Very impressive though bro! Listening to your stuff makes me realize how much I have to learn still lol

[DarkGrey]

my EP dropped.

snag it, download for free or donate to the cause. http://www.darkgrey.bandcamp.com

[excess34]

Sounds huge man... very impressive.

What soft/hardware are you using to produce?

that was done on ableton with sylenth1 for most of the synths, and lot of bussing/eq/compression. only two of the three of us from adastra have worked on that and it's far, far from done. the piano melody will be turned into chords instead of a whole note melody, but im terrible at actually writing music and the musician of the group is away on vacation hahah.

Amazing! What are you doing around 1:58 to give it that huge sound bro? I'm gonna guess you have multiple layers of kicks on top of each other, and you got the bassline sidechained, and sounds like you also got that angelic choir snyth (the one that goes ahhhhh lol) also sidechained? I'm probably way off, but trying to figure out what goes on is good practice for me!

Very impressive though bro! Listening to your stuff makes me realize how much I have to learn still lol

actually, the kick is the same throughout and is only one layer tuned to the track, eq'd, and processed with a limiter for transient design (that's why it's currently punching right through the low end). of course, the bass is sidechained to the kick (almost always has to be even slightly just to avoid clashing), and yeah the pads are sidechained to the same trigger as well.

the pads are the most problematic part so far. it's really hard to find a balance of all elements whilst still retaining the powerful sound we want from the pads. we'll have to add 1-2 more layers and do some extreme EQing to get the warmth we need

to do list on that track:
piano chords
properly balance out sub range
fill out the break with percussion hits and another melodic element
moar layerz for the pads
different sounds for where the kick/bass/pads drop out
mixdown!

and then we'll see if our label wants it

[excess34]

Thanks for listening man. Much appreciated.

Side chaining the bass is something I thought about doing. I don't know why I didn't try it before I uploaded it. I'm still producing on very cheap headphones so it's difficult for me to hear how the bass really sounds. I expect it sounds quite poor.

As for the lack of release, I deliberately left out a proper breakdown just to see if I could make a more laid back track, where the energy is controlled more subtly with the progressive addition of new elements, rather than a big drop and build. I've been listening to Benoit & Sergio a lot lately, so i'm inspired by their chill-house where not much happens, but it still sounds amazing, like this:

always always always sidechain dat bass especially sub bass. unless you've found the perfect kick for the perfect bassline >.> also if you havent, make sure you mono or at least bring the sub region to center

as for tracks such as the one you mentioned, music like that is awesome. but when you say there's not much happening, there is more than meets the...ear? productions like this are very intricate and must be precisely executed. pay attention to their use of call and response especially in this track, and then notice how the elements are automated and placed in the track itself. beautifully arranged and gives a true sense of journey

[SpiderSense]

im terrible at actually writing music and the musician of the group is away on vacation hahah.

I wish I was as good as you are at your age, I don't even think I'm that good right now.

[excess34]

I wish I was as good as you are at your age, I don't even think I'm that good right now.

you're too kind hahah. whatever decent stuff comes out i owe it to the people sharing knowledge on youtube, forums etc. not to mention, i try to collaborate with as many people as i can even if it doesn't amount to anything. two heads are better than one, and in the case of the latest stuff i've been working on it's three - and our workflow has been impressive and my knowledge has increased exponentially since bringing onboard a far more experienced producer

you still owe us some musical shares! i dont think you've posted anything in this thread?

[SpiderSense]

Yeah I know that feel bro.

I plan to put some stuff up soon by the end of the summer at the latest.

Right now I'm dealing with predominately sampling I have 4-5 songs I'm working on at the moment.

I keep having stumbling blocks though.

That and I do all this **** on my own which sucks, no mentors or helpers of any kind.

[DarkGrey]

excess you da man.

[iForce Dave]

always always always sidechain dat bass especially sub bass. unless you've found the perfect kick for the perfect bassline >.> also if you havent, make sure you mono or at least bring the sub region to center

as for tracks such as the one you mentioned, music like that is awesome. but when you say there's not much happening, there is more than meets the...ear? productions like this are very intricate and must be precisely executed. pay attention to their use of call and response especially in this track, and then notice how the elements are automated and placed in the track itself. beautifully arranged and gives a true sense of journey

can you clarfy what you mean by sidechaining?

I was talking with someone and we thought sidechaining was two very different things haha

Ive been using sidechaining with a Gate Effect so I can sidechain a synth w/gate to a percussion track and set the gate threshold so that my synth is playing the percussion