Little tips and tricks :3

[TH-J]

Sooooooooo!, being totally new around here I figured i would pop in and make a post. And one of the things I usually like to ask when joining a forum like this is what are some of the little techniques you've picked up from experience as a musician (Because there really is no right or wrong with these things, its nice to do your own thing and not follow the rules as much with this) that you use that you don't feel many others do.

So tell me Newgrounds, what are some of the little tricks 'you' have picked up in making music> :)~

[TripStation]

Listen to what you like. Listen to it again and figure out the composition... I only just started making music with Fl Studio, but ive been a drummer and guitarist for about 10 years on and off. Also try and vary your musical taste. You can get great chord progressions from musicals/soundtracks and apply them to your own style.

[Witch]

Distort everything.

[Insanctuary]

At 3/11/14 03:01 PM, Elitistinen wrote: Limiter UP! @Insanctuary

I'm working on a song right now, and it's brutally surreal.

[AeroMusic]

At 3/9/14 08:23 AM, TH-J wrote: Sooooooooo!, being totally new around here I figured i would pop in and make a post. And one of the things I usually like to ask when joining a forum like this is what are some of the little techniques you've picked up from experience as a musician (Because there really is no right or wrong with these things, its nice to do your own thing and not follow the rules as much with this) that you use that you don't feel many others do.

So tell me Newgrounds, what are some of the little tricks 'you' have picked up in making music> :)~

my biggest tip so far would be that if you ever for one sec think, "what would it sound like if-" then DO IT, I've had so many cool textures/sounds/melodies happen this way

and save multiple project files just incase the it goes wrong :P

[SmithBA]

1) Don't settle for the first melody that works. Try to make every part the best it can be.
2) Be objective about a track, but don't be too hard on yourself.
3) Have fun, that's the point of writing music, right?

[johnfn]

0. DBlue glitch on all the things!!!!!

If your song doesn't sound professional it's because you're not using dblue (if you are, it's because you need to be using it MORE. You can't have too much dblue.)

Other than that, some random ideas incoming...

1. Sidechain compression is magic and makes everything sound awesome. Try doing an arp and then putting really aggressive settings (a really fast attack for instance) on the compressor. Sounds like this (skip to 4:15). I am addicted to this.

2. If you're having bass problems I feel bad for you son. Just high pass all your non-bass instruments and then sidechain (YES) your bass to your kick. That should solve everything unless you have a particularly weak bass sound to begin with. If that's the case you should split it up into a mid bass and sub bass. Use something like a sine for the sub and make sure (EQ) that sub and mid aren't clashing. The sub gives the mid power and the mid gives the sub more motion.

3. Bitcrush things - even a subtle bitcrush automation gives a lot of interest to sounds.

4. So you want SUPER LUSH PADS?!?!? Well try this - take your normal pad, put it front and center like normal. Now, take another pad (for extra fun, make it a different pad than the first) and crank the stereo width up to 200%. (In Ableton you can just put on a utility and set width = 200, I don't know how to do this in other DAWs but you can look it up) This will spread your pad sound around to sound more lush than just a single pad, but since you set the other one to be as wide as possible it actually won't interfere with the first pad or other instruments you have (unless they're panned really hard). I did this in this song (skip to 2:50).

5. If you're recording something and the quality isn't very good, try this: record it twice, then pan one hard left and pan the other hard right. Bam, suddenly the recording quality just jumped way up.

[AeroMusic]

@johnfn

dblue glitch almost always crashes on me :( I would LOVE seperate vst/modules for each of the effects as the glitch UI is the most annoying thing in the world think I got the tapestop as one somewhere but the retrigger would be super useful
why can't you just be a normal vst effect glitch and not this restrictive bar thing

also, don't you mean sidechain your kick to the bass?

another good tip is training your ears to hear bass clashing distortion so you can realise if its your bass sounds causing those high frequencies and not actually any of your high frequencies - you should generally low cut/high pass EVERY sound that isn't the sub or bass (as john said)

and I am using that pad tip thanks that sounds genius thanks (sometimes use a similar technique on leads but never considered pads for some reason)

amateur hour

[johnfn]

At 3/11/14 08:45 PM, AeroMusic wrote: @johnfn

dblue glitch almost always crashes on me :( I would LOVE seperate vst/modules for each of the effects as the glitch UI is the most annoying thing in the world think I got the tapestop as one somewhere but the retrigger would be super useful
why can't you just be a normal vst effect glitch and not this restrictive bar thing

I used to have this problem, but have you tried dblue 2? Seems pretty solid for me. I also switched from FL to Ableton and Windows to OSX ... so it could have been one of those things too ;)

also, don't you mean sidechain your kick to the bass?

Something like that. The bass is the one I have the sidechain on so thats how I think of it haha

[JRob]

At 3/11/14 03:01 PM, Elitistinen wrote:

At 3/11/14 02:30 PM, ClockworkSpace wrote: Distort everything.

Limiter UP! @Insanctuary

More like Full wave rectify

[JRob]

At 3/12/14 03:35 AM, Elitistinen wrote:

At 3/12/14 01:45 AM, JRob wrote: More like Full wave rectify

I feel ashamed for didn't know what I was looking at. I'm still at n00b level on using FL Studio.

Well I've only used this little trick once.

Song breakdown incoming

The track pictured is my song "Descent into Psychedelic Madness," which I know you've heard before. That last 20 seconds before the ending 10 seconds with the evil, extremely distorted sound was acheived using the Fruity WaveShaper effect on the "Full wave rectify" preset (label "a") on the Master track. I assigned an automation clip to the mix level (label "b") which was used to gradually turn the effect on and off. Higher resolution image.

I sometimes use Fruity WaveShaper for slight and basic distortion on certain instruments to increase the volume of that particular instrument and to give it some force or "oomph." Though, running the WaveShaper on the Master track with automation could lead to some cool effects (like short bursts of bitmunching for a glitchy feel).

[Voyagr]

Its all about speed! what has happened to me in the past is that i work on a particular project for TOO LONG and end up over analyzing every little piece. granted, the result is always quite awesome but i wasnt having as much fun as i would of liked. my current setup (and most fun) is running fl studio in demo mode and working on songs for just one day. im trying to get a faster work flow going so i can spend more time making music and less time being a perfectionist.

[Calamaistr]

At 3/9/14 08:23 AM, TH-J wrote: Sooooooooo!, being totally new around here I figured i would pop in and make a post. And one of the things I usually like to ask when joining a forum like this is what are some of the little techniques you've picked up from experience as a musician (Because there really is no right or wrong with these things, its nice to do your own thing and not follow the rules as much with this) that you use that you don't feel many others do.

So tell me Newgrounds, what are some of the little tricks 'you' have picked up in making music> :)~

--Listen to alot or (better) play instruments to understand what they can and what they cant do.
A guitar cannot always do the same as a piano without cutting/breaking your fingers for instance. But at the same time a piano also has its limits. Every instrument has its own little effects and specifics.
--Learn to create effects (like echo) manually, dont use controllers for that. Manual effects can be customized to fit alot better than when you have to distort something. This is alot easier than it sounds.
--As a personal tip; dont go with generic progressions wether its chords or melody, always walk the road least traveled, as thats where you can still find treasure. In laymans terms: Use progressions or notes that sound fresh/suprise or put the song in a different perspective. So no chords that go down or up like a stairway over and over and freaking over again. (i hear people do this and it makes my ears cry) Now i am verbally handicapped so i apoligise for not being able to explain this with the correct musical terms but i hope people understand what i mean.

-cal.
25c.

[Bosa]

At 3/9/14 08:23 AM, TH-J wrote: So tell me Newgrounds, what are some of the little tricks 'you' have picked up in making music> :)~

Boast and gloat about yourself as often as possible in the forums.