Music Production

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#singer #musician #songwriter

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.studio/post/2255587

Inspired by Koan Sound I wanted to record some double bass and get creative with it. Fortunately, I have a very old and kind of broken double bass at home. However, I have no idea how to play it properly and decided instead of trying to play it how it is supposed to be played, record a bunch of sounds & noises (I apologized to the double bass afterwards) and try to arrange them into something afterwards. This is the result. It's not perfect but I am fairly happy with it. :)

What I took away from this project: Starting with a few samples can really spark creativity for me. I would have never come up with this on a blank canvas. Listening to the double bass recordings I noticed variations in volume/articulation/... which gave me ideas where to place percussion and other accents. Then the track built itself from there.

Let me know what you think!

Anyone have tips on digital additive synthesis? I'm looking to define a curve for the overtone series to follow and generate and combine sign waves from that. Looks like there is a way in Python?

https://medium.com/@noahhradek/sound-synthesis-in-python-4e60614010da

Anyone have thoughts or experience with generating sounds in Python? Are there any artifacts I should watch out for? Is there an easier way to generate tones from equations for their overtone series? Thanks!

I know there's a lot of distribution services to choose from, but if you spend a few days or a week googling and/or searching u-tube for the best one, I suspect you'll conclude that Distrokid (DK) is the most popular distributor for mid-to-nobody-level artists like me.

I didn't start with DK. I went with CDBaby for my first album because the pay-once-and-you're-done model really appealed to me. Just google "CDBaby", and you'll see in the first result that they are advertising "No recurring fees" because they know musicians don't want to have to continue paying distributors for distribution that has already occurred.

So, I logged into CDBaby in order to start entering all the data that would support album #2. However, things weren't the same as they were with album #1. CDBaby, like every successful company wanting to increase earnings, had added to its offerings as well as its conditions. I get it; you're doing well, and you want to do better.

Maybe some of y'all are strong with industry terms like "mechanical distribution", "publishing", and whatever the term is for songs that are made available for TV, movies, or commercials, but I'm not. I certainly tried to learn what these terms mean, but these expressions don't find a long-term home in my brain without a special effort, a multi-day effort I decided I didn't want to make. Maybe that was a mistake. Either way, all the legal talk motivated me to give up CDBaby and go with DK since so many people seemed to really like it.

Of course, I checked out Tunecore and some other slick services. They all seem to be enthusiastically seeking ways to increase satisfaction for their investors. I am not against capitalism, but I am sensing opportunism at work here - an effort to increase income by hook or crook.

I REPEAT: I'm aware it's on me to learn about it all. I'm just disgusted that I have to protect myself from companies acting like "We're awesome! Source: Trust us". That's why I watched many videos and read a number of comments on Reddot and u-turb about distribution services, and that's when I decided to say, "Bleep it; I'm going with DK cuz they're so easy." So, album #2 went out via DK.

However, DK seems a little sneaky in their approach. Just this week I got a charge to my credit card in the amount of $11 for "DISTROKID EXTRAS". I googled that very expression, and found a website that really jumps into the issue. (FYI: I have not vetted this website; looks safe, but could be a hacker site for all I know.) For example, they have a product called "Store Maximizer", which takes note of the fact that new streaming providers come to exist. Pay for "Store Maximizer", and your songs get pushed to the new providers. I also found a DK support article that kind-of addresses the issue.. I guess the conclusion I should make is that the internet is a very dynamic and changing thing and that these charges keep my songs relevant to the internet as it becomes and not as it was.

I realize that CDBaby doesn't give artists 100% like DK, but I'm starting to wonder which is truly the better deal.

I know about "Leave A Legacy", which keeps songs online after our credit cards stop working. I certainly would like to leave the door open to releasing more music in the future, but I just don't understand why anybody would remain a DK member for that purpose.

Anyway, I don't think I'm the only DK customer here. Please let me know why you keep paying DK's ongoing fees. Thanks.

...

What software/hardware did you begin with? What were your biggest hurdles? Was there a moment when it suddenly "clicked" for you?

Howdy!

I've got a question that isn't explicitly music production oriented, but it seemed the most relevant. All my music is completely vocals-lacking so I've always shunned a mic, but now I'm working on a series of tutorial videos. Given the target audience is musicians, I want to get the audio right, and that includes my talking.

I was dabbling in mics and I've landed on the Rode Procaster as overall it seems to offer the best sound for my purposes and seemed to play the best with my room acoustics so far. My problem now though is that I do still get a little (tiny, maybe imperceptibly to everyone but me) echo in my recordings, and I know that is easier to clean up before it gets into the recording.

The room I'm in is an apartment bedroom (well technically it's set up as an office, but I digress) about 10'x10' in dimensions. I have desks and a bookshelf in there, but otherwise the walls are fairly bare. Given it's an apartment I can't really glue stuff to the walls.

What would be some suggestions for addressing this? Right now I'm considering either putting some foam up using some thumb tacks, or just cleaning it up in post using RX9 since I have that available too. Thoughts?

If it would help, I can cough up some recordings for reference.

Thanks in advance!

I know this isn't strictly music production related, but it might be a good way to share what we make with the rest of the fediverse. If people don't think this belongs here, let me know and I can delete the cross-post.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2650755

We Distribute is bringing in a new feature - The Mixtape! We create playlists of songs that broadcast through Radio Free Fedi, and share it with the wider fediverse. It's an opportunity for people to discover music by Fedizens, and help support artists on the network.

Our first playlist is themed around hot summer vibes.

Making a great sounding pad is actually more tricky than getting some cool synth and drowning it in tons of reverb. I know I tried that the first time. And failed miserably. You don't have to!

Will is gonna walk us through different tricks and ideas to flesh out an ambient pad. Using a root tone, texture tones for highs and lows, some effects and simple automations will allow you to create a cool and easily customizeable(!) pad from scratch with any and all wavetables that you want in there!

Hope you find it useful, guys! AMN out!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/1335528

Do you ever feel like you can make a great loop but you can't make a great song? I don't know if that's your experience, but I've been there before, and let me tell you, it's a nightmare. It brings to question all of your skills that you have developed so far, because you've been able to cruise through without thinking about it. But now it just isn't enough! I needed more variety in my tracks.

So if you're like me then this video is just for you. Nathan goes into a key concept about arrangement that will help you think about it in a much more constructive way. Every instrument can be played with different articulation, loudness, rhythm, etc. and it doesn't have to play all the time. So Nathan poses three big questions of arrangement: what is playing, when is it playing and how is it being played?

This video will show you how these questions give you insight into what you were doing subconsciously (and how to answer them in a creative way). It will provide you with a simple thinking process for arrangement decision-making that will ease up some of that tension between hearing the song in your mind and putting it into your DAW. So try it out!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/802615

If you have Abletone live with Max for Live, you should check out the J74 Progressive.

Once you get the hang of the program, it is capable of producing extremely realistic chord progressions and arpeggios, delivered directly as MIDI clips in Ableton Live Session view.

He has a ton of other tools you can check out on his website.

http://fabriziopoce.com/progressive.html

https://www.youtube.com/@FabrizioPoce

This is more of a podcaster/journalist focused resource, but NPR has a whole bunch of publicly available articles with practical recording and production advice - https://training.npr.org/tag/production-sound/

Old school hip hop producer DJ Premier has a pretty great series of videos on what producing hip hop was like in the late 80s and early 90s (think stories about recording to ten pound reels of tape that could hold 15 minutes of audio and carrying around binders of floppy disks with stems to sessions with Fat Joe and Big L)

This is one of those techniques that can really push you over from intermediate to pro. You need a good grasp on compression: what it does to your instruments and how it affects their texture. Parallel compression is simple, yet subtlety is what makes it work, you need good ears for compression for this to work in your favor.

The essence of parallel compression is immediate and delicate control of the different textures in your recordings or even synths. You make a compressor for different elements of the instrument. In drums it is your punches, your transients and sticknoises, your long releases on snares and the color of all noises: bright, muddy, etc. Sometimes a compressor will affect multiple qualities (but not all of them). Then you make your compressors exxagerate the elements you choose separately. Then you mix the compressors in a way that you find pleasing.

That's what I've gotten out of the video and if you want to get a better grasp for the subtleties with apt explanations from Gregory, then that's the spirit! Go watch it! If you can't hear the differences, try increasing your speaker/headphones volume. The effect is subtle so don't go too loud, just enough to hear the differences described. To avoid any potential hearing damage (in case you do go too loud and/or you listen on headphones), limit your loud volume listening to ~15 minutes or so.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/664074

This one might be obvious to you folk who have worked on pro recordings. Compressing vocals and compressing instruments require different mindsets. Different in the way that you shouldn't be afraid to compress your vocals to -10 and -20db, while your instruments are at a subtle -2 to -5 (and I don't even limit myself there, because I love distorting my drums).

This video will show you every trick you did before: eq, automation, reverb, etc. and compare it to compression in the context of a rock track.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/595211

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/529140

This is a great video overview on just the neccessary bits and nuances of making Drum'n'Bass. What I like about this specific video is that it helps you understand what is possible within the genre and doesn't restrict you like an instruction manual.

It will help you to familiarize yourself with the core concepts of DnB and give you some pointers on how to give your tracks a cohesive structure within it! Highly recommend.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/463052

Understanding how to manage rhythmic patterns is a must-know for any producer. Unfortunately, not everyone has a formal music education, so if you're like me, this video will help you bridge that gap and help you on your music making journey!

EDMProd gives us some insights into the process of finding your rhythm with examples from house music and you can apply these concepts with relative ease to any other genre!

Sorry if this isnt the place for this but wanted to contribute to the instance.

Drums not finished yet. Need a 6 lug hoop for the tom I used. Gonna fiberglass the drum in place once i have holes drilled for the hoop and gonna try and fashion something neat for the pedals to clamp on to.

Havent decided on whether to cut a port in the back yet but imagine it will need it for micing. If anybody has built one and has some advice re: port or Kickport or something like that Ill take it!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/440501

Compression feels esoteric to anyone who's starting out in the world of music production. Even when we start to understand how it works technically, we just slam on the gain and work that ratio until we can hear the difference as the sound explodes from distortion. But compression isn't just a tool to make your loudness more consistent, it's a tool that can help you shape the texture of individual samples or synths the way you want them to be.

In this video, Gregory Scott, audio hardware and software designer tells us how to listen for compression (in drums, more specifically). Go check it out, and I hope it helps you on your journey!

Bespoke is an amazing free modular synthesizer. Check out this video explaining how it works... it's an amazing product of love from the developer.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/378776

Download: https://vital.audio/#getvital

Video guide by In The Mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qQX6YGBQEA

I don't think there is any modern producer who hasn't heard of Vital, and probably even less who haven't heard of Serum. Those are the options when it comes to wavetable synths with great visual interface to give you better insight into your sound design. And from my limited experience with Serum, I think Vital might just be better in more than just visuals and price (Serum is so damn expensive!)

Vital comes feature complete with its free version. The only thing you get for paying is more wavetables and presets as well as exclusive perks from the developers. It's a great boon to hobbyist producers, and these guys have great confidence that you'll donate to support the effort. And I think that confidence is well placed, they deliver.

Vital is not one of those free alternatives that comes just as a way to do something a popular program does, but quicker, dirtier and worse. It's a feature-complete, well-polished product designed for professional use and comes with all bells and whistles you need to get amazing sounds out of it. And even some extras that you won't find in every other popular synth.

If I go over every feature of Vital, we'll be here all day, so I'll highlight some of my favorites and let you decide if you want to give it a chance:

Stereo LFOs allow you to stereoize your patches by desynchronizing your effect modulations. In layman's terms, you can use one control to do two different things to your left and right ears and get some clean (or trippy) stereo!

Random oscillators with tons of customization for all of your modulation needs. They can help your patch sound more organic and fresh throughout your track, or create some whacky, glitchy and/or chaotic sounds. It comes with a stereo feature too!

Great options for keyboard/note tracking, allowing you to keep your effects consistent (or warp them) on different pitches. You got a keyboard track option built into your filters as well as note and note relative to octave controls that give you total freedom over how your instrument behaves on different pitches!

I've been using Vital in my own productions for a while now and it's been a breeze to make the kind of sound I want with it. I hope this little overview helps you take the plunge and play around with it to see if you like it! Good luck!

Edit: I'm still trying to figure out how to format post better for Lemmy, so I had to re-add the link to download after realizing it got replaced by the image. Whoops!

I'm a dad, so I have no time and all my gear is old. I want to start making music again, but I think I need to more or less start over in terms of gear and software.

I'd like to hear a bit just about what you all are using to make music.

Are we all using Macs and commercial software like Logic or Abelton? Anyone bravely trying to work things with Linux? Anyone kicking it old school and recording to tape? Anyone using light weight set ups like iPads or tiny Zoom recorders?

Amazing video showing how to record Radiohead's "Weird Fishes" in your bedroom.