I just bought my gf a keyboard for Christmas, now it's time to learn to play. Anyone know some good YouTube channels and websites? She's also interested in using it in a DAW, but that will come.latwr. it's a Yamaha prsew300
I'm fairly new to the piano as well, but I quite like the 'Pianote' YouTube channel for lessons.
The instructors aren't obnoxious (so far) and everything is very clearly explained.
I'm fairly new to the piano as well, but I quite like the 'Pianote' YouTube channel for lessons.
The instructors aren't obnoxious (so far) and everything is very clearly explained.
Seemed like some decent basic lessons once I found the playlist for them. A random video came up after I left the room for some time and was watching something else and it seemed pretty good. Was on chords and showed how you can play the notes individually and make a song. Coming from playing guitar I really appreciated that because beinf able to do my own thing kept me learning
I've found many of the lessons really useful for explaining general music theory stuff that seemed really abstract to a guitar player.
For example, the concept of chord inversions.
On a guitar fretboard, it's really hard for me to visualise - but when they explained it on a piano it made perfect sense!
@Jeedan — Teledildonicss is my shit. Really great riff executed at a pleasing tempo to just zone out with. Reminds me a lot of Boris'Flood, but less "sludgey" I guess. The added synth accoutrement at the end has me imagining this transitioning into something like a spacey post-hardcore elaboration of that same riff, kinda similar to what Gloe have been trying to do for a few years:
*video*
I have another piece in my giant tapestry of cursed ambient "jazz":
*soundcloud*
This track is the starting point, hence the initial invocation, which was my attempt at taking inspiration from the classic Dolby theatrical opening, as well as doing my best to reference the opening to Coltrane's Ascension. One of the curious aspects of working in a pure digital environment is how you sometimes have to make compositional adjustments to accommodate unforeseen behaviors of the DWS. In this case, every attempt at exporting this track kept coming out broken because some aspect of the exporter required a bit of "start-up" in order to recognize various automation tracks; as such, the track fades in on some reverse reverb in order to properly trigger all the automation present in the track.
The actual body of the song isn't quite finished, as I'm constantly fiddling with how the songs intersect, but I thought I'd post this to try and get some feedback. Previous listeners have described it as "too slow", "fucking awful", and "why is the piano out of tune?".
As with the previously posted track (Edge of an Ocean), a lot of this music I've been working on for 2+ years is developing out of experiments with treated piano and learning how to use some of the fancy vocal synths introduced in Reason 10. That said, it is "conceptually" grounded in recurring dreams I had after my dad died, all of which offered some variation of walking along a beach and watching him drown; so much of it is mournful, melancholic, dirgelike and the structural ebb & flow and slightly chaotic harmonic expression are reflections of those dreams.
Haven't recorded anything in well over a year, was able to make some time in December to record this.
I actually wrote this song back in 1983, so I guess I was around 14. I originally recorded a simplified version on a crappy 4 track Tascam, but that what was available at the time. This re-record I did in Reason. One of these days I'd like to seriously learn how to do proper mixing, mastering, and compression. In the meantime, this is the result:
Re-recorded another sing I originally wrote around 30 years ago. This song actually appeared in a Tetris clone called Tetris Max in the early 90s. It enjoyed some success before the Tetris company (or whomever owned the rights to Tetris) shut down the game.
Anyway, here's the new version of the song, I hope you like it.
This is a thing I composed after spending a vacation with my brother and his family. It's inspired by the way his three young daughters would breathlessly tell competing accounts of who got up to what mischief each morning as I made my coffee, often interrupting one another with "and then..."
This is a thing I composed after spending a vacation with my brother and his family. It's inspired by the way his three young daughters would breathlessly tell competing accounts of who got up to what mischief each morning as I made my coffee, often interrupting one another with "and then..."
Last year around July I felt I was making really good progress towards songs that would make for another release. But at the time my family was still out of the country, so I had the time.
I think now I am finally organising myself to spend some time on music again and I have gone back to look at my unfinished work. I have two songs that are pretty much finished, that I like. But the rest are really just sketches, and now that I've lost all sense of where they were supposed to go, I don't think I can resurrect them. I still like the sound and the idea of them, but I sit in front of them and have no idea how to propel them forward.
That, and also in the meantime I have still been reading about making music if not actually doing so, and I have set up a new template that is far more organised than my previous efforts. So I think I will be better off just starting again, trying to get three or so new songs to add to the two finished, rather than stumbling around trying to reconnect with these 9-month old ideas. Or older, actually, since some are tracks that I wanted to put on my May of last year release, but didn't finish in time.
I don't know where he got the scorpions, or how he got them into my mattress.
Last year around July I felt I was making really good progress towards songs that would make for another release. But at the time my family was still out of the country, so I had the time.
I think now I am finally organising myself to spend some time on music again and I have gone back to look at my unfinished work. I have two songs that are pretty much finished, that I like. But the rest are really just sketches, and now that I've lost all sense of where they were supposed to go, I don't think I can resurrect them. I still like the sound and the idea of them, but I sit in front of them and have no idea how to propel them forward.
That, and also in the meantime I have still been reading about making music if not actually doing so, and I have set up a new template that is far more organised than my previous efforts. So I think I will be better off just starting again, trying to get three or so new songs to add to the two finished, rather than stumbling around trying to reconnect with these 9-month old ideas. Or older, actually, since some are tracks that I wanted to put on my May of last year release, but didn't finish in time.
I can totally relate.
Time is one of the most difficult things to come by. And I, too, have many ideas that I recorded (some almost finished), but I find if I let them sit then I forget about them, or fall out of love with them, or like you said can't figure out where to go with it. I've got four songs that are almost done and I feel like I should power through and finish them before they fall under that category.
My biggest struggle is mastering and overall polish. I do mostly synthwave, and I feel like other songs just sound "fuller", even with less things going on. Almost like their sounds are all "doubled". Or like their stereo separation is much wider. To make it worse, I find the process of mastering so boring -- I just love to write music. I've tried some online mastering tools, like eMastered, and L&R, but I find I can get similar results just by pushing the master volume.
I listened to your tune and tried hacking some machines, but got too moody and couldn't hit the buttons right. At all.
Kept thinking you were about to bust out a noisey guitar solo or some such, like an Adrien Belew styled sheets of skree and feedback. But maybe that just inhibits the hacking even more?
I made a synth jam with a volca bass, posted it to a discord server I'm in and someone added drums to it
* cool song *
That was cool. I've always thought about trying something like that (collaborating with people I dont know online). What do you do, upload lossless format?
@Rothgarr — This is mostly a comment in relation to some things you said above about Mastering, which is that frankly I don't think I've ever thought anything you've posted has been lacking in terms of engineering, they're always very crisp and present. That said, if you aren't doing so already, take some time developing a mastering effects chain that you can just plop into projects and tweak a little — reduce a bit of the tedium and you might find yourself more willing to give that extra effort to achieve some other level of fidelity.
Stereo Wideners and Harmonic Exciters can do a lot for increasing that sense of "fullness", but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the material you're referencing is a combination of "originally recorded to tape via NEVE console" and "remastered at the dawn of digital by some of the world's best engineers".
@Rothgarr — This is mostly a comment in relation to some things you said above about Mastering, which is that frankly I don't think I've ever thought anything you've posted has been lacking in terms of engineering, they're always very crisp and present. That said, if you aren't doing so already, take some time developing a mastering effects chain that you can just plop into projects and tweak a little — reduce a bit of the tedium and you might find yourself more willing to give that extra effort to achieve some other level of fidelity.
Stereo Wideners and Harmonic Exciters can do a lot for increasing that sense of "fullness", but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the material you're referencing is a combination of "originally recorded to tape via NEVE console" and "remastered at the dawn of digital by some of the world's best engineers".
Thanks for the awesome advice! I know I can save templates that show up when I create a new song, so maybe I can do that with effects. I think I also need to learn what terms like "side-chaining" and other things mean.
Thanks for the awesome advice! I know I can save templates that show up when I create a new song, so maybe I can do that with effects. I think I also need to learn what terms like "side-chaining" and other things mean.)
Yeah, I just have a combinator connected at the Master output level, into which I have my Mastering setup built. You can certainly get even more expansive in terms of song templates in Reason, but that's just my fundamental "new song" setup.
And yeah, certainly for your genre of work, learning about side-chaining should be a boon to really enhance the drive of the backbeat.
As I work in a very piecemeal manner, here is the interlude of sorts that appends one of the other things I posted; these shorter segments represent the turns in which a recursive dream would suddenly become a nightmare, often jarring me awake, so they end somewhat abruptly and exhaustively.
As it pertains to some of the above discussion of mastering, I spent a good chunk of time this week resolving some issues with competing reverb impulses in the project managing this and other songs. In the process I took some time to better understand the "wiring" of the Reason mixing board and find more economical solutions to the mix. I think I'm much happier with the results in terms of aural balance and the punch of the bass, though I'm not wholly satisfied with some of the percussion, but that's more a compositional matter.
As I work in a very piecemeal manner, here is the interlude of sorts that appends one of the other things I posted; these shorter segments represent the turns in which a recursive dream would suddenly become a nightmare, often jarring me awake, so they end somewhat abruptly and exhaustively.
As it pertains to some of the above discussion of mastering, I spent a good chunk of time this week resolving some issues with competing reverb impulses in the project managing this and other songs. In the process I took some time to better understand the "wiring" of the Reason mixing board and find more economical solutions to the mix. I think I'm much happier with the results in terms of aural balance and the punch of the bass, though I'm not wholly satisfied with some of the percussion, but that's more a compositional matter.
Oh wow that just sounds so good! The stereo is so wide and I'd have a really hard time getting bass to stand out that much without it making my car speakers explode. Nice!
I made a synth jam with a volca bass, posted it to a discord server I'm in and someone added drums to it
* cool song *
That was cool. I've always thought about trying something like that (collaborating with people I dont know online). What do you do, upload lossless format?
It was an unprompted collab, I just put up an unfinished thing and the guy (Duke Chin) just jammed over an mp3 I’d put in my channel. The something Awful musicians channel is good for muso chat https://discord.gg/zJEnuEk
@Jeedan — Great job; as a cover it felt true to the original and the era in which it was written, but certainly the form of blissed out post-punk expressed hasn't lost much merit in ~40 years. That said, soundcloud certainly fucks up any mix and overemphasizes high end, so it made me wish there was a bit more presence to the bass (which the original seems to support with a slightly distorted unison guitar part?).
thats probably more likely to be my mixing and bandlabs McMastering AI than soundcloud. If I ever want to do anything release worthy I'll pay to have a human do it because balancing frequencies is something I can do without.
We've settled into our new apartment and I'm at the music shop buying equipment. Exciting times.
I've been putting off buying instruments for years so I'm finally releasing the pent up need for gear. We're now in a place with more space and plan to stay awhile.
I don't know where he got the scorpions, or how he got them into my mattress.
We've settled into our new apartment and I'm at the music shop buying equipment. Exciting times.
I've been putting off buying instruments for years so I'm finally releasing the pent up need for gear. We're now in a place with more space and plan to stay awhile.
What kind of stuff were you looking for? (Or wind up getting?)
I have a hard time making songs with anything other than 4/4 or 6/8 time signatures, but I think you nailed 5/4. It feels good.
I really like the more realistic drums in the reimagined version. Are they real or programmed?
I know what you mean about time sigs. I struggled with the drums in the song(s) above. I had a hard time recording the kick and snare at the same time so I had to record them separately. And the drums are all digital, played manually on a keyboard and quantized as needed (no loops). The first version of the song was done in Propellerheads' Reason, the second one a friend helped me with in Pro Tools (we exported all the midi data from Reason and imported into PT and worked from there). The only "real" instrument are the guitars.
Been pretty quiet in here lately. Where did all my fellow music makers go? I'd love to hear what you've been working on.
Not sure what initially inspired me to do the creepy/weird intro in this one. I admittedly had a much fun assembling the video as I did the song. My goal with the song and video was to tell a story, but that story would hopefully be different for each viewer -- maybe even creating a bit of unease.
HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
Been pretty quiet in here lately. Where did all my fellow music makers go? I'd love to hear what you've been working on.
At the beginning of this year, I made plans to create a concept album. Covid sort of messed up those plans and so I have a lot of unfinished stuff. But we're nearing the end of the year, so maybe I'll try to throw some of the better WIPs on soundcloud soon.
I will say that seeing the quality of your stuff is a bit intimidating.
BTW, what is your process for making your videos? They're all cool/unique.
Been pretty quiet in here lately. Where did all my fellow music makers go? I'd love to hear what you've been working on.
At the beginning of this year, I made plans to create a concept album. Covid sort of messed up those plans and so I have a lot of unfinished stuff. But we're nearing the end of the year, so maybe I'll try to throw some of the better WIPs on soundcloud soon.
I will say that seeing the quality of your stuff is a bit intimidating.
BTW, what is your process for making your videos? They're all cool/unique.
Can't wait to hear your stuff! Dang, a whole concept album? i can't even imagine.
And thanks. As for the videos process, sometimes I get ideas while I'm halfway through a song, other times I need to come up with an idea after the song is done. Generally, I like making things look "old", or 80s, or "cathode ray tube", but not for all my videos. And I'll either use free clips (while making donations to the creators) and put them together, or use game clips or record my own, with transitions matching changes in the song. I'll sometimes add flashes to some beats. My videos aren't great, I'm not even sure if they add anything to the songs, but I have an equal amount of fun creating them as I do recording songs, so that's why I do it.
HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
Here's a few songs that I've completed (minus some tweaks to their mix probably). Conceptually, each song on the album represents some moment or span of time between the birth and death of the universe. These 3 songs are in the first half of the album which is about beginnings, birth, life, etc.
That last one might seem a little out of place conceptually. I'm not sure if it'll make the final cut. Initially I was going to have 1 other song on the album with vocals that sort of represents the time that life existed in the universe. But I may pair the 2 together as sort of the rise and fall of life.
The second half of the album is darker as the universe stops being able to support life and moves toward a theoretical end called the Big Rip.
Genre-wise, I don't know. It's all electronic, but it'll be a mix of stuff. I went through a little bit of a doom metal phase this year, and I also got into Author and Punisher after seeing them open for TOOL back in January, so there's some weird influences in the latter half of the album. And the pandemic has probably had a lot of influence on the tone too.
Here's a few songs that I've completed (minus some tweaks to their mix probably). Conceptually, each song on the album represents some moment or span of time between the birth and death of the universe. These 3 songs are in the first half of the album which is about beginnings, birth, life, etc.
* Good stuff *
That last one might seem a little out of place conceptually. I'm not sure if it'll make the final cut. Initially I was going to have 1 other song on the album with vocals that sort of represents the time that life existed in the universe. But I may pair the 2 together as sort of the rise and fall of life.
The second half of the album is darker as the universe stops being able to support life and moves toward a theoretical end called the Big Rip.
Genre-wise, I don't know. It's all electronic, but it'll be a mix of stuff. I went through a little bit of a doom metal phase this year, and I also got into Author and Punisher after seeing them open for TOOL back in January, so there's some weird influences in the latter half of the album. And the pandemic has probably had a lot of influence on the tone too.
Oh this is so good...
In the first one I love you use of pitch bend and panning.
The second one is really interesting with how you have all the different parts interacting with each other. You also have some really epic soundtrack-sounding sounds.
i see what you mean about the last one, but I still think it's super cool.
I really can't wait to hear the whole project when it's done. Sort of makes me want to do a concept...
What DAW do you use, btw? Did you use any particular VSTs for the majority of your songs?
HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
Thanks!
The main reason I decided on a concept album is because I wanted to change my process to be more intentional. Most of my songs up until I started this project were just me noodling around until I found an idea I liked and then pushing it to its conclusion (or hitting a dead end and quitting). I don't necessarily think that's a bad way to make music, but I wanted to challenge myself to go from idea to song, and not end up somewhere completely different along the way. I haven't always been successful, but I definitely feel like I've grown this year.
I use FL Studio for my DAW. Most of these songs are using Serum for the bass-y instruments. Sometimes I'll use it for a lead too. There's probably some Massive in there.
I also really like the Flex synth they added to FL Studio. It's limited from a sound design perspective, but it has a ton of presets and I can usually find the thing I need. The strings in Nebulae are from that synth. And if I'm remembering right, I think the lead in Cosmic Background is too.
Effects-wise, I pretty much throw FL's eq and compressor on everything. I have a friend who's really musically inclined and he's always sending me links to sales for effects plugins. So I own a lot of stuff, but I haven't really learned most of them yet.
How about you? Do you have a favorite DAW or go-to VSTs?
Nice. Always cool to hear someone's inspiration and what they use.
I'm married to using Reason (currently on version 11, been using it since version 3, before that Performer, Master Tracks, etc.). I use an 88 key Privia keyboard as a controller.
I mostly use the built-in instruments in Reason, but I have purchased some additional VSTs. My two latest ones being an Oberheim OBX-a emulator and also a LinnDrum LM2 emulator. My most recent post above "I can see you" is probably 90% OBX-a.
I wanna make music. In particular I wanna make stuff that sounds like it could be in a SHMUP (vertical spaceship shooter) or Kero Blaster. I’m looking into every music app going... so watch this space!
Posts
The instructors aren't obnoxious (so far) and everything is very clearly explained.
Seemed like some decent basic lessons once I found the playlist for them. A random video came up after I left the room for some time and was watching something else and it seemed pretty good. Was on chords and showed how you can play the notes individually and make a song. Coming from playing guitar I really appreciated that because beinf able to do my own thing kept me learning
For example, the concept of chord inversions.
On a guitar fretboard, it's really hard for me to visualise - but when they explained it on a piano it made perfect sense!
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed that.
Watch my music videos
I actually wrote this song back in 1983, so I guess I was around 14. I originally recorded a simplified version on a crappy 4 track Tascam, but that what was available at the time. This re-record I did in Reason. One of these days I'd like to seriously learn how to do proper mixing, mastering, and compression. In the meantime, this is the result:
Hope you like it.
Watch my music videos
Anyway, here's the new version of the song, I hope you like it.
Watch my music videos
That was really cool!
Watch my music videos
Watch my music videos
Last year around July I felt I was making really good progress towards songs that would make for another release. But at the time my family was still out of the country, so I had the time.
I think now I am finally organising myself to spend some time on music again and I have gone back to look at my unfinished work. I have two songs that are pretty much finished, that I like. But the rest are really just sketches, and now that I've lost all sense of where they were supposed to go, I don't think I can resurrect them. I still like the sound and the idea of them, but I sit in front of them and have no idea how to propel them forward.
That, and also in the meantime I have still been reading about making music if not actually doing so, and I have set up a new template that is far more organised than my previous efforts. So I think I will be better off just starting again, trying to get three or so new songs to add to the two finished, rather than stumbling around trying to reconnect with these 9-month old ideas. Or older, actually, since some are tracks that I wanted to put on my May of last year release, but didn't finish in time.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
I can totally relate.
Time is one of the most difficult things to come by. And I, too, have many ideas that I recorded (some almost finished), but I find if I let them sit then I forget about them, or fall out of love with them, or like you said can't figure out where to go with it. I've got four songs that are almost done and I feel like I should power through and finish them before they fall under that category.
My biggest struggle is mastering and overall polish. I do mostly synthwave, and I feel like other songs just sound "fuller", even with less things going on. Almost like their sounds are all "doubled". Or like their stereo separation is much wider. To make it worse, I find the process of mastering so boring -- I just love to write music. I've tried some online mastering tools, like eMastered, and L&R, but I find I can get similar results just by pushing the master volume.
Watch my music videos
Kept thinking you were about to bust out a noisey guitar solo or some such, like an Adrien Belew styled sheets of skree and feedback. But maybe that just inhibits the hacking even more?
That was cool. I've always thought about trying something like that (collaborating with people I dont know online). What do you do, upload lossless format?
Watch my music videos
Watch my music videos
Stereo Wideners and Harmonic Exciters can do a lot for increasing that sense of "fullness", but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the material you're referencing is a combination of "originally recorded to tape via NEVE console" and "remastered at the dawn of digital by some of the world's best engineers".
Thanks for the awesome advice! I know I can save templates that show up when I create a new song, so maybe I can do that with effects. I think I also need to learn what terms like "side-chaining" and other things mean.
In the meantime, I was able to get some fullness by using two effects (not at the same time):
- https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-extension/polar/
- https://www.reasonstudios.com/en/reason/effects/quartet
But still not able to get stuff as "full" as I'd like (nothing close like in the demos for the two devices above)
Watch my music videos
Yeah, I just have a combinator connected at the Master output level, into which I have my Mastering setup built. You can certainly get even more expansive in terms of song templates in Reason, but that's just my fundamental "new song" setup.
And yeah, certainly for your genre of work, learning about side-chaining should be a boon to really enhance the drive of the backbeat.
As it pertains to some of the above discussion of mastering, I spent a good chunk of time this week resolving some issues with competing reverb impulses in the project managing this and other songs. In the process I took some time to better understand the "wiring" of the Reason mixing board and find more economical solutions to the mix. I think I'm much happier with the results in terms of aural balance and the punch of the bass, though I'm not wholly satisfied with some of the percussion, but that's more a compositional matter.
Oh wow that just sounds so good! The stereo is so wide and I'd have a really hard time getting bass to stand out that much without it making my car speakers explode. Nice!
Watch my music videos
It was an unprompted collab, I just put up an unfinished thing and the guy (Duke Chin) just jammed over an mp3 I’d put in my channel. The something Awful musicians channel is good for muso chat https://discord.gg/zJEnuEk
We've settled into our new apartment and I'm at the music shop buying equipment. Exciting times.
I've been putting off buying instruments for years so I'm finally releasing the pent up need for gear. We're now in a place with more space and plan to stay awhile.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
What kind of stuff were you looking for? (Or wind up getting?)
Watch my music videos
Watch my music videos
Watch my music videos
I really like the more realistic drums in the reimagined version. Are they real or programmed?
I know what you mean about time sigs. I struggled with the drums in the song(s) above. I had a hard time recording the kick and snare at the same time so I had to record them separately. And the drums are all digital, played manually on a keyboard and quantized as needed (no loops). The first version of the song was done in Propellerheads' Reason, the second one a friend helped me with in Pro Tools (we exported all the midi data from Reason and imported into PT and worked from there). The only "real" instrument are the guitars.
Watch my music videos
Watch my music videos
Not sure what initially inspired me to do the creepy/weird intro in this one. I admittedly had a much fun assembling the video as I did the song. My goal with the song and video was to tell a story, but that story would hopefully be different for each viewer -- maybe even creating a bit of unease.
What do you think?
Watch my music videos
At the beginning of this year, I made plans to create a concept album. Covid sort of messed up those plans and so I have a lot of unfinished stuff. But we're nearing the end of the year, so maybe I'll try to throw some of the better WIPs on soundcloud soon.
I will say that seeing the quality of your stuff is a bit intimidating.
BTW, what is your process for making your videos? They're all cool/unique.
Can't wait to hear your stuff! Dang, a whole concept album? i can't even imagine.
And thanks. As for the videos process, sometimes I get ideas while I'm halfway through a song, other times I need to come up with an idea after the song is done. Generally, I like making things look "old", or 80s, or "cathode ray tube", but not for all my videos. And I'll either use free clips (while making donations to the creators) and put them together, or use game clips or record my own, with transitions matching changes in the song. I'll sometimes add flashes to some beats. My videos aren't great, I'm not even sure if they add anything to the songs, but I have an equal amount of fun creating them as I do recording songs, so that's why I do it.
Watch my music videos
That last one might seem a little out of place conceptually. I'm not sure if it'll make the final cut. Initially I was going to have 1 other song on the album with vocals that sort of represents the time that life existed in the universe. But I may pair the 2 together as sort of the rise and fall of life.
The second half of the album is darker as the universe stops being able to support life and moves toward a theoretical end called the Big Rip.
Genre-wise, I don't know. It's all electronic, but it'll be a mix of stuff. I went through a little bit of a doom metal phase this year, and I also got into Author and Punisher after seeing them open for TOOL back in January, so there's some weird influences in the latter half of the album. And the pandemic has probably had a lot of influence on the tone too.
Oh this is so good...
In the first one I love you use of pitch bend and panning.
The second one is really interesting with how you have all the different parts interacting with each other. You also have some really epic soundtrack-sounding sounds.
i see what you mean about the last one, but I still think it's super cool.
I really can't wait to hear the whole project when it's done. Sort of makes me want to do a concept...
What DAW do you use, btw? Did you use any particular VSTs for the majority of your songs?
Watch my music videos
The main reason I decided on a concept album is because I wanted to change my process to be more intentional. Most of my songs up until I started this project were just me noodling around until I found an idea I liked and then pushing it to its conclusion (or hitting a dead end and quitting). I don't necessarily think that's a bad way to make music, but I wanted to challenge myself to go from idea to song, and not end up somewhere completely different along the way. I haven't always been successful, but I definitely feel like I've grown this year.
I use FL Studio for my DAW. Most of these songs are using Serum for the bass-y instruments. Sometimes I'll use it for a lead too. There's probably some Massive in there.
I also really like the Flex synth they added to FL Studio. It's limited from a sound design perspective, but it has a ton of presets and I can usually find the thing I need. The strings in Nebulae are from that synth. And if I'm remembering right, I think the lead in Cosmic Background is too.
Effects-wise, I pretty much throw FL's eq and compressor on everything. I have a friend who's really musically inclined and he's always sending me links to sales for effects plugins. So I own a lot of stuff, but I haven't really learned most of them yet.
How about you? Do you have a favorite DAW or go-to VSTs?
I'm married to using Reason (currently on version 11, been using it since version 3, before that Performer, Master Tracks, etc.). I use an 88 key Privia keyboard as a controller.
I mostly use the built-in instruments in Reason, but I have purchased some additional VSTs. My two latest ones being an Oberheim OBX-a emulator and also a LinnDrum LM2 emulator. My most recent post above "I can see you" is probably 90% OBX-a.
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