Synths and Producing - How do you know what sound you want?

Never thought of that, and it sounds like a cool technique! More of a human flow rather than having everything MIDI quantised etc...

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As far as workflow goes im very melody driven. In light of that i tend to start with a specific synth sound i want to use, either a rich low frequency background lead line to set the mood, or the lead line i (think) i want to use.

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For me that kind of workflow really hinders any kind of compositional productiveness because i find myself just looking for that perfect sound for hours without actually having written anything down.

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As far as presets go, i use them a lot. I'll def tweak them, and i'll def layer them but i'm not going to sit there and attempt to design my own patches right now. I simply do not have that kind of knowledge yet. I'm more focused on the composition at this point in time, largely because nobody gives a shit about what presets you used, or the sounds you created if the track itself sucks. Someday i'll get around to fully understanding synth design, but for now i'll stick to modifying presets.

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That's a really good point! Especially with the quality of some of the NI presets in particular. I find it really satisfying having made my own sounds though, even if they aren't as good. And it's also surprising how quickly you can learn about synthesis, whether it be analog, FM or something in between! That said though i'm still an amateur.

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Originally Posted by Tarekith

When I play virtual instruments, I route them directly to an audio track and record my playing in realtime to the audio track. Any MIDI that gets recorded because the virtual instrument track needed to be armed gets deleted right after I record each pass.

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i do the same with reason... i use reason as a mega vst inside ableton and record various sounds :D

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Originally Posted by RhythmixAU

For me that kind of workflow really hinders any kind of compositional productiveness because i find myself just looking for that perfect sound for hours without actually having written anything down.

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That's fair, although it doesnt have to be the "perfect sound," just simply a sound you like. Like i said, most of the time it's going to get changed anyway, so i just use it to get a general feeling for where i want to go with the track. I go through a few presets, choose one i like and then go from there, if it sticks, great, if not oh well.

I think he meant that after the mid is recorded he spends too much time trying to find the right sound to go with the notes he already played. I have the same issue when I use MIDI, or I can't resist the urge to fix all the mistakes right out of the performance and making it really stale and perfect :)

I'm pretty sure that some of the best parts of my songs over the years has been mistakes that sounded cool and I was lucky enough to record as audio so I could re-use them.

But really it's horses for courses, as some of my favorite producers work almost entirely with MIDI and create stunning work after hours of obsessing over the things I'm trying to avoid :)

thats way badass dude hell yea

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Originally Posted by Tarekith

some of my favorite producers work almost entirely with MIDI and create stunning work after hours of obsessing over the things I'm trying to avoid :)

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This is why madlib is one of my favorite producers - the guy can and will flip the same sample twenty times over. There's nothing wrong with writing a ton of variations of the same theme and melody. Especially as a DJ, music sales are a drop in the bucket for revenue while playing out makes up the chunk - having a ton of variations on a theme means you have more choices for dropping your productions into the mix

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Originally Posted by diezdiazgiant

Experience develops taste. It takes experience to know what you like.

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i feel the same way. trial and error is the only way to find out for sure.

I don't see presets as cheating, I see them as a great way of learning the possibilities of a synth and also a nice starting point of defining a sound. I usually end up wayoff the starting point.

I don't like to bounce to audio too quick as I want full control during arranging. But then again, I can stop fiddling with a synthand come back to it later when arranging. But I guess it's all about whatever suits your workflowin the end.