Anyone else get stuck just because they can't synthesize the right sound?

Performance & Techniques Music Production
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Anyone else get stuck just because they can’t synthesize the right sound?

I’m finding myself always stuck during music production because I can never find the sound I want. I think it has more to do with I don’t even know what sound I want. I’m messing around with sound settings more often than actually making beats.

Any suggestions? Just go to beatport and buy a set of VSTs/soundpacks?

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The Beatport idea isn’t a bad, but if you did go that route I strongly suggest tweaking the sounds you get, as there is a boat load of people using the same packs.

I think a better suggestion would be to split up writing and sound design.

I’ve mentioned before that I usually ALWAYS do drum loops before and save them for later. This way when I’m strumming away on my guitar and something hits me I don’t have to fuck around with making drum loops. I have grooves made, with 4-5 different variations and stored for when the time’s right.

You can do this with Sound design. Watch some YT vids, really deconstruct what’s being explained and make some new sounds. Try to understand what every knob does. Take an hour a day, or whenever you’re not in the mood for writing just sit out and work on some new sounds and save them for later.

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Or learn how to design a sound

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This and I would also suggest to look for sample and loop packs. As BiggChev has said, you could easily end up with the same sounds as potentially endless number of other people – look for free ones, they’re often overlooked and/or buried in the Page Ranks by the paid sample/loop packs and of course they’re fother mucking free! There are also many free Patches for soft (and hard) synths, if it’s at all popular there are Patches you can get for it.

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Thanks, I will try that out.

I still need to figure out how to map my keyboard to Ableton. AUtomap is pretty awful.

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A good way to learn is by trying to make a whole song with just one synthesizer.
I tried that a while ago, just using the analog synth in ableton i was able to synthesize kick, snare, hats, bass, leads everything.
It really gives you an idea

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This right here.

To me OP its as if you don’t know your synths well enough to know what you want to make. Just keep going at it and it will come to you.