Synths and Producing - How do you know what sound you want?
Hey,
This is a simple thread out of interest of other peoples work flow. I use various synths such as Komplete 8, Sylenth and all of Ableton Suite’s various sound design instruments. I tend to find myself experimenting all the time without any real direction or objective, to the point where i will start a production with one idea and end up with something completely different, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I was just wondering… how do you know what sound you want? And with all the crazy synthesis styles and parameters, how do you get there without getting side-tracked?
On top of all this, do you often use presets in your productions, or do you endeavour to avoid this at all costs?
Typically, I can hear the sound I want in my mind before making it, and can patch pretty quickly drawing on lots of experience and practise.
Oh, I get sidetracked. I’ve missed my train station, forgotten my personal moral values, and pop culture revolutions getting sidetracked and patching. It’s probably a matter of discipline.
No, not really.
Presets aren’t intrinsically evil or anything. I use the init patch as a starting point all the time. In Ableton, or the synth itself, I’ll often store my own sounds as presets for later use. Some presets are good for reenforcement - Operator comes with a bunch of drum sounds that I’ll layer with my samples and edit to mix well.
If I hear something in my head I either pick up my guitar or sit at my piano. Kinda just sketch out the melody/chord progression or whatever. I found this really helpful and started incorporating it into my writing style back when I started with hip-hop production. The beauty is you’re focused on the music. NO effects, or million different types of “bass” samples/patches/banks.
Regarding Presets:
I love them! They make my life easy and can quickly get me from the Piano/guitar to a rough outline of what I want to do. HOWEVER, once I’ve got that melody down to the way I like it, that preset has NO chance of staying the same. I’ll tinker with the parameters until there is something unique and interesting and more importantly suited to the track I’m making.
Knowing What Synth Banks/Patches to Use:
At first you wont, but like botstein said, experience and practice helps. You’ll start to know what parameters to tweak and what effects to add to achieve that sound you envisioned. Similar to muscle memory, you’ll remember which patch is which and often when listening to a song, you may consciously or unconsciously draw a connection between what you’re hearing to what “synth” produces that sound. You know a guitar when you hear one, but remember at one point in time you didn’t know what it sounded like.
On getting Side-Tracked:
That shit happens it’s unavoidable. You can take friggin adderol to avoid it if you wish. OR you can start to train and discipline yourself. Don’t have the urge to write a track, having a melodic writing block? Cool, bang out drums patterns/loops for a while. Save them and then go grab a cup of coffee, play a quarter of madden, take a walk whatever. Maybe something will pop into your head that suits at least one of the drums loops you’ve made. Lay down the NOTES, just the NOTES. No amount of FX, change-ups, NOTHING can make up for poor music. Get the notes down? Cool Once I get there I’ll put what I’ve got so far nice and loud and walk around my house doing whatever it is I need to do. By listening to it, your brain gets going (or at least mine does).
I’m all for having a very productive 15 minutes than and incredibly useless hour.
I know what sound i want based on the feeling i want to convey. if i want something sad, i would probably use some pianoish sounds, rather then an overly distorted guitar or a dubbed out super saw lol.
IMO getting sidetracked is what making good music is about I love those days where I go off on some totally different angle from what I was aiming for and the song ends up better for it.
One other bit of advice to the OP, BOUNCE out to Audio tracks versus keeping it in MIDI. I’ve found that this helps move you along the production path rather keeping at it with banks and presets for days on a sound. Just commit and move on…then if all is not well…come back to it later.
I’ve found that following that ONE rule helped me produce at a much faster pace than when I first started out.
Do you mean that your productions are completely sample based? Or that you create a melody or something in MIDI and then make it into an audio track right away?
Sampling is something that i can’t really fathom right now, at the moment i’m right into just trying to create my own style and sound, which makes it really hard to produce because I don’t know what I want! But i think that this is the big difference between a producer and a DJ/remixer.
I have also found that writing melodies with a simple piano sound first can be very helpful, and then attacking it with the synths later on. I think that all the new synths I have been getting lately hasn’t helped because it is a big learning curve getting to know how to use them all, thus hindering any sort of productiveness.
Thanks for all the great tips!
That’s a good question man. I use Reason 4 so I dont have the option of Vst’s, so all the sounds I use are made from scratch (excluding the percussion). Most of the sounds I use come from just playing around and trying out different ideas. It’s always good to watch tutorials on Youtube, there are some pretty awesome tutorials out there. But my best advice is just play around starting from scratch on your synth of choice.
haha i know what you mean, but thats the thing I dont like about presets, they’re kinda like cheeting almost. If you go through and make all the sounds (even like the white noise) you just learn so much more, about production
i do create my own sounds, hell i have even programmed my own synths and made real ones, but if the sound is available and i have a list to go through, i will browse through them and make some awesome noise
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. I find if i just start with a piano and go from there i will write to the piano sound instead of the style im actually going for, so i choose a specific synth right off the bat. Then i fill in the chords. What this tends to do is it creates my breakdowns/build ups first because I’m essentially doing the drums and percussion after. Which I’m fine with. If i can get a nice sounding breakdown first, that is key because im of the opinion that can make or break the song. Its easy for me to fill in the necessary gaps for the main/peak based on that. It is almost always the case, like 99% of the time, i end up with something completely different than what the original plan was supposed to be tho. But that’s just called going with the flow
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.
As far as MIDI goes, i almost always work in midi as well if i can help it. Mainly because bouncing stuff down to audio is way to final for me. I’m constantly changing notes or sounds throughout the process, sometimes right up until the end. In fact, im doing it right now with a bass line i’ve been fighting to get right this whole track. I like the ability to change my mind. Just because something sounds good at the beginning doesnt mean a new part wont change that. And if i bounce it to audio, im screwed and stuck with a part im not satisfied with. The only time i tend to bounce to audio is if my CPU just cant handle it anymore.
There is no real “right” answer to any of these questions, just personal preference really.
Sometimes i will work towards an already thought of goal so i know what sound i am aiming for, other times i go with the flow. I think it super important to practice both methods though as in time, when i’m experienced, my natural instinctive sound will be a blend of what i know sounds great already, and with the sort of flow i am working with at the time! Just my 2 cents
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.
I love those days where I go off on some totally different angle from what I was aiming for and the song ends up better for it.
