Nase

Every instrumentalist likes it when his part sounds complete by itself, i guess. It's nice when you get that in your sequencing, but it's also fun when you listen to individual parts you did and they sound like cryptic random pieces without the context of the whole tune. My guess is, the longer a bassist would play such a bassline that doesn't stand by itself but sounds great in context, the more he'd hear the whole tune in it, and it'd probably sound a little better over time just played by itself. Bass just seems this weird super contextual thing, can be near nothing by itself and then become so much in interplay.

I dont think i ever finished a turn based jrpg. Not a friend of the repetition the mechanics dictate, kind of. Chrono trigger, almost. That one i liked all around, but i got sidetracked by something.

Sweet transmogrification! Nice feel to it.

I started out playing half-life in a disconnected way, hacking favorite stages and weapons into console and just playing those over and over. I saw everyone do it at the first LANs we did, so i thought you do it that way. A while later i decided to play through it decently, and that was nice. It was still the pirated version from the LAN though, and it lacked the soundtrack. Bit of a shame.

Zelda link to the past! Just when i had reached ganon's fortress thing, we moved. When i reconnected the snes at the new house and tried to find the channel for a while, i randomly fumbled around on the controller a bit with the snes turned on. When i finally found the channel, the save was gone. LttP wasn't an easy game for me then, i'd gotten stuck in a few areas before and only gotten to the near end over a pretty long period. So i decided to let it go at that point. Terranigma came out soon after that, so i got over it quick enough. And that one i finished, despite all the tedium in the endgame!

AD is pretty perfect in my book already. I'll pass personally.

It's possible you heard the difference, it's also possible your mind kind of produced or exaggerated it for you, ya know? Ever had one of these moments where you're fiddling with a knob and think you're doing some subtle but noticeable fine tuning, then realize it was the wrong knob, or the fx plugin was turned off or something? Placebo effect in music production is kinda interesting, hehe. But i'm just talking about my own experience, maybe your brain works a little more analytically. Pretty OT anyway.

*Thumbs up* It's cool and possibly helpful to share your own experience ofc, but important to keep in mind how individual it all is. Trying to find some objective system of inspiration is a rabbit hole not worth exploring, imo. Thinking about it though, some broad things do seem pretty universal. Experiences of one kind can enrichen experiences of another. In other words, you get inspired by stuff. Duh. I noticed lately how just a good conversation, for example, can change what happens when i sit down on the keyboard afterwards. Music obviously is a reflection of other things in your life. What exactly is reflected can't be easily said, and isn't necessarily important either. All i need to know is it's another feedback system...inspired life, inspired output. Not necessarily music output though...idk, my creativity tends to move elsewhere atm. I've stopped being all that frustated over it. Just gonna see what happens.

I go for a walk or some shit and stuff pops into my head. Then i sit down on the pc and it's gone again Can't exactly help ya lol

By the way...i used to play around with putting delay on everything when i started, drums included. If you wanna try it, make an utterly minimal beat...3 or 4 hits per bar, wherever you want em. Then go for a 1/4 or triplet delay. It can work a bit like a rhythm generator, making a fuller beat out of some disjointed notes. And that's why posting here can be fun...i should try this again, man.

Well as always, it's both in the playing and the sound. Let's focus on sound: first and foremost, find a kit that sounds powerful to begin with. I think you know it when you hear it. Then, you got various options of shaping stuff... eq to give each drum part the level of bite and definition you desire. Ask others on specific frequencies to boost and cut, i just fool around. Compression to give stuff more consistent loudness and make it gel together better. Lots of ok free ones around, maybe grab one with fewer knobs for starters. Saturation/moderate distortion. Adds excitement, also makes stuff gel. As far as reverb goes, really depends on the effect you're going for, and the reverb unit and settings. Can add power, can weaken the impact. Personally, i'm no fan of excessive reverberation, and for the longest time just kept a lot of tracks completely dry. I've realised by now though that a tiny bit of reverb with a very small room setting usually helps the sound. Especially when you're using a reverb as send fx, it's another gel factor. Big wet rooms can also sound powerful, but can be tough to mix. In the end, power has a lot to do with dynamics. Relative changes in amplitude. Sound is there, now it's gone, and BAM!, now it's back again. A continuous wall of sound can have power too, but with diminishing effect. Your ear needs silence to recognise loudness. So work on that silence between the hits, and where exactly you want it. Accentuate the silence by being careful with reverb and compression, as these tend to draw the sounds out. Sometimes desirable, sometimes not. Experiment, experiment.

Ah yes, didn't think of that Your example mainly shows that you can program lead lines well. As it happens, a music part less relevant to the drum track than others. If you're feeling insecure about writing drums, feel free to start with a bassline, or other more rhythm based accompaniment. The syncopated chords in your soundbyte, for example. Then build your drums around that. In other words, start by getting direction from other instruments. Your "fear" of drums hampers your creativity with them. The next tune on your SC just started playin - you clearly got stuff to express, so you just gotta get more comfy with percussion. At some point, you'll notice things coming full circle: once your drum writing in turn is giving you ideas and direction for other instruments, you'll know you're on the right track. Good luck, and don't avoid writing because of some perfect production pipedream.

no real mixing gurus here. all just trial&error bedroom producing fools. seriously dude, forget about right and wrong and go make some music, find out what drum sound you like yourself, then refine it. ok that probly sounds not helpful by itself, but really, there are no rules, and the way you phrased your post rubs me the wrong way cause of that. there's only right and wrong when you have a specific goal in mind. like, say you want more dynamics, and to do that you put a compressor on the drums. that's wrong all right. there is no wrong drum sound, or any wrong sound for that matter. your example provides too little context for me to give any critique (which would still be subjective). ask questions as soon as you know what you want. before that, do random shit and have fun.

I just checked for that as well, you can chill: "SampleTank 3 will be available for download in July. From now until its release, it can be purchased at these special pre-order prices*:..." btw, reading through the blurbs...god i hate marketing. just from that i can see why some might feel a bit jaded about IK, lol.

Oh, hmmmmmm Damn, just when i thought i'd go with ST3 for now. Gotta think this through - 2 huge samplers at once and my plugin related OCD might kick in again. Thanks anyway!

Well i'm in. €79 upgrade from ST2? Sure. I like romplers. Kontakt is best if you want specific super detailed sounds, but comprehensive sound sets that load quickly (hopefully!) are a different thing. Not every sound in there can be great but i'm hopeful it'll be a good evolution.

Well i think i see it. The puzzle piece thing is exactly what i'm talking about. It is like that because the "ideal" soundscape of the genre is highly refined but relatively narrow. Btw, just "thick" basses are traditionally left to the subtractives. the core quality of fm is complex harmonics, which constitutes the harshness and variety, as you say.

Why hello, technical tim I know what you're getting at, the whole dubstep thing has lots of technical particularities in the programming and sequencing, which might seem like a "harder" thing to do. Breakcore is pretty intimately linked to a wider genre field though, which you could call IDM (or, better in my book, "braindance"). Venetian Snares definitely is, anyway. I can't shake the impression that dubstep is largely a slowed down revision of some dnb elements, infused with a narrowed down, evolved taste of some of the programming madness you could find in braindance of the 90's and later. What i'm sayin is, dubstep is only "harder" to make because the sound that defines the genre got more specific. If you're looking for music that's hard to recreate, you can find plenty in the breakcore/braindance area. As well as a lot that's pretty simple technically. It's just a more open genre, so you find a little more of everything there. Couple breakcore-ish old favs (not totally "core" i guess) No way these things are "easier" to do well than modern dubstep. Maybe dubstep production is more intricate, but that's just one part of making music.

Reinstalled this a couple weeks ago. Played 3 games, got bored. It seems i'm cured! Yay!!

Haha right on. I've been wanting to do the same, but i'm a complete wimp as far as scary games go. Playing scary stuff with a mate can be fun. Had great fun with a friend playing through some of amnesia dark descent - i didn't even know that he's a pussy just like me before that.

Messing around is key. Apart from that, reading up a bit on the basic components of a subtractive synth helps a lot. Pick a synth that is simple as your first one. Make it your workhorse. Messing around with a simple setup, you will start to notice patterns while twiddling knobs. Nothing more is needed, just patience. have fun I recommend charlatan vsti. http://www.blaukraut.info

jul 2012 feels like last week u know...

Snes version was betta

Cool thanks. Im actually happy i can put this off for a bit then.

Hey, today is the last day to get reaktor for $99, and i gotta admit i'm kind of interested in it again. of all of NI's stuff, i'm basically only interested in Kontakt, of which i have version 3, and reaktor. so right now, i could either go with reactor for 99, and update kontakt at some later point for the same, like when it's at version 6. OR i could wait and get Komplete, which would be 399 as crossgrade from kontakt now, but i need the lowdown again on if that might get cheaper at some point, can't remember. does the crossgrade price get reduced at any time? Please don't tell me how good value Komplete is and that everyone should get it, i know it's a lot of stuff but i would only ever use a fraction of it. if i get komplete it'd mostly be about a new version of kontakt, having reaktor, and possibly battery. some of the included sample libraries might be a nice little bonus. so basically, if i could get komplete for something close to the 99+99 i'd end up spending if i got reaktor now and kontakt upgrade later, i'd consider that instead. thanks in advance.