Things I learned while banging my head against a brick wall:)

[Audiomancer]

So, I've been debating as to whether I should make a post about what I have experienced and learned through the process of getting something posted, but I figured if even one person is helped, this perhaps maybe long winded post will be worth it. As always, constructive advice is appreciated and encouraged!:)

 

First, spending money does not mean success. You don't need full Kontakt, Serum, Phase Plant, etc. I believe my finally accepted version only has one paid plugin, Hybrid 3 to be specific. 5 Dollars on sale.

 

There is at least one fully fledged DAW you can have for free. Cake-walk, from Bandlab. In fact, if you have lower computing power, Cake-walk lets you freeze and unfreeze tracks with ease....that meaning, it renders a WAV file of your synth on that track, possibly saving CPU power. I wish FL Studio included that. It doesn't, as far as I have searched.

Watch Tutorials. If a judge says something you don't quite understand, YouTube it. I would recommend specific channels, but not sure if allowed;)

Don't get discouraged. I started playing at age 12, and got paying gigs with rehearsals and everything within a year. Imagine a young teenager's delight at receiving his first bottle of sparkling wine, Ha! Makes me laugh out loud as I type this:-D I remember getting a bass guitar as an adult for fun, and my wife couldn't believe I could play a few well known riffs within an hour just plunking around. Music production....FAR more difficult for me.

A couple specifics below:)

More delay with parameters adjusted, less reverb.

EVERYTHING gets a high pass filter, adjusted for the instrument. Including reverb. Check tuts.

Keytracking on various filter types. Helps a filter move with the instrument being filtered.

Sidechaining is not only for bass drum and bass. Snare drums and crashes can eat a lot of headroom, too. You can even have leads cut frequencies from background pads. Check tuts:)

Next, a few free plugin recommendations!

Surge XT. Intimidating interface, but so many presets available.

Vital. Free Serum...kind of.. there's much argument. However, I think this is is the most complex synth that's relatively easy to learn sound design on. Check tutorials.

Tal Noisemaker. Relatively simple, but really easy to make interesting sounds easily. The "freeform" oscillator is just great on something this simple.

Helm. This one is made by the same guy that made Vital, but the presets are nice if you remove the on board effects and add your own to the processing chain. In your face basses and screaming leads that cut through are easily had here. Also, everything is one one page, no menus or drop-downs.

Kilohearts Essentials. This is a suite of about 30 free effect plugins.... they're great. Work well with simple interfaces, and include everything needed to at least get your feet wet. I especially appreciate the trance gate, noise gate, and dual delay.

TDR Nova. Almost Fabfilter, for free. A dynamic compressor/EQ

BBCSO Orchestra Discover. Low resource using free full orchestra.

Just because a Kontakt library is free, doesn't mean it works with the free Kontakt Player. Just because a Kontakt library is paid, doesn't mean it works with the free Player. Make Sure You Check!

Free Kontakt Player. Crazy what's available for free for this.

 

Last.........

 

 

Join the d.mn.d Discord server!!! You get quick great feedback!

I hope some of this is helpful, and I hope others respond and add, or perhaps politely disagree with what I have said:)

Respectfully and Semper Fi,

Eric, aka, Audiomancer.

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 11:33 PM by Audiomancer

[Argle]

Nice list!  It's great to be able to make a big stack of things you've learned and realize how far you've come.