LabRat

i like the snare. it has a nice clap to it. i feel there's a bit too much resonance on that string kinda synth. just look for the frequency(s) that peaks in your eq analyser and take some of those out with a sharp bell curve. it's a super chill and basic track but it sounds nice. good job

Having a listen on internal speakers and I like this. Nice and chill and the video is pretty cool too - even though it's just water haha

I just got in. Feeling pretty flat so it's gonna be an early night with South Park to see me out

Happy to help! I did think about making videos but it's a bit hard at the moment so a quick search and some basic typing skills got me over the line

Here's a link to a video I did a while ago about chopping vocals into samples and loading into the sampler. The principles apply to most audio so it may be helpful. 1. When looking for samples it all comes down to what you want to use and how creative you can be with them. It's a timely process and involves a lot of research but it's best to not get bogged down in the hunt. Listen out for some interesting sections in tracks, whether they're old Motown (very common) or loops in a sample pack, something will stand out and from there you can transpose, stretch and chop away. When cutting them up, you want the start of the audio sample to be the hit of the transient so when you pay it, it's hit on time. If the samples are short it's likely there can be a click at the end of that sample which will be a slight chop from the next transient. you can resolve this by fading the end of the audio clip inside the sampler, or in the workspace. It helps to EQ your samples to avoid any clashing of frequencies, which may be what's causing the track to sound odd. It's good to transpose the samples so they're in the same key. If you don't do this, everything will sound like turd - no nice way to say it. Here is a video on chord progression. Follow the guy's videos as they will be extremely helpful, and as his suggests in the beginning of this video, watch the video on scales first! 2. Scales are very important in music theory. They're the core to understanding the structure of chords and the progression of melodies - why you can play certain notes and why you cant. Learn your scales! Learn the difference between different types of scales and what they mean. Chords can get very complex, especially when studying jazz music but the video on above and the other links will be a great help in getting started. 3. Plugins (synths) can be used for a variety of different applications in the sound design process. You can use the basic wave shapes such as square, sine and saw for basic sounds or you can get more complex using wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis and modular synthesis to make wacky and aggressive sounds or even synthesised drum sounds. The point in time to use a VST instrument is at any time you wish to create an audio track (such as a melody) you play yourself. A virtual instrument is triggered by a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) signal. In a nutshell, a MIDI note sets an address / set of instructions which is sent from the keyboard to the software. A MIDI note / location will have information such as the key to be played, the velocity of that note and the pressure it's played at. It sends a lot more information but we'll leave it to the basics for now. With the knowledge learnt from the scales, you'll be able to play a melody into your project with the use of a virtual instrument as the host for your sounds. 4. Everyone has a different workflow. I use to start with the intro, build to the middle and then the end - just like if you were listening to a track. Now days it's a bit different for me. I start on the main elements and get the body of it the way I want, then I'll move into structuring the rest of the track with the intro and outro then colour the track in with all the extra layers and FX. Watching other workflows may help you experiment with your own. There's no right or wrong way to do it. Hopefully this has been helpful for everyone. It's a bit basic, especially with the VST part but should be enough information to get the hang of it.

Happy days. I don't mind setting up another mixlr if I have to - I forgot the deets to mine

How would one do this now? I'm weirdly up for playing a few tunes and if this feeling lasts til the end of the week I'll do a little stream

Mods please remove my comment above lol

I didn't really see much of Mikmac. He just went hammer and tongs from the start and kinda did my head in lol the second half of that other dudes set was ok. His double drops weren't amazing but point for the effort. Kinda crashed out after that so I'll jump back on their Facebook page and have a look if the video is there.

When will you be on? Kinda had enough of this dude

Yeah I've learnt a lot in 3 years haha i remember having an issue when changing the tempo from the original to 128 and logic didn't like it but for the best part I think the track sounds a bit warped. Haven't heard it in so long lol

Oh classic. All your sounds and ideas are cool but if I have one gripe about it, it's that it holds too many of the same parts as the original. I like the idea of having that significant melody in there but try colouring it with some other stuff that make it your own. You got a nice mix so far, the second section brings those transmission days back which I like about your tunes lol keep at it man!

Thanks man! That was the era I guess. I started out with all those guys so the influence was definitely there

After digging through the vault and listening to some old tunes I dug up this little stunner. This was done back in February 2014 and become one of the biggest tracks I made. I popped up snippets on Snapchat a week or so ago but thought I'd take a chance on the upload. I remember Soundcloud removing it a few years ago but tried my luck again. It's a private link but sharing it anyway. I reckon it could do with a bit of a clean up but I've uploaded it in it's original form. Am keen to hear your thoughts on what was a pretty big deal for me back then, and if anyone remembers it then hopefully it fuels the nostalgia!

Lol yeah there's a lot of the same FAQs in there so it should help

Those points above are great points. I can't stress enough about how important music theory is. There are a lot of technically brilliant artists but they go back and learn some form of musical theory.

I see this a bit differently. I use to tell people the same thing, don't expect to write anything fantastic on your first attempt but I've had a change of heart since then. I now find this statement a little bit degrading (no offence of course) in the sense that you're giving advice to people who are really excited and motivated about what they want to do and you have to give them negative advice right off the bat. This changed for me when someone showed me a track. It was their first one and they were looking for feedback. Although technically it was a bit messy (as expected), the track was an absolute banger! A bit of rearranging and it could've been well worthy of circulating the club scene. There's people out there who have the creative ability and therefore just require guidance. Some people have the technological know-how but require some creative guidance. I feel now that this is quite an important part in assessing how to give advice. When I have students come in we have a chat for a few minutes and the first question I ask is what are their short term goals. Something that's realistic and achievable with the proper approach. It becomes a small brainstorming session from there and before long we have a baseline to work with. I believe that if you have the right attitude your first track can be quite good. These are times when trial and error come in to play and some of these ideas can be really interesting and rewarding. Sure, it's unlikely record labels will look at you and the tracks may not be technically fantastic but the confidence you have of completing your first track should be quite motivating. With anything though, the more experience comes more knowledge and that's all that's really required to improve on your work so in a sense these "shit tracks" can somewhat be true, but I believe no track is a shit track - they're learning tracks where you can reflect and compare old and new skills.

this guy genuinely enjoys what he does

thanks mate

that's the hardest bit. trying to find something that's relevant to what you want to learn can take time and it helps a lot more if there's someone that can help, which is why i'm happy to try put a few things together for a more specific tutorial the video where i made the texture? that was absynth

Cymatics intro to Ableton Live including Samples and projects. Each part to follow after each video

This is perfect, there's a few topics to cover here which is good. It does take time and I do need to rehearse a lesson, as any teacher would need to. I think for the moment, I'll post some intro videos to the Ableton thread so you guys can get started. There isn't much of a point on me doing one because this has been covered many times, even by Ableton themselves. It really isn't hard to jump on YouTube and look for videos. I've had to do it and so have many others. This is not a dig but YouTube is so resourceful now that even a complex search on Google will direct you to exactly what you're looking for. It's just the matter of finding a video that resonates with what you're doing. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Ableton thread and I'll post links regarding introductions to Live

Hey dudes, So i've decided to put music on pause and focus on moving forward with my life. I've got a tonne of tracks that I probably wont release but feel like I wanted to release one so I chose this. Hope you like

Alrighty I'll try get a basics video covered shortly. Anything you guys wanna see in this video? I'll just cover what things do and where to find them, how to load in samples and instruments, etc. just a basic walk through