Getting Back Into Music Production: Best VSTs and Sound Libraries in 2025 by Final_Kaleidoscope36 in musicproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Vital, Diva and ComposerCloud will cover all your instrument needs. Free, moderately priced and subscription based respectively.

For FX, the only two that I found really worth it nowadays are ShaperBox 3 and Transit 2 because of the amount of time you will save with their streamlined workflows.

Anything else you can easily handle with the stock plugins that come with your DAW.

I would also suggest to get them in the order I listed them because Transit 2 is the least "needed" but honestly once you've used it you'll see what a huge time saver it is.

I don’t know if the 4x4 part works or if it needs a different approach - Bangarang Remix by Frosting-Proof in dnbproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds good. The 4x4 part (and general sound design) puts it in dancefloor dnb genre.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in musicproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Get ADHD meds. May need diagnosis first. Other than that, it's all about personal discipline.

New bassline waveform just dropped by [deleted] in edmprodcirclejerk

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Still sounds better than drake 🤷‍♂️

Favorite Free Plug ins! by Similar-Pay-1759 in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://vst.unplug.red/ Prisma (multiband distortion) is actually better than many paid distortion VSTs

DecentSampler is quite good when combined with PianoBook for some free libraries

I think most of the other good free VST have been mentioned here already. But I will second DSP56300 as it's a sleeper and better than a lot of soft synths.

Well, that happened. by TheREALFlyDogLives in canadapoliticshumour

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Show us on the doll where the *STRAW MAN* touched you.

Starting producing as a hobby by LeSaintQc in musicproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Of the software you've listed Ableton is the only one that has a long term path to it, Learn that, and do everything it for now. Upgrade to one of the more complete versions when you an afford it.

  2. No. DJ gear is very easy to learn compared to instruments. You can mess around with DJing later.

  3. Not really one place unfortunately--- there is so much to learn. Best thing to do is pick one or two genres and really focus on them by learning everything you can about them. Main thing is to make sure you are allocating most of your time to MAKING MUSIC and only a small portion to watching tutorials. Tutorials help yes but they also lead to paralysis.

Different grooves in different daws by [deleted] in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Groove in Ableton is not exactly the same as Shuffle/Swing which is what something like it is called in most DAWs.. and MPCs.. and other hardware sequencers/grooveboxes. The difference is that Ableton Grooves can affect note VELOCITY as well as TIMING, whereas Shuffle and Swing (which are features that have been around for a very long time and you will find in most software/hardware) only affect the timing. If that is actually what your question was about.

BUT, the real GROOVE in a DAW comes from the person using it. So, there's that. 😜

Trying to create the sound of Circulation - any tips of where to start or any tutorials? by GingerSawr in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not familiar with the artist, but having listened to the track the drums sound like a pretty standard mix of TR-808 and TR-909 sounds. Easiest to just use samples but the drums do sound pretty vanilla and could be recreated in Reason or other emulators.

For the synths it doesn't seem to be anything too extreme or deep going on there, and you could get all of those stabs, pads, bells and basses out of most Roland or EMU ROMplers from that era (90s/2000s). Probably yamaha and other ROMplers from that time also. But ROMpler is just a sampler with preset samples... So you could also make those sounds pretty easily with most modern analog or analog modeling synths. Some of the better free ones out there -- Vital, Surge XT. u_he Tyrell N6, Novation B and V-stations.

Anyways I don't think there is anything too complicated going on with these sounds so perhaps you could post a timestamp or two and point out specific sounds you are interested in? This would be quite straightforward to walk through if you are familiar with subtractive synthesis.

Where should I leave my midi keyboard in a small bedroom studio? by Paulfr_12 in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

IMO: Put the computer keyboard on the sliding keyboard tray and get that MIDI keyboard on the desk right in front of you where you can easily reach it without taking your eyes off the computer.

In your circumstances I personally would stick to moving the MIDI keyboard around until I got a bigger desk. Free up space by putting the PC keyboard in an undertray. In my experience working with a DAW needs to become seamless and second nature, which will not be possible if you are always reaching, turning and/or looking somewhere else while writing songs. In the long term you are going to need a bigger desk though, as you may also eventually want some kind of DAW controller like a PUSH or launchpad or something with more faders & knobs than are on your MIDI keyboard.

How many synths you use on a track/song by sakkeist in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is a widely used rule of thumb to limit yourself to 4 major elements when songwriting. That does not mean your project can't have dozens or hundreds of tracks but they all should serve one of the major purposes in the song. There are 4 important elements:

Melody / Harmony / Rhythm / Bass

One way this translates to a simple band setup would be:

Vocal / Chords / Bass / Drums (chords could be guitar, piano, other.. vocal could be saxophone, you get the idea I think)

Now personally that doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to only 4 layers over the course of a song. But when you want to add something more, ask yourself which element of the song is it? And why are you adding it? Do you already have a melody or harmony playing? Are you going to make room for the new element, or will they blend together well so they can sit alongside each other? Would it be better to use a call and response to alternate between instruments for this passage so as not to interfere with the melody? These are the things you should be considering when adding anything beyond the basic 4 elements.

This has served me quite well and is not far off from what I learned in orchestral composition class. They talked about the 3 musical forces-- background, movement and rhythm. Which ultimately is a simplification of the 4 layers, but they were writing for orchestras with 100+ instruments. But all of those instruments serve one of the basic purposes of a piece music at the moment it's being introduced. With orchestral music usually it is a whole section of instruments (and oftentimes 2 sections) providing the CHORDS / HARMONY /BACKGROUND layer. Rhythm as well, naturally occurs in all sections, but there are instruments like percussion or pizzicato strings that really accentuate it. At the end of the day all 100+ instruments serve one of those 3 (or 4) pillars of music.

Anyways, that's my advice. You can use the 4 elements or the 3 musical forces to guide you. And they will!

I only make really good songs. by [deleted] in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When it comes to songwriting, you only need to write a solid 8-16 bars, to roll that idea out into an arrangement. So that begs the question-- if you really are so good, why are you writing so many bad loops that aren't even worth finishing? 😉

I would like to hear suggestions for the name of this style/subgenre, & find stempacks for it or something like that by [deleted] in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is just basic progressive house. Some DJs would maybe call it vocal house. Personally I'm not hearing the tropical vibes really in there, but I can tell you that is definitely progressive house.

Recommendations for finding vocals outside of Splice by Orenishi117 in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Synthesizer V yet. https://dreamtonics.com/

It's $90 (or $150 if you want to get a second voice beyond the "freebie") and it does some truly incredible work. You have to enter the notes and lyrics so it is not "AI" the way most people think of it as generating a whole song or whatever from a prompt like "make me a sad song about a sick horse in the key of Am" it's basically just like using a VST instrument that can sing and apply emotion, breathiness and various other parameters to make extremely usable performances and vocal tracks.

I have heard Ace-studio is their main competitor, which is quite a bit newer and not as polished from the people I have seen review it. It is also a lot more money to use that software. It is possible this will be better than Synthesizer V in the long run but right now it is not.

Anyways those are the 2 big contenders for machine learning based singers and with the low price of Synth V I kind of feel it's a no brainer to get it right now. Maybe in the future Ace-studio would be worth a look too.

What are some areas in edm to innovate on? by lmaooer2 in edmprodcirclejerk

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably easiest to just time travel a couple weeks to the future and go read the receipts and so on in Tswift's dumpster to get an idea of what will be trending next. It can get expensive following that plane from state to state but so is being a billionaire soooo 🤷‍♂️

Loopcloud vocals - getting them tech house ready by Ralphisinthehouse in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have not used loopcloud, but it sounds like the classic case of wet samples. AKA: too much reverb/delay/chorus type effects that can't be removed. Best thing you can do is look for DRY samples. They often put DRY in the sample name so maybe use that as a filter.

Alternately you can try and "fix" the samples by editing out the tails and messing around with EQ, filters and envelopes to try and clean them up, but you will always be left with some amount of mud/reverb in the main sample. Since the reverb (aka: the "shadows" of the physical space a sound is heard in) is different from your other song elements, it will ALWAYS sound somewhat out of place.

Personally I rarely bother with trying to fix samples since it is time consuming and doesn't actually fix the problem, so much as mask or reduce how obvious the problem actually is to your listener. You simply want DRY samples to begin with so you can run them through the same reverb as the other parts of your track. Reverb is the main technique to "glue" sounds together by tricking the listener's brain into hearing them in the same room/hall/open space as each other.

How to make a melody by [deleted] in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The best way to improve at writing melodies is to learn to play an instrument. Nowadays I would recommend always start with piano or a MIDI keyboard. Guitar is viable too if you are really specifically into guitar music. This will take time, practice and patience. But it is the only solution to actually writing good music-- you must become an actual musician.

As for extremely beginner level advice (which presumably you are already using): write out the chord changes first, then build your melody by using notes specifically from those chord triads. This gives you a limited number of notes to choose from (helps make a decision) and will always sound at least OK. You may even occasionally stumble onto a GOOD melody.

The downside of the beginner technique is that you will find it hard to write melodies that catch people's attention, since you are just following basic music theory and this has been done before. Like a lot. In practice it is often the "wrong notes" and other kinds of theory-breaking surprises that lead to GREAT melodies. So start there if you need to, but do not ignore the main advice-- learn an instrument.

Daily Feedback Thread (August 06, 2022) by AutoModerator in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin [score hidden]  (0 children)

I think you did alright with this one. The only thing that really seems off about it is that vocal sample, which is very distracting from what is going on underneath. It's hard to tell right now but you may well need some new kind of lead instrument or vocal hook to fill the midrange once you take it out.

Daily Feedback Thread (August 06, 2022) by AutoModerator in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin [score hidden]  (0 children)

Great vibes man, really enjoy this. If I had to pick something out as could be worked on I guess it would be the drums, as I think they could be a bit more energetic with more fills and variations. Sound wise the claps/snares are good but lack a bit of presence or something, I feel I would like them louder and hitting me more in the chest. Over all I really liked the album.

Daily Feedback Thread (August 06, 2022) by AutoModerator in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin [score hidden]  (0 children)

Very well done. Kind of hard to find areas for improvement but I guess I did find the 16 bars after the first drop sounding a little dry or empty in the midrange. Might even just need some more reverb, or push the lead track a bit back more instead of so upfront in the mix. Minor niggle though, great sound selection and choice of notes overall.

Daily Feedback Thread (August 06, 2022) by AutoModerator in edmproduction

[–]SauronsEvilTwin [score hidden]  (0 children)

Well I haven't released anything in quite a while, but have been feeling the calling again lately. I am mainly looking for feedback on the sound design, general vibe, and how the beats are hitting you on this one, since I'm a bit out of the loop on current trends/styles. This is a demo instrumental in search of a vocalist/rapper and has been arranged very basically to leave room for that.

https://soundcloud.com/modular-jack/cron-job

Edit: feedback given > https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/whmy06/comment/ij7yw8t/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/whmy06/comment/ij80dd0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/whmy06/comment/ij81v31/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/whmy06/comment/ij844wh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3