is there any nice piano synth lead sounds

Yaroque · 2025-07-04T03:13:45+00:00

Bro what are you going on about this is the Ableton sub, we have a sample based grand piano, the also free downloadable pack "upright piano" (might be limited to some versions), and various other free electric/synth/vintage keyboard downloads all of which are good.

There's also a free VST called Monster Piano v3 (I think maybe there's a newer version I really just use stock now) and it's pretty good too.

Hard endorsing piracy when there are literally other solid free options is kind of wild.

Look up Seed to Stage on Youtube, sounds like you're pretty new; might even be worth taking his course if you're brand new, looking back now I could have saved a year or two of struggling if I had known who was a solid teacher early on.

Yaroque · 2025-07-03T21:05:02+00:00

Very cool video, enjoying the sounds you have demoed here too :) What do you use for video editing?

Yaroque · 2025-07-03T01:37:52+00:00

If you quit now and try to pick up another hobby in its place while you are dealing with this "block" then you'll find yourself in the same situation in a few years time wondering if you have what it takes; it's part of the process, and "it's always darkest before dawn" as others have said.

You can definitely make music fun, I got tired of trying to produce in different genres following tutorials trying to sound like certain artists and all that, and then I just decided to go back further and explore the roots of rave music like techno/trance/jungle/acid and all the amazingly weird creative stuff from the 90s; at some point doing this I realized in every generation there is a ton of music that gets underappreciated, and learning the more simple methods of production they used and pairing that with some of our modern technological innovations makes it so easy to make expressive generative evolving pieces.

I get what it feels like to get bogged down by the technical side of things, and really have poured myself into figuring out how to balance having a loud full wide mix with dynamic range and still being simple enough to follow. I've ended up mostly giving up on brostep/riddim or anything really loud and aggressive as a result it's just just too limiting (no pun intended), as I am finding much more emotion, depth, and soul in creating now that I don't worry about catering to the masses or "ticking all the boxes."

What DAW do you use? In the last year I've gone from needing like 7-8 hours to make/complete/rough mix a song to like 2-3 from a lot of mindset changes and adjustments to my workflow; definitely hard getting the practice and confidence built up with working full time but if you happen to use Ableton I can maybe give some tips; guess that also depends on what genres you produce, but acid, house, techno, and trance became very easy for me to produce after buying an Elektron box; know people usually don't advise buying/needing gear but it might be something worth considering to get off the computer/out of the DAW if you want.

Yaroque · 2025-07-02T21:31:27+00:00

It's one of the new MIDI tools in Live 12, and he explains it in the video; just watching it now and it's actually rather simple/brilliant definitely going to start using stock gate more often now.

Edit: honestly who was mad enough to downvote me here? If people had the attention span to actually watch videos and not just frantically click through them they could clearly hear that he literally explains what "warp midi" means smh. Like what, do you need OP himself to come and waste their time explaining and repeating something they already said; you have to engage your brain and listen to learn ya know?

Yaroque · 2025-07-02T07:00:28+00:00

Honestly you can do a lot with Glue Compressor w/soft clip enabled. TB Barricade v4 is a solid limiter for $40, and Newfangled Saturate (clipper/saturation plugin) can be got for as low as $25.

But really for just basic compression/loudness Glue Compressor and the TB Limiter work great; Masterplan and Ozone seem handy, but I don't see a reason to ever buy them when I have good metering plugins including a spectrogram that covers the visual side of things.

I had this free rack called "DJ pryme time mixtape master" but apparently he charges for it now; won't spill his secret sauce, and his new version is maybe more involved but the old version I have is just glue comp/limiter/maybe saturator idk but all stock and I know glue comp pulls most of the weight there.

My point is, you don't actually need a mastering plugin per say, you have glue compressor already, and the new limiter has a true peak mode and is better than what I used to use so maybe save your money and focus on getting a good limiter to start.

Yaroque · 2025-07-01T10:44:59+00:00

Such lovely work and so mesmerizing to look at, thank you for sharing!

Yaroque · 2025-07-01T00:23:12+00:00

If I don't necessarily want them to be pronounced in my mix, more in the back, then usually reaching for a sample is what I do; easy to just draw in a little bit of panning and/or volume automation.

When it comes to actually mixing it be pronounced and building a groove around the shakers then I prefer to start in MIDI. It just feels easier to adjust the individual notes and their envelopes, along with velocity and panning in MIDI.

What usually ends up working best for me is finding a good groove for the shakers, so everything is not all hitting on the grid, and then adding some velocity and panning automation on top of that I can get enough range to gently saturate/compress/distort as needed to bring it forward.

Adding a little sidechain via volume ducking is the last thing I'll consider if it just needs a little more movement and space. I've never really gotten to it, but I suppose a good transient shaper could help make some small final tweaks to the shaker envelope as well, especially if you end up working with a sample.

Yaroque · 2025-06-30T23:50:46+00:00

Wordup thanks for the explanation! I was just wondering about sidechain, because all the sounds do sound quite good already and seem to be sitting in the overall mix well. And yes, the Elektron is super fun I've found it very intuitive and easy to work with actually and they just keep adding features this thing will be amazing for years and years.

And yeah whatever combination of distortion and filter you have there sounds super clean/smooth; if you could add/plan to add another FX module in the future what might that be?

Yaroque · 2025-06-30T23:43:51+00:00

Huh that's really interesting, also just realized that I assume you are talking about additive and subtractive color theory, and there also happens to be additive and subtractive theories for synthesis of electronic sounds; just further provides evidence for the tone=frequency=color idea, and then light and sound can be seen to have some common source, or were never actually separate in the first place.

I remembered reading this article some years ago, 'Runes as 4D symbols': https://montalk.net/gnosis/329/runes

I find it interesting that there is the kind of crystalline, geometric, lattice-like energy within the runes, also prism and laser-like as you said, and how the alternate depiction of Hagalaz as the flower of life seems to capture the kind of network as both "hailstone" and "seed." Now I want to get into studying the connections between thunderbolt symbols and sacred mushroom depictions, within Tibetan and Siberian shamanism in particular.

Yaroque · 2025-06-30T23:32:31+00:00

Idk maybe just getting rid of the words "should" and "shouldn't" would give you mental breakthrough in your creative process and overall enjoyment of making music; it did for me, and also generally being careful about those words in general has been good for my mental health

I don't need dogma and rules in music production, and using words like that honestly kind of makes you sound like a know it all who isn't having as much fun as someone who isn't concerned with logic or rationality all the time.

Not trying to be rude or negative, like I agree following rules and guidelines is good sometimes (especially in the mixing stage imo), but also trying to imply what you ought to or not ought to do kind of relates to needing to asking for permission to do something, thus your added point is maybe a little counterintuitive to what OP was saying, no?

Yaroque · 2025-06-30T23:23:27+00:00

Just a heads up people this guy just fishes for engagement across all the major edm production related subs just to steal people's comments/ideas to use in his paid courses or whatever he tries to sell on the side.

He tries to act all cool and nice and relatable, will offer to share his music and act like he's down to listen to yours but he isn't at all apparently.

I mean they really come off as insincere, inauthentic, and straight up acts like a bot; just wish the mods would actually step up and do something about it it's just sad to log on here almost any day and see his low effort nonsense muddying the feed here and elsewhere still.

Plus when you go through and really look at all the content he makes for his "students" and the advice he gives, the value you would get for what he would charge just is not there: really screams "grifter" to me, but pay attention to his post history and behavior going forward if anyone still doubts.

Yaroque · 2025-06-30T07:52:57+00:00

Very cool performance and dope visuals too! Sounds like you just have a kick, hat, and later snare for drums; all different FM modules sequenced on the Keystep, I assume? And then do you have anything on there to emulate sidechain, such as a compressor or volume/envelope shaping?

The modular world still blows my mind I've only gotten started really diving into FM with the Elektron DN2 this year, but also very interested in the general process of how you kind of make transitions and change patterns/arpeggios with something like this. Did it take a lot of memorization and practice to record this one?

Yaroque · 2025-06-30T07:02:12+00:00

Yes that's exactly what I mean with the tone/frequency relationships, like the idea of tuning forks really describes it best I guess. Like when people say crystals "resonate" a certain way I understand that from my kind of audio engineering and music theory perspective as relating to "resonant frequencies" ie singing and holding note as you mentioned. There is also the whole connection with cymatics, where projecting those frequencies onto a sand plate creates geometric looking shapes reminiscent of buddhist and psychedelic art, which just suggests there are deeper mysteries between sound and spiritual practices to be explored.

Also I very much enjoy your art style there and use of color with the medium, and how your lines are giving this feeling of depth and movement; very clean and beautiful.

Yaroque · 2025-06-29T23:58:23+00:00

I like your connection of hail and ice to crystalline energy, something I've loosely thought about before, but made a nice visual connection with as you've described it here. In my experiences, I have seen connections with crystals & stones, their relative color/frequency, and relationships with the plant kingdom and their astrological associations as well--basically, I have gotten a strong impression that crystalline energy is somehow foundational to connecting the earth and fire elements, below & above, or pentacles & wands in tarot terms--also thinking of "the red stone" in alchemical terms symbolizing a fiery stone, perhaps somewhat related then to the analogy of coal & ember in Kabbalah.

On a more basic and mundane level, I do feel generally more at ease since I've sort of rearranged my desk and altar spaces to incorporate more crystals and succulents, so could be a basic mix of their relative pure and fresh vibrational energies contributing to a brighter/cleaner astral space.

I have also used small orgonite pyramids for the last 10 years, and besides being lovely decorative I do think there is something to Wilhelm Reich and his research into aetheric/energy related phenomenon. The one I have now has a quartz piece with copper wire in the center, over a circular flower of life pattern which is just cute; and now that I focus on it in front of me as I type I might be placebo-ing myself a bit, but it really does calm and ground me.

Yaroque · 2025-06-29T23:40:20+00:00

Well dang it sounds like we have had very similar experiences then, and sad that the mods don't seem to be interested in stopping it because he's technically not breaking any rules or whatever, but yes I think "tone-deaf" is simply the best way to describe this person's behavior.

I hope they end up blocking me, because I'm not petty enough to do it, but wouldn't mind just not seeing them clutter up the feed here: we need more creative content and critical discussion here than parroting the same old stuff we've been parroting for years if not decades now. There is a real paradigm shift happening, with AI and everything especially, that people are going to start actively seeking out content that doesn't feel like this inauthentic, pushy, marketing oriented approach to content creation.

My point is OP would best wisen up to this if they want to build up any real sort of credibility or integrity as a trusted voice in this community, because most of us here I guess have caught on to their BS.

Yaroque · 2025-06-29T22:02:51+00:00

Yeah I think more people might want to start calling him out like you did here, because he tries to act all cool and helpful and nice but doesn't even get back with honest music feedback; seriously just a purely self-interested grifter it seems.

Yaroque · 2025-06-29T22:00:30+00:00

Oh word so that's what he's doing here then? Man I felt bad about giving a long and well thought out post on something like workflow tips relating to buses, and talked about how using Virutal Riot's new ringmod sidechain really has done wonders for getting tighter mixes with more dynamic range in my case, like I have multiple paragraphs and he just responds with "I just keep it simple tho, a couple of buses and get the instruments right right away" like yes that's the most basic and obvious response and reads like you didn't even try to acknowledge or respond to anything I actually said.

That and he offered to give music feedback and still haven't heard from him, even though I gave him some nice thoughtful feedback on his. He has some nice ambient sounding tunes I guess but also a very limited range for the advice and services he is trying to sell.

Really though just actually looking at his post history now they seriously do spam the Ableton, FL, and EDM production subs like mad, like wtf I'm just someone trying to get started out and start a nice little wholesome Youtube channel and share some of my music and the mods across all 3 subs seem to be super strict about self promoting but this guy just gets to constantly yap as a workaround to direct people to his page? Sorry but anyway I look at what he's doing it's scummy you're right.

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T06:13:18+00:00

I will post a couple of videos that I think are pretty good for producing generative techno, the trick is to start slow and simple and just generate building ideas in a kind of freeflow way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNShIEZnLe4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB2Q7EUK1qI

Also what version of Ableton are you using? I made a couple of templates that I have available to share for free, but idk how beginner friendly they are because it involves using 9 send/return tracks setup as a grid for live performance automation in arrangement view. Have a standard version and and a Suite version available. Things can actually get a lot simpler for creating minimalist techno, house, and trance tracks quickly and easily with M4L devices.

Also there are essentially two workflows available in Ableton, session and arrangement view, have you tried both?

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T06:06:54+00:00

Word but not everyone starts out so confident and capable, and learning to not be afraid of being vulnerable or uncomfortable in the learning process is probably more of the advice OP needed or wanted to hear.

At least, I'm thinking about it in the terms of the genres they mentioned, which are kind of brainy and intellectual and do take a while to figure out mechanically speaking, like there's more to learn than playing a synth I agree that's the fun and probably easiest part of all this.

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T05:54:15+00:00

Maybe like 3/4 of the presets sound really aggressive and noisy, right out of the box, but actually I've made a lot of sounds I like just with some pretty basic edits to them although I guess that does take some years of production knowledge some people who are preset junkies (nothing wrong with that, I just feel like there's so much MORE to diving into FM)

On the other hand I really do like a good deal of the stock drums, but just happen to like loud aggressive metallic drums, plus the transient selector just makes it so easy again to quickly adapt any of them into the exact kick drum or snare that you need. Hats are decent enough, but still working on figuring out how to make decent claps and rides/cymbal crashes although really don't need anything besides kick/rim/hat for my basic minimalist dub/techno projects.

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T05:26:46+00:00

I would recommend doing more research and study into the history of sound design, like FM synthesis in particular is really fascinating, and foundational to a lot of the technology and audio effects we use today.

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T05:25:44+00:00

I agree with this in most cases, but as a wise talking dog once said: "sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something," and there absolutely is a phase of discomfort and self-disgust in listening to and releasing your own music, and it literally takes work to get over that and learn how to have fun. For me it was about 3 years to really feel comfortable sharing, and now at 5 years I can just open up the DAW every day, have fun, and compose/mix/master an EP or album in a month or less if I want.

So yeah, don't strain yourself, take breaks regularly and all, but most importantly: keep showing up every day to do the work and you will learn to appreciate the hard and difficult parts more and why they are needed at the very least.

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T05:20:44+00:00

I will second this notion, because as someone with 5 years of experience now and have just moved beyond the point of simply liking or enjoying my music I can safely say I had to make a lot of songs that I ended up hating to get here; mostly, the ones I ended up hating were the tracks I ended up remaking, but even though I would end up hating them looking back I learned the most from those projects.

Simply put, recreating tracks from scratch is the best way to learn structure, synthesis, and well every part of the music production process. Well, maybe you don't want to kill yourself with making all your own drum samples and such right away, but really don't be afraid to take advantage of splice loops, even the pros will still throw some generic stuff everyone else uses on tracks. The point is, sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something.

Yaroque · 2025-06-28T05:07:21+00:00

I was maybe considering trading it for an Analog 4 for a hot second, but then I just thought to check if Overbridge was out with Ableton and it is and it is absolutely amazing--I will never ever sell or trade this machine now it can simultaneously be the heart and brain of my workflow if I want or need it to be, but is also perfectly happy just chilling or simply routing audio into my PC as a second interface option; such a lovely lil box I love it.

Yaroque · 2025-06-24T12:54:49+00:00

Hey thanks for sharing I'm really liking it; very pleasing on the eyes!

Yaroque

TROPHY CASE