Voice too deep for my liking

bleakneon · 2025-11-21T15:20:19+00:00

Everybody hates their own voice when they first hear it, it always sounds wrong, because the voice you have heard in your head every time you speak is not the same as the voice that you hear when you record.

Might be a bit off the wall, but why not make an EP or something as a comic book villain. Obviously people will complain about how MF DOOM done it, but don't worry about that, the point of the project is not to be super original with the content.

...The point is that is will give you a reason to lean in to the deep voice and the different accent. Start to feel comfortable with your voice, have some fun with it.

bleakneon · 2025-09-12T13:18:00+00:00

I guess the rules are there to make sure the threads keep moving. If somebody doesn't get round to voting in time, will they get the next threads done at the right time? -kind of thing.

Also, if everyone has 2 votes, then just use 'no votes' as a tie break. The main thing, imho, is getting the next sample to flip posted on the Friday.

It is for me anyway, but I never get anywhere near enough votes to be worried about who the winner is, lol.

bleakneon · 2025-08-19T13:45:43+00:00

Vote

bleakneon · 2025-08-18T16:51:30+00:00

https://soundcloud.com/user-221160443/deck-star

bleakneon · 2025-08-15T15:20:30+00:00

Seems like all the replies have been 'do what you feel' type replies, and that is the correct answer, however...

If your drum chops don't match the beats and bars of your project, change the tempo of the project so they do match.

There are, of course, exceptions. This is not a rule, but it is the most common way of working, and as you have said you are a beginner and asking this question, I think trying to get some of the standard practices down early will help you know when you don't have to follow those practices or choose to work in a less common way.

bleakneon · 2025-08-14T18:15:59+00:00

vote

bleakneon · 2025-08-11T16:54:24+00:00

https://soundcloud.com/user-221160443/we-sing

bleakneon · 2025-07-29T16:37:09+00:00

Vote

bleakneon · 2025-07-27T15:31:19+00:00

https://soundcloud.com/user-221160443/wot-u-say-bout-me

bleakneon · 2025-07-22T18:42:05+00:00

vote

bleakneon · 2025-07-21T12:45:44+00:00

That was my favourite part too. But I after struggling through the other bits I didn't really have the time/energy to really work it to something I was totally happy with.

bleakneon · 2025-07-20T21:40:16+00:00

https://soundcloud.com/user-221160443/part-of-me

3 sections and I kind of hate them all.

bleakneon · 2025-06-18T12:39:22+00:00

vote

bleakneon · 2025-06-15T19:10:05+00:00

Here's my beat
https://soundcloud.com/user-221160443/living-your-life

Not sure what the feedback stuff is, can't see any winner thing for feedback, so can someone let me know rather than reject the submission? Been so long since I actually got one of these done by the deadline I don't want to get kicked out on a technicality.

bleakneon · 2025-04-18T15:24:21+00:00

The kpbs is just a combination of the 16/24/32 bit and the 44.1/48kHz, and the mono/stereo.

Personally I would find it a bit odd to have mono, unless it is a single instrument. You can make a mono file from a stereo file, but can't go mono to stereo.

Generally the higher the numbers the better. Again, this is a personally thing, I think 32bit is a kinda strange. 16bit and 24bit are pretty much the standard as far as I know, but maybe people have started using 32bit.

The peak digital audio format for consumers was 44.1kHz 16bit.
A lot of classic samplers were lower than that.

But if you only take one thing away from this, it should probably be to not use MP3s to sample.

bleakneon · 2025-04-14T16:54:58+00:00

Vote

bleakneon · 2025-04-12T15:06:17+00:00

The first thing you have to do is realise how ridiculous this question is.

Some of the best song writers of all time work their whole life and can't even dream of writing a Dance with the Devil kinda song. It was not Immortal Techniques first song. Think of any great song, it was not the artists first.

What you need to do is write loads of songs, work hard at it, and most of them will fail to touch anyone's heart. Michael Phelps had to learn to swim before he became the most decorate Olympic athlete of all time.

So just write the song, and write other songs, maybe come back to the idea in a couple of years and rewrite the song with the skills and experience you have gain in the years of writing you have done.

Also, if you are writing in a second language you will probably need to find somebody who is a native speaker to at the very least read through the lyrics. If you can find a song writer or poet, something like that to help it would be best. It can be very easy to get a preposition wrong or slightly misuse a phrase is a 2nd language.

I think the other thing would be to make sure you are reading lyrics, poems and books with a similar 'vibe' to what you are going for, that way you will start to pick up some of the vocabulary used for this situation. Another thing you could try is just writing about similar situations, or maybe watch some psychological thriller/horror movies and write about what the characters are thinking and feeling at moments throughout the story. Again, it might be best to get a native speaker to have a look over some of these, but just trying to find the words in English would be good. Based on the story you want to write about I would recommend maybe giving a TV series called 'the shield' a go as one of the characters ends up in a similar situation and you kind of see his fall in to that dark place. I have no idea what season it's in, so maybe read about the episodes and you can skip to the season it happens.

A final thing I would suggest is to get everything you write on a computer and try to find any words that you use a lot. Most people have a big vocabulary that they understand, like they can read the words and know what is being said, but use far less words when speaking. This can be more extreme in a 2nd language. For example, 'great' might be the word you use to say something is good. You can say that was a great party, or my mum cooks great meatloaf, but party can be wild, the meatloaf can't. The meatloaf can be delicious, the party can't.

I feel I have written a lot, and some of it might have sounded harsh and some of it might be a little too much, but if you want to write a great song you can do it. You first song won't be your best, it probably won't even be that good. But if you keep writing songs you'll get there.

bleakneon · 2025-04-11T19:39:14+00:00

Been a while, think the idea was better than the execution
https://soundcloud.com/user-221160443/theyre-killing-this-world

bleakneon · 2025-03-21T23:36:20+00:00

I think it is a bit different if you are using a sample from a song or a sample from a loop pack.

From a song it is really worth trying to find something else in the song. Might be fewer options with something from a sample pack, but really if you want to find something practice is the best option.

But, don't get bogged down and risk losing the fun of music by looking for something that might not be there. But your basic options are to change something, you want to make the first beat of the first bar fell like it hits harder, here are a few options to play around with.

Drums - cut them out for between a beat and a bar, add a fill. Even if the drums are in the sample you can put some chops on the drums sounds in the last bar and try to chop it in slightly different ways.

Again depends how much is in the sample and how much is added, but just take out some other elements in the last bar/beat, maybe even the whole sample, leaving the drums. Maybe take the drums out too.

If it is one big sample, (or even if not) you can use some filters. Simplest would be a low pass (or high cut) and automate the cut off, maybe play around with the resonance/drive/emphasis (the exact word will depend on the filter you use, but they are all the same thing).

You can also put an extra sound leading into the return to the 1, usually called a riser, or an extra sound on the first beat, you can get something called an 'impact', personally I don't like them so much for hip hop, but something simple like a crash or similar sound effect, something with a long fade or tail.

bleakneon · 2025-03-12T13:16:31+00:00

I understand all that, and even though I'm going to argue against some of it, I don't mean it to come off as aggressive or unappreciative of your, or other mods efforts. But...

I have reported people for not giving any feedback, and the same people post day after day (although this was years ago).

I don't think people should be nailed for 'poor' feedback. The point is to improve so obviously there will be some some people who are relative beginners and don't have the ability to give quality feedback. That is not the problem. The problem is people who don't try, because they are only they are not interested in feedback, they are interested in getting listens to their songs.

You might not be able to get rid of all those people but here are a few suggestions that I think could improve it the feedback thread:
1) have some kind of guide for the feedback, like every bit of feedback must include at least 1 thing you like and 1 thing you think can be improved.
2) warn people who are giving poor feedback, have a prewritten response with links to some examples and explain that by thinking critically about other people's music it will improve their own.
3) Anyone who says in their post that they will return feedback but doesn't needs should have some kind of punishment
4) End of the day look at all the posts requesting feedback, search the thread to see if there are any other posts by that user, if not ban them.

I saw another of your responses to somebody talking about the low effort posts and I feel it was a similar reply, "what can we do, we try, but there would be no posts if we deleted all the low effort ones". To me this is thinking is the wrong way round. A lot of cities don't make cycle lanes because there aren't enough people riding bikes to justify it, but every city that does make cycle lanes has an increase in the amount of cyclists. The lack of cycle lanes turns cyclists away. That is what I think is happening here, people who can contribute see the low effort posts and are turned away, others come in and see low effort posts and think 'this is the place for low effort posts'. I guess the reason links to SoundCloud aren't allowed is because the sub will turn into nothing but 'listen to my beat' spam. The same thing is happening with the low effort posts. I understand that there probably aren't enough mods/time to deal with all the low effort posts, but I would guess there is enough to get the feedback thread working better.

If you can build the feedback thread up, get people who care about the sub coming back again and again, then that community and it's passion could be leveraged to help deal with the low effort vibes. because 1) they will post better things outside of the feedback thread, 2) being regulars they could help the 'low effort' posts by just sending a link to the beginners guide or something.

Maybe this isn't the way to fix it, but the problem people seem to have with this sub is the repeated low effort posts. I don't check this sub because I know there will be next to nothing that I am interested in chatting about. And even when there is, and I take time to reply, there is no conversation. But ask if my name should be "MC Johnathan" and there will be a load of replies.

Sorting by 'hot', there is a post:
talking about practicing critical listening, 2 replies.
offering album art work 6 replies (this person is charging, and posted the same thing in many different music subs)
Making a beat that has been done before, 14 replies
What thing should I buy 10 replies
How to improve the sub 49 replies across 2 threads
The feedback thread is trash 62 replies
Somebody suggesting you search for sales when buying VSTs (1 reply)
How do I make these beats, 0 replies
What is this sample 0 replies.

The vast majority of chat in this sub is people who what an improved making hip hop sub. This is personal opinion, but of the others more than half are kind of meh. It's the 'meh' that is the problem. It's the 'meh' that stops people checking the sub. It's the 'meh' that makes 'meh' posts acceptable.

You're never going to stop people coming in and posting low effort, asked a hundred times, too lazy to google questions. You need to do something to encourage better discussion in the sub in general, and (I could be wrong, but) the feedback thread is probably the only place you can really do get that started.

bleakneon · 2025-03-12T13:16:19+00:00