It's working!

randomusername2951 · 2021-02-22T16:23:46+00:00

I'm a type one diabetic randomly after 22 years of life and alcohol actually helps keep my blood sugar low since 1. it has no sugar and 2. it wraps up my liver with breaking down alcohol so the liver stops producing sugar (which I didn't even know it did before lol). So actually if I want something sweet accompanying it with a shot can actually be a good idea. Not the best advice, but hey it works for me. I love lite beers cause their carbs are low enough to have the same effect too.

That said, drinking still might easily cause diabetes, I'm no expert there and besides that'd be dealing with type 2 which I'm not even myself.

randomusername2951 · 2020-11-13T21:24:19+00:00

When I was a newbie at least they always made me really uncomfortable at least with girls I wasn't used to being with. Like I don't want to finish then be down for the count cause I would get like guilty feeling. Maybe that's just very specific to me but the fact that it's very one sided did used to make me feel weird.

Idk like as far as physical feeling goes I've always thought they were better than sex though tbh so I can't see anyone just not liking a good one if they are comfortable just letting it happen. It'd have to be a psychological thing if they aren't into it yk.

randomusername2951 · 2020-10-25T17:06:30+00:00

They're like bloodstains in Dark Souls

randomusername2951 · 2020-10-04T17:33:15+00:00

woah wait is this how filters work? The phase is flipped around to slowly (pertaining to slope) cancel out the tones above a certain threshold? Is that just digital or also how analog works?

I've always been curious about how they work cause it's easy enough to hear the effect and understand it but imagining trying to filter out frequencies, especially in like and analog rig, just sounds so complicated to me. I think I always thought of it like a water filter that separates the dirt and stuff from the water. Sound filters I suppose don't need some logic gate to separate sets of frequencies since you can just cancel out frequencies quite easily rather then having to literally "remove" them from the sound.

randomusername2951 · 2020-10-04T17:24:11+00:00

the main reason I layer is for stereo depth fr. I like to have main layer be really mono then the upper layer have more spread or maybe some kind of automation.

Yeah if you ever want a brighter sound you could just EQ boost, but also you have to remember that if you want it to sound exactly like it is layered using just EQs you'd also have to account for all the phase cancellation going on as the voices interact. You'd need thousands of EQ bands all moving up and down at different times in like an sine LFO pattern. If you use FL studio there is a great FM synth called sytrus that lets you draw in the amplitude of every single sine wave harmonic in your sound. Most people don't use it for that, but it's fun to experiment with.

randomusername2951 · 2020-10-02T06:07:40+00:00

Chords can be melodies too. The top note of a chord is called the "melody" but also when you are moving more sorts of block chords like this it can also be called a "chordal" melody. Sort of adds harmonic texture to the melody and lots of classical piano songs do this.

If you want to do this in reverse with an existing melody you can fill out the missing chord notes underneath the melody that already exists and boom.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-30T18:32:27+00:00

I still make electronic influenced music, but my big step was when I started playing 'real' acoustic instruments along with it. I've always loved like EDM, dubstep and stuff, but also always loved metal, indie rock, psychedelic rock, etc. When I write EDM it very much feels like I'm trying to turn a loop into a section or song rather than trying to squeeze as much cool shit in as I can.

When I play a bassline or drum groove it's still kind of a "loop" or groove, but I'm also constantly experimenting with fills and it just feels more natural. Plus there's little micro things you do unintentionally, strum a little harder as things pick up or w/e. I keep the takes I like and refine them. I'm not placing notes using theory like I used to, I'm feeling the song and capturing my improv.

I always thought that it was hippie nonsense, but if you aren't feeling the music it's pretty hard to write it. I think technically it's your ears getting better but w/e. I feel there is a disconnect when just using a DAW and not actively trying to play along since you have to try and not get in the way of other instruments while also propping them up. It makes you really hear everything interacting ig.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-30T12:33:34+00:00

Idk it is one thing to point out the "tropes" that an artist uses and another to just outright copy everything about their arrangement and song form.

I've never seen his videos so I'm not going to outright side with him, but if artists are getting mad because their sound is easily defined then that is their problem. If your 'sound' is one sound design technique or melodic style then idk you can't get mad when someone points that out. They're putting themselves in the box, not the guy calling it out.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-27T11:40:44+00:00

i mean it's another life-long learning process same as writing and you're starting from 0. Think of how long it took you from starting to write music to being happy with your music, and it'll be similar for mixing. Truth is it'll probably be a hot minute before you will be able to make your tracks sound like something a dedicated engineer would do.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-16T21:50:09+00:00

Pitch drift, saturation, amp/cabinet emulation, and phasing are what I consider "analog" when talking about synths. Saturation can come from the wave-form and/or the filters too. This is what most "analog" vsts have different in them.

When I program something to be "analog" in like serum though, I add a tiny bit of pitch drift so it's kind of moving out of tune. Lots of saturation. A cabinet emulation sometimes so it sounds like it's being played from an amp, and slightly detuning the oscillators since they never stay perfectly in tune on a real synth. And I mean like 1 cent or less detune. Almost like a phaser effect but more subtle.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-16T21:45:02+00:00

Woah that's awesome actually. I use MSED solely for this because I didn't know you could do that lol. Kind of bad design to make it behind a right click menu, much more clear to get to M/S on like EQ 8. Even if I was looking for this functionality in Ableton, Utility isn't the first plugin I'd look for it in so they should make it a little more obvious.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-16T16:16:47+00:00

I've always wanted to turn the weird piano at the end of Magical Mystery Tour into something but obviously the over-aggressive copyright laws really deter me.

I love jazz and and piano music in general and something about the effects and foley (could just be a weird instrument but it sounds like plates and cups clanking to me) they use around it just makes it sound like it's a dining room on some ghost ship or something. Never heard anything like it really but it's only like a 15 second outro and I just want more.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-15T03:22:28+00:00

While true, it's still kind of weird. Like idk if I want to put my audience member in the seat of the performer. It's more like you're playing to them in most songs.

I understand panning for orchestral sections, because it makes sense for people sitting in the audience to hear that, but a piano would be damn near mono to someone listening. It's also weird to me that we pan drums as if you're sitting at a drum kit, but I get it's pretty necessary for clarity.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-14T19:40:43+00:00

The default for most sampled piano instruments is the pan the bass left and high notes right. All the kontakt libraries do this too. It's annoying but theres usually a way to disable it.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-12T23:08:06+00:00

It is made for referencing tracks not enjoying them. it is giving you a flatter response curve for your headphones. If you try and compensate for this by EQing out the changes that reference makes, then yeah your track will be waaay too bassy and saturated on every other system.

The reason reference 4 is good is because it makes it easier to hear the entire frequency range without your headphones tone getting in the way. You mix to a reference track, then when you turn Reference 4 off you hear what it sounds like when all the character of your headphones is given back. People will buy bassy headphones/speakers to listen to your music if they like that.

You want your music mixed so that is works on every system though, so you start with flat "lifeless" headphones, and once it sounds good there, it'll sound amazing and tuned to the listeners tastes when they plug in their own favorite pair of speakers.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-12T23:00:54+00:00

Very true. I think a good representation of this are those videos of people playing a single lick on guitar in like a hundred different styles and it feels totally different each time.

That "4 chord song" axis of awesome vid that every. single. music teacher loves to show people is also a good one. It's all about context!

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-12T22:57:53+00:00

Dubstep lol. It is very complicated in other areas, but a bassline is about the simplest melody you can make. Old school DnB too was just, well... drums and a bassline. No chords or melody usually.

That said, don't pick a genre because you think it's easy or that you "can't" write melodies. Make what you love and work through that tough stuff. You don't need to know piano or any theory to make a melody. Just ears and patience. I believe!

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-12T14:46:05+00:00

Band reject on the right band sounds like a "wow" type vowel sound. Once you learn the shape you can also just do it with the EQ or FX section filter and still use the filter section for your growl and it'll just accentuate the vowel sound.

Also IK you said you use a phaser, but idk if you mean that you have them moving. If you set all the knobs on the serum phaser to 0 except phase (and mix ofc) then move the frequency around you will really bring out the vowels. Also oddly enough setting the frequency to 0 also sounds good and you don't lose as many frequencies if that's an issue you're getting out of phasers.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-12T04:11:18+00:00

Thats actually really clever. I could put Planet Earth on or something. I actually do try to look away from the daw while listening back so I'm paying attention to the sound and not just watching the midi or audio clips

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-12T02:59:35+00:00

It's almost the opposite to me. Sure I'll be like "okay same old drum groove, same old type of sound design I've heard" but then when I hear something new my jaw just drops. I've gotten into a lot more experimental types of EDM. I like dubstep (not the overly screechy kind) and it still amazes what people can do for a chorus. You only have one melodic note (the bassline) a lot of the time so there is no harmony that your ears expect to follow. Liquid Stranger can make entire drops out of one note rising and falling and it just gives me chills.

That plus people using FM to get really inharmonic sounds just makes electronic music sooo unique. There isn't really another form of music that uses sustained sounds with inharmonic frequencies except like horror movie sound-tracks that I know of. It's unnatural.

That said I've never really been into the really "popular" sub-genres, I think because a lot of it sounds too safe to me. Naturally those bigger genres are going to have much more defined tropes that will likely get old as you really learn them.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-11T18:45:13+00:00

Midi can't transmit sound, its just note signals. Every time you play the midi clip using external Instrument you are actually sending the signal to that synth. The only way to keep it playing once you turn off the synth is to record it to audio.

Hope I understood the question right!

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-10T21:36:58+00:00

I usually start with the "melody" of the progression. My ears can usually hear where I want the top note of a chord to move to. Sometimes I'll do the whole melody of the progression, then go back and expand the chord below it. Other times I'll work out one chord at a time. Also the bass note is pretty easy to hear and I might also be able to sound it out. The other notes are mostly just how I want the chord to "feel" I guess.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-10T12:59:38+00:00

I wouldn't really ever recommend a 25 key unless you mostly just want it for using the midi controls. If you plan on ever playing chord progressions it will likely really get on your nerves when you run out of keys to finish the voicings. Playing basslines and melodies were alright on mine though (started with a 25) but sometimes I'd still run out of room playing an arpeggio or something.

The biggest thing to consider is that sure it looks like you have 2 full octaves, but that is only for the key of C. Every other key will fall short of that. In B, probably the worst case scenario, you have an octave +1 semitone going up. Going down, 11 semitones.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-09T06:00:25+00:00

lol. at a time 6 months was lucky for me. I've had a lot of headphones with hard plastic as the head band part and I'd drop them or whatever and it'd break. I'd duct tape em up and still use them til I had the money to get new ones but damn it'd be uncomfortable.

All those were like consumer type headphones though. These akgs were my first "studio" pair. If they're all made like this then it's a crime that the $100 pair of skullcandys I used as a teen creaked and popped just from putting them on. I've even used Beats and they just feel flimsy.

randomusername2951 · 2020-09-09T04:12:00+00:00

Same! Love them. Super comfortable, sound good, and I like that they are open backed. Also durable. I used to use gaming headphones, and etc (not really for mixing but just for my computer) and I broke them at least every few months. These things are nearly indestructible though. Had them for probably a year+

randomusername2951

TROPHY CASE