Music Production Discussion

[joebeard]

'Sup Chooms?

Following the GrowlFM contest, quite a few community members began a discussion in the GrowlFM thread about music production. Eventually, the discussion began to derail the main thread a bit. A mod kindly asked everyone to move this more general discussion of composing music for video-games to another thread.

I am here to tell you that THIS, this is that thread. So if you fancy discussing anything from the very finest technical details of synthesis, to more general themes around inspiration, want to share some of your awesome sound related work, or get annoyed at how almost every DAW wants you to pay monthly nowadays (OK that last part is me, but come ON) then this is THE place to be. Well, probably.

So to kickstart things, what software do you find yourself using most often to produce music?

For me, it's Reason. Mostly because I am being carried by the inertia of years of upgrades and a couple of Rack Extensions I still use. I also find the cabling system to be entertaining in a way that keeps me wanting to experiment. I'd move to Bitwig, but the cost is a little up there right now.

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

greats , a topic about music production stuff .
really llke to share about music .

atm my workflow
- composing , sound design in Reason 12
- post synchro vids/ arragement on Cubase
- fmod/wwise when it come sound design for games

i don't use many vst/pging instruments , loving doing my own synth on Reason ( this daw can do crazy thing with rooting features with stuck plugings , its more lile old modular synth hardware witch cabling/rooting path audio )

but loving doing some wierd stuff music xD

Tempest, by Dart Frog

from the album Intruders

dartfrog.bandcamp.com

 

[joebeard]

greats , a topic about music production stuff .
really llke to share about music .

atm my workflow
- composing , sound design in Reason 12
- post synchro vids/ arragement on Cubase
- fmod/wwise when it come sound design for games

i don't use many vst/pging instruments , loving doing my own synth on Reason ( this daw can do crazy thing with rooting features with stuck plugings , its more lile old modular synth hardware witch cabling/rooting path audio )

but loving doing some wierd stuff music xD

Tempest, by Dart Frog

from the album Intruders

dartfrog.bandcamp.com

I used Cubase a long time ago, maybe about 2007, at University to score a video. Since then I have always wanted to check it out again, how does it fair for composing music vs Reason?

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

I used Cubase a long time ago, maybe about 2007, at University to score a video. Since then I have always wanted to check it out again, how does it fair for composing music vs Reason?

i prefer reason for composing , i'm feel more freely with it , but cubase was great to set arrangements or when i need to score a track with string section , more friendly to keep what we doing on each part voice ( brass , viola , cello ) . Reason steel lacking for scoring music , tools not really friendly .

what i do sometimes , scoring on cubase , then import mid files on reason .
managing bus , parralel channel , automation , sound design its really "easy " reason , love how this soft handle processing audio or routing audio for sound design , mixing ( thanks the ssl mix channels )

 

[joebeard]

Oh yeah the SSL is really nice to use. I also feel like Reason is nice to "just get going" in, which I find is important for composing. The difficulty for me is building a song structure using the note lanes and groups I have created. Bitwig works well for that with its dual sequencer, which allows you to set individual note lanes to repeat, or entire sections.

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

Oh yeah the SSL is really nice to use. I also feel like Reason is nice to "just get going" in, which I find is important for composing. The difficulty for me is building a song structure using the note lanes and groups I have created. Bitwig works well for that with its dual sequencer, which allows you to set individual note lanes to repeat, or entire sections.

when friends on music forum ask me why i pick first reason for composing , then i explain the greatest feature on this daw , can do useless stuff to get inspired xD

old vids i've made when i be part of reason france web site for a tuto about using stock device on an other way

Ableton live + Max api follow this idea : modular rooting , and process audio .

like i said there's no best DAW , its all about we feel to use when composing ,
daw like as reason , ableton live 're really good to compose with some scratch idea : the process its fast . we can o this on old "classic" sequenceur like protools / cubase but need more audio edit and step to get the same result .

in my case after over decade of music i feel
Protools , really good when it come to record , audio/video synchro
cubase , may the best one for scoring music ( goods tools for scoring sheets )
ableton/reason , composing/sound design when you want explore some new idea

the goods thing , even the workflow/UI seems differents since few since few years all those daw add the same tools , features ( ii.e Bitwig for modular rooting like as Reason / reaktor )

 

[kite919]

My daw of choice was always cubase, mainly familiarity. I tried Ableton since it has some cool features and had to learn Pro Tools and Logic Pro at school, but in the pricey world of daws, i simply updated cubase with every year, and I still like it

Of course I have tons of soundbanks, but funnily enough, for this production, barely used any...
I love messing around with my own recorded samples and loading them into softwares that do fun things for me.
I used a reaktor instrument called "Form", where I used a vocal sample of myself to make a tribal-ish vocal loop as the main instrument.

Here is the sample

Fun cheap plugin if you enjoy experimenting

 

[joebeard]

I was wondering what people here would recommend as good forums regarding music production in general, or more specific edm music production. After hearing madeon's interview on bbc radio one and hearing him saying that he met Porter Robinson on a music production forum, it seemed that using such sites could probably really help me a lot.

kvraudio has some good forums, in general I have found it somewhat difficult though. It seems in most cases people are only interested in shilling for impressions on their work, instead of discussing the minutae of the art-form. This is especially true on Reddit. In fact some of the more interesting music discussion I have had has actually been on unrelated boards, like gaming discords.

 

[eFlatin]

I was wondering what people here would recommend as good forums regarding music production in general, or more specific edm music production. After hearing madeon's interview on bbc radio one and hearing him saying that he met Porter Robinson on a music production forum, it seemed that using such sites could probably really help me a lot.

there are several subreddits that can be useful, but as joebeard mentioned it is often people just wanting impressions on their stuff, so amount of response varies. But if you want to check them out, some that I'm part of are r/wearethemusicmakers, r/musicproduction, r/songwriting, r/synthrecipes, r/synthwaveproducers. There is also one called r/edmproduction which I have no experience with, but has 639k members, so chances are there will be some useful information there.

 

[ThiagoMcfuzz]

I used the software music maker, I think very easy and intuitive to use, I really recommend ! I am not professional but the result I think was very good

I would like to sent this music to the challenge Radio to new DLC but i finished it after limit date , unfortunately. But I hope all you are enjoy !! peace =D


https://soundcloud.com/user-260164242%2Fhey-cyberpunk-take-this

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

kvraudio has some good forums, in general I have found it somewhat difficult though. It seems in most cases people are only interested in shilling for impressions on their work, instead of discussing the minutae of the art-form. This is especially true on Reddit. In fact some of the more interesting music discussion I have had has actually been on unrelated boards, like gaming discords.

that's right
the fact ,
1) on mao forum , artist only often advertasing their music
2) on other forum like discords , gaming forum , we're more on a side of how the listenner feel the music without all those technicals issues .

how many times i've listen impressive tracks made by gamers ( no professional ) , it was so refreshing and how many times i've listen "clean" music production but those ones was too "generic" without a proper mood ( feel empty ) .

I used the software music maker, I think very easy and intuitive to use, I really recommend ! I am not professional but the result I think was very good

I would like to sent this music to the challenge Radio to new DLC but i finished it after limit date , unfortunately. But I hope all you are enjoy !! peace =D


https://soundcloud.com/user-260164242%2Fhey-cyberpunk-take-this

Music Maker is very friendly , its a good software with good Libriray and let us starting music with good utility tools . its more focus on arragements and tweaking loops Lib. reminds the first version on Playstation 2 , at that i time i spend a lot of time on it ^^

thanks to the first Music Maker , we 've know all those Fruity Loops and Reason (in case of Reason that was rebirth freeware ) Daw
may be the first software for accessible for all people in 90's .

 

[ThiagoMcfuzz]

that's right
the fact ,
1) on mao forum , artist only often advertasing their music
2) on other forum like discords , gaming forum , we're more on a side of how the listenner feel the music without all those technicals issues .

how many times i've listen impressive tracks made by gamers ( no professional ) , it was so refreshing and how many times i've listen "clean" music production but those ones was too "generic" without a proper mood ( feel empty ) .


Music Maker is very friendly , its a good software with good Libriray and let us starting music with good utility tools . its more focus on arragements and tweaking loops Lib. reminds the first version on Playstation 2 , at that i time i spend a lot of time on it ^^

thanks to the first Music Maker , we 've know all those Fruity Loops and Reason (in case of Reason that was rebirth freeware ) Daw
may be the first software for accessible for all people in 90's .

My first contact with the software music, was Dance eJay, a looong time Ago, in my windows 98 ... I really loved that program, and the version I used was trials, so each 30 s, the song stopeed and was necessary to play again ...lol .... after this I tryied to use other versions, and create something for fun ....when I found the Music Maker I thought very similar the dance eJay, so I decide to try , and like so much, in times I have a hobby to create diferents types of musics ...... I never work with this but ever like a lot this area.

 

[mello_d]

honestly as long as the thing you're using helps you get the sound in your head onto the computer, that's all that matters, im sure a lotta people out there have made a bunch of good music even on browser based DAWs

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

honestly as long as the thing you're using helps you get the sound in your head onto the computer, that's all that matters, im sure a lotta people out there have made a bunch of good music even on browser based DAWs

a good one Roland50studio
an online daw with old tb303 , tr808. sh101
really fun to use

 

[mello_d]

a good one Roland50studio
an online daw with old tb303 , tr808. sh101
really fun to use

yeap i was just playin around with it, super fun

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

yeap i was just playin around with it, super fun

an other one free online daw , i was using it often to share some idea for indie game project music
Audiotool.com
its free for most basic feature , and its focus on collab project with a lot of template project on any trending music style.

 

[eFlatin]

honestly as long as the thing you're using helps you get the sound in your head onto the computer, that's all that matters, im sure a lotta people out there have made a bunch of good music even on browser based DAWs

true, at the end of the day all DAW do the same thing. Although they have their own stock plugins, the main difference is in the workflow imo. a good producer will be able to make good music in a free DAW, a rookie producer won't necessarily be able to make good music in an expensive DAW