Producing Tips/Tricks?

[Noah eh]

@Noah can this be a general music production query thread? we have a lot of musicians here...maybe it could just be a homebase for flucker music q&a &tips/tricks/advice?

Go right ahead haha

[TheIronz]

One more:

If you can find clean samples of it, 80's Thailand Funk/Soul has some of the best samples I have ever heard... But production quality on MOST of them is HORRENDOUS!

[noobtard07]

One more:

If you can find clean samples of it, 80's Thailand Funk/Soul has some of the best samples I have ever heard... But production quality on MOST of them is HORRENDOUS!

awesome idea, gonna check some of that out later.

also, when i get off work later i'll do my little write up

[Noah eh]

http://www.samash.com/mpd18-compact-...oOxhoCvcXw_wcB anybody familiar with this? planning on getting it

edit: and sweet noodtard, can't wait to read it

[Antwan]

Percussion pad, hell yeah. Not that one in particular but as a tool they seem useful.
Always made me think of electronic drums. There are beat pads out there with keyboards on them too.

[EmmitBrown]

i dont have experience with akais pad modules but if they have the sensitivity of the actual mpc then yes definitely get them. honestly i might grab some at that price.

[Noah eh]

Apparently the pads aren't too sensitive, but you can mod them to make them more sensitive.

[noobtard07]

Alright everyone welcome to noobtard07's Baked Breakdown on Beginner Producing

So for starters, if you don't have one, I highly recommend getting some sort of MIDI device. A drumpad, a little keyboard, a big keyboard! that, along with your DAW, will become your absolute best friend.

Next, you need a DAW (digital audio workstation) to actually create your music. these are programs like FL Studio, Maschine, Ableton, Reason, Cubase, etc etc etc. There are multitudes of daws, and multitudes of files floating around the internet for you to "find" because they're fuckin expensive.

Learning these two items, your DAW and your instrument, is one of the most important things you can do. This might be a terrible analogy, but think of it like they're your girlfriends and you wanna fuck. If you go in and have no idea what you're doing it's gonna be all slow and awkward, you might not recognize some things, and over all it's going to be an unpleasurable experience. You need to know these things inside and out, like the back of your hand, and i swear to you that is one of the best things you could possibly do. It doesn't matter how many soundpacks you have, or drum refills, or VSTs, but how well you can use and manipulate what you have.

Drums

Drums are a main component in your music, and they need to sound nice. This means they need to sit well in your mix, be EQ'd so snare drums don't shatter your ears at high volume, and be compressed so sounds don't attempt to blast over each other.

Something I do a lot is add a Saturator onto my drum track, which gives the drums a crunchier, warmer, almost cassette like sound. This is apparently something Dr. Dre used to do all the time (with an actual tape recorder), but that's just what futureproducers.com told me. Either way, it sounds really nice if you wanna add a little more depth and warmth to your drums.

I also add a small amount of reverb, but with the wet mix turned up to almost 75%. It adds a noticeable amount of room to your drums and helps add a little ambiance and noise but without drowning out everything around it.

Another tip is to pan your drums out across the spectrum. Kicks and basses however, should always remain dead center. For example, keep your kick in the middle, use two snares and place one 50% left and the other 50% right. Keep your closed hihats panned slightly off to the right with your open hat panned farther off to the left. This adds a very nice, realistic sound to your drums so they're not all slamming out of the main channel.

Bass

One of my favorite parts of beats, basslines make up the rhythm and body of your track. Without bass, your track has no movement, no feeling. It just sounds empty..like something's missing. Bass should be punchy, but not overstated. You want people to feel the bass, not necessarily hear it. You know? Does that make sense? i think it does. Most bass sounds also have a lot of high end frequencies that (depending on what sound youre looking for) can be rid of use a high pass filter, which simply mutes the higher frequencies at a cutoff point that you select.

Melodies

Beautiful, beautiful melodies. The instruments used for your melodies need to be, like the drums, panned out for the best and most ear satisfying sound. Don't keep all your instruments in one place, they'll sound mashed together and they'll clash and it'll be a really bad time. Keep things separated and play with volume to get everything to blend together. Play with reverb on certain instruments as well like i talked about with the drums.



idk what else to write


Edit: Also, remember that if you're making a BEAT, ie, someone will be rapping or singing or whatever over it, remember that sometimes open space is a great thing. Think of the voice like another instrument. If a beat sounds like it's a little empty but you're not sure what to add, DO NOT FORCE IT. Have someone spit something over it and see how it sounds. Someone's voice could be the instrument you're missing.