(sin)bird - A Motion

[cedolad]

Hey guys, I just finished working on this dance type song with a friend. This is our first attempt at producing anything, feedback is well appreciated.

https://soundcloud.com/signofbird/a-motion

Song: A Motion
Artist: (sin)bird

Thanks!

[midnghtraver]

For a first attempt at producing two thumbs up!

The biggest thing that I noticed was that the bassline was really muddy pretty much the entire time. Using different (higher) notes would fix that/ changing some pitches/waveforms around in the synth (that sounded like massive, its massive yeah?).

[cedolad]

Originally Posted by KgZ

Not bad for a first try. It sounds like you guys have some sort of musical theory background, so that helps.

What I would start working on now is thinking about the overall flow and emotional map of your songs. Think about how a listener should feel at certain sections or instances in the song. Compare it to your other favorite electro/dubstep songs and write out emotional anaylsis charts of them to help you understand better.

Thanks, we were really going to look into add flow and structure more emotion into our songs now.

Originally Posted by midnghtraver

For a first attempt at producing two thumbs up!

The biggest thing that I noticed was that the bassline was really muddy pretty much the entire time. Using different (higher) notes would fix that/ changing some pitches/waveforms around in the synth (that sounded like massive, its massive yeah?).

It's Massive haha, I really don't know a whole lot about producing synths, if you could point me to the direction of where to find some tutorials or anything that would be great!

And thank you for the feedback

[midnghtraver]

Originally Posted by cedolad

It's Massive haha, I really don't know a whole lot about producing synths, if you could point me to the direction of where to find some tutorials or anything that would be great!

And thank you for the feedback

Honestly, I'd stay as far away from youtube tutorials as I could. All they really do is tell you how to make a certain sound, then everything starts sounding that way, effectively ONLY making you more comfortable with Massive, which can be achieved much more easily by just exploring it yourself.

When using Massive, the best advice I could give you is probably THINK SIMPLE, Massive offers you a lot of different crap to mess with, and most people's problem is that they try and use everything, which just results in a convoluted sound that may be cool, but is often times just muddy or obnoxious.

A more specific variation of the above advice is that you have 3 different oscillators. That doesn't mean you need to use all 3 every time. I often find myself only using 2 oscillators and getting a much more powerful sound. Example <-- all bass synths are made with 2 oscillators.

Lastly, CLICK ON THE "VOICES" TAB! Something as simple as making your synth 2 voices instead of 1 and changing the pan position can add A TON of depth to your sounds (also see: Demension expander).

Hope ^that^ all made sense lol

Edit: And oh yeah, check out some other VST's as well! NI's Razor has similar mechanics to Massive if you're already somewhat comfortable with it. NI's FM8 is a whole different kind of synthesis, but can result in some really cool sounds (also good for synthesizing drums). Izotope's Ozone is a bunch of mastering tools put into one VST. It has 2 different very powerful parametric EQ's, compressors, limiters, a harmonic exciter, and even reverb. All of that will help your final mix sound really professional!

[cedolad]

Originally Posted by midnghtraver

Honestly, I'd stay as far away from youtube tutorials as I could. All they really do is tell you how to make a certain sound, then everything starts sounding that way, effectively ONLY making you more comfortable with Massive, which can be achieved much more easily by just exploring it yourself.

When using Massive, the best advice I could give you is probably THINK SIMPLE, Massive offers you a lot of different crap to mess with, and most people's problem is that they try and use everything, which just results in a convoluted sound that may be cool, but is often times just muddy or obnoxious.

A more specific variation of the above advice is that you have 3 different oscillators. That doesn't mean you need to use all 3 every time. I often find myself only using 2 oscillators and getting a much more powerful sound. Example <-- all bass synths are made with 2 oscillators.

Lastly, CLICK ON THE "VOICES" TAB! Something as simple as making your synth 2 voices instead of 1 and changing the pan position can add A TON of depth to your sounds (also see: Demension expander).

Hope ^that^ all made sense lol

This all makes a lot of sense, I don't think I was looking at the voicing tab when I first started working on this, so I'm gonna go back and experiment a bit with it. And I totally forgot about the dimension expander, I remember it being rather effective.

Thanks for the input my friend.

[V-Ormix]

that was dope, but you guys filled 3:36 nicely

[cedolad]

Originally Posted by midnghtraver

Edit: And oh yeah, check out some other VST's as well! NI's Razor has similar mechanics to Massive if you're already somewhat comfortable with it. NI's FM8 is a whole different kind of synthesis, but can result in some really cool sounds (also good for synthesizing drums). Izotope's Ozone is a bunch of mastering tools put into one VST. It has 2 different very powerful parametric EQ's, compressors, limiters, a harmonic exciter, and even reverb. All of that will help your final mix sound really professional!

Hey thanks for the suggestion of Ozone, it's really awesome so far. I'll have to check out FM8 and Razor.

I'm looking for a good analog type synth, any VST's you could recommend?

Originally Posted by KgZ

Agreeing with what raver said, I'd add on that distortion goes a damn long way. Understanding the emotional context of different distortions, how they effect the instrument sonically, etc. can go a very long way. It can really bring out the uniqueness.

Okay I'll really have to look into that and experiment, thanks a whole bunch to the two of you guys giving me a lot of feedback.

[midnghtraver]

Originally Posted by cedolad

Hey thanks for the suggestion of Ozone, it's really awesome so far. I'll have to check out FM8 and Razor.

I'm looking for a good analog type synth, any VST's you could recommend?

Well, sorta the point of analog is to NOT use a VST (right?). However, I have a technique using reverb that makes synths sound a bit more analog-y.



If you copy those settings, you can then mess around with the room size and diffusion to get a more analog sounding synth than before. Still nothing like using a good old moog rack though...

[blindreper1179]

Sounds better on your system.

[cedolad]

Originally Posted by blindreper1179

Sounds better on your system.

Yeah a big mistake on our part haha, I should really invest in better quality monitors, using that big thing is gonna hurt production.

[dAnceguy117]

Originally Posted by blindreper1179

Sounds better on your system.

agreed, but only because I lack humongous speakers. haha. definitely gonna bump this in the car sometime.