Breaking which habit ?
The habit of tweaking only the cutoff and resonance in a VSTi. Even though I've been making music for more than 10 years I got a confession... I'm a cutoff and resonance tweaker.
Luckily my music sounds good because I sit for hours till I find the right prestes suitable for my music but still, I think its due time that I could create more complexed progressions of sound and not just tweak the regular 2 knobs.
I'd like to hear your suggestions and preferbally mp3 sequences in order to hear with what kind of tweaked riffs you can come up with.

Here's an mp3 of mine but although it sounds good nothing special about its tweakings :

( For Some reason the Mp3s quality got fucked when I exported it again and again in cubase ... no idea why though but here it is anyway )

http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%201.mp3
XPhraze is playing when the drums come in , no tweaking of the sound what so ever. ( mp3 quality got fucked , this is not how it originally sounds )

http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%202.mp3
What you hear in the begining is ABSynth2 , no tweaking made. What comes in the break is ... Suprise... Delay Lama Tweaked using its Vowel Filters and going through a Distrotion

http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%203.mp3
Novation V-Station Appregiator, no tweakings made.

http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%204.mp3
Tweaked the old buddy called Cutoff


Again, sorry for the mp3 quality which distorted the sound abit, I had no time to fix it.

As you can hear , the tracks sounds good but not major tweaking done in there, mostly its good presets I've chose chained to some good effects.

I'd like to hear other users advices and mp3s with short demonstrations of their advices, if I'll learn anything new in here I'll post mp3s with demonstrations of such tweakings and maybe even better - Cubase Project files so that everyone could learn from it.

Can anyone tell me if the audio links work ?
I was just told that the links wont download

Scr1pt3r wrote:

Can anyone tell me if the audio links work ? I was just told that the links wont download

nope. they won't download.

I've just found out planet.nana.co.il only accepts connections from Israel. I'll try to find a differnt link to put the mp3s on.

I like to tweak fx params sometimes. Tweaking delay feedback, phaser feedback, or frohmage's comb filter params can come up with some pretty interesting changes. Or even tweaking a graphic or para EQ and treating it like a filter.

tweaking cutoff and res makes sense - these are the basis of subtractive synthesis. On a basic synth, what else is there really to tweak? It depends on the synth, but PWM, filter lfo speed and/or depth, osc volume, osc mix, filter decay, fm depth etc. are good places to start.

I tweak nipples occasionally.

have you tried harmonising the yeahs?

floyd wrote:

tweaking cutoff and res makes sense - these are the basis of subtractive synthesis. On a basic synth, what else is there really to tweak?

Thats a good point there... its possible that a large amount of the tweaking should be made on the effects which are connected to the VSTi and there's not a lot to explore on the synth itself.
If anyone got mp3s demo'ing what tweaks they can do to a sound feel free to post, I'll try to fix my mp3 link later by finding a different free web hosting.

spaceman wrote:

have you tried harmonising the yeahs?

that normally happens after the thrusting rather than the tweaking I find

CreepJoint wrote:

spaceman wrote: have you tried harmonising the yeahs? that normally happens after the thrusting rather than the tweaking I find

some tweaking first gets you there faster though

While I find nothing wrong with tweaking the cutoff, there are plenty of other things you could do, given a flexible synth. Start experimenting with the modulation matrix.

Most of my songs are made up of dozens of parts, tiny fragments of rhythms and melodies which weave their textures together to create the full composition. Because of this approach, I don't feel the need to leave one part playing for 2 minutes while tweaking the cutoff knob.

One final thought... a guy I work with is an excellent metal/prog/jazz guitarist. He hates guitar players who use the tremolo bar as a crutch, an easy effect to pull out when technique fails them. After hearing a few of my synths, he pointed out that tweaking the cutoff seems to be the equivalent technique for electronic music. And he's right!

deastman wrote:

Most of my songs are made up of dozens of parts, tiny fragments of rhythms and melodies which weave their textures together to create the full composition. Because of this approach, I don't feel the need to leave one part playing for 2 minutes while tweaking the cutoff knob.

Do you have any link to your music ?

i like to tweak the osc levels usually during the breakdown....

What do I like to tweak .... depends on the synth of course, but my favorites for a subtractive synth are


Filter: Cutoff, resonance and envelope
Envelopes
I love modulating lfo frequency and if possible routine that to a filter or oscillator, usually triggered by aftertough.

I also love modulating delay lines, esp feebback and mix, filterbanks


I also play with the envelopes of multi-oscillator synths. Helps keep things moving

progfusion74 wrote:

What do I like to tweak .... depends on the synth of course, but my favorites for a subtractive synth are Filter: Cutoff, resonance and envelope Envelopes I love modulating lfo frequency and if possible routine that to a filter or oscillator, usually triggered by aftertough. I also love modulating delay lines, esp feebback and mix, filterbanks I also play with the envelopes of multi-oscillator synths. Helps keep things moving

Does anyone want to post a mp3 short example ( could/should be just a single tweaked instrument ) and give info about what he did in that sequence ?
I would have posted right now but I didn't find yet a free web hosting to sign up to.

This is a fault of mine as well. I attribute it to being relatively new to synths and still exploring my way around the dozens of knobs and sliders. I try to experiment with all the options as much as possible, but a lot of the other options produce very subtle effects, so you need to use more than one at a time, and it can be really difficult to find the right combinations.

With cutoff and resonance, the effects are drastic and give you that immediate feedback, so I can see why it would be used as a crutch for a lot of people.

I'm just going to keep experimenting, and over time I'll gain more knowledge and be able to incorporate that into my work. It's going to take a while, but what else can you do?

Also, I really like the samples you posted, Scr1pt3r. Is there any chance you can post the full version?

Scr1pt3r wrote:

deastman wrote: Most of my songs are made up of dozens of parts, tiny fragments of rhythms and melodies which weave their textures together to create the full composition. Because of this approach, I don't feel the need to leave one part playing for 2 minutes while tweaking the cutoff knob. Do you have any link to your music ?

Here are a few songs. I haven't uploaded much since the demise of mp3.com. The first one, "The Purest Form" should give you an idea of what I'm talking about. The general concensus is that I need to totally overhaul the drums so that you aren't stuck with kick/snare/hihat running through the whole song. I'll get to it eventually. This was created by generating random mutations in Crystal, and the drums were all ErsDrums. Arranged in Acid.

Can't recall what I used on the other songs...

http://www.panicnow.net/greydescent/Grey%20Descent%20-%20The%20Purest% 20Form.mp3

http://www.panicnow.net/greydescent/Grey%20Descent%20-%20Hardcore.mp3

http://www.panicnow.net/greydescent/Grey%20Descent%20-%20Insomnia.mp3

needle wrote:

This is a fault of mine as well. I attribute it to being relatively new to synths and still exploring my way around the dozens of knobs and sliders. I try to experiment with all the options as much as possible, but a lot of the other options produce very subtle effects, so you need to use more than one at a time, and it can be really difficult to find the right combinations. With cutoff and resonance, the effects are drastic and give you that immediate feedback, so I can see why it would be used as a crutch for a lot of people. I'm just going to keep experimenting, and over time I'll gain more knowledge and be able to incorporate that into my work. It's going to take a while, but what else can you do? Also, I really like the samples you posted, Scr1pt3r. Is there any chance you can post the full version?

Hi needle, I'm suprised you could download the links I've posted. Users not from Israel were unable to d/l them.
As for the full version of the track... I'm planning on releasing it in a label so thats why I cant put its full version but its good to hear you liked it

Scr1pt3r wrote:

Breaking which habit ? The habit of tweaking only the cutoff and resonance in a VSTi. Even though I've been making music for more than 10 years I got a confession... I'm a cutoff and resonance tweaker. Luckily my music sounds good because I sit for hours till I find the right prestes suitable for my music but still, I think its due time that I could create more complexed progressions of sound and not just tweak the regular 2 knobs. I'd like to hear your suggestions and preferbally mp3 sequences in order to hear with what kind of tweaked riffs you can come up with. Here's an mp3 of mine but although it sounds good nothing special about its tweakings : ( For Some reason the Mp3s quality got fucked when I exported it again and again in cubase ... no idea why though but here it is anyway ) http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%201.mp3 XPhraze is playing when the drums come in , no tweaking of the sound what so ever. ( mp3 quality got fucked , this is not how it originally sounds ) http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%202.mp3 What you hear in the begining is ABSynth2 , no tweaking made. What comes in the break is ... Suprise... Delay Lama Tweaked using its Vowel Filters and going through a Distrotion http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%203.mp3 Novation V-Station Appregiator, no tweakings made. http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%204.mp3 Tweaked the old buddy called Cutoff Again, sorry for the mp3 quality which distorted the sound abit, I had no time to fix it. As you can hear , the tracks sounds good but not major tweaking done in there, mostly its good presets I've chose chained to some good effects. I'd like to hear other users advices and mp3s with short demonstrations of their advices, if I'll learn anything new in here I'll post mp3s with demonstrations of such tweakings and maybe even better - Cubase Project files so that everyone could learn from it.

As it seems people are now able to access the mp3, I've verified it with some friends. I hope it wont cause any problems again


http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%201.mp3
http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%202.mp3
http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%203.mp3
http://planet.nana.co.il/Scr1pt3r/mp3/Scr1pt3r%204.mp3