KVR Audio

The Palace · Post by **The Palace** » Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:12 pm

Hey guys!!

I was wondering if anyone could tell their personal experience on how you found your sound and what you did to do so.Because I'm having a little bit of a struggle finding my style. Thank you if you respond.

Googly Smythe · Post by **Googly Smythe** » Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:28 pm

This won't help, but I'm going to say it anyway.
I didn't look for it - rather, it found me. Or, to put it another way, I make music that I want to listen to, not what I think others want to listen to.
Here's a thread on much the same topic...
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6912612

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:34 pm

Make as much music as possible ... your style will emerge. Might take a while.

Woodgardens · Post by **Woodgardens** » Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:55 pm

Throw some tracks you do appreciate in your DAW and analyse the parts you appreciate most.

Then try to figure out what they are really doing by using equalizers. Try to get as much info as possible. What sounds they use, how they use them and what effects they use and where. Analyse the structure of the tracks. Etc. etc.

Fiddling around like this usually brings me to ideas. It kind of fills the tank for me. About what I want to produce, and how I want to produce it.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:04 am

I really think the question asks a tail to wag a dog.

You won't until you've been creating music for a while. You'll develop a musical personality out of strengths and weaknesses. Style may tend to arrive when you've learned to play to your strengths.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:29 am

I've been making electronic music since the mid-80s off and on, and intensely since about 2003. I never felt like I found my style until spring 2017.

I like a lot of different styles of music: jazz, Celtic folk, Eastern European and African folk with odd time signatures, powernoise, dark ambient, glitch, EBM/industrial, occasional dips into chiptunes or future bass or other things, and I've tried my hand at many of them and been influenced by them all. There have been some aspects of my music which were characteristically "me", but still I was all over the map in terms genre, sound design and overall feel.

I've been recording a lot in the last couple of years, and started to listen to my own music as much or more than anyone else's while at work. I found there was a certain domain of songs I enjoyed listening to the most, and there were things I'd been doing which fell outside that range and rarely seemed to work. Realizing that, I made a conscious choice to focus more on what works the best -- not just fun to make or jam with, but which I especially enjoy listening to later.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:58 am

As I also haven't found my own thing yet (nor my own singing voice), I appreciate the responses from the people above who said it will emerge as you keep making music. Not only does it make sense to me, it's also comforting

I clearly need to make more music...

Woodgardens · Post by **Woodgardens** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 1:08 am

'..and started to listen to my own music as much or more than anyone else's while at work.'

@foosnark

I never use backing tracks while working. It kind of kills the spirit for me. Afterwards I can compare my track to other tracks. I feel it reduces my own creativity when I listen to backing tracks while working.

However, I guess everyone has to figure out for themselves what kind of discipline fits them best. But if one has no discipline whatsoever, then they never will release something substantial, I am afraid

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 1:10 am

A brilliant quote from Hans Zimmer and his master class, "If there is a rule, break it!". That's how new sounds,styles and ideas are created.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 1:11 am

When I'm in it, I don't want to hear much else. Maybe one sign you're developing your own musical personality is really hating some music.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 1:42 am

Just make music and don’t worry about styles. Do you want to be a packaged product or do you want to be a creative artist?

Jafo · Post by **Jafo** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:18 am

deastman wrote:Just make music and don’t worry about styles. Do you want to be a packaged product or do you want to be a creative artist?

+1. Although being the first does seem to help sales droids.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 4:57 am

look, just have fun, keep having fun and when you find what tickles whatever junk you have the most you'll get your answer

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 7:46 am

Woodgardens wrote:'..and started to listen to my own music as much or more than anyone else's while at work.'

@foosnark

I never use backing tracks while working. It kind of kills the spirit for me. Afterwards I can compare my track to other tracks. I feel it reduces my own creativity when I listen to backing tracks while working.

When I said "at work" there, I meant at my day job as a software engineer. I don't listen to anything else while I'm making music

deastman wrote:Just make music and don’t worry about styles. Do you want to be a packaged product or do you want to be a creative artist?

I used to worry sometimes about my music not fitting into a well-known category. Then I decided that was the wrong approach, it could easily turn into marketing bullshit that boxed me in.

What I think of as "finding my sound" happened more naturally than that. What I make is still inconvenient to categorize (some is "ambient", most can be handwaved as "abstract electronica") and it's simply what I want to make, but it has more consistency. It's my sound, not someone else's that I want to imitate.

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 8:00 am

In a nutshell - Fat fingers on the guitar and limited vocal range = lots of overdubs and effects to cover things up. Throw enough shit on and some of it will be bound to work. Cut some of it along the way and usually end up with something vaguely coherent enough to be a song. I tend to play what are usually quite normal chords, but arrive at these in odd ways on the guitar, with a lot of drone/open strings - definitely got my own way of doing things.

Trying to find my sound/style