One Synth Challenge #180: Regency by nakst (ELEX Wins!)

[LunarKitten]

If you're truly just starting out, find a relatively simple track you like and then try to re-create it. The process will teach you a lot.

I've been writing songs for 35+ years. Most of them aren't very good. Finish a song, then make another one. Occasionally your inspiration and your skill come together and you get something special. But skill part just comes from learning and repetition.

Do you recommend starting with the drums?

[PeterBPL]

Do you recommend starting with the drums?

I recommend to start with something that is most difficult for you.
If it's drums then start with drums.

[LunarKitten]

Do you recommend starting with the drums?

I recommend to start with something that is most difficult for you.
If it's drums then start with drums.

I think the toughest think for me is the bigger picture of the composition. I hear alot of complex compositions here. How is this achievable?

[PeterBPL]

I think the toughest think for me is the bigger picture of the composition. I hear alot of complex compositions here. How is this achievable?

I already answered this before.
But when I talk about the hardest thing, I'm thinking about the small components, not the whole song. It's like asking what is the hardest thing about building an airplane - of course, the hardest thing is to build the entire airplane, but this answer makes no sense.

[LunarKitten]

I already answered this before.

Thanks Peter. I will figure it out eventually. Wait for my next entry.

[PeterBPL]

Thanks Peter. I will figure it out eventually. Wait for my next entry.

Look at my song for example - I made it using single preset. Of course that preset is velocity sensitive, so it can sound more hard or more smooth, but the main thing is - even if that song is simple, it may be more complicated for some people than making song full of various instruments. Maybe not for people here who participates in OSC - they're really good magicians, but for people who just starts making music and have no previous musical experience, making nice beat + bass + some fx + background may be much simpler than trying to base whole song on single sound. So again - it's all about experience (and time) in fact. The more time you spend creating - the better the results will be. And you will have more choice in what you want to do. First, try to do what you think works best for you.

[LunarKitten]

Look at my song for example - I made it using single preset. Of course that preset is velocity sensitive, so it can sound more hard or more smooth, but the main thing is - even if that song is simple, it may be more complicated for some people than making song full of various instruments. Maybe not for people here who participates in OSC - they're really good magicians, but for people who just starts making music and have no previous musical experience, making nice beat + bass + some fx + background may be much simpler than trying to base whole song on single sound. So again - it's all about experience (and time) in fact. The more time you spend creating - the better the results will be. And you will have more choice in what you want to do. First, try to do what you think works best for you.

THank you Peter. Your advice is rock solid. I agree it is about magic and time. This will be the foundation of my efforts.

[wikter]

I think the toughest think for me is the bigger picture of the composition. I hear alot of complex compositions here. How is this achievable?

Use a song of your preference to get a reference about comping parts: intro, phrase, bridges, verses...
It's all about telling something, you can say Hello with 4 bars, but you need hundreds to create a good picture of something.

[LunarKitten]

Use a song of your preference to get a reference about comping parts: intro, phrase, bridges, verses...
It's all about telling something, you can say Hello with 4 bars, but you need hundreds to create a good picture of something.

Be careful, if I get too many tips I'll destroy you all in the next competition.

That's going to be in a week, right?

[ElVincente]

I think the toughest think for me is the bigger picture of the composition. I hear alot of complex compositions here. How is this achievable?

Welcome to OSC !
This feels to me like the most challenging part of this thing... And the most interesting too !
The thing is you need to go through a lot of details, really there's no limit to how infinitely precise you can go edit those sounds and midi, but need to see the big picture at the same time.
It's probably different from people to people, but here's how I process.
I often begin this deep journey of swimming around these rabit holes the possibilities/limitation the osc synth creates for us for sound design, then got some loops, phrases, beats that I try to assemble.
Then manipulating and tweaking that first draft may give me an idea of what I'm going for, my personnal 'meaning' of the song.
Once I got that I can work the damn thing until it gets a form that satisfied me...
Some time I search for references to listen to, import sounds in the project, record myself, use other synth presets before recreating all that in the osc synth.
Hope it helps !

[LunarKitten]

I think the toughest think for me is the bigger picture of the composition. I hear alot of complex compositions here. How is this achievable?

I often begin this deep journey of swimming around these rabit holes the possibilities/limitation the osc synth creates for us for sound design, then got some loops, phrases, beats that I try to assemble.

I see. You've got to follow the white rabbit down the hole. Once you are down there you've got to keep an eye on the whole, even if that takes three times as long to get it done. There may be selfdoubt. Which direction should I take? Is this the one? You've got to hold on to it and try to navigate your way throu, like sailors looking at the stars. One after another.

Fortunatly I have gone through mixing with Mikes' bootcamp tips. He offers a systematic approach. First EQing then compressing. Does that mean he has his EQs before the compressors or am I getting this wrong?

[ElVincente]

I see. You've got to follow the white rabbit down the hole. Once you are down there you've got to keep an eye on the whole, even if that takes three times as long to get it done. There may be selfdoubt. Which direction should I take? Is this the one? You've got to hold on to it and try to navigate your way throu, like sailors looking at the stars. One after another.

That's well resumed ! But keeping an eye on the whole will makes things tree times shorter though in my experience!
Once you got 'the all', you can design the 'all form' roughly to have the entire sight of the thing, then go back to the details puff it until it shines.

Fortunatly I have gone through mixing with Mikes' bootcamp tips. He offers a systematic approach. First EQing then compressing. Does that mean he has his EQs before the compressors or am I getting this wrong?

Well you sure should eq before compressing the thing you don't wan't they trigger the compressor (mud and lowend good candidates...)
Other than that there's no rule set in stone for me.

[LunarKitten]

That's well resumed ! But keeping an eye on the whole will makes things tree times shorter though in my experience!
Once you got 'the all', you can design the 'all form' roughly to have the entire sight of the thing, then go back to the details puff it until it shines.

I hope to have it done 3 times shorter then. It is my dream to get the green light by the industry and be working among the star engineers. Got to follow that red line.

Well you sure should eq before compressing the thing you don't wan't they trigger the compressor (mud and lowend good candidates...)
Other than that there's no rule set in stone for me.

I'm going to give it a try, when the time comes for the next competition.

[] Peter:H []

+++ Release +++

In The Thin Air Tonight

https://soundcloud.com/p-e-t-e-r-h/in-t ... ir-tonight

Wow this sounds alot better than my track.

Thanks, LunarKitten. It took me lot's of lessons (trial and error hours spent on youtube, blogs and stuff) in mixing and sound design to get there ...
But these two are less important. It's like in triathlon ... of the three disciplines, swimming is the least important (mostly 1 hour only in pro iron man triathlon), though very challenging in terms of coordination and overall athleticism... meaning to say: If you try to go up the roaster in OSC, you should first go for composition not "sound".

[] Peter:H []

Do you recommend starting with the drums?

I recommend to start with something that is most difficult for you.
If it's drums then start with drums.

I think the toughest think for me is the bigger picture of the composition. I hear alot of complex compositions here. How is this achievable?

Take a goal at a time. For instance you might want to start with getting basedrum and (sub) bass right. Already this is btw very context dependent. If you go for techno for instance, it might be different than for some weird jazz stuff. I would recommend to watch some videos on youtube and try to mimic what you see there ... and the videos might help you to collect know how, theorie, tools, best practices ... but there's a lot of them. Don't got to deep into the rabbit hole ... don't forget to try out things yourself, rather than only wathicng stuff
If you go for a good basedrum / bass combo I recommend to mix bass only. I use for instance ISLO8 plugin (free 5-band splitter) in the master to mix bass only until the bass sounds right. Additionally you can grab the plugin sub ninja which is free for a few more days (https://dsp.thehim.com/, watch videos of The Him how he uses sub ninja) which helps you to see what's going on in your bass... Then after finishing one track yu'll next time focus on another aspect, then reiterate bass, then ... practice, practice and practice.
If you like visit the yt channel "Alice Yalcin Efe - Mercurial Tones Academy". Shes's a cool DJ, EDM producer and educator.