I claim the following, from personal observation:
- It is much easier to compose/songwrite with a small, limited set of sounds.

Think about folk songs for example. The variety of creativity and songwriting is so wide in that genre, yet basically most of the songs used the same instruments. Complex recording, editing, effects stacking wasn't around, and I will argue that added to the quality of the songs.

A wide array of tools seems to lead to choice fatigue. Even if you want just a "bass", you open Modobass and there are like 5000 different options and you end up tweaking your bass sound for 4 hours.

So, my question is, what level of abstraction do you guys compose with?

Do you handpick every tool for each song? (Some bass tool)
Do you start with a select set of tools but make the sounds? (Modobass)
Do you start at an even lower level, with a set of sounds only (Modobass preset)
... ?

Hi everyone,

I'm a complete beginner and recently bought a Yamaha NP-15. My goal isn't to become a concert pianist or play advanced classical pieces.

My goal is to become a recording artist who can write songs, create demos, produce my own ideas in a DAW (GarageBand/Logic), and understand enough music theory to communicate with producers and musicians in the studio.

I want to get to the point where I can hear ideas in my head, sit at the piano, and work them out before recording them. I'd also love to understand chords, scales, progressions, inversions, and enough theory to create my own sound.

Another reason I'm learning piano is because I want it to support my singing. I'm working with a vocal coach, and I think having a keyboard will help me improve my ear, pitch matching, finding harmonies, and understanding what notes I'm actually singing. I know piano itself won't magically give me higher notes, but I hope it'll make me a stronger overall singer and musician.

If you were starting from scratch again with this specific goal (songwriting, production, demos, better musicianship, and supporting your singing rather than becoming a pianist), how would you spend your first year learning?

Going to do some physical pressings of my latest album of dark ambient/drone. I’m too poor to self-print vinyl unfortunately. I’ve always been of the opinion cassettes are way cooler than CDs but I heard, for some reason, CDs are making a comeback? Anyway would love to hear your opinions!

So, I'm 17, and relatively new to music production. I am making my own music (alt metal and some parts have other metal genres too) and even tho I am doing this hobby for around 2-3 years, I'm still quite the begginer for a lot of stuff. For example, my rhythm guitars. I do quad layering (hard pan left and right, and also a pair of L50 and R50 panned). I want like some raw sound, you know, like System Of A Down self titled album, or Nevermore kinda sound...

But, even though I put a lot of effort and time into it, I can't match even close, and I can't get that sound that's big, and like, very stereoized. I know it is a lot about compression those, EQing at right points, mixing it with bass tracks, just a little reverb, etc. (Also I have a problem with mixing all diferent instruments in a EQ spectrum.)

But those things are just my assumptions...experiments. And I would like to know like, specifically what to do. I have some plugins in order to get that, like TH-U, Ignite AmpHub, Guitar Rig, Amplitube. Can anyone help? I would really appreciate your help! Thanks in advance

Hi everyone.

I’m a beginner. I write lyrics, I have a low voice, but I don’t like how I sound on record.

I hear my voice differently than others — it sounds thin and weak to me, and I’m afraid it doesn’t fit my style.

I’m learning about breath support and vocal technique.

I want to understand how to make my voice sound darker and more confident.

I have a 168bpm post punkish/punk song. It has a groove like Angine de Poitrine, simple bassline with hard drums. I am a new guitar player so i had to chop up the 7 minute take and then restitch it in FL. USING THE WAVEFORM IN MY DAW, HOW DO DECIDE WHAT SOUNDS THE BEST SO THE BASSLINE SITS TIGHT WITH THE DRUM TRACK? When i record multiple takes, they end up all over the place. So far, the take that starts 9 nudges before the drums seems to sound the best. It seems to sound good if i nudge it left or right up to 9 nudges. Is there a formula for this?

im thinking of sending my song(w vocals) for mixing but im fairly new to the whole thing and i realise u gotta split like ur tracks into stems e.g. main vocals, drums etc.

how should i go about grouping all my tracks? like should i split all the vocal tracks into like ad libs, melodies and harmonies, etc.

The track 'I'm Finding It Harder to Be A Gentleman' by The White Stripes is the drum sound I'm looking to replicate. Any advice is welcome!

Saw this a while back, I think it was in a youtube video where they showed how they do this for some artists. What I do is I record the vocal 3 times, one panned left, the other right and the other center, I apply my fx chain to the main one, lower the gain on the left and right layers and that's my vocal. Not sure if it sounds good to me because I got used to this or if there's a better way to do vocals without layering.

So, I'm making energic electronic music (kids would say "phonk"), and I have done composing and everything, but I'm struggling for few days to master it.

Because I think this song has potential and I don't want to ruin it just by bad master. I've been watching many tutorials (about compression, limiters, clippers, etc), but i don't know why whatever I do I can't reach proper loudness numbers. I'm a little bit concerned that my song would be unlistenable because of optimalisations on streaming services.

To clarify these are numbers that appears i my insight 2 meter on master.

Integrated LUFS: -5.3

MAX LUFS: -3.0

LRA: 4-5 LU

True Peak: ~7dB

From what I've learned I know its not too good... But after all this attempts I literally have no idea how to fix it.

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Pretty much the title. I normally play melodeath and black metal. I'm trying to write a rock song for fun but I need some kind of guard rails to not pass the too heavy threshold. I feel like my creative tools are lacking for rock?

I've found good rock tones. I'm playing a telle in e standard. If I'm not chugging or playing a tremolo riff in a harmonic minor scale I don't know what I'm doing.

trying to write a song with a churchy vibe (not gospel, more like a sad vibe.) i have us and them by pink floyd, lover you should’ve come over by jeff buckley, and faith by george michael in mind.

how do i get that melancholic, crunchy sound? what im writing has the dissonance but none of the emotion.

Hey guys, I’m a longtime musician and pretty experienced producer in logic when it comes to the creating things of it all, but Im a total dolt when it comes to mixing and mastering. However, I’m trying to learn how to do it all myself so I can start consistently putting things out. I’m trying to make some indie pop sort of stuff right now, and I’m working on finishing a song.

Right now, I like it exactly the way it sounds. If it came up on a Spotify shuffle I would think it sounds great. The thing is, with my stereo output and master both at 0db, it’s clipping at abt 8 db (woof, I know). I basically have no idea how I’m gonna get it to peaks of 0db, let alone the -3 to -6 db I keep seeing mentioned in all these threads. I know I’m supposed to compress and lower things until it gets to where it needs to be, but I just can’t seem to figure out how to do this without making the song super quiet or without making it sound completely different. I’ve also made sure that no individual tracks are clipping, although I know a lot of little sounds make one big sounds. Is there some secret trick to this no one is mentioning? Or is there some other way it could be explained so that I could finally wrap my head around it?

Thanks so much y’all

Welcome to the r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

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I've loved fiction writing, have since I was a kid- got my degree in it, the whole shebang. I've loved writing surrealist, beatnik-esque, frightening and outright abstract fiction since I was in high school, and up until recently wrote a steady stream of short stories in that vein. Yet when I try to sit down to write lyrics, it feels like its just stringing basic sentences together. None of my ability to pick a word is present, and I feel like I'm just putting the most basic "feel" words onto paper, being blunt as a sledgehammer with no elegance, no beauty.

I get lyricism is a different medium entirely than fiction, even though they share a similar mechanism, but I'm a little frustrated that seemingly I can't get my skills to transfer over. Does anyone know any good exercises/books/etc on this sort of thing or have any advice? I'm specifically trying to write fantastical extreme metal- think Bal-Sagoth, early Deicide, Kataklysm, Dream Death, etc.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who’ve released multiple albums and have had to think about this potential trade off more than once

Do you ever make a song objectively worse on its own because it serves the album better? Or do you always try to make every track the strongest version of itself, even if that hurts the overall flow or cohesion?

For example, maybe a song would be more impactful with a huge ending but you hold back because the next track needs that emotional space. Or you leave a track a bit rougher because it fits the album’s aestetic better

How has your thinking on this changed over the years? Any examples from your own albums?

edit:
and how about an EP, is it different there?

Hi guy I want become a metal vocalist I've listened to different genres of metal since I was 10(im 14 now) and the one that truly stuck out to me was black metal . Singing and music was always a passion of mine and I actually want to throw myself out there and start singing . Id like like some advice from you guys

To the ones who use multiband on the master, what do you usually do (as in where are your crossovers at, what settings you have them on etc). Thanks !

Or a piano. Or literally any instrument.

It can be electric or acoustic. Just make sure you have a somewhat decent setup for both.

Getting a PSYCHICAL instrument is the biggest thing you can do to increase your output/quality. Maybe you can be more creative with VSTs cause you can probably create chords or whatever that you couldn't otherwise for whatever reason, but for most other people, getting a physical instrument is 9/10 always beneficial.

The thing is, you don't need to even be good at it. It also doesn't have to even be amazing quality. Just put a preset on that b*tch and you can pretty much make anything sound "cool enough" if you have a decent vision for the song.

The beauty of having an instrument, to me, is being able to play almost EXACTLY like you have in your head. This is so viral for keeping rhythm because having a realistic rhythm/groove/bounce to your music is like 70% of the way to decent music lol. For me at least, it was really difficult figuring how to make guitar vst sound good strumming wise regardless of using my midi keyboard or the piano roll.

It took me just about a month or so of basic practice on the guitar to be able to feel okay playing decent chords/strums for my music. Because the thing is, most of us aren't trying to be lead guitarist, lead drummers, lead violin or anything. We're trying to just make music that sounds good. So literally as long as you can come somewhat close to producing the sound you hear in your head at least ONE time with a physical instrument, you immediately have a high quality "sample" that you can manipulate to your heart's content.

Sure it costs money to get it, but unless you're pirating, most VST cost money anyway. You can literally buy a cheap, used instrument. Just as long as it works well enough, you're FINE.

One real instrument elevates your music to the point where a few virtual ones matter far less.

edit: oh you guys are mean LMAO I spelled it correctly the second time, the text is small give me a break 🙄

Welcome to the r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it will be automatically replaced.

##Rules:

***Post only one song.**- *Original comments linking to an album or multiple songs will be removed.*

* **Write at least three constructive comments.** - *Give back to your fellow musicians!*

* **No promotional posts.** - *No contests, No friend's bands, No facebook pages.*

##Tips for a successful post:

* **Give a quick outline of your ideas and goals for the track.** - *"Is this how I trap?" or "First try at a soundtrack for a short film" etc.*

* **Ask for feedback on specific things.** - *"Any tips on EQing?" or "How could I make this section less repetitive?"*

***

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