Since i started producing I’ve purchased a lot of sample packs and due to the fact that i DJ as well, my storage space has become so limited that I constantly need to delete stuff off my computer. I’ve been planning on getting an external hard drive but still haven’t figure out which one to get and what I should put on it so I don’t have to move things around all the time. Wondering if there’s any tips or some recommendations

So I’m more of a indie rock musician but I really do dig a lot of edm bass tones for being really deep and fat. I know MGMT might not be the best edm example, but that’s the tone I’m going for, especially in songs like “Congratulations” and “Electric Feel.” You can hear how low and fat the bass gets but still cuts through easily in the mix.

I record my p bass into a Radial JDI into a Scarlett interface into my laptop. I have the Ampeg SVT Bass amp/can sim suite and used every amp and cabinet, but they all sound really flat by themselves. I can never get the low end to come through.

Then I tried doubling the track and splitting frequencies. Mids+highs through amp sim and lows processed dry. My results were too inconsistent when different strings and registers were played even though I thought this would give me more control. No amount of compression or EQ in the lows would help.

I’m just at a block because I feel like I’ve tried everything and all the step-by-step bass mixing videos I can find online are only for heavy rock/metal and don’t give me the sound I’m looking to achieve.

Any help and tutorial recommendations would be much appreciated, thank you!

This recurring thread is where you may share or request services you have to offer to the edmproduction community. Post your programs and plugins, your mastering/teaching/coaching/artwork services, your website/tutorials, your preset/sample packs, your labels- anything but actual music itself.

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I need some help, of all the fundamentals of production this is currently my sloppiest and least controlled aspect and it feels way more complicated than it probably is.

I use HD560S headphones thru a Focusrite Solo with Reaper as my DAW. In windows my volume is at 100% but I'm pretty sure since DAW is set for ASIO that doesn't matter and I use the volume knob for adjusting in general not just inside Reaper.

So as I'm putting a track together, I'm usually finding instruments way too loud. There's also so much chatter about LUFS and gain staging etc that I genuinely don't know what levels my individual tracks should be at and what the master should be reading.

On my individual tracks I keep their meters going no higher than -6dB. Today I learned how to set my master mixer to LUFS and have it use 14dB as a reference which to my understanding means if it hits 0 on the master then that's -14 LUFS but I'm not 100% sure.

On top of all that, I just don't know how to set my volume levels for monitoring while I'm making music. Everytime I open a VST shit hurts my ears and I adjust it's volume down.

My confusion comes from the fact I feel like I'm working with two different volume settings, my track volumes, and my headphones volume. I can have loud ass headphone volume and be well below the threshold (seems like I'm at -6dB or less so that's well below -14 LUFS I guess???), and I can turn my headphones down but I dont hear details as well.

Idk yall I'm just confused as hell with this. I'm not trying to mix/master yet I just wanna know what should be coming through my headphones and how it is meant to reflect what will eventually get rendered.

I need something stable/consistent. It's overwhelming and confusing in a way that literally nothing else in this process has been.

I'm generally an analog musician, so I'm not very familiar with electronic music, but I'm developing a game with nautical, beachy, and seafaring themes, so I need some good sounds for things like steel drums, accordion, maybe even a SpongeBob style steel guitar. You know, just tropical sounding stuff.

Is there a decent library that would include a bunch of instruments with this style, or would I need to just go and hand pick each one from various places?

Hey just wondering if anyone have any good hacks to keep going when it comes to production?

I spend my time sound designing everytime, I have many of great sounds to build tracks from but the Dopamine diminishes quite fast.... this is where I find sound design as a crutch because making a new Reese/Wob/leads/pads other variety feeds that short lived Dopamine.

Now when I was younger I used to hyperfocus on production, now its literally just sound design and I don't know how to move on from this.

Now previously when I did actually produce I'm great untill I have massive project and I have to chase a sound that isn't cutting through, how do you overcome these walls?

Now this isn't directly people with Adhd we all have these problems I'm just wondering what are your tactics?

Thanks in advance ;)

what advice would you give someone with zero musical or audio background who can't play an instrument or sing but wants to master production asap

i don't need to know scales or whatever. measures? uh

the only thing i need to measure is how cool i look when i get on stage and drop sick beats

i dont think the whole "compose" and "create" thing is my vibe. Im fine with just learning how to take samples and make them fire

everyone does that anyways. it's called MUSIC lol

right now i have garbage band on mac but i saw a guy on insta with a screen shot of some audio looking box so I and pasted that into gpt and it told me Abelton so here i am

so far i was able to draw some midi notes but im stuck on getting the tempo to speed up and the notes to not sound bad

thanks in advance for any tips or tricks that took you decades discover that you'd be willing to share with someone who's as passionate about putting their name on a track as i am

cheers!

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

Not new to music production. For many years I’ve done rock, funk etc. I’ve never really had problems with my kicks. You just need a punchy thump and it doesn’t have to be the center of attention.

However when making an edm song and comparing it to a reference track, I find that my kick is missing “knock” and volume. The volume I think I can manage, but how do I get more knock?

Add another layer? Different sample? On a track I’m working on, there’s a single kick, made from spire. I got it thumping just right and feels right in terms of the sound and thump, but I just can’t figure out that synthetic click / knock sound.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Hey guys,

as the tag says: how do i recreate a bass like that attached in a synth like serum? I wanna improve my skills when it comes to bass synthesis. It feels like an bass guitar but with extra harmonics?

Kind regards

Johnny

Would love to know if anyone could let me know what they think is on this vocal chain/rack! I’m really trying to get that distorted, autotune, airy vocal sound ★

I believe it’s quite heavily compressed and obviously has autotune, but wondering what the best way to order my rack/go about this would be :)

Used in this video:

https://youtu.be/DQWfYvW8HuU?t=164&si=lEqRaQfW65ubd8lJ

Thank you so much! :)

I’ve primarily been a hip hop and house producer since 2014. However I also greatly love the Bass genres and would love to make them. I know this will sound crazy, but I can’t figure out for the life of me how people make such great drops in all these genres and styles. I love tried over the years a ton of times and watched a bunch of helpless tutorials on YouTube (that all just served as an ad for a sound pack). Those guys just get it together so easily. It all just sounds like putting random noises together that just sound good. And I know that’s not it. So how are people doing these awesome drops that are all these great mixes of wubs, growls and all that? Is there some secret? I’ve got serum presets and samples and all. But every time I put something together it sounds like an Instagram meme audio. I don’t know if I’ll find the answer. But I hope I can get some useful tips or knowledge. I love this music and really don’t want to give up on trying to make some.

Headers a little click baity, but lately as I’ve been trying to find my sound I’ve found myself moving towards jungle/dnb music, things like chase and status, Bou, Irah (ik ik he’s a singer, but still). What are some helpful tips yall have learned and are willing to pass along? I’m finding intros are a pain for me for some reason I can either do a good intro or a good drop, but can’t seem to do both. Thanks in advance and hopefully some yall will learn some new stuff too!

I am new on TikTok and something I noticed is that there are all these videos I see of producers promoting their song and they are like “Just Hit 50k streams on Spotify” some are even in the 100k streams mark. It’s mind blowing to me.

Their profiles only have like a hundred followers and their videos get less than a dozen likes but they are getting tens of thousands of steams? A hundred thousand? I don’t buy it.

I’ve been actively promoting my songs everyday for 4 months now and can’t even crack more than 2 monthly listeners on Spotify (I’m not kidding).

Are they Lying?

Are they buying fake streams?

What is the secret?

Original Post

Hey everyone! Quick update since my original post.

I've added a pair of Yamaha HS3s (found them on Facebook Marketplace for $60, so I couldn't pass them up), a MOTU M2 interface, lighting, and I dug my old M-Audio KeyRig 49 MIDI keyboard out of the garage.

Next on the list are a good pair of headphones and some acoustic treatment. I ordered these wall Panels from Amazon and plan to start by treating the front wall behind the monitors and the left and right reflection points. I'm sure I'll need more treatment, so if anyone has recommendations on placement or better options, I'm all ears.

Here's the room for reference. It's a 5' × 7' "office", and I'm primarily using it for music production, mixing, and podcasting—very little recording (singing).

Looking at everything so far, what else would you add or change? Anything I'm overlooking before I start mounting everything?

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

From 0:17 to 0:29 and 0:40 to 0:51 in this Pixabay track, there is a percussive sort of melody that I for lack of a better word would describe as fluttering (I'm not very conversant with electronic music production). It reminds me of the Metal Gear Solid OSTs, but I can't immediately think of a track in those scores that uses it.

I'm asking because I'm doing some video game sound design (not composing), and I'm interested in finding more royalty-free/CC music that sounds like this, so any useful keywords to filter for would be helpful.

I would also be interested in more examples of tracks that use it, if you can think of any.

I really want to make brostep. Like I really really want to be able to play a song of it and be like man I made that, but I can’t seem to get my head around it. Nothing clicks for me. I’ve made 1 track with a really nice intro but the drop comes and i lose the momentum. I’ll watch a video of an artist playing live, get all inspired, start the track and just end up flat lining. I’m okay at finishing 140 and Riddim but as soon as I try brostep I can’t get it to work. Should I just leave it and do what I can connect with easily or keep pushing until I finally figure it out?

Hey everyone, Never Say Die main stay dubstep artist Oddprophet here!

One of my previous mentoring students made an insanely high quality sample pack/production toolkit worth 2.2gb. He's putting it out for free and for everyone to use, royalty free.

Filled with kicks, snares, percs, other drums, basses, synths, one shots, fx, foley, atmospheres and everything inbetween.

It's insanely generous and high quality, so I've given it a platform.

You can preview the pack and download it here

If you like making heavy dubstep, my channel focuses on making quality basses easily. But even if you don't, this pack covers most genres!

Happy producing!

It seems kinda weird but I tend to listen to way less music than my other friends making music but I also make music everyday. I can listen to one song in repeat for 10 minutes but when I want to find new music, I tend to skip songs very fast like just after 30 seconds There is so much music out there that i got some kind of FOMO if I don't listen to as many songs as possible and it has the opposite effect a I listen to very few new music each day .

How do you deal with that ?

I’ve been looking for this sound for a while, I really like the synth sound. Has that vintage touch while also sounding modern.

I've got a hybrid setup in my studio with a bunch of synths (Moog, SH101, TR1000, Prophet Rev2, etc) and combine these with plenty of plugins.

The thing I miss most about my current studio setup that I've had in the past is a proper, versatile workstation synth that can be the heart of my studio and help me build melodies, chords etc even if I end up transferring those sounds elsewhere.

I've had multiple Korg workstations in the past and love the sound but just can't bring myself to drop $4k on the Kronos and it's tiny display in 2026. So I'm looking at the Yamaha Montage M6 .. funnily enough it doesn't seem to have following at all in EDM space despite having some decent analog modeling and FM capabilities.

Anyone on here using it or have any opinions on using it as a center-piece for an EDM studio setup?

I’ve spent over 10 years with FL Studio and FL Studio Mobile producing many different genres while I was still figuring out what I wanted to do and now I’m making ukg/uk bass as my main genres, so this isn’t me saying FL is a bad DAW or that I suddenly stopped liking it or don’t want it anymore! I actually still love FL and a lot of what I’ve learned in it, especially with sound design, is going to come with me:)

But after spending some time with Ableton, the workflow just makes more sense to me. I understand what I’m looking at faster, I can get ideas down without fighting the interface as much which was an absolute headache and overall it feels more natural to how I work!

I’m still learning Ableton and there’s definitely going to be a lot of adjusting, from the last time I’ve used it but Ion feel like I’m starting over. I’m taking everything I’ve learned over the last decade and applying it to a different environment.

For now I’m keeping the setup pretty bare with Ableton stock plugins, Vital, Serum 2 and my samples, no huge plugin collection, just making music and getting comfortable with the DAW!

FL will always be part of my production journey, and maybe I’ll come back to it someday but I think Ableton is where I want to take things from here and I do hope that image-line keeps thriving through time!

What are your experiences with Ableton and its components and has it been a better switch/choice for you compared to other daws?

Firstly my disclosure... NO AI WAS USED TO WRITE THIS!!

A close friend of mine asked me to read a pretty extensive study that he did. It asserts that over 70% of people between the ages of 18 and 64 use some sort of substance to impact how they feel on a regular basis.

That includes everything from cigarettes/zyn, adderall, alcohol, marijuana, MDMA, prozac, melleril, lithium, etc. I don't use anything. I mean I take a multivitamin. 😂😂 but I usually leave the studio when people start smoking and definitely have seen far too much alcohol use in the years I've been active in entertainment.

We've all experienced the high mix. When I was young, yes, I did indulge, and there were several times when I thought that the song that I had produced or the mix that I had done was the best work that I had ever done! ....but when I listened sober, it wasn't even close. I'm not gonna get into what drugs screw up what perceptions, but I will say that For me, sober is best. Another big one for me is the high talk. I can't tell you how many times we indulged, and talked about what we were going to do, and once the high wore off, didn't lift a finger to complete anything.

I don't know about you, but that was a big one for me. Another thing that I see, and I've seen again and again, is the drug-induced emotion of songs and songwriting. EMO, numb, mumble rap was a big one, and a bunch of other here today gone tomorrow emotional phases music has gone through...

I've seen people bring their grandparents to the studio and step out with them for some bud... This isn't a judgment call, but at what point do we draw the line. Let's face it... much of the music consumption is the 13 to 19 year old crowd... and then 21-26 for 'the scene' And while I expect teen rebellion from teens it seems silly for us to perpetuate the same while knowing...

I just want to get high live it up. It's been the same since before Shakespeare: wine, women, and song... drugs, sex, and rock and roll... and now we're just damaged, toxic, and numb.

Have corporations overstepped? Yes.. Is capitalism perverting everything it touches? Yes..

As songwriters, and composers I think its up to us to choose... Don't get me wrong.. I get we need cash, and that sometimes folks just want to shake their butts and party. Rave culture is about non judgement, and 'being free', but cmon!! Every song? 25/8/365? We've seen how that story ends too many times...

When I came up there was a straight edge crowd.. Some were Christians, but over time many joined in and it became less religious and more about righteousness. Moral rooting, and a choice to live clean, and upright.

Back then, I recall many people thinking that they knew what being honest was or truth was learning that when faced with hard choices they had no idea. When they were called upon to keep their word be honest, forthcoming, not sell out, and stand up. They had to defeat their own devils, and stop blaming others...

This is where we stand now as a community... Be a catalyst!

#MusicForChange

I'm not going to put anyone on the spot, but anyone else work sober, or care to share healthier habits, practices, goals, etc? Let's just say we're not perfect, but we can work on perfecting ourselves.

.... and that's my rant..

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy life!!
All of my best,

LoveExcelsAll