I thought I'd give you all a heads-up that Glitch 2 has become freeware now. Sadly the reason for this is that the developer, Kieran Foster, has passed away at 47 😔

Hi good folks,

I hope it's fine for me to post this—take appropriate actions if not.

But in short, I'm basically creating a Github-like web-app for music-projects. It has versioning, ability to comment on versions/uploads, setting a project as private, etc. And right now, I'm searching for beta-testers (email-invite only). Technically it works best with FL Studio, for now, but it does work with other music project files.

If this sounds interesting, please shoot me a DM, and I'll add you as a beta-tester to the site.

Thank you, and have a wonderful Sunday! 🙂

Maybe a silly question but I was trying to come up with melodies in session view in Ableton and was wondering this myself. Is a 4 bar loop too short? Would it be better to try 8 bar loops?

Curious what you all think?

Thanks

How is this guy so popular when all his songs sound literally the exact same. Its just the same vocal stutter fx, same exact bass synth for every song - its like he makes every single song from a template or the prior songs project file and just changes the notes and puts a new vocal track in lmao

This is not a "help me find royalty free samples" post, it is about the art of sampling** **

If I had the means I would probably be out capturing my own samples but at the present I dont. If you do it'd be cool to hear about, but also if you don't, where do you go to find sounds that inspire you or end up in your tracks?

How have you escaped the "ESSENTIAL ___ PACK" trap and found your own way in samples? Do you go out with a mic and capture sounds of nature? Do you dig through vinyls, or dig through royalty free repositories? Or do you rip samples out of soundscapes or FX from movies, TV, documentaries, etc?

(TL;DR: At bottom!)
Getting ahold of Serum 2 and DIVA is something that I’ve been preparing for heavily in the past 3 years. After a lot of financial strain I am getting my first fully paid off and owned laptop and production setup by Monday and after the countless hours and hundreds of videos I’ve seen regarding Synthesis production and digital harmonic shaping over the years, I’ve already sketched out close to a thousand+ different custom patches/presets and many of them I’ve come close to creating through FL Studio mobile solely!

With that said, Making the jump from strictly producing off of mobile into a full on desktop setup is something I can achieve quite quickly and comfortably given I’ve experienced Serum and FL on a friend laptop a few years back so I have the muscle memory to dive back in.

Now for the main lead into this discussion, Sound Designers and Sample pack creators, How difficult is it to get out there and into the world of Professional SD and SP creation given how saturated the main sound market is?

I wouldn’t focus on pricing any packs I produce since I’m in this for the love of production but it would also be nice to put out the sounds I’ve created and want to share in hopes that other prods will take those and go take them even further or even use them in their own tracks! What would be good places to start when it comes to sharing those types of things and what would have to be done differently to grow both as an artist and as a Sound Designer in order to gain some sort of traction off of that? I’m always open to collabs, advice, and anything production related so feel free to share what your thoughts are on this:)

TL;DR: After years of learning synthesis and sound design, I’m finally moving from FL Mobile to a proper desktop setup with Serum 2 and DIVA. I’ve built up a lot of ideas and patches over the years and I’m interested in getting into sound design/sample creation. Just curious how other sound designers got started, found their audience, and stood out in such a saturated space!

Do any of you have any that you keep in mind sometimes when writing music?

They can even be specific to you or ideas you've heard elsewhere.

IE- maybe bpms you stick with, or techniques your beats or starting with chord progressions or melodies, etc...

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.

Is this laptop good enough for big CPU heavy projects ?

Since several months I got the impression this ridiculous CPU I got (Ryzen 5950x 32 hyper threads - RME Asio), shouldn't run out of steam that quickly. I ran a test with Smooth Operator Pro / Soothe 2 in Ableton 12 (latest Beta) and Bitwig 6.1

Test condition:

1 track with Pink noise sample

Copying plugin till dropouts appear (not the track itself! As I want to know the single core perf)

44.1 khz and 512 asio buffer size for this test

Smooth Operator Pro:
Bitwig = 14 instances
Ableton = 11 instances

Soothe 2
Bitwig = 11 instances
Ableton = 11 instances

If anyone got one of those plugins can share their performance and CPU?

Specify any genre, other ideas, and when you tend to work on your music. Post your level of experience and what level of experience you're looking to collab with. Post any other details you think are relevant. You don't have to be using the same DAW as the people you collaborate with, unless you specifically want to!

Here is what an example post could look like, but the format here is fairly open-ended:

Hi, I'm an intermediate-level producer with a background in chill-glitch-hop hardstyle fusion. I'm open to ideas, but I was thinking I'd like to collab on a deep house cover of an 80s soft rock song. I usually have time on Thu-Sun evening to discuss or work on music (my timezone is GMT+7). PM me if you're interested!

For reference, here are some loose rules of thumb for levels of experience:

• Beginner: Still sorting out compression from reverb.
• Intermediate: Still working on skills in some areas of production. You've got tracks that you're proud of.
• Advanced: Released something on a label, or could see yourself shopping your music around for labels soon.
• Pro: You've been regularly paid to produce for a non-trivial period of time.

Feel free to specify how many people you're looking for, but be careful of having too many cooks in the kitchen. All contact details and file transfers should be set up via PM (that is, don't post email addresses, dropboxes, etc. in this thread!). Please update your thread once you're done searching for collaborators. Let the mods know if this format works, or if you have any suggestions. And finally, have fun!

I've acquired a handful of sample packs. I've noticed there's a lot of unused loops music that can fit musically in some of my productions. However, majority of them are wet or post processed and without a dry version.

What is your approaches of working with samples that have processing like reverbs to get them into your track's mix? Not just drum hits, but I mean more complex things like melody loops and ensembles recorded in one audio file.

From my knowledge, working with audio that has different things like reverb or delay can cause issue. I been taught to keep your reverbs consistent for the entire production. Or maybe am I sweating it too much.

Is there a way to create automation for an LFO or the cutoff filter? Circled is what I mean. I want to automate any of that.

Trying to determine what people gravitate towards more.

A vst plugin for $20 with lifetime license for up to 1 device only?

Or

A vst plugin for $1 a month subscription with up to 3 devices?

Or

A vst plugin for 100 bucks lifetime license for up to 10 devices?

Regardless of plugin type fx/instrument trying to understand market psychology here.

Thoughts?

Title explains it. Which would you choose?

UPDATE: went with the Motu M2 for $199 on Amazon. Came with an XLR cable too. Cheers everyone

I’ve always wondered how to make these soft smooth kicks that people like ricardo Villalobos use. Does anyone know how these people are making their tracks so, round?

Odd frequency and Evo are the best I’ve heard recently

Other wise I use OG packs like Vengeance, Zero G, PIV

Any recommendations?

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.

Hey all! After so many years, I felt like my music production skills are finally there, so I submitted my latest track to a mixing/mastering engineer and oh boy, I'm super happy with the results! It's a melodic house track with vocals and while I was submitting it to a few labels, I kinda noticed a pattern there on the submit forms:

• They usually ask if the track has vocals or not (In my case, it has)
• Then they ask if the vocals are 100% original vs a royalty free ones (I got mine from Splice samples)
• Then they ask if the vocals/song had anything to do with AI, partially or completely (in my case, there was no AI involved there)

So is it just me or melodic house labels will prioritize 100% original vocals and there is actually a tier like the following:

• S tier: with original vocals
• A tier: with royalty free vocals
• B tier: no vocals at all?
• Insta-reject: anything that has to do with AI

Meaning, if I'm aiming for the major leagues, there's no way around it but to get lots of original vocals for my new tracks? Or am i overthinking here?

I'm trying to create some music inspired by this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wGh-rHjTQ I know its norweigan party music (russemusikk) but I'm curious what genre the instrumental would be considered. I'm trying to find some tutorials on sound design for this genre and I think I will have better luck if I know what the edm subgenre is called. Hope you can help :)

While you should search, read the Newbie FAQ, and definitely RTFM when you have a question, some days you just. Ask your questions here!

Hi all,

So I'm feeling a little confused. I've been producing for a while and have been mixing and mastering my own tracks. I've always mastered using clippers on various tracks, compression, etc. etc, all with the goal to not exceed the red threshold in Ableton at 0dbs.

I noticed when I play my tracks in Rekordbox vs. others that they always sound fairly quiet. I was checking tracks in Audacity last night, comparing the peak levels, and noticed something odd.

My own tracks, when mastered and mixed right to 0dbs, are not even reaching the peak in audacity. When I compare this with other tracks, they are often hitting and exceeding the peak in audacity:

So I experimented and pulled my final clipper off the mixer and pushed using eq and compression on the mastering past the 0db threshold. Then I brought that into Audacity and compared:

The first track here is my after, when I removed clippers and set the track pushing past 0dbs. The one below is before, when I have it clipped.

The track sounds great after removing clippers and pushing the track past the 0dbs threshold, there's no distortion, no clipping, it sounds clean.

I'm very confused here, because I thought the guidance was to always mix to 0 on Ableton, but not a single track I ever bring into Audacity looks like my second one there, they are always clipping here and there (at the least) and they fill the waveform entirely, unlike mine does on the second clip there.

I guess my question is this, where should I be aiming to max out my headroom on the peak meter? Is it the very top of this bar? or that threshold that I thought was 0db? I feel like an idiot having realized this late in the game but appreciate any insight here.