Sinko's attempted (electronic) musical learning thread

sinkoman

sinkoman

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So, I dedicated the past few afternoons to trying to figure out the different synth options in Reason (oddly enough, common sense and reason being the things that taught me most about what does what on a synth), and ended up with this.

The more and more I listen to it, the more and more I hate it, but it's the first thing i've ever really made with a synth (well, soft synth), so I figured i'd share :D

http://media.putfile.com/Chaos-25

Slaughter (or flame :P) away!

EDIT: BTW, I intended for the shitstorm to be called "chaos". I'll assume the "25" is putfile's way of saying "you ****ing tard, there's already 24 little crapstacks like this called 'chaos'"
 
Dammit now you made me download Reason to try it out.
Are you using the demo?

I shall learn with you sinkoman! :D
 
How fun D:

This is pretty nice for your first try. Percussion is nice heh. The bass is a little too low pitched and it's not smooth enough. As for the lead synth, not too bad. Was that a preset patch?
 
I made this jig yesterday tell me what you guys think
www.myspace.com/thepiratewizard

oh ya its not finished.. i am having the trouble in panning some notch eq and possibly some leveling with the voice samples
 
Vegeta897 said:
How fun D:

This is pretty nice for your first try. Percussion is nice heh. The bass is a little too low pitched and it's not smooth enough. As for the lead synth, not too bad. Was that a preset patch?
Click to expand...

They were both the results of my own tweakings.

I think i've finally figured out what i'm doing with the different synth settings. I've noticed that my prior knowledge of FM radio transmitters (which i've made and tweaked with) comes into play allot when trying to figure out which setting does what.

Now, on to figuring out what the different modulators, filters (well, I know lots about band pass, high pass, and low pass filters), and different FX do!

Naudian said:
Dammit now you made me download Reason to try it out.
Are you using the demo?

I shall learn with you sinkoman! :D
Click to expand...

I'll say yes if you never ask that again.
 
The term "elevator music" popped into my head. Not that I mean any offense by it! I'm pretty sure I can smell a Combinator preset in the synth lead, but feel free to correct me.

I really should try posting some of my music, but I'm so god damn lazy.
 
Absinthe said:
The term "elevator music" popped into my head. Not that I mean any offense by it! I'm pretty sure I can smell a Combinator preset in the synth lead, but feel free to correct me.

I really should try posting some of my music, but I'm so god damn lazy.
Click to expand...

Do eet!

Qonfused said:
Hmm. Maybe I should get this.
Click to expand...

Don't do eet!
 
Its okay, its better than my first piece, just get some better sythns...In time it will just come naturally to you.
 
'kay, problem. I downloaded a software MIDI keyboard for Reason. Now how do I hook it up to things? I couldn't find anything in the help file, and for some reason Google didn't bring up anything useful in the first 20 or so results.
 
Depends which one you've downloaded.

Not that I'd know anything any way, since I've never used software keyboards unless they were already part of the host program. =\
 
google bome's mouse keyboard, install it and read the instructions on the webpage
 
There's a slight problem with your drum beat, I don't quite like how you have the kick drum sequenced, it feels off.

Are you loading preset patches? These sound like pretty unique synths.

I dunno what to say, other than the whole thing felt like a midi song file :p

Guh, I guess I'm too tired to make a real analysis, nighty night.
 
Vegeta897 said:
There's a slight problem with your drum beat, I don't quite like how you have the kick drum sequenced, it feels off.
Click to expand...

I know which one you're talking about. I tried to make it on an off beat so that it didn't sound too robotic. Guess it backfired :P

Vegeta897 said:
Are you loading preset patches? These sound like pretty unique synths.
Click to expand...

No patches used.

Unique? Is that good or bad D: D: D: D:

On that noise sounding instrument, I can't seem to get it to sound "perfect". At current, it sounds a lot more like noise than I wanted it too. It's supposed to sort of echo, and sound hollow. If anybody could help, i'd really appreciate it.
 
I kind of like the beat. Doesn't jar me at all. Just gotta beef it up a bit IMO. **** them samples up.

As for the "noise", are you using a sample or routing an instrument? I'd use the Subtractor and just have it generate noise, playing with the filters and velocity values. It's simple, but it's a wonderfully effective method that I use quite a bit. Sharp bursts, drifting background clicks and clacks, hi-hat/snare substitutions, or just plain old grating loudness and intensity (if you treat it right). You can screw around with the FM synthesis as well, since that can easily give you some pretty discordant noises.

If you want something "hollow" sounding, I guess you could use the Notch filter. If you want echo, either route it to a delay effect device or, if you want something a bit more staccato, just give it a quick saw/square LFO for the filter or amp values. With a tad bit of reverb, it can fool a lot of people.
 
I kinda like it...Can make a good remix of it :P

I wish I could do this stuff...are you using a keyboard or is this some program on the computer? I've got me some electric piano thing over here..and I can't use it because it confuses me, and music hates me.
 
MIDI Keyboards are used in sync with music software. Reason is an assortment of synthesizers, samplers, loop cutters, and drum machines, along with effect devices that you route them into for chorus effects, reverbs, echos, and so forth.

You don't need a keyboard for it, since you can program everything with a mouse. However, more complex melodies will pretty much require keyboards unless you want to click them in, note by note, for half an hour. Even drums get more creative with use of a keyboard instead of the step sequencer. And any keyboard that comes with faders and knobs (which should be standard by now) can give a more hands-on approach to automation.
 
Absinthe said:
I kind of like the beat. Doesn't jar me at all. Just gotta beef it up a bit IMO. **** them samples up.

As for the "noise", are you using a sample or routing an instrument? I'd use the Subtractor and just have it generate noise, playing with the filters and velocity values. It's simple, but it's a wonderfully effective method that I use quite a bit. Sharp bursts, drifting background clicks and clacks, hi-hat/snare substitutions, or just plain old grating loudness and intensity (if you treat it right). You can screw around with the FM synthesis as well, since that can easily give you some pretty discordant noises.

If you want something "hollow" sounding, I guess you could use the Notch filter. If you want echo, either route it to a delay effect device or, if you want something a bit more staccato, just give it a quick saw/square LFO for the filter or amp values. With a tad bit of reverb, it can fool a lot of people.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's just a Subtractor running off of a redrum (easier to instance the beats than with the sequencer, because they're all the same note), and fed through a compactor, some envelope filters, and an EQ.

I'll try the notch filter :)

I'll try that
 
Sounds like each part is fighting over one another, especially the toms. I think it has too much bass, or maybe just too much volume. As for that sound effect panned to the right, it's a bit too loud, and panned too far. Then again that may just not be my thing. The melody seemed way too drowned out by everything else.
The whole song didn't have enough melody to begin with. I'd get rid of the toms or EQ them higher and stick a bassline in.

And I still dislike the drum beat. I think there's an unnecessary snare. Bleh, I dunno, just seems too tight near the end of each bar.
 
Getting into Reason. So far what I've learned is it sounds cheap until you apply filters... lots of filters...
 
Viperidae said:
Getting into Reason. So far what I've learned is it sounds cheap until you apply filters... lots of filters...
Click to expand...

Err... many programs sound "cheap" without filters. That's kind of because filters are generally an integral part to any method of synthesis. This isn't something exclusively inherent with Reason. :|

I've never felt the necessity for an abundance of filters. A single lowpass is absolutely dandy for the most part.
 
NOBODY POSTS D:?????

Btw, I orderd the Edirol PCM50.
 
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