Music Cypher's - Question? Answer! - Thread

Discussion in 'Your Projects' started by Pat, Sep 5, 2014.

  1. #1
    Pat

    Pat LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    HEY!

    I made this thread for every single person who has questions towards producing / remixing.
    You can ask me everything you want related to music and producing.
    I also can give you tips if you want to know something out of my opinion or such.
    I try my best to help you.
    I know this thread may sound pointless at first but i hope it will be a nice thing for helping people for the producing scene soon.
    Lets go?

    :)
     
  2. #2
    Elaine

    Elaine The One They Call Elaine. LPA VIP

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  3. #3
    Pat

    Pat LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    The demo actually sounds pretty nice, the idea and the progress is so far very good!
    THOUGH as you told me, it sounds off. My tip, MUTE (don't delete) everything besides the vocals and start to produce a NEW line with the brass you have there STARTING FROM MIKES PART.
    Also dont exaggerate with chords and such. Just take one note (E starting from Mike) and produce further (End of mikes part)
    After you have a line you like you can add a second note starting from the beginning so you have at least a harmonic.
    Sometimes a full 3 chord doesnt sound good, and it always depends on the sound you are using.

    So my tip, make just a basic line you like from Mikes start to his end
    if you want, add another line on top of the base line you made for harmonics.
    And if you want full chords THEN add the 3rd line on top or at the bottom, or whatever your position for this chord is.

    And then do the same thing with chester.
    For beginners / not so experienced people it sounds like a long story but in the end we all want a good sounding track. SO this is a save version of producing for newcomers :)
     
  4. #4
    Elaine

    Elaine The One They Call Elaine. LPA VIP

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    Right, thank you very much! I'll give it a shot! I'll let you know how it turns out!
     
  5. #5
    Pat

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    i am looking forward to your result!
     
  6. #6
    minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    What I was starting to suggest (but didn't get all the way through with) was come up with a concept (maybe a narrative or a vibe or whatever) for your track and build the music off of that
     
  7. #7
    Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Open FL Studio > use it for a while > close it > no sound on YouTube, WMP, anything.

    Everywhere I check it says the problem is with the ASIO drivers, but nothing I do seems to fix it. Any easier way to fix it than restarting the computer? I know this isn't what the thread is for but I guess you guys have experience.
     
  8. #8
    Pat

    Pat LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    It is because of ASIO drivers, at least its the same for me.
    Open your FL Studio, go to options and audio settings.
    For the Input and Output choose your Speakers or your device you are hearing your sounds with. (For me i am working with headphones so i choose my headphones)
    The problem should be solved.

    Change the settings like i told you and restart your pc / fl studio and tell me if it worked

    PS: Also make sure the output on the masterchannel is your device
    (it can be chosen at the bottom right)
    [​IMG]

    PS2: this is exactly what the thread is for, EVERYTHING what belongs to music and production
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2014
  9. #9
    hawk

    hawk because the internet LPA Super VIP

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    i want to get into music production. i have no idea how the fuck to play piano but i made this. do you
    have any tips for a) that, b) becoming better (e.g. learning piano and shit).
     
  10. #10
    minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    An ideal solution for you would be to purchase the cheapest USB audio interface unit that you can and use that ASIO driver to run all your computer's audio through.

    What did you use to make that? It sounds really pretty

    What I'd suggest for the mix is to give the kick a stronger body and low end. If boosting the mids and the lows makes it sound worse, or you can't get it to ring out right, you'd want to pick a different sample. :) Next, for the arrangement, I live and die by a rule that says something needs to change every eight bars - even if that change is really minor and subtle - so try and apply that and see what you come up with.

    As for learning music theory, I've never tried to do that online. I guess that you should find a teacher or something, or even a friend who knows their stuff, to show you the very basics ... or learn to play some Linkin Park songs, 'cause that's probably also a decent starting point. In due time, any one of those will allow you to master every popular chord progression there is :p
     
  11. #11
    Pat

    Pat LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    For a beginning this actually sounds damn nice :)
    But yes i agree with Tony, IF you want to LEARN piano i think its 1000 times better to seach a piano teacher. I never tried it online, maybe it could work but with a teacher you can see and try to imitate your finger positions better seen that you sitting right next to him / her.

    As it comes for music production: For getting better? Rule Nr. 1 - dont let you down with bad feedback! Bad feedback is one of the best things you could get as a musicproducer, at least as long as you are in a "learning phase"
    Listen to the bad feedback and try to change it, figure out stuff HOW to change it, tutorials or experiment with your own knowledge.
    Rule 2: Take as long time as you need before you release something. The longer you spend time with your song.add little stuff between the lines, the better it will get.
    Rule 3: Practice Practice Practice, - yes i know there are some "how to make music" tutorials outta there, but i can tell you, its better if you try out things on your own and get better the more you produce. You dont want to copy other people, you want your own style.

    As it comes for beginners everyone suggesting FL Studio, which is actually not a bad idea, it has an easy interface and its easy to handle.
    BUT the earlier you try out different DAWS (DAW = Music / Editing Programs) like Ableton Live, Stage Light and more you might find something which fits your taste better and THATS the one you should stick with.

    I hope to hear more from you
     
  12. #12
    minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    Well, no-one's really asked about this but I will add to this point anyway: do not let anyone hear your stuff until you feel that it's ready to be heard. Do not seek outside feedback until the track or the specific element of the track that you're working on is as good as you can make it. You want people to judge the very best that you can do and nothing else; that is what you want to be represented by.

    I get asked for my opinion sometimes and, half the time, the response to my suggestions is "oh, yeah, well ... actually it's still really in a rough state still and I'm still working on it" -- basically, if you get feedback, it shouldn't suggest things to you that you were about to do anyway. When you no longer have any changes to suggest to yourself, when you feel like there's nothing left for you to do to a sound or a track or whatever, or you're stuck on a decision and you absolutely can't do anything else, that is when you should ask someone to give you feedback. :)

    This isn't an absolute thing by any means but it's a good general rule to go by. Whenever I share something that's unfinished, it might just be a single section but I'll have worked on that until there's nothing left that I would want to change about that particular part.
     
  13. #13
    Pat

    Pat LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    I need to agree
    maybe also i should add that you should listen to bad feedback when its informational, stuff like "meh" and such are not things to listen to, obviously

    also i want to tell that of course i am only talking of MY experience with music :)
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2014
  14. #14
    hawk

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    i used fl studio for this one. i've been jumping between that and ableton, and so far the former has been much easier for me to use.

    i wish i knew what you were on about tbh. what are these mids and bodies, etc? and i am well aware of how flat this is, but due to
    my limited knowledge of piano i don't know where else i can go, although i will definitely fuck around and see what i can come up
    with.

    my brother is really good at piano. i could probably ask him.

    thanks for your help man, i'll be back.
     
  15. #15
    minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    Low, mid and high frequencies -- just check tutorials on how to use FL's built-in EQ tools and things. :) The piano sounds fine, in my opinion. It's the drum sounds that need adjusting
     
  16. #16
    Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    I'm not sure if you're gonna get this, or whether the terms I'm using are right, but fuck it...

    I'm working on this instrumental, 130BPM, I'm just adding synths right now. The first ''pattern'' I have is a synth from the Sytrus channel, and it goes for 16 bars. The second one is a different synth, also going for 16 bars. So now, about a minute into the ''song'' I want to add some drums. So now I just want a simple pattern that goes for 4 bars like the one you get when you open a sampler. So I want the drum pattern I create to loop every 4 bars. However, no matter what I do, it runs for 16 bars before looping. I exited the program, tried again, seemed like everything was working, did the pattern, and now the synths won't work at all. So now I get a drum loop that repeats every 4 bars and synths that don't work. What do I do?

    Thanks in advance. :lol:
     
  17. #17
    LeMooree

    LeMooree Active Member

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    Guilty All The Same is in "D minor" and every melody starts from "D" (First Guitar Riff/Lead Guitar that starts at 0:56/Chorus Rhytm). Is it like, if song is in "D" does every melody have to start from "D"? What if I would remix GATS and Chorus would start from "F" instead of "D" (that's just example)? Wolud it be "off key" or something like that?
     
  18. #18
    MKH

    MKH Bat of Gotham LPA Super VIP

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    D minor just means the notes you have available to use are D, E, F, G, A, Bb, and C - as long as you stick to those, it'll sound "right".
     
  19. #19
    minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    Melodies don't need to start from D, the basslines and chord progressions underneath the melodies need to resolve to Dm.
     
  20. #20
    travz21

    travz21 Muscle Museum LPA Super Member

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    You should be creating your patterns in the piano roll and then putting that pattern into the playlist. I'm guessing you're using the step sequencer with the gray and red buttons.
     

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