Thanks Dunkirk!
I'm pretty happy with where it is at now, but I'll give your suggestion a try and if it strikes magic in me, I'll revise the song.
And sure! I try to offer some of the sounds when I can. I use a lot of premium synths so it feels pointless to distribute any patches I make; not only is it rare for someone to own the same synths, but this is the RPG Maker forums, so...very unlikely to find people with the same synths who also want to use the patches :LZSlol:
The little ADD arppegiator was made in Synth1, but it's such a simple square wave I didn't think it's worth distributing the patch for it.
The Audio Resource & Sound Design Clinic
● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY
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@TheAM-Dol I think the 7/8 is actually handled really well here. Nothing sounds mismanaged about the rhythm. I wouldn’t call it weird! Just not the thing most people are gonna be able to clap out. XD
I really love the ping-pong. To me that really does encapsulate “in one ear, out the other.” There are times the choir calls are a bit covered up when that’s happening, but that’s probably not major if they’re meant to represent an attempt for the mind to capture Fidel’s attention.
I don’t have any major issues with the tonal balance. The kicks do a really good job of grounding the entire thing and I think the bass sound is good. Not too slappy or stringy. I actually rather like the impact when those lows drop out to the bells later on. -
Wow didn't know this thread existed. This is like a gold mine for a musician like myself. Good to know this is a good place for musicians to discuss.
Curious to know what people usually use to compose. I myself might be looking to switch things a bit, not only on the software level but on the hardware level aswell. I feel like my hardware and my sound libraries are getting old. I'm using EastWest samples, not the recent ones but like the orchestral libraries from like 6-7 years ago. I'm using REAPER as a DAW.
Once I start working as a lawyer I might buff my PC up and maybe get some new samples. There are some cool stuff that have been released recently. -
@MushroomCake28 I use Finale to compose, REAPER to arrange/produce, and most of my sounds are from Native Instruments and a ton of other parties that run in Kontakt. Some of my faves to keep eyes on are Embertone, SoundIron, Impact Soundworks, and CineSamples. Tons of others. Always kinda have my feelers out. I also have the S49 Komplete Kontrol. Sooooo. Yeaaaah. I’m pretty bought into Native Instrument’s ecosystem. <_<
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@MushroomCake28
I use reaper as well. In the past, I write my piano sketch in Sibelius and then I would export the midi out and then import it into the DAW for arrangement and finish out everything else. I have since got used to looking at the piano rolls in a DAW and now I just do the piano sketch and everything in reaper.
The instrument libraries I use mostly run using Kontakt as a sampler. I got them from audio imperia, spitfire, heavyocity. native instruments. I try to get them on a sale cause they are usually pricey.
I have the old eastwest symphonic orchestra library but I don't use it anymore because one day my pc decided to die, when I got a new pc, I realised I have to request for an approval to be able to use that library on my new pc since the ilok is still being tied to my dead old pc. My request for the approval was a valid one but it still took them 6 hours to approve of it, that 6 hours is a lot especially when you have tight deadlines to meet. I also didnt like their Play engine. I had everything working fine and then next day, it suddenly has "Play could not load" error. All that kinda ruin the experience for me and I just dont use it anymore. Its a shame though because I honestly think that is a good and pristine library with everything recorded properly and made to run in year 2003, where computers and internet are not as powerful as what we have today. -
iLok is a plague, and...don't get me started. I have a whole rant about the plugin industry...:rolleyes:
I do recommend looking into physical modelling. I will admit that, I myself, haven't moved over to physical modelling, but that's mostly because I am working with a legacy workflow. I hate to radically change the tools I use in the middle of a project, so my game's soundtrack continues to be written with libraries.
Physical modelling is using a synthesizer to model the timbre and articulations of the a real instrument. It has come a long way.
Benn Jordan has a good video talking about some of the premiere (and very convincing) physical-modeling synths available.
Aside from that, it seems NI continues to have the dominant libraries. I've tried a lot of libraries over the years and often I find too many too robotic, or take way too much micromanagement of midi control data to get them just right.
The only thing I use that is not NI exclusive are my strings, which come from Orchestral Tools, Berlin Strings. But these also take a lot of elbow grease to make them sound believable.
As for DAW, yeah, another here for Reaper.
I have a story that goes with that;
For the longest time I used Mixcraft - which you can consider as the "RPG Maker" of DAWs in that it is really user friendly and simple to learn.
However, it became plagued with bugs and I wasn't a fan of their monetization practice (which admittedly is far from the worse, it's just that they barely patched the software before working on a new version, basically requiring you to pay if you ever wanted critical bugs fixed.)
After I finished the album I wrote in 2021, I was so sick of this POS software I went soul searching and tried every DAW under the sun.
From FL to Studio One, to Cubase, to Cakewalk.
Eventually I wound up using Reaper.
It is a tank of a software. The developers behind it are madlads, writing the whole thing in assembly code. But as a result, it gives the software unmatched stability.
It doesn't have the flashiest features of other DAWs, but then again, most of those flashy features never fit into my work flow well. Reaper has all the primary functions I need and all of those functions work smoothly and exactly as intended.
Did I mention it's a f/cking tank? It takes a lot of work to crash it. -
I had no idea physical modeling had came this far. I have to admit it is starting to sound pretty good. To be honest, I think I still prefer sample libraries for now, but I can definitely see that one day physical sampling will be the better option.
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So, I posted this song on the Post Your Music thread, and @TheAM-Dol recommended I post it here in what is probably the most interesting reply I've gotten yet on this forum...
And so, I wanted to know what you guys thought of it, sound design-wise. I think my main issue is that some of the notes just kind of start and that it might sound harsh, mostly with the snare and the trumpet instrument in the beginning. I listened to it again on youtube, and I think that it sounds quite different from the file that I have on my computer, even though it has similar problems. I can't upload a file of it on this forum, however. So, what do you guys think of it on the youtube upload? -
So, I posted this song on the Post Your Music thread, and @TheAM-Dol recommended I post it here in what is probably the most interesting reply I've gotten yet on this forum...
And so, I wanted to know what you guys thought of it, sound design-wise. I think my main issue is that some of the notes just kind of start and that it might sound harsh, mostly with the snare and the trumpet instrument in the beginning. I listened to it again on youtube, and I think that it sounds quite different from the file that I have on my computer, even though it has similar problems. I can't upload a file of it on this forum, however. So, what do you guys think of it on the youtube upload?
Hello!
I haven’t really posted in this thread before but I’ve been hoping to be more active here, as I also make music.
I’d love to offer any advice that I can.
Do you have a reference track, or a description of the type of sound you’re hoping to achieve? -
Compositionally, I was inspired by a track from Deltarune, but I don't have an issue with how the song resolves itself, so I was seeing if I could get some input on why the track "make my little neko ears hert" as they said lmaoHello!
I haven’t really posted in this thread before but I’ve been hoping to be more active here, as I also make music.
I’d love to offer any advice that I can.
Do you have a reference track, or a description of the type of sound you’re hoping to achieve?
If you have anything to say, I'm listening!
Here's the inspiration track:
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The trumpet might be a little happier in the back of the mix. It seems more like an answer to a call so it feels a bit “in your face,” particularly when the electric piano is taking the lead. The type of timbre on that trumpet patch can easily punch through if you make it a little quieter and make some frequency adjustments for whatever it is conflicting with on the other instruments.
The higher synth sound in the B section (starts at: 52) could probably use some frequency adjustments as well. Or, maybe even just a different patch? It seems like the song is supposed to be a little dissonant, but the overall character of that patch could be making it feel ~extra~ dissonant. @SorbetInAPie -
Compositionally, I was inspired by a track from Deltarune, but I don't have an issue with how the song resolves itself, so I was seeing if I could get some input on why the track "make my little neko ears hert" as they said lmao
If you have anything to say, I'm listening!
Here's the inspiration track:
Gotcha! Yeah I love the Deltarune ost. It’s so good!
Ms Littlefish definitely made a better, more detailed analysis than I was planning to, haha.
I was just thinking, in my humble opinion, what the other commenter might have been referring to when they said it made their ears hurt, may have been the dissonance that Ms Littlefish referred to.
I wouldn’t call the track an “easy listen” exactly. But, that’s probably intentional, and as they say, there are no “rules” in music.
If you were going for an easier listen though, my little two cents might be just to pick a key, even a jazz key, and change all the instruments to match, and then just give it another listen to see if that sounds better to you.
It sound to me like the Bass, Trumpet, and Piano are all using different scales. -
This tbh. After the start with just the bass, the trumpet hits sounded off key, but it still kinda fit the mood, so i figured that it was meant to be that way. when the piano came in, it was all strange with the conflicting keys and moods. nothing was bad by itself, but together was odd imoIt sound to me like the Bass, Trumpet, and Piano are all using different scales.
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Yeah. I thought so as well. Like. I kinda got the vibe. It was definitely that B section that may need to come back to Earth a bit more.
I don’t mind giving suggestions for restructuring the composition, but I’d need a MIDI to give a better analysis (i.e. quicker, lol). I’m sadly not one of these magicians with perfect pitch. :kaocry: -
I made this a couple hours ago with some of the suggestions that @Ms Littlefish told me. I think that I need to fix that lower bass section still, but I believe some of the "painful" elements have been fixed.
I can try to fix this. But, I don't know what you guys mean about the trumpet; the notes are entirely intentional. It's kind of a little "bit" because I felt like it fit the whole theater/film studio character, if that makes any sense. I mean character as in mood or something like that.It sound to me like the Bass, Trumpet, and Piano are all using different scales. -
@SorbetInAPie
You know, now that you mention it I do hear like a 1940s Hollywood/big band type of sound. Or maybe like a swing Jazz type of sound.
Nice job!
To me it does fit that really well.
It is hard to put my finger on, but if you listen to this example of brass hits:
You can hear the brass and other instruments play the “hits” (not sure exactly what those blasts are called) in chords that go with the backing.
When I give yours another listen, it almost does sound like the brass in playing in a chord, but just one that may not fit with the bass.
Is that true, that the brass is playing a chord?
If so, maybe you could try changing the notes of the chord.
Again, this is just a suggestion, it’s not that your composition sounds bad!
And, it DOES sound more pleasing to my ear after those changes. Nice job! -
Thanks! And yes, there are two brass instruments playing together to form a kind of chord. Originally, one of the instruments was playing a chord but it didn't actually need to be there to make that effect.@SorbetInAPie
You know, now that you mention it I do hear like a 1940s Hollywood/big band type of sound. Or maybe like a swing Jazz type of sound.
Nice job!
To me it does fit that really well.
It is hard to put my finger on, but if you listen to this example of brass hits:
You can hear the brass and other instruments play the “hits” (not sure exactly what those blasts are called) in chords that go with the backing.
When I give yours another listen, it almost does sound like the brass in playing in a chord, but just one that may not fit with the bass.
Is that true, that the brass is playing a chord?
If so, maybe you could try changing the notes of the chord.
Again, this is just a suggestion, it’s not that your composition sounds bad!
And, it DOES sound more pleasing to my ear after those changes. Nice job!
I have since then made the notes in the bass section align to the other notes to be less dissonant, and I think it sounds good. I might share it some time. -
I think maybe stabs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab_(music)You can hear the brass and other instruments play the “hits” (not sure exactly what those blasts are called) in chords that go with the backing.
@SorbetInAPie
There are a lot of good points mentioned above, I just wish to add on a few more, hopefully you will find these useful.
The trumpet in your track, they are both panned 1 left and 1 right, both are playing different notes that make up a chord. As you pan them off the centre, it results in them standing out a lot as they are no longer fighting with other instruments in the centre of the stereo field. There is nothing wrong in doing this. Panning is the way to go if you need certain clarity or separation. However, care needs to be taken when balancing their levels. Especially since a trumpet is also brass, instruments from that family tend to poke their heads out a lot.
The track is quite dissonant, seeing the deltarune track as your inspiration for this track, I believe this dissonant sound is not something you want to achieve. You have the sub and the bass, this 2 different elements are very important, even though the sub is more often "felt" than heard they still matter, they support the track and often dictates the tonal center, if their tonal center is off when playing beside the melody, it creates dissonance primarily because they are already not the same key as the melody (melody starts playing at 0:21) and the secondary is due to overtones.
To explain overtones, when you play 1 note, that 1 single note sounding out is made of many other mini notes, for example, the note C is made of, a mini C above it and then a mini G then another mini C above it and then a mini E, BLA BLA BLA BLA...
Believe it or not, those mini notes from the sub and bass, can clash with whatever you are writing above in the melody part, a lot of times this dissonance can be felt. Even if you are using a "pure" sine wave as a sub, they might still contain overtone because ultimately it depends on whether the synth you are using is able to make the sine wave as pure as it can be with no overtones.
As for the trumpet parts, I personally think they are alright as I considered them as chromatic notes, rather than notes that are off the tonal center. Technically, chromatic notes are also notes that are not from the scale, but the role of the trumpet in your track is to spice things up rather than to support the whole track, so this is alright. The sub and bass are the important ones to take note of as they support the track, not being in the right tonal center can muddy the bottom a lot and create unwanted dissonance in your track. -
Thanks for that advice! I did say that I've since then fixed up some of what I believe was causing the dissonance in the sub and bass, but this is a great explanation of what some of my issues could be. I think that this could be a good lesson to try to arrange my music without using the instruments I intend to use firstly.I think maybe stabs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab_(music)
@SorbetInAPie
There are a lot of good points mentioned above, I just wish to add on a few more, hopefully you will find these useful.
The trumpet in your track, they are both panned 1 left and 1 right, both are playing different notes that make up a chord. As you pan them off the centre, it results in them standing out a lot as they are no longer fighting with other instruments in the centre of the stereo field. There is nothing wrong in doing this. Panning is the way to go if you need certain clarity or separation. However, care needs to be taken when balancing their levels. Especially since a trumpet is also brass, instruments from that family tend to poke their heads out a lot.
The track is quite dissonant, seeing the deltarune track as your inspiration for this track, I believe this dissonant sound is not something you want to achieve. You have the sub and the bass, this 2 different elements are very important, even though the sub is more often "felt" than heard they still matter, they support the track and often dictates the tonal center, if their tonal center is off when playing beside the melody, it creates dissonance primarily because they are already not the same key as the melody (melody starts playing at 0:21) and the secondary is due to overtones.
To explain overtones, when you play 1 note, that 1 single note sounding out is made of many other mini notes, for example, the note C is made of, a mini C above it and then a mini G then another mini C above it and then a mini E, BLA BLA BLA BLA...
Believe it or not, those mini notes from the sub and bass, can clash with whatever you are writing above in the melody part, a lot of times this dissonance can be felt. Even if you are using a "pure" sine wave as a sub, they might still contain overtone because ultimately it depends on whether the synth you are using is able to make the sine wave as pure as it can be with no overtones.
As for the trumpet parts, I personally think they are alright as I considered them as chromatic notes, rather than notes that are off the tonal center. Technically, chromatic notes are also notes that are not from the scale, but the role of the trumpet in your track is to spice things up rather than to support the whole track, so this is alright. The sub and bass are the important ones to take note of as they support the track, not being in the right tonal center can muddy the bottom a lot and create unwanted dissonance in your track. -
I always kinda write music with pretty vanilla sounds. I’ll preview the instruments I want to end up using along the way, but I personally like composing with as stripped back of a sound as possible. @SorbetInAPie