Synthesising everything from scratch

subprime

Dysjoint
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Since I bought Serum I've felt like I could have a go at making everything from scratch, not because Serum is necessarily set up for that, but just because it's one of those vst's that I just clicked onto, it makes sense.
Mostly I just use the standard wave shapes and modulation. I have rendered most things to audio (Serum is a hog) and added other processing like time stretching, compression, eq, transient shaping and reverb. Serums fx section is limited in regard to that sort of precise processing you sometimes need to finish off a sound.
Anyway, here's a few of my early attempts, mainly focused on trying to learn how to make drums, just wip clips so mixdown is non-existent

Every sound in the clip is started from an initialised Serum patch


Who else makes all their sounds from scratch? Post up some things you want to show off, or give some pointers on how to make a sound. Do you think it's worth it making your own stuff?
 
Serum is cool. only messed around for bit but Ilike the fact you can import your own waveform. i'm going to buy it after xmas. i use about 50/50 from scratch and samples. trying to get on as many of my own sounds as possible but i love the resampling process so i don't think i'll ever totally rely on a synth. that being said i would love to learn the ins and outs of serum as well. everything sounds dope from what i've heard.
 
Id use it a lot more if it had an extra filter and oscillator

you really need to stop limiting yourself over this plugin cos of this, it does have 2 filters for one (an an EQ which can do almost the same) and wtf do you need a 3rd for when this is a Sub OSC and 2 others that can modulate each other?

[MENTION=34880]subprime[/MENTION] you are a badman! Hats off for making all that in Serum, some of the hollow basswork is big! snares are tight too, you should make a mini pack for all of us :)
 
lol, maybe because i make a lot of sounds using 3 osc's (reeses, anybody?), and because using one of the osc's as a mod osc pretty much cuts it down to one audio-outputting osc (compared to massive which adds the mod osc ontop of the 3 oscillators). Plus no parallel filtering or multiple distortion stages.

imo that just makes it a lot less flexible for the stuff i tend to make. Of course i still use it, but only for stuff only it can do. Most of the wavetables are hit and miss for me, although it has a pretty decent 'analog' selection, and the distortion imo is pretty poor (but the filter drive makes up for it).
 
lol, maybe because i make a lot of sounds using 3 osc's (reeses, anybody?), and because using one of the osc's as a mod osc pretty much cuts it down to one audio-outputting osc (compared to massive which adds the mod osc ontop of the 3 oscillators). Plus no parallel filtering or multiple distortion stages.

imo that just makes it a lot less flexible for the stuff i tend to make. Of course i still use it, but only for stuff only it can do. Most of the wavetables are hit and miss for me, although it has a pretty decent 'analog' selection, and the distortion imo is pretty poor (but the filter drive makes up for it).

I personally think you just suck at using Serum mate if you can't get better results than massive. :teeth:
 
...Comparing to Blue 2 which can do about every type of synthesis except granular, has 6 really flexible oscillators, same fm routing possibilities as FM8, 2 filters + 4 more if you spend all fx slots on filters, shit loads of different waveforms and fx, arp, sequencer, waveshaping where you actually draw stuff into the waveform with your mouse :D, really good overall sound and is cheaper than massive lol.
 
...Comparing to Blue 2 which can do about every type of synthesis except granular, has 6 really flexible oscillators, same fm routing possibilities as FM8, 2 filters + 4 more if you spend all fx slots on filters, shit loads of different waveforms and fx, arp, sequencer, waveshaping where you actually draw stuff into the waveform with your mouse :D, really good overall sound and is cheaper than massive lol.

Been wanting to check blue2 out. How easy is that beast to learn? Is it kinda like Albino 3 in a way?

:: sent from android with tapatalk ::
 
its a fun idea, one i think we all arrive at sooner or later, same as beatboxing every single sound or why not use found sounds or something, so conceptually its tight, but generally i think combining the techniques is the answer. i made a few attempts at synthesizing everything like 5-6 years ago. but it sucked.
 
its a fun idea, one i think we all arrive at sooner or later, same as beatboxing every single sound or why not use found sounds or something, so conceptually its tight, but generally i think combining the techniques is the answer. i made a few attempts at synthesizing everything like 5-6 years ago. but it sucked.
I agree with you. synthesizing can be much fun, if you're into all the synth programming stuff. At times I open any synth and get lost on those thousands of buttons here and there. And this just kills my creativity, seriously.
 
Now that would be interesting... Make an entire tune (minus the drums) where each tracks initial sound is made by the first hit of the randomised button. Would be an interesting project. Would definitely test your EQ, FX, and general processing skills.

:: sent from android with tapatalk ::
When you work with more ambient stuff, randomize is your best friend. You never know how a synth will sound, for example, stretched to infinite or in lower octaves that it should be played.

EDIT---

Just found out this. Don't know if it's legit or not, yet.

http://vst-preset-gen.sourceforge.net
 
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I've done a few tracks where I synthesized everything.
But it's a lot of work, so what I mostly do is just have sound design days for making samples for other tracks.
 
windows smart screen didnt like it but i ran anyway thats how i roll niglets :teeth:

so VPG Doesnt do anything well not to massive (only VST i own legit)... not that i need to do anything with massive it has its own randomize but i wonder what ones it does work with.

Regardless yeah randomize great for ambient... mates be sitting around making a pad for likes hours and it still sounds dull tell them to hit randomize button few times and itl go ball deep in massive and mess it up. go back to playing around with it because it will do some things that arent required so turn em of or change whatever and within 15 minutes your thinking hmm already sounds better. a blank canvas in a synth is just too daunting for me but if its wired to the moon already and i can work destructively on it. its not even so much about lazyness although some might claim BS, its not really because i know massivve to reasonably good degree shit i own hardware synths its not as if i dnt understand what to do its that having that sound in mind can be hard at times but if you find something intresting through random i find i get creative more easily.

But yes sample manipulation is just as much fun although i tend to get the same sound a lot i prefer field recordings for samples and use them for percs. anyway what was i talking about?
 
If you want to keep it fresh, make everything yourself.
Why do you listen to Mefjus, Phace, Noisia, Upbeats, DLR, Break etc?
Probbably because each track they make is fresh, atleast in a way that makes you press play the next time you find something new by them.


I started music quite a few years ago, i've had some great signings and releases "for myself" atleast.
Have had some great moments where i've been contacted by Mefjus , Phace, Jade, June Miller and so on so they could play some of the crap i make.

Then one day i had an idea to switch it up with a bold move. I deleted all my sample packs. At first it was fun, then it got more and more depressing each day as i couldn't make music on the same level as i was used to. I felt like i wasn't good enough, i wasn't on the same bar with those guys. It's really easy to write good music with good samples and very difficult to write good music with shit samples. I couldn't make everything from scratch and make a killer tune which has a lot of relistening value. (the ultimate goal for myself)

I even hit a 1 year of writers block (Which wasn't that much of a block, but more of a , "OKay, how do i make my shit samples come alive?" and "Yes, i can hear what i made is shit, but what do i have to do to make it sound better?")

Trust me on this one, all those guys above know the " loopmasters <Enter artist name here> " sample packs better than you know "how to make skrillex bassline growl" tutorials on youtube.

I suggest you delete your sample packs right away. Keep some one shots you like and start writing serious music and in 1 year you will be pro enough to imagine a track from start to finish and actually make it happen. It's so much work (read: fun) making music you always dreamed about.

(Now is the time to become really self-conscious and tell me what's your excuse on not doing what i just suggested)



So the real question you have to answer in the end is:
Why are you making music?
 
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If you want to keep it fresh, make everything yourself.
Why do you listen to Mefjus, Phace, Noisia, Upbeats, DLR, Break etc?
Probbably because each track they make is fresh, atleast in a way that makes you press play the next time you find something new by them.


I started music quite a few years ago, i've had some great signings and releases "for myself" atleast.
Have had some great moments where i've been contacted by Mefjus , Phace, Jade, June Miller and so on so they could play some of the crap i make.

Then one day i had an idea to switch it up with a bold move. I deleted all my sample packs. At first it was fun, then it got more and more depressing each day as i couldn't make music on the same level as i was used to. I felt like i wasn't good enough, i wasn't on the same bar with those guys. It's really easy to write good music with good samples and very difficult to write good music with shit samples. I couldn't make everything from scratch and make a killer tune which has a lot of relistening value. (the ultimate goal for myself)

I even hit a 1 year of writers block (Which wasn't that much of a block, but more of a , "OKay, how do i make my shit samples come alive?" and "Yes, i can hear what i made is shit, but what do i have to do to make it sound better?")

Trust me on this one, all those guys above know the " loopmasters <Enter artist name here> " sample packs better than you know "how to make skrillex bassline growl" tutorials on youtube.

I suggest you delete your sample packs right away. Keep some one shots you like and start writing serious music and in 1 year you will be pro enough to imagine a track from start to finish and actually make it happen. It's so much work (read: fun) making music you always dreamed about.

(Now is the time to become really self-conscious and tell me what's your excuse on not doing what i just suggested)



So the real question you have to answer in the end is:
Why are you making music?

So your suggesting randomize button is probably something i should stop using yeah? I know both i watch tuts all the time but yeah i do use presets here and there and the only go to sample pack i use is a minimal one the rest is field recordings or general sounds ive researched on freesound etc. I am actually a little concerned about the matter and feel i should mabye be taking my music to the next level (especially since ive just started a label of my own all legit and PPL MPG and trademarked etc). Its all just a bit much mabye all at once because im trying to nail minimal techno aswell as dnb and not managing i can do ambient stuff not so bad eg https://detachedaudio.bandcamp.com/track/randem...

I should mabye go back to basics and only work on collabs for a while.

thats -3db master btw
 
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I gave that randomizer a try yesterday, doesn't work pretty well with massive. But works wonders with Serum! The hardest thing about it is that you'll need a VST host for it to work. So, basically two softwares: the one you randomize the parameters and the other, where you load the VST and save the patch. I'm going to try it one more time today.

I'll go with manu on this one: I suck at synthesizing things. and I mean SUCK. So I use presets and field recordings as well. Ambient music (or minimal music) must have that "organic" feel to me, and you can't achieve it by only using synths. Just record you saying "God dammit!", stretch it, play with the attack, release, hold, delay, put some distortion here and there (multiband distortion like Ohmicide is pretty damn good for this), and reverb and delay to taste. BAM! Organic creepy ambient-y sound right there.
 
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