so lets say you have a midi for melody

a midi for chords

and midi for bassline


and you have to choose sounds for them......whats your approach?

is it loading up a synth and skipping through presets?

any other more specific methadology?

 

Usually, I have the sound that I'm looking for running riot inside my head. I sculpt the synth sounds based on this. Other times I play with a synth and find a sound, then from experience I know what other sounds fit around it

 

i try to seperate sound design and actual music production so I already go into the session with all the sounds and I try to limit myself to work with them , I get analysis paralysis when I start flipping through the presets and I end up not doing anything , I find what helps is to also setup a foundation as fast as you can and build from there

 

i can hear exactly what i wish it to be, then usually i know what i have to do if i want to produce it for real.

this starts from your suggestion "skipping through presets" and goes over "starting from the scratch" and sometimes even involves programming a custom software.

and sometimes i fail and dont get it right no matter how hard i try.

 

I program my own sounds and they often inspire me.
Once I hear the sound I start hearing it musically in the context of melody, harmony and time.

 

It's not always the same for me. Sometimes I just open up a VSTi like Serum, and noodle around until ideas pop into my head.. so the synth sound inspires the idea, in those cases. Often times, I'll revise my choice... so I might scan through different presets afterwards. Sometimes I'll do a little bit of sound design. Other times, I'll have an idea in my head already of what I want the synth to sound like, then I'll either create it or surf through some presets until I get something close to what I'm thinking.

Usually though, again, I do end up cycling through presets until either I find something close to what I was thinking, or I find something that sounds way better than what I was thinking lol!

Being able to design sounds yourself is a fantastic skill to have, but do whatever works for you. I've managed to get pretty inspired just by going through a bunch of presets too.

 

I am a piano/keyboard player.. so I just play with a piano or a Rhodes sound (those are very generic for me) and just imagine how a certain synth would sound. Other times I start with a sound and let it be my inspiration (map controllers to it). And yes, sometimes I'd lay down a midi sketch and try different synths/presets for unpredictable results..

Basically IMO choosing a particular synth (and preset) is like changing your "instrument". Every instrument will inspire you in different ways. Ppl doing it for ages...

 

I'll just get a beer or four and see where it gets me.

kidding.

I'll add the the melody to any synth but on innit preset, some simple HPF so it's bearable then try to create a beat from it, I'm kinda quick at this because I love drums. slowly it will give me ideas what kind of sound the melody needs. tweak back and forth between those two, slowly add the bass in with the most basic bass patch in any synth. I'll continue tweaking the three of em slowly, it will then sparks more and more ideas (because im drunk), and I'll finaly get the idea what kind of sound each part needs. The kind of sound of im talking about is, more likely "what instrument sound". Ill start from there for fundamental.

also, IMO skipping through preset is wasting time and bad, it will change the atmosphere around you every single time you change your sound, it's like you are about to begin something, then pressing the reset button.

 

Overtime you doin your productions, you normaly find presets that work and that you really like.
If you like them alot you save them into your own Library and study them.

With study i mean you look into that presets and learn what it makes so "special" that you like it.
In this way you know how to make this specific sound right?

So yeah i do this for many years and most of the time i dont have any problems to find a preset that match the thing that im looking for.
But yeah if dont have a specific sound in your mind then just looking through some presets until you find something.
Just dont overthing that process <

 

I turn on the synth, twiddle a few knobs, and voila we have sound

As mentioned above, focus on the sound design. If song inspiration is low, work on creating unique sound palettes, so that you will be prepared when the spark returns.

 

Last edited: Mar 10, 2021

weed

 

I'm too old to smoke so I make bran muffins with 3 grams of 4 star bud in EACH MUFFIN.
I only eat 1 or two sixths of a muffin at a time but that is devastating and inspirational simultaneously.
Really opens the ears for engineering and mastering.

 

Sometimes I have to watch this vid ..old rhodes.. kinda beat up.. cassette and, what is it called? ..umm, talent?

 

make em

 

I try to separate sound design from producing, not that I always succeed.

But basically when I've gotten a new synth, I go through the presets, favourite them as I go along. Then I'll take them apart to hear what makes them work for me and make variations of those. That leaves me with a decent starting point for a lot of tunes.

 

attention preset junkie's detected...

 

Skip through presets and work from there. "What sounds most like Kraftwerk, hmm.."