Hi guys!

My question is simple : How can i properly learn sound design? I mean, until now for all my leads and stuff i've always watched step-by-step tutorials on YouTube. The problem with these tutorial is that i am capable of making (very) simple leads, like simple plucks or supersaw, but when i try to make something a bit more tricky and there is no specific tutorial on the internet... Well i am fucked.

I understand the very basics of synths, but when i hear heavy/distorted leads (like the one you can hear in trap/melbourne bounce) i can't tell how it's made, at all.

So yeah, how can i learn to make my own sound and not just copying pepoles on the internet (and don't search for a tutorial every 5 minutes when i'm producing). I saw the adsrsound.com masterclass but i don't know if it's good :/

But anyway!
Thank you in advance, stay awesome!

The Young Noisemaker
PS: Sorry for bad english

 

Most of those sounds that you hear have gone through a good chain or processing......so it's not ALL done within the synth.....
But in a way, processing effect such as saturating, distorting do become tools of sound design. You should look into syntorial though if you are trying to sound design within a synth....
But don't be scared to experament. By doing that frequently, you will start to familiarize yourself with what works, what doesn't, what this knob will do, what this other one will do in conjunction to the other knob......see where I'm getting with this? You should def get on syntorial though, learn some fundamentals. Good luck.

 

i think what you should be taking from these videos on youtube is how they got to that stage.

the basics of synths are easy to understand

if you know you want a bass sound. low pass filter.
low cut off

lead band pass/high pass higher cut off etc.

most sound design comes down to the ADSR.

what you should do is grab a preset pack open up a sound and then copy it you'll see how it comes together.

 

Thanks for reply.

Yeah i know it's all about the synth. I figured out when i was making melbourne bounce. My lead was so shitty, and then i distorted and compressed it as hell and then... spadouch! my lead was heavy as fuck.

Syntorial looks cool tho!

If anybody have others ideas, i would be happy to hear it

 

It was one of my ideas but all banks of presets I found sounded like crap. :/
Do you know some good website where i can find good presets bank?

 

Stay "excited" by the possibilities.

Learn your processors.

"Play" as often as you can. Really play, like playing when you were a kid, have fun, don`t get too bogged down with theory.

Let your imagination be your guide. Hear the possibilities in EVERY sound you hear. When you catch a certain sound that hits the spot, try and recreate it, not a carbon copy, but your interpretation of it.

Come back here and share your journey. There are some SERIOUSLY talented SEX`ers who love nothing more than sharing knowledge.

Best of luck Young Noise Maker, may the FREQ by with you......always.

 

Thanks for the great advice

 

@ The Young Noisemaker,

Beside the above GREAT advices and tricks , maybe the following can also be of great interest for you as a starting point (if you still don't know it !) :

Rob Papen’s : 'The 4 Element Synth'

Most of the 'Sound Designers' not only try to create (more or less) original Sounds, they also often add 'FXs' to their (raw) Sounds, so you can guess, that quest is almost endless... *yes*

Also of importance : never forget the 'layering' of Sounds, where 2, 3 (or more !) Sounds are 'blended' together to create specific Sounds, Textures, Pads, Leads,... *yes*

 

Thank you!

Gonna watch that and some ADSR masterclass
Thanks everybody! You're all awesome

 

tutorials will learn you a lot (the good ones anyway will) but the only way to become good is through hours and hours and hours and hours of practise, and to enjoy doing it!!

 

I remember when I started the modulation possibilities really intimidated me. From my own experience, the best way to learn certain advanced sounds is to take them apart and rebuild them again.

Then there also is layering and the FX chains which can change the sound a lot. Most people have their own take on this.

 

A couple of youtube channels i found useful
KSADE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2rQflsWDl-d46hk4-HRqfA
Bassgorilla - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvbbElA9o8S2SCWKjqfl-zg
Joshua Casper - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq6UNOurg9_xrKhjgQIQb8A
Dorian Day - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ95B8ZF1qXd3bBA-VX2N9w

or check out all my subscriptions in my channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1tsU46HT5pCoO1jzB4wrow

 

Watching YouTube tutorials will probably get you nowhere if you don't approach it with the mentality of what are they doing to get there n what patterns do all the sounds have in common.
There is a program called Sythtorial that will teach you how to program a synth,and the basics of sound on how to obtain certain sounds etc. For the actual theory behind it check out the tutorials from "Dance Music Production" Synthesis 1 and 2.

 

Use your synths a LOT and explore creative routing and processing possibilities.

 

Stay curious (even after 20+ years of doing it). Be persistent. Have fun. Read, read, tweak, tweak. Work hard. Read up on all things about sound (frequencies, wavelengths, acoustic sound, speakers, microphones, the ear, etc), not just what happens ITB. Understand how sound is made, percieved and disected. Visualize sound, as in X/Y axis.

Many tutorials these days just shows how to make a sound, not why it makes that sound. The key is to understand the why.

 

hey young noisemaker,

there are plenty of tutorial videos on youtube that go really far.
have you checked ADSR sounds? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf5UKh_cj2_5pUomhyswWYQ
check it out

 

Baxter basically sums it up, and I will add just keep practising, and try and learn one new thing a day, a good practice is to try and work out how other musicicans and producers are creating sounds and see if you can replicate those sounds, understanding how a dry sound can be totally transformed when applying fx to it, etc.

 

I probably should have mentioned when i watch a tutorial I'm not just trying to copy what they do. I'm looking at what the adjustments do to the sound and I take notes.
There's so much to knowits easy to forget.
Over time you develop your own style.

Oh and less is more.
Stick to one or maybe two oscillators to begin with.
It's really easy to lose track of where you want to end up and find a mess coming out the end instead.

 

it might be odd but on you tube check out the pluginguru channel

there are a lot of tips and tricks for sounddesign for various synths his main focus is on Omnisphere,FM8,Absynth,Serum

when i remember right he even was talking about integrating Hardwaresynths waveforms into making Patches

a few hints for LFO`s Envelope`s ADSR and using effects are there too

some things there are up from Scratch what helps to look into Synthesis and Sounddesign

cheers

 

i second that one