Who'd have thought that would ever have become a catchphrase? Yet it just works.

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

Well I think there's no way around than testing & listening yourself.
First of all you have to be very precise with knowing what you actually want!
There are no "best solutions" recommendable because what may be good for me
doesn't mean it would be good for you or anyone else. Music involves tastes.
____________________________________________________________________________________

 

I didn't put my 2 penny worth in, because I figure when you ask a question such as, what do you recommend? You are going to get hit with every answer under the sun. AND that defeats the object of why you asked it in the first place. However, Might I suggest you concentrate on the FX plug ins that you can add to synths to manipulate the sounds to the way you want them to go?
I'm pretty sure I saw you say you had Omnisphere? You can even get great drum sounds with that now. Just add samples to it.

The way i see it. Omnisphere 2 is as close to a hardware synth as there is at the moment, and if you shelled out a few thousand for a hardware synth? You wouldn't be going round in circles. You would be thinking, I spent a lot of money on this so I'm going to make it work. And seeing as you have no shortage of brains. I believe you will.

The bottom line then, is treat Omnisphere 2 as you would a hardware synth and get a preset close to what you want. Then learn to manipulate it with first the internal FX, and if that doesn't do it for you, then outside help from external VSt FX Plugins.

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

@jeffglobal you can try U-he Diva. Imo the best soft synth out there.Capable of lots of things, from pads to leads and fx with great fm, rm synthesis.Easy to program and learn.Very warm sound unlike Sylenth or Massive or others.Use version 1.3 and on, in order to have the digital oscs as well.

 

@Kookaboo, @Sylenth.Will.Fall (to what prey tell?)
Unfortunately, as of now, I've got as far as recognizing I know that I don't know. Which is much better than not knowing, idk. Which is better still than not knowing idk, idk. So my questions will get better as I have a language to ask them.

I think what I'm really asking at this point in time is specific to the creation of soundscapes, and I have no vocabulary to say what I've heard or made that sounded good to me...and less vulgar sounding lead sounds. Everything doesn't have to sound ugly sometimes...it's not like every hero has to be flawed, sometimes, they aren't. You guys are probably too young to live in a time where you COULD look up to someone. Sometimes maybe sounds can sound in harmony for a few minutes among the rest trying to sound ugly and hard cause it's the thing to do.

I'm suspicious what I'm looking for IS the FX side of the soundscapes. It just seems weird though, since delay came from a dude noticing the play and record head can both provide a signal...to delays that used BP oil in a rotating can with iron powder stuck to the inside surface. To combining morph waves from 3 oscilators, a cloud, supercomb and comb filter, like for the Ice Flute in Absynth with a resonators effect and ringmod in the master bus. I don't necessarily like the sound, but what the sound is IN. That's what I want to understand, create and manipulate, and it's not just reverb. No way. I know reverb...took a while to notice delay and reverb, duh, very different.

I just got Omnisphere today, but had some tutorials for a few days...it's just like fk man, tens of gb of data, wtf am I in for again...I mean one DAW plugin depending on type is a whole universe onto itself. It took me 3 weeks to finally understand (with my ears) multiband compression.

Ok, this is as specific as I can get by analogy. I hear this piece as a full orchestra but, not with orchestral pieces, with a singer and in a soundscape:

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

Now I'm inclined to suggest the Korg M1. There are a multitude of pianos, with voices or atmospheric pads etc. the presets are very good.

Watch this. I think it could be just what you're after.

This is from Korg if you wish to buy it, although I think it might still be available on the sister site

http://www.korg.com/uk/products/software/korg_legacy_collection/page_4.php

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

The KORG Legacy Collection is classic.
I use MonoPoly, Polysix and the MS20 to this day.

 

not sure if anybody mentioned this yet but ableton live might be of use to you for putting your music in your videos, it's one of the things i use ableton for

 

@Sylenth.Will.Fall agree whole heartedly on this... nice little set of synths, would try all of the legacy, why not ? esp polysix
recommended to have in your synth arsenal

 

Its possible,but very hard.Knowledge is information and information takes time to learn and settle in + needs practice.
Very timely consuming,but you need to learn basic and advanced mixing,learn how to write songs,produce,learn how to use the libraries,vsts and plugins,learn how to operate reverbs,automation,post production etc...
Plus they have the option of using real halls and orchestras,kind of hard to compete with that

 

My advice would be to pick an in house plugin for your DAW, and start off with the default plugin setting. Basically you only manipulate lets say three parameters. Once you get a something you could use, you basically type the name of the sound and how it was created e.g. CoolPad=SawOsc1+CutoffAuto+ResonanceAuto.preset and save that as a preset.

Basically it will get you to remember what a certain recipe of parameters will get you. Then basically keep doing this with three parameters until you feel the sound isnt progressing/getting more complex. Then you start doing things with four parameters and then five and so on. I think the core thing you might need to get your head around is the matrix that most plugins use to route their audio, otherwise you might be using parameters that dont actually modulate/manipulate the main oscillators. Obviously tutorials will help a bunch, but once you have these recipes all you have to do is keep expanding and experimenting. One thing you might need to know is wavetable interaction and the components of a sound. E.G. you could make a reese by detuning two waves at the same time, or a sub frequency is between a specific range, and that its usually a sine wave for the cleanest sub. Theres a bunch of these examples of standard recipes you could look up on the net, if you want a specific starting point, but if you are looking from the ground up this is a good way. What i would recommend is have a 2 patten midi setup with two different components, 1. a main chord progression of your choice and 2. a bassline. The bassline could just follow the rootnote of each chord for now. Then try to make a song with both of these components, by making two different presets, one for the bass and one for the chords. Then once you got that sorted, you'll probably want to start changing the parameters in the plugin over the course of the track, which most DAW's call automation. Then you'll need to read up or watch a few videos on how to do that. This allows for more complex and diverse changes in sound over the course of a track.

In your case you'll want some sort of rhythmic pattern going on, some sort of distorted synth sound. Im not sure about the examples you are giving in your OP. In one instance you are mentioning the types of sounds that would be in a cable show, then you mention something akin to the likes of RNB/Slow Jam/EDM. So what is it specifically you are looking for? In either case theres a bunch of things you could do to make cable show intro/suspense music.

 

Have you checked OBSCURIUM by Sugar Bytes?
http://www.sugar-bytes.com/content/products/Obscurium/index.php?lang=en
That thing is creating some stunning sounds!

In this case i can recommend you NI Absynth 4 or 5. It's one of the best for creating soundscapes.
Camel Audio ALCHEMY is also good. To create unusual soundscapes or PAD sounds i often use Plug-In effects like U-he More Feedback Machine or Uhbik in combination with software synthesizers.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

rob papen synths have shitloads of cool presets to tweak

 

You should try Zebra 2 addons(Serenity,Kronos,Elysium,Cinematic tools),makes Absynth look rather dated.Its a soundscape paradise.

 

Hmmm, I tried to go thru a tutorial on making a trance track from start to finish today, and I think I hear more of how the "atmosphere" is being created. It seems to my virgin ears so far that it's a combination of small and large room reverb, a couple of delays...then even though it went in one ear and out the other, my brain went down around 2:18:00 into the course...I'm confused like hell again and now I'm waiting for my brain to complete a reboot, so I'm gonna go for a long walk. Now I think I may have NOT heard all that went into the "stripped down" EDM tracks I thought I heard on the cable show I referenced...

Is there a trick not to get nauseated listening to the kick/click and bass over and over again, or is it just me, and/or I'm using headphones medium level to be less "offensive" to my cohabitors be causing the problem. I eq'd the bass down a bit, with a HPF on the video I was watching but, it didn't help

@Pinkman Ok, ty, I'll check it out. I'm considering a Kontakt vocal library I got but forgot which one and the Symphobia library vocals w/ or w/o a singer now...I'm also starting to consider violins too grating, but still like cellos.

@statik I have Ableton but I haven't touched it yet, I'm afraid I'll wind up being a dj or vj or something. The trance track course I was watching uses Ableton. All the DAWs seem only different in ease of use for different things but, live performance is what I thought Ableton was for more...I must be wrong.

@Herr Durr Your killing me man.

@SyNtH. I forgot how I got to EDM while trying to learn electronic music production, it definitely was not from using a pacifier but, once I identified EDM I came across the genres within the music who's list is huge; including but not limited to:
Deep House, Progressive House, Electro House, Tech House, Tribal House, Progressive Trance, Tech Trance, Vocal Trance, Goa/Psytrance, Dubstep, Brostep, Luvstep, Thugstep, Trap, Hard Trance, Hard Dance, Happy Hardcore...

So I went, wtf! I've been living in a cave or something? All I was, was married for 14 years to a woman 16 years younger than me. (Did push my endurance to the limit, yes, btw...she's hispanic and actually likes men...unfortunately not me exclusively...sob!)

So I can't really say what genre things come from, cause all I've listened to so far all collections of "best of" stuff like, VA - Best Of Vocal Trance 2016, Various Artists - Best of EDM 2015, VA - The Best Of 2015 Unmixed (Club Family Records), and VA Festival Favorites 2016 Armada Music 2016 and misc Youtubies.

I hear you about using a small set of parameters and starting to experiment. I was hoping I could "virtually mentor" with analysis of great sound designers' work by finding a patch I liked and then deconstructing wtf (s)he did. Then I realized, first, what vsti should I actually use! I'm at this point too much a novice, to reverse engineer, even though I think I now know all the ways to create, filter, modulate and fx a sound but, I don't understand wavetable synthesis (the science behind it, is it just a sample of the formants of a sound, idk) and once you start mixing 2 oscillators or more, the complexity of the sound is completely lost to me yet. It's like all of a sudden going from nice patch colors to a fractal image...I completely do not understand the interactions. I mean, FM synthesis still makes me disbelieve I'm just adding a couple of simple waves...then use a complex one...hmmm.

For songwriting and stuff, I was using midis of piano covers for classical music I know (so I know wtf is the melody, harmony/counterpoint and bass lines) breaking the midis apart to separate tracks. I also layered sounds by duplicating midi tracks and transposing or just changing the instrument playing. Can make it pretty. What I want to do now, is add a soundscape or "atmosphere" to that process. I used piano covers, because right now, that sure is simpler than the actual orchestral pieces and reading notes truly blows for me right now. As a clarinetist I learned to read notes just like the treble cleft as a kid, but the bass cleft really bothers me so far, cause I've between going, "2 letters above that is"...instead of just knowing that's an A on sight.

I got in trouble at work for not conceding to a punishment and instead fighting it, (I won, only took 3 years) so I went from an electric guitarist to classical guitarist cause they would let me play an acoustic/classical guitar all day while the quasi legal stuff was playing out! It just sucked, like college and my electric guitar, playing the acoustic made women notice me, which is just not useful in a progressive government agency...what could go wrong!? So I now have a preference for Baroque music really...and actually may be why I so dislike the dissonant sounds I hear in some parts of EDM. I hear classical music all the time in modern music anyways, well that isn't just a drum track.

@Cook I'll investigate that one.

@flashback23 My problem now is I have so many presets, I could just audition presets until I die, there are too many. I want to "luckily" find one of the right type, then understand how to tweek it to how I want the sound to become.

@Von_Steyr I just heard of Zebra yesterday. So ppl are using that instead of Absynth now? Cause I don't see anything current for Absynth... I'm still trying to push myself to play with Omnisphere.

Hey, wtf do I put the *.big file in Pro tools so I can get my Xpand!2 to work, somehow it installed somewhere, but not in the right place!

Again thanks guys for all the possible directions. I need to decompress. I'll stay away from edges and traffic as I walk. I'll put on my weight vest, but not a helmet, cause the weight vest already looks too much like a suicide bomber vest...

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

Adobe Audition sounds like the aplication suitable for your yt. needs. You'll have it down in a day.
Oh, and it does multitracking and runs VST's & AU's.
Anything more, try one of the major DAW's.

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

I need to go and take a shit, i'll put my sunglasses on, for not to see the horrible brown scars i'll leave on the decaying tree-slices, cause i'm too afraid that those scars already lay not on the surface, but deep down...

 

@artwerkski I started with Audition, cause I came from the After Effects side but, I couldn't get my Waves plugins to work (at the time not understanding 32bit/64bit vst/pro tools flavor) for better plugins for my voice overs, tried jbridge and that didn't work...so I downloaded Cubase and I went down a hole pretty quick.

@Bill Vkerchi? We're brothers from another mother...I wasn't being facetious though. To create another statement of similar type requires similar wiring. Welcome home.

The walk didn't work, but now I'm tired and usually just like grad school when I learned too much and got overwhelmed, I just took a nap, cause women never do perform on ur whim, well at least not anyone I knew. Where are the Billy Clinton service women when you need them? Given up cigars?

I'm concerned Idk the difference between "Dark" Zebra and Zebra, wtf. I'll play with them when I wake up. I'm downloading the Atmospheres for the Expanded Mind the Audioz guys have done and I'm gonna take a listen. I downloaded from the Russian site, cause I miss a very pretty and very dangerous Ukrainian woman I almost married in grad school I see the grps of presets like
Serenity and Kronos.

Now my concern is how to balance learning and experimenting to maximize efficiency. (Assuming I'm not as dumb as a bag of rocks and it matters @Bill Vkerchi?) Sometimes both become overwhelming.

 

In my opinion with NI Absynth one can make more complex sounds than with U-he Zebra.
Zebra sounds are mostly okay but Absynth sounds are superior due to its vast features.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

that basically what i use it for as well, and for making mashups but i have a few friends that use it for total music production. best thing to do is just experiment with one daw at a time, write a track in it and see which one feels right while writing/recording, for me FL studio works the best, i tried cubase, sonar, ableton and logic but non of them have the flow i found FL studio to have (this could also be because i'm used to working with patterns like in trackers from the good old mod-file days and caus i've been working with FL since version 3). although for recording/mixing/mastering i find logic works the best