For context I have training in traditional music composition, and enjoy writing scores in that way. The music notation software I use has the ability to bounce tracks as midi, that I could then plug into logic. I’ve been experimenting with many electronic genres, mostly EDM and Synthwave type stuff.

While I understand the theory and understanding of structure and rhythm transfers over. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience in using the format of standard notation for electronic music? If there’s any merit to combining them? And if it’s been tried does anyone have any advice or tips of stuff they picked up along the way?

Thanks!

Hello everyone, I hope you can help me, I feel very frustrated since I have been producing for several years, about 3.4 and the same problems continue to happen to me, they make me think that I am not making progress.. One of them is that I never know what is missing from my tracks, (melodic techno in this case) when I think that the groove is good that nothing is missing, that if I add more elements I will saturate the idea and break with the minimal for so to speak (in my head I think less is more), several give me feedback that perhaps it is a bit empty and the track remains in “loop” mode at times and they suggest adding a set of stabs/synths in question and answer mode. I do what they suggest and it turns out perfect. When I feel that it is empty, perhaps they give me feedback saying that it has too many elements and is overwhelming to the ear or the idea is incomprehensible. Another big problem I have is that, (always speaking in terms of the melodic techno genre...) maybe I make a good melody, with one or several elements and I never know where to place it, whether in the break or in the drop or just in appearance. , I can't use it in the entire track because it's tiring and maybe exciting, I waste it. I hope you can help me, basically my problem is not knowing when it is “complete” in terms of elements, and if perhaps I make a good melody, where to place it so as not to spam it. Thank you and I hope you can help me

I recently bought an audio interface, but I'm not really able to use it most of the time as I don't have my laptop with me in my room. I've seen people use audio interfaces to record music through phone, but I wanted to know if I can add effects and use it for live purposes. I wanted to practice my electric violin at my room but it sounds really plain and scratchy direct from the interface without any processing. All the apps I've seen till now are only for recording I think.

Really struggling to find a proper setup here...

Like, do you just use your smallish laptop on top of your keyboard with a swivel arm or laptop stand?

I get both eye and neck strain from this because I always have to lean forward to work with it / read the more smallish text in Cubase.

Do you use a 76+ keys midi controller on your desk along with a proper multi monitor setup?

I really don't know where to put my mouse then... At the sides of the midi controller it's too far away, so I currently use a touchpad and place both (touchpad AND computer keyboard) ON TOP of the black keys of my Launchkey 88, since I can neither put them at the sides (too far away) nor can I put them BEHIND or IN FRONT OF the launchkey, since there's either no space (they'd float mid-air in front of the table) or they're to far away (if I place them on a book staple behind the launchkey).

Idk, I've seen pictures of home studios where people work with computer keyboards placed after or before the midi controller in which the monitor would be like 1 ½ meters away from your eyes... But I don't think I could work like this, unless I use some kind of television sized screen lol

Do you guys all just use 25 key midi controllers if you have to switch between computer keyboard and midi controller frequently?

Because that's like... the only option that feels feasible to me.

Hi. I am a self taught music producer and vocalist. I am recording a cover of a song that I very much like but there are two notes in this song that I cannot reach for the life of me, They're simply too low for my vocal range and even if the rest of the song I am able to sing perfectly, those two notes are bugging me a lot.

I'm using FL Studio and so far I've tried correcting the pitch with NewTone but also with Melodyne. However, the results are not all that great. I've tried recording a separate take of that part of the song, singing it with a note that I'm comfortable with and then pitching it down, but the results are not amazing with this technique either.

To experienced producers out here: What tricks and/or techniques are you using when dealing with vocalists not being able to reach certain notes?

Cheers!

TLDR: I cannot reach a low note. how to mix it so that it's not noticeable? What techniques are you using to record/mix such notes.

Hi I'm a high school student and for a class I need to record myself playing the saxophone together with myself in another track, so it's a duet.

I'm new to this using an M-audio interface, two Samson Microphones and audacity.

The issue is that when I record myself and play it back the recording sounds a whole step lower than what I'm actually playing and when I try to play along with my recording it sounds really wacky.

I went a little too hard with Fresh Air on one of my mixes and ended up with a compressed, almost lo-fi quality on the high end. It did sound “cleaner,” but not without this consequence. Does anyone know why this happens?

I’m thinking it might be better to bring out the high end and take out muddy mids primarily with EQ, and use Fresh Air only as a small supplement at the end if I really need it. What has everyone else’s experience been with this? which instruments do yall most use it on?

Is it common practice to compress the drums as a whole after treating each part individually with EQ, and then, after achieving balance between the different parts, to turn down the volume of the entire drum kit? As to maintaining the compression as it was without playing with the input gain — or is doing exactly that more common to keep the group itself at 0db fader level?

Thank you.

Hello! I am a keyboard player who is now starting in a group/band. The keyboard I use is a Yamaha P225, and it gives me pretty good performance, I'm very happy with it.
However, a few days ago I bought a MIDI controller, Arturia Keylab Essential MK3 61, with the aim of serving as a second keyboard connected to a DAW, Ableton Live, running in a 32 GB RAM laptop, MSI Modern 15. All this to play live.

I would like to know how to reduce the latency, if possible, how it would affect the use of an audio interface. I have tried touching the size of the input and output buffers, but I still have about 15 ms of latency. Would a sound card reduce it?

With a good audio interface, would latency be reduced even further? Do you know of any model that is economical and that could work?

Hey everyone!

I’m a 24-year-old former drummer turned bassist, and my friend guitarist and I are excited about forming a power duo to create some alternative groove rock! We both plan to sing, which adds an exciting dynamic.

We’re part of a music club that offers live performances twice a year, which gives us a solid starting point. However, we're uncertain about the best approach for drums. Should we:

• Use a backing track?
• Hire a drummer?
• Ask a friend to play live?

We’d love any tips you have on making this work in general, whether it’s about song creation, performance strategies, or anything else. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Quick Questions Thread! If you have general questions (e.g. How do I make this specfic sound?), questions with a Yes/No answer, questions that have only one correct answer (e.g. "What kind of cable connects this mic to this interface?") or very open-ended questions (e.g. "Someone tell me what item I want.") then this is the place!

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it will be automatically replaced.

###Do not post links to promote music in this thread. You can promote your music in the weekly Promotion thread, and you can get feedback in the weekly Feedback thread. Music can only be posted in this thread if you have a question or response about/containing a particular example in someone else's song.

#Other Weekly Threads (most recent at the top):

• Click here for Feedback threads.
• Click here for Quick Questions threads.
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Questions, comments, suggestions? Hit us up!

Hi,

I’m mixing and mastering a song. The first picture shows the waveform after I’ve mixed it, and the second picture shows the waveform of the demo, which has already been mastered by someone else. I’d like to make my waveform as dense and loud as the demo without losing its dynamic range.

When I apply a hard clipper or limiter, it flattens the waveform too much, removing dynamics. In the demo, you can still see some dynamic variation between the verse and chorus, which I want to preserve.

I’ve also tried different compressors, but they tend to reduce the impact of the chorus, and I haven’t found settings that work. My best result so far has been with a soft clipper (using Soft Clip Classic from Standard Clip), adjusting the soft clip saturator knob to introduce a slight range that compresses before clipping.

I’m a beginner, but I like the way I’ve mixed it so far. Is there something I should’ve done more at the mixing stage to achieve a better result during mastering? Any advice on achieving density and loudness while preserving dynamics would be greatly appreciated!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oLX0p8klpTMXqQDrXCmTTIl4linSwJMP?usp=share_link

Hey everyone! Looking for some advice on setting up my home studio. I have two options for my speaker setup—either vertically or horizontally—and each affects how much table space I have. The catch is, I share the table with my dad, who has two Technics turntables and an Allen & Heath Xone 96 mixer, so space is tight. Given the need to balance audio quality and workspace comfort, which setup would you recommend?

This would be the vertical setup

This would be the horizontal setup

The speakers are a pair of jbl 4315s. Since the table would be quite high, on the first setup the speakers have to be sitting ahead of the table so they dont get covered by said table, but the angle is not perfect from where I would be sitting.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I've absolutely fallen in love with Domenique Dumont's album People on Sunday.

It can probably most easily be classified as ambient music, but its got lovely synths that have a dreamy, yet often quite rhythmic quality to them. Examples of a couple of tunes below:

People on Sunday

Arrival

I guess in terms of sound design these songs aren't the most complex, I've been getting some nice results with a Juno emulation but that's such a small part of what's going on here. What are the sort of techniques being used here to make it feel so alive, and nostalgic and dreamy? What methods could I be experimenting with?

There seems to be a lot of the following:

• automation of the synths to open up the synths, as well as the delays and reverbs etc
• and then interesting arpeggios, some of them very chordal and repetitive, others a bit more euclidean and random sounding
• some resampling and reversing of arps and synths
• FM synths doing more percussive bits driving the song forward
• Nice flourishes and fills here and there, sort of whimsy synth trills etc

Any builds on what I've seen so far? Maybe some synths to check out, fun tools to look into (doing this all in Ableton), composition / arrangement tips?

Hi all, as the title somewhat suggests, I have an audio interface with 2 lines in (L and R) which I usually record Input 1 only for guitar recordings. It has come to my attention, that after renting a bass for a week and recording all my parts for a project, that I had recorded two songs worth of bass in stereo (Line 1 & 2) despite only having one input (the lead going into the left channel) going into the interface.

Have I completely sabotaged these recordings? They sound slightly more muffled, not by a huge amount, but I can't tell if that's me just overthinking in a panic. Will these recordings be salvageable? Sorry for the wordy question, just a bit scared that the hours worth of recording effort I've done has been for nothing! Thanks in advance :)

At 5 years of age, my uncle who owned a band called The Nashville City SnagDraggers, taught me 3 simple chords. It lit a fire in me that is still burning 65 years later. It has been shown that the earlier children are exposed to the arts, in this case music, the better they fare in life even if they never use their skills in a professional setting. I have seen it in my life, even tho I've never pursued a career in music. The enrichment you gain is immeasurable.

You and your children may not share the same tastes in music. Cultivate an environment that strives to appreciate all music, even genres that don't necessarily resonate and appeal to you. I'm not a parent, but I am forever grateful my uncle took the time to teach me 3 chords. It's been an awesome ride.

This is a great book on the topic if you care to give it a read.

Adult Perspectives on Children and Music in Early Childhood

I think I was just influenced by what all piano players say that they NEED 88 weighted keys or it's worthless to them basically. However after a couple of keys on my digital piano stopped working, I put it away and I've been using just a 49 key midi controller for a year with no problems at all. I just use the octave button when I want to write bass or lead parts, and I can even use it during a performance.

I've realised also, weighted keys are heavy and 88 keys is way too big to comfortably carry. So I'm not gonna bother with that for live performance either. Also I prefer 49 to 61 because 61 is 5 octaves and I feel like I should have a balanced number of octaves per hand, not three in one and two in the other. I don't feel like I'm in the middle of the piano and feel kind of lost like that.

And the most important point of all. I realised that 88 keys is only ACTUALLY necessary if you want to play an extremely low part and an extremely high part at the same time. Which is something that I would never do and I don't think I've even heard. It would sound pretty unmusical without anything in the middle.

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Collaboration Thread! If you're looking for help with, or wanting to pitch in on a project, post up your details here. Other threads looking for collaboration will be deleted and redirected here.

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it is automatically replaced.

##Rules:

• No feedback requests - use the feedback thread.
• No promotional posts - No contests, No friend's bands, No facebook pages. Use the promotion thread.

#Other Weekly Threads (most recent at the top):

• Click here for Feedback threads.
• Click here for Quick Questions threads.
• Click here for Collaboration threads.
• Click here for Promotion threads.
• Click here for Our Former Gear threads.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Hit us up!

I'm a songwriter working with a studio out of state to master my song, so I haven't been able to attend any of the mastering in person. The mix has been strong, and it has a really holistic view of the song. Nothing is too loud, the drums hit just right, the middle and high voices are clear, the bass anchors it down, and the vocals are really crystal clean. Nothing is too loud, bright, or soft. It's all strong.

The master though has been really compressed. At first it sounded like it was coming out of a radio, and now on another try the low voices are dominating but they're so limited that they don't really round out the sound anymore, especially the drums. I'm leaning toward just not mastering at all since the mix really keeps it within the radio-ready confines. I've played the mix right after I've listened to other songs on Spotify and Apple Music, and the mix is right in line with those sonically.

I'm on the east coast and my mastering engineer is on the west coast, so it's been hard to communicate with them. My release date is mid December and I'm worried that I won't make it in time for the ads and promotional materials I've been working on if this is more drawn out.

Is it at all acceptable not to master? Is the concern that my song will sound bad once it's distributed if I don't?

I've been making beats on my busted up pc and gaming headphones for the past year and it got me thinking. How did producers like J Dilla or Q-Tip do stem seperation on samples without all this technology? I mean sometimes they sound better and cleaner than mine and here I am clicking 2 buttons and it's all done in 10 seconds with absolutely zero production and music knowledge! I'm shocked that somebody with an mpc in their moms basement just taught themselves how to do those things...

Im working on a track and I only have an e835, sm57, sm58 and im thinking about using the e835 and sm57 to record drums, sm58 for guitar 1 and sm57 again for guitar 2 and e835 for vocals. Ive heard that it isn't the best to layer the same mic and id like to hear your guys thoughts.

Link to original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/s/JsNaPlFp47

Hello all, thought I’d give an update as I’d imagine threads like this are helpful for bands/musicians looking to get their first studio experience.

We had our day in the studio yesterday and it turns out most of you were right! We were not able to get all 5 tracks done in one full day. But that’s okay! We are very happy with what/where we got.

We live tracked all 5 songs, and decided to put one of those songs on the shelf then and there. So 4 tracks live recorded, and after some punching up on the bass, we have 4 rhythm tracks we’re very satisfied with.

After that we overdubbed guitar leads and were able to get 2 tracks that our lead guitarist was satisfied with. Then we recorded some scratch vocals just to have low in the rough mixes and that was all the time we had. We scheduled another 5 hour day with the producer in a few weeks to get the last guitar leads, record vocals and add any last productions touches.

Overall an incredibly positive experience. I appreciate the tips and reality checks you all gave, it made the day less stressful and more enjoyable. Very much a learning experience and I think we’re all better musicians now because of it.

Hi, I’m a beginner.

Every bit of research I’ve done suggests using glue compression on the mix bus rather than standard compression to control dynamics. But when I try glue compression, the soft knee setting affects the verse too much, actually increasing the dynamic differences between the verse and chorus. I don’t want to use a limiter because when I push it, it affects the chorus first and squashes it, making it lose impact.

Is it possible to use a harder knee and still get that “glue” effect? Would a faster attack and release with a hard knee help control the volume of the chorus without impacting the verse too much? Or am I approaching the mixing stage incorrectly? The chorus has more elements that increase its volume, and I’m struggling to balance it.

Edit: I use clipper but it’s not enough to get it as loud as I want

Not on the master, but on all busses, like vocals, drums, and all other instruments (in one bus or how are you doing this?)?

When do you decide you need it and when don’t?

Same question for individual tracks - when do you decide you want compression on it? On vocals or live instruments - sure. But let’s say for samples (like of a soul song) or a synth line you played, or a vst piano, flute or whatever.

Last question: would a ssl compressor really do bus compression better than for example a (Cubase) stock compressor?

IMPORTANT: This is a question about the process of songwriting and arranging with sampling, NOT about which sampler to use or how to use it.

I've been making music a long time and have climbed many mountains along my journey:

1. Mount Musicianship was about playing physical instruments (like guitar, bass, drums, keys, even voice) and learning how to use them well enough (in combination with music theory and songcraft) to express meaningful musical ideas.
2. Mount Sound Design was about using recording and mixing techniques, effects, and synthesis to evoke new sounds beyond what the physical instruments could do. I never enjoyed being a preset player, so I learned how to twist all the knobs and slide all the faders to get the sounds I wanted. I made new sounds from old ones, including transforming audio through things like an MS-20, granular synthesizers, and effects.
3. Mount Generative was about changing my relationship to the machines and collaborating with them, thinking about music in terms of algorithms, probabilities, conditions -- sonic neighborhoods rather than addresses. I learned enough about sequencing and modular synthesis to Thelma & Louise off a cliff of musical expression.

Now I'm trying to climb Mount Sampling, and I'm finding it daunting. I'd welcome any recommendations from this community. I listen to albums like The Lemon of Pink (The Books), Kidsuke or My Little Ghost (Kidkanevil), or youstandit / leftrecord (Dakim), and I'm like, "How does music like this even come into being?"

I know the guy from The Books is a lifelong sound hoarder and vinyl digger and Dakim is just a savant, but is that what is required to make this kind of music? Do folks just constantly go around grabbing sounds and hoarding them for later? Or do you go hunting for sounds at the same time you're making music? Is this style of music all about throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks or is there an idea or songwriting/arranging process?

To be clear, I'm making the (probably fair) assumption that simply owning a Digitakt and all the Samples From Mars isn't an instant recipe for success. ;)

I'm using a Motu M2 with a condenser mic to record acoustic guitar in Logic Pro. While recording, the channel is peaking around -12db and is at a good volume level. When I play back the recording, it then is only peaking around -23 db and is super quiet.

I have the gain knob on the M2 as high as possible without clipping and the channel in Logic is a straight audio channel with nothing changed (no plugins, fader at 0 db).

What should I check to troubleshoot?

Checked the Orion plugin and the compression it adds is only parallel, so I wondered if that’s ‚enough‘ for glue for example.

Your opinion on this?

It’s supposed to be the only plugin on the drumbus. Not a rule of course, but confuses me

Hi, hoping someone here can help. I play drums in a band, tend to play shows around once a month or so. But recently I've been having problems with my hip (I'm not a particularly good drummer, just passable) and combined with some of the new songs we've been working on having more dance style beats, I've been looking at getting some kind of setup I could use to replace a live drum kit.

We've dabbled in the past with using an SPD sx to trigger a backing track, for when I wasn't playing drums, but I would like to completely remove myself from the kit if possible, then I could utilise things like a looper or play guitar / synths.

Has anyone had any experience utilising drum machines in a live / punk ish band setup?

I'm looking for -

-General advice if you've tried this as am worried about running a setup like this live so unsure what works and what doesn't -Equipment suggestions for something like this (currently using drum brute, like the sounds but tempted to try running backing tracks on SPD-SX and use other midi linked devices to add to the sound live, so I'm not just stood there pushing play!)

I'm currently trying to fit out a guitar case with my full setup to take to practice (currently an SPD sx, drum brute, rx-505 and mini mixer) hoping to be able to fit the setup in this if possible until I upgrade the case

Am open to using maybe a cocktail kit or similar setup in addition to beef the sound, but don't want stage setup times to be too silly!

Any advice / insights appreciated!

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it will be automatically replaced.

##Rules:

*Post only one song.- Original comments linking to an album or multiple songs will be removed.

• Write at least three constructive comments. - Give back to your fellow musicians!

• No promotional posts. - No contests, No friend's bands, No facebook pages.

##Tips for a successful post:

• Give a quick outline of your ideas and goals for the track. - "Is this how I trap?" or "First try at a soundtrack for a short film" etc.

• Ask for feedback on specific things. - "Any tips on EQing?" or "How could I make this section less repetitive?"

#Other Weekly Threads (most recent at the top):

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Questions, comments, suggestions? Hit us up!

Trying to learn compression and wonder how to start with trying to find the right settings.

Any advice on how to do this?

Still confused by this topic. I know how attack is different in Comps than in gates or synths, but still trying to really understand how to use it the right way