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680601 Posts in 27601 Topics by 4068 Members - Latest Member: Dae Lims March 29, 2024, 09:46:20 AM
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Author Topic: New song: "Last Dream"  (Read 2166 times)
seltaeb1012002
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« on: May 10, 2015, 07:27:33 PM »

I post a ton of music on my various social channels, but I wanted to share this one because I quite like the progression I came up with.  The 2nd chord is the same as the 3rd, just played with an inversion. It's amazing how different a chord can feel when played with a different root note in the bass.

https://soundcloud.com/j-hype/last-dream
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Gregg
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« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2015, 04:53:28 PM »

You're production work just gets more and more sophisticated, which I guess is to be expected - but, man, it sure is impressive! I've been writing and programming with synths and drum machines since the Dark Ages, when we actually used floppy (and I mean "real" floppy) discs for data storage, so I am really interested in the technical aspect of your song production.

If you have a moment to briefly describe your workflow and what plug-ins, DAW or whatever you use, I'd really be interested to learn. Anyway, great work! Thanks again for sharing.
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seltaeb1012002
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« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2015, 06:11:15 PM »

You're production work just gets more and more sophisticated, which I guess is to be expected - but, man, it sure is impressive!

That's quite a compliment, thanks man! I dedicate a lot of time to it, glad you're hearing improvements.

I've been writing and programming with synths and drum machines since the Dark Ages, when we actually used floppy (and I mean "real" floppy) discs for data storage, so I am really interested in the technical aspect of your song production.

If you have a moment to briefly describe your workflow and what plug-ins, DAW or whatever you use, I'd really be interested to learn. Anyway, great work! Thanks again for sharing.

Wow, that's awesome! I'm interested in hearing more about how you worked. I'd imagine it took a lot longer on the technical side in the early days of digital.

I use FL Studio to program / sequence the instrumental. I've got a pretty large collection of drums that I've either sampled personally or got from sample libraries. A lot of the melodic sounds in this particular track come from the "Omnisphere" and "Massive" VSTi's. I also try to throw in some acoustic instruments (ie the bells / acoustic guitar / tambourine) to breathe some life into the track and keep it sounding like music.

After I've got a relatively finished instrumental (mind you while i'm creating the instrumental, i'm writing the song), I'll export the individual tracks into Adobe Audition. From there I'll put a rough mix on the instrumental, and start recording the vocals. Once the vocals are down, then I'd say it gets to the longest part, which is post production (like the high octave'd vocals in the hook, harmonies, etc) & mixing. For me a lot of it at that point is listening to it over and over and over again and figuring out all the things that are wrong with it, and addressing it one piece at a time. They say the last 1% of the track takes the longest. And in my case, that's definitely true!

On the plugins side I tend to go for Waves stuff. Pretty much everything you need is in there. I try to automate as much as possible to keep things subtly interesting mix wise. Lots of filters and stuff.

Thanks for asking, hope that helps. I love talking about this stuff, lol.

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Gregg
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« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2015, 07:46:58 PM »

My only experience with FL was several years ago and I believe it was the bare bones (free) version. It seemed very loop-based. It's obviously very flexible and powerful now. You seem to really know how to get around on it.  Smiley

I use DP and also have Omnisphere but have not used it much like you do. Do you sync some synth parameters to the sequencer clock to get that locked in time or is it just a matter of quantizing? I know very little about Adobe Audition but I've heard some pretty amazing things that people have done with it - adding your stuff to the list.

One thing you said reminds me of something my composition professor always said.... "Composition is the process of elimination." There are endless possibilities. You just have to weed out all the things that don't work. Not exactly an easy task!

A bit about my background.... I first built my own synths from kits from a company out of Oklahoma City, OK called PAiA. I had 2 reel-to-reel tape decks that I would bounce parts back and forth to build up tracks. I bought the first MIDI keyboard ever made - a Prophet 600 - while playing in a band that did a lot of funk, Steely Dan, etc. We used a Yamaha QX1 sequencer live and it embarrassed us on several occasions. We later used a Mac with DP for our sequencer. Don't want to bore you though. So you can imagine why what you do is impressive.  Smiley
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seltaeb1012002
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« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2015, 06:35:55 AM »

My only experience with FL was several years ago and I believe it was the bare bones (free) version. It seemed very loop-based. It's obviously very flexible and powerful now. You seem to really know how to get around on it.  Smiley

Yeah at this point you can even record vocals and mix the final product in FL if you wanted to. But to me there's nothing like doing all of that stuff in AA.

I use DP and also have Omnisphere but have not used it much like you do. Do you sync some synth parameters to the sequencer clock to get that locked in time or is it just a matter of quantizing? I know very little about Adobe Audition but I've heard some pretty amazing things that people have done with it - adding your stuff to the list.

Pretty much everything syncs itself now - in terms of preset sounds that have rhythmic elements. They all end up moving with the BPM you have set. In terms of quantizing, yeah there's a cool quantize feature in FL that allows you to play with the feel in order to not have it sounding TOO perfect. Sometimes it works with whatever I play in there live. Although I generally have to shift everything over a bit due to a very slight latency.

One thing you said reminds me of something my composition professor always said.... "Composition is the process of elimination." There are endless possibilities. You just have to weed out all the things that don't work. Not exactly an easy task!

So true. There are so many variables. At some point you just have to stop working on the project, or else you'll go on forever!

A bit about my background.... I first built my own synths from kits from a company out of Oklahoma City, OK called PAiA. I had 2 reel-to-reel tape decks that I would bounce parts back and forth to build up tracks. I bought the first MIDI keyboard ever made - a Prophet 600 - while playing in a band that did a lot of funk, Steely Dan, etc. We used a Yamaha QX1 sequencer live and it embarrassed us on several occasions. We later used a Mac with DP for our sequencer. Don't want to bore you though. So you can imagine why what you do is impressive.  Smiley


WOW, that's awesome. Not boring at all, I find it fascinating. I first started recording going from cassette to cassette myself, so I know a bit about that. Though never had the pleasure of using reel to reel! There's a Kontakt VST called "Retro Machines" that you may like. It has a lot of those 80's synth sounds in there. I use it all the time!
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seltaeb1012002
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« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2015, 11:39:46 AM »

Just uploaded the lyric video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J2SiH7NW5c
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