Electronic Music Production Guides/Tips & Tricks/Tutorials?

Scruffy · 5th May 2008, 10:32 PM

Hey,
I'm a novice at home recording/production who has been getting pretty into creating electronic music over the past year or so. I'd say by now I know my way around Ableton and am perfectly happy with all the hardware & software I have available to me but I find that my tracks lack the same quality of almost all other tunes I hear...amateur or otherwise.

The main problem is that my synths seem to sound too plain/artificial/rough. I've scoured the net for some sort of tutorial or tips and tricks resource which would point me in the right direction as to what audio effects to use to polish things up but most guides seem to be about what hardware to use or what each effect does rather than cite commonly used electronica production techniques.

Was just wondering if anyone knew of a site or book that would offer some basic pointers on what to experiment with? Or indeed if anyone could give me some tips on what works for them in their music, that would be excellent.

Optional hugs and kisses for whoever can offer any help!

mrlizard · 6th May 2008, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scruffy

Hey,
I'm a novice at home recording/production who has been getting pretty into creating electronic music over the past year or so. I'd say by now I know my way around Ableton and am perfectly happy with all the hardware & software I have available to me but I find that my tracks lack the same quality of almost all other tunes I hear...amateur or otherwise.

The main problem is that my synths seem to sound too plain/artificial/rough. I've scoured the net for some sort of tutorial or tips and tricks resource which would point me in the right direction as to what audio effects to use to polish things up but most guides seem to be about what hardware to use or what each effect does rather than cite commonly used electronica production techniques.

Was just wondering if anyone knew of a site or book that would offer some basic pointers on what to experiment with? Or indeed if anyone could give me some tips on what works for them in their music, that would be excellent.

Optional hugs and kisses for whoever can offer any help!

Getting good at compression can help gel things together. If you're using a computer to mix and you're able to use plugins, i'd seriously recommend the universal audio UAD cards. Plugins like the 1176 and the fairchild can give electronic music some subtle distortion and help things sit well together... The roland space echo plugin is amazing. They aren't free though. But you gotta pay if you want decent quality stuff.

good quality free plugins to look at would be the ones from digitalfishphones.com, the blockfish might provide you with distortion that'll help your tracks gel.

Try firing things out through amps and micing them up. get some real natural ambience in there. Distort things, but a small amount. And don't be afraid to roll the top end off things. Make sure instruments aren't dominating the same range of frequencies.

If you're looking for books i'd recommend 'the mixing engineers handbook' by Bobby Oswinsky.

The best advice is probably just to keep experimenting till you find something that works for you.

SelfMadeVocals · 6th May 2008, 02:56 PM

Something simple such as layering your keyboards up ie:
having two synths playing the same thing can make a lot of difference and give you that full sound your looking for. Layering is a common technique used by many. Most keyboards can be programmed easily so that the the 2 synths play at the same time so you therefore do not have to play 2 individual keyboards at the same time, only one.

Thee Alex · 6th May 2008, 04:50 PM

You're using Live you say, can you PM me a link to some of your tracks, or even an .als file? Then I can have a look and see what's what.

Scruffy · 6th May 2008, 09:11 PM

Hey,
To be honest I haven't got anything that I'm happy enough to let others listen to at the minute...it's just generic sounding pish while I play about with different styles of electronica.

However, if you bear that in mind I'll definitely send you one or two things for you to nudge me in the right direction production-wise? Mind you it probably wouldn't be til next week sometime as I'm currently knee-deep in revision for my finals.

If you're still up for having a listen then, I'll sort out a link or two?

Thee Alex · 6th May 2008, 09:34 PM

Absolutely, that's fine.

5th May 2008, 10:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
Scruffy Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Dundee Posts: 107 Band: Greenwell	Electronic Music Production Guides/Tips & Tricks/Tutorials? Hey, I'm a novice at home recording/production who has been getting pretty into creating electronic music over the past year or so. I'd say by now I know my way around Ableton and am perfectly happy with all the hardware & software I have available to me but I find that my tracks lack the same quality of almost all other tunes I hear...amateur or otherwise. The main problem is that my synths seem to sound too plain/artificial/rough. I've scoured the net for some sort of tutorial or tips and tricks resource which would point me in the right direction as to what audio effects to use to polish things up but most guides seem to be about what hardware to use or what each effect does rather than cite commonly used electronica production techniques. Was just wondering if anyone knew of a site or book that would offer some basic pointers on what to experiment with? Or indeed if anyone could give me some tips on what works for them in their music, that would be excellent. Optional hugs and kisses for whoever can offer any help!

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6th May 2008, 02:56 PM	#3 (permalink)
SelfMadeVocals Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 126	Something simple such as layering your keyboards up ie: having two synths playing the same thing can make a lot of difference and give you that full sound your looking for. Layering is a common technique used by many. Most keyboards can be programmed easily so that the the 2 synths play at the same time so you therefore do not have to play 2 individual keyboards at the same time, only one.

6th May 2008, 04:50 PM	#4 (permalink)
Thee Alex UGS Assassin Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Solihull, West Midlands Posts: 4,194 Band: Wülfstabber, The Black Plums, Catface, DJ Wrong Homer, Wings & Claws, Señor Citizen, WRRRMS	You're using Live you say, can you PM me a link to some of your tracks, or even an .als file? Then I can have a look and see what's what.

6th May 2008, 09:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
Scruffy Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Dundee Posts: 107 Band: Greenwell	Hey, To be honest I haven't got anything that I'm happy enough to let others listen to at the minute...it's just generic sounding pish while I play about with different styles of electronica. However, if you bear that in mind I'll definitely send you one or two things for you to nudge me in the right direction production-wise? Mind you it probably wouldn't be til next week sometime as I'm currently knee-deep in revision for my finals. If you're still up for having a listen then, I'll sort out a link or two?

6th May 2008, 09:34 PM	#6 (permalink)
Thee Alex UGS Assassin Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Solihull, West Midlands Posts: 4,194 Band: Wülfstabber, The Black Plums, Catface, DJ Wrong Homer, Wings & Claws, Señor Citizen, WRRRMS	Absolutely, that's fine.