Do you think "pro" DJ/Producers make their own sounds from scratch?

bm@r22

bm@r22

New member
I've been learning alot about sound design and synth manipulation/automation and listening to artists like Steve Aoki, Chuckie, Afrojack, Deadmau5, MSTRKRFT, Wolfgang Gartner ect ect ect but Im curious as to how many of these DJ/producers create their sounds from scratch or do you think they are tweaking presets?

Id assume it depends but Im curious if its even worth my time to WANT to create all my sounds from scratch.

thx a bunch Im looking forward to hear what you all think!!
 
For me, the problem with tweaking presets is that I end up wading through 50 presets looking for the one closest to the sound in my head, and by the time I'm done, I've polluted that sound in my head with the sound of 50 presets I just went through...

But if you've got a good grasp on what your various presets sound like, you can choose one that's almost the sound you want, then tweak from there. There's no hard&fast rule about how to design sound. Just make it sound good.

It will not hurt and will almost undoubtedly help to grok synthesis well. Pick a sound from one of those guys, reset your favorite synth to a plain sine wave, and get to work replicating it. I've been spending more and more time doing this, and while I've still not been happy with the results of *any* of them, it's teaching me tons about what each tweak to an Osc or a pitch envelope etc will actually do to the sound.

HTH
 
Last edited:
most of them do create their own patches or tweak other ones but the real magic is in how theyre used. synthesis is definitely worth learning because youll be able to make synths instead of wasting a load of time looking for them.
 
bm@r22 said:
I've been learning alot about sound design and synth manipulation/automation and listening to artists like Steve Aoki, Chuckie, Afrojack, Deadmau5, MSTRKRFT, Wolfgang Gartner ect ect ect but Im curious as to how many of these DJ/producers create their sounds from scratch or do you think they are tweaking presets?

Id assume it depends but Im curious if its even worth my time to WANT to create all my sounds from scratch.

thx a bunch Im looking forward to hear what you all think!!
Click to expand...
I will say it is worth your time making your own sounds, it's hard at first but it WILL pay off... and anybody who designs "most" of their sounds will probably agree

It all depends... I know Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner do very good synth programming and I can guarantee that most of their sounds were not from presets. Their drum samples might not be made from scratch, but I'm sure there is some layering. I know people like Eskmo and Amon Tobin make 100% of their samples from scratch (with the exceptoin of amon tobin's vinyl sampled tracks)

Learn to use synthesizers really well... try and recreate presets you like so that you know how they work... soon it will all start making sense and you will be able to listen to a sound you like in a song and know somewhat how the sound was made.

if you really want to learn, there is two books that can help you with this a LOT... 1) The Dance Music Manual, by Rick Snoman (this book will get you from rookie beatmaker to producer level)... and 2) Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook, by Fred Welsh (this is one of the only books that just gives you a bunch of sounds and tells you how to make them)
 
I agree.

There's nothing like being able to just lift an instrument straight out of a song and use it. And the good thing with synths, they all sound similar. So you can theoretically make a pretty close imitation of just about any synth you hear.

I was already OK at making synths. For the next few months though I'm gonna focus primarily on tweaking synths though.
 
does anyone else think that a pro producer should, really mainly, to set a good example, program their own synths and not outright lift things from sample cd's, i know its all about how you use things, but starting out, it left me with tons of questions and confusion, especially in getting into djing which i do more and know a little more about, but im not really quite as good at, where the big names use autosync and ableton, so i naturally decided that was where to go if i wanted to get to their level. im seeing now what ive really known all along, but that perception really didnt do any good for my development i think.
 
tweaking synths is not an easy job especially if you dont know the functions of the perimeters on the synth you are trying to tweak i would advise that you read the manual for the synth u use to develop yo sounds so that you understand what u are upto when you are trying to develop a certain kind of sound.
 
Just make the best music to you.

Do both...one will sound better. You decide. Then learn from your techniques for your next project.

Eventually you'll decide before you even open a DAW.
 
tweaking synths is not an easy job especially if you dont know the functions of the perimeters on the synth you are trying to tweak i would advise that you read the manual for the synth u use to develop yo sounds so that you understand what u are upto when you are trying to develop a certain kind of sound.
 
synth programmer usually got a set of basic preset sounds to layer together.

So they would have a special little bass sound that they've already programmed in the past and let's say a secret little disto sound to work with.

They would then layer all the little percs together and work from there in terms of tweaking the sound.

Theres so much detail to this subject.

I'm reading this book by Peter Gorges right now, a german synth programmer who did a lot of work for Native Instruments Reaktor library. They also made an instruction synth for reaktor to work with along with the book. Its great...you get like a really simple up front synth with all the basic preset sounds to work from there.

The ensemble in reaktor is called "soundschool analog" i think.
Great and simple designed analog synth.
 
I'll go out on a limb and say that most producers Tweak presets and don't create their own sounds from scratch. I think the more you know about sound design, the better you will be at achieving the perfect, custom sound that you are looking for instead of being a slave to presets.
 
outra skillz23 said:
tweaking synths is not an easy job especially if you dont know the functions of the perimeters on the synth you are trying to tweak i would advise that you read the manual for the synth u use to develop yo sounds so that you understand what u are upto when you are trying to develop a certain kind of sound.
Click to expand...

Is there anything "easy" in production?

Damn...just learn if you want it. Otherwise just stay in bed. Your music quality won't change either way if you're not doing something because it isn't easy.

Lame. Not you...just people who aren't actually into producing but say they are. But then again, I guess if I'm being reasonable, there are levels of content in production and I can understand that...I would just say I'm always trying to stay away from only being "satisfied."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top