How do I go about learning how to make whatever sounds I want?

T

THE MOON

New member
I have been doing music production for about 15 months now, and I am still overwhelmed and feeling very inadequate. I have been trying to make music for a long time, but always run into the same problems. I don't know how to make good sounds from scratch, I can think of sounds that I might want to use in a track, but I can never make the sounds due to my inadequacies. Often it is because I don't know how to combine multiple sounds to make the ones I want, or because I don't know what effects to use or how to use them or what to use them with. I don't know what filters to use or how to use them.

In other words, I know absolutely nothing about how to make sounds of any kind, despite trying to figure it out for over a year. I also can't afford any kind of software or hardware that costs more than $25, and wont be able to for some time.

I have FLStudio10, an Oxygen 61 keyboard, an electric guitar, and around 30 different VSTs and over 9,000 drum samples and over 200 soundfonts of various kinds. The VST I use most however is Synth1, which is the only one that I can understand well enough to do anything with.

So my question is: How do I go about learning to make the sounds I want? How do I develop an understanding of things that will allow me to know what to do whenever I need to make a new sound, or just trying to get a sample to sound good? I have wanted to make music my whole life and I have nothing to show for it, I desperately need help. I've become depressed over my inabilities, and I will take any help or advice at all.
 
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Learn what all the different things do and how they affect the sound to a point where it's in the back of your head and you can focus on the creative part rather than struggling with technical stuff (which blocks the path between an idea and a matching result).
This will take some time, so you need to have patience.

And experiment, have fun while producing.
At your stage (as you described it) I would advice you not to focus too much on getting an idea in your head and then translate it into the real world, since you can't deliver at it that well at the moment.
Instead, just play around until you get a sound that makes you think "hey this one is awesome, what if I try using it here". Be your own mad professor.

As your knowledge on this expands, analyze music and try to figure out in your head how certain sounds have been made.
 
Synthesis is all experimentation. A good way to start would be to flip through your presets and see how they are all designed. Look at the patch of each preset and see what went into making that sound.

Maybe instead of starting from the default initialized patch, just tweak preset settings to get an idea of whats going on.

Of course before all this you need to know Synthesis basics, which can be found literally anywhere. There is a sticky in this section which is good for absolute beginners to synthesis. I wrote it WHEN I was an absolute beginner, for beginners. So you should be able to understand it. I just dumbed down different sources online.
 
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for one you dont need 30 synth vsts dude.a good synth will let you make, or in reaktor/synthedit's case make your own synthesizer vsts.
synthesis revolves around building up on simple sounds.you're just adding or subtracting effects and harmonics whether it be from adding oscillators together or subtracting frequencies you don't want.



 
The only way to learn to make the sounds I like is to keep trying. It will grow slowly on you.
But what I have seen a lot of "newcomers" do is to overlook delay and reverb. Do not forget those.
Way too dry sounds sounds awkward on synths, strings and instruments that normally are expected to be recorded in a bigger room.

What genre are you making?
Could you post a track of yours as it will make it a lot of easier to pinpoint what you have tried to make is lacking.
 
...what?Im not a young anybody I'm just me, a 19 year old Mostly black dude :/ (a few odd relatives here and there)
 
Heyclown said:
What genre are you making?
Could you post a track of yours as it will make it a lot of easier to pinpoint what you have tried to make is lacking.
Click to expand...

For music that I have made myself, I don't really make any particular genre. I usually make whatever sounds good to me. In most cases, I start with a sound that happened to catch my attention and build from it until I hit a point at which I don't know what to do anymore (which doesn't take long most of the time).

I tend to lean towards more electronic sounding music though, and most of the scraps that I put together are indeed electronic sounding. I do however have a particular love for distortion. I love the dirty mechanical sounds that distortion can produce; sadly I don't have much skill in using distortion.

Here's two of the things I made. They are only scraps, as I have never been able to get very far with any of my projects.

https://soundcloud.com/mad-moon-2/system-incomplete

https://soundcloud.com/mad-moon-2/late-night-incomplete

The first was just an experiment with using a filter with a percussion sample. Though I did manage to make that hat-like sound using a synthesizer after getting a lot of help.

The second was an experiment with that electric plucking sound, which was a sound that I had wanted to use very badly at the time. I had spent the better part of a month figuring out how to get that damned sound, and even with help, I ended up having to find a preset to modify it from. I was very satisfied with the result, but then I realized that I had no idea what to do past that point in the track.

I have about 20 more projects that are just scraps from me experimenting. Most usually die from me not knowing how to make some good percussion or bass to go with them. In fact, trying to get good bass is by far the biggest problem I encounter. I have hundreds of presets for bass in my synths, but they never manage to match up with what I am wanting or needing.

Advice on making good bass through a synthesizer would help me out tremendously. I use Synth1 since I cant afford to buy anything.
 
!st one are closing in on a bass sound although its possibly a pad? Pads are used in many bass sounds nowadays.
Remember that people layer bass sounds on top of each other to get a fuller bass sound. It is not uncommon to layer 3-5 bass sounds that all cover different frequencies and sound styles. Some might be distorted som can be clean.
There are way too many tutorials on youtube on how to make a good bass in almost any genre so I won't make a new one here.
Also I do not know synth1.

The first link u posted sounds fine till the drums comes in (perch) in a totally surprising rhythm. That pad/bass sound almost has a rhythm to itself and what you comes in with totally does not fit white the side chain and the instruments rhythm.

Seems like you are in the beginning of your producer journey.
Try to hook up with someone more experienced with you that can take you through making a full song?
 
synth1 isn't that freeware..? anyway i would pick a vst that has alot of tutorials on youtube on how to make sounds with it so you learn what the knobs and stuff does..
 
yeah, Synth1 is freeware. I have no real money to spend on vst, and synth1 was the one that was most recommended by the other sites I go to. I understand it enough to know what the knobs and dials do, but I still end up lost at times.
 
Learning Music Theory wouldn't be a bad place to start. If you're just making beats from ear it can be done, but will be much easier if you learned music theory.
 
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