Where do professional trap producers get their sounds?

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Whitelexluger

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Young chop, mike will, lex etc..

I downloaded countless free soundkits & 3 vsts (nexus, hypersonic, syneth [somethin like that I forgot the name])

There's a couple good sounds in these, but I still feel like I'm missing alot. When I hear synths, brass, bells, etc. In professional songs, none of the sounds in my kits & vsts can compare with it. A lot of the sounds in these vsts sound kinda useless for rap.

Where do the pros get their sounds? How do they make them sound so much better than mine? I'm still relatively new to producin so help me out.
 
you have much to learn young jedi.


You gotta layer shit, like strings and brass to get a nice "bite-y" sound. Layer drum sounds. Make sure to mess with ADSR settings. Make sure you make a nice stereo image and all that.


Mike will literally uses preset from VSTs without even editing them though. I found the exact preset he used to make no lie in Gladiator and the exact arpeggio he used to make Itchin in DUNE. He didn't even do anything just went straight in. And there's nothing wrong with that. Simplicity is king sometimes.

Its really about the mix. Those guys are lucky, they dont have to do that stuff any more I don't feel like. They just lay down a general idea make sure they pick the sounds they like and then let a mixing engineer mix and master it to perfection when the song comes out.
 
Ehh you already know a few. You missed the korg M1, Kontakt, Gladiator, Omnisphere...along with what you mentioned that's what ppl beat and kill to death lol. I observe closely. I must say though just because you use the same thing doesn't mean its just gonna give you the sound your looking for...You gotta know how to manipulate your sounds, layer/stack, play in a good scale, and on top of all that have a decent mix. Example: Two ppl are given the same kick... one can make that kick knock. The other might say its all the way up 3.5 db and its still not knocking...that kick is just weak as hell I need a better one lmao.

Also using to much stuff at once is gonna do you more damage than help, gotta take time to know your vst's and learn the libraries well enough to be able get adequate results closest to your imagination. You gotta understand sounds don't really classify anyone to a pro level...some sounds your not gonna just find, you gotta work for them and get them to your liking. Other sounds you can use the same exact sound, but had it at a way higher key and not realize...with trial and error you can only gain skill from it.

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ----------
AG Beats said:
you have much to learn young jedi.


You gotta layer shit, like strings and brass to get a nice "bite-y" sound. Layer drum sounds. Make sure to mess with ADSR settings. Make sure you make a nice stereo image and all that.


Mike will literally uses preset from VSTs without even editing them though. I found the exact preset he used to make no lie in Gladiator and the exact arpeggio he used to make Itchin in DUNE. He didn't even do anything just went straight in. And there's nothing wrong with that. Simplicity is king sometimes.

Its really about the mix. Those guys are lucky, they dont have to do that stuff any more I don't feel like. They just lay down a general idea make sure they pick the sounds they like and then let a mixing engineer mix and master it to perfection when the song comes out.
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Damn you fast lol. Basically got a part of what I was typing before I hit post.
 
THA_REAPER said:
Ehh you already know a few. You missed the korg M1, Kontakt, Gladiator, Omnisphere...along with what you mentioned that's what ppl beat and kill to death lol. I observe closely. I must say though just because you use the same thing doesn't mean its just gonna give you the sound your looking for...You gotta know how to manipulate your sounds, layer/stack, play in a good scale, and on top of all that have a decent mix. Example: Two ppl are given the same kick... one can make that kick knock. The other might say its all the way up 3.5 db and its still not knocking...that kick is just weak as hell I need a better one lmao.

Also using to much stuff at once is gonna do you more damage than help, gotta take time to know your vst's and learn the libraries well enough to be able get adequate results closest to your imagination. You gotta understand sounds don't really classify anyone to a pro level...some sounds your not gonna just find, you gotta work for them and get them to your liking. Other sounds you can use the same exact sound, but had it at a way higher key and not realize...with trial and error you can only gain skill from it.

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ----------



Damn you fast lol. Basically got a part of what I was typing before I hit post.
Click to expand...

Yeah I got them fast fingers lol! You typed a lil more than me though too
 
all I will say is that they get them from the same places mere mortals do - on-line or at the store.....
 
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you can get some cool stuff if you just start trying to make ur own sounds in a synth too. I made a really cool bass patch that I like. It's like a dirty sine I'd call it. It's a few waves I think nothing too complicated but more complicated then the average joe would make a bass sound. ANd then I add fruity fast distortion and tweak a certain way to give it extra gritty-ness
 
Yeah, like AG said, a lot of sounds you can make yourself. Your rises, falls, SFX, toms, kicks, snares, hats, crashes, and other various percussion are programmable, and a lot of trap producers make their own. But yeah, you're also going to want/need tubular bells, chants, and things like shakers and other random percussion that you can't really synthesize well. I know purity has a good tubular bell; some vsts have a crappy tubular bells, or at lease ones that sound nothing like that trap tubular bell. As far as chants and the other stuff, I'm always looking for more of that myself. You can download a lot of stuff from freedrumkits.com (I think that's it's name), and you could also try recording some stuff on your own.

But AG, I disagree with you on you thinking they're lazy because most trap producers do their own mixing and master. More-so than any other genre in fact.

---------- Post added at 03:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 AM ----------

You'll also notice that a lot of top artists on soundclick sell their own drum/sound kits. You should give that a try if you have the money, I'm sure they have some dope sounds.
 
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Oxygen Beats said:
Except I disagree with you on you thinking they're lazy because most trap producers do their own mixing and master. More-so than any other genre in fact.
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I didn't say they were lazy I just said they don't bother with mixing/mastering. Sizzle said it best he takes all the plugins off an 8 bar loop and it goes for "100 bandz"

He was most likely exaggerating the price, but I really think they just let the engineers do all the mixing and mastering. They just lay the patterns and pick the sounds.



here's a link to my drum kit, password ' secretpasswordfordrumkit ' I used to sell it but I don't anymore. I was using it to get signups to my email list but I had to cut off that until I get my job back and can afford it

http://www.mediafire.com/?oq2ydnoi6e1gr4g
 
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Well, I'm not sure about the artists listed above, but most trap artists do their own mixing/mastering. Most trap producers aren't accustomed to the traditional handing off to mixing then mastering engineers. Most don't have the money when they start, learn to do it themselves, and have no reason to change once they do have the money (because by the time they have the money, it means they are already making hot mixes on their own).

But also in regards to the presets, a lot of major artists use presets. The lead in Buy You A Drink by T-Pain is a preset (can't remember from where, maybe z3ta). But it's not just trap/r&B, pop music has it to. The bell arp sound that plays throughout Lights by Ellie Goulding is a z3ta preset! I mean, there's way more all over the place too. It's crazy, there's obviously nothing wrong with presets, if you use them properly.
 
i think they get them from god. My producer told me he prays to god to find the perfect sounds its crazy
 
They all sound like presets to me. Well stacked, well mixed presets.
 
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