how can i find sounds that are in my mind

V

virtouso

New member
hi.
sometimes in music production i have some sound effects in my mind but i do not know how can i introduce such a sound.

how music producers and composers work in these times? is this a research process or....? maybe your answer is synthesizers but there is lots of them and all of them have their own limitations.

thank you for helping
 
Practice.

Listening a lot, watching people do it and researching stuff on the interwebz helps, but in the end it really comes down to putting in the hours.
 
this is the sound design part... to be able to engineer a particular sound. and as mentioned above, actually, knowing what to do is a matter of experience. some say it is wisdom, when knowing WHAT to do in SAID circumstance. this just takes practice and research on your part. start learning basic music theory and basic acoustic physics. Some electronic back ground is helpful when it comes to synths and knowing the difference between analog or digital reproduction. google and youtube is your best bet for instant content. i chose a daw that was explicit in making sounds, Propellerheads Reason, and I am glad I went this route myself. I have only a few vsts, and they are like hardware emulations of analog gear, i do though now own Izotope Ozone 8... which is a VERY powerful tool. other than that, I dont use massive, or serum, or any of the expensive and FAMOUS synths. the reason, i wanted to invest in vst that improved the sound quality and dynamics rather than synths that make sounds. reason why is i wanted to learn how to program synths, and most synths and the basic free vsts can replicate most sounds out there made on expensive machines or vsts. learning harmonics, wave form, some math involved,... i am no where a pro by any means, but what i do a lot of is experiment!!! I put in the hours playing around getting stoned, letting time pass, no expectation to find this or that, the goal is to get lost in the time and forget what i was looking for. it will come to you but you have to loose yourself to find it. meaning, let go of what you think, sit in front of that one synth, and just mess it all up. lol. you would be surprised to how quickly you will catch on to the basics when watching guides and practicing experimentation.

other than that, learn the basics in physics to audio and sound reproduction.

I use Reason and thats pretty much it. But it all started with a guitar, a piano, a teacher who cared, and my own isolationg to force me to sit still long enough to go thru the transitions in life to get where i am today. i sit here for hours playing random shit... i still only know the basics... but i know now by doing... and that i think is what you are looking for.

i may not know what to call everything, but when you get an idea in your head, capture it, on a phone app, use your mouth, and simulate the sound. once recorded, you can go home and spend the hours trying to find it. another tip could be but not always a good way to go about it, but its to start out with presets or patches... and then break them down and learn how others programmed the synth.

learning the thor, malestrom, subtractor, is a good start for reason users, for example. theres tons of free stuff, any one of them could be another if you mess it all up, or experiment from the patches. so that is one other way you can get started and not feel like you dont know where to start. use a patch, then experiment from that.
 
Add to the above- listen to the basic wave types of any basic synth (eg: square, sawtooth, triangle, sine, combinations of these) and start with simple changes like attack, release, resonance etc and adjust them from one extreme to another, one knob at time then two knobs and so on until you have a basic understanding of these sounds. This can be very helpful in analyzing a sound you have in your head by asking simple questions like whether the attack is slow or fast, is the sound resonant , is it harmonically rich or simple, etc.
 
Gtoboy said:
Add to the above- listen to the basic wave types of any basic synth (eg: square, sawtooth, triangle, sine, combinations of these) and start with simple changes like attack, release, resonance etc and adjust them from one extreme to another, one knob at time then two knobs and so on until you have a basic understanding of these sounds. This can be very helpful in analyzing a sound you have in your head by asking simple questions like whether the attack is slow or fast, is the sound resonant , is it harmonically rich or simple, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, when I read the OP, I assumed he was talking about various sounds heard in EDM or techno - things with heavy filtering and resonance manipulation. It takes quite awhile to learn the ins and outs of those filtering tools, what sliders do what, which knobs change which parameter, etc.., and the guys who do that stuff for a living have their tools memorized so that they can think of a sound and make it happen in a few clicks.

I'd say grab a synth, hardware or software, doesn't matter, and spend time manipulating the basic sounds with the tools they give you. What happens to the sound if I pull this slider all the way down? What about all the way up? Switch your default sound and then try it again - can you guess, now that you know how the individual sliders are working, how it will sound? The more time you spend morphing the default patch into something weird, and the more time you spend understanding how you got it there, the more knowledgeable you'll become with that synth.

It's all about knowing the instrument you have and understanding what each filter/pot/button/slider is doing exactly.
 
virtouso said:
what about music sythesize? what are the good tools and rudiments to learn?
Click to expand...

Pick one model of synth to start with, pick a few instruments and try to make the synth sound like the instrument.
A clarinet, for example, would be a good starting point.
Research what makes the clarinet sound (mostly squarewaves), listen to enough clarinet to give yourself a mental imprint of that sound an then try to make that sound with a synth.

If you do this a couple of times, you'll start to get a foundation and know your way around that particular synth.
Branch out from there.
 
Break the sound in your head into a few categories. Is it a thin sound? Like a violin, or more like a cello?
Does the sound significantly change over time? What am I already familiar with that is like this?
If it is a "synthesized" type of sound, does it sound like a square wave/Triangle/Sine/ramp/noise?
Get familar with basic synthesizer voices first, then try the filtering on the synth and the ADSR to mold the sound to your liking.
I am a synth guy but classically trained so I tend to think of sounds as orchestral equivalents, such as a square wave can sound like a clarinet.
But synths can be much more than that, too. Synth sounds can evolve, morph and stretch differently than traditional instruments.
Experiment!!
 
AsciiRory said:
Break the sound in your head into a few categories. Is it a thin sound? Like a violin, or more like a cello?
Does the sound significantly change over time? What am I already familiar with that is like this?
If it is a "synthesized" type of sound, does it sound like a square wave/Triangle/Sine/ramp/noise?
Get familiar with Skinny Views and basic synthesizer voices first, then try the filtering on the synth and the ADSR to mold the sound to your liking.
I am a synth guy but classically trained so I tend to think of sounds as orchestral equivalents, such as a square wave can sound like a clarinet.
But synths can be much more than that, too. Synth sounds can evolve, morph and stretch differently than traditional instruments.
Experiment!!
Click to expand...
Awesome tips and hints in this thread. Don't underestimate the power of practice as well. If you relentlessly practice this, it'll come easier in time.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top