Looking For Some General Advice

[armsoforion]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking to improve my production capabilities.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd say I'm somewhere in the 4 or 5 area currently, and would like to push that up a few notches. I know the basics of songwriting, recording, mixing, and I have a a decent grasp of compression, filtering, and EQ, though I'm always looking to refine these skills.

While I do some acoustic things, most of my efforts are in electronic music production, and it's here where I seem to struggle with choosing "good" instrument sounds. I can program beats and write melodies and harmonies all day, but they often come out sounding too "cute."

The best way I can describe it, it's like aiming for a CHVRCHES sound, but having it come out sounding like the background music to a Wix commercial. I realize some of this is tempo, rhythm, key, and cadence, but I think a significant portion is also knowing:

A) which sounds go well together,
B) which instruments sound current and fit within a genre,
C) how to synthesize these sounds or modify existing instruments to meet the goals of "A" and "B" and,
D) knowing other production techniques that contribute to the goals of "A" thru "C."

So, I'm wondering if anyone here has some general advice for how to get better at these things, or knows of some specific articles/videos that deal with this sort of thing.

I'd greatly appreciate it.

All the best—

 

[jimmys69]

Hey arm,

Welcome!

Time working with instruments and which instruments you have... There are no genre rules for creating music. There is a reason the cheap ones sound cheap...

What is it exactly that you are working with? DAW/instruments/system?

I am not so much into the CHVRCHES type of music, but that also involves high quality vocal tracking as well. Is that in your scope or are you just looking to create backing tracks with that sound? I can help with the live stuff. Not so much with the synth end. Many here do that everyday tho.

Best to ya!

 

[Pinky]

Part of it is instincts/style, the things that make us individuals. Maybe you need to embrace your inner Pop instead of trying to make yourself into someone or something you're not?

I'm the other way around, and struggle with getting things that are suppose to be pop sounding light enough for pop digestion. My current collaborator has to constantly remind me "this is supposed to be happy, like Walking on Sunshine", etc. I can eventually find a compromise after a few retries, but my instincts take me to a gloomier musical place.

 

[Nola]

While I do some acoustic things, most of my efforts are in electronic music production, and it's here where I seem to struggle with choosing "good" instrument sounds. I can program beats and write melodies and harmonies all day, but they often come out sounding too "cute."

You can't really fight your natural style. Much of it is determined early in our lives by what music our parents listened to while in the womb or what we were exposed to at early ages. This is what research suggests and is true of language/things that are similar to music. It will be hard to fight. My suggestion would be to listen to a lot of different types of music.

 

[Farview]

The answer depends on why you are trying to write stuff in the other vein.

If you see yourself as an artist and want that sort of music to naturally come out, what the last two people said is true, you will have a hard time.

If you are trying to be a journeyman songwriter, who can write for any style or genre, you will need to study what makes those styles sound that way. Tempo, instrumentation, subject matter, key, etc...

Not that those people are not artists, but they tend to look at it as a job instead of an emotional release. The goal is to write a song that sounds like "x" instead of pulling something from thier heart and releasing it to the world.

Obviously, it isn't as black and white as I've described it.