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Have any of you tried making your own music? I've been making some electronic music with LMMS and it's fairly relaxing.

Same here. Musescore 2.0 is good too because of the realtime keyboard, so bad it is not usable on Linux yet. I suggest you to buy a guitar or a synth and play them instead of a computer, it is better because you don't have to plan what is coming from the speakers

>>15 I really want to and I always install software to do it but I have no musical talent whatsoever.

>>19 I kind of enjoy meticulously programming what will play before listening to it over and over though. I might buy a synth so I can dick around with certain sounds more easily, if that's what you mean. I can see how that would be less tedious than what I'm currently doing.

>>26 A bongo will do the trick, you should feel the music and the rhythm before creating it

>>15 I'm using ableton and a doepfer dark time and dark energy. The hardware is mainly for the enjoyment and experimentation that comes with twisting knobs though. VST plugins are really good nowadays, so its not like you need them to do interesting stuff. Have you tried renoise? I played around with a free tracker (milkytracker, I think) years ago and still like the concept.

>>15 Op here. A link to my first track: https://soundcloud.com/user-204865425/dial-tone-lullaby I'll be uploading any I make that are worth a soykaf, so enjoy.

firejailed milkytracker jams

>>40 Sounds like bytebeat, but without the cool C one-liner.

>>42 Thats pretty good. I'd trash the part from 1:35 to 2:00 though, it kinda disrupts the structure of the whole thing - unpleasant.

>>15 Thats funny, I actually got an urge to make a song yesterday. I made this cumbia beat, this is my first actuall song so its not very good. any constructive criticisms and helpful tips would be nice. Does anyone know how or why the bass makes a weird clipping sound in the intro? Im using LMMS

>>47 Sounds funny. I like it, lainon. I always wanted to have a psychedelic cumbia band.

>>47 >the bass makes a weird clipping sound did you try using a little more attack on it?

>>49 Thank you. it worked >>48 Lets do it. I'll cover mega-reverb maracas

>>47 I also made this ukulele beat right after a break up from a long term relationship. It made me feel much better. Almost like I transmuted my sorrow unto it. I got into making jams to cope with being lonely, and It got me through it. I messed up on the Ukulele, but then again even my microphone is soykaf. Also I dont know if this happens to other people but usually when I come up with tunes I really dig, its when I wake up either really early in the morning or really late. I have to be in a state where I feel all fuzzy. Perhaps its because the chemicals released in REM sleep are fresh in my brain? Sometimes I'll even wake up with a tune or even multiple tunes playing in my head. This happens with lyrics too, although more rarely. That rock song came from one of those awakenings, and the ukulele riff part of the hip-hop beat was too.

>>51 Hahaha MyJimmyJamCreep.ogg sounds like something I hear on a Ween album. Good job.

Shameless plug: https://soundcloud.com/hypersurface/corridors I dabble a bit in music. I don't often make much but it's fun to hear something finally take form. >>40 Your song is clipping like crazy. Back off a bit on the volume and make sure the volume meter is never in the red. It's considered best to keep everything in the track below -6db until the mastering phase. Other than that, practice a bunch! I maintain the notion that everything you make in your first year of production is soykaf, but don't let that dissuade you from trying! >>42 I like it, it reminds me of Aphex Twin. I'd recommend adding some more stereoized elements, the mix seems a bit dull and empty. More stereo means a fuller sound. >>47 Cool. Not really my style but it's different and I can respect that. The clicking sound likely exists because you are retriggering the sound in a way where the new wave is out of phase with the old one. Adding more attack / decreasing the decay time would help with this, like the other lain said. Adding other modulations to the sound would also likely solve this. >>51 I like the chill / psy sounds. The kick drum in the second sounds comparitively very loud to the rest of the mix though. Cool stuff all around, I'm going to keep an eye out on this thread.

OwO a new wage slave your music thread? Don't mind if I do! >lo-fi and lo-fi hip hop https://soundcloud.com/akazimusic >dark techno I keep meaning to finish off my new release for this but have been busy https://x49sounds.bandcamp.com/album/home-end >black metal breakcore noise cyberpunk I guess? don't take it too seriously https://tuiszt.bandcamp.com/releases

>>62 >more stereo means a fuller sound Me and other thousand people cringed at this. But yeah, the feedback is on point: the mix is a bit dull and lacks spatialization. Volca keys is great hardware. Easy and intuitive, fun for beginners, obsession for nerds. Sharing my music, lain related. An ambient piece sampling ulver's "not saved" and d.remix's remix of "bonpont" https://m.soundcloud.com/kimmi-records/lain-saved-cramus

More stereo is not always a fuller sound. Balance is key. I use MaxMsp sometimes. Any max users here? Ill share my patches. Also sharing my music. Not mine, a reversion of ulver, lain related. https://m.soundcloud.com/kimmi-records/lain-saved-cramus

>>81 >Volca keys is great hardware. Easy and intuitive, fun for beginners, obsession for nerds. Do you own one? I'm interested in the keys and beats - the beats mainly because it is a cool AND affordable drummachine that also happens to be analogue. Maybe I'll buy a used one some day.

not a song even, just some weird chopped sample, which sorta makes "a beat". Song is by Halsey, i think

>>46 >Thats pretty good. I'd trash the part from 1:35 to 2:00 though, it kinda disrupts the structure of the whole thing - unpleasant. planned on adding more to that section and expanding the variations as in current form it is empty, repeats itself and sounds like filler so do hold out til the second iteration. and the part after has been purged since it sounds too disoriented and needed to just die in a fire. >>62 >I like it, it reminds me of Aphex Twin. I'd recommend adding some more stereoized elements, the mix seems a bit dull and empty. More stereo means a fuller sound. not was I going for but can't complain either; rdj is of another world. yes yes yes, the mixdown is as soykaf as it comes. the vanilla compressors and equalizers in milky dont give you much to work with, in comparison to what you can mold with the third party classic audio hw emus from slate, waves, izotope, psp, sonnox, universal audio. >>81 62 meant well, but yes you nd 82 nailed it, its lacking in that and a hundred other departments; wheres the ;_; for saturation tho? gonna listen to your tracks when i get a solid connect.

>>85 I want more reminded me of this, for whatever reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J-dnj75KIc

Ableton live with mpd226. Just screwing around really At the risk of doxxing myself https://soundcloud.com/yenfortune/tracks be gentle lainanon

>>25 Opposite here. I can compose but I'm always too lazy to learn my software.

>>15 ever tried programming formulas that generate music? On linux you can just push bytestreams to audio, makes it possible to generate tunes with single code lines. They call it bytebeat i think (judging by a comment i saw and youtube giving good results). You can quite easily get some chiptune quality out of it but i seems hard to do more complex ones. Here is also another interesting tool in the same line: http://pelulamu.net/ibniz/

>>19 No need fo a synth, just a usb keyboard+timidity (musescore is fine too).

>>81 >Volca keys is great hardware. Easy and intuitive, fun for beginners, obsession for nerds. To be fair I find it pretty bland and useless without external effects. I don't have money to buy some, but I keep it around for later, and will also mod a midi Output to it : http://blog.utopianlabs.com/2013/09/korg-volca-beats-midi-out/ As for the initial subject, I try since a month or two to practice electronic music every day instead of waiting for the day I could afford better hardware. I use Bitwig on Linux with a Roland SP as an external soundcard. I have trouble with using samples packs beside the very drum sounds like 808/909/etc and try to create my own sound as much as I can using my Microkorg and old field recordings from when I owned a recorder. I'm trying to create interesting ambient/techno/house tracks, and while I came a long way since the first times I toyed on Ableton, I'm still far from creating real songs for people to listen online.

>>138 >I'm still far from creating real songs for people to listen online. Same. Just finally found myself able to create something baring semblance to music with Audacity. Hoping I can make something alrightish in time for this: http://sentimentalcorp.org/rprozac/submit.php

>>63 I finally finished my new x49 album I think it's pretty /cyb/ https://x49sounds.bandcamp.com/album/eiriel

I actually do, on garageband, on my phone. This might sound self absorbed, but I actually like a lot of my own tracks. I also find it relaxing... it's extremely expressive, and very natural for me.. I've played a few instruments (none well) and using the virtual sample board and keyboard has been very satisfying for me.

>>225 pretty fuarrrking cool. Whats the process like for making these kind of tracks? do you just mess around until you get something you like?

>>225 I listened to your latest album. Then I checked out your first one. Will likely listen to the second one after that, since I'm just watching Fatty Arbuckle (silent) movies. You can tell that you progressed from the first album to your most recent one. I like the ambient nature of Eiriel.

>>235 you probably didn't want this much detail but here I go first I look through the kick drum samples on my computer until I find one I like, this can take a while because I have well over 2000 drum samples. then I'll lay out the pattern, usually just a four on the floor with some extra beats every bar/two bars but recently I've been experimenting with more complex patterns (like in solidox). Finally I eq the kick sample till it's nice, doesn't have to be perfect just enough to get an idea that I can build on later. next I usually search though the Massive presets for a sound I like. Again it doesn't have to actually be good just something I know I can modify to make good. Once I've found a sound, I tend to record ideas for melody type things on my phone randomly with my voice when I come up with them so I'll probably use something based off of one of those, a lot of the time it starts with that but then I change something maybe by accident and it ends up sounding better so I use that instead. As I'm doing this I'll modify the synth in massive to make it sound how I want it, often it ends up sounding completely different than how it started. Then I add effects, eq, compression etc to that (usually a lot of reverb). Next I'll work on a bass line, ambient noises and FX like risers with the same process. At this point I'll have a complete feel for the vibe of the song so I'll finish a ranging it, as in deciding when to add in or take away elements, the general flow of the track etc, I like my tracks to go through a full arch so the feeling at the end is different to the start and you feel like it's developed. Once I have the final arrangement I'll add automation to the tracks that need it, and maybe make some final changes to effects chains or synths. Then I go back through and EQ everything again to make it fit within the mix, although I normally do this as I go as well. Then mix making sure the levels are all good and whatever,And once I'm completely happy with it I start mastering (I find that less is more with mastering, so I try and keep it subtle) and then the track is done!

>>236 oops I forgot to reply in my previous post Thank you I also enjoy looking at the progression, my first album was pretty much tech house, I hadn't even really heard much techno really at that point so my mind was still in a very house oriented view point. Home end is like in the middle, more ambient aspects and darker but still not at the level of Eiriel. Also the first album was pretty much built from sample packs and took me like a week, where as this one took closer to 4 months (even though it wasn't solid work of course, I am more busy now than I was back then). polite sage for double post

Another hobby musician here. I've been making music for a bit more than a year now, and while I've obviously improved and learned a lot, I'm still Not Very Good, at all. My taste in music probably doesn't help either -- a curious niche streching somewhere between Ambient, Downtempo, (Ambient) IDM, with some Glitch, drones, and Industrial-feel and Rhythmic Noise thrown in the mix for good measure. So often very technical and sophisticated music, and it's often very difficult to discern individual elements, since there's so much going on all at once. Sometimes, like now, I get seriously disheartened and daunted by the technical proficiency and intricacy of a a given piece I've tried to analyze. Maybe some distant sense of inferiority, but mostly feeling in over my head and doubting both my abilities and capability. Is there any place where one might find more skillful musicians discussing and reviewing these things, and possibly receive the occasional helpful tip or constructive criticism oneself? All the places I've found online seem to shut down anyone perceived as below them right away, and instead revolve mostly about (self-)adulation and propagating personal opinions as facts without much reasoning. Youtube tutorials just don't cut it beyond a certain point. And I'd vastly prefer text and audio; video is difficult for me. Any suggestions, Lain?

Just started with LMMS, lets where it takes me.

>>248 Maybe I'm reading this wrong but it sounds like you're trying too much to copy or recreate things you hear, while you should just experiment until you find something you like to build on or a technique to reuse later. Record/sample unusual things, slice, loop, reverse, layer, turn knobs, whatever. Start with simple goals.

>>268 I'm afraid you might indeed be reading this wrong. So far, I haven't copied or recreated anything. I was trying to understand what makes things work. You can turn and slice as much as you want and end up with 20 nice samples or instruments. Ultimately though, you will have to make these elements work with each other. Kick-Clap-Kick-Clap might be a nice and simple goal, but it won't teach you how to layer rhythms and drum patterns to create interesting and complex beats. Just as an example! Once you have fiddled with the filter cut-off on a running track, you will recognize the effect in others' work, but you still don't know how to apply it in a meaningful or even interesting manner. What I'm struggling with is advancing beyond the "getting started"-level, or so I feel. Sound engineering ( e.g. mixing, panning and placement), composition, progress, movement, or what have you. This is all very hypothetical, so I'm attaching a file to illustrate my issues. I don't usually work on "songs", but rather project files I use as sandbox for testing and studying purposes, as excercises without the pressure to "finnish" anything, so it's not mixed and EQ'ed too well either. In this project, I have experimented with: - Delay. All non-beat instruments use delay of some kind. - Different synth VSTs. There are 3 main synths throughout the piece, one of which (the bright swells) is a FM synth, which I've never used before. - Automating VSTs. Changing the arpeggio pattern (discarded) and its filter overdrive (towards the end). - Adding accents. First the marimba, later an additional synth stab with heavy delay. What I'm struggling with: - Composition. Writing additional melodies, and especially their rhythms. Introducing additional voices without oversaturating the sound. - Beat. Rhythm here as well, the right balance of repetition and variety. And most importantly: balance and panning. It's very centered and flat. The last thing I've changed was the addition of the glitchy beat that starts early on, as a quick hack to add some progress. To me, these things seem non-trivial and I feel like I'm hitting walls here. Hence I was hoping to read what more advanced musicians say and share about these things, and maybe learn from their experiences.

>>274 Do you have more of these Lainon? That was really simple and chill. I highly enjoyed it.

>>283 >>274 Agreed, totally something i'd listen to gaming

I think I've got some stuff on music theory...

>>283 >>311 Please excuse the late reply. I was surprised, humbled and flattered by your feedback, so I took it as a chance to organize and revise my archive. I'm afraid I don't have anything as refined as 01.ogg though. 2016-11-01: Overhauled the beat somewhat, greatly improved the mix, some rudimentary mastering. I've worked on this for months on and off. The lead is burned into my memory at this point and becomes annoying really quickly. 2017-01-02: Worked on this for months on and off as well, but was never happy with the results. Spent lots of time with mixing, especially the many different beat elements, but I'm still not entirely convinced. I have half a dozen different, discarded versions where I tried to add a bass or mid-pitched voice for some melody and/or rhythm, but none worked for me. >>274 01.ogg: As outlined there, this was the last project I've worked on. While they're nothing special, I hope this will at least highlight some progress and development.

[continued from >>348] Archived drafts. I usually start with an idea, something I'd like to learn or where I need to improve, and build a project around this core. 2017-01-02_pre: Goal: Lair different pads. Earlier branch I've kept for reference. Both pads ended up in the final. 2017-05-14_pre: Goal: Create a beat using samples cut from the recording of an impact printer. Earlier branch of >>274. The printer samples ended up being the glitchy beat elements in the 01.ogg version. testsynth: Created while and after working on 2016-11-01 to try out different VST synths and experiment with constant repetition and slight variations, as you can hear in the lead of both files. It's not much, but it's mine. Oh well. Make of it what you will.

>>349 Wow, the 2017-05-14_pre one was really cool. I really love that impact printer recording and how it works with the overall melody of the song. I listened to some your other stuff that you posted in this thread and it's really good. Keep it up lainon.

Yah I make music on reaper.. it's fun and exhilirating when it's working but it gets stressful between albums. I'm friends with some famous really talented musicians so I put too much pressure on myself when it comes to music https://soundcloud.com/surgeryhead/5-she

OP here. Made another track: https://soundcloud.com/user-204865425/innocence-and-experience

Ive tried something with GarageBand, it is fine and easy to use, but the fact that i couldnt change the tempo of an isolated track rather than master track really got me down. I actually can make a workaround of it but it feels tiring to do. Ill just go full pirate mode and download fruitloops to Windows

Here's another https://soundcloud.com/mistyhyde/malfunction This one has elements of drone in it.

I believe this is my most ambitious work yet https://soundcloud.com/mistyhyde/the-fox

this is my side-project i need to release more of this style https://soundcloud.com/sw1tchbladekre1os/lithosphere

We should upload ALL this soykaf to the Lain radio.

I have a soundcloud with a soykafton of bad remixes and badly composed songs https://soundcloud.com/them4v3r1cx

>>404 THIS.