#Beginner struggling with practice

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

trim ibex
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The tutorials i see on social media is usually related to making a track sound better, but how do people find thse instruments? I only have the preset packs and stuff like sytrus, and most of them sound really mismatched and it's really deterring me from practicing actually creating melodies and tracks because it sounds like what a, well, beginner would make.

Did i skip a step somewhere in the learning process? Is this also one of the things i have to practice?

tacit needle
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Sound design and sound selection is a skill you pick up as you get better. sound design involves "designing sounds", as in, utilizing your tools to manipulate the sound to sound differently. This can involve layering, processing, synthesizing, or adjusting the parameters of a plugin. Presets are helpful, but it also helps to be able to write good music to also utilize presets sometimes

Sound selection just comes with time and understanding how sounds work in the first place is helpful. I recommend diving into synthesizers, as that gives you the most blank starting place for making electronic sounds. Most synths can achieve most of the sounds you want to make, it's definitely in the hands of the user to make it sound good

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Mixing does also play a part but not as much during the actual song writing process. But processing your sounds can help you feel better about them

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I'd say

Practice picking presets on some synths and finding cool presets that sound good. Dive into how that sound is made with the synths parameters. This gives you an opportunity to learn the tool itself, especially when you start reading manuals and researching tutorials on the synth itself. FL has quite a bit of synths, but you could also potentially download other plugins from the Internet which just gives you more sound options

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Lastly, good luck, sound design is not an easy aspect of production, but is highly highly rewarding

trim ibex
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a shame, sounds like it'll be a long way before i start making music up to my own standard

little saffron
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dw lil bro

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it'll be fine

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everything is gonna be fine...

tacit needle
little saffron
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panda hru

tacit needle
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I'm 8 years in and I'm not there yet. It's a lifelong journey I've accepted

tacit needle
trim ibex
tacit needle
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It's fun though

little saffron
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im not good

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i mean i feel good but im evil

trim ibex
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would people say learning sound design is vastly different from learning, say, drawing?

little saffron
tacit needle
trim ibex
tacit needle
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The important thing is to have fun. Some people don't like sound design that much and stick with presets, nothing wrong with that. I've personally been approaching this mindset lately

little saffron
trim ibex
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so it really is just fanangling until i start making better stuff

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as with everything else

little saffron
little saffron
trim ibex
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it's hard not to worry when noticeable progress takes a good while to show

little saffron
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its so embarassing when you make shitty stuff and your parents be proud of you like what are you proud of

trim ibex
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for real LOL

little saffron
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my dad used to show my stuff to everyone

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so embarassing

tacit needle
little saffron
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but im not sure

trim ibex
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i will keep that in mind

little saffron
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you

tacit needle
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Here's a message link to a comparison between a 2016 demo vs a 2024 demo from myself. It's very satisfying to see how far I've come and in that whole time I love just learning new things, I don't consider myself amazing or anything, so if I can do it you can too

#🎼◾music-theory message

trim ibex
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i was wondering why i dont see as many people complaining/asking/struggling with the instrumentation, i thought it would be such a big problem

trim ibex
tacit needle
trim ibex
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oh, i see! i didn't know the term for it at first so i looked up "instruments" in the help forum and nothing related came up

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it's very reassuring to see people with the same struggles and the same kinda "mismatch" i feel with the presets

tacit needle
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It's kinda like cooking. You probably know not to put cinnamon in a roast chicken, but to someone who's never cooked or tasted ingredients before, they wouldn't be able to tell salt from brown sugar

trim ibex
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survivorship bias goes crazy in the learning process

tacit needle
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So, go ahead and make your dubious food of funny ingredients, but each time you do try to learn from it!

trim ibex
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alright, thank you for the advice!

little saffron
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Sorry i got myself into this convo

trim ibex
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no worries

tacit needle
little saffron
tacit needle
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If you want a cool head start, download the plugin Vital from the Internet (it's free) and then go to https://presetshare.com/presets?instrument=2&page=3

Vital is a very straightforward and intuitive synth. You can download presets for the synth to use yourself, but also be able to pick it at

PresetShare
Vital presets

VSTi Presets

trim ibex
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it feels like cheating lol

little saffron
trim ibex
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i wanna learn before i cheat yk

little saffron
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Music theory ?

tacit needle
trim ibex
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maybe after i've messed with vital for a while

tacit needle
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Twist some knobs and change settings

trim ibex
little saffron
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I think I love arpeggiators

tacit needle
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When I was learning synthesis, I would drop midi files of songs I liked from games. Then I would mess with the synth as it's playing. It was a very cool and fun activity

trim ibex
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i suppose it's no different from grabbing stuff from a game's soundfont

little saffron
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Guys idk what to think tho

tacit needle
tacit needle
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Probably head into #❔◾questions