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Post by shangrila on Apr 18, 2018 9:07:37 GMT -5
Something I've always struggled with is deciding on the instrument to use for a melody. Sometimes you have a melody that sounds good over multiple instruments and it's really frustrating. How do you decide? Do you go by your original vision? Or what sounds best to your ear? Or do you have a "go to instrument? Or maybe you choose one that is consistent throughout your album?
Discuss.
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Post by thekeeper on Apr 18, 2018 9:16:30 GMT -5
This is one of the worst parts of composing with DAWs, there are so many sounds at your disposal. It's hard to say for me. I usually have a particular idea of the mood and flow of something and I have a handful of go-to VSTs or soundbanks that I choose according to the kinds of sounds I'm going for, but occasionally if the chosen instrument isn't serving the purpose I had intended, I'll replace the VST with different things and see how it sounds. Occasionally I'll come across something that sounds better than what I had intended, like putting bells in place of something I had planned to be brass. Caoranach is fairly eclectic and uses I lot of different sounds. For Cloak & Daggere, I think I only used two different VSTs (about six instruments therein).
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Post by chaucerianmyth on Apr 18, 2018 23:42:41 GMT -5
A very good topic! I think trying to make thematic connections can really help in choosing instruments. Is your song pastoral? An English Horn is a great pick. Nostalgic and sweet? A violin or oboe would be wonderful. A bassoon has a throaty, human-like sound, so an expressive melody in a mid to low register would really be great. Sometimes, it can even pay off to do something for novelty/originality, like having the melody played by a tuba in its upper register. If you have a nice mid range melody, with layers both higher and lower, doubling viola and french horn can really give your melody a nice blended sound that stands out more than either instrument would on their own. And that's another point. You don't have to choose just one instrument/VST. Doubling can give you rich, wonderful tones for your melodies. Violin + Ocarina, Viola + French Horn, Violin + Flute, Trombone + French Horn, Cello + Bassoon are great combinations. Also, pretty much all woodwinds blend well with one another. A really fun combination is to have a flute double a bassoon part an octave or two higher. All of this, of course, is dealing with VST's and soundfonts that emulate real instruments, but this has proved helpful to me. Also, I really enjoyed your debut album, shangrilaI hope to hear more from you in the future!
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Post by stormcrow on Apr 19, 2018 1:22:13 GMT -5
This is a hard question to answer, since sometimes I find myself writing songs starting from sounds I like. Not always, but it happens. This happens with both my favourite synths: the Glass Viper and the Korg M1. The Korg M1 is the perfect workstation in this sense! You can start from "combi" presets, work in split mode and customize it, edit every kind of midi/vst parameter, merge lots of "instruments" in the same patch (I think up to 8 sounds). It's all about your creativity, I see nothing bad in having tons of sounds at your disposal.
The Korg Wavestation is into my favourite list too, but it's harder to edit.... Anyway, it has awesome "ambient" presets and nice basses to work with!
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Erang
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Posts: 130
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Post by Erang on Apr 19, 2018 14:59:47 GMT -5
Knowing when to stop is, in my opinion, an important part of any artistic process. Specially in our digital age when you could, in theory, endlessly modify your work more easily than when it was full analog. So I agree with Stormcrow: having tons of sounds can stimulate your creativity but if it ends up being a struggle like Shangrila say in his post, then I guess you need to force yourself to stop at one point: if it sounds good at one point, keep it like that or it will be a never ending quest of browsing all the presets on earth. Personally, I think I'm more often inspired by a sound and then I write a melody around than the opposite, so it's never really a struggle for me. Just to go further on the topic of creativity and artistic decision: what I really like in art, is to create artificial constraint in order to stimulate your creativity. And then, when you are advanced in the song, you can leave the constraint and do whatever you want. An artist that I love very much is Brian Eno and I've read lots of papers and thoughts from him concerning art and music and it's really inspiring. If you're not familiar with the "Oblique Strategies" he created, you should check it. The Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards he made to break deadlocks in creative situations. The idea is that each time you have a creative block, you pick up a card and do what is written on it or think about the cryptic message written on the card. It's pretty fun to try it sometimes. Some of the cards say things like " Discover your formulas and abandon them " or " What mistakes did you make last time? " Here is an online version of the deck where you can randomly pick the card: www.oblicard.com/
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Post by chaucerianmyth on Apr 19, 2018 17:34:44 GMT -5
Knowing when to stop is, in my opinion, an important part of any artistic process. Specially in our digital age when you could, in theory, endlessly modify your work more easily than when it was full analog. So I agree with Stormcrow: having tons of sounds can stimulate your creativity but if it ends up being a struggle like Shangrila say in his post, then I guess you need to force yourself to stop at one point: if it sounds good at one point, keep it like that or it will be a never ending quest of browsing all the presets on earth. Personally, I think I'm more often inspired by a sound and then I write a melody around than the opposite, so it's never really a struggle for me. Just to go further on the topic of creativity and artistic decision: what I really like in art, is to create artificial constraint in order to stimulate your creativity. And then, when you are advanced in the song, you can leave the constraint and do whatever you want. An artist that I love very much is Brian Eno and I've read lots of papers and thoughts from him concerning art and music and it's really inspiring. If you're not familiar with the "Oblique Strategies" he created, you should check it. The Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards he made to break deadlocks in creative situations. The idea is that each time you have a creative block, you pick up a card and do what is written on it or think about the cryptic message written on the card. It's pretty fun to try it sometimes. Some of the cards say things like " Discover your formulas and abandon them " or " What mistakes did you make last time? " Here is an online version of the deck where you can randomly pick the card: www.oblicard.com/I'm going to second this, as I think it's a very, very good point. In the digital age, restraint and, as Erang said, knowing when to stop, have become great musical skills, and more difficult than ever. There's lots of music where you can tell the artist just did too much and allowed their music to be overwhelmed by their many possible choices. Restraint is key, and knowing when to exercise it is something we should all keep in mind when composing. Good thoughts, Erang !
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Post by BΓ₯vingr on Apr 20, 2018 5:00:07 GMT -5
Was thinking of posting a thread about "knowing when to stop" ErangIn terms of instrument choice, if I get stuck in a rut I like to spend some time cycling though patches just testing them out until something pops out at me. I also like to use instruments "out of range" for instance I discovered that a bell patch sounded like a great double bass when played in the lowest octave...
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Post by jondexter on Mar 23, 2020 6:30:24 GMT -5
Just depends on what sounds good against the back drop for me
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