DEATH BEAR NOISE

Learning to make music in Ableton with Splice. (I have no idea what I am doing.)

[deathbearnoise]

(Death Bear)

Right now at work we are doing a thing we called Beat Relay, where they paired more experienced music producers with noobs like myself.  We have a challenge that’s broken down into tasks like “Drums”, “Baseline”, “Mixing” and together we create a song.

This first song we did (this is not the song) we went over side chaining a lot. So much that I now GET IT.  I made this right after this week’s lesson to see if I remembered what happened.

Also, Echo in ableton is frigging great.

Also that one part in this that sounds weird... I dunno what to do with that. I was trying to remove a kick from a sample and I think I left too much noise in there. 

[deathbearnoise]

(Death Bear)

There’s a vocal pack on Splice that is just a lady doing random riffs. I downloaded a bunch and strung them together to make a little thing.

[deathbearnoise]

(Death Bear)

One of the new plugins we have for rent to own at Splice is VocalSynth, which is possibly the most fun thing I have on my computer. It’s by Izotope so you know it’s pretty and the UI is nice. 

I put frogs in it. 

[deathbearnoise]

(Death Bear)

Another WIP song from a couple months ago.  I need to learn how to mix stuff, but we are doing a thing at work that will cover mixing in a few weeks so I am OPTIMISTIC.

[deathbearnoise]

(Death Bear)

I have been posting my stuff on soundcloud, because it’s easier.

Nothing is a full song. It’s all just playing with ableton.

[deathbearnoise]

(Death Bear)

Hello

I am still making music and learning about music, but I started getting anxious about how terrible everything i do is. haha.

But then yesterday I took every single loop I have made in ableton since August (I think I got most of em, tho there might be more) and I layered all the waves randomly in the arrangement view, set the BPM to 120 and saved it without listening.

Thus creating this total shitshow. 

Someone on soundcloud fav’d it and I’m like.. nooooooo...

[deathbearnoise]

This tutorial is so goooooood

[deathbearnoise]

ENVELOPES

I have been learning a lot about music theory and the result is ... I am too overwhelmed to make any music. Today I realized after talking to my coworker, Steven, that I should have been learning more about synths and wavelengths.

So he gave me a little lesson on ADSR envelopes.

[You’d think with all the art I make I’d have more than 3 colors of markers, but alas surprise! I don’t. I got like 7 shades of green tho.]

Attack How quickly the sound reaches full volume after the sound is activated (the key is pressed). For most mechanical instruments, this period is virtually instantaneous. However, for some popular synthesized voices that don't mimic real instruments, this parameter is slowed down. Slow attack is commonly part of sounds called pads.

Decay How quickly the sound drops to the sustain level after the initial peak.

Sustain The "constant" volume that the sound takes after decay until the note is released. Note that this parameter specifies a volume level rather than a time period.

Release How quickly the sound fades when a note ends (the key is released). Often, this time is very short. An example where the release is longer might be a percussion instrument like a glockenspiel, or a piano with the sustain pedal pressed.

[I got this copy from Wikiaudio.]

I have played with envelopes but I just kinda... pushed buttons.  One thing I know I need an envelope for is when there’s clicky sounds in an instrument I make with simpler or in serum.  If you have a very short Release, you get that clicky sound. 

Here’s some notes I made about different types of envelopes

[I FOUND A RED MARKER!!]

This probably makes no sense, but knowing myself, I am going to misplace this notebook in the next couple weeks and wish I had this handy. 

[deathbearnoise]

Xmas Haul.

I got some books!!

Patterns for Jazz

Idiot’s Guide to Music Composition 

Music Theory for Computer Musicians

[deathbearnoise]

Visit Original Link

I wanted to do a tiny tutorial tonight before I pass out. This is a very short, very easy trap tutorial I found on youtube that gives you samples to use as you follow along.

[deathbearnoise]

Visit Original Link

I’m taking that online class about chord progressions and melodies and I made this thing that takes an old drum loop I made.

I took a bunch of midis in the same key and just kinda... slapped em together.

I don’t necessarily think this is good, but it was a really big AH HA moment in my learning process. 

[deathbearnoise]

Cheat sheets :3

I love that everything is in Ableton.

[deathbearnoise]

I bought the PML course: Harmony and Chord Progressions

It’s 50% off right now with promocode `PML50`

I am only 6% complete but having a good time.

[deathbearnoise]

Visit Original Link

I can’t make a drum beat that matches my dang melody at the BPM I need.

This time I started over by making the drum beat first and the copying the midi to the instrument and making chords and subtracting. 

And now my shit sounds up beat which I dunno... I dunno what I am doing

[deathbearnoise]

Visit Original Link

I wrote this music! It’s not much but I made it after reading a lot about music theory and chord progression.  The middle part still needs some love. 

The instrument I am playing it on is a Celesta which I got for free from Expanding Sound and I added a stick sound to it so it maybe sounds a little more like a kalimba or a marimba. 

This song is written in A Flat Minor/ G# Minor (because my homework song is written in A Flat Minor.) I looked up the scale on the interactive Circle of Fifths site:

Then I looked up common chord progressions for this scale:

i - VI - VII

i - iv - VII

i - iv - v

i - VI - III - VII

ii - v - i

I used i - iv - VII.   Not for any reason, I picked at random.   

uuuuh...

THE END.

[deathbearnoise]

Book Club!

My coworker, Hannah Mimi and I are reading Making Music Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers.  We want to make more music so part of the book club is coming up with assignments.

The first assignment is creating a song from a Catalog of Attributes.

Assignment 1: Catalog of Attributes 

Pick a song that you are inspired by.

Listen to the track, really listen to it with your full attention and take down notes about it.

- BPM - Sound elements (instruments) - Harmony (what notes can you hear assuming you can hear & distinguish notes) - Melody (what notes can you hear assuming you can hear & distinguish notes) - Rhythm (the beats) - Form (breakdown of the song structure)

Once you have all your notes, throw that inspo song away. Then take a day to chill out and when you return, make something just based on the notes you took.  The notes are your guidelines and it’s ok if they aren’t very specific, it’s all about making something new.

A note about “Cheating”

Nothing is considered cheating!  Looking up tutorials about how the song is made is completely acceptable as is sampling from the song. Use samples, use loops, use prewritten midi melodies. Do what you gotta do.

I can’t tell notes apart from listening to things. I’ve been making music for 3 months and I’m not good at this.  I looked up the melody online to see the key it was in and what it’s overall structure looked like. I also looked up the BPM cause I didn’t want to sit around tapping in Ableton to try to figure it out.

There is no cheating when you’re learning.

Also don’t forget to save your project on Splice.

[samplified]

Our friends over at @p__atches just dropped 1001 chord progressions! http://ift.tt/2fC5Ju0