Veracohr

Ah....that's called ducking. It's not really 'compressing', even though it's done with a compressor. Really you don't need sub-bass with darkpsy. If you were making hip hop or something meant to rattle people's windows... Not sure what you mean about the breaks. How would the effects and sends enter into the presence of a break?

There's nothing special about that bass sound, not even compression. It's just a very low saw wave that's mixed very up front. Surely has some EQ, but nothing difficult.

I don't think so. If you have music churned out by people without a good understanding and love of music, you'd just have crap. I don't want to listen to music made by anyone who can figure out how loop a beat and press an arpeggiator button.

Yeah, saw and pulse are the most common waveforms for bass sounds. I'd suggest trying saw first. The rest is all in the filter settings and EQ. I'm not sure what 'phat' means to you, and I'm not familiar enough with darkpsy to guess what sound you're trying for.

So you're talking more about composition than production? To me production is technical; composition is artistic.

So was mine, but if the school is decent and you're paying attention, you should be learning production concepts that can be applicable across many areas. I've also had 15 years to add to my school audio learning.

Yes I'm talking about pulse width modulation, but not necessarily continuously modulated. Many standard subtractive synths with a pulse/square waveform allow setting the pulse width manually as well as continuously modulating it with a LFO. A true square wave has sort of a 'hollow' sound, but if you make the pulse width something other than 50%, it contributes some more harmonics. Just more options. I don't have any particularly extensive or special experience, I just wanted to stimulate some conversation in this subforum. I'm only affiliated with my own craptastic music, but I did go to school to learn audio production. I also pick up info here and there relating to audio that I may not have personal experience with, but if I see something repeated enough I can regurgitate it and sort of sound like I know what I'm talking about. I hope I didn't come across as "Here I am, I have all your answers!" I definitely don't. I was kind of drunk when I started the thread and it sounded like a really good idea then. But I'd be happy to try to answer your question(s) if you're OK with me possibly not having answers.

Sure, if you're trying to be the King of Seriousness, such samples would be dumb. But if you're just being silly and trying to make fun music, why not?

Wow, I didn't know they had a precursor group.

That's cool, but I bet there could be something useful to learn regarding general DSP that wouldn't necessarily steer you toward rehashing audio software. I'm not really sure, I'm kind of overreaching with my answers here. Nice job on the sound. You could also try modifying the pulse width to change the sound a little, but if you're doing it additively with sine waves I suppose you might have to work out the amplitudes yourself.

Yes, I meant how many bits. Not that I know what to do with that info, I'm not a programmer. That's basically my answer in a nutshell. I don't know where your expertise lies as far as programming, but maybe you should look up some info specifically on DSP and/or audio DSP. Compressors and limiters in a software environment are typically plugins in formats like VST or Audio Units (Mac). They control the dynamic range of the signal through automatic gain control. I'm sure you could code one yourself, but a lot of history and knowledge goes into what makes a compressor sound good musically. A formant filter can be like a set of parallel bandpass filters, set such that it mimics the resonances of the human voice. I should have also mentioned on the second sound that it's probably two square wave oscillators. Two detuned sines would indeed sound like shit. Most synths have small tuning increments in cents, so the quantitative answer I can give you is 10-15 cents.

First one sounds like a single oscillator with formant filter. Possibly oscillator sync but I don't think so. Second one can be accomplished with two oscillators, one detuned a fair amount, short attack, short decay, mid-level sustain, long release.

Great, there goes the illusion I could give an answer or two. Unfortunately I don't really know much about the inner computations of digital audio, or how your software differs from any other, but I'll give it a shot. I may not entirely know what I'm talking about however. First, what size are your floats? Second, this is what springs to my mind first: "rule of thumb" advice among DAW users is generally to record audio somewhere around -18 to -12 dBFS, because if you record everything as close to 0 as possible you end up having to reduce the level of each track so the mix bus doesn't clip. Relating this to your situation, if you're talking about signals that are very high level, it makes sense that mixing a bunch together will cause problems. This happens in analog audio as well, that's why mixers have faders to reduce the level. In an analog mixer, even though you can reduce the level of the mix output, if that mix bus is being fed from too many signals at too high a level, the bus circuit will still be overdriven even if the output circuit isn't. Hopefully I'm not pulling this out of my ass, but perhaps the concept is kind of the same in digital processing. Also, be aware that all DAW's employ dither algorithms when converting their internal signal format (usually 32-bit float) to an output format of 16 or 24 bits, to reduce distortion. If your software doesn't do this, look into it. The issue of the track being quieter than CD's sounds in the realm of dynamic range. That's where compressors and limiters are your friends.

This sub-forum is too slow. Surely there are artists and/or those interested in production who maybe don't feel inclined to start a new thread, but still have things they would like to know as far as production. This is your opportunity to ask a question. Maybe it's a simple question that only needs a single-post answer so you haven't started a new thread. Maybe it's really in-depth and we'll break it out into a new thread. Even if you're not an artist and don't plan to be, but want to know how someone made a particular sound, ask here!

In the middle they're too busy growing corn and praising Jesus, and in the north (middle) they're too busy forming anti-government militias.

And one in Oregon!

Probably a good idea, but a shame anyway. I quite enjoyed it, even while I found it stressful. Does that mean you also won't see Giza?

I wouldn't right now, but eventually it should calm down. One hopes.

I also quite like analog - I have 3 analog synths and when I drool over synths I can't afford, they're rarely digital. But in the long run I like a balance. Analog has a certain character I like but is generally more limited, while digital/software can do pretty much anything imaginable. As much as I like analog I don't think I would want to go ALL analog. And as far as recording: I learned recording on analog tape, but I don't particularly yearn for it. Too much maintenance and limitations.

If you want something super-slick I'd suggest paying for a web designer. If you can go super-simple and know a little HTML, you can find cheap hosting.

My mom has an uncommon name (for a woman), and her nickname (used in the family) is entirely unique. It would be unusual if I met a woman with the same name.

If anything of note ever happened in the Production forum I'd be down to cover that.

Do you put a cell phone near them? Sometimes cell phone signals generate pops in audio circuitry.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100135/