Background assistance. (FL users)

[13 AD]

So I've been browsing the forums for a few months when I purchased FL Studio and began creating my own music. I don't want to define the music I make under any specific genre as I enjoy a wide variety of music and want to incorporate my influences in a unique way. However to get a feel of what I like, I enjoy deep trance sounds, mashed-up weird elephant noises, talking bass usage. I just really like songs that are well done, where everything just flows right. I know that's vague, but I have an open mind to anything and everything.

Anyways, my question is this (for FL users.) I've been getting much more confident in my ability to create songs and use and manipulate a wider arsenal of sounds. However I am getting a lot of partial songs that I just can't seem to get in to after I'm like 1/3 of the way through completing it. They sound a little dull and lifeless in certain parts, which has brought me to this point. * How can I add subtle background noises or sounds that can really liven up my song. My knowledge of descriptive words to get my point across is limited as I'm still a novice; But I need some filler for my background so that the song doesn't get boring or repetitive. I hear a lot of guys here talking about using Pads, sub bass, low frequency etc. Can anyone explain this stuff to me and how I can use it on my songs. I create bass-lines but they end up really repetitive and losing luster as the song progresses. Please help!

Thanks

[Eridu]

My suggestion is analyze your favorite songs in FL and make patterns and playlist markers as you detect a certain part. In that way you`ll have a barebone structure in which you can work with less time being spent on thinking what to do next.

As for fillers and liveliness of your track, a lot of it depends on the groove, if you have it in your track. There are ways to have high or energetic points in your track without it having to be crash cymbal at the start of every 8 bars. You need to have your bass and drum parts communicate with each other, in a way. Or any other elements in the track, if they groove and sit well together then you`ll now for example where to pronounce it with a short vocal effect or a quick portamento sound.

[zerbaman]

Honestly, if you don't know what sub-bass is, I can only assumed you lied when you claimed that you've been reading the forum.
But here Goes.

Sub bass = bass notes with frequencies below 100hz
Low frequencies = frequencies that appear toward the lower end of a graphic analyzer or EQ device.
Pads = generally chord progressions on slow attack and/or low volume synths (Not mandatory for dubstep production)


Adding subtle background noises is largely about ASBN (Adding Subtle Background Noises). This is most commonly acheived by inserting quiet sounds to your track. This effect can be enhanced by elements such as delay, reverb and good use of panning/stereo shaping.

Changing background elements generally doesn't make a peice of music all that interesting over the course of time, at least not to the average listener, this has more to do with variation in foreground elements (drums, bass and other melodic parts), and can be further enhanced by changing them all together or simply creating secondary versions and introducing them at intervals of your choice.

With the tunes sounding dull or lifeless, perhaps make them shorter for starters. From here you can look at incorporating the elements discussed in previous sections of this post, focusing on ASBN in particular.

Most importantly, refer to the Production bible on a regular basis, and the Q&As, I assume you'll enjoy reading the Downlink Q&A (Don't post on it, he's finished with it.)
Have a nice day.

[zerbaman]

Actually, watch this Lecture for information purely focused on sound (frequencies, wavelengths etc):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D9UlPcJSRM

[13 AD]

Thank you Eribu and Zerbaman for the replies. I will definitely use these links to my advantage because I have a long way to go. This is something I really wish I could devote every second of my day to, as I truly feel passionate about the ideas I have in my head; however like most of you out there, I have a job (unfortunately) and other obligations I have to address. I do intend to post some of my partial creations to get some constructive feedback from anyone who's generous enough to give me some pointers. Thank you for the clarification on some of the questions I had regarding sub-bass and low-freq. I know I could have googled them but for the sake of discussion I figured I'd ask and get some good responses, which I did so thanks again. The production bible looks like some awesome material and I look forward to going through it.

Lookin forward to some more replies.

[zerbaman]

Thank you for saying my name correctly.

[Electric_Head]

zebraman

[13 AD]

Well it's not hard to see it's Zerbaman if you're even slightly observing. Anyways, I made what I believe is my best intro so far last night. Now now, it's nothing special but I'm proud (for now.) I have a feeling it's not going to sound as good when I upload it than it does on my headphones, because when I played it on my laptop internal speakers (which suck), it sounded like complete ass. What I mean by that is that some of my sounds are really distorting. I saw that my overall sound was hitting the red color, so I turned it down a bit but it is still very raw/rough sounding. Any tips to how I can reduce the distortion and make it sound cleaner. I tried messing with the EQ, but that's actually where I got some of my sound from (by making automation clips of the frequencies and moving them around to make it sound unique.)


Thanks

[Eridu]

I guess some of your sounds are meeting at a certain frequency and you get the red. even if you reduce the volume at that point it will still eat up all your other sounds. Watch the mixer tracks and try to see what tracks are causing this. Then you try to balance the levels, eq and compress.

[13 AD]

So I tried that out. I think I made a mistake from what I was doing. What I had was a Piano pattern going, which I added Gross Beat to, automation clipped it and tweaked it along with EQ automation to get this sound that had my Piano sound, but also created some sort of bass sound with it. I liked the bass that it created but now I'm figuring it wasn't a good idea to have bass come through on a Piano pattern. Because when I tweaked the EQ back to get rid of the distortion the bass went away.

[Widowmaker]

So I've been browsing the forums for a few months when I purchased FL Studio and began creating my own music. I don't want to define the music I make under any specific genre as I enjoy a wide variety of music and want to incorporate my influences in a unique way. However to get a feel of what I like, I enjoy deep trance sounds, mashed-up weird elephant noises, talking bass usage. I just really like songs that are well done, where everything just flows right. I know that's vague, but I have an open mind to anything and everything.

Anyways, my question is this (for FL users.) I've been getting much more confident in my ability to create songs and use and manipulate a wider arsenal of sounds. However I am getting a lot of partial songs that I just can't seem to get in to after I'm like 1/3 of the way through completing it. They sound a little dull and lifeless in certain parts, which has brought me to this point. * How can I add subtle background noises or sounds that can really liven up my song. My knowledge of descriptive words to get my point across is limited as I'm still a novice; But I need some filler for my background so that the song doesn't get boring or repetitive. I hear a lot of guys here talking about using Pads, sub bass, low frequency etc. Can anyone explain this stuff to me and how I can use it on my songs. I create bass-lines but they end up really repetitive and losing luster as the song progresses. Please help!

Thanks

I wouldn't even bother attempting to produce music your career is dead before it's even started mate.

[Mason]

loool

[Widowmaker]

What kind of an idiot is this guy seriously?

>Insult producers
>Expect to get far in the scene

nope

[Mason]

haha what a bellend