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Ok here's one for the DSf massive, what's your production signature?

What makes your tunes your own as opposed to taking what you like from x/y/z producers you're into. Influences are fair enough, but what would you say is your sonic signature that you leave imprinted on any tune you write?

*the main reason I'm asking this is that for one of my uni modules I have to study various production signatures and have to write an essay on that producer (nine inch nails in my case - whose production signature I feel is in the contrast between nasty and nice sounds (horribly bitcrushed guitars and fairly clean vox) and the "wall of sound" (often guitar based, but sometimes just a combination of a huge amount of sounds played together at the same time.*

Umm lets see - I always side-chain the first kick and snare to the sub giving my tunes a kind of swelling which I think helps with groove a lot. Also I tend to work in 8 or 16 bar loops as I find my style just doesn't work in 4 bar loops like some producers seem to. I also bank heavily on certain fx that make up my sound.

i put ****** samples everywhere

Im not sure I have one tbh, maybe too many pads, Im just addicted to fucking pads they have to be in everything. Every time I make a tune I say to myself ok no big pads again this time, lets just roll out hard. Lasts about 2 hours before I throw in 'just the one' and by 3 hours its another ambient sea of chiors and saws to throw on the heap.


If you are looking into NIN I always notice a strong 80s electronic pop vibe through their stuff. Reznor was in an 80s electronic band before NIN and those 303ish bleep loop things etc that riddle that 80s electronic style are never far away from him. In my head he sort of blended that cold, loopy 80s synth sound with the filthy thrash metal/grunge sounds that were coming out in the early 90s. Like Garry Newman and Kraftwerk meets In Utero and Vulgar Display in a deranged heroine hell. I do love NIN, one of my favourite acts over the years, Downward Spiral still sounds better every time I listen to it, some seriously dark moments in there.

I hate being known as having a signature sound, but I am now, and Ive done it too myself I suppose... If you asked ME Id tell you I have no sound, and show you examples of my brostep and the new techy drum patterns Im making n shit... But if you ask one of my listeners, as a label, w/e, theyll tell you I make dark, deep subby stuff with alot of ambience, because thats the majority of what I upload to my soundcloud and what Ive released... They might know I write the occasional melodic tune, but tell one of my soundcloud followers Im writing tech/neuro/purple influenced stuff and theyd think you had the wrong guy...

There would be nothing wrong with being known for the dark/sub side of my sound, but its come to be what people expect out of me to an extent... If I get a message from a label wanting to work with me, thats what they want, when people are trying to send me dubs to mix, thats what I get, ect.

So... In essence I really dont have one, I just seem like I do!

Basic A wrote:I hate being known as having a signature sound, but I am now, and Ive done it too myself I suppose... If you asked ME Id tell you I have no sound, and show you examples of my brostep and the new techy drum patterns Im making n shit... But if you ask one of my listeners, as a label, w/e, theyll tell you I make dark, deep subby stuff with alot of ambience, because thats the majority of what I upload to my soundcloud and what Ive released... They might know I write the occasional melodic tune, but tell one of my soundcloud followers Im writing tech/neuro/purple influenced stuff and theyd think you had the wrong guy...

There would be nothing wrong with being known for the dark/sub side of my sound, but its come to be what people expect out of me to an extent... If I get a message from a label wanting to work with me, thats what they want, when people are trying to send me dubs to mix, thats what I get, ect.

So... In essence I really dont have one, I just seem like I do!

I'm talking more about having sonic fingerprints, if you know what I'm saying. Like no matter what style you write people will recognize your production style (like the way you treat pads for example).

You know an Amon Tobin tune when you hear it, you know a four tet tune when you hear it and you know a Wiley instrumental when you hear it. I'm trying to break down what you'd cal YOUR sonic fingerprints (the way you treat you bass; the way you arrange pads or maybe the way you go for a lo fi drum sound).

In The Shadows wrote:Im not sure I have one tbh, maybe too many pads, Im just addicted to fucking pads they have to be in everything. Every time I make a tune I say to myself ok no big pads again this time, lets just roll out hard. Lasts about 2 hours before I throw in 'just the one' and by 3 hours its another ambient sea of chiors and saws to throw on the heap.


If you are looking into NIN I always notice a strong 80s electronic pop vibe through their stuff. Reznor was in an 80s electronic band before NIN and those 303ish bleep loop things etc that riddle that 80s electronic style are never far away from him. In my head he sort of blended that cold, loopy 80s synth sound with the filthy thrash metal/grunge sounds that were coming out in the early 90s. Like Garry Newman and Kraftwerk meets In Utero and Vulgar Display in a deranged heroine hell. I do love NIN, one of my favourite acts over the years, Downward Spiral still sounds better every time I listen to it, some seriously dark moments in there.

You're chattin to a huge pad fan here

And word on NIN, the coldness of his productions definitely shines through (especially on his post - and including - fragile work). The Downward Spiral is a fantastic album (which has Reznor's production fingerprints all over it, I mean even something recent like the Slip or Ghosts still has them all over them).

used to be having drone-ambient influenced pad-work (stuff like tim hecker really influenced me), basically lots of harmonics and midrange in the pads as opposed having a gnarly bassline. i also loved to have a bitcrushed breakbeat sample cut-up and delayed underneath my drums, not very loud just to give it a bit of shuffle.

at the moment i'm completely starting over, no idea therefore

I'm not sure if I do but people say I do. I do bit crush pads and reverb sends and maybe go overboard with intros

Shit mixdowns

DZA wrote:Shit mixdowns

deep trippy swelling progressions. real ganja smoking shit.

I sound like FSTZ... and no one else can say that

FSTZ wrote:I sound like FSTZ... and no one else can say that

i can i sound just like u mate

no clue, someone should tell me

deadly habit wrote:no clue, someone should tell me

This.

8bit blips, pitched up and down vocals drenched in reverb, off grid beats made up of mic recordings and amens, smooth porta-synths, sine+square+triwave sub bass. Original man

Kick on 1 Snare on 3

tripwire22 wrote:

FSTZ wrote:I sound like FSTZ... and no one else can say that

i can i sound just like u mate

deadly habit wrote:no clue, someone should tell me

Moody pads, and your drums sound unique.