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I've been producing for months now, and i feel like I can lay a beat and everything but synthesis down pretty well. But I've read the Production Bible and watched so many YouTube tutorials and never been able to find anything to help. I'd like to be good at synthesis in general, though I'd really like to be able to create heavy midrange cack basslines.
I of course understand it takes days and weeks and months and years to get good at anything, and I'm willing to put that work in. I just can't find any good resources to help my synthesis expand, every video on Youtube just shows how to apply the LFO to filter cutoff and slap a bitcrusher on to it and I just haven't been able to gain any knowledge from the Bible. The guides in there are still a bit different to what I'd like to be able to do, with a thousand threads on Borgore and Datsik.
It's just doing my head in, I feel like synths are the final hurdle and I just can't make decent sounds!

tinker, tinker, tinker, masturbate, tinker some more,repeat.

its the only way your gonna get better. you cant be shown everything.

Captain Planet wrote:I've been producing for months now, and i feel like I can lay a beat and everything but synthesis down pretty well. But I've read the Production Bible and watched so many YouTube tutorials and never been able to find anything to help. I'd like to be good at synthesis in general, though I'd really like to be able to create heavy midrange cack basslines.
I of course understand it takes days and weeks and months and years to get good at anything, and I'm willing to put that work in. I just can't find any good resources to help my synthesis expand, every video on Youtube just shows how to apply the LFO to filter cutoff and slap a bitcrusher on to it and I just haven't been able to gain any knowledge from the Bible. The guides in there are still a bit different to what I'd like to be able to do, with a thousand threads on Borgore and Datsik.
It's just doing my head in, I feel like synths are the final hurdle and I just can't make decent sounds!

Years. Not days, weeks, or months. Only years.

Stop focusing so much on dubstep and the sounds you wanna be able to synthesize. Get a simple synth like Synth1, set it to a default patch, and experiment. Know what all the parts do, then start recreating simple synth patches.

If you are in massive; instead of doing the lfo to filter cutoff try patching the lfo to the wavetable position of OSC 1. To me i can get better "bro" results doing this to get the movement out of my cacky basslines lol. Also i usually only have 1 OSC running in massive in the first place anyway... then add second OSC to add color/character to my bass.

Think about edm masters, they learnt their craft not thru youtube, but by following their own path and sound.

Depone wrote:Think about edm masters, they learnt their craft not thru youtube, but by following their own path and sound.

Thats, because there was no youtube...

The next generation of edm master will all use youtube tutorials.

It's all in trial and error..
Experimentation buddy

Find a good tutorial of a great sound creation on YouTube.
Tomorrow, try to remake it without watching the video again.
Congratulations, you now know how to make one fantastic sound off by heart.
Now adapt that sound, get to know what makes it sound so good (what every parameter does in the sound design)
Rinse and repeat until you have a collective arsenal of great sounds.

Doing this just gives you a, dare I say, scientific understanding of how each parameter contributes to the overall sound. Also, make sure you do know the science behind synthesis, it really does help from a logic point of view. Then you can experiment, but know what will sound good before hand.

@ GothamHero were is that from in your sig? did Benga send that to you?

3za wrote:@ GothamHero were is that from in your sig? did Benga send that to you?

Yeah I asked him on SoundCloud about his producing journey and for a few pointers for a rookie. That bit was the most inspiring, so I sigged it so anyone can read it and be touched by Benga's wise words, haha. He's really fucking chill, he only took a day to respond and was so friendly.

youll find your own style

Indeed Obi Wan Benga. Walk in any direction long enough and you will arrive at where you're going.

very important imo: learn the basic waveforms. get to know them in and out, to the point where you can hear them in everyday sounds. learn the difference between lowpassed squares and saws, how pulsewidth affects squares, learn your basic filters and fx like phasers, flangers and chorus.

all about the waves, man. in the end all production is just about harnessing the waves.

get a synth, doesn't have to be a big expensive one. But it will give you a grounding to start at without first having to dive straight into the math/science of buidling your own software synths.

All you'll have to do is plug it in to something, and those thoughts of wrist slicing will melt away.

GothamHero wrote:

3za wrote:@ GothamHero were is that from in your sig? did Benga send that to you?

Yeah I asked him on SoundCloud about his producing journey and for a few pointers for a rookie. That bit was the most inspiring, so I sigged it so anyone can read it and be touched by Benga's wise words, haha. He's really fucking chill, he only took a day to respond and was so friendly.

Nice man...

Though I am surprised he didn't charge you a pound

Anyway back on topic

http://www.soundonsound.com

great tutorials, much MUCH more helpful than any youtube tutorial imo

hasezwei wrote:very important imo: learn the basic waveforms. get to know them in and out, to the point where you can hear them in everyday sounds. learn the difference between lowpassed squares and saws, how pulsewidth affects squares, learn your basic filters and fx like phasers, flangers and chorus.

all about the waves, man. in the end all production is just about harnessing the waves.

exactly. learn what sines/saws/tris/squares etc all sound like. be able to pick them out. then learn what detuned osc's sound like, filters, etc-- be able to pick apart a sound in your standard bash-you-over-the-head electro tune.