searching for sounds

I'm definitely a n00b at this, but I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice. I'm having the hardest time finding good sounds to make music with. I use Reason, which a DJ friend of mine in Denver introduced me to a few years back. I also use Sony Sound Forge, Propellerhead Record, an Oxygen 49 keyboard, and will soon have an audio interface. My DJ friend is a very prolific artist and has made more than a hundred of his own tracks. However, he told me that the hardest part of the creative process is finding the right sounds. After making some of my own tracks, I have found this to be the case as well. I'll know what I want the track to sound like in my head, but then I have to browse WAV files and Reason Refills for HOURS just to find the sounds I'm looking for. I'm quite disappointed with the sound selections I currently have. I have a bunch of different Reason refills and a bunch of separate WAV files, and I feel like they're all crap. I feel like I can't find sounds similar to those that my favorite artists (AFX, BoC, Wisp, o9, etc.) seem to use. I suppose I could sample some of their sounds if I liked them enough and wanted to use them.

/whining

What do you guys do/use to find good sounds to make music?

  Quote

I have a bunch of different Reason refills and a bunch of separate WAV files, and I feel like they're all crap. I feel like I can't find sounds similar to those that my favorite artists (AFX, BoC, Wisp, o9, etc.) seem to use.

maybe because they aren't using cracked reason refills

Make my own bloops and tkshs with vstis or record dinks with my zoom h2, sometimes have a nose around alt.binaries.sounds.lossless.jazz.

There's this though http://www.freesound.org/

the three synths in reason are incredibly versatile. read up on synthesis (perhaps start with subtractive as that was easiest to grasp for me) and start toying around. you can make any number of sounds quite easily. if you're looking for drum sounds, i'd try starting with some of the basic kits in there and worrying more about how you sequence them rather than how they sound. you can swap out a sample at any time, but programming a beat that sounds nice is hard!

  On 12/19/2009 at 5:56 PM, chimera slot mom said:

  Quote

I have a bunch of different Reason refills and a bunch of separate WAV files, and I feel like they're all crap. I feel like I can't find sounds similar to those that my favorite artists (AFX, BoC, Wisp, o9, etc.) seem to use.

 

maybe because they aren't using cracked reason refills

true, that's why I'm looking for something else

  On 12/19/2009 at 5:58 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

Make my own bloops and tkshs with vstis or record dinks with my zoom h2, sometimes have a nose around alt.binaries.sounds.lossless.jazz.

 

There's this though http://www.freesound.org/

thanks, man! i'll have to check that stuff out. i'm excited to make my own sounds, too. wish I had more control than Reason affords. maybe I should try max/msp or cubase at some point. I have a strong programming background, and I've heard those programs offer a stronger amount of control over sound. use to program supercollider when I had a mac, and that was fun.

  On 12/19/2009 at 7:27 PM, bigs said:

the three synths in reason are incredibly versatile. read up on synthesis (perhaps start with subtractive as that was easiest to grasp for me) and start toying around. you can make any number of sounds quite easily. if you're looking for drum sounds, i'd try starting with some of the basic kits in there and worrying more about how you sequence them rather than how they sound. you can swap out a sample at any time, but programming a beat that sounds nice is hard!

yeah, i still have a lot to learn when it comes to reason. now that it's holiday break i'm gonna try to learn some more features of the program. i like all the stuff my DJ buddy in Denver has made using reason. he's more into the trip-hop/chill kind of music with what he makes.

cool edit + any sound source = magic

taking time to make your own sounds really shows in the finished product. for instance, take a sample as simple as a vocal snippet from a movie, clip out a second's wprth of audio, apply various effects, lengthen it, and you have something completely new. It's worth a shot. i use reason too.

build yourself a modular synth ;)

  On 12/20/2009 at 2:05 AM, acidphakist said:

build yourself a modular synth ;)

very possible in reason

get info about what synths/sounds your favourite artists use, download the vst's, get a midi keyboard controller

Although they're not the best, the synthesizers in Reason are quite versatile and capable of creating some greatly nuanced sounds with a bit ingenuity. Your problem at the moment does not seem to be a lack of the right tools, but an inability to use the ones you have well. I second the notion that you should do some reading on basic sound synthesis parameters. Make sure that you truly understand how each parameter you're controlling will affect the output. From there, try to get creative with your patching in Reason. Test the extremes of every parameter on just one synthesizer and become intimately familiar with what it is capable of doing. Don't make the mistake of giving yourself too many options at this point in your development. You will be much better off for having devoted yourself to mastering just one instrument.

The Subtractor is a good synth for learning basic techniques - even though the layout is a little confusing - but since you're shooting for AFX style sounds, you can still learn them on the Malstrom while taking advantage of it's unique properties. Don't forget to read the documentation, they explain each synthesizer very thoroughly.

  On 12/20/2009 at 1:55 AM, sneaksta303 said:

cool edit + any sound source = magic

 

taking time to make your own sounds really shows in the finished product. for instance, take a sample as simple as a vocal snippet from a movie, clip out a second's wprth of audio, apply various effects, lengthen it, and you have something completely new. It's worth a shot. i use reason too.

cool, i'd like to start making my own sounds. i'll have to check out cool edit.

  On 12/20/2009 at 2:24 AM, Brian Tregaskin said:

get info about what synths/sounds your favourite artists use, download the vst's, get a midi keyboard controller

I'll have to give this a try as well

  On 12/20/2009 at 6:23 AM, Wall Bird said:

Although they're not the best, the synthesizers in Reason are quite versatile and capable of creating some greatly nuanced sounds with a bit ingenuity. Your problem at the moment does not seem to be a lack of the right tools, but an inability to use the ones you have well. I second the notion that you should do some reading on basic sound synthesis parameters. Make sure that you truly understand how each parameter you're controlling will affect the output. From there, try to get creative with your patching in Reason. Test the extremes of every parameter on just one synthesizer and become intimately familiar with what it is capable of doing. Don't make the mistake of giving yourself too many options at this point in your development. You will be much better off for having devoted yourself to mastering just one instrument.

 

The Subtractor is a good synth for learning basic techniques - even though the layout is a little confusing - but since you're shooting for AFX style sounds, you can still learn them on the Malstrom while taking advantage of it's unique properties. Don't forget to read the documentation, they explain each synthesizer very thoroughly.

this sounds like really good advice. i just need to get over the laziness and dig deep in the functionality.

A good place to start is taking samples you kind of like already and running them through different effect processes to alter them into something more pleasing or interesting. A simple delay or time stretch can turn a crappy sample into a cool one, and you'll also train your ear to recognize how to create certain atmospheres through the use of FX. It can be hard to have this frame of mind when your more in focus on creating a song rather than a single element and it is easy to overlook a 'shit' sample because it doesn't work in its raw state.

After that you can start exploring creating raw sounds with synths and the like on your own. I'd recommend starting with making drum kit sounds using a single instrument like Subtractor. Drum kit noises are a great place to start because its a less abstract of a process and you have a pretty defined framework for what your creating (kick, snare, hat, etc). From there you can start exploring more complex sounds. While it might seem of little interest I recommend exploring how to create emulations of real instruments, even if you dont think it would be a sound you would ever use. I'd never have much interest in a trumpet synth patch, but knowing how to create a 'trumpet' sound in a synth can be quite handy. You can take the sounds in your head and get an idea of what kind of approach you'll need to take to get there. For most lead synth patches you can quite easily trace their sound back to a basic emulation of a real instrument like brass, strings, piano, etc. There is also a wealth of information on how to go about this since emulating instruments is what the mainstream digital music world is all about.