My Ideas

How about exporting multiple tracks as audio and then importing them as 1 track?
E.g. you make a drum beat using 16 channels and export it as audio. Then you make a new project file and import the drum beat audio file as 1 track. You have 15 tracks remaining to add more stuff.

^second that, great solution for you Moz

Yeah, do that. Chopping up rendered beats and messing with them is fun anyways.

Yes that is probably the solution I will have to work with. The only problem with it is that I can not edit my drumpattern anymore then while recording the other things. I can not make the breaks longer or shorter. I can not clear the hihats or claps or snares anymore. I am someone who needs to work in real time since I lack ideas. It just comes up to me while I am busy.

That and the constant crashing of my DAW when I export the midi files to a wav makes it hard too. Since I put Windows 10 and the ableton program on a HDD instead of a SSD for the reason of storage room (The SSD is only 110gb and my HDD is 4 tb) I have this problem. Its a real pain in the ass...

But I have to have more room, because some VST's actually require a lot of room on the C drive. You can install them on another drive yes, but it still puts some files on your C drive (Arturia V Collection for instance which in the past I rented to own for a few months. After installing all instruments I had only 20 gb of room left on my SSD. To fix this problem I removed windows and put it back on one of my HDD's. That was a pain in the ass too because I had MANY problems reinstalling windows... First my keyboard would not work while installing, had to troubleshoot to make it work so I could actually install it. Then another problem arised, then another. I am not going to reinstall it to SSD because I need the room that I have on HDD.

But yes, this is probably what I need to do because it is the only solution on the moment I guess. I thought about another DAW too like the one that is suggested. Reaper seems to have a DAW for 60€ but its non commercial. If you want the commercial version you actually have to pay 225€...

I could do that, because it has a license untill june now for free because of the corona virus I think (commercial license) but I am so used to Ableton now. And the tutorials I see are also made with Ableton. I am gonna lay down a bit and think about all the options.

Thank you all for your help in trying to fix this problem.

I see, well, you could render out  the independent elements of your beats and stick them in the back of your rythm track sequence (post the track time) and reconstruct the beat from there if you need to change anything, or just save your beats as a seperate "just beats version" song for future editing. If you feel like you need to change the beat as your work progresses, render the other instruments as a single track, import to the "just beats version", change the beat to fit the rest, export the beat as a single audio file and import to the song. There are many ways to do this, but just messing with the already rendered beat can be worthwile. 

Do what you feel, don't limit yourself because something is "wrong" according to your youtube EDM tutorial man. Keep making music, listen to the advice you get but don't get discouraged.  uhm. yeah.

I am gonna download a "demo" version of ableton live 10. It is the suite version because the standard version does not have a free trial. It works for 30 days

I am installing it now, I do not know if it will work because I installed it over a year ago already but only used it one time. Just to see the instruments it included, back then I had no idea that VST's existed...

I was dissapointed by the instruments and just never opened the program anymore and went on with my intro version of ableton. I hope now that I still have remaining days since I only used it one day.

I tried installing reaper but man, its an whole other thing. I am gonna need to learn everything I know again and basically throw a year away of getting to know the daw. This is not an option I am afraid. Since the tutorials I watch are also made with ableton, its better to use that...

Now if this trial version works, it will only work for the remaining days I have, if it even works like that I do not know, but that should be between 25-29 days normally since I, to my knowledge, only used it one day.

I hope I have a solution against the time the trial is over to be able to purchase the standard edition. I do not use anything in ableton itself, I use VST's for everything. Instruments, effects, it are all vst's, so I will not have any problem with the downgrade. I just need more then 16 tracks, and both versions include unlimited tracks. I just hope this demo version works and is able to give me unlimited tracks.

The Daw seems to be installed and it seems I have the full 30 days!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!! This will only be a temporary fix but maybe I can try to save some money each week now from the 50€ I get and then when the trial is over ask budgetman again to give the remaining sum. At least I have a little bit of luck in that the trial version seems to work and give me access again for 30 days.

Well I finished the song I think...

First song I really spend a lot of time on.

I watched tutorials and went on with those, some people also helped me with giving tips on things.

Things I tried to do: adding EQ, mixing it better and a bit of mastering.

I do not know if it sounds good. It sounds good to me but untill I heared this track my previous tracks also sounded good so yeah....

Please let me know what you think.

Edit:

I redid the track because I thought it did not sound good on my speakers. I "mixed and mastered" it thru my headphones which sounded good. But then I listened today to it thru speakers and it did not sound so good. Now I have come to the conclusion that my headphones boost the bass a lot. So the drum is louder in headphones, the kick for instance is fuller on headphones then on speakers.

So I redid the whole song, the mastering and a bit of mixing proces while listening thru my speakers. It sounds okay now, I think, on my speakers but on my headphones ofcourse the bass sounds of the kick is louder now... I also listened to it thru normal headphones like air pods but from samsung and it sounded okay on that too.

This is the new version, I think it sounds a bit better, more bass and kick on speakers but then again a bit to much on my headphones which boost it...

It is not good at all. Listened solely thru headphones yesterday and today I heared it thry speakers. Not good at all.

relax dude, it's fine.

  On 3/25/2020 at 11:42 AM, Gocab said:

relax dude, it's fine.

Is it? I think I can make it better... I am relaxed but aren't the tones to sharp?

Thing is, I listened to the new version which I shall share in above post (and which I made with my speakers on) and it seems that my headphones boost the drumbass a lot. I also heared it thru normal headphones (like headjacks? Is that the correct term? Like those you get when you buy a smartphone or something like that, like air pods but from samsung) and the booming bass drum did not exist on those either. I think I made it better. But on my headphones now the drum is booming like crazy... On speakers and headphones for phone it sounds okay.

  On 3/24/2020 at 11:52 PM, Mozex said:

 

 

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  On 3/25/2020 at 12:37 PM, acid1 said:

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lol

Just a heads up - maybe drop the EDM reference points, eg: try something without any percussion at all. See what textures and tones you can create with the gear at hand. Experiment.

This is journey & you’re still fresh in term of ingrained habits & learning. Focus on exploring the undiscovered sounds in your mind & try to listen to as much music outside your usual playlists as possible. Sounds will gradually structure themselves over time.

There’s prob never been a better time since previous world wars to focus & get creative with your music, just try & enjoy it.

  On 3/25/2020 at 1:39 PM, cwmbrancity said:

Just a heads up - maybe drop the EDM reference points, eg: try something without any percussion at all. See what textures and tones you can create with the gear at hand. Experiment.

This is journey & you’re still fresh in term of ingrained habits & learning. Focus on exploring the undiscovered sounds in your mind & try to listen to as much music outside your usual playlists as possible. Sounds will gradually structure themselves over time.

There’s prob never been a better time since previous world wars to focus & get creative with your music, just try & enjoy it.

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Okay, can you please explain why I would need to drop the percussion?

The tyranny of the beat, just an idea rather than a need.

So much music is anchored by percussion, so an opportunity to experiment outside that framework perhaps. 

  On 3/25/2020 at 1:50 PM, cwmbrancity said:

The tyranny of the beat, just an idea rather than a need.

So much music is anchored by percussion, so an opportunity to experiment outside that framework perhaps. 

Ah yes it is more a matter of personal taste if I understand right? Will try to think about it when I make a new track and try to use less or no percussion. Just to see what it does.

Thank you for the listen and your opinion!

i second brancity's suggestion. 

i don't make music but if i did i'd definitely experiment making percussion-free tunes and the opposite as well (percussion-only). most bedroom producers use percussions as a kind of ornament which is weird if you really think about it. there's much more to percussion than accompaniement. 

gerald donald

  On 3/26/2020 at 3:51 AM, brian trageskin said:

i second brancity's suggestion. 

i don't make music but if i did i'd definitely experiment making percussion-free tunes and the opposite as well (percussion-only). most bedroom producers use percussions as a kind of ornament which is weird if you really think about it. there's much more to percussion than accompaniement. 

gerald donald

I made a song now with one single hat in it... trying to get it mixed and mastered right but its a pain in the ass. And I need to do it with headphones. Not good. Will upload once I am fairly happy about it.

This is the best it will get for today. Will tinker maybe more on it tomorrow. Did not have the chance to listen to it thru speakers yet and my headphones boost bass so thats not good... I took my other song as reference and tried to keep them both in line. For now, it has been enough, been mixing and mastering for 8 hours with only one hour break in between... It has been enough for today.

Let me know what you think please...

Decent composition as always.

If I have one tip it's to take more breaks when mixing! Your ears get tired without regular breaks and this will change how they respond to frequencies. The mix of this tune is a little too bright imo and that's likely a side-effect of mixing with ear fatigue.

Thank you very much for the advice. I will try to do that then. It is true that I do not really take breaks and sometimes am mixing 6-7 hours straight because I want to get it done..

I need to take more sections in making music, like one day the composition, another day the mixing and then a final day for mastering.

Thats the theory but it often does not work that way, when I am busy I just want to keep on doing it... but you are right, it messes up my ears probably and I make mistakes then.

The fact that I am also new to this mixing and mastering stuff will surely have to do with it also.

Thank you for the listen Brian and for the good advice, will try to work on it. Your listen and advice is appreciated.

Okay, got new headphones now that have neutral sound normally. The song sounds good on them but a bit weird on other headphones that bass boost.

I would like you to take a listen to it and tell me how you hear the song on your audio equipment...

Would do me a great favor with it...

Listened in studio and on my home system.  No problems with the bass levels from what I can hear.  I'd be interested to hear a mix with a lower bass line(potentially sidechained with the kick).

Thank you for listening and the reaction. So the bass should be lower, okay will do that next time and I will try to sidechain it with the kick.

I did that for this song too, sidechain it with kick but it gave some troubles and I just put it off... but will work on that too in next song if I remember.

  On 3/27/2020 at 6:06 PM, Mozex said:

Okay, got new headphones now that have neutral sound normally. The song sounds good on them but a bit weird on other headphones that bass boost.

I would like you to take a listen to it and tell me how you hear the song on your audio equipment...

Would do me a great favor with it...

 

 

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Reminds me of Modex /Psedludux. Kinda 80s video game vibe. Not totally my vibe but still pretty cool.