Kidrodi

Ok, so I've been getting back into music lately after a long time of feeling uninspired and I find myself enjoying it a lot more than I used to. So I guess I'll be posting some stuff here every now and then, mainly looking for any feedback you might have to offer.

Here's something I've been working on this week:

The mix is sounding a little bit like shit, I haven't taken the time to really EQ or anything yet but just wanted to get it out there.

sounds great to me! it's a wild ride.

is the title a reference to Conlon Nancarrow?

  On 5/7/2020 at 12:08 PM, zoid said:

sounds great to me! it's a wild ride.

is the title a reference to Conlon Nancarrow?

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Thanks!

Nope, I'm complete shit and coming up with track names so I just went on a fake word generator and that happened to come up. lol

  On 5/7/2020 at 1:33 PM, Kidrodi said:

Thanks!

Nope, I'm complete shit and coming up with track names so I just went on a fake word generator and that happened to come up. lol

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hmm, interesting coincidence then. Have you heard of him? If not check him out. "Study for Player Piano No 3a." is a good place to start. It's some of the most rhythmically complex music every written.

  On 5/7/2020 at 10:17 PM, zoid said:

hmm, interesting coincidence then. Have you heard of him? If not check him out. "Study for Player Piano No 3a." is a good place to start. It's some of the most rhythmically complex music every written.

 

 

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No, I haven't. Sounds like I'll be into it then. Thanks for the recommendation.

sounds sick! very satisfying sounds

  On 5/8/2020 at 8:41 AM, dingformung said:

sounds sick! very satisfying sounds

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Thank you, means a lot. I put a lot of effort into sound design.

Can you tell us a bit about your process or is it secret? 

Yeah, sure.

It's all basically made with Ableton's stock instruments and effects. Not because I think I'm cool or anything but I really believe in mastering what's in front of you already before moving on to something else. Also I just got an Ableton Push so third party stuff doesn't integrate as well with it.

One of my latest and greatest discoveries are "follow actions". You can make a bunch of clips with different patterns and have them alternate however you want. So that's how I sequenced the drums. The actual drum sounds are from a custom drum rack I've build with a bunch of Operators, so It's all either FM or basic subtractive stuff. Synthesising drums from scratch is just what I do when I'm bored cause I find it really fun so then when I make something cool I save it into the drum rack and use it later and probably tweak it some more. Oh and I also modulated the release time of every single drum hit with an LFO (S&H).

The first synth part is a simple sawtooth chord (with an LFO on the filter cutoff) put through the Random and Scale MIDI effects for a bit of chaotic variation. The actual pattern I drew in MIDI. Another cool trick I like to use is to modulate/automate a reverb's dry/wet signal, which I did on this sound.

The bass was made with Ableton's Wavetable iirc. Just two random waveshapes that sounded good together with a shit-ton of LFO's on a bunch of stuff. It's basically trial and error with me as is with probably most people, like "Oh I wonder if putting this envelope shape/LFO on the pulse width would make the sound more interesting".

And that's pretty much it.

Oh and the whole thing is in 5/4 lol

Thank you! It's always interesting to have some insight into other people's workflow. I will steal your ideas and sell them as my own

Really clean and snappy sounding stuff, makes my brain dance 

  On 5/8/2020 at 4:00 PM, dingformung said:

I will steal your ideas and sell them as my own

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Honestly I'm already ripping off Autechre so who cares.

  On 5/8/2020 at 3:43 PM, Kidrodi said:

Yeah, sure.

It's all basically made with Ableton's stock instruments and effects. Not because I think I'm cool or anything but I really believe in mastering what's in front of you already before moving on to something else. Also I just got an Ableton Push so third party stuff doesn't integrate as well with it.

One of my latest and greatest discoveries are "follow actions". You can make a bunch of clips with different patterns and have them alternate however you want. So that's how I sequenced the drums. The actual drum sounds are from a custom drum rack I've build with a bunch of Operators, so It's all either FM or basic subtractive stuff. Synthesising drums from scratch is just what I do when I'm bored cause I find it really fun so then when I make something cool I save it into the drum rack and use it later and probably tweak it some more. Oh and I also modulated the release time of every single drum hit with an LFO (S&H).

The first synth part is a simple sawtooth chord (with an LFO on the filter cutoff) put through the Random and Scale MIDI effects for a bit of chaotic variation. The actual pattern I drew in MIDI. Another cool trick I like to use is to modulate/automate a reverb's dry/wet signal, which I did on this sound.

The bass was made with Ableton's Wavetable iirc. Just two random waveshapes that sounded good together with a shit-ton of LFO's on a bunch of stuff. It's basically trial and error with me as is with probably most people, like "Oh I wonder if putting this envelope shape/LFO on the pulse width would make the sound more interesting".

And that's pretty much it.

Oh and the whole thing is in 5/4 lol

 

 

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that's cool! you're doing great with it.

I like Wavetable too, it's great for basses.

i didn't notice the 5/4! it's quite hard to hear where the bars start and end... but it suits the track. keeps you guessing

  On 5/8/2020 at 5:34 PM, zoid said:

that's cool! you're doing great with it.

I like Wavetable too, it's great for basses.

i didn't notice the 5/4! it's quite hard to hear where the bars start and end... but it suits the track. keeps you guessing

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Thanks again!

Yeah, The 5/4 thing started out when the drum pattern was more straightforward but it stuck in the end. 

I'm quite into generative/random beats lately. There's something about the disorientation of it that appeals to me a lot. 

sick sick sick, nothing else to add except for this is sick af!!! pristine sound design...

I think I'll try to get something done every week or so and post it on the thread that way it feels more like my little experiments have more purpose than to sit on my hard drive.

This was a quick one. Usually it takes more than a day for me to feel like I'm satisfied with a track but I like this one as it is for now.

The process was more or less the same. I've since expanded my drum rack by adding some effects (beat repeat, redux, delay, etc) to each sound and mapping some macros so I can have it behave more like an Elektron machine. At least that was the idea.

I'm also messing around with parallel compression more. I think I overdid it now that I'm listening to it on headphones but oh well, it's already up. You guys let me know what you think

  On 5/12/2020 at 5:16 PM, Tim_J said:

sick sick sick, nothing else to add except for this is sick af!!! pristine sound design...

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Thank you!! I thought the poor mixing would ruin the track actually but maybe it's fine. 

btw great timing with your post, I just posted a new one  

  On 5/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, Kidrodi said:

 

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Sounds lush! Also fits the other track you posted well. If you have more tracks in that vein you could make an EP from them.

  On 5/12/2020 at 5:24 PM, Kidrodi said:

I thought the poor mixing would ruin the track actually but maybe it's fine. 

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Mixing sounds fine to me

Thanks! Yeah you know I was thinking about that. I don't have enough material yet but I'm working on that. 

  On 5/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, Kidrodi said:

I think I'll try to get something done every week or so and post it on the thread that way it feels more like my little experiments have more purpose than to sit on my hard drive.

This was a quick one. Usually it takes more than a day for me to feel like I'm satisfied with a track but I like this one as it is for now.

The process was more or less the same. I've since expanded my drum rack by adding some effects (beat repeat, redux, delay, etc) to each sound and mapping some macros so I can have it behave more like an Elektron machine. At least that was the idea.

I'm also messing around with parallel compression more. I think I overdid it now that I'm listening to it on headphones but oh well, it's already up. You guys let me know what you think

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pretty awesome as well!

question:
are those ableton modules (operator, redux, etc) available as VST's?

  On 5/14/2020 at 5:20 PM, Tim_J said:

pretty awesome as well!

question:
are those ableton modules (operator, redux, etc) available as VST's?

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Thank you.

No, unfortunately not. They're exclusive to Ableton, as is the case with most stock plugins probably. 

In any case, Redux is just a simple bitcrusher, you should get by with any free one or the one that probably comes with your DAW.

Operator on the other hand is a little bit more special. It manly does FM but it's quite versatile in general. I haven't really used anything else in a while to be honest so I can't recommend anything, but FM8 was pretty awesome last time I used it. 

Actually, do you have any recommendations? The only third party synth I have is Serum.

  On 5/14/2020 at 5:59 PM, Kidrodi said:

Actually, do you have any recommendations? The only third party synth I have is Serum.

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Check Lion. Has infinite possibilities. New territory, fresh snow, etc.

  On 5/14/2020 at 5:59 PM, Kidrodi said:

 

Actually, do you have any recommendations? The only third party synth I have is Serum.

 

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i don't i'm sorry, i'm too thick, been working with the same shitty stuff for years, reason...

i'm trying to get into ni massive right now...

  On 5/6/2020 at 4:46 PM, Kidrodi said:

Ok, so I've been getting back into music lately after a long time of feeling uninspired and I find myself enjoying it a lot more than I used to. So I guess I'll be posting some stuff here every now and then, mainly looking for any feedback you might have to offer.

Here's something I've been working on this week:

The mix is sounding a little bit like shit, I haven't taken the time to really EQ or anything yet but just wanted to get it out there.

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How did you make that lead synth??? Super cool and huge sounding, I love it. Great track aswell! The drums are a bit difficult to me, but I'm also a knucklehead.

  On 5/18/2020 at 10:06 PM, KingBo0 said:

How did you make that lead synth??? Super cool and huge sounding, I love it. Great track aswell! The drums are a bit difficult to me, but I'm also a knucklehead.

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Maybe you didn't see but I explained how I made the whole track a few posts above. 

If you want me to go more into detail, that's no problem either. Anything in particular you would like to know about it?

Oh, and thanks a lot!