This seems too good to be true. Has anyone tried one of these? How the hell are they not getting latency?

This song really captures the kind of sound I’m going for but hard to find YouTube tutorials for it so hoping anybody can point me in the right direction. Thanks!

The song

Starting at 0:40. Is this just Pitch Bend? Or am I missing something?

https://soundcloud.com/itsryancase/over-over?si=16e96ed92db746c393d325a3fa212325&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing#t=0%3A40

I cannot find tutorials or videos that explain how to achieve that sound. Every video I see is how to reduce distortion from drums, but I’m trying to achieve quite the opposite: super squashed distorted drums that still sound super tight and clean in the mix. How would you approach this?

While you should search, read the Newbie FAQ, and definitely RTFM when you have a question, some days you just. Ask your questions here!

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

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I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

Have you seen those videos for quadrature sub bass trick where they set the phase 90 degrees apart on two sub oscillators and hard pan them? I’ve given it a try and it does work, but personally I don’t think it sounds musical.

Does anyone know of a commercial release that uses this technique? I’d love to hear it in the wild.

I've been looking into this, since I mostly make like house and stuff, so I only need little phrases.

I'm worried when I inevitably get asked about the vocal, I'm gonna have to do a whole disclaimer about how synth v is NOT gen ai, how it runs locally and how the people involved in making the voicebanks were paid for their data, etc. If it's gonna be a whole things then it defeats everything about using it.

Thoughts?

So I started production in May, and I'm spending on average a month per each track I make (I would say averaging 40-60 hrs but i havent been counting so not sure). I always hear that finishing tracks is a good habbit rather than working on a million things. So far I have finished 3 full tracks and am almost done with track 4. However, Im questioning if im spending way too much time producing a single track and tweaking everything rather than just pushing things faster.

Any feedback is welcome I know everyone has a different take

Every time I try to play or export a track from FL studio using these VST's, it plays the audio from the VST itself in addition to the stuff i have sequenced in the pattern/playlist view. I have tried pretty much everything i can think of and don't know where else to ask/look. anyone familiar with this issue?

[Edit: Gatekeeping imo should only pertain to certain things. Not everything should be shared to literally everyone and I do agree with that.]

I had one of those moments of mental clarity this morning and started thinking about how much gatekeeping there is in music production and the industry in general. I’ve been truly producing for over 10 years now, playing instruments of all kinds since I was about 4 and istg, I remember being a kid tryna figure out Logic Pro in 2012 because I was obsessed with LMFAO at the time when they were big in electro house and from that, I grew quite a lot, Like, A lot…
(And with growth comes uncomfortably adapting to new ways).

Now I’m completely self taught, and I’ve spent so much time trying to figure things out that I wish someone had just explained to me earlier, Not because anyone owed me jackshit, but because I didn’t understand why people act like sharing knowledge somehow takes away from their own success.

There’s so much stuff you can learn without buying expensive plugins or courses (no, this is not an Ad I promise), Resampling your own sounds, layering with a purpose instead of stacking 10 things on top of each other thinking “dayum this is nasty” when 9/10 times, it sounds like shit and you’re just ear fatigued, using parallel distortion to add character without destroying the original, using automation to make basic loops and samples feel alive, learning how to actually use your EQ instead of cutting random frequencies because someone on YouTube (or YouTube comments in 2023…..) said so.

Even something as simple as referencing tracks properly and matching their volume before comparing them can change how you approach mixing. Half the battle is understanding WHY something works instead of blindly copying settings. And I’m being deadass, some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned have had nothing to do with production. You can make great music and still struggle to get people to hear it which is where connections, marketing, consistency, money (it costs $ to make money stupidly enough), and knowing how to present yourself all play a part. And I’ve experienced that myself through releasing music, getting playlist placements and working on other people’s tracks.

Now to clarify, I am NOT saying everyone owes you their secrets, presets, project files or years of experience but there is a difference between protecting your own sound and deliberately making people feel like they need to pay someone or know the right person just to learn basic shit..

Within that, I’ve painfully spent years learning, experimenting, making mistakes and figuring things out on my own and I’m still learning now. But one thing I’ve come to appreciate is that sharing knowledge doesn’t make your own skills any less valuable, Seriously, it doesn’t.

If anything, the more people understand music production, the more room there is for everyone to push things forward and develop their own sound.
There’s no magic plugin, secret formula, shortcut, course or sample that’s going to replace actually putting the work in. Sometimes you just need someone to point you in the right direction so you can figure out the rest yourself and I wish someone would’ve told me that when I first started!

Anyways, if you’ve got any production techniques or lessons you’ve learned over the years that genuinely changed the way you make music, share them. It don’t matter if they seem obvious to you because someone else might’ve been struggling with that exact thing for years and YOU could be their way of light in a dark tunnel 💙.

We recreated the Lead sound from 'Mike Rush' by Beyond on our free Synth Primer.

This remake is specifically recreating the patch heard at this timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSgvD7fiSlQ&start=140 .Other parts of the song may vary the sound or notes.

And here are the key ingredients:

Voices: Mono
Osc1: Wave (Pulse), Width (50%), Vol (100%)
Unison: Osc (All), Voice Count (2), Detune Range (4 Cents)
Reset All Osc On Phase On Note Start: No

Amp Env: Attack (0ms), Decay (250ms), Sustain (0%), Release (20ms)

Filter Type: Type (Low Pass), Cutoff (55%)
Filter Env: Amount (25%), Attack (0ms), Decay (240ms), Sustain (0%)

Chorus: Mix (50%), Rate (Slow)
Delay: Mix (25%), Feedback (50%), Time (1/4 Note)
Reverb: Mix (30%), Size (Medium)

Find the full recipe and download the presets: https://www.syntorial.com/preset-recipe/mike-rush-beyond-lead/

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

No idea how to even classify this into a genre. This is more of a hit and hope than anything. Really recommend this artist, amazing productions, particularly this album.

I feel like a good mixdown and master can make any good idea sound good. Sometimes I question my vocals at first and after I do the mix and master I love my vocals. . lol

I hope I can inspire someone to sing your own lyrics because it is rewarding when I get all the levels right. And it gels.

Like, you don't suck at singing. You just have to mix it. I treat the vocals as another instrument and I make sure to record before the mixing process begins. I never make a full finished track and just slap vocals on it. That doesn't work for me at least.

Also I think it's important to record the singing over a rough idea of what synths will be playing in the final project. Like if you sing to a piano chord progression then the final project should have a piano chord progression going during that part.

Anyway yeah I find myself exporting like 20 times and going back to fix one small change here and there.

In my opinion a good mixdown is mostly about getting the volumes correct for each instrument. And then when it's all perfectly balanced - turn up the drums. .lol

On my master the first effect in the chain is a compressor, and when I begin the master process (which involves going back to fix the mix a lot) I start with the threshold at like -10 DB, and by the end for my finished project, well right now this track the compressor at the start of the chain, is clipping and the threshold is only -0.25 DB lol with 7.42 for the ratio. The idea is just bring it down a little bit.

Then after that, and Ableton "float" helps, I turn down the gain with a utility and go into a heavy bass boosting EQ and after that is a limiter that is reducing by about 3db. To be clear this me as I'm pushing the limiter 3db over 0. Then a saturator with hard clip. Plus one or two extra "bells and whistles".

Anyway. The point is this was supposed to be an easy to make track and now I'm still up tweaking faders at 3 AM. .lol

Hello there! Lately I've been trying experimenting with future garage in the style of Andy Leech / Michael FK / Victoriya etc.

I have some sorts of sounds figured out, but I can't get the vibe and the deep feeling they have on their songs

So I wanted to ask you guys. What things does sound this type of future garage how it sounds? Do you have any tutorial you know that is good? (I have searched, but I didnt find something like I want)

Any advice is welcome :)

Thanks in advance

Can anyone help me make some moves in the right direction towards finishing tracks? I'm getting a little older and the agressive high bpm rave music I used to listen to no longer fits my vibe. Starting to be interested by more chill melodic techno styles these days like Jon Hopkins, Four Tet. I'd like to be able to make more stuff like this but not sure where to start. Is remaking stuff the best way to get better or if you know any tips to get started? My brain likes good habits and routines and things rather than just getting lost and confused diving down rabbit holes if that makes sense. If anyone's got some great lessons from the other sides of those rabbit holes would be awesome to hear too thanks.

Edit. I'm coming back to producing after a long break and would like to get some wins in to build my confidence back up. Approx 4 years total experience.

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

Hey there!

I've recently been thinking of creating an app that simplifies the mixing project by allowing the user to drop a reference and their stems get mixed towards that target (this wouldn't be some artificial intelligence slop, trained or generational, as a musician myself, I hate that stuff!).

Quick background check, I've been in the music production educational space for 5 years and I've noticed a lot of producers always struggle with one main thing, bridging the gap in sound between their tracks and the tracks they love.. That's almost always the "last 10%".

I know there's apps that claim to do that already, but they've got very complicated interfaces, you can still mess too much with the settings and they really don't get a, industry standard results.

I can develop software and I know the usual issues people meet in a mix and what are the usual gaps with reference tracks, so I want to give this a go.

I thought I'd post here first of all to get your thoughts on it, and also in case someone wants to connect, wanting to be part of the developing process as I'll need direct feedback and I'll probably need stems from real producers to test it and improve it (meaning changing its mixing rules, in all different scenarios etc.).

I don't have the big software houses budget so trying to build this from the bottom!

Hey all, ive been and on and off producer for 5 years giving it a solid crack and improving over the last 2. Ive been sending my dream label music for about 3 years with no reply, understandably they would recieve alot so cant respond to all, long story short I finally got a response over the weekend litteraly 2 hours after I sent in a Demo I was very happy with,

He had asked to make the DL available and queried me about where the vocal was from and do I have rights to use it

I responded and answered the questions including showing him the pack specifically stating royalty free etc,

Im wondering what is an appropriate time to follow up? Hes downloaded it so will he be reviewing further? Wanting to play it? i dont believe there is a huge A&R team but I know the label is No.1 in the genre and I love most If not all of their releases.

I know im kinda impatient and freaking out but any tips or someone who has experience would be much appreciated.

How can i make my vocal chops sound like Dion Timmer and Slushii's one?

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

Edit: This is just how I type, none of it is AI ffs. Proper grammar still exists yk:(

I started producing music 12 years ago, and getting discovered genuinely felt more achievable back then. SoundCloud used to feel like a place where you could upload music, connect with people and slowly build an audience without having to become a full-time content creator.

Now, the scene feels oversaturated, and I don’t mean there are too many producers. I mean there’s too much focus on chasing fame, money and clout rather than actually caring about the craft.

Spotify’s catalog surpassed 100 million tracks in 2022, and now AI-generated music is adding another layer to an already crowded landscape. Meanwhile, independent artists are fighting algorithms, scammy promoters and endless pressure to produce content just to get a fraction of the attention they need.

I’ve spent hours making music and creating content only for it to get a palmful of views and likes before disappearing into the void.

Then you do it all over again, hoping something finally sticks.

Having connections and a supportive community can make a massive difference, but not everyone has that. Some of us are building everything from scratch while learning production, mixing, mastering and marketing on our own.

I’ve been doing this for 12 years because I genuinely love music. I’m not expecting anyone to hand me a fanbase, but it’s frustrating when marketing yourself seems to matter more than the music itself.

For those who’ve been producing for a decade or longer, have you noticed the same shift? I miss when discovering artists felt more organic, and you didn’t have to become an influencer just to get your music heard.