Too much patches, how do you handle them?

[Marco Raaphorst]

sure sound is important but not as important as the other elements. change the sounds of Aphex Twin and you still have his composition. but if you change the melodies and harmonies everything changes.

sound is very relative. musical elements though are not. they are what make the composition. stuff that can be copyrighted.

I think it's equally important. Some songs have really uninteresting composition but awesome sound design to compensate and make it fresh and unique.
Some have both!

I think today we have so many sounds, it's harder to sound bad than good. I see a shift into more lo-fi sounds because of this. More focus on the music instead of the sound. Hear Jamie Lidell talk about this in his latest podcast:

[aeox]

I think it's equally important. Some songs have really uninteresting composition but awesome sound design to compensate and make it fresh and unique.
Some have both!

I think today we have so many sounds, it's harder to sound bad than good. I see a shift into more lo-fi sounds because of this. More focus on the music instead of the sound. Hear Jamie Lidell talk about this in his latest podcast:

It's all completely subjective. Some genres are all about sound design and creating things that people have never heard before. The sound IS the music.

[michael.jaye]

He m


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Marco Raaphorst]

I think today we have so many sounds, it's harder to sound bad than good. I see a shift into more lo-fi sounds because of this. More focus on the music instead of the sound. Hear Jamie Lidell talk about this in his latest podcast:

It's all completely subjective. Some genres are all about sound design and creating things that people have never heard before. The sound IS the music.

Maybe you have an interesting example of this?

[aeox]

It's all completely subjective. Some genres are all about sound design and creating things that people have never heard before. The sound IS the music.

Maybe you have an interesting example of this?

Heres a nice combo with good sound design that you just don't hear anywhere else. If the sound design wasn't so damn good, I wouldn't have even remembered the song.

[Marco Raaphorst]

Maybe you have an interesting example of this?

Heres a nice combo with good sound design that you just don't hear anywhere else. If the sound design wasn't so damn good, I wouldn't have even remembered the song.

thanks, yes I know what you mean. I probably am more aware of chords and melody in general.

[michael.jaye]

Also, when sorting out all my Refills/samples/patches, I try and use the FSB where possible. I got to a point where I had too many refills & downloaded content that it got to be stupid. Also if I buy a sample pack I usually try and get the folder type, not refill format so I can organise and delete the parts I don't want/need.

[michael.jaye]

Heres a nice combo with good sound design that you just don't hear anywhere else. If the sound design wasn't so damn good, I wouldn't have even remembered the song.

thanks, yes I know what you mean. I probably am more aware of chords and melody in general.

That's actually really nice. Reminds me of the sounds in Aphex Twin's Windowlicker, but more subdued.

[Reasonable man]

Time consuming. I write down the name of anything that sounds 'analouge' and try memorize where it is in the factory soundbank! I dislike the new modern 'big' digital sound. Gives me headaches. Used to think it was just me but then i read about the loudness wars and its fairly common. I'm not an engineer or experienced mixer or anything vaguley like that but the track above just gives me a headache. Then again i guess i never grew out of that lovely analouge sound of ninties EDM such like of Leffield and Underworld... hard to recreate on a digital DAW.

[aeox]

Time consuming. I write down the name of anything that sounds 'analouge' and try memorize where it is in the factory soundbank! I dislike the new modern 'big' digital sound. Gives me headaches. Used to think it was just me but then i read about the loudness wars and its fairly common. I'm not an engineer or experienced mixer or anything vaguley like that but the track above just gives me a headache. Then again i guess i never grew out of that lovely analouge sound of ninties EDM such like of Leffield and Underworld... hard to recreate on a digital DAW.

Just checked it with a loudness meter and it's pretty modest. It's not classical music though.. part of the sound of some electronic music is the loudness of it. Maybe you just don't like that kind of music. Which is understandable, not maybe people on this forum do. The majority are older folks that are really into the older sounds of the 80s/90s.

Personally, I'm looking forward and trying to innovate and not do the same thing that's been done time and time again. I'm just not quite there yet.

[aeox]

Ah, the good ole' days when music was actually good

(Read some of the comments)

[michael.jaye]

Ah, the good ole' days when music was actually good

(Read some of the comments)

I prefer their earlier stuff.

[demt]

shame there isnt a file for sounds that complement eatch other 2leads a bass n drums rythmm +pads fx all have to relate +vely with eatch other .Still having found a sound i like its just a matter of trawling through the files till another sound appears within the tweaking distance ,that the rythm dictates.

[Reasonable man]

Time consuming. I write down the name of anything that sounds 'analouge' and try memorize where it is in the factory soundbank! I dislike the new modern 'big' digital sound. Gives me headaches. Used to think it was just me but then i read about the loudness wars and its fairly common. I'm not an engineer or experienced mixer or anything vaguley like that but the track above just gives me a headache. Then again i guess i never grew out of that lovely analouge sound of ninties EDM such like of Leffield and Underworld... hard to recreate on a digital DAW.

Just checked it with a loudness meter and it's pretty modest. It's not classical music though.. part of the sound of some electronic music is the loudness of it. Maybe you just don't like that kind of music. Which is understandable, not maybe people on this forum do. The majority are older folks that are really into the older sounds of the 80s/90s.

Personally, I'm looking forward and trying to innovate and not do the same thing that's been done time and time again. I'm just not quite there yet.

Trust me your a lot futher ahead than me. It'll take me a while to get to your level or most others here!

[Marco Raaphorst]

here's a track I did to use effects to color the notes, which I like, but for me it's mostly notes:

[theshoemaker]

Brian Eno said recently something about the sounds these days which are so perfect and so easily accessible. Anyone OSX should be totally impressed with Garageband. Comes with extremely superb sounding patches. And so convient FX setups. It is so easy. Even on the iPhone.

Anyone can find the great sounds thesedays because we all have them. So it's no longer about the tools. You cannot impress anyone with a certain sound. So we're back to orginality, not in sound, but in melodies, chords, words, rhythm.

Too make my rant short: I try to limit myself. Scrolling though sounds is like scrolling through social media streams... endlessly. It's not about sound, it's about the other things. Of finding the "wrong" sounds and make them work in the track. Just randomly pick one and use it. Limit yourself. And keep thinking: a melody, harmony, a lyrics, is more important. Sound is just a preset. The other things are not.

Just my 5 cent

I like that attitude. Nostromo 2 is great! Click a button, get inspired. And even the new and free Rostnomo ... ah who saw the pun? .... is a great source of inspiration. Is there something like Random patch from Soundbank? Would be an awesome feature?

[groggy1]

My strategy for organizing patches is to use Combinator: Anytime I have a sound I like (even if it's just a single synth!), I'll "Combine" it, and then save the sound as a Combinator.

Then I save them to a set of subfolders I created (Arp, Bass, Lead, etc)
This then lets me have one consistent folder with all my favorite sounds: whether they're from particular Reason synths, or VSTs, or include effects.

[Innerst]

For inspiration limit yourself!

The project I am currently getting the most creative with consists of 5 tracks only:

- Redrum
- NNXT sampler
- The Legend analog synth
- Malstrom FX synth
- Audio track for guitar or vocal

It is easy to get lost in too many details in the beginning of a project.

Think of it like this: If you spend 90% of your time on a song or project with a limited setup like the above, you will be forced to get productive. The time spent on patch browsing and device-surfing is sometimes better used at sketching out ideas. Try not to think in terms of mixing and mastering before at the very end of your creative process. It is not so long ago when all music was created using very limited setups.

When on a limited setup I like to use Block Mode. That way you can quickly sketch out a number ideas and short recordings. All the blocks will then have a common feeling and theme and may fit together in larger blocks. Or you could take blocks out into Song Mode and work from there.

[normen]

My suggestion would be: Never mix patch browsing and making music, ever!

If you browse patches and be it just because you're bored - fill those preset folders! Add tags, make names, lists, whatever helps YOU to understand what the sound is by its label.

If you make music and need a sound DO NOT BROWSE! Just use something that is in the ballpark and play the tune! No - you don't need that sound for "inspiration" silly, you're a great musician either way - this isn't about making your audience cry, its about putting down that idea.

[pummelfee]

My suggestion would be: Never mix patch browsing and making music, ever!

If you browse patches and be it just because you're bored - fill those preset folders! Add tags, make names, lists, whatever helps YOU to understand what the sound is by its label.

If you make music and need a sound DO NOT BROWSE! Just use something that is in the ballpark and play the tune! No - you don't need that sound for "inspiration" silly, you're a great musician either way - this isn't about making your audience cry, its about putting down that idea.

You hit the nail on the head!!

[ralphonz]

What would be handy is an in-built tagging system, like you get with Alchemy in Logic, Native instruments synths or slate's ANA. Then it's easy; sounds are tagged with genres, feelings, instrument type, articulation etc... Then you can be like "I want a distorted, rhythmic, ambient, lead sound" (or whatever random combo you can think of!) and hey presto, you've got a list of them...

Reason desperately needs something like this for patch organisation, it's almost impossible to make music quickly unless you know the sound banks inside and out.

[Billy+]

What would be handy is an in-built tagging system, like you get with Alchemy in Logic, Native instruments synths or slate's ANA. Then it's easy; sounds are tagged with genres, feelings, instrument type, articulation etc... Then you can be like "I want a distorted, rhythmic, ambient, lead sound" (or whatever random combo you can think of!) and hey presto, you've got a list of them...

Reason desperately needs something like this for patch organisation, it's almost impossible to make music quickly unless you know the sound banks inside and out.

I thought this was the basis of companion,

You have genre based curated content packs that you can search for using tags. I don't know if the new browser and search feature supports this yet or ever will.

[Jagwah]

...if i fail, i browse...

[Auryn]

This isn't really that big of a problem...
step 1 Delete all refills that are not Quixotic Sound Design refills
step 2 ?
step 3 Profit!

No but really this was why I was (and am still) so baffled by RS's focus on weekly sound packs. There are now already over 200 I think, all of them packs of 10 or so sounds. That will just turn into a huge, unwieldy and oblique mass of sounds that is very hard to navigate. Most of the time when I was making my refills the biggest question for me was whether I shouldn't edit them down to fewer patches to improve accessibility. It was also often a struggle to implement some kind of category system since what I do when making patches is just look for unique timbres. Whether you want to use those as polysynths, basses, leads or even percussion is just up to you.

[Auryn]

Time consuming. I write down the name of anything that sounds 'analouge' and try memorize where it is in the factory soundbank! I dislike the new modern 'big' digital sound. Gives me headaches. Used to think it was just me but then i read about the loudness wars and its fairly common. I'm not an engineer or experienced mixer or anything vaguley like that but the track above just gives me a headache. Then again i guess i never grew out of that lovely analouge sound of ninties EDM such like of Leffield and Underworld... hard to recreate on a digital DAW.

Hmmm this comment also had me thinking a bit... it's not just that you can't recreate the 90ies electronica sound in modern DAWs (I think with a bit of work you can) but rather that the style/fashion of electronic music just changed. Most older releases from the 90ies (that I also dearly love) just have a less in-your-face style of composition and arrangement; for example, there is less focus on having big "drops". Many older 90ies classics don't even have drops at all, they just work their magic by slowly hypnotizing you. A lot of 90ies classics also aren't really bound very tightly around genre conventions, it's often even not very clear whether they're intended for the dancefloor or for the chillspace. (e.g. Storm 3000 by Leftfield, Papua New Guinea by FSOL etc etc).
These days my feeling is that tracks just get engineered for maximum impact, which often removes subtlety and nuance, and makes tracks harder to listen to just as a background music while you're riding the train or something.