(dnb) Source Legend + Source Parsec

[MassiveSoundStudios]

These were my entries for both "The Legend" and "Parsec" Song Challenges. Thought I'd post them here for anyone into dnb to enjoy, comment, or criticize.

If you like these, feel free to follow me on SoundCloud. I have a couple more ideas that have been in the works for way too long.

I have a kind of OCD where all sounds need to be designed from scratch. To learn a new synth's capabilities, and add a bit of challenge, I'll stick with one synth only and create all sounds from instances of that device. Yes, sometimes I'll resample to save on CPU, and for better project organization. I seemed to develope an unreasonable aversion to using drum samples or presets. So, for that reason, I design all my drum and percussion sounds using the selected synth as well.






I hope some of you enjoy them

[aRiver]

Wow man, didnt know you were synthesizing all your percussion. Impressive. I really enjoy flow and feeling of rhythm in both of your songs, great percussion programming. I like Source Legend a lot, and imo out of two its seems more, for the lack of better word, developed. Parsec stuff sounds vocoded a bit (is it?).
Post it on doa dogs there will love it

[8cros]

We are children of the earth, it samples the sounds of our planet. Do not hesitate to use them. You good at synthesizing, but it is true for no reason. IMHO.

[MassiveSoundStudios]

Wow man, didnt know you were synthesizing all your percussion. Impressive. I really enjoy flow and feeling of rhythm in both of your songs, great percussion programming. I like Source Legend a lot, and imo out of two its seems more, for the lack of better word, developed. Parsec stuff sounds vocoded a bit (is it?).
Post it on doa dogs there will love it

Thanks Alex! That means a lot coming from you buddy, as I have a lot of respect and admiration for your style and sound design

You are right, Source Legend is more developed. I had more time to work on it and refine the arrangement and mixdown. I used pretty much the entire Song Challenge allotted time for that one. Since the Parsec Song Challenge overlapped with The Legend Challenge, and I was still working on "Source Legend", I wound up with less time than I would have liked to work on "Source Parsec". This means I wasn't able to refine it as much as I would have liked, but was still quite satisfied with the end result. I struggle a lot with Parsec's envelopes though, never really liked the shape, not snappy enough for me.

"Source Parsec" actually doesn't use any vocoding at all. I used a lot of the body/sync/fm/filter modifiers.

[MassiveSoundStudios]

We are children of the earth, it samples the sounds of our planet. Do not hesitate to use them. You good at synthesizing, but it is true for no reason. IMHO.

Thanks? I think I get what you're saying. I don't mind using samples and found sounds I recorded or developed myself. But, it feels like it's "cheating" and not "my own", if I'm using other people's samples or recordings. It also raises the question that other people can be using those exact same royalty free sounds from "said sample pack".

Sometimes I will use samples, but it "feels wrong". It's not logical, I know, and it doesn't make sense. The listener doesn't care what or how I used samples or presets, but in the end, it's the fact that I know I did, especially if it's music I'm making for myself.

Being on a time constrain and a paying gig is a different story. Then all that flies out the window, and I'll use whatever it takes to get the job done.

Thank you 8cros for taking the time to listen and comment it's very much appreciated!

[winkie]

Nice and to have done the drums with synths is cool. : ))

[MassiveSoundStudios]

Nice and to have done the drums with synths is cool. : ))

Thank you winkie

[Galaxy]

Interesting tracks. They are more dynamic and quieter compared to what you'll usually hear nowadays. Drums are very prominent, especially the kick. Sub bass is quite low and doesn't sound as full as it could be. If the decay of the kicks were shorter it might create more room for your basses that sit around it. The mix could be a tad wider in the highs too.

[MassiveSoundStudios]

Interesting tracks. They are more dynamic and quieter compared to what you'll usually hear nowadays. Drums are very prominent, especially the kick. Sub bass is quite low and doesn't sound as full as it could be. If the decay of the kicks were shorter it might create more room for your basses that sit around it. The mix could be a tad wider in the highs too.

Thank you for taking the time to give these tracks a listen! This is the exact kind of custructive criticism that can be extremely helpful.

[Galaxy]

np

[TritoneAddiction]

Great. I would love to see a tutorial on how you created the drums. They sound awesome, especially in the Legend song.
I'm trying to make all sounds with Legend now for my EP (One synth EP Challenge) and I have no idea how you managed to get those sounds out of it.
Would you mind sharing some tips?

[MassiveSoundStudios]

Great. I would love to see a tutorial on how you created the drums. They sound awesome, especially in the Legend song.
I'm trying to make all sounds with Legend now for my EP (One synth EP Challenge) and I have no idea how you managed to get those sounds out of it.
Would you mind sharing some tips?

Thank you for the kind words I really shoehorned those sounds out of The Legend, in particular. Some layering, EQ, filtering, distortion, and reverb to achieve some of those drums sounds. I've developed quite a method over the past few songs I worked on. Sometimes the patch I start with winds up sounding completely different once run through mixdown processing, especially the cymbals.

I don't have any tutorial capabilities at the moment, but I did save my patches and samples that I made during the Song Challenge (sadly my Legend trial expired, so I can't check the patches, but I did print samples). I would also have to save my drum insert fx, as they changed some of the sounds quite a bit.

Try to break a drum/percussion sound down into parts and think about how they would interact. A kick would have a deep pitch modulated low end for the 'thump', a frequency modulated mid tone for the 'knock', and a filtered noise burst for the 'click'. I could try to go into greater detail if you would like? I could also try and upload my Legend patches and samples to share as well?

[TritoneAddiction]

Great. I would love to see a tutorial on how you created the drums. They sound awesome, especially in the Legend song.
I'm trying to make all sounds with Legend now for my EP (One synth EP Challenge) and I have no idea how you managed to get those sounds out of it.
Would you mind sharing some tips?

Thank you for the kind words I really shoehorned those sounds out of The Legend, in particular. Some layering, EQ, filtering, distortion, and reverb to achieve some of those drums sounds. I've developed quite a method over the past few songs I worked on. Sometimes the patch I start with winds up sounding completely different once run through mixdown processing, especially the cymbals.

I don't have any tutorial capabilities at the moment, but I did save my patches and samples that I made during the Song Challenge (sadly my Legend trial expired, so I can't check the patches, but I did print samples). I would also have to save my drum insert fx, as they changed some of the sounds quite a bit.

Try to break a drum/percussion sound down into parts and think about how they would interact. A kick would have a deep pitch modulated low end for the 'thump', a frequency modulated mid tone for the 'knock', and a filtered noise burst for the 'click'. I could try to go into greater detail if you would like? I could also try and upload my Legend patches and samples to share as well?

Thanks, that's helpful. So layering and processing in addition to the sound from the synth itself. I did use some processing on the Legend song I did, disperser, EQ, compressor, reverb. But I got nowhere near the snappyness and tightness of your drums. Of course my song is totally different but it's still good to know about the possibilities to create sounds.
No need to upload the patches (for me at least), I appreciate though. I think it's best I just spend some time and play around with the stuff you mentioned. Thanks.

[Kov]

Good job!