Making sounds flow together nicely?

[EricAnthony]

Hey everyone,

This is a problem I've recently been faced with. I'm specifically referring to all the sounds in a drop. I put together growls followed by wobbles, etc. They sound good individually but when the track is played through, they all sound separated from each other and don't flow nicely; from growl to wobble to growl and so on. Any advice on how to mesh them together a bit more so they don't sound AS separated?

[webstarr]

You're best working on a tune as a whole rather than a set of individual elements and then sticking them together, when choosing sounds you have to think how they will compliment the rest of the tune and work with the other elements. This is gonna be more difficult if you're using sounds that take up a lot of frequencies like a lot of modern "dubstep" bass sounds, but if you work with the perspective of the whole track in mind when choosing/developing sounds it should fit together a lot easier.

[smile]

The way you stated your question it could be one of many things.

That said, it could be that you're not making good use of atmos, fx's, reverb and/or delay. Without them your track will seem empty and (quite literally) fall apart as there's nothing holding it together.

[Icetickle]

First of all you need to imagine the most of the drop in your head... at least the basses.
But if you like the sounds that you want to use in your drop already and they worked out in your imagination:

Match the volumes of the basses in the drop. After the volumes are quite the same, group all of the basses and put a gentle compression on the group (buss compression).

If you are applying the distortion, be sure that the amount of distortion is similar on the basses.
Don't forget to put some reverb on the basslines!

If still not working, try making a second bass from the first one and vice versa. Then it's gonna fit for sure!

[TheReptilianElite]

OK. I had this same problem and I will try to explain as best I can.

When starting a track (depending on how you start your tracks ie- I like to start with a simple beat), you want to bring in an instance of let's say Massive. Load up a sine wave or if you have sub bass presets made use that (although not recommended since they are of a way lower frequency and it's hard to grab that feeling/vibe of your song from something so basic sounding/and low for that matter!).

I like to loop my beat (typically 4 bars or so) and develop a bass riff for those 4 bars until I have something that I think will work well with multiple voicings (wobbles, distorted phrases, etc.) .

Once I have completed the basic foundation I will copy and paste that simple sine wave pattern into roughly 2 or 3 more separate tracks and start creating different bass sounds - be creative and make sure there is dynamics and complimentary sounds happening!

At this point we begin to start modulation and automation of different parameters of the separate bass tracks - also power edits are great here (make changes to your bass notes, lengths, pitch+ or -, etc.).

The most important thing next is to now split some frequencies so that your sounds are encompassing focused areas of your spectrum. Add gentle amounts of EQ (I prefer subtractive EQ). We can also start adding distortions, saturation, phasers, WOW filters, etc. to liking.

So now you've essentially stacked or layered multiple bass sounds for your beginning 4 bar looped section of your song. To make things even more interesting - repeat the whole process with a whole new group of sounds and keep that processes moving until you have an ample amount of sounds to choose from. Get rid of what you don't want or need or anything that takes away from your song. Try to have a sense of urgency in your song - Don't bore people. Make sure your beats have plenty of movement - YOU ARE MAKING DANCE MUSIC! PEOPLE NEED A BEAT TO DANCE!

Also, a great tip for even more excitement in your bass riff is to fill in your blank areas (where bass notes are not playing) with some wild sounds, FX, vocals, etc. This will be of use if you have gaps of sound - it will give your riffs more movement and act as a counterpoint to your MAIN RIFF!

Hope that helps.

[outbound]

I"ve stopped looking at trying to 'mesh' random sounds together. Instead I pick a 'core' sound and see how many different ways I can get it to sound.

Like if I were to play a guitar I could strum, play single notes, string bend, vibrato, dive bomb, harmonics etc there are so many ways you can 'phrase' it. Same with a bass sound, filter, different patterns, different modulations. even if it comes from different sources try to think of it as one instrument that you are playing in different ways.

[mthrfnk]

I"ve stopped looking at trying to 'mesh' random sounds together. Instead I pick a 'core' sound and see how many different ways I can get it to sound.

Like if I were to play a guitar I could strum, play single notes, string bend, vibrato, dive bomb, harmonics etc there are so many ways you can 'phrase' it. Same with a bass sound, filter, different patterns, different modulations. even if it comes from different sources try to think of it as one instrument that you are playing in different ways.

Exactly this... I do it with synths all the time things like vibrato/pitch bends/filtering can make the same sound... sound different and adds nice musical variation to a track rather than trying to use totally different sounds.

The bussing/comp/reverb idea Icetickle mentioned is also good though for blending elements.

[TheReptilianElite]

AGREE WITH ALL POSTS AFTER MINE. I failed to mention it is easier and more cohesive when you create a single GREAT/BIG sounding sound and when layering maybe toss a 2nd Oscillator on with pitch bend, tremolo, distortion, etc.

Great catch and good call by all!

[EricAnthony]

First of all you need to imagine the most of the drop in your head... at least the basses.
But if you like the sounds that you want to use in your drop already and they worked out in your imagination:

Match the volumes of the basses in the drop. After the volumes are quite the same, group all of the basses and put a gentle compression on the group (buss compression).

If you are applying the distortion, be sure that the amount of distortion is similar on the basses.
Don't forget to put some reverb on the basslines!

If still not working, try making a second bass from the first one and vice versa. Then it's gonna fit for sure!

OK. I had this same problem and I will try to explain as best I can.

When starting a track (depending on how you start your tracks ie- I like to start with a simple beat), you want to bring in an instance of let's say Massive. Load up a sine wave or if you have sub bass presets made use that (although not recommended since they are of a way lower frequency and it's hard to grab that feeling/vibe of your song from something so basic sounding/and low for that matter!).

I like to loop my beat (typically 4 bars or so) and develop a bass riff for those 4 bars until I have something that I think will work well with multiple voicings (wobbles, distorted phrases, etc.)..............

I usually produce each section of the track in chronological order. This way I can start with how I want the listener to feel during the intro and control how I want the song to progress as it leads up to the drop. I also find this handy because when I finally do get to the drop, I have a clear idea of how i want it to sound (based on the intro, build up etc. ). With this being said, I'll concentrate more on the technical aspects (compression, eqing etc.) @TheReptilianElite, I'll be sure to give this a try and see where it takes me.

I"ve stopped looking at trying to 'mesh' random sounds together. Instead I pick a 'core' sound and see how many different ways I can get it to sound.

Like if I were to play a guitar I could strum, play single notes, string bend, vibrato, dive bomb, harmonics etc there are so many ways you can 'phrase' it. Same with a bass sound, filter, different patterns, different modulations. even if it comes from different sources try to think of it as one instrument that you are playing in different ways.

I've never looked at it from this perspective. Finding a 'core' sound and writing variations of it throughout the drop seems like a great way to do it. But there's only so much you can do with one sound right? Should every sound I chose be related in some way to the 'core' sound?

[Icetickle]

No, not every sound should be related to the "core" sound.
You don't even need to do that with basslines, but it's the easier way to fix your problem.

[bouncingfish]

OK. I had this same problem and I will try to explain as best I can.

When starting a track (depending on how you start your tracks ie- I like to start with a simple beat), you want to bring in an instance of let's say Massive. Load up a sine wave or if you have sub bass presets made use that (although not recommended since they are of a way lower frequency and it's hard to grab that feeling/vibe of your song from something so basic sounding/and low for that matter!).

I like to loop my beat (typically 4 bars or so) and develop a bass riff for those 4 bars until I have something that I think will work well with multiple voicings (wobbles, distorted phrases, etc.) .

Once I have completed the basic foundation I will copy and paste that simple sine wave pattern into roughly 2 or 3 more separate tracks and start creating different bass sounds

This is the stuff!
Saw this video with flux pavilion and since then that's how I do it. It's really great, I tend to get stuck with sounds that don't fit if I start with the sound design. Some people hate him over here but I like his tunes, and this video really helped me when I first watched it. He said, like you, that he starts with making the melodies (with saw waves) and then get into the sound design after that:

[TheReptilianElite]

I'd say it's because when you are using completely different patches and for probably an entire drop you're alternating them consistently (I've seen up to 30-40 different tracks) you will have a hard time staying consistent in sound.

It's all about your bass processing. Really. There are so many helpful hints and knowledge I don't mind sharing to tell you exactly what I mean. I make full songs out of 1-3 resampled bass sounds with different processing on each.

Than of course I use ancillary instrumentation to carry the songs further (synths, fills, drums, etc.)

I would definitely consider looking into bass processing and not trying to blow your music up with tons of patches. I'm only guessing that that is the case here, as that was once my problem too.

[TheReptilianElite]

OK cool disregard the above message, I didn't realize I already responded to this post.

Also, that's really cool with the Flux interview! I'm telling you - ITS THE WAY TO GO!

SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE!

And I think I know where another poster was going with focusing on a core sound. You definitely can do that - create 1-3 massive patches and just do all sorts of insanity with processing - resample them, etc. GO NUTS!

Possibilities are endless...
But since I responded, any luck?