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I just recently got into trying to make electronic music and selecting sounds is really hanging me up. I'll pick out drum sounds I like and make some patterns easy enough, but then choosing which instruments to put over it is a complete mental block. I'll start sorting through synths in reason and an hour later be no further along in my song than when I started. Also, once I have found something I think i like, tweaking that sound with effects and eq is another process altogether that completely manipulates that original sound...With so many sounds available, how do you narrow it down to just a few to incorporate into a song?

take a step back and think about what you want to create. listen to some music outside of the style you want to write, listen to mixes of stuff that you like, seek inspiration-- THEN write.

writing without inspiration is a slippery slope, you can often end up just chasing your tail. There's lots of threads on writer's block here-- check out some people's ideas on how to get out of a rut, and then go for it!

Welcome to life.



Sorry- not to be a dick... but what you are trying to find out is what everyone does on a daily basis. No easy "paint-by-numbers" solution.

I have been doing this for years, and all I can say is that I have countless gigs of samples (both 'found' and created/recorded myself) ready to be put into songs, but at the end of the day it is trial and error. Some I try over and over and over and over again to work into tracks - yet they never quite make it... but on the other hand, there are other samples or synth patches that just work right away. No way of explaining it other than - if you want to make music, it rarely happens immediately. You got to get dirty if you want to make something clean.


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just experiment man, see what works.

be playful and dont be afraid to make mistakes at first you learn from them.

I had the same problem when I started, everyone does, but keep trying new things and persevere the results are worth it.

it depends how you make music dude, if you get an idea of what you want before you even touch your synths you many have a tough time recreating what you have in ur head, i tend now to have a melody but not a specific sound of what i want in my head, then i will play about with some presets to get something i sounds nice, then build from there, its more productive to sacrifice a sound that you originally had and build on something else that sounds good if you have issues with making something sound like you want. nahmean!

Something I like doing is to get a sound down for the midi data, then if the sound isint doing it for you cycle thru some new patches as it's playing.

ninjadog wrote:Something I like doing is to get a sound down for the midi data, then if the sound isint doing it for you cycle thru some new patches as it's playing.

yep

As homie was saying up there, there are 2 basic ways to do this.

One, you can play around and just totally go crazy, just follow the song, see what sounds you've used, see what they need. This way is sort of throwing the map out the window, and you'll find it when you get there.

Or you can really have an idea in your head to start off with, and everything you do is in furtherance of that idea. If you can have really full complex musical ideas in your head, I think this is an extremely powerful and efficient way to work. When you think of classical composers, and their ability to imagine music, it's f'ing amazing. I'd give the US GDP for a couple of years to see Mozart with a full sample library and five or six deep synths.

I don't do that. I'm a jammer. I go wherever the song is going... which is usually no where.

I too am totally flustered by the amount of choice that is out there. Totally does me in sometimes.

When you are choosing sounds, don't just choose sounds that you think are cool. Choose sound that fit together... low kick, high bass, low bass, high kick etc.

I have 10,000 snare samples that I like. I have about 8 that will fit into any particular track. Find what is cool, but find what fits.

limit yourself - e.g. try to use only one vst plugin.. it may stimualte you