Signature sound

[jaydot]

Alright we all know having one sets you apart from the rest. But can you over-dilute it to the point of all your tracks sounding the same? And then you have to decide how much to use and then it does'nt really become "your track"anymore.

What does everyone think?

[GothamHero]

I think it was James Blake who said this, but, "[try to] never start a track the same way twice". If you follow this rule, and you still have this presence of continuity in your tracks, then you have a signature sound.

If you're making a track and you amount to an identifiable niche, which makes people say "yeah, this was definitely made by jaydot", then that's all fine and good, but don't force it. Never just open up an old patch, reuse and try to recycle old sounds. That isn't a signature sound. A signature sound doesn't even have to be a distinctive patch sound, it can be the way it's used, and the way it sits in a track. What I'm saying is, if you don't set out to include your signature sound in your track, it will still be noticeable by your followers and might even make another signature sound; if you keep improving your sound, you will never lose your signature sound. You just won't. If there's a certain path you take when making a patch, that no one else takes, you will always have that little niche and it will be very noticeable. But that doesn't mean you can't switch it up, take a common path, and adapt that to your liking. If I had a penny for every House artist who created a signature style out of an old sample, I'd be moderately wealthy.

Reading that over, it looks confusing. Probably badly worded. Let me try again: never set out to recreate or include your signature sound in every track, don't force it on your fans. Let it gradually develop and become a style you are best known for. At the same time, remember your signature style isn't your only style. For you to succeed as a producer you have to be constantly reinventing yourself and experimenting. Switching up your style, sound, and performance can be a breath of fresh air for your followers. We love signature sounds and a bit of continuity, but sometimes, we just want to hear something completely new. It's just getting the right balance. Personally, I don't think about having a signature sound when I'm making tracks. I just go with the flow. If it happens, then it happens.

No thread about a signature sound is complete without an anecdote involving Skrillex. Skrillex, who has an obvious signature style, knows what he is doing in every patch. Hr knows how to achieve his bass sound, to the point he can easily improve and evolve it after every track. He recently lost his laptop, he had to remake a lot of those patches. It wasn't a problem. He knew what he was doing. But if you look at his choppy vocal signature sound, he has that in every track. Literally, every track. It's just a norm to his tracks. It's a good balance because if anyone was playing a Skrillex track in public, I could easily identify it as a Skrillex track, but I probably wouldn't be able to indentify the exact track name, unless it has an identifiable vocal sample or something.

Not sure if this answers your question, but you probably won't get this far down if it doesn't, so, butterscotch. Also, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Until somebody complains

[hasezwei]

No thread about a signature sound is complete without an anecdote involving Skrillex. Skrillex, who has an obvious signature style, knows what he is doing in every patch. Hr knows how to achieve his bass sound, to the point he can easily improve and evolve it after every track. He recently lost his laptop, he had to remake a lot of those patches. It wasn't a problem. He knew what he was doing.

actually spor/feed me made his bass sounds.

apart from that i agree with your post tho

[ChadDub]

Once you do producing or music in general for a while, you'll find the things that you usually gravitate towards. Like, after a while of trying to make brostep I realized that I hate producing it. Now I'm floating more towards some Smooth Jazz Fusion Bass Music style that I'm kind of making as I go along.

Just do you, and it'll work out.

[kikaruu]

IMHO: Another thing; signature sounds aren't always about timbre and tone, like Santana's guitar work or Fieldy's bass slapping. They can also be about feel and technique. Kromestar doesn't use the exact same hats in all of his tracks, but I could tell a track was made by Kromestar because of the way he patterns his hats. Reso's "Onslaught" and "Otacon" have very different bass patterns/synths, but they're both identifiable as something made by Reso. And the way you approach music has a wide bearing on how much of it is "you". Kevein Shields's, of My Bloody Valentine, approach is the same, even if all of the tracks and guitars sound different.

So, to sum, it's not just the sounds you use, but how you use them. Because it all comes together to make a sound, which should be you.

[hudson]

Yeah, if you're a musician, then it'll come naturally. The best way to suck is to force your signature sound. Just make tracks and it'll develop eventually, you probably won't even notice.

[-[2]DAY_-]

prob much to do with mixing

[the_agonist]

prob much to do with mixing

Indeed,

Putting aside the major differences that you clearly hear in different genre's and sub genre's...The mixdown and the room you are doing the mixdown in have more to do with it.

if you use a new patch/empty project each time, you will naturally gravitate towards frequencies that sound "right" or "good", but only good from where you are working from.

[hasezwei]

prob much to do with mixing

Indeed,

Putting aside the major differences that you clearly hear in different genre's and sub genre's...The mixdown and the room you are doing the mixdown in have more to do with it.

if you use a new patch/empty project each time, you will naturally gravitate towards frequencies that sound "right" or "good", but only good from where you are working from.

i think thats another reason why most new music sounds so same-y. everyone's using the same monitors following the same mixdown rules..

[Teknicyde]

No thread about a signature sound is complete without an anecdote involving Skrillex. Skrillex, who has an obvious signature style, knows what he is doing in every patch. Hr knows how to achieve his bass sound, to the point he can easily improve and evolve it after every track. He recently lost his laptop, he had to remake a lot of those patches. It wasn't a problem. He knew what he was doing.

actually spor/feed me made his bass sounds.

apart from that i agree with your post tho

Skrillex is an incredibly poor example... try Flying Lotus/Burial/Jeremiah Jae/Kode9/Ect... Signature sound means you dont sound like every other dubstep tune ever made. Being on your own thing entirely. SKrillex, just makes everything everyone else in dubstep/electro makes.

[ChadDub]

Fuckin love Flying Lotus.

[jaydot]

Skrillex's signature sound comes more from the way he uses vocals and lead sounds and melodies/certain drum patterns etc

His actual basses are not "that" unique imo from what I've heard., but he does have an overall strong signature sound.

[Teknicyde]

Skrillex's signature sound comes more from the way he uses vocals and lead sounds and melodies/certain drum patterns etc

His actual basses are not "that" unique imo from what I've heard., but he does have an overall strong signature sound.

But like, there is nothing that seperates his music, as a cohesive, whole, finished product from the rest of the dubstep and electro supergenres.

A signature sound isnt a certain bass patch, vocal processing, or anytihng like that. Its having EVERY element of your production be completely incomparable to other producers and disinctly recognizable as your own...

Like I said, Flying Lotus, Burial... These are signature sounds. Not a vocal chop in an otherwise genre-conforming tune.

Like, noone picks sounds like flylo, noone mixes down like flylo, noone has the whole general vibe he does, its all his own. Like, when you see him live, he plays all originals, because you couldnt name anything that fits in a set with his stuff.

[GothamHero]

Haha, a signature sound is anything that is easily identifiable, and a fixed niche a producer has. Like you said, it doesn't have to be a patch, but most of the times it is. Because face it, no producer sounds like Skrillex, there was no one that resembled Skrillex before Skrillex came. That it a pretty notable signature sound to me. I'm not saying it's good or bad, I'm saying Skrillex has a signature sound, as much as Burial has his own. They're both very recognizable and different.

But like, there is nothing that seperates his music, as a cohesive, whole, finished product from the rest of the dubstep and electro supergenres.

Signature sound means you dont sound like every other dubstep tune ever made

Haha what, so Skrillex sounds like everyone else? Hm.

You're letting your dislike of Skrillex cloud your common sense.

[Teknicyde]

Haha, a signature sound is anything that is easily identifiable, and a fixed niche a producer has. Like you said, it doesn't have to be a patch, but most of the times it is. Because face it, no producer sounds like Skrillex, there was no one that resembled Skrillex before Skrillex came. That it a pretty notable signature sound to me. I'm not saying it's good or bad, I'm saying Skrillex has a signature sound, as much as Burial has his own. They're both very recognizable and different.

But like, there is nothing that seperates his music, as a cohesive, whole, finished product from the rest of the dubstep and electro supergenres.

Signature sound means you dont sound like every other dubstep tune ever made

Haha what, so Skrillex sounds like everyone else? Hm.

You're letting your dislike of Skrillex cloud your common sense.

When did I say i disliked him, seriously? if someone had said any other typical dubstep artists name, my response would be the same. Nothing is clouding my common sense, I just think you guys are missing what a signature really is.

Im just saying I dont think anyone who fits into categories with other tunes can really be seen as having a signature sound... They can be good producers, but if you fit into categories and genres like that, I dont consider it being a signature, I consider it regular old production.

And I said it CANT be a patch or a certain technique, so, 'most of the time it is' tells me your missing what im saying. Your bass sound is not your signature, neither is your tempo, or your vocals, or w.e. its something completely intagible. And if you have a signature, you could work at a whole different tempo with a whole different soundset and id still identify it as you.

I think a signature sound has to be your own thing entirely, something that defies comparison, sounds completely unique to you, and doesnt depend on having a certain bass patch to make it sound unique, but rather builds up as the entire vibe. Then its a signature.

[Dystinkt]

I think this has been touched on before in earlier posts, but with the advent of things like youtube and the internet, its become hard to really sound unique these days. There's a tutorial to make pretty much every sound going now, and imo in the early days each producer was unique because of a certain production trick/technique which was a trade secret known only to them, but now knowledge of such techniques is commonplace therefore every wannabe skrillex can imitate his style with ease and rob him of his individuality.

[Teknicyde]

I think this has been touched on before in earlier posts, but with the advent of things like youtube and the internet, its become hard to really sound unique these days. There's a tutorial to make pretty much every sound going now, and imo in the early days each producer was unique because of a certain production trick/technique which was a trade secret known only to them, but now knowledge of such techniques is commonplace therefore every wannabe skrillex can imitate his style with ease and rob him of his individuality.

i have to agree with what you said about youtube but add this...

Back in the day, also, there wasnt really anyone online criticizing aspects of music which could be seen as creative... The internet has bread this idea that 'snare needs to be compressed like this' 'drums need to come up .2 db' ect... When way back in the early days, not only would people have had to learn synthesis, ect. by themselves, but they would have had to learn EVERYTHING, and apply there own morality to it.

Back in the day, there werent so many right ways and wrong ways. How-to videos, and stuff like that, have lead to a real right-way wrong-way attitude post-dnb

[mikeyp]

I think you create your signature sound without even trying, really. Certain patches and actual sounds aside, we all go about creating and putting things together differently because that's how you learned or that's what you like to do, and unless you go out of your way to make something completely different, I think you'll have your own sound in that way. that's just the way I look at it!

[ChadDub]

I think this has been touched on before in earlier posts, but with the advent of things like youtube and the internet, its become hard to really sound unique these days. There's a tutorial to make pretty much every sound going now, and imo in the early days each producer was unique because of a certain production trick/technique which was a trade secret known only to them, but now knowledge of such techniques is commonplace therefore every wannabe skrillex can imitate his style with ease and rob him of his individuality.

i have to agree with what you said about youtube but add this...

Back in the day, also, there wasnt really anyone online criticizing aspects of music which could be seen as creative... The internet has bread this idea that 'snare needs to be compressed like this' 'drums need to come up .2 db' ect... When way back in the early days, not only would people have had to learn synthesis, ect. by themselves, but they would have had to learn EVERYTHING, and apply there own morality to it.

Back in the day, there werent so many right ways and wrong ways. How-to videos, and stuff like that, have lead to a real right-way wrong-way attitude post-dnb

Yeah seriously. Once I get my monitors (so I know how my stuff actually sounds), I'm doing 100% me. If it sounds good it is good. I'm not going to go by the rule of drums always at this dB, sub at this, etc. Just straight up ears.

[RightOnTime27]

I think kromestar is a great example of this. Hell wishful thinking is in the 90bpm range and it sounds as kromestar as kalawanji. He's evolved but a kromestar track is instantly recognizeable