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Complextro question

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:09 pm
by invictus
Hey, so I kinda started a couple electro/complextro/whatevro projects where sounds cross over each other, but I don't know how to make it sound more natural, 'cause for now it sounds artificial, all the sounds end right where the steps end. How to get that kinda natural vibe into it? Sidechaining maybe? if so, then how? :D

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:44 pm
by ScarletCyanide
Inb4 flamed for making a thread related to Skrillex. :corndance:

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:53 pm
by JTMMusicuk
invictus wrote:whatevro

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:05 pm
by siperdellyeer
invictus wrote:Hey, so I kinda started a couple electro/complextro/whatevro projects where sounds cross over each other, but I don't know how to make it sound more natural, 'cause for now it sounds artificial, all the sounds end right where the steps end. How to get that kinda natural vibe into it? Sidechaining maybe? if so, then how? :D
maybe soften up the realese and attack a bit

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:07 am
by Earjax
Not many people over here produce complextro man, you'd be better off asking on doa or idmf

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 2:53 am
by VirtualMark
This might help:






Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 3:37 am
by wormcode
'Complextro' is probably the best worst term yet for a type of music haha.

I thought that style prided itself on sounding digital and artificial? I've not heard any that sounded the opposite.

And yes, sidechaining as well as all other types of compression is key.

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:19 pm
by DJens
the tutorials are good imo
try creating a bassline which is not to complex at all just with the same synth with just another modulation for each step between the kicks. for example:
1st kick: saw
2nd kick / snare: same saw with a pitchbend or a lfo modulated filter
3rd kick: faster lfo or pitch bend in the opposite direction
4th kick / snare: some other shit

and after this basic arrangement is done try putting other synths, for example some lead kinda ones, between your drums and your standart-synth.

I hope you can follow this cause my written english isn't as good as when I read :roll:

also check out the track in my sig - it's not the best example maybe but that was the concept I followed when making this tune!

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:28 pm
by VirtualMark
That's not a bad tune djens, did you keep all the different sounds in the same note?

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:55 pm
by Sine69
I hate the term complextro, can't we just call it electro house or something? Sounds much less silly :lol:

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:01 pm
by Basic A
Sine69 wrote:I hate the term complextro, can't we just call it electro house or something? Sounds much less silly :lol:
Electrofilth.

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:03 am
by DJens
VirtualMark wrote:That's not a bad tune djens, did you keep all the different sounds in the same note?
thanks! and yeah, kept all elements of the drop in e

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:41 am
by Fbac
DJens wrote:
VirtualMark wrote:That's not a bad tune djens, did you keep all the different sounds in the same note?
thanks! and yeah, kept all elements of the drop in e
e? why? care to elaborate more? (not big on my music thory so could be an obvious comment, thinking maybe subbass related (as in the layerd sub underneath hitting at e is good)

As for organic, as posted above complextro/ electro house by nature is synthetic. Maybe try a deepdub complextro tune... Using sampled strings and oboes but with filters on them modded by lfo, or flangers on them with the rate moddutalted. (just an idea) Pitchbend some distorted flutes lol


p.s Does this styles low end come from the Kick or subbass? or does it vary from track to track.

Computer music did a section on it,, but if i remmember it wasnt that useful.

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:57 am
by VirtualMark
Fbac - from what i gather, a lot of the movement in complextro comes from using lots of different synth patches rather than having a complex melody. he goes into it more in the tutorial, quite interesting. i might have a go at making complextro, as in a way its similar to dubstep - stringing together lots of different basses.

Usually with house you have a deeper kick, but also a bit of sub in the lead. Trick is to make sure the sub doesn't clash with the kick, which is why tuning kicks is important in house. Not so important in dnb and dubstep as the kick is usually high passed a bit more. Of course there's always exceptions to these rules, just giving advice from what i've learned so far.

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:36 pm
by darkartois
If you are using ableton, follow actions will help glue all you basslines together :D

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:19 pm
by DJens
with E I ment the key and I used it cause my sub seems to hit the hardest on E0. and in the track in my sig I didn't highpassed my kick but I encreased the attack of my subbass so it hits right after the kick but I think I could mess around with some sidechaining so it gets a nice electrohouse pumping bass in it... will have to try it some time soon!

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:16 am
by rymebox
what you DON'T want to do is just use as many random synth hits as possible. only pick ones that work really well together. makes a difference than saying 'yeah i put 100 one hits into my track and i'm calling it complextro because the synth sound changes every 16th note

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:42 am
by daeMTHAFKNkim
Go to my sig song and click @2:12. It switches up to some complextro I think. What I did is just make a melody with a default Massive preset or synth. Then replace parts of the same notes/melody with different massive patches I made/used some effects/glitched it up.

Keep it interesting with notes and don't make it dull.

P.S the whole complextro section I fucked up with the mixing and the EQ on the wobbles sound like shit.

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:56 am
by VirtualMark
rymebox wrote:what you DON'T want to do is just use as many random synth hits as possible. only pick ones that work really well together. makes a difference than saying 'yeah i put 100 one hits into my track and i'm calling it complextro because the synth sound changes every 16th note
And using only one patch with dblue glitch on it is just cheating! :lol:

Re: Complextro question

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:17 am
by Leave Blank
DO you know what sounds much much better than this whole complextro shit? Subtlety and intricacy. COmplextro is such a contradiction. It is just horrible glitched acidy synths with generic percussion, nothing overly complex about it. Try and build a subtle percussion based track where the percussion constantly evolves in a delicate way, much more complex and interesting to listen to.
But yeah, a golden bit of advice was given earlier: play with adsr.
add slide and/or portamento to the notes, end the notes slightly before the next note triggers to prevent nasty overlaps.

hope that helped and didn't sound too condescending.