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I'm working on a track, and using my first ever "supersaw". I'm wanting the supersaw to be the main bass, but I have no idea how to arrange absolutely anything. I can get the supersaw down and such, but comparing it to tracks by artists like Seven Lions and Singularity, my arrangement is dull, boring, and to be fair, shit. I've heard that a lot of big names resample their super saws to hell and back to get them to sound elegant and beautiful, but why resample just to get a good arrangement, other than chopping and arranging? I feel like the answer is literally right in front of my face and right at my fingertips, but it is all going straight over my head.

resampling is a sound design process

arrangement is a musical process.

Anyone can make a good sound, but not many can make a good tune. It's just time and patience that will eventually teach you how to arrange a song into something beautiful.

Also, any tips on barebones arrangement for a song that will have vocals? I've never used vocals in a track, let alone collaborate with a living vocalis, so I'm a bit lost.

Stop being so technical.. if it sounds pleasant to your ears, then what else should matter?

True, but it's hard to begin to get it to sound good to my ears without a bit of guidance.

This reads like one of those threads where someone who's been producing for 2 months wonders why they're not amazing at making music yet. When was the last time you saw someone master guitar in a short span? Or drums? Or flute even? Just because you're using a computer doesn't mean you don't have to actually learn anything about music.

You can build a pretty basic arrangement without too much effort. You know, the same ABABCB that's in every pop and rock song? It can be that hard to say "okay I have this section here, now I think I'm going to have a different section that's similar but different in certain ways" Just mark off little sections in your arrange view in multiples of 16 or 32 bars and fill them with shit. If it's too boring and static, change more shit over time. If it's too hectic and disjointed, change less shit over time.

Just jam on your keyboard until you have a few different variations on a theme and then arrange them in a sensible order.

SunkLo wrote:This reads like one of those threads where someone who's been producing for 2 months wonders why they're not amazing at making music yet.

I feel like one now that I look back at this post considering I posted it half-asleep.

Just keep practicing, a year ago I never thought I'd ever be able to do what I can do now, be sure to keep old projects so you can track your progress and see how much you're improving with time. That said, be careful taking advice from everyone, if someone says to always boost something at a certain frequency or whatever and they say it as gospel be sure to check out their music first, they may have no idea what they're talking about. Ultimately if it sounds good in the end, that's all that matters who cares if you had to compress and distort something 10 times to get it sounding right.

If your supersaw is sounding dull you could try using a reverb as a dimension expander. Adding a little delay will give it a bit of space and stop it sounding so flat. Also effects like Chorus Flanger and Phaser can give life to a sound. Another thing to try is duplicating the track, putting one slightly out of time by a few milliseconds and then panning them. This can give a dull sound loads of weight and convert a boring mono sound into a fat stereo sound.

bassbum wrote:Another thing to try is duplicating the track, putting one slightly out of time by a few milliseconds and then panning them. This can give a dull sound loads of weight and convert a boring mono sound into a fat stereo sound.

Great advice OP

Are you saying the main "bass" meaning main sound or that you won't have a bassline?

As someone who has focused on supersaws for literally months:

-DETUNE PROPERLY: sounds stupid but you'd be surprised how many people don't do this...
-supersaws need multiple layers.. And a bass line.. Vibrato styled bass and/or groaning styled, and then the supersaw spanned over a few highs and lows.
-cut all eq on the supersaw itself on the low end, cut the uppermids a bit (2k-4k)
-COMPRESS

Changing up the osc could add a nice change of effects, also keep in mind a dimension expander is actually a form of a delay, and try a delay synced to give a nice new feel

you need to find better wood to saw through

Booo!!!

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Capture pt wrote:resampling is a sound design process

arrangement is a musical process.

Unnecessary distinction, and mostly not true.

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Crimsonghost wrote:Anyone can make a good sound, but not many can make a good tune.

I don't see this as being true either. I don't hear a lot of interesting sounds around here or on soundcloud. I do hear them, but not a lot of them. Imo, a lot of people, that should be (and probably are) trying, can't make interesting sounds.

So instead I guess it's: "Not many can make a good sound, even less can make a good tune."



Well, that's depressing.

Yes, but there are people who can make a good song who can't make interesting sounds. Everybody is everywhere.

SunkLo wrote:So instead I guess it's: "Not many can make a good sound, even less can make a good tune."

That was exactly the quote that came to mind when I read that statement. Great minds?



Alright, okay minds? Good, even?


Dub Fiend