community.pirate.com

My First Beat

Feedback room
#1

Looking for advice on my first beat i made any tips would be greatly appreciated https://soundcloud.com/karmaone42/first-beat

6 Likes
Our favourite contributions so far - ÂŁ10 studio credit on us
#2

Nice vibe, I really see what you’re aiming for! A personal thing i’d suggest is to maybe replace that piano with another piano VST (I mean, it could be a real piano for all I know) that sounds a little more “realistic”. Keep it up!

1 Like
#3

For a first attempt at creating a beat this is really great! Are you using GarageBand?

One thing I used to do a lot when starting out is layer up a melody with a few different instruments all following the same notes. You can start to land on some really interesting sounds that way and avoid things sounding too clinical. I’d try experimenting with the piano melodies and add a few things in the mix to see what sticks.

Also, have a play around with velocity levels on the drums to add some variation on the hits - this can help to make them sound a little more human and also accentuate some of those bass notes.

Overall, I love the vibe and am interested to hear where you take it!

1 Like
#4

Hi karma I agree with Oblong about the piano would be better served with an instrument sound that sounds more realistic…but more importantly I agree with Dan…pretty awesome for a first beat, well done!

Also try panning the piano to the right to match the pan balance of the synth line on the left and adjust it’s volume level so it the same level as the synth.

Since these two lines seem to be playing off each other it will help give them their own space and they’ll interact better.

Like the portamento slide bass but maybe try using some side chain compression to duck it for the kick drum hits. Would also be cool to put a double bass sample over the top of this in parts just playing a couple of notes.

Looking forward to hearing this as you work on it more!

3 Likes
#5

Thanks for your feedback Dan! Im using FL Studio, Ill have a look and mess about with some stuff and ill let you know how I get on!

#6

Thanks mate, I added a “Stage Piano” to it and it makes it sound 10x better its alot more out there!

#7

Thanks for the feedback! I changed the piano to a “Stage Piano” it made it sound so much better!

#8

Nice one!

#9

https://soundcloud.com/karmaone42/first_beat-improved?ref=clipboard&p=a&c=1 this is an improved version of the song

1 Like
#10

Nicer Piano sound for sure! but I would still pull it back in the mix and pan a bit to the right.

Also if you can set up an auxilary reverb channel with a long decay on the reverb (reverb mix to 100% on the plugin) and send the piano signal to that it will help sit the piano in the mix better and also give you some phantom piano sound in the centre even though you’ve panned the main signal to the right…give it a shot and see how it fits.

There’s an interesting way of mixing called LCR mixing (Left Center Right) where you pan your master fader all the way to the right and mix what you hear there so that it’s balanced. Then you pan your master fader to left, (touch nothing that you’ve balanced on the right) and then balance what you hear on the left side.

It’s quite useful when there are more things in your mix to contend with but a great way of balancing your left and right when you get into the technique.

Really liking the drum treatment you’ve got on this now as well, the tracks coming along nicely, good work!

#11

Cheers @Pirate_Gareth!

@Karma, if you want a bit more info on some of the information Gareth has provided above, I’ve found a couple of resources that might help.

Using the “LCR” Panning Approach for Wider Mixes: http://bit.ly/LCRmixing
What is LCR Panning in Mixing?: http://bit.ly/LCRtutorial

Production terminology can be very daunting, so if anything is unclear or you have any further questions, please just ask! More than happy to help out however we can.

#12

Hey @Karma congrats on your first beat :boom: there’s already a bunch of sound production advice here so i’ll throw in my thoughts on progressing.

My advice would be to take the musical idea you’ve established here and flesh it out in to a complete arrangement. Early on producers get trapped into this workflow where they good at creating 16 bar loop ideas but never manage to finish any songs, this can become ingrained in you and become a very difficult habit to break.

This doesn’t have to be complicated either like whats a standard beat arrangement? Intro > Hook > Verse > Hook > Verse > Break > Hook > Outro. Take your idea and compare it against a beat you like (thinking about the arrangement, not the production quality) and use that as a template to finish your song idea. As you get better you’ll be able to make more unique flourishes to your arrangement, but imitation is a great way to learn.

In summary, your ability to write a good song will take you much further in your journey, and the action of finishing and creating good songs takes mindfulness and intention in practice, always make it your goal to walk away from a session with a song and not just loops that sonically sound polished.

Here are two final thoughts to be mindful of:

  1. The foundations of a great mix is an excellent arrangement
  2. A well written song with a worse mix gets more listeners than a poorly written song with great production. At the end of the day it’s all about capturing and conveying an emotion to another person.

Congrats again on making your first one, starting is always the hardest part, hyped for your journey and hearing what you create! :rocket:

3 Likes
Harpsichord intro/build up sketch thingymajig
#13

@faisal_pirate

This —> “1. A well written song with a worse mix gets more listeners than a poorly written song with great production. At the end of the day it’s all about capturing and conveying an emotion to another person.”

Sage advice, we all could do with remembering!!!

2 Likes
#14

@Pirate_Gareth definitely - always got to be thinking “Music by any means necessary!”

#15

Hey @Karma - how’s the beat coming along? Made any further progress? Would love to hear it if so!

1 Like
#16

Hey @Karma,
Good stab at a first track, has got a lot of potential. I’ve only been producing for less than a year myself. It’s a steep learning curve, but absolutely love it. There’s so much out there to help get started and I’ve been trying all sorts. If I look back over the last year, the most important things I’ve done to improve my game are:

  • I spent ÂŁ170 on a masterclass.com membership for the year. There are whole courses by the likes of deadmau5, Armin van Buuren and Timbaland. Even if you don’t like their music, they take you into great detail on technique and how things are done to sound better. From the little details that make all the difference, to the basics of building up a song from a simple idea to full composition. I ummed and arred for a while, because the cost is quite high, but I would say that’s some of the best money I’ve spent in the last year by far. It will speed up your progress massively.

  • Second tip is filling out a song and making it more varied and complete. There are tools out there to really help with this. I would highly recommend buying Cthulhu from https://xferrecords.com/products/cthulhu
    This is 2 tools in one. An arpegiator and a chord builder. For example, you could take a copy of the melody you have going over the whole song, whack Cthulhu on it in chords mode, the send out the midi to another track with a nice soft synth instrument on it or some pads even.
    It will generate the whole chords, which then you can take the bottom notes off and use those as bass notes with another midi instrument.
    Once you’re done with chords, copy them again to another track, and maybe just a part of the whole song, where you want some lead, leave only the high notes or mid notes and whack Cthulhu on there again, this time in arp mode, with chords turned off, play around with the various settings until you’re vaguely happy and record it as new midi to another track. Whack Serum or something on it again and pick a nice lead/stabby/plucky sound on there. Watch it really pop.

  • While on the subject of midi instruments, I’ve purchased a bunch: Serum, Massive X, UVI and loads more. By far Serum sticks out as the easiest to use, and most versatile, and comes with some pretty good presets already.

  • Reverb is always a winner for bringing out sounds some more too (don’t overdo it - a little is a lot in the world of reverb, I would never really go over 20% setting unless there was a really good reason). Again, there are a lot of reverb tools out there, but Valhalla Room is bloody amazing. Remember, when using reverb, it is essentially spreading your sounds out across the frequency spectrum and muddying it out, some of those sounds will clash with others and it’ll sound disgusting…

  • Space for your sounds!
    Once you’ve taken all of the above into consideration, you’ll need to carve out more space for some of these sounds so they can all breathe easier and shine where they need to. Two things needed for this: EQ, good mixing and sometimes a bit of compression (I’ll come to that in a bit).
    For EQ, there will probably be a tool in FL Studio for this already, but if you’re feeling flush, I’d shell out on Fab Filter Pro Q3 - it’s the best thing out there for EQing bar none! Watch some youtube videos, really learn how to use it and make the most of it. EG, on the master track, cut off everything below 20hz (it’s inaudible and even on the worlds biggest subs, won’t give you much extra).
    Where the bass and kick drums clash, minimise these clashes by letting one shine through over the other - you can also use (sidechaining - again youtube this), and also LfoTool also by XferRecords if you can afford any more VSTs. I built up my collection slowly over the course of they year, production can get quite expensive, but focus on the most useful tools first.

  • Mixing and volumes, there’s no right answer with this - you’ll get used to doing it by ear eventually, but I always find a good place to start is like this: Kick drums, set them to -10 or -12 db, Snare similar, Hats, -14, Bass, -9 or -10, Keyboards and vocals between -5 and -7 db. All of these can then be adjusted as required if some are clearly taking over from everything else.

  • Lastly, you may be asking - why does my mix sound so much quieter than others out there? The answer is almost always compression. Again, there is a lot to learn around the techniques for compression, but it is a very powerful tool. If you’re going to use it, first put a “Limiter” on your master channel and set it to about -0.3db at the absolute maximum! L1 Ultraximiser and L2 by Waves Audio are great at this, but again, you may already have some tools built into FL Studio which basically do the same thing (I don’t know FL Studio, I use Ableton, but same principles apply).

  • Ooh sorry, one more thing. Drums… to make your drums sound fatter there are a few things you can do. Often we utilise multiple tracks for each kick - eg a tinny one, a mid kick, a hard kick and a sub kick. Use EQ on all on them, so each part shines out where you can hear it most. This will give the illusion of a better thud on all different kinds of speakers from crappy headphones, to a decent club PA. Also SoundToys Decaptator is yet another really nice plugin which can help it give it that little extra something,

Really hope this helps. Maybe we should start a “how-to” section on the site? Lol :wink:

Happy producing buddy!

3 Likes
#17

This is a fantastic post - thanks @artyfact! Will throw some extra credit into your Pirate account for this one :sunglasses:

We’ve got a mixing tips thread and a beginners AMA thread over in Production & Recording. Feel free to create a thread over there too if you have some specific How To tips to share!

1 Like
#18

Ah nice one @Dan_Pirate. Much appreciated - will make good use of it shortly.

Will check out the other section and see if we can pad it out a bit :wink:

#19

Hey @artyfact @Dan_Pirate I stopped working on that track and started working on a new one https://soundcloud.com/karmaone42/untitiled-wip this is what I have so far, I’m really proud of this one for being a second track I think I’ve improved a lot! and @artyfact thanks so much for all that information that will come in handy so much!

1 Like
#20

Hey mate - just listening to this second one you posted - such a huge improvement already! Levels going up :chart_with_upwards_trend: :chart_with_upwards_trend:

One suggestion (from a listener’s point of view, cause I think you’re already a better producer than me lol) - the progression of the track was super nice, and maybe you could build on that by adding (even) more variation to the drum patterns? Some rogue percs in there, for example, might really spice it up. Seriously though - woi! Rapid progression :zap: :zap:

1 Like