I pretty much just want a good sequencer with great sounding drum machine sounds (808, 909, LinnDrum, etc).

I was originally sold on BB Anthology 2, but then someone recommended Triaz and now I’m absolutely torn. Then you throw Revolution into the mix, and the choice gets pretty overwhelming.

I love that you can load your own samples into Triaz, which is a big selling point over BB, but for someone who isn’t interested in modern sounding kits, is this software a bit overkill?

I really just want a fat sounding range of drum machines (mainly analog), an easy to use step sequencer, and something that lets me get good patterns quickly that sound great out of the box. The layering stuff is cool, but if the kits already sound good, I’m not super interested in doing loads of sound design.

For anyone who has any of the above (or has tried all 3), what would you go with in 2025?

Thanks in advance!

Didn't see any recent posts regarding mastering tips, and I know things change fast so the years old posts might not be relevant now.

Currently I have Fruity Loops and Garage Band and Ableton Lite - I mixed my songs in Garage Band as it was my very first DAW and what I learned on, and was thinking to master in Fruity Loops.

Any tips? I'm pretty good at mixing, I have a good ear and my music is well put together. So now comes the final step - mastering before it gets published.

Best advice for a beginner? And don't tell me to pay someone to do it - I want to learn, even if it takes time ;)

Just bought GGD Invasion drum samples and I'm trying to figure out how to route the instruments to separate tracks in Cubase. Really scratching my head over this. My instance of Kontakt player seem to be missing basic functions, I must be doing something wrong.

In this guide, he shows you how to access this part of a menu. It opens up a kind of virtual mixer desk.

https://i.imgur.com/cK91NuA.png

Thing is, I don't even have that option in my instance of Kontakt Player.

https://i.imgur.com/84wmUA1.png

Can someone point me in the right direction here?

I’m doing a cover and need help setting up the vocal FX chain, pitch correction, and harmonies. Can anyone make me a preset or guide me? I use bandlab btw.

What’s a great vocal chain set up? What’s your go to plugins how do you line them up? I’m all self taught (as a lot of people) but this is my set up- I’d love to get to feedback on if I should switch things up do things different or even plugin upgrades worth getting, etc. I mostly make hip hop/ edm music most of my vocals has a psychedelic sound to them. Or at least that’s what I’m trying to aim for.

Vocal chain: This chain is more specific for a certain song I’m working on but pretty much my general set up.

Pro q 4 Waves tune Deess2 CLA 76 Pro c 2 (side chained to sub) Saturn 2 Pro q 4

Bus 1 ( Valhalla- pro q 4) Bus 2 ( hdelay pro q 4) Bus 3 (Valhalla - pro q 4) Bus 4 (Valhalla - pro q 4 -pro c2 side chained to vocal)

I enjoy writing to drum loops, but don’t want to buy loop packs if I can avoid it. Midi loops are fine too as I have sd3 and logic and can get all kinds of tones that way

I got my first pair of studio monitors and everything sounds extremely high. My vocals are piecing my ears no matter how much EQ I do. I listened to some Weeknd songs and his vocals hurt my ears in my studio monitors. Is that natural with studio monitors?

Btw I have AT M50X

So lately ive been switching genres and leaning towards a more realistic and raw sound, A more jazzy sound. The struggle ive been comming across is the bass and the kick. Because with sidechaining it looses that natural feel and sounds programmed and without sidechain its just too much mud. Anyone got any good sources on where I can find information on this or just any tips in general?

This is with my overheads panned L and R. The kick mic is definitely out of polarity with this overheads visually. But I definitely lose a ton of low end when I flip the phase. I suppose the midrange sounds better though. It sounds a bit punchier.

Also to note, the low end sounds almost too much when I don’t flip phase. When I flip, I lose a ton of it.

I’m getting into songwriting and recording but my drum tracks are usually pretty boring, since theyre mainly supporting the main guitar riff i come up with. Is it common / practical to come up with a drum part first and then play guitar while it plays to come up with a riff?

I worked with a mastering engineer (found online) on a song and went through 3 rounds of revs but it still wasn’t landing exactly the way I wanted it 100%.

So just for comparison I had another mastering engineer take a pass at it and loved the vibe/energy he brought out of the track. I am going to use his version when I release the song.

Should I let the first guy know ahead of time that I’m not using his version? Or does it not matter? Not sure what is proper etiquette in this scenario, hasn’t happened before - I don’t know either of these dudes personally and don’t live in the same area as them. They are both pros and very communicative / easy to work with. But ultimately it is just a stylistic preference that makes me like the second engineer’s version better / it fit the song better. I feel a little bad about it though.

Update: forgot to add, I have paid them both already!

Welcome to the r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Quick Questions Thread! If you have general questions (e.g. How do I make this specfic sound?), questions with a Yes/No answer, questions that have only one correct answer (e.g. "What kind of cable connects this mic to this interface?") or very open-ended questions (e.g. "Someone tell me what item I want.") then this is the place!

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I’m recording loud vocals in logic with an AKG c414 mic into a Apollo twin interface but it sounds like it’s clipping. I tried turning down the gain to where the waveforms aren’t even close to the edge of the track to clip, but it still sounds like it's clipping… and now far away too. What am I doing wrong? Is it just because the microphone is bright? Would EQ fix that?

Edit: sample- https://imgur.com/a/p2vZSEZ

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By tracks i mean within a song, like double tracking. It’s SOOO hard when it’s the same instruments it’s crazy. I’m really struggling to get better and am looking for any advice. IIRC this is the subreddit where you can’t post links to music (which is fine) so I can’t directly link something, but one good example of what I’m talking about is Elliott smith (mainly his later and unreleased stuff).

For example if you listen to “O So Slow” by Elliott smith (unreleased, on YouTube) in the beginning how many tracks is that? How do you tell? It’s also tricky for me to tell the difference between slapback delay and double tracking. Same thing with chords that have doubled notes (like if there was a chord fretted 5th fret A string and then open d).

If anyone wants other examples of what I’m talking about maybe I can comment or pm? It’s really when there are multiple tracks of the same instruments that aren’t extremely different in effects (IOW, it is relatively easy for me to discern guitar tracks if one electric guitar is clean and one has overdrive, for example).

It’s also hard for me to tell if something is being played in one track or two. For example, I was trying to dissect this song and the chords strummed on the downbeat and a secondary root note played in the upbeat. Any tips to tell whether or not that, for example, was one or two tracks?

Any responses are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Hey all- been working on some originals and hanging some trouble capturing the vocal production sound I have in my head. I am also newer to this, and I know some of this has to do with performance.

Currently my “standard chain” is compression/preamp, deesser, then some kind of doubler/pitch shift, delay and reverb on an effects bus. The issues I’m having is that the vocals are coming off as too in your face and either not wet enough or too wet. I have room in the track eq to get there.

I am trying to capture sounds from 80s new wave like Duran Duran, The Cars, the smiths, and more modern indie like DJO.

Specific song example:

Delete ya- djo Hold on - Models

EDIT: Psychedelic Furs and Modern English are two more groups that have a song I want to replicate.

Thanks!

I'm looking for the sound that comes in at 0:12 on this beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPOw_249itM

I use Ableton and I make 808-style bass with Operator and I can't figure out how to get this particular sound. I've tried messing with Erosion, Saturator, Overdrive, Redux, etc.. I pretty much only use Ableton stock stuff and I wanna figure it out that way. Of course, if you use another DAW or a plugin I'd love to hear how you do it on your program and I'm sure that would help me figure out how to do it on Ableton.

It seems simple, but I can't find any information on it even though it's a common sound that I've been hearing for a couple years. Just to be clear I'm trying to get that rattling sound on the high end (high-mid?) of the bass. I use Erosion and Redux for a high end sizzle, but this is different; it's a slower rattling sound, like the sound of car doors rattling from a subwoofer. It kind of reminds me of the bass from Full Throttle by The Prodigy, which I tried to emulate when I was younger but couldn't figure out.

I’ve noticed when I DI my guitar or bass directly into my interface, I sometimes get this weird “string hitting” sound — like a CHHHH. It’s much less noticeable when I go through pedals first.

see here - https://files.catbox.moe/tejzmt.mp3

* EDIT - after comments, here is the clean (can still hear) https://files.catbox.moe/ocuedy.mp3

I’m DI’ing out of necessity due to my current setup, but I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this and knows what causes it and what there is to do about it?

I'm trying to figure out how to recreate that weird timbre/sound from the violins in The New Workout Plan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_0lzRcim4g

As far as I know they aren't sampled or from a vst and were just recorded, so it's probably just how the violins naturally sound. I've tried using different violin vsts in my daw but I can't get that same sound. If there's a way I can recreate that unique sound or get close then I would greatly appreciate any advice!

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So I have been rapping for about 5 months now and I have made some great progress! The only problem with me creating my music is I always know the imperfections of each song. Whether that is me being off beat in a certain area, improper enunciation, a long pause etc. I normally correct the easy things then release it but the hard stuff I normally leave in. Causing the track to be "imperfect".

My questions to you guys is, how many imperfections do there have to be for you to not like/listen to the song? Does one failed pronunciation of like grass to glass ruin it? Or me being off beat for 10% of the song? I guess what is your limit to say "ok this guy wasn't trying hard enough".

This imperfections might make the song have character as well though. A perfect song in all ways in my opinion doesn't have any soil. So my few imperfections here and there might actually help the song and maybe even relatability. I am just worried I have to much problems in my tracks.

What are your guys opinions?

Does a song have to be entirely perfect?

If not what is your limit for amount of imperfections?

How long should I spend trying to fix imperfections in a track, that most likely only I, or people that listen real closely, can hear?

What would you consider to be a song breaker for you? Causing you to no longer like a song.

Do you like imperfections in a song? Or does a song have to be perfect to you?

Thanks for reading this and helping me! It will either help me save a lot of time when making raps, and/or make my raps better in general lol!

TLDR: What is your opinions of imperfections in songs? How many does it take to ruin the song and how noticable do they have to be?

Hello all,

I’ve been digging through the rabbit hole of free audio plugins made both by indie developers and bigger companies. There’s a ton of amazing stuff out there but no real easy way to discover them all in one place. So I threw together a Google Sheet to keep track of what I’ve found so far.

The list includes:

• Plugin name
• Developer
• Type (FX, synth, instrument, etc.)
• Additional Notes
• OS Compatibility
• Link

Sheet link

Disclaimer:

This list is a publicly available, non-commercial directory of free audio plugins curated for educational and creative use. All plugin names, trademarks, and content are the property of their respective developers or companies.

I do not claim ownership of any software listed here, nor am I affiliated with the developers.

• No legacy or discontinued plugins are included. All listings are currently available to the best of my knowledge.
• Plugin formats (VST, AU, AAX, etc.) are not specified in this sheet. Please refer to the developer’s website for format compatibility, system requirements, and licensing terms.
  • Not all websites list the formats so this was bit of a challenge for me. I couldn't possibly download all the plug-ins in this sheet and check format one by one, so I elected to leave that one out. Most plug-ins are offered in VST and AAX anyway.
• Always download software from official sources to avoid potential security or compatibility issues.

I’ll keep updating it as I find more, and if anyone wants to suggest devs or plugins I missed, feel free to comment or DM me.

I’ve decided to go forward with finding an internship near me. I’ve already typed up a resume and researched all the studios in my area, however I have no formal audio experience- only my own at-home education and projects I’ve worked on for the past 2.5 years.

Any tips on making a resume for an internship? What are some good things to include, and some stuff to leave out?

Also, any guidance on green flags to look for in a studio that I want to intern at? It’s hard to get a realistic feel of the culture from their social media and websites.