A tempo issue... I think?

[Tiaaaaa]

Alright, I'm not entirely sure how to explain this so please bear with me. Almost everything I make keeps running into the same problem. I'll make a melody, beat, or chord-progression and then try to add something else to it. Both will sound fine on their own but when I put them together it suddenly sounds terrible, like they're out of sync, and I don't understand why. I'm doing all of this in 4/4 because it's easiest for me, and both the melody and chords are in the same key so I don't understand why they sound so wrong together. Sorry if this just sounds more confusing than anything, but if any of you know what I'm talking about then is this just a case of learning what sounds good/bad together or am I probably doing something wrong?

[Calamus_Dash]

If you're using orchestral-style instruments: some instruments, like various brass instruments, I think, are based in a different key from other instruments and have to be transposed a certain number of notes up or down.
If you just mean they sound out of sync as in "they don't make sound at the same time", it could be that one of them has a high attack, meaning it basically takes a little while on each note for the instrument to reach its peak sound level (decibel level, I guess?). If one of them has a really high attack, it will sound like it's playing later than the other one, which can sound bad.
I guess the only other problem could be if you're using two different melodies that don't sound good together cause of the notes in em.
Hope this helped at all

[Kragt]

Feel free to ignore me I may very well be talking the wrong thing! XD

Ok, so this sounds like either an error in instrumentation (particularly if we are talking about something other than instruments/samples... like synths killing each other by clashing in a hz range.)
or this is an error in your chords.

Get a piano!
Press your C.
Now press B.
Press B and C at the same time.
B and C are both in C major but as a chord they are dissonant (very much so.)

Without seeing the notes I cant say for sure, but if this is the case your issue may be that your melody, extra and chord progression arent seeing eye to eye because they... well the notes as a whole make dissonant chords.

Example 2: D minor.

Play chord I of D minor (D F and A) and play A an octave or two higher.
Now do the same but instead of playing A an octave higher, play G just below that high A. Now Bb. ^^ What do you notice?

Again I could be entirely wrong but that is how I see your problem. Feel free to resond or ignore, with more information I may be able to help more. XD I just assumed you were doing classical because that is where I offer the most help.

PS: If its a synth issue, see what Hz range everything is in and Eq it up, take some stuff down in certain ranges that other instruments are mainly in.

PPS: What program do you use? I know in reason somehow some notes can get stuck just a little bit off the normal note placements and then it can be annoying to fix and hard to notice. This would give it an off kilter sound. XD

[Dr_Dissonance]

This could be a multitude of things, could you be a bit more specific? Give examples on when it occurs, what you're using, what instruments/synths, etc!

[Tiaaaaa]

Thanks all, these all sound likely. I'm not very good at telling what notes sound bad together and I'm even worse at picking out instruments that sound good together.

Anyway, here are some examples. I probably should have done this when I first posted this thread, actually. They're all in ogg MP3 now. Sorry if that's a problem.

An example of chords

An example of a melody

an example of- OHGODMYEARS!

I haven't really played with synths much. It's mostly been soundfonts. Like I said, I've run into a lot of problems with picking bad instruments to go together but a lot of the time I have this problem even with the same instrument playing both parts so I don't think it's just a bad choice of sounds. Is it just that the chords are too slow for the melody or am I doing something else wrong?

[Calamus_Dash]

uhhh all of those links are just showing up as a string of random characters for me, no sound.
lolwut

[Dr_Dissonance]

Yeah, it's because .ogg, they don't translate well on the interwebs, any chance of changing them to something more user-friendly? =)
Then we can help!

[Kragt]

Here is where I am really not helpful.

I would take your higher bell sound and see what it works like an octave higher, it doesnt seem to stand out with the other distorted sound.

I would say more, mostly what I said before as this may be a note issue, but seeing as Dr. Dissonance is also looking at this hes going to be able to help way more than I can. XD (BTW doesnt sound all that bad to my ears... ... I need to stop clicking links I get from the Dr.)

Edit: I was able to listen by right clicking save as and then playing with a media player from my desktop. (For those of you who cant open this file.)

Edit 2: As an exercise try working with evening out your notes tempo wise. Please ignore this XD I most likely have no idea what I am saying!

But as it goes, consider this tempo wise (each number represents a note on that beat, the dashes represent holds, either one could be melody or harmony.) (This is just a suggestion for experiment and practice. More you experiment more you learn and all that.)
12- -12- -12- -
1-34 1-34 1-34

[Tiaaaaa]

Earrape, now in glorious MP3!

An example of chords

An example of a melody

an example of- OHGODMYEARS!

Sorry for the trouble, and thank you very much for the help.

[Dr_Dissonance]

Edit: I was able to listen by right clicking save as and then playing with a media player from my desktop. (For those of you who cant open this file.)

I tried that, it keeps trying to save a firefox document instead...wut...

But anyway!

*listens* sounds fine to me...

But, two things if you're not after that:

1) Timbre - I think the bell's timbre is warping the pitch a bit, so maybe change what sound you get from those notes...likewise, the other synth sound is fuller, but clashes with the overtones of the bell, so take a look at what sounds you're using!

2) Pitch Class - Those two little things are quite close together, so maybe move one up or down an octave in order to space them out some more?

Those are my ideas after listening, I hope that helps!

[Kragt]

Let it save as a firefox document, that doesnt change much. XD Just open it with windows media player or VLC or whatever you use. ^^ Trust me, the computer doesnt know what its saying.

[Tiaaaaa]

*listens* sounds fine to me...

But, two things if you're not after that...

Alright, thanks. I'm not sure why it sounds so odd to me, then. I'll look into changing it up some like that, though. Thank you very much!

I would take your higher bell sound and see what it works like an octave higher, it doesnt seem to stand out with the other distorted sound.

Well, guess I'm definitely doing that, then.

But as it goes, consider this tempo wise (each number represents a note on that beat, the dashes represent holds, either one could be melody or harmony.) (This is just a suggestion for experiment and practice. More you experiment more you learn and all that.)
12- -12- -12- -
1-34 1-34 1-34

Alright, thank you. I'll try this out.

EDIT: Alright, I shifted the pitch of the chords up and then changed both instruments to pianos. Made all the difference in the world. Seems my biggest problem is still just being able to tell what instruments/synths/what-have-you do and don't sound good together. Thank you again for all your help, everyone.

[Versilaryan]

Another one of your problems might be that the synth you used for the melody actually played in 3rds, so you had two distinctly audible notes playing. One of those notes could have fit the chord progression, but the other one might not have.

[Tiaaaaa]

Another one of your problems might be that the synth you used for the melody actually played in 3rds, so you had two distinctly audible notes playing. One of those notes could have fit the chord progression, but the other one might not have.

I'm sorry, I don't really understand what you mean.
For the record, I had to look up what a third was. I'm not too amazing with music theory or terms. ._.

[Versilaryan]

Your synth doesn't play one note, it plays two notes, is the big point. So if one of those notes was in-key, the other one might not be, causing all those problems.

Also, do you write the melody and chords separately and try to put them together in the end, or build one off of the other?

[Tiaaaaa]

Ah, I see.

Um, I suppose I write them separately? They're both in the same key but if there's more criteria then that then honestly I just don't know how to base one on the other.

[Versilaryan]

Yeah, that might be the other problem. =P If you have a set, defined melody, especially if the melody is higher than the background, you can get away with this more, but your melody might not fit the chord changes. Especially if you write them separately and put them together afterwards.

One thing you could do is write your melodies while listening to the chord changes on repeat. That's what I do. The thing about this, though, is you're going to have to be able to put what's in your head on paper (or on computer), and that can be difficult to do. It helps a lot if you have a piano or some other instrument nearby that you can play these melodies on as you come up with them. (Or, once you've come up with one, sing it to yourself to make sure you have it, and then try to play an instrument along with it to figure out the notes.)

The other alternative is to look at the chords and write a melody that falls in those chords. Meaning, look at what notes are in the chord and what notes are in the melody (especially looking at important notes -- notes on beats 1 and 3, high points, low points, etc), and try to match them up so that you don't end up with a melody outlining a different chord progression than you have playing.

Try those out, and hopefully they'll get you somewhere. =) I personally prefer the first method to the second one, partly because I suck at coming up with melodies and partly because usually, when I come up with melodies without paying attention to the music theory, I come up with cooler melodies that use notes that aren't necessarily in the chords but still sound cool.

[Tiaaaaa]

Thank you a ton, Versilaryan. This should make things way easier and sound better for me. That would also really explain why everything kept sounding wrong to me. Sorry, a lot of the really obvious things about making music just don't occur to me so I really appreciate the patience and assistance!