MAKE YOUR OWN SOUND

[Expy]

I don't think you can force your own style. You develop into it.

Right now, I don't think I've been producing long enough to have a distinct style. What do most of my tracks have in common? I can't think of much. I use a lowpassed distorted reese bass in most of my tracks, if that counts. I use sliced breaks in almost every track. I often use piano or string ensemble sounds. That's about it. Not really a distinct style.

[Dr_Dissonance]

I don't think you can force your own style. You develop into it.

Yes, very much so!

I've been writing music for about 5 years now and I've changed drastically! From humble beginnings to elaborate ways to screw with harmony/your mind...

So yeah, my 'sound' is instability, or dissonance, hence the name!

[Whitetail]

Don't be afraid to emulate others sounds, you can only discover your own in the process

[the4thImpulse]

Looking around the music community, I see alot of us ponies recreating the EXACT same sound and, basically, playing the same kind of song over and over again. This is the only reason that I worry about electronic/pop music which it seems like EVERYPONY is making these days... probably because ANYPONY can do it, regardless of musical education/talent.

So the real question is...
What, if anything, is YOUR sound. The thing that everyone can listen for in your music and think: "hmm... I've never heard it quite like THAT before!"
And if you're a musician that prefers to make the electronic/pop sound that so many of us decide exclusively to do, have you implemented something completely unique to your tracks that makes you different from everypony else? if not, why?

Sure a lot of people in the community have a similar sound but I believe thats because none of them are professional (when I say professional I mean headlining world tours and releasing albums on major labels). Brony musicians will very likely not get famous by making <pony> music, its great practice and will certinly help them develop skills but they won't be noticed in a world sense. When you become famous its either because you know all the right people or you have created a sound that people want to hear and got lucky enough to let them hear it. Thats why, in my opinion, most <pony> music doesn't have a unique sound because they are all learning and developing it.

Even in the real world alot of the top 40 wanna-be tracks have very similar kicks and lead synths, if you listen to the beatport top 200 for every genre it will sound like all the tracks are the same and few will stand out. This, problem, is much more appart in the real world then brony music I find. I am a DJ and I spend every other weekend going through hundreds of tracks so I believe I know what I'm talking about when I say when someone makes a good sound everyone else will copy it. I find it really obvious with kick drums, some great producer makes an amazing kick and uses it in their lastest single and when its released many people sample it and use it in their work.

I don't think you can force your own style. You develop into it.

Yes, very much so!

This is the truth right here. When I stopped listening to electronic music when I wasn't writing I found my music to sound more unique and I started to develop a bit of a style. When I was tring to be inspired by big name electronic artists my work started to sound similar to theirs and notably worse.

Don't be afraid to emulate others sounds, you can only discover your own in the process

Its find to copy others when your first starting and still have much to learn about your daw and the whole writing process but once you can easily navigate your daw then you should stop copying others as it will only slow you down in your creative process.

[Whitetail]

Its fine to copy others when your first starting and still have much to learn about your daw and the whole writing process but once you can easily navigate your daw then you should stop copying others as it will only slow you down in your creative process.

Now when I saw emulate, I don't mean copy their sound completely

I mean like listen to a song and go "Wow that sounds cool" and then try to figure it out yourself, you may not hit the mark but in the end you'll end up with something - now regardless of if you've developed something useful or not you have created something in your own regard, now say you enjoy that something - you might work it into a song, it might not sound exactly like the original something you were going for but it's certain it's own something in it's own regard. You might find yourself using the something in more songs, each time it evolving a little as you use it, and shape it, and it changes. In the end your end product is nothing like what you were originally going for but through attempted (and failed) emulation you have discovered something entirely new.

This happens all the time when producing whether you realize it consciously or not, be it a particularly sound, play style or even whole song feel in general.

[natsukashi]

I thought this topic was about sound design. ;w;

edit: Why did I already post this? I had other things to add as well. >_>

I believe that aquiring your own sound is a very liquid thing. I never sat down and thought "I want this to be my defining characteristic." and sure I don't really have one yet either. Just do shittonnes of stuff and learn as much as you can. Run off the mill generic response but I guess that's just general consensus. >_>

[natsukashi]

http://soundcloud.com/dashssunglasses/djfistbuck-cntrlt-massive

yeah ... no
there are tons of diversity



you just gotta know where to look. But frankly I'm not really bored with ze wubz n such, the orchestral aspect is starting to bore me tbh and yeah. >_>

my original sound is that it's not original. I do not produce, I destroy other ponies tracks. For the most part that's what I'm doing. And not destroying as a selfderogatory statement, it is my sole intent and purpose to destroy !!!!!!!!111111

[Whitetail]

Dude it's breakcore, awesome genre with soooo much artistic freedom.

And dude don't worry about what other guys make, just make whatever you like - it's all for fun in the end no?

[the4thImpulse]

this isnt' a tutorial. It's just a call about how rare it is that people generate their own unique sounds.
I'm just a little worried that the brony community is trying to stick to what they know instead of expanding and making their own works...
Idk, just worried that the only music i'll be hearing from this community is wubwub and zubzub.

I tried explaining why you don't hear the 'most unique stuff ever' from the community and why they "stick to what they know" but its worth mentioning that there is quite a bit of unique music made form the community. You either haven't looked hard enough or your just being ignorant towards some of the music for some reason I don't know. It can also be a matter of perspective towards the music, if you don't like dubstep then it will likely all sound very similar to your ears where as someone who loves it will notice the diffrences. I find theres less dubstep then most other popular genres in the pony music although I'm not counting the poorly produced tracks.

Dude it's breakcore, awesome genre with soooo much artistic freedom.

And dude don't worry about what other guys make, just make whatever you like - it's all for fun in the end no?

coming clean, what bothers me about it is the fact that you don't need to have musical talent to be a well-known artist.
That's what bothers me the most. and I just feel like music is losing it's... well.. musicality, if such a word exists.

Its not losing is musicality is simply evolving.

[Expy]

Why do you say the music in the community isn't unique? I've never thought it all sounded the same. I mean, sure, there's a lot of dubstep and stuff like that, but there's also a lot of artists doing things I've never heard before they did it, and a lot of artists doing non-mainstream genres.

I've never thought there wasn't much variety in the MLP music scene.

[MasterOfRegret]

I've never thought there wasn't much variety in the MLP music scene.

I hold with the idea that I could use the exact same synths and settings or instruments as someone else, and still sound different. Not that I do that, lol.

[Whitetail]

Samey bland "pop" (and that goes for any genre, not just literal pop) music has always existed, music isn't as a whole getting less creative over time.

Thing is from past times people forget all of that samey, bland generic music and all that anyone remembers is whatever impacted them the most - normally the stuff that was really notable for something in it's time.

So no, music isn't devolving - if anything it's evolving faster then ever since more people have access to the tools of creativity then ever before.

[Lavender_Harmony]

The title of this thread seems pretty demanding. I am defined by the music I make and whoever I choose to be inspired by. There has never been true 'new', you don't make a sound, it develops, evolves, changes drastically. it's all going to be based on taste. If you don't like a certain genre, you aren't going to compose in that genre. We compose for what we love.

People develop their own sound over time, as you get into your own mixing habits, instrument combinations and style of composition, you start to retain a sense of familiarity throughout your music. Saying that just because people emulate the music they love means their talentless is insulting to me. Just because I'm inspired by modern orchestral composers, video game composers and electronic producers, does that mean I'm talentless?

You can't outright demand that people develop their own style. MLR is all about learning and sharing our knowledge, and it can't be implemented overnight. Time is a key factor in someone making their own sound, and the fandom is far too young for even that to have begun to develop.

[Navron]

I can't find anyone I remotely sound close to.

I've looked.

[Lavender_Harmony]

It's mainly because a lot of people are still learning. There aren't many professional musicians in the fandom, and the vast majority of them have picked up music very recently. The minority are either going for a specific sound because it is what they enjoy, or have started developing their own sound. As the third post says, music comes from inspiration, knowledge comes from copying, and innovation comes from combining these two things.

[the4thImpulse]

It's mainly because a lot of people are still learning. There aren't many professional musicians in the fandom, and the vast majority of them have picked up music very recently. The minority are either going for a specific sound because it is what they enjoy, or have started developing their own sound. As the third post says, music comes from inspiration, knowledge comes from copying, and innovation comes from combining these two things.

I don't know how many times these words have to keep being be said to get this point across and Lavender said it best in that post.

It is what it is, the majority of brony artists are young and new to music so simply haven't had time to develop a sound.

[Whitetail]

Obviously if you think pony music is limited you haven't looked very hard.

And electronic is a wiiiiiiiiide description, you might as well be like "most popular music is guitar!"

[the4thImpulse]

Obviously if you think pony music is limited you haven't looked very hard.

And electronic is a wiiiiiiiiide description, you might as well be like "most popular music is guitar!"

I've been listening and searching for pony music since early march of LAST year. It's what inspired me to become a brony in the first place. I've done plenty of searching, found the artists that I liked, and alot that i didn't.

I've done plenty of searching, and just because my opinion doesn't match yours doesn't make it wrong.

Your opinion certinly isn't wrong, and I somewhat agree with it, but I think your expectations in the community are to high to be honest. Its good to challenge muscians to be diffrent, but forcing it will make everyone miserable.

[ph00tbag]

Well, originality is important, certainly, but it's important not to become a copy of yourself as well. I always encourage experimentalism in all things. Sometimes that means trying something really out there and bucking (so to speak) the expectations. But there's value in trying to emulate the sounds other people make in that you can still learn from the process.

Really, it's important that you continue to learn with everything you make. If you're just churning stuff out on a template and not taking anything with you to the next project, that's when you need to worry.

[Lavender_Harmony]

I think i'm just getting tired of hearing everyone try to make the same type of music over and over again. I appreciate those who do it very well, but I envy the old german tradition "quality of quantity"

Click this

[Dabrenn]

I personally don't think a producer develops his own style until he/she has been producing for a long time.

I'm probably one of the newest people around here (I only really have 1 song haha) but my advice would pretty much be what has been said in this thread already: Just keep making music and your "style" will develop itself. You make what you want to hear and what you want to hear becomes your style.

I wouldn't force a style unless maybe you find some particular sounds you REALLY REALLY like then maybe it could become a sort of "trademark" or something.

[K3WRO]

This here...Is a good post

[ChromaticChaosPony]

I've been working on my unique sound since I started a year ago. Having an 8 string guitar has certainly helped. What I usually do is combine my influences until I get something I haven't heard yet. The only issue I have with this method is either making something too similar to the work of another artist or making something too complex to be used. I just need experience.

Advice to others: Write and record/produce as much music as possible, and get feedback from others. Keep track of stuff that you like and what recieves positive feedback, and mix and match until you have your own unique sound. This is what I've found holds me back, as well as many other musicans.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Alright then. I should listen to some dubstep (one genre that I only listen to some stuff in). I guess it would help for ideas for djent music. Maybe I could adapt some Skrillex type of stuff for the 8 string guitar. I already listen to a fair amount of classical and jazz, and I always listen to metal. Electronic music is probably the genre I listen to least. I notice that there is a need for it in the newer styles of progressive metal, such as djent. The only dubstep I listen to somewhat regulary is Skillex (I'm more of a metalhead). Not to mention, the only rave song I ever listened to in its entirety was a Downfall parody (youtube parody of Hitler), so that doesn't count.

I'm kind of embarrassed about how I first got into dubstep.

Yeah, laugh at me for it. It's a start to Kyoga's advice. I guess I learned to never atempt any fads because of this video.

[ph00tbag]