Personal Technique: Let's See Your Creativity

[CrashDistortion]

So... the title of this thread may sound a bit vague.

As you all know, each artist has certain characteristics, techniques (ergo, this being posted under "Technique), and styles that differentiate them from everyone else. It is my own personal opinion that all musicians need a certain feel about their music, so they can be more distinguished (Also, this is creative, it helps your musical endeavours, and it's seriously fun).

Examples: Let's assume Skrillex was on MLR. He would post:

"I use growling basses by resampling in a lot of my music, but also try to keep steady and simple percussion, use glitchy sounds generated by the process of speeding up and/or reversing certain samples, and will occasionally put deep voices in my music that yell right before a bass drop."

Or Flux Pavilion, would say:

"I use a screeching square bass in my drops, and tend to use very grimy percussion, but also manage to put melodic bridges when needed"

Soo00oo00oo00oo0o0oo0o0oo0o.....

What are your styles, techniques and general sounds that you aim for in your writing? I will be genuinely interested to see.

[Counterwise]

Well I haven't actually fully developed my own sound or anything like that yet, so this will probably be very general.

I tend to use many different distorted basses, wobbles, samples and synths. I mix them together and try to make the sounds flow smoothly together, not glitchy or anything like that. I also like to use simple and clear percussion, with a steady and consistent 4/4 beat.

That's pretty much the basics of what I include in most of my songs. I'm probably not mentioning nearly as much as I should be, but that's how I roll! ~~

[xadobex]

well i like LFOs. a lot.

i also use clean bass, and pretty simple percussion.

but i, like counterwise, haven't really developed my own sound. so this stuff is just what i like to do

[Artimeus]

I have not developed a 'signature sound' and likely won't for some time as a experiment further with different genres; plus I've only been making 'da musicks' seriously for about a month. The things I do like to do, however, are EQ sweeps and low-pass filters. I also love loops and samples; so much so that it's a serious fault of mine and a habit I need to break out of, because I'm not learning how to use anything else properly.

[Rainbow_Rage]

I use an open embrasure with a deep cup on a horn build for power and bite. Its sounds cool but I really need to get around to a nice shallow lead mouthpiece for some of the stuff I play.

As far as electronic music/composition goes, I'm still at the level where I just mess around with out any real sound of my own

[the4thImpulse]

I don't share the method that I think really defines my 'sound' (Some guy said I had one but I am still unsure) to anyone, but I will share one technique that has helped me along the way.

I always try to stay away from the common waveforms (sines/saws/squares/triangles and all the pulse width modifications of each) and use crazy combinations of custom waveforms that I usually waveshape into oblivion (thanks Z3ta!). I do use common ones for bassline layering and any sub bass is made with a sine for obvious reasons but all the other sounds I take full advantage of digital waveforms.

[Edened]

I don't know, I've always thought of a signature sound taking months or even years to develop, although some people have gotten that sound fairly quickly that aren't big names. A signature sound doesn't just come up overnight no matter how good you are too, but I digress. I guess what I use a decent amount it a house style pluck, or some kind of trance sounding synth. I take that sound, drop it an octave, use it for the bass, the up it an octave or 2 for the lead, usually making it not as plucky sounding. It usually doesn't sound half bad either.

[Cherax]

A warm, reverby chiptune synth inevitably makes its way into almost every track I do, because I just go weak at the knees for dat chip sound. Other than that, I try to mix things up from song to song, and challenge myself to use new synths, samples and techniques.

[vladnuke]

Speedcore drums
Fluttery piano
Heavy dirty bass with lots of daft filter both lfo'd and non. Favorite things are sine shaper and fm filter.
Lots of graaaw. One day I made something that sounded like GRAAAW and I've been using it ever since.

[Ed Viper]

Drums are a very important aspect of UKstep, so I pay a lot of attention to those. For a good punchy snare, I typically layer two different samples with a clap, and put reverb on one of the snare samples. I usually layer about 3-4 kicks and put a very very small amount of overdrive on them, to get real "brutal" kicks.

I also make my wubs really deep and bass-heavy, but that's just a technique in UKstep, not something I've created.

I do really like reverse crashes. I use those all the time (though less lately, as I've gotten more creative with drops).

[TheDnBGremlin]

I tend to use heavy drums when I produce, and my drops are usually very minimal with just the bassline to start (e.g. Noisia's "Friendly Intentions"). I usually stick with three or four good synth leads as I don't like to get overly complicated. My basses tend to be on the low side, and I love it when I can get a GRIND sound out of it.

Sorry if this sounded kinda dumb, not really sure if I have a defined SOUND.

EDIT: Here's a good example of what I believe to be my sound.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51050941/Eques ... master.mp3

[Kopachris]

I use sparse, half-time rhythms, often syncopated or shuffled. I tend to use lo-fi drum sounds mostly, and usually combine both clean and dirty sounds in the same part. I use a lot of phasers, flangers, and delay effects. Build, un-build, and re-build is my main technique for thematic development.

Or at least, that's what I'd like to do. Now I just need to get around to actually doing it.

[Freewave]

I love dance music so that's I mostly make but I like to experiment with different styles and subgenres within it and not stick with just one. I love sampling which I've done on quite a few (some as mash-up medleys, others with a collection of show or non-show samples). I often choose to remix brony tracks that have never been remixed before so I can give them another spin and re-emergence in the world rather than just do the 30th remix of Rainbow Factory. To me the pony concept behind the track means everything to me so doing pmv's, using vocal samples from the show, and keeping the show in mind when constructing the track is very important. I'm more drawn to house music than anything but that's just cause I'm really getting the hang of it. I'm also finally getting to the point where I want to make my own music from scratch as I was just frankly a bit more timid before although I think remixing still just as much making your own music although you do have more of a safety net.

[5COPY]

Envelope everything.... Even Envelope the Envelope

[ph00tbag]

More than anything, I like heavy delay on filter cutoff modulated synths.

I also really like acid basslines. A lot.

[Versilaryan]

I do too many completely different genres to have much consistently through them. I tend to have really metal-influenced drums and a half-tempo feel, though, regardless of how fast the song actually is. I also like having really pop-y hooks (or at least hummable ones) to appeal to wider audiences.

Unless I'm doing super-complex growly wobble basses, my synths tend to be really simple and I like having acoustic elements in my songs, whether it's vocals, piano, guitar, or whatever. I want to put more emphasis on the music and less on the technical details or on the sound design, partly because I know I'm terrible at it.

All bets are off if I'm doing classical, though. That's my time to do whatever I want and fuck what my listeners want to hear. xP

[CrashDistortion]

Eh, so I made this thread but never personally contributed to it. I tend to use very acoustic percussion, but will sometimes throw in the generic "Heavy percussion" used in most House, Dubstep, DnB, etc... My drops consist of a screechy square bass and occasionally something based off of a formant filter and sub wobbles (So I set some time aside to make my own signature instruments). My bridges and builds tend to be very melodic and appealing to the ear of one who listens to ambient or trance, but then the drop tends to be darker, and sometimes doesn't seem to fit in (I try hard to make it, though). Also, 5COPY, I am familiar with your love for envelopifying. Needs moar envelopes.

[penguindf12]

I try to use acoustic instruments when possible, and something "off" or "progressive" in some way each time. I -NEVER- want to make something that isn't unique in some way. I tend to focus on detail and dynamic change. I like to use a lot of automation, keeping instruments moving through every possible spectrum (f'rinstance, panning. Why should instruments stay in one space?).

I don't know anything about electronic music or hip-hop really, but most of my stuff nowadays is like that. I'm a huge avant/progressive rock fan, but I don't write much music in that vein really, since I care too much about it.

Sometimes my desire to be unique bricks me in though, and consequently I'm not very prolific at all.

[K3WRO]

I really didn't develop a personal style yet, but most of my songs features super delayed pianos, default FL Studio drumkit,LAYERED SUPER MEGA SAW and terrible super low quality synths made in 3xosc or something.

That's it

[HMage]

Stack 1000 sylenths.

[CrashDistortion]

Stack 1000 sylenths.

Sounds a bit repetitive

[natsukashi]

Distorted amen breaks

my only style!!!!11

[DJSheogowrath]

I like to implement other genres into stuff that I'm working-for example, the song I'm working on right now combines french house and hard electro, and a remix I did previously was drumstep with elements of eurobeat and progressive house.

[CrashDistortion]

I like to implement other genres into stuff that I'm working-for example, the song I'm working on right now combines french house and hard electro, and a remix I did previously was drumstep with elements of eurobeat and progressive house.

So I'm not the only person who will do that more than usually. I manage to mix trance and ambient with dubstep, DnB, but will sometimes mix House music with Dubstep and ambient as well. I find it's a really good way to exercise your production skills as far as writing the more obscure genres and crossgenres yet still keeping some kind of distinct sound throughout most of your songs (not all the time, for the sake of not being repetitive).

[Navron]

Now now. Just because you added a pad doesn't mean it's ambient.

Hehe, jk.

Regarding personal technique, I really like to use soundscapes for my intros. Generally I like to make my music as big as possible, and soundscapes are a great way to create the vastness of an open space.