This is how I go forward with my music - the real story from November 2017 and towards the album release but it took Volume 2 to get the whole way there. Creating, editing and mixing music is a complicated effort but loads of fun.
For all you who wa...
Learning about how to make music is multifaceted. Here are some of the things I have been learning about it.
Samples: Samples are recording of real instruments. From those recordings an audio engineer/composer can cut individual notes and create new chords/tracks. Having great samples is a prerequisite for great sounding midi tracks. In Logic Pro X, they are very high quality. You can also buy samples and other synths and incorporate them into your DAW.
Timing: If you program a synth with the note exactly at the beginning of each beat and all with the same velocity, it is going to sound mechanical in a nasty way.
Think about how a real piano player plays: Don't place all your notes at exactly the beginning of the beat always....mess it up a millisecond here and there just like a person would, rolling the fingers on the right hand from the thumb to the pinky. Let the sustain be sloppy (slightly) occasionally when it sounds good.
Strength: Don't let the velocity be constant in all of your notes. Vary them thinking about how a pianist hits the keys harder at times and softer other times. A pianist will hit a note harder the angrier the music is. Let the emotion of the song affect how you program the velocity. The main thing is to create notes that are believable.(Also, be careful with arpeggios that they are the proper length.)
In the video above there are some mixing tips on how to make the programmed music sound more realistic.
Panning is very important. Think about how the instruments on a rock stage or an orchestra on stage and try to place those instruments as you would see them at a concert. Panning adds width.
Reverbs add depth. The farther back on stage the less defined an instrument should sound. The kick and bass should be very clear.
Knowing how to play real instruments helps immensely - if you know how a real instrument sounds, then you probably can program that sound in a believable way.
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Here is an advanced way to deal with programming strings so they sound believable:
If it sounds good it is good!
Good luck with how you do. Leave your tips in the comments. Thank you!
