To the people who physically studied sound design in school

[Dasheesh]

the word "patch" came from physically "patching" cables. and there were overlays, that you would physically mark your patches on to remember repatchibg them at a later date.

art doesn't sell. you used to have to know a little about what you were doing, and figure things out to make music. in fact, the exploration and discovery was WHY you did it. now, you can indeed hit a button and a song pops out. this is why music is more about selling yourself then actually making music. it's fake.

[telecode]

the word "patch" came from physically "patching" cables. and there were overlays, that you would physically mark your patches on to remember repatchibg them at a later date.

art doesn't sell. you used to have to know a little about what you were doing, and figure things out to make music. in fact, the exploration and discovery was WHY you did it. now, you can indeed hit a button and a song pops out. this is why music is more about selling yourself then actually making music. it's fake.

I agree. The creation of music has evolved in modern times and has been removed from the process of the creation of "art". When creating music you are basically creating something to supplement something higher up the food chain which is selling people something. It's all just an extension of the consumer experience. Even companies that are in the music back catalog business aren't re-releasing back catalog releases for their artistic, historical or archival value, they are re-releasing it for their consumer value. The goal is to re-package something that was created 20 or 30 years ago and re-sell it to a consumer again.

https://www.rhino.com/store

[Dasheesh]

it took me years to realize that digital is a whole different animal. it's not about the musical nature of electricity. 95% of what's being passed around was an algorithm done by a computer. it's just nobody knows what they are listening to anymore because it's all virtual. nobody trusts what they are hearing. it has no integrity, so i've spent years trying to teach myself how to give up my ego in an attempt to adapt to the times. pride in what you do will take you down. that's because perceptions have changed. it's a world in which any 10 yr. old has the same computer with the same software with the same sounds making the same songs as you. what you are selling in this world is an experience. the experience of escape. we used to use music to interpret our world, now kids just want a safe space to get high. and, they are kids man... there is a reason you go these events and it's all 15-24 yr old white kids. anybody over the age of 25 has figured it out and moved on. it's not interesting anymore, unless they are a drug addict that likes young girls. what you are trying to do is present yourself as something above and exclusive, so you can make these young folks feel exclusive when they are in your presence. they want to feel special. they want to escape real life. there was a recent big debate going on about paris hilton making a mill. a pop to show up at a party and take some pictures and drink all the liquor. she figured it out in a matter of weeks. it's not about the music. it's about making the kids feel special. you don't get paid to show up at a party, you ARE the party. turns out keoki was right all along, you don't even have to plug in your laptop. we were just too prideful and dense to accept it. giving up your pride in yourself is the hardest thing anyone will ever have to do.

[vurt]

what the actual f**k are you even talking about?
sounds like a meth head stream of bs to me.

[sqigls]

i like to listen to gear.

several people in my life have said to me things akin to "it doesn't matter how you get there" or "a finished song is the goal, not fiddling about with compressors and EQs"...

I'm kinda the opposite. I like to listen to my gear, as if it's a song on an iPod or whatever. Except I can change any given parameter and change the groove, which is ultimately what i really dig about music.
Also, for the last 5-6 years, the only tracks I've written have been either collabs or other people's remixes of my stuff, because i find it almost nauseating to live in the linear songwriting mode. Mostly.

I like to listen to the ghost in the machine, and let it reveal the next melody or hook or stab or whatever.

i guess my essential point here is, I have fun in real-time, listening deep into the synth sounds. Improving my signal path, and just really enjoying the sounds. One day it might all click, and i can start sharing my hundreds of tracks [mostly live recordings] in various genres with people, but I generally don't care for that. Especially as i really can't gel with how most people think... or live... or speak... or skim across the surface of everything, like they can only accept what's given to them by a corporation who designs and sells famous people for a living.
I'm cynical as f**k with all that kind of stuff.
I even got to the point at times where even the sound of an acoustic guitar just makes me want to smash it over the head of the fuckwit butchering a corporate designed cover song on it.

there's a difference between REGGAE, and "Marry that girl... Marry her anyway"
not to Thai people obviously, even the ones with dreadlocks.



looks like it's suicide AGAIN for me...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHEOGrkhDp0

[Dasheesh]

we did get a little side tracked, my point is, it's not that difficult to tune an oscillator and turn a filter knob. all these sounds you want to make didn't exist until someone made them. perfection is an illusion. it doesn't exist. do what sounds good to you. start playing around with it and see what you like. basic typical sounds are dead easy, and you really don't even need to do it with all the preset guys around. a lead is a lead, keys are keys, pads are pads. just make one you like. maybe next time you come here everyone will be copying your lead.

[zzz00m]

Since we're suggesting books here...

First of all...

Simon Cann - How to Make A Noise (as found here at KVR Sound Design)
viewtopic.php?t=76293

+1 for this ^^^

This free PDF e-book on the topic is stickied as the first topic in this forum! It was written over 10 years ago, but the essential principles of sound design have not really shifted much since.

It is sub-titled "a comprehensive guide to synthesizer programming" for a reason.

My first synth manual taught me what an oscillator and ADSR envelopes were. A couple of Simon's books explained to me how to actually use them.

And if you need a synth to learn on, one of the synths featured as an example in this book was recently released free and open source! Go grab that too!

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/surge-by-vember-audio

[Tj Shredder]

Yeah shockingly enough there will be quite a few individuals on the planet that aren't exactly your mirror, BONES.

No kidding. Yet it surprises me that no-one is agreeing with my sentiment. Does no-one here think of music as art?

Be asured I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment! Even if I would not resonate with your music, I would prefer it over any commercial brainwashed „style“ just to please an audience...
We are so much bound into justification about what we do is in the money it makes... Van Gogh would have never painted more than a single canvas with that kind of attitude. Artists suffer the more they are out of their time (or ahead, you never know...)

[Tj Shredder]

But back to the topic. Better than watching youtube tutorials is taking a book and then tweak the knobs and use your own ears. Especially sound design is much more about hands on experience. Of course the books that have been mentioned will help you to know in which direction to turn the knobs.
Miller Puckette hasn't been mentioned yet:
Loadbang: Programming Electronic Music in Pure Data
http://pd-tutorial.com/
Max/MSP and/or Pure Data will help you to understand the inner working of sound design. You can freely experiment without being bound to a specific synth architecture... (Reaktor might also be a path, but I think its easier to understand existing patches in Max/Pd than in Reaktor)
A perfect playground as well would be VCV Rack...

[BONES]

When I bought my first synth, a Roland SH1000 in 1981, I bought a book on how to play the organ, as it seemed more like what I'd need than a book on learning piano. That taught me how to form chords on the keyboard and that, combined with my school music classes, is all I ever consciously learned about music. Everything else I have picked up by listening and/or doing.

It's a Punk thing, a conscious decision not to want to know what I'm doing, so as not to be bound by convention or arbitrary rules. To me it feels "right", the way I want things to be, and I still think that if I learned too much it would restrict, rather than enhance, my creativity. e.g. Someone here once told me that all our songs are in the same key, something I was unaware of and don't care about because they sound good to me. I think about how many of our songs might never have been finished if I was always worried about them being in different keys (because we've never written two songs at the same tempo, as that is something I am aware of).