Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
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Advice as to why my original songs sound empty
Whenever I make a song with loops, it's usually rich. I add the bass, and chords, and leads, with vocals but it usually sounds empty.
But if I use something like Blocs Wave and I do the exact same thing (except with their loops), it's rich in sound. I do use EQ and effects on the track but it feels like the back is empty.
(Because I get answers as I type posts- here's what I'm thinking...)
- Step away from the work for a few hours...even better if you take a nap and go to it later.
- Record what you want it to sound like, and compare.
- Use a different app and try and play loops that are similar to the main chords- Arpegiators, sequencers, inversions, play dynamic bass lines, turn short, broken chords into long chords and vice versa.
- Listen to a similar song with the same vibe that you're trying to go for. Heck, use it as a reference.
- Try the song in a different key.
- Play an instrument that you're used to...eg guitar, piano, drums and sing the song.
- Try using a maximum of 2 effects that you normally wouldn't use in an instrument. E.g, reverb your bass, delay your drums, autotune your guitar and see if there are interesting sounds
Any more tips recommended?
Comments
9) Be sure that those people you play it for aren't trying to please you. Alot of people say they want honest criticism when actually all they want is praise. Sometimes people are reluctant to offer anything other than praise for fear of brusing your ego.
What do you mean by empty. Is it the sound that is empty, or empty in the musical sense.....do you think they have richer sounds, or richer harmonies and melodies ?
Would you be willing to share an example? Will be easier if we can hear it.
Otherwise I can just say in general that reverb, delay, and chorus are all simple ways to fill space. Also, sometimes that hollow space can just mean you’re missing mids. A lot of people will focus on the lows and highs but leave out too much from the mids.
Here is a legit tip:
I usually try to have a second layer of stuff going on at around -14db, not just reverb and delay, but other sounds, rhythmic stuff, nothing too overwhelming.
This usually can add some richness. Even it's not audible to the point of discriminating what it is, it adds to the sound and atmosphere.
This. Processing makes all the difference in the world. Even subtle delays and reverbs give things a ‘3D’ vibe. This is also the importance of good D/A which is more important than good A/D (to me) because with good monitoring scenarios with good plugins you can really turn ‘ok’ into incredible. Also, slight pans left and right (slight, as in no more than 10) can open space up for each element. Almost like furniture in a room. Also with eq, cut > boost even though it’s always tempting to boost.
Some examples in both scenarios you spoke of would be cool to check out.
I can’t answer deeply without an example, but
Also post and visit the Song of the Month threads here on the forum.
SOFTM is run by @richardyot and everyone who participates is warm and helpful.
maybe if you provide some example of your tracks - one which you are considering "rich" sounding, and other one which sounds "empty" ? Then we can discuss where lies problem (or if there is any problem at all
If i'm not wrong, Alessandro Cortini mentioned in a video of his that he likes to layer some noise being modulated by some LFOs like you do your stuff. I think it's great for creating a nice "bed"
Yeah, I do that when I want some ambient grit. Sometimes I will sidechain it to main element or drums, so it stays out of the way. The possibilities are really endless!
Also, on the opposite end, sidechain an expander on a noise layer to things like snare hits to give it a noise layer. Playing with the attack, release, and threshhold can get nice results.
Keep in mind that if you are talking about the engineering/mixing side of things that they take years to master and that very little music that you have every heard was mixed/engineered/mastered by the artist alone. Even those (very few) artists who are known as mixing wizards usually have someone else master (if not assist on the mixing engineering).
Getting EQ et al right and figuring out how to balance fill the mix is something that will come with time if you keep listening and practicing and analyzing. It takes a lot of time to develop those skills. Just keep at it. Spend lots of time listening and reading what pros you admire have to say. Understand that there is no one right way to do it.
Appreciate all your comments. Currently away from home so I'll upload a small sample when I get back. It is a remix I'm working on, where I was able to get the audio
You can double up tracks. Sometimes I duplicate a track and mix them together.
Forget trying to mix down tracks with iOS. Get a proper DAW and quality sound card and get some hardware to run tracks through: a mixing desk with character / nice compressor. Get some decent eq plugins and learn the techniques. There are no shortcuts
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/34414/mastering-secret-don-t-tell-anybody
Also, don’t bounce finished tracks, mixdown!
But seriously. Those blocs loops are super processed with likely tape and vinyl saturators, compressors, filters etc. You could do worse than try to emulate them by A/B ing them. There’s enough tools on iOS to get you close.
Many of the blocs loops I have are dirty and lofi, and sometimes have a second part in the background.
Look up tips on using reference mixes.
Mixing music well is a difficult and constantly humbling task, more than could be passed along in a few posts, but for the lack of fullness the OP is talking about, that sounds like an EQ thing. Master EQ and you’re most of the way to mastering mixing.
It’s easy to make things sound worse with random EQ moves, it has helped me to have intention before reaching for the EQ, like imagine what the sound needs, and start with a plan, before getting on the knobs. It helps to punch the bypass for the EQ in and out, to see if you made things better or worse. To that end, using the EQ’s gain control to match the perceived volume to the bypass helps, because an eq move that makes something louder inevitably sounds better, quieter- worse, when really you need to know if the tone got better or not.
One little trick with eq, that sometimes can help a sound become fuller, is to make a medium to broad Q peak and sweep it in the mid range until you find where the sound has a lot of loudness energy, and then try cutting that a few dB, and then raising the gain of the EQ a little to match the perceived volume drop (vs bypassed). For sounds that have a focused resonance in a certain frequency range, the part of the sound that makes you stop raising the volume on that instrument, this allows you to bring out the harmonics and body, without making the instrument overbearingly loud. Just fuller, girthier bandwidth.
Best used for sparse mixes rather than crowded ones, where the opposite works- narrow sounds often work better when there are a lot of them, rather than a bunch of phat sounds competing for bandwidth supremacy.
One other eq trick is to not spend a lot of time in solo when you are working on eq, but to listen to the other instruments when punching the eq in and out, and hear if they sound better when you affect the other instrument.
Adding to the great (and valid) EQ hints:
there's also the no eq approach ... pick a source that captures a sound idea almost perfectly.
Example for acoustic guitar:
I have 2 very different instruments (solid spruce - laminated mahogany)
with different strings (phosphor bronce on the spruce - flatwound electric guitar strings on the mahogany)
3 types of 'picks' (nylon, carbon, finger tips)
4 microphones to capture that character to a track
An EQ may pronounce or attentuate some aspects of the sounds, but does not change the character of the respective instrument the way it was played.
Of course this only 'works', if one has experience with those instruments and how they come out on tracks after recording - you can predict certain sound performances.
The very same works with any synthetic sound source or sound processor.
(reverbs and delays may as well be regarded as instruments on their own)
It worth listening to the specific sound character of a device.
I use SamplR a lot for it's very special soundprint... and accept it's flaws and often crude processing as features.
As recently confirmed in an interview: it's designed as a full self-contained instrument.
If I have SamplR on a track (in a significant role), I'd rather avoid another part performed by (say) iDensity because it covers a fairly similiar soundprint.
Synclavier Go would be a better companion, for it's smooth midrange performance.
You need vocals I reckon mate. Many of my favourite songs would bore the shit out of me without a rapper on them. It’s the bane of the job though, artists may occasionally think your beat sounds boring but if you gave them something more exciting there would be no space for them in there. When you find someone with “the vision” that’s the jackpot. The right person will be able make an album from very little imo. Usually easier to do it yourself than find that someone though in my experience.
If you’re focused solely on instrumental music you may want to think more in terms of theory and composition than your loops. Add textures, call and response between instruments. Think how your instruments/scales/chords etc give each other context and speak to each other. Space and negative space. All that jazz. I am no classically trained musician by any standard by the way but sometimes it’s easier to give advice than implement it
Are you sure you’re not getting some phase cancellation going on? That can often result in a “hollow” sound.
I forgot to post the link. The goal was to sample someone's Instagram post and try and make a song. Here's the project.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B9ZNba7phct/?igshid=1ldyu5sislzoa
There's so many things I could have done better so do let me hear your thoughts.
PM someone you trust here.
Send them the literal work.
IF IF IF you want real feedback or constructive criticism.
Perhaps you are not doing as bad(or good) as YOU THINK.
That is my 2 cents.
Best
Use a mix reference. That way you can A-B between your track and your ideal to try to see what pieces might be missing.
But, also, I would be glad to give you feedback if you want to send me anything.
This is from a semi-popular book that visualizes the stereo image of a track.