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Creating Lead patterns
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Anihillusion
Started Topics :
3
Posts :
5
Posted : Mar 8, 2012 14:49:13
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I know this may be covered in previous posts but I could not find anything through the search for this topic.
I just wondered if anyone had any advice or tips on creating lead patterns - I have no issues creating the Lead sounds or sounds on the synths - but when it comes to laying down the MIDI patterns im sort of stuck - Everything just seems to sound to rushed or crammed together or just totally wrong.
I create Darkspy - so I use both sounds I sample from the real world that I record and a lot of sound FX along with the dark pad/atmosphere and then the lead -
My issue is not structuring a track it is laying down a MIDI lead - everything I do just seems to not sound correct - (I use a lot of Filtering and run the lead through Camel crusher and some delay and have a nice portamento setting) but when it comes to laying out the MIDI I have issues.
Any tips guys? I would appreciate it. 
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loki
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
49
Posts :
429
Posted : Mar 8, 2012 17:32
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What is your musical background? Do you know your scales? If not, start there. In fact, stop producing entirely until you understand key, chord progression, and scales - at least enough to write harmoniously. Picking up another instrument helps a lot.
If you know scales, try this method: think of the rhythm in your head (datah dah dah, datah dah dah datah datah, etc) and then lay out the midi pattern as just one note (probably the root note of your key, or the same note as the bassline). Then, listen to the loop back with your tune, and raise or lower a couple of the notes to harmonious intervals (I like and abuse the 2nd, minor 3rd, 5th, and the 7th just below the root!). Add portamento to taste.
You said you're using delay, so that can also be used creatively for groove: I often just start with a couple syncopated notes at the beginning of a measure and see if the delay inspires a rhythm, and then I try to keep that rhythm going with more notes.
Often, darkpsy leads are not constructed into melodies, and are just gated sounds. Try throwing a midi gate (stormgate is a nice freebie) onto a synth channel, and designing an epic fucking pad. Throw some disto on it, some delay before or after the gate, and adjust filtering to taste. Save your gate presets so that you have a few at your fingertips for inspiration - you can turn any atmosphere into a melody this way. Why not start gating the pad as the bass drops in for continuity and flow? etc...
Hope some of that was useful...
 Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. ~Kurt Vonnegut
www.soundcloud.com/mixyott |
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Anihillusion
Started Topics :
3
Posts :
5
Posted : Mar 8, 2012 18:43
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Cheers for the advice Loki - yeah my musical background is quite interesting, yes I know my scales - I am also a dark ambient producer - and have also produced quite a few orchestral pieces in the past (also used to create both drum and bass and dubstep) - and I know my way around synthesizers.
I am pretty good with writing melodies, but when it comes to darkpsy I kind of get a mental block or something lol.
Been listening to a lot of Terranoise and Kanibal holokaust -
Ill check out that Stormgate - cheers for the heads up on it.
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Oni Katsu
Li/fe
Started Topics :
101
Posts :
704
Posted : Mar 8, 2012 20:06
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Well, first, you make the pattern that you want inside your head. Then i'ts time to go creative!
Add short lower notes that play harmonically together with the high ones
Make a funky rythm and move the notes as you want.
instant trick for noobs like David Guetta: Move note up three notes, five notes, one note.
Or, move it down two, or four
Gogo variety, already unlimited choices for cheesy guetta melodies. -__-
http://soundcloud.com/li-fe
I said I like it dirty, not muddy. |
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Anihillusion
Started Topics :
3
Posts :
5
Posted : Mar 8, 2012 20:50
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Quote:
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On 2012-03-08 20:06, Oni Katsu wrote:
Well, first, you make the pattern that you want inside your head. Then i'ts time to go creative!
Add short lower notes that play harmonically together with the high ones
Make a funky rythm and move the notes as you want.
instant trick for noobs like David Guetta: Move note up three notes, five notes, one note.
Or, move it down two, or four
Gogo variety, already unlimited choices for cheesy guetta melodies. -__-
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Im not really interested in David Guetta - he is quite welcome to all the cheesey melodies he wants. 
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ansolas
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
977
Posted : Mar 10, 2012 12:52
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Sunrise Travellers
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
17
Posts :
585
Posted : Mar 10, 2012 15:25
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Quote:
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On 2012-03-10 12:52, ansolas wrote:
>just wondered if anyone had any advice or tips on creating >lead patterns -
Just play on the keyboard until you find something you like
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+1
with delay and tiny reverb also...
start with the same note as bass and play with few notes after...
a nice way is to see some midi melodies or to try also arpeggiator.
if you are ableton user try apreggiator and scale both are on midi effects.
but my opinion is that the better way is to practice!
Good luck
...into the wild.... |
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Alien Bug
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
27
Posts :
682
Posted : Mar 10, 2012 17:34
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or just download midipacks with premade patterns
pro & amateur musicians use premade synth patches+premade samples+premade midi patters.
if you want to learn music and production, it's just for your own satisfaction.
today nobody cares how it was made a track. "Stars" like ATB make music composed wholly from prepared sequences such as a synthesizer reFX Nexus. people love it and nobody cares do you have sacrificed two months of sleepless nights straining your brain to the limit, or just connected the 3 blocks in 2 minutes.
sorry i have weak day today ;-)
http://www.beatport.com/release/cross-the-atoms/1042450
http://soundcloud.com/alien-bug
http://www.facebook.com/ali3nBug |
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makus
Overdream
Started Topics :
82
Posts :
3087
Posted : Mar 10, 2012 22:24
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Quote:
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On 2012-03-08 18:43, Anihillusion wrote:
but when it comes to darkpsy I kind of get a mental block or something lol.
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ahem 
www.overdreamstudio.com |
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loki
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
49
Posts :
429
Posted : Mar 10, 2012 23:29
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Quote:
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On 2012-03-10 22:24, makus wrote:
Quote:
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On 2012-03-08 18:43, Anihillusion wrote:
but when it comes to darkpsy I kind of get a mental block or something lol.
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ahem
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+1
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. ~Kurt Vonnegut
www.soundcloud.com/mixyott |
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Goa_sun_sea_sand
Started Topics :
0
Posts :
9
Posted : Apr 29, 2012 22:12
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Vermeee
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
1069
Posted : Apr 30, 2012 01:34
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creating the midi patterns its one of the moments of creating a track that u ll most use ur creativity process.. to come out of nothing ... to come out from the void.
so you realy need to be in that mood...
be relaxed and with ur senses opened , pay atention in what ur mind s singin and copy that melody....
in the begginin is hard to identify the notes and identify the rythims that those melodies in ur head are playin speacialy without music background but with time u can get every time closer and closer....
use some basic synth sound to acomplish that goal of copin the melody of ur head coz its easier so if u were able to copy it u can start to create/record the synth sounds.... record as much as u can from that midi line... but only record those synth sounds that are already cool to listen on their own. you ll prob wish more extreme weird sounds coz u want to do dark trance ( extremes resonances, extremes fms, extreme lfo modulations etc ) then start to layer/edit/chop/ etc those loops with different fxs etc to come up with news varities from that midi pattern that u first create to start ur track and there it goes...
anyway this s the way i ve been progressin , i know there are many different approaches on it and i know many people create midi patterns coming from test and errors.... playin random in the keyboard till come with something cool..but i find this lot harder... but to copy melodies from the mind s not something that u are open to do everyday.... its bout time..
a good exemple is..... stay 1 week without smokin a finger... and without working in music so ur mind can feel anxious bout doin music...and then go to some waterfal and smoke a fat finger... if u have this real desire of makin music.. notice how a loop melodie will start to sing in ur mind.... Obviously u dont need drugs to do this... its better if u can achieve such sense without drugs... but as exemple...who cares lol...
http://soundcloud.com/bgos |
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Goa_sun_sea_sand
Started Topics :
0
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9
Posted : Apr 30, 2012 18:06
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Goa_sun_sea_sand
Started Topics :
0
Posts :
9
Posted : Apr 30, 2012 18:07
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aciduss
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
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1490
Posted : Apr 30, 2012 19:03
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