This is the place to experience beat samples that I have created, so as to not clutter the shoutbox. Ahoy! That’s what politics is for. :p

I don’t quite have a specific structure in mind for this thread yet.

So sample this!
https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...46538964901889

It sounds like the intense moment in action movies :D

Still figuring out all the ins and outs of my drum machine, so nothing new cooked up just yet.

But have a loop.

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...17693333757954

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It's tangy enough, but could be more salty.

It could really use a few thousand didgeridoos!

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I forget which it was but there was one I heard last week I really liked.

Cool! :cool:

Do you recall if it was shared from Instagram or Twitter?

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I do not. I think it was the one with the title about starships, but I'm not sure.

Loop this!
https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...45289449115651
Ah, OK. You are probably thinking of a finished track:



So cool that you like it. That’s one of my favorite creations thus far.

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And speaking of finished track I laid this down tonight. Low-fi AF. I offer zero assurances you will enjoy it.

Was it the tangy one?

I like this one quite a bit. A cool project would be to re-do this one a year from now, after you have progressed in the creation of unique tones, then compare them.

Thanks! And I like that idea. :cool:

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Tonight was an experimentation in creating atmosphere.

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...59905564061697

I listened to all in this thread so far. Dueling Starships is my favorite. Really offbeat and fun. It reminds me a bit of Coil’s early 90s stuff. I like the idea of posting some loops to give people a taste. Works well for the internet’s ADHD raddled brain. Looking forward to more. :)

So glad you like Dueling Starships. That was one of the first works I did when I started messing with speed and pitch, and I learned a lot about putting stuff together with that track.

And yes to the ADHD part! That's exactly what I thought when I started creating these loops. I'm doing it so that I'm constantly putting something in front of my audience and keeping their attention. It's also a great way for me to gauge interest and find sounds/vibes to turn into longer/larger productions.

Continuation of last night’s exercise

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...23812272082952

That’s smart. It can be disheartening to put a lot of work into something and see the stats tell you that someone scanned it in 10 seconds.

I like the last one a lot. Cool synth-y part and very pretty mood set by the voices.

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Sometimes I just want to hit the drums...

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...34218065797120

Wasn’t anticipating on being so productive today: pardon my double post

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...82585978425344

And now I’m triple posting, but I was pretty hyped about finishing this track. Put a lot of work into it today.

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...84582500950021

I dunno why but it sounds like **** if you listen to it here.

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And I definitely think I have the intro to a new track with this one:

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...62213358432256

Here’s some 🔥 🔥 🔥

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...06842488201216

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:up: or :down:

phat or flat?

dope or mope?

lame and tame, or fame and game?

:lol:

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...61192780980225

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https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...89910028865537

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...13625933389824

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...12316577353730

🔥🔥🔥

https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...38139166740480

This is my favorite I've heard from you in a while. Everything sounds great together. I especially love the bass and ambient bells. Chill and atmospheric.

This tweet sums up how I produce.
https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...48953013440512

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Vocals
@Sedai
@re93animator
https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...14655699832832

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Things are starting to tighten up. Keep up the good work!

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You're already a step ahead of me. I'm still too reluctant to record vocals that don't end up sounding like Satanic alien robots. It sounds good, the beat is nice and thick, and your delivery is cool & confident. I would just put some reverb and maybe short delay on the vocals to give them more 'room,' but I'm not sure how in depth you can get with FX in garageband.

@re93animator thanks for the input, and I definitely agree. And I’m running through a PreSonus mixer so I can apply effects there and then I can add another layer of effects with GarageBand. I just was feeling the vibe of clean vocals when I was testing the setup.

And I’ve already thought of a second verse, so I’m gunna have to re-record anyhow once I get it tweaked

And I know the feeling about being reluctant to record vocals. I wanted them to sound as tight as possible this time around after my last attempt/fiasco. But the setup works beautifully with my iPhone

More vocals: only 35 seconds long @Sedai @re93animator

They sound a lot better now, and don't take attention away from instrumentation. I'm by no means a black belt producer, but everything sounds pretty tight and balanced to me, and I'm sure it's only going to get better. :)

Thanks, dude! I really appreciate that sentiment. :blush:

I double tracked the vocals toward the end, and they have the slightest bit of delay/reverb on it.

New workflow tonight.
https://twitter.com/toniebarde/statu...72785006268416

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More noise

Quite proud of this one: I’ve learned some new production tricks

Sounds solid. Cool piano and synth sounds with a unique drum pattern, and the delays add some good atmosphere. :up:

^^^Maybe my favorite mini-track from you yet. The vocal synth is sweet, and dialogue sample brings me back to the EBM I grew up with. Makes me want to hear a full version.

Here is a rough version of how I originally heard it in my head.



Re: short clips. I’ve been tending towards the short stuff because, while I want to release my own music, synchronization rights are a lucrative business and that stuff is usually like only 1-2 minutes long.

Been putting out a lot of trash lately :facepalm:

But I thought this was 🔥

😅

@Sedai
@re93animator
@ynwtf

:up: I'd EQ the vocals with some more mid-highs for a bit more clarity, but I'm not super experienced with mixing vocals so my intuition may be wrong. The leads and piano blend together well and sound unique. The bass is the thickest I've heard from you yet. :)

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lol that's great. that your voice? your accent too or you exaggerating it? totally works either way. good job lol.

Yup, that’s my voice. Accent and all. :D

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Reminds me of Melle Mel! Good job!

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@Sedai @ynwtf @re93animator

Got some awesome news. My first single has been accepted and will be dropping August 13th. :D

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Very cool and grats. What is the format? I mean, like how would we access it?

From my understanding it should hit the following digital stores: Apple Music / iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud.

I will be signing up for the paid service for my next release (Turn It Off) because I think it has viral potential, and I will want it everywhere. ;)

EDIT: I forgot to add that this first one is awful. Don’t buy it. haha

Now that I have a machine that can keep up: here's a little Sunday afternoon finger drumming practice. If you're in to that sorta thing.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see what the webcam would look like and it’s about what I expected. Choppy and blown out. Fits my vibes :lol:

I'm just loading up random kits and going crazy. Pretty fun, but I should probably start developing some technique exercises. I think my favorite thing about finger drumming is there's no right way to do it.

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I love those samples. I trust that one day your finger drumming will be as good as the legend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr-Cr999fy0

Slowly piecing together my future direction. I want to utilize IGTV more.

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Now this is my type of kit.

@re93animator - never give up, never surrender! kill em all!

@Sedai @ynwtf @re93animator

I was messing around with duplicating that autotune sound. I tried not to put too much on but now that I know how to do it I kinda wanna put a lot on :rotfl:

Sauce it up! Know what I’m sayin :D

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MoFo exclusive (i.e. I was too chicken to make it public)

https://soundcloud.com/toniebarde/my.../s-2GsInG6uCfS

The way this sounds is how I feel :(

I'm liking the more bizarre direction of the last two. Moody, odd, and atmospheric. I really like the intent and hope you explore more stuff like this. :)

Woooo. That's pretty cool. I need to hear David Bowie's voice over that. Or at least a smokey saxophone.


I recommend listening to the song, A Small Plot of Land by Bowie. In fact, take on the entire album, Outside, if you're bored. Great weird stuff that might inspire.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’ve been having a hard time trying to make anything since my gramps passed. Everything feels like I’m throwing **** against the wall, so I decided to embrace that as a production trait.*

There’s a lot of small revolving parts with effects that I layered together to get a 8bar backing track. Then I merged it all, stretched to 16bars, added some more stuff, merged it to get a 2nd backing track, and then stretched it to 32bars to lay down the piano and I played it how I felt: ****ty.

Some of the previous stuff I’ve made was made in the same way but I did fewer things and was going for a cleaner sound. This time I wanted something that captured the **** feelings trapped in my head.

I have plans to do heavier lifting in December to flesh out a longer project, and it is probably going to be pretty similar to these. First holiday season without gramps. I’m gunna be a wreck and I think that’s already reflecting in my work, so I suspect my first longer project is going to come from a dark place. Anything to keep me busy.

Throwing sh*t at the wall is my MO. I used to love listening to early Residents albums for some encouragement, knowing that they made a cult-friendly career out of drunk instrumentation, low fidelity production, and uber bizarre experimentation. Your songs reminded me a bit of that. A polarizing sound for normies, but I mean that as a compliment.

I'm so sorry to read about your grandpa. May he rest in peace.

Yeah, I have a polarizing sound for sure. :D

And I totally will take that as a compliment.

And I appreciate that. They say sorrow drives good art, but I’m just trying to stay busy.

I tried a lot of new stuff on this track:

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And I think I have the beginnings of something lyrics wise for that funky sounding track I made last week.

Another awful vocal take :D



I know there’s something great in me somewhere. Just gotta dig deep enough to find it. You only need one song to change your life. For real.

I gotta say I really love this lofi **** sound I’ve been onto of late. Learning a lot, too. Very trial and error. Screw with it until it sounds horrible, make notes, and try again till I hear something I like.

I need to get another single together since the last one bombed hard. :D

Probably the last one of these till the new year, but I definitely think I will need to revisit this one and make a single from it. I have a lot more to say, but this bit was the highlight of what I got so far.

I love hip-hop, but I hate the industry.

This one doesn't work for me now, but it was awesome when I heard it earlier. The gritty production really helped it. I'd definitely be interested in a fuller version. Your production chops sound like they're improving.

I archived it, so it’s not public anymore. I hold a lot of my darker stuff back. Put it up for a few days to gauge response to the sound. But yeah, I really liked that one. Kick is from one of the newer kits GarageBand added. Both their keyboard and new drum kits have opened up my possibilities even more now. However, I am approaching the limits for what I want to do and it is time to commit to another DAW.

@ynwtf already knows I been wrestling with this decision for awhile now. I have narrowed it down to two options: StudioOne 5 and Waveform 11.

I want to like StudioOne. I really do. Every time I read the feature list it makes me feel overwhelmed by all the **** I gotta learn to get to the professional sound. And since everything looks the same I can’t distinguish stuff, so the interface intimidates me.

Then there’s Waveform which is just beautiful to me. Visually I can understand how things work. The EQ tools and mastering tools aren’t as overwhelming. Plus, it’s half the cost of StudioOne but still affords me access to Melodyne, AutoTune, and timewarping tools. There instruments seem far more expressive, too. I just get the distinct feeling that I will create faster and better in Waveform.

I still see myself using GarageBand but the EQ and effects plug-in chain is starting to limit me.

I'm definitely drawn more to the darker stuff, but I get you. I've put a year into an entire album, and withheld it because it was too personal.

I think some people place too much emphasis on competing DAWs (akin to tribal PS/Xbox folks). They're sound canvasses, and the flagship ones all pretty much do the same fundamental things. I think the main thing to consider is workflow, and the best way to know for sure which DAW has the most desirable layout/key commands for you is to experiment with them.

I'm far from an expert or pro, but I would recommend against choosing a DAW just based on what plugins they come with, because as time goes by, you'll probably want to start using better third party plugins anyway. They'll likely have a much bigger impact on your sound than choice of DAW.

I use the infamous FL Studio (almost entirely with third party plugins and samples). It was the first DAW I'd even heard of years ago, and I immediately downloaded it (I own it now) without bothering to research any alternatives. The reason I'm still using it is because I know the workflow like the back of my hand. A few years ago I thought FL may have been no good just because of the reputation, so I tried the lauded Ableton, expecting it to do my laundry and repair the dishwasher, but was disappointed when I realized that they essentially do the same stuff in slightly different ways. My music sounded the same either way.

From what else I know, Pro Tools is industry standard (if you feel like sending project files to other pro engineers and whatnot), Ableton is popular with electronic musicians, and Cubase is popular with orchestral composers (I think it has staff notation software). Logic, Reason, and Studio One are other big ones I hear tossed around. After a quick youtube peek at Waveform, it looks cool too. Whatever you get, you will make dope sh*t. :)

@re93animator: Agreed. I have been down the rabbit hole so many times over the last year trying to decide on a DAW, but it has mainly just been a cost to benefit issue. Stock plugins is how I do the majority of my work (aside from all the Native Instruments stuff I got). Most of my sound design comes from using the stock EQ tools and the like to morph a kick from weak to peak, and the Waveforms EQ tools make sense to my eyes.

In the end, a truly professional sound is going to require a good sound engineer. No question about it. There’s just no competing with the quality of mixing/mastering that can be achieved by some dude that only does that, so I instead focused on the creative side. I wanted something that says to me “create!” I really wish I had a MacBook because I’d be on Logic and this whole conversation would be moot. Alas, I is broke.

I do already have a few third party plugins for recreating the sound of tape. I love the sound of hiss and warping sound. I also have the chipsynth from Plogue which is outstanding, and has sat unused until today. :D

Another reason I went with Waveform is that there isn’t a shortage of free training videos from the company and other streamers. There’s this one streamer actually who I found who’s method of explaining **** just clicks. Nothing pains me more than watching a ten minutes video trying to learning something and at the end I’m more confused and pissed than when I started.

My mild understanding of FL Studio’s infamous streetcred is because people think it’s difficult or not very powerful, which is far from the truth. I see more independents using FL to make some awesome stuff. Must be a hold over from the old days because FL is pretty powerful when I glance at it.

TL; DR - I bought Waveform and am fiddling with it now and it has clicked and holy ****, I am a convert. This software is amazing at this price

Here's a quick sample I made with Waveform just to get a feel for it. That's ROLI's Blade Runner preset with the Cassette the tape plugin I was talking about.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhxlAqRf3_HPvQuCA8Ba3MbyVH2i

I focus on the creative side more as well, but learn production along the way out of necessity. I try not to focus on professionalism or loudness too much, and often think of production as an extension of creativity.

I recommend creating a pluginboutique or loopmasters account. They have good deals that pop up every now and then. Unfortunately the end of year ones seem mostly over now.

FL started as a pretty non-serious, fun little piece of bum-tiss-bum-tiss software called Fruity Loops, but it's been updated up the wazoo and is now as powerful as any other DAW as far as I know. The lifetime free updates give me more confidence in the security of that investment.

I like the old tape plugins too. I just got AudioThing's Wires and have been spamming it in most of my recent work. :)

@re93animator: yup, I have a pluginboutique account. I want to say I used it to get iZotope but I can’t remember. I’ll need to check on that.

But I was fiddling with Waveform yesterday and the work flow clicked. I really do love this interface. Now if I only knew how to be creative by just clicking midi notes in. Time to learn a new way of producing.

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https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhxlAqRf3_HPvTPLbYYSvpiFWTld

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhxlAqRf3_HPvTQ7RIkGTj-K2pfV

Me trying my hand at a WHOLE bunch of new stuff I learned today. They are the same file but one has been exported at -12 RMS so I could see how it compared. I love this DAW. Once I get it figured out totally I think the creative bug will come back, but it works amazingly with my ROLI Seaboard. Lots of MPE instruments already builtin to their Collective VST.

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I'm sorry ya'll but I am just too excited by what I can do now that I find some software I am comfortable with so bare with the ear spam.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhxlAqRf3_HPvVKbFyL_IaJf8ySq

I dunno. Do I have enough kick? xD

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I can't promise I won't post more of these. The more I mess with all these tools I already had the more I want to make something.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhxlAqRf3_HPvVcUx1cDzYnree37

First beat of 2021. Could be worse I suppose. 😅

EDIT: This post just became my most popular post ever. Holy crap, I need to get this knocked out as a single soon.

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https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhxlAqRf3_HPvlQZ5V-vi9i4Nwy_

I'm still figuring out this new workflow. Lots of clicking on stuff to see what does what.

:up: The call & response vocals fit you really well, and I'm liking your instrumental mixing a little bit more every time I hear it.

I especially like the instrumental you posted 4 days ago. Sounds akin to late-70s synth scores.