… the ones that you keep using, and reusing, and abusing.
Me: tracks made of 3 parts. I care, and I am going to try to expand to more than 3 parts, or break the idea down - but only if it makes sense and if it feels right.
he talks about it in this track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6iCaZDVu7A
I use sample packs, just like I did in the early 2000s (sometimes the exact same ones!). Don’t care what anyone thinks, won’t stop doing it. I like fucking with samples, more people should do it.
Rhythmic gate to chop stuff. Also, I have a sample of a kitchen clock I recorded ages ago and it finds its way into a lot of tracks.
Also also, eq the bottom end off everything except the sub bass. And usually even that. Makes my tracks sound big even on small speakers.
people say the sp404 fx are cliche, probably the DJ repeat effect being the most recognizable and common offender. but i havent heard any of the songs where its being used, let alone overused, so i will stay glitching up my beats and making fun zipper sounds with the DJ repeat
If it sounds good, it is good
A few section transition cliches
–Using an extreme pitch drop on the main melodic part as a “tape stop.” I’ve made myself stop doing this for a while because I feel like I was leaning on it too heavily
–Dropping out most instruments for a bar or half a bar. I’m on the fence about whether or not this is cliche or just a good standard technique
–Cymbal crash to announce a new section. Probably not retiring this one, but will be using it less to force myself to come up with fresher transitions
4 to the floor kick. I don’t care it is a cliche.
Not going to do anything about it.
Why? - about 30 years ago I got tired of 4 to the floor, and for a while stopped and used different rhythms for kick, but decided it was daft to avoid, so started using it again, because most of the time, for the stuff I do, it works best.
delay and or reverb for transitioning patterns. Probably the most effective way to jam for me without over thinking how to transition in a pinch. Bonus points for tempo synced infinite feedback for creating layers
Doing lots of OB6 only improvising lately and sweeping the amp LFO frequency to make it jitter about into a buzz and back is hard to resist even though it’s obvious as it sounds so pretty.
But then the more decades you spend listening to music the more you’re like “That little run again famous pianist?” “That delay effect again famous guitar act?” “That rhyme pattern again famous MC?” “That vocal trick again amazing singer?” etc. Or even “how on earth have you managed to make a great song out of the same 3 chords not only everyone else but you also keep using?”
Taking a cliche and making it feel fresh is one of the hardest challenges in music. Especially if it’s so subtle you can’t even explain why it’s better than the rest. And if the cliche is just something you do a lot I feel we should be happier about all our own tracks sounding the same, as long as they don’t sound like anyone else’s.
You just described 80% of my Prophet 6 usage.
Honestly it’s a damn good sounding digital LFO. They are all made differently, and some sound better than others. OB6/P6 just have this nice crisp sound to them.
Lightly broken/digital but in a good way.
4 to the floor should meet the heavy Big Beat “One” beat.
Saturation on literally everything.
Dropping out most of the instruments, throwing in a moody speech sample from a movie/game, bringing everything back + a new sound or two. I lean on this technique so much but it’s so effective.
related to the above, filtering speech so it sounds like it’s coming out of a crappy phone speaker/ old radio.
birds/ running water/ traffic in the background, especially intros/ outros - it just sounds nice.
very mild LFO to pitch of one oscillator to make a warbly synth patch. It’s my favorite type of patch.
static/ bitcrush/ distortion-to-oblivion to finish a song. And its opposite, bitcrushing/ filtering a new part in, especially drums.
Related to this topic, I remember when Oversteps came out, people complained that so many Autechre songs kind of build up and then fall apart. Like yeah, sure, but the songs all sound different enough anyway that I never understood the complaint.
Meat Beat?
Edit: damn, now corrected. Still funny.
Meat to Meet ha
Yeah, that must have been a Freudian slip, given that they make great use of that heavy 1 beat sound.
Using Roland TR drum sounds.
A lot of folk reckon they are cliche, but they fucking work. Everytime. Minimal effort, maximum punch.
Working that lpf Cutoff and Resonance!!!
When I’m 15 minutes into tweaking the filter on a 4 bar loop, these songs play in my head back to back.
Agreed. I love my Syntakt but I’ve never made a snare that punches like the 808 one.
Hi pass/eq the drums for transitions or intermissions.
+1 drenching stuff in delay and reverb in the end
Of course opening filter and increasing decay/sustain/release, mostly on melodic stuff
Insert conditional trigs with re-trig on odd numbers (3/5/7) and not neighbor (drums), same for rhythmic melodic lines but repeat a note 1-3 times instead of re-trig and straighter numbers (like 2:4).
Want to to the vocal and surroundings samples stuff that @m0ld mentioned all the time but don’t have enough samples, so I‘ve started to collect more
«SH-101» (actually S-1) + «TB-303» (actually TB-3 and MB-33) + combo.
cliché AF, sounds exactly like countless goa tracks from early/mid 90s – and that’s exactly why i’m using it.