The science behind sounds gelling?

Hey lads,

How is everyone keeping?





I have just been thinking away to myself all day about how come some sounds gel better than other sounds?

ie. If I had the same midi clip loaded into 2 tracks with a synth on each track and began flicking through presets, even tho both synts are play the exact same notes some sounds sound great and others terrible…what is the science behind that???



My obvious taughts were it’s down to the frequencies of both sounds but if I was looking at both sounds on separate spectrum analysers will it be a case if the sounds are to close together on the analyser they sound bad or should they sound better if they are closer together???

Is there a formula to it or what?



Iv tried experimenting to try figure it out buT honestly I have only confused myself even more.






[quote]Bub (03/02/2011)[hr]Hey lads,

How is everyone keeping?





I have just been thinking away to myself all day about how come some sounds gel better than other sounds?

ie. If I had the same midi clip loaded into 2 tracks with a synth on each track and began flicking through presets, even tho both synts are play the exact same notes some sounds sound great and others terrible…what is the science behind that???



My obvious taughts were it’s down to the frequencies of both sounds but if I was looking at both sounds on separate spectrum analysers will it be a case if the sounds are to close together on the analyser they sound bad or should they sound better if they are closer together???

Is there a formula to it or what?



Iv tried experimenting to try figure it out buT honestly I have only confused myself even more.







[/quote]



Maybe the synth is tuned to a different key ?:slight_smile:

Some synth presets are detuned so they will clash with a tuned instrument.

Haha I was expecting some mad scientific answer but yeah that makes perfect sense now.(I was looking in the completely different direction on this one)





So in theory then I should get sounds to sit together better by messing about with the detune??? Yeah.





Out of curiosty then when layering sounds or even deciding on the different sounds to use for you basslines,leads,stabs ect… Do you guys have an idea as to what type of sounds you want or is it a case of flicking through presets or building a sound from scratch?



Why I ask is I seem to spend 90% of my production time just finding sounds that sound good together, like I mite make a basslines and drumloop in like 20 mins but spend 2 hours trying to find a sound that goes with my baseline for a stab then another 2 hours coming up with a lead sound.





By this time I have been listening to my bass an drum loop on repeat for 4 hours and more often than not at this point I actually hate the sound of my original loop.





My apologise for this long post but I’m just wondering what I should be taking into account when deciding on the different sounds to use… I’m just sick of my tracks depending on random strokes of luck whilst preset hopping.

Sound familiar. I think it gets easier with experience, but if you want some help then listen to a track in the style that you are doing and think about the sounds they use.

Think about where in the freq spectrum the sound is. Think about the envelope, is it long and evolving, short and plucky. And think about the timbre., is it a bass, a bell or whoosh etc

You don’t need to make the same sounds, but borrow some of their characteristics, it might make things a little easier while you are learning.

[quote]TheAnt (03/02/2011)[hr]Sound familiar. I think it gets easier with experience, but if you want some help then listen to a track in the style that you are doing and think about the sounds they use.



Think about where in the freq spectrum the sound is. Think about the envelope, is it long and evolving, short and plucky. And think about the timbre., is it a bass, a bell or whoosh etc



You don’t need to make the same sounds, but borrow some of their characteristics, it might make things a little easier while you are learning.[/quote]



This +1 and you wont go wrong :slight_smile:

If all else fails you could just produce Gabber, just throw together lots of noise, speed it up, over distort the kicks and you’re done.

Cheers Ant…

Your comment kinda put things in perspective for me,

I’m just gonna have to sit down an come at it from another angle ie. Think about the sounds allot more before just shoving random sounds around till something works.





@roben… Sometimes I listen to a four bar loop for so long it begins to sound like gabber.