Chosing Sounds

[Dan42ukParticipant]

Hi Guys,
Great posts on the forum so far.

This is my first,
I was thinking, the biggest thing that I think I have learnt from Warren's tutorials so far, is that he, and other pro's seem to chose the right sounds for a track, that instinctively work well together and give the track clarity.
This is something that I've never really thought about before.
So what would you guys say were good sounds/instruments that would work well together and what would be your reasons be? - or maybe what instruments would you definitely not put together!

I could see that a thick sounding electric guitar and a thick round sounding bass probably wouldn't work together, but a thick guitar and a twangy bass sound could - or a tambourine to give a track lacking high end.

Anyways, if anyone has any further input, it would be great to hear about it!

All the best.

Dan

[Cris Sabater SabaterParticipant]

Hi Dan, yes Warren is good because he knows what works! To be honest this is all part of production and arrangement. A good arrangement will have sounds that compliment each other so some thought has to go into this beforehand! I find that a really good way of finding what works best is to hop onto YouTube and find the genre of music you want to work on first off. Have a listen to the instruments and the way they are arranged. I bet you will find no matter which genre it is they will fit together like pieces of a jigsaw! The only way to get good is to write and produce lots of music day in day out and see how different elements work and which ones work best with which. For example, a Rock record. Guitars panned L & R Bass down the middle Drums maybe synths and a vocalist. The kick drum and the bass have to work together and some like one to rule the other while some like myself like both to be friends and work together. So finding sound that work before mixing will help greatly! The guitars also can be a challenge! I always pan my guitars maybe not always hard L & R but almost if the are only two. The trick is to use different sounds and in the case of Rock don't have sounds that are too saturated! This will just mush the sound up and lack clarity so bank off the gain slightly. Now I have a fancy way of recording amp sims which makes them sound more authentic and as lots of us have these this trick may come in useful. Pick the amp sounds you want through the amp sim and I place a tube pedal before going into my Focusrite soundcard. I have the gain low about two on the dial and adjust the tone dials to compliment the sound I am looking for and this makes a huge difference! This works better on sounds that are not totally clean. This is just an example of the lengths I will go to for the sounds I want. But you will find your own ways of doing things! Have fun and happy productions!

Cheers mate,

Cris

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