Members ElectricPuppy Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Hey, Mister Beginning Keyboard Player. Yes, you. So now you've got that nifty new keyboard for Christmas and you're enjoying yourself by playing dark, brooding, monster chords on your reverb-soaked piano/pad patch, drowning yourself in a sonic tsunami by nailing the sustain pedal down and whipping all 64 voices into a constant frenzy... Stop that. You're just making mud. Get your foot off that sustain pedal. It makes you sound like an amateur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 OK ... That's number one on this list of the SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF SYNTHS ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SoundwaveLove Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 What are the other 6? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Just think of everything you do ... Seriously, though ... Here's a candidate ... (though more a matter of taste than style or technique) ... Playing "Jump," "Fur Elise" or "My Immortal" in a Guitar Center ... JUST ... DON'T ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members carbon111 Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Okay, I'll bite. How about: Try some structure. While your AAAA drone opus or hot dance track may be fun to create, it may not have enough structural variety to keep your listeners interested. ABAB is a good beginning, then you can throw a solo or a break in there: ABACAB Even if it is a dance track or drone piece, alternate textures and rhythms - mix it up, keep em' guessing. It will keep your audience from getting fatigued or, even worse, bored. I was listening to Underworld's "Second Toughest in the Infants" the other day and was amazed that, even though timbrally the songs are minimalistic, there's a nice pattern to the overall song structures that keeps things lively and engaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted January 7, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Okay, I'll bite. How about: Try some structure. While your AAAA drone opus or hot dance track may be fun to create, it may not have enough structural variety to keep your listeners interested. ABAB is a good beginning, then you can throw a solo or a break in there: ABACAB Even if it is a dance track or drone piece, alternate textures and rhythms - mix it up, keep em' guessing. It will keep your audience from getting fatigued or, even worse, bored. I like where this thread is going. Nice one, Carbon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stillearning Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Along the same lines as Carbon, I like to think of a good musical piece being a bit like a good novel. It should tell a story of sorts, and that requires DYNAMICS. A song that is played at the same volume level from beginning to end is boring. There needs to be conflict and resolution (on multiple levels), and one way to achieve this is through quiet passages deftly interwoven within the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kpatz Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Playing "Jump," "Fur Elise" or "My Immortal" in a Guitar Center ... JUST ... DON'T ...Only if the guitar players are also banned from playing "Stairway to Heaven..." No "Stairway!?" Denied! I assume The Final Countdown or Separate Ways is ok though... 7 Deadly synth sins... here's a couple that come to mind: Using factory presets for synth sounds, especially on an analog or VA... Using supersaw... in anything... Using a portamento sine-wave "rap whistle" or thin portamento buzzy pulse wave with HPF... in anything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 I have to disagree on the supersaw ... You can make some really nice pads on V-Synth with the old SS ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stella Joop Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 thread title should be changed to "Seven deadly sins of playing keys" the picture Diametro posted gave me lols Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SoundwaveLove Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Just think of everything you do ... Everything I do? I alone break every synth sin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stella Joop Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Everything I do? I alone break every synth sin? of course, this is the internet. i have never heard your music but i can guarantee you are doing it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted January 7, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 thread title should be changed to "Seven deadly sins of playing keys" the picture Diametro posted gave me lols 1. Thou shalt not pin down the sustain pedal.2. Thou shalt not repeat the same loop ad naeseum.3. Thou shall learn to use thy dynamics. More please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Do not covet they neighbor's synth ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members akliner Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thou shall play more than just octaves with thy lefted hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members burster Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thou shall play arpeggios by hand not machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted January 7, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thou shall play more than just octaves with thy lefted hand. Aww dammit you stole my next tip! Along those lines, don't just play the chord root. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members VCOrhubarb Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 thin portamento buzzy pulse wave with HPF... in anything... I've been searching for a reasonably priced Yamaha CS10 exactly for this purpose. I'm sure you meant thin pulse wave in a rap context or something I love the thin pulse with portamento for playing cute melodies. Can't say that about the 50% square wave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J3RK Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Using a portamento sine-wave "rap whistle" or thin portamento buzzy pulse wave with HPF... in anything... I take issue with this one. I love a good portamento(ed) simple waveform (in many genres) I prefer it to be more of a ghostly theremin Ghostbusters sort of sound, but it's good even in the rap context. Nice with a touch of vibrato at the end of a part too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members psionic11 Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thou shalt not make every rhythm "boom chick boom chick" or any numbing variation thereof: boomtsa boomtsa boomtsa boomtsaboom boom chick.... boom boom chick.... boom chip pop chip boom chip pop chip THOU SHALT USE FILLS!!! There's more to life than even 2, 4, and 8s... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J3RK Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 They need to finish their thought. That is a sentence fragment, and it makes me angry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stella Joop Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thou shalt not make every rhythm "boom chick boom chick" or any numbing variation thereof: boomtsa boomtsa boomtsa boomtsa boom boom chick.... boom boom chick.... boom chip pop chip boom chip pop chip THOU SHALT USE FILLS!!! There's more to life than even 2, 4, and 8s... this isnt teh drum forum its down teh hall to ur left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members psionic11 Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 this isnt teh drum forum its down teh hall to ur left. Haha, my bad. I assumed that us key/synth/samplers (including workstation) arr-tees-tess were at the top of the tree, and everything else -- guitars, drum, didgeridoo -- was a subset of ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crawling Wind Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 If you fast forward through a good drone, it's ALWAYS different, even if it sounds like nothing much has changed. It has. Okay, I'll bite. How about:Try some structure.While your AAAA drone opus or hot dance track may be fun to create, it may not have enough structural variety to keep your listeners interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chando Posted January 7, 2010 Members Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thou shall play more than just octaves with thy lefted hand. maybe for piano. But most big synth sounds where you play both octaves of the bass note on your left.... would sound like awful mud if you played a chord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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