I've been so use to using piano rolls that I don't really need to do this to be "creative" sure it looks cool to the non trained eye but it just wastes time honestly.

I like how this is sounding.  The snare is really sweet, a very nice donk.  I think it would sound really sick to reinforce the drops with some beefy supersaw/futuresaw chords, and then throw in some movement changes/tremolo variations!
Keep it up.

Quote from: Wontolla on January 11, 2016, 07:27:58 am

I think I get the general idea? sort of? but there has to be a better word for that than "emotional". "What kind of emotion you aiming for?" "Oh, you know, emotional."
This is just one of those things that irritates me for dumb reasons because I'm dumb.

Wow, you have a hilarious way of making fun of people... even calling them dumb by calling yourself dumb. Maybe suggest a word, though... tempestuous, sentimental, somber, brooding, contemplative? You'd have to be pretty mean-spirited to make the comments you did...

Quote from: Wontolla on January 11, 2016, 07:27:58 am

Especially since in EDM, you can't rely on lyrics to show a wide emotional range.

... considering the EDM track with lyrics that was posted to address your original red-herring reply. You'd have to be pretty uncaring not to get a clue from something this obvious : https://soundcloud.com/poisonstings/poisonstings-out #emotional


To answer poisonstings question: I usually create jovial, introspective melodies and thematic ideas. If a song is mostly composed (but missing a melody), I'll come up with something to fit the mood of the song.

Quote from: poisonstings on January 10, 2016, 09:43:58 pm

I also use FL Studio. A tip I have for people struggling with drum patterning (which is not something I struggle with as I'm a drummer), is to lay down drum patterns in the playlist like this:

<snip>

instead of laying drum patterns down in the piano roll like this:

<snip>

and this:

<snip>

Laying your drums down in the playlist, like I did in the first example, really pushes you to be creative. Force yourself not to copy and paste a loop of drums, but rather lay down the drums in the playlist separately for every part of the song. This allows you to fit every little drum hit exactly how you want it, without wasting a bunch of patterns.

The first example drum pattern sounds like this. The pattern doesn't get stale because it changes throughout the loop. That being said, it still has a consistent groove to it. Adding little percussion blips and bloops here and there really spices up this pattern.

The second drum loop sounds like this. Evidently, the first pattern is way better than this one. This pattern gets boring after a while, due to the lack of variation. I didn't force myself to be creative with this one, I didn't add any little sounds that could spice up the loop, and I didn't even bother to add fills, or any extra percussion for that matter.

Force yourself to be creative with your drum loops. It can really make or break a song.

Hope this helps!

I always thought people who did this in FL were wasting their time, but you actually have a really really good point. I think I'll give this a go.