I figured the filter was manually automated but I got kinda lazy haha. I was using Serum so I over embellished a bit; took a supersaw with super low detune value, stacked it w/ a clean one, ran it through a formant filter (with just some slight modulation on the shape), slapped an LFO in envelope mode with a quick slope up but a long duration and slammed it into some tube distortion to give it back some edge (and them a small low pass to remove some of the new extra harsh high end).

I'm gonna tackle this from the classical mixing engineer working with a recorded band perspective:

Panning is a way to give the listener the impression that they are listening to a live band in front of them, not a pile of waveforms stacked on top of each other. When you go see a band live on stage, are they all standing in marching formation, single file?

Of course not! They're spread out, so that the sound waves of their instruments are not blocked by or overlapping another instrument. Even the drummer's kit is not all directly down the center: the kick drum is near the center, the hat is usually off to the left, the snare is a little to his right, and the toms and cymbals are placed in a panoramic position (more for the drummer than the listener, but hey). The singer? Usually right in the middle, with the drum kit behind them or off to one side.

It's your job to recreate that positioning so when a person closes their eyes, they could visualize where the band members are standing on stage. They can tell the difference in location between a high tom and a low tom. All these little tiny things that individually are barely noticeable, but come together to provide this beautiful sonic picture that helps a song feel complete and polished.

I grabbed a bunch off splice sounds, there's a bunch of libraries on there you can sift through.

They don't explain where the melodies come from because it's not good interview material to say "I spent years learning music theory or messing around with different melodies and studying other songs to have the level of knowledge needed to just make a melody up on the fly."

Your best bet would be to start studying the songs you like! Try remaking them, and when you look at the MIDI note down what's happening. How far apart are the notes, and what's the rhythm? What scale is it in? What mood does it have? The more experience you have, the easier they'll come!

Depends on your DAW. If you're using something like FL studio and have autosaved enabled, you can find an earlier autosave from before your bounce and go save a copy of the midi notes from there. If you're in ableton, you can right click on the bounced audio and select "Convert Melody to New MIDI track."

Here's an example of how well the algorithm processes the information: https://clyp.it/cyi5r4l4

Not gonna lie, I'm not sure. I found it in this thread, which is also here in the suggestions subforum.

Thanks for the suggestions! The AudioBox actually looks pretty nice, though I have been taking a few peeks at the Komplete Audio 6. Pretty much all my gear is NI at this point, so maybe if I round things out with an NI interface I can work my way into a sponsorship in a couple years.

I know a lot of producers lay out their drums in audio (Bro Safari, NGHTMRE, ETC!ETC!, and I think CRNKN), so it's not like it's incorrect to be working like this. You get a lot more control over the body and tail of each hit, you can nudge it along the grid easier than with FL's channel rack, for example. Helps with layering drum transients and stuff, helps with swing, etc.

I actually program all my drum sounds inside of Maschine, then record my audio into the project when I feel I have a "finished" drum arrangement. That way I am able to quickly sketch up my drum patterns, arrange out my track, and have a MIDI backup of the audio i'm going to be working with for further editing and post processing.