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NODsound

@nodsound

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🎵 Music Production & DJ School (by @smilimusic)
🎛️ Mixing & Mastering
🎹 Melodic | Techno | House | Minimal | Afro | Electronic focused

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🎹 Following our chord progression series. This time around the key of D on the minor scale.

Remember, the most important chords are:

I: the Tonic (creates resolution)
IV: the Subdominant (creates light tension)
V: the Dominant (creates maximum tension)

Play this chord progression in the order of your choice, and let your ear decide what sounds best in the context of your track

If you like this post don't forget to...

👉 Follow @nodsound for the most open minding composition techniques by @nodsound

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5 years ago

🔊🎛️ Creating your own sound from scratch is one of the best ways to master sound design and synthesis.

The image shows you an effective step by step workflow to build your own sound from scracth.

Whether you are creating a Bass, a pad, a lead, a pluck, or even a kick, this workflow will work in all these situations.

Mastering the different modules of synthesis will allow you to create or fine-tune any preset to perfectly fit within your track. 🎓

💯 Moreover, this is the first step to getting your own sound signature as a producer.

Enjoy experimenting and don't forget to...

👉 Follow @nodsound for the best electronic music production techniques and workflows

**The last step is step 8 (not 6) by @nodsound

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🎹 Tired of your basic sounding chord progression? 🤷‍♂️

Try to invert some of your chords for a sweeter sound.

Inversions are as simple as moving your bass note an octave higher

----------
✅ EXAMPLE:

In the case of the Cminor chord,

the first inversion means we will play the C note an octave higher while keeping the two other notes fixed.

The second inversion means we will displace both C and Eb an octave higher while keeping the third note (G) at its place.
----------

Thanks to inversions, you will discover different tones while keeping the same chord consonance.

In simpler terms your chord will remain sounding tuned to your track no matter what inversion you use.

Because at the end, you're using the same notes just an octave higher.

✅ How is it useful?
------------
Beside the different tonal quality you can get, inversions also come handy when working on your arrangement.

Let's say your C minor chord fights with the frequencies/notes of your melody.

In this case, making inversions can help free up the frequencies/notes responsible of this fight.

As a result, you get a much tighter mix and a composition that breaths more with maximum intellegibility.

Before you go, don't forget to...

👉 Follow @nodsound for quality techniques and workflows to expand your sound to the moon. by @nodsound

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5 years ago

Sometimes you need to cut your kick lows just before the root key...

Other times you'd like to enhance specific notes in your lead synth, or reduce the notes that are not part of your scale for a more consonant sound. 🎶

Or imagine you'd like to tune your kick (and your percussions) to fit perfectly your track's key.

This chart will let you quickly find the best spots to EQ according to your track's key

👂Of course, always use your ears to judge.

NOTE: Some EQs already display the note of each frequency you hover on with your mouse.

but we find it sometimes more useful to have the whole frequency to note chart in front of us to decide what frequencies to add or remove from our full spectrum.

if you like this post, don't forget to...

👉 Follow @nodsound for the best electronic music production workflows by @nodsound

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5 years ago

🎹 How do you find other chords that sound good when played together?

Imagine your song's key is C minor (Cm). You have found the chord of C minor to work well with your song, but now you'd like to add other chords to form your harmony.

How do you find other chords that sound good with your C minor? 🤔

This is where chord progressions (or chord modulations) come handy! 🤯

Each chord has six other chords that sound good when played along with your root chord.

The roman numerals in green are used to indicate the chords in a progression.

These numerals are based on the scale pattern of the diatonic scale.

------- EXAMPLE --------
For example, notes I, IV, V represent C, F, G in the Cminor scale.

Hence, the chord progression I, IV, V in Cminor represents: Cm, Fm, Gm
--------------------------

The two chords you should pay attention to in a chord progression are:

I - the Tonic (creates release or resolution)
V - the Dominant (creates tension)

Finally, here are some popular chord progressions to try at home:

1 => VI - IV - V - I
2 => VI - V - I - IV
3 => I - V - VI - IV
4 => I - IV - V - I

Or experiment to find the progressions that sound best to your ears.

And don't forget to... 👇

👉 Follow @nodsound for the most open minding composition tips & tricks by @nodsound

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5 years ago

Don't have a real synth? 🎹

No worries...

Load your favorite VST synth and Map these 8 controls on your MIDI controller.

Why?

Being able to modulate sound using your fingers will lead you better results than when using your computer mouse.

You will not only be able to follow the music better, but you will also be able to:

✅ Record all your modulations live
✅ Fine-tune your synth presets quickly
✅ Find the sweet spots faster
✅ Modulate more than one parameter at a time.

Next thing you should do is:

1- Map these parameters to your MIDI controller

2- Put some notes to play in a loop and add them to your arrangement

3- Click on RECORD (don't forget to click on "+" on Ableton in the top bar)

4- Play with the knobs

5- Notice how your sound evolves with minimum effort... and it's fun!

Now, instead of drawing every automation with your mouse (daunting!), draw them with your fingers. 🤏

Hint: Modulate more than one knob at a time. Find the combination of knobs that work best together and modulate the hell of out of them.

Follow @nodsound for a good dose of open minding music production tips and tricks. by @nodsound

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5 years ago

🕶️ Minor gets you a dark, ominous, and mysterious vibe to your compositions.

The only difference between major and minor chords is the 3rd being a half step lower in the minor chord compared to its major counterpart.

Meaning if you know how to play C major, you'll know how to play C minor (place the minor third a semitone below)

The best way to memorize these chords is to play them with the right finger position in your keyboard.

For example to play them with your right hand, place your fingers as below:

✅ Cm:
1 (thumb) => C
2 (index) => Eb
5 (little finger) => G

------------------------
✅ Dm:
1 (thumb) => D
3 (middle finger) => F
5 (little finger) => A

------------------------
✅ Em:
1 (thumb) => E
3 (middle finger) => G
5 (little finger) => B

------------------------
✅ Fm:
1 (thumb) => F
2 (index) => Eb
5 (little finger) => G

------------------------
✅ Gm:
1 (thumb) => G
2 (index) => Bb
5 (little finger) => D

------------------------
✅ Am:
1 (thumb) => A
3 (middle finger) => C
5 (little finger) => E

------------------------
✅ Bm:
1 (thumb) => B
2 (index finger) => D
3 (middle finger) => Gb

Same applies for the rest of the chords.

Otherwise, you can save this post for later

and don't forget to...

------------------------

... Follow @nodsound for the best music composition tips and tutorials by @nodsound

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5 years ago

There is no excuse today for not mastering what you love.

In a world where knowledge is globally available, the biggest challenge is to not get lost in the tremendous amount of information.

With that said, here are some ideas to become better at producing the music you love.

👉 Drop us a DM if you wanna up your game considerably through our 1 to 1 mentoring sessions.

📍 Follow @nodsound for the best electronic music production tips and workflows. by @nodsound

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🎚️ Here is an example of a pre-mixing workflow.

This should help you get better results faster while staying organized. 🤗

Grouping tracks is essential not only for buss processing, but for detecting problematic instruments as well.

Instead of looking for an annoying sound by muting/soloing each instrument one by one, you can mute groups to detect the one containing the problem.

Once you find it, you can then search for the individual sound inside the group responsible for the bad sound.

This is particularly useful when you have a big session containing 30 or 40+ tracks.

Share with us your favorites workflows in the comments 👇

➡️ Follow @nodsound for a daily dose of life changing music production tips and secrets by @nodsound

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a little bit of basic music theory has never killed anyone (as far as we know)

Major and Minor triads/chords are the foundation for building more complex chords.

Now the question is: how do you combine them to form a smooth and musical progression?

We will answer this in the next posts.

Follow @nodsound for the best composition tips & tricks by @nodsound

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5 years ago

🤔 Is your chord progression a bit boring?

Try this tip to expand the resolution of you harmonies.

Follow @nodsound for the most inspiring composition tips. by @nodsound

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5 years ago

🎛️ EQing your delay can help you achieve depth and separation in your mix.

Try this tip and notice how post-filtering/EQing your delay helps you push back your sound deeper in your mix.

Getting your track to the next level is all about the many subtle tweaks you apply to your mix.

Delay EQing/Filtering is one of these subtle changes.

▶️ Follow @nodsound for more strategic mixing tips and tricks. by @nodsound

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