Koi.Sum gives some great tips this week on working with original sounds and keeping the creative juices flowing. He talks about the importance of choosing complimentary sounds and also having fun and not worrying too much while producing. He also gives some great tips about track construction and keeping the creative process moving.
Episode Links:
KOI.SUM: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6QsWX5nXEgnbDQ9XteVRkO?si=FyGGLcDvT4uhtEYDGDuswg&dl_branch=1
Photo App: Pixart https://www.pixart.com/
Samples: Splice https://splice.com/
Drums: Cymatics https://cymatics.fm/
Gclip: Free clipping plugin. https://cymatics.fm/
Episode Summary:
Koisum is a big fan of EDM artist like Kaskade, Deadmau5, and Tiesto. However, nowadays he prefers discovering new artist on Soundcloud, because he believes there is a ton of great music out there from less famous artists. He follows ‘Not You’ and also loves the track ‘I Forgive’ by Grynpyret.
He finds that creating a vision and atmosphere is an important part of his process. He thinks it makes it more fun to make take a sample of absolutely anything and especially loves organic sounds. He likes to build from the bottom up…usually starting with drums and a bass. From there he likes to layer in samples. But in particular he is thinking about the mood of the track as he starts to lay down the vibe. He imagines himself in a scene as he builds.
Besides using samples he likes to build chords around a sample. Then he likes to do a little sound design and make the sample more his own. For a good mix, he likes to get his bass layers down and do a little EQ. He recommends not getting too crazy, but rather focusing on good sounds that complement each other. He loves ‘soft’ clipping plugins.
To create a lofi sound he likes to use tape noise, vinyl crackles, and other samples. He also likes to roll off the highs, maybe as low as 16KHz. He also loves to layer complimentary sounds, creating a ‘sound sandwich’. For bass, he starts simple with a subbass in Operator that is simply a sin wave. He likes to use this with a sampled Reese bass. He also loves 808 samples for bass.
For releasing, Koisum loves DistroKid. That helps him get his music out on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. He has also explored the new platform, Audius.
When he gets stuck, he stops looping the project. Then he copies and pastes it into an arrangement. Then he starts taking things away to make an arrangement. He’ll start to build sections like an intro, build, and a drop. He will save a copy and then try something new. Most importantly he thinks it is important to keep moving.
For tips he recommends learning one DAW first. Secondly, he likes to use a reference track. Lastly, he loves Youtube tutorials. But while watching Youtube he recommends pulling up the DAW and following along to reinforce your learning.