Finding Sounds...

[MBantle]

Dear All,
I guess this is a tricky one but I just wanted to get some inspiration from more experienced members. I always feel that I spend an awful lot of time finding 'sounds' and I wanted to check whether there are any shortcuts I am not aware of... I got Splice, Loopcloud, NI Komplete, Omnisphere, the Arturia stuff, a lot from Spitfire, the list goes on. Still I've always struggled to find what I believe are absolute staple sounds in the songs we hear on the radio all the time. I eventually changed my strategy and now just spend a lot of time using the stuff I have got and edit the crap out of them so that they sound at least 90% as legit as I want them to be. But it seems really inefficient to e.g. layer several inferior claps or snaps and EQ the Bejexxx out of them to make them sound like a 'normal' clap or snap I hear on the radio every day and I am really puzzled that all the packs and platforms I come across do not seem to offer presets that are a much closer starting point to getting the sounds we hear all the time... Is that also what you guys experience or am I particularly picky ? I am happy to go on fiddling around for hours the way I do right now but if there is a hidden holy grail of stuff that can be used right out of the box I wanna know !!!
Please let me know your thoughts. Apologies for blowing off some steam here (it's been a long day in the studio). Perhaps someone made similar experiences...
Cheers,
Matt

[ttully]

Hi Matt,

The normal things you are hearing are made up by someone, they too.... put a bunch of things together and eq'd the bejesus out of them and you just got used to it hearing it..over and over.... but they had to make it.

If your track was on the radio..... everyone would be saying.... why can't I make that clap sound that Matt is using....

If it was easy...everyone could do it...

My 1 cent worth,
Tim

[ResonantTone]

I’m still new, so take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt.

In my experience, finding sounds is really only a piece of the puzzle, and it’s not as big of a part of the equation as you’d think.The trick to making something really work and sound perfect is what you do with it on the channel strip and with automation.

The best sounds I’ve come across are almost always happy accidents to start. I’ll start with something uninspiring , play around with different effects and processing to create something I think sounds cool, then remember what I did to use the same kind of effect combo in the future. Now I have some go to combos for creating some stuff that can usually gets good results, even if the source material is a bit boring.

Andrew

[MBantle]

Hi Matt,

The normal things you are hearing are made up by someone, they too.... put a bunch of things together and eq'd the bejesus out of them and you just got used to it hearing it..over and over.... but they had to make it.

If your track was on the radio..... everyone would be saying.... why can't I make that clap sound that Matt is using....

If it was easy...everyone could do it...

My 1 cent worth,
Tim

Hi Tim,
Thanks! That is kind of what I thought.
Cheers,
Matt

[MBantle]

And there I thought it was only me, because I have not figured out my DAW yet.

For the time being, my recorded baking tray bangs seem to go through as a modern snare. I made a SoundFont out of them. Tom

Glad to hear it is not just me
Cheers,
Matt

[MBantle]

I’m still new, so take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt.

In my experience, finding sounds is really only a piece of the puzzle, and it’s not as big of a part of the equation as you’d think.The trick to making something really work and sound perfect is what you do with it on the channel strip and with automation.

The best sounds I’ve come across are almost always happy accidents to start. I’ll start with something uninspiring , play around with different effects and processing to create something I think sounds cool, then remember what I did to use the same kind of effect combo in the future. Now I have some go to combos for creating some stuff that can usually gets good results, even if the source material is a bit boring.

Andrew

I agree it is a matter of attention to detail in every respect. And, the more minimalistic the arrangement the better each element needs to sound.
Cheers,
Matt