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This project has been incredibly beneficial to my skills within FL Studio. Researching different shortcuts and producing skills has allowed me to take my producing to the next level and drastically improved how comfortable I am within the software. Before this project I hadn't worked on an EP or album before. Every project I have been a part of has only required a single song from me. My skills in FL Studio itself have grown immensely due to this project. I feel more comfortable using techniques such as slide notes and using the software.
Working on this project has allowed me to expand my skills across various different aspects of music production. Here is a list of Skills I have learned or improved on since working on the project:
Side chaining is essentially automating a compressor to play on a specific frequency, side chaining is most commonly used with percussion instruments such as drums. It makes the overall mix cleaner and cuts out unneeded frequencies that could muddy the track. Before this project I understood how to utilise side changing. However this project has given me insight on how to side chain with different plug-ins.
Before the project I would usually side chain with the plugin Fruity Limiter, which is a good way to side chain and very beginner friendly. However it isn’t as customizable. If you side chain with the EQ however, It allows you to see what specific frequency bands are being affected and to be able to tweak them to your liking
Here's a good video explaining the process:
Mixing is a notoriously difficult and tedious process in music creation. I have always struggled with proper mixing since there are a lot of factors that need to be taken into account. Mixing is essentially ensuring that everything sounds good and there isn’t any clashing of frequencies. A good rule of thumb to have when mixing is to ensure that there isn’t audio clipping (That the song or certain sounds isn’t too loud). I’ve always found that learning mixing is a slow process, as well as mixing itself. So I haven't noticed huge changes, but I have noticed small changes that I have made when producing, such using more compressors and EQ. A trick that I have learned over the course of this project is using a plug-in called “Fruity Balance" . It allows you to have more control over the volume over an instrument or the master. I used this plug in on almost every song since it's very useful in controlling volume.
“An EQ (equalizer) allows you to manipulate specific frequencies of sound, this is crucial when mixing a track since it allows you to cut out unneeded frequencies that clash with other sounds. While using an EQ is important in general when mixing music, in this specific case where there are multiple instruments being played at the same time, it's important that we ensure that there isn’t any unneeded frequency clashing. Mixing this song has been quite difficult but by the end of the first week I did manage to fix the mixing.”
While working on this project, my ability to EQ and mix has gradually gotten better. Before the project I felt like my mixing was alright, but working on the project made me realize that there was still a lot I needed to learn on how to properly mix my tracks. I have gained a better understanding of what each bracket of frequency means. The EQ that I have used through the whole project was “Fruity Parametric EQ 2” which is great for beginners since it shows visually what each band does.
Reverb is an important effect when creating atmospheric music since it creates depth and space. However an issue that i’ve had before is using far too much reverb and not properly mixing it. Adding too much reverb to a track will over power certain frequencies and add far too much depth to the track. It's important to add effects within moderation and to ensure that they don’t over power certain sounds. Before working on the project, If I would use reverb in my songs I would use far too much and have the wet volume too high. While the wet volume is great for creating depth, having it too high can drown out other sounds in the song and make mixing a nightmare. I’ve noticed that adding a compressor or a sound gate with your EQ (cutting the frequencies that drag on) can mitigate this issue.
Music theory is a critical component in music creation, making music is essentially impossible without some sort of theory. Throughout my journey producing music, I’ve always struggled with music theory. I’ve understood the basics but I always had a hard time implementing what I have learned into my work. Over the course of the project I have actively been researching ways to improve on my music theory, and most importantly how to be able to implement theory into my work.
Ambient music uses long and drawn out chords which typically contain more than three notes (basic chord shape, called a Triad) knowing what notes go into these large chords can be difficult especially if your theory isn’t good. But I have found that using seventh chords (a triad chord with the seventh note in the scale). Using the major seventh (or minor seventh if you are in a minor key) gives the chords depth while not overpowering other aspects of the song. The chords are used for layering and are used to complement the lead. This project has been immensely beneficial to my music theory capabilities and has allowed me to further my knowledge on the subject, and has taught me how to implement my skills while producing.
Zenology is a great plugin for ambient music, since zenology comes prepacked with tones of ambient pads and synthesisers it’s quite easy to use. Working on the project has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of Zenology and what presets come with the plug in. In this project I didn’t create my own sounds with this plug in (Mainly since there are so many sounds that come with the plug in already that there wasn’t much reason to create my own sounds).
However If I were to create sounds using Zenology I would now be able to. The sound design interface is similar to Serum (which is my main plugin that I use), once you have learned the basics of sound design, it's rather easy to move between plug-ins.
Alongside Zenology, serum is a plug-in that allows you to create sounds using an audio engineering interface. Before working on this project, almost every song I have made (without physical instruments) has used serum. I personally think serum is the best synthesiser plug-in since it's intuitive and easy to follow for beginners. Serum also has a large amount of effects that can be put on synthesisers inside the plug-in itself. Even though FL Studio comes pre-packed with most of the effects serum has, It can be useful to put effects on your synth through the plug-in itself, since you can mix your sound within the plug-in and then won't have to mix it within the mixer rack in FL Studio.