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Hi there,

I've been recording music for a couple of years now, mainly focused on indie/rock-music, so it has all been about recording acoustic instruments or amps with mics and the mixing process after. (Basic work with cutting, overdubbing and the editing after with compressors, reverbs, delays) mostly with Cubase and pro tools.

Now a friend asked me to help him to make the sound for his EBook storys. interacive sound design where the task is to built the 3d landscapes and sound effects around a story while the reader is reading the book. Building dramatic/ horror music effects, and auditively guiding the reader through the actions the character is doing. (Steps.. shots.. breaking woods and so on).

The problem is I'm only experienced with what u described above and have absolutely no experience in electronic music/ sound production and processing.
That's why I now want to learn more about it, best would be a guided course/ book, video course. I want to get involved in the project a little deeper and I'm also willing to spent a few month of educating myself in that topic of course.

Anybody here with experience in that area and can recommend something?

I know there are school courses for a year or so but thats just over my financial means.

Happy to hear recommendations

Greets!

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Comments

paulears Mon, 11/04/2019 - 03:02

I guess the snag here is that it's experimental - so as long as you have a competent DAW, and a decent collection of synth and sampled sounds, you kind of just go for it. The nuts and bolts are the same, you just spend HOURS going through maybe thousands of sounds till you find the one that works.

There are no courses that seem to work, because everyone's collection of sound sources is different - but it's worth watching the demo videos for Spitfire Audio's sample packages. You'll see loads of people creating this kind of music in them - so you can see how they do it. The people who sell the sample libraries all have videos of them doing it -so watch these to see how the process works.

The real requirement is a good ear and a knowledge of musical rules and vocabulary so you can generate the Psycho string stabs, and understand what deliberate dissonance is so you can generate mood.

What sound sources do you have already - don't forget so many synths come with a huge sound set that your existing music just cheery picks, the ones you usually don't bother with can be the gems you need?

miyaru Mon, 11/04/2019 - 04:35

Sample libraries can be found cheap sometimes, and you should benefit from that. Learning to program synths you already own is a second task for you right now. I think Cubase has some nice synths. I left Cubase a couple of yours ago at version 5.5 pro in favour of Ableton Live Suite 10, and since a week I own Reason 11 suite - which has plenty of synths and fx's.

Pad sounds could do a good job here, and nature sound sample libraries.

I would not spent money on a course online, instead I would spent that money on sounds and stuff. And yes for the biggest part it is trail and error what does the job or what does not.........