What Makes a Sound Original? And Should Producers Care?

[@kitsuneandcake]

When I heard the demo song, I was like WOAH THAT'S SPACE COWBOY! One of my favourite songs ever. I've tried to make the lead multiple times and I've come quite close too. It was really cool to see someone else make the sound too, even if just for demonstration purposes. I also love the idea of this video btw. I think it's a really important message that cuts through to the point in an elegant way.

[@EricBowman]

Wow, of all the presets, the last one I expected anybody to recognize was that one. With it being the oldest one and with my track using it in a different register. Thanks for the kind words!

[@kitsuneandcake]

@@EricBowman Bit of a who asked, but my mother says I used to love space cowboy when I was younger, but I have no recollection of listening to it at all. I heard Matt Johnson from Jamiroquai play it a few years ago on his youtube channel and I instantly fell in love with the song. It was so funny to learn that I loved it even when I was younger, despite having no idea. I always think about that and equate it to the possibility that people really do have musical tastes that stay with them for life! I like using the lead as a reference to that in my own music, and I think it pays homage to a really great song by a really great group too! Loved the video and I'm going to buy the vital preset pack a little later to see exactly how you did your version of the sound! Maybe I can learn from it~ 💗

[@stereotypedpanda4874]

Really liking the new videos.

[@Hyper5nic]

To me, layered and recombined sounds sound more original. Way back, being a radio DJ, I discovered how sounds in the intro added to the song standing out from others, which in turn made it more recognizable, and easier to sell as a genre or style too ofcourse. While more complicated synthesizers weren't so popular in main stream music, more experimental musicians and bands like Tangerine Dream, loved these type of sounds and made great use of them. For any type of musician, making sounds became more interesting and easier to be original from the mid 1980's and on. Samplers became cheaper and more powerful and digital subtractive synthesizers, especially by Roland, where given the ability to combine transient sounds for the attack with a synthesized sound. Especially the Roland D-50 became very popular because of this. The Korg M1 made it possible to combine not just 2 but up to 8 digital sounds to create evolving pad sounds and interesting lead sounds. Yamaha went on to acquire the company that made the Prophet VS and had a major stake in Korg in the early 1990s. So this came be the inspiration for the Korg Wavestation, that could sequence very short digital waves instead of layering them. Kind of like the PPG synthesizer did this years before that. Yamaha went on to combine resynthesized samples (AWM) with FM synthesis. From there on, a whole slew of new more often recombined synthesizers and samplers At those times I couldn't buy any of those synthesizers but I read extensively about them. I only got into making music when Korg created an interesting software series package named Korg Legacy that had it's own original synthesizer, a remodeled Korg MS-20 layered with a Korg Polysix. Nowadays the source of most of my experimental sounds is Rex Basterfield's Quilcom plugin collection. To me he's one of the most exiting and pretty much unknown plugin builder.

[@UnknownInstrumentalz]

Love all your content bro!

[@Muravchix]

While there’s no need to punish those that “steal” ideas or sounds, I think striving for originality in sound design is also a very valuable way to approach the creative process - a balance between those two might be a sweet spot imo

[@muuroonggeooffrey246]

Based on the theory that "you can't imagine anything if you haven't seen it before," it is suggested that there are no original sounds. Therefore, the most important thing is to know how to use and create without spending a lot of money. Furthermore, if we define a synthesizer as a means of creating all possible tones, then we already possess all conceivable tones. Since we have all possible tones, this is not an industry in need of protection. For instance, if only you knew how to use the 1625 chord progression, then you would be protected. However, if everyone is familiar with the 1625 progression and is more knowledgeable about chord progressions than you are, then it becomes less important who uses the 1625 progression. What truly matters is observing that if everyone use the 1625 progression in their compositions, the question of popularity becomes the deciding factor.

[@sss_production]

Your are my one of the most inspiring person on KZbin as a Sound Designer Thanks for your video and for sharing the information in the way you do!

[@ChronicalV]

Like the new direction of this video. And some good points I've come to realise myself recently. I've realised my fixation on sound design has been me focusing on the wrong reason why I was struggling. It wasn't that I didn't have the sounds I needed (which I couldn't find online and resorted to learning how to make myself), it's that I didn't know how to choose the right sounds and how to write music in general. I may not be the only producer to fall into this trap I suspect. So I'll be trying to focus more on writing on - through scoring orchestra and only using presets made beforehand or by others, keeping sound design to a minimum. I can definitely see that production gets in peoples heads, even though the sauce is often in the writing or a combination of writing and production.

[@EricBowman]

Definitely! I had the problem where I studied harmony, melody, a little orchestration but had no idea how to sound design. Then I just decided to focus on that and never really stopped.

[@NerdVision100]

I think if you can recreate a sound without sampling….regardless of how you made it is GOLDEN. It’s a lot of grey areas and unwritten rules that hurts things. It’s hard to stop somebody from buying, let’s say a preset, randomly mess with values then sell it. How can we say that it isn’t original? I just say keep doing you! If people want to steal it you’re on the right track.

[@thlLd]

Your videos like these are unique and give some insights, thank you.

[@Permutative]

In a sense, what makes something original is defined by everything except the thing itself, as that thing stands apart from everything else that's already in our brain or others brain's. If we are fixated on weird harmonic combinations, articulatory shapes and patterns, effects, or whatever else, then we won't find anything original if we lock ourselves within that obsession, as then no sound will be original to the part of our brain that analyzes the raw makeup of a sound (not a literal part of the brain of course). When we play a full song back, that analysis tends to dissolve away and we become immersed in the constructed world of the song rather than the features that make it up.

[@MemeMix_Melodies]

Thanks for your work, best tutorial videos ❤❤

[@phinestro]

Wow !!!!

[@cuulcars]

Great video!

[@q_yrko9067]

Great video, very well said. Unfortunately theft is something defined by laws and you're right by them. Morals would maybe differ, but unfortunately morals isn't enough to protect someone's work. A lot of what morals would say is theft the law say it is not, so we should cherish what is protected. We can own our work, but we cannot own sounds, notes, chords, etc.

[@SpeedRacerx89]

What's in the Bachs? - You're welcome to use this for an album title.

[@Nazferot2]

At lest they made it right i give them that

[@Lauraraksin77]

One of my favorite producers Lido was good at making it seem like he synthesized most of his sounds. I always wondered how to get those sounds he did but when he explained his thought process and workflow a lot of it was really well thought stacking. Now instead of heavily focusing on sound design, it's also revolving around what sounds stack well together.

[@Evoke-Chaos]

you have beautiful eyes, they look like wolves

[@CatrinaDaimonLee]

it's as if you make music... hmm

[@IconOfSin]

That KSHMR sample sounds like absolute trash, imagine spending money for that