Maybe we should start a new thread...
Anyways, I have some production tips, which you're
welcome not to use. I've been writing and experimenting
for 12 years, now, but I'm still a novice, so if you
think you're above my ideas, I don't care. I just want
to get a discussion going.
Here goes:
Adding atmosphere: I used to work with alot of samples,
specifically through a tracker program, which had no
effects. I would often take an airy, or static-like hit
or swell and play it simultaneously with a drum or
synth hit, maybe even shifting the pitch in the oposite
direction of a melodic synth line. This was a great way
to add some ambience to an ambience-less sound, and I
was able to get some really interesting sounds and
atmospheres that no combination of effects would
probably generate. I think Aphex Twin does this alot.
Noise as arpegiator: When I did alot of industrial I
would take machine sounds, maybe with some rythmic
static or other incedental noises, and play a melody or
bass-line progression over it. It's interesting,
because a kind of harmony seems to develop with the
interplay of the melody and noise. I am convinced that
almost any noise can be tamed by a dominant
progression. Try it! It works in trance, too (and screw
worrying about the key). It seems that productive
frequencies are emphasised, and dissonant frequencies
are de-emphasised, or become incendental tones.
Tone Generating: I used to use an 8088PC running
QBasic, make up some algorythms and randomly pull
numbers, which I would play as a tone. Sometimes, I
would just have a pitch rising slowly between 1000 and
2500 (2500hz being the resonating frequency of a cellos
belly), and then back down. I could play this quietly,
with some delay, and get an interesting effect useful
in almost any track. It really made things feel like
there was some movement going on, especially in slower,
more new-age-y or instrospective stuff. I could play
this pretty quietly, since at 2500hz, there wasn't may
other frequencies competing for space. Simple tone
slides are