I've started messing around with the digital audio workstation LMMS. And I'm proud to present my first short bit of original music! I'll embed the YouTube video here, but, if you're interested in some technical details of making it (i.e., which VST instruments I used), I have that in the video description on YouTube.



I'll try to be uploading my stuff on this YouTube channel.
Let me know what you think!

Written by F3ynman on 08.09.2022 at 09:06

I've started messing around with the digital audio workstation LMMS. And I'm proud to present my first short bit of original music! I'll embed the YouTube video here, but, if you're interested in some technical details of making it (i.e., which VST instruments I used), I have that in the video description on YouTube.

Wow delving into creating music yourself, this is great to hear, hopefully the beginning of something special for you :)

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 08.09.2022 at 09:19

Wow delving into creating music yourself, this is great to hear, hopefully the beginning of something special for you :)

Thanks for listening
There are plenty of flaws and room for improvement (guitar sounds too robotic, drums and bass just follow the riff note-for-note,...), but it's a start. I want to try out different genres (slower songs, piano playing, etc) and just try things out to see what I like best. I'll try to document my progress and show off any new things that I'm proud of. Practice makes perfect, after all

Written by F3ynman on 08.09.2022 at 09:06

Pretty good melodies here. The intervals you've chosen between notes definitely have that dark, empty death metal feeling that I assume you were going for. A good start! With actual instruments or high-quality VSTs, this would make for a more than decent opening to a song. I would change the drum pattern in the second half though (I am guessing you've already thought of that yourself) and I'd maybe add some accents to the second part of the riffs to avoid a feeling of repetition. It's difficult to explain what I mean, but after the 30 second mark I'd make the guitars play "dun-dun-dududu-dun-dun-dun" instead of just dun-dun-dun-dun etc. If you're planning to make the song much longer, you could, of course, save all variations on the riff for later. Nothing wrong with a simpler beginning. Even incredibly skillful bands often open songs with the simplest riffs in them, for example "Ethica Odini" by Enslaved opens with a single chord being played for like 5+ seconds (if memory serves).

Good job so far. I look forward to what you'll do next. BTW, when I began composing music, I was 16, and I was really into old-school RPGs from the PS1 and especially the SNES era, so I went for that sound and I composed stuff with Anvil Studio . It's a MIDI program that can only craft insanely outdated-sounding stuff, but it taught me a lot about composing. What's important is to just start and be passionate and willing to learn and you'll reach great heights before you know it!

The ONLY thing I would advise you to spend money on as soon as possible is an actual guitar. IMO there's no replacement for the feeling of crafting riffs while playing a real guitar. Maybe that's just me, though. Good luck!

Written by Metren on 08.09.2022 at 13:09


Good job so far. I look forward to what you'll do next. BTW, when I began composing music, I was 16, and I was really into old-school RPGs from the PS1 and especially the SNES era, so I went for that sound and I composed stuff with Anvil Studio . It's a MIDI program that can only craft insanely outdated-sounding stuff, but it taught me a lot about composing. What's important is to just start and be passionate and willing to learn and you'll reach great heights before you know it!

Thanks for all the tips! Your mentioning of old-school video game music reminds me that I wanted to also try out dungeon-synth melodies like Summoning do. I also want to try doing some slower songs in the vein of doom and post (like the opening bass riff of Neurosis's "Lost", for example).

So I don't know if I'll continue from this demo yet. I'll experiment around with various stuff, trying to "learning by doing", as they say.
Until next time!

My next bit of music:

I'm pretty proud of the mysterious atmosphere at the beginning, the emotional melodies, the drum fills, and the overall flow. However, my only issue is that I didn't quite know how to transition to the end, so the sudden appearance of the end riff might seem a bit rushed.

What do you guys think of it?

https://youtu.be/7phJlYjKylM

Ok I couldn't stop - I just installed the Impulse response loader Boogex from Voxengo and it creates absolutely savage guitar tones!

Here's a real banger that I made with it. I call it Space Crunch! Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/1gU4xRAWLgA

This all sounds crazy fun, listening to what you've created inspires me to do the same

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 10.09.2022 at 15:28

This all sounds crazy fun, listening to what you've created inspires me to do the same

Thanks! I just uploaded my newest creation. Starts atmospheric, and then gets fast and groovy. A Storm is approaching...
https://youtu.be/C6fPCBCUGw4

Written by F3ynman on 15.09.2022 at 00:28

Thanks! I just uploaded my newest creation. Starts atmospheric, and then gets fast and groovy. A Storm is approaching...
https://youtu.be/C6fPCBCUGw4

It's very good it would make a great interlude or intro for an atmospheric black metal album.

Here's my newest song. The intro is inspired by the bass riff from "Lost" by Neurosis, which I recreated by ear - after lots of trial and error
Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/y6rrKVBnAwg

I can see a lot of myself 4-5 years ago in this thread that was around the time I started trying to write music - initially just playing basslines in my room and imagining song arrangements in my head, and then in 2018 I discovered Guitar Pro and started using that. If you want half-decent metal guitar tones, particularly low and doomy, that might be worth you having a look at (definitely some types of riff that don't work that well in it though). I pumped out dozens of songs around 2018 (I compiled 4 albums of 9 tracks that I was hoping to make one day), and most of them remain untouched, but I'm in the process of trying to record one of them as a song with actual instruments using guys from my band (maybe I'll be lucky enough to release it this year), and hope to at least take a few of them and make an album with their help, even though I'd probably need to find a proper band to take it further than that. I'd recommend just keep writing while you're in the groove and trying out different ideas; there's defintiely some crap moments in the songs I wrote that don't work on reflection, but there's also quite a few ideas that I really rate, and hope to use, if not in their own project, then perhaps adapted for my current band or any others I join in future

Nice work recreating the Lost bassline, and the bass tone in the software you're using is pretty sweet

Your tone/mix is not doing you any favours, it seems like some awkward compromise that doesn"t let your song ideas go into any of the different directions it could go
1. harsher, more reverb, more high end, would naturally allow you to blend the notes and chords into each other in other sections of the song, fully commiting to the black metal side
2. more exact muting, more bottom end, fuller sound, but keeping it simple, kind of a modern death metal sound, needs more blast beats
3. cleaner, clearer, focussing on and expanding the variations you have, adding any more advanced techniques you are learning whereever they might fit, kind of the accessible end of tech death
you have something that could be taken into any of those directions, but currently is sitting directionless in between

Written by theFIST on 25.09.2022 at 14:35

Your tone/mix is not doing you any favours, it seems like some awkward compromise that doesn"t let your song ideas go into any of the different directions it could go
1. harsher, more reverb, more high end, would naturally allow you to blend the notes and chords into each other in other sections of the song, fully commiting to the black metal side
2. more exact muting, more bottom end, fuller sound, but keeping it simple, kind of a modern death metal sound, needs more blast beats
3. cleaner, clearer, focussing on and expanding the variations you have, adding any more advanced techniques you are learning whereever they might fit, kind of the accessible end of tech death
you have something that could be taken into any of those directions, but currently is sitting directionless in between

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to make the songs more focused

New instrumental track by me: https://youtu.be/5-pJZdwLGC8

It's kind of like a sequel to my "Space Crunch" track. Let me know what you think.

The next song I'm planning will have my vocals, I think.

Here's my newest song: "Lament Of The Immortal"

With my own vocals for the first time! Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/tp8X8H49E8Q

Edit: reuploaded with some altered vocals:
https://youtu.be/34HNvJoija0

Some new grooves I've been messing around with
https://youtu.be/4haVHpDGS-g