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You want to draw players into your DND campaign. You’re creating a soundtrack for your video game. You’re just a fan of Jeremy Soule who wants to know how to make fantasy music for fun. Wherever you’re coming from, whatever experience you have, here’s how to get started creating fantasy music, no orchestra or degree required.
If you’ve ever sat down to create something, especially something unfamiliar, you’ve probably had your brain tell you why you shouldn’t. Money, connections, luck—a million excuses flood your brain as to why it won’t work out, maybe even stopping you from even starting in the first place.
The click of a pen by itself? A boring sample. But run through granular synthesis, that same pen sample can transform into a song lead, a shimmering soundscape, and all sorts of new, beautiful instruments. It’s this nearly limitless potential that makes granular synthesis so useful for musicians, sound designers, and anyone working with sound, especially if you’re struggling with new ways to take your production.
Naturally, music production largely focuses on producing sound—hitting piano keys, holding a synth chord, strumming a guitar. But what if we told you that it’s the space around your sound, the literal physical space, that can push it from good to great? Not just great, but the kind of sound that places listeners exactly where you want them. You’re in control of the place they go to, the atmosphere and vibe around them, and maybe even the time period they picture themselves in. And it’s largely done through reverb impulse response.
When you’re creating new patches and designing sounds, do they sound static? Without rhythm, groove, dynamics, or a sense of movement? If so, what should you do to fix it? Enter the unsung hero of sound design and production, the LFO, or Low-Frequency Oscillator.
Ever shouted into a cave? Or ‘yee-hawed’ down the Grand Canyon? Maybe you’ve heard an echo in a large bathroom? In each case, you would have heard what convolution reverb is based on. Did you notice how the sound in a cave takes longer to fade out than in a bathroom? The way sound reflects off of surfaces can be affected by several factors – the size and shape of the room, the type of surface, and the distance until sound hits a surface. Reverb is probably the most widely used sound effect. Its possibilities are nearly limitless.
Cinematic drums are crucial for captivating, immersive film-based storytelling. They also elevate pop, hip hop, and EDM productions, adding gravity and depth to key sections of a track.
Atmosphere, rich sonic textures, liminal spaces, and distinctive ambience all help define the allure of ambient music. If you’re curious about ambient music’s beginnings or how to make it, read on. This article covers a brief history of ambient music then dives into common approaches to ambient music production.
Think of electronic music and it’s impossible to ignore the role of string synthesizers. One only has to consider the lush ambient string pads in ‘Halcyon + On + On’ by Orbital, or the late great Vangelis’ Chariot’s of Fire and, possibly most famous of all, William Orbit – ‘Adagio for Strings’. Songs for the ages.
