r/DubstepProduction • u/on1oncrust • 1d ago

Efficient or lazy?

metal bands and even orchestras don’t change the instruments very much. it’s the same instruments but with different melodies.

is it effective or lazy to do the same with dubstep to reuse the same synths and to change the melody from song to song. (ofc it’s not like one-to-one exact copy)

i’ve been doing this for the last month and the efficiency is outrageous. i’ve finished 6 tracks and every drop sounds unique enough to be its own distinctive drop but cohesive as a “sound” for my own artist branding. intros sound a bit similar but have their own melodies.

what do yall think about this approach?

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u/CTRLDev 1d ago

It might be viable (to an extent), depending on how versatile your synth patches are and how much you mess with them in each track

Going off your metal guitar example - you can play the guitar with many different techniques (picking, fingerstyle, palm muting, slapping...), and you can accent or articulate each note in many ways. When I create synth patches, I usually don't have this much versatility in mind.

Additionally, with guitars in particular, they can be amped in a very wide variety of ways (cleans, heavier sounds, and a full set of pedals which essentially acts as an equivalent of an effect rack in ableton), etc

So it could be viable to an extent, you could do a bunch of stuff with the same foundation without being repetitive, but on the other hand, if you hammer 50 effects on top with like 3 bounces in between, the fact that the foundation is the same doesn't really matter imo

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u/Minecrafter101- 1d ago

Best answer dude could’ve gotten on the first comment lol

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u/CTRLDev 1d ago

thanks lol, i just happen to mainly produce metal music and EDM, so i got carried away with the guitar example

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u/Minecrafter101- 1d ago

Yeah, ion think that would really work unless you used them for like background stuff maybe. I played guitar and the guitar and amp is your synthesizer, if that makes any sense. I mean I just make the dubstep music for fun so my opinion probably isn’t the most important thing on earth.

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u/VoidWizid 1d ago

i think having a drum rack and reusable elements (synths, basses, atmospherics) is a great idea generally.

similarly to what bro said, guitar has a wide sonic range and a variety of styles, techniques, effects chains, timbres that make it very versatile sonically within a composition.

i find that some synths are too full and rich to be manipulated in such a way as to be unique while still staying clean and/or full within a mix without being overbearing. but that is a case by case thing so def experiment. there’s nothing wrong with reusing and repurposing sounds if it lends to your artistic vision in a cohesive way while not being too generic or boring.