it is the weekend so i'm gonna try to burn through some of my inbox! sorry if the replies are kinda brief, i let the 'box get out of control lmao
-
i think repetition is great so long as it's good & intentional. a lot of my grooves or bgm tracks can be built on ostinati or repeating figures, but the important part is to never let them stagnate for long... do something to them, or make the pieces moving against them change the context of the repeat. if it's a repeating but shifting figure, it's less repetitive and more like a churn: a rolling wave of sound, which is the sort of....brain metaphor i'm usually going for in writing like that
-
that can be a big sticking point for me too. it simply takes time & patience to audition sounds or know how to tweak existing sounds to fit your ideas for how it should sound. a lot of times i'll luck into a really cool preset but it has like.... one thing wrong about it, or a couple, and so it's a matter of knowing your synths or sampling plugins and how you can use their capabilities to shape the sound or remove the filters or effects causing what's making it clash. wish i had a magic bullet for that one, but it really is just experience & perseverance!
