Before discussing how I conjure music into reality, I find it useful to discuss something that helped me a lot in creating a workflow that works great for me. It goes without saying that everything you find here is extremely subjective: what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. However, I hope that these thoughts might help someone in finding their own way of making music.
A wise person on the Internet once said: "when I get into writing mode I want things as simple and direct as possible. Meaning, I don’t want to be an engineer when I’m a songwriter/arranger/performer!" I've found this distinction between engineer and songwriter to be illuminating. Another distinction that I find useful is that I don't want to be a producer when I'm in writing mode! For this reason, I'll discuss separately the engineering, songwriting and producing sides of music.
Since the end of 2022, I've started creating music by recording my two hardware synths into a DAW, where I might add effects or additional VST instruments. At first, I plugged the output of the synth I wanted to use into my audio interface, adding guitar pedals as needed. I also needed to use two different MIDI interfaces, as one of my synths has MIDI over USB, but the other doesn't. However, all this cable management (engineering mode!) was detrimental to the creative aspect of the music. With trial and error, I figured out that I wanted a setup where recording meant simply powering up the corresponding instrument, audio interface and DAW. So I got a muti-outlet power strip with individual switches, a power brick for the guitar pedals, dusted my old mixer and got everything connected to the power and to the mixer. As for MIDI, I used the synth with MIDI over USB as a hub, so that I can send MIDI from the DAW into it, and the data gets forwarded to the other synth via a 5-pin DIN cable.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you can find the current studio in all its glorious mess!
Messy as it is, this setup is enabling me to record a ton of music, because I don't need to be an engineer anymore, as everything is only a few power buttons away.
Every now and then, someone asks what's the best gear for making Dungeon Synth. It's really hard to reply to this question, since I've heard people recording stellar albums with anything: from the most expensive analog synths, to free virtual instruments. As much as I feel the appeal of hardware instruments and pedals, I'm using a hybrid approach. For instance, since I saw the Walrus Lore pedal, I started craving a shimmerverb and a pitch-shifted delay. I bought Eventide's Shimmerverb and Crystals when they were on sale, and I both saved a lot of money and discovered that I prefer to tweak such weird and complex effects in a DAW, as opposed to having to record everything from scratch if I want to change their setting. Plus, they're great targets for modulation or automation!
Eventually, I will write my own list of recommended starting VSTs. In the meantime, you might want to check out this Reddit thread.
Coming soon
Coming soon
This is my Achilles' heel, as I am figuring things out as I go. My only advices are: listen to your music to as many devices as you can, and learn when to stop pushing. For some albums, a decent mix and a volume balance (so the listeners won't feel the need to jump too much to the volume knob as they listen) should be enough. Balancing volumes is one of the things I hate the most about production, but I've found it useful to normalize my wave files before this step. This usually brings every track in a similar ballpark, so it's easier to fine-tune the volumes. Whenever I want to apply a limiter, I do this as I figure out the relative volumes of the tracks. I also use lufs.org to get an idea of whether I'm blowing someone's speakers or not.
Sometimes, at the mastering stage it's interesting to add some cohesive FX that tie together the whole album. I haven't done it yet and can't really speak from experience. Some artists add a touch of reverb, but so far I've found it closer to my creative vision to give each track only the reverb it needs. If I ever needed to put tape hiss on a whole album, however, I'd do that while mastering.