Crafting Your Sonic Signature: 5 Tips for Creating a Distinctive Sound

Introduction:

As musicians, we’re at an unprecedented crossroads. On the one hand, we’ve got access to nearly every song ever released, personal at-home production technology, and a trove of tools at our disposal to make our wildest musical dreams come true.

On the other hand, so does everyone else - making it difficult to forge new lanes, and truly stand out. Finding YOUR sound can seem like a daunting task, but it is crucial in the development of yourself as an artist. If you’ve no idea where to start, hopefully these 5 tips can help you to discover your sonic signature.

With that said, here are 5 Tips for Creating A Distinctive Sound ✊🏼

1. Finding Inspiration

Your pocket is lined with billions of songs. I repeat - YOUR POCKET is filled to the brim with nearly every song in existence.

Do you get how insane that is?!

In order to truly find out your own personal sound, you need to find what sounds and styles inspire you, and ones you feel most aligned with. 

Here's how to do that:

• Listen to one new artist every day. You don’t have to love them, you don’t have to listen to their discography top to bottom, but you should constantly be in discovery mode. Click their name, give it a listen, and soak in as much from them as you possibly can.

• The greats are called “greats” for a reason. Never listened to Bob Dylan? Never listened to Amy Winehouse? David Bowie? Muddy Waters? Lil Kim? Beethoven? Well, now’s your chance. Listen to the musicians before you, the ones regarded as some of the best to ever do it, and study them. Again, you don’t need to be a fan, but please recognize what it is that they’re doing, and what you would like to learn from. The simplicity, the complexity, the lyrics, the arrangements, etc.

• BONUS POINTS: research interviews of the greats that you like, and listen to what they were listening to when crafting the music you are attracted to.

• I’ve said it before, but keep a journal. Writing down your unfiltered and honest thoughts, once or twice a week will keep your lyrical brain moving, and give you an endless list of genuine, heart-felt thoughts and feelings you’ve had. Rapping/singing about all the stuff you DON’T actually have is played out. People want honesty, something to relate to.

2. Experimentation

Now for the fun part: Experimentation. Shed all your goals, get rid of your ambitions, do away with your intentions. Just create. Creation for the sake of creation is incredibly liberating, and will send you down pathways you never would’ve humored if you didn’t attack your process with an open mind. No time is wasted if you’re spending it refining your sound, and explore new avenues of style. Here are a few ways I love to have fun with music, that almost always inspires me and teaches me something new.

• Imitation is the best form of flattery. Yes, true - but there are significant pitfalls to be aware of. Nobody wants to ride trends, nobody wants to be a watered down, carbon copy of a more successful artist BUT that’s not to say you can’t learn from them. Spend a day writing/producing a song in the “voice” of some of your favorite artists. Copy Drake, copy Adele, do whatever you want. I don’t suggest releasing this music if it sounds identical, but this is an amazing exercise in proving to yourself your capabilities, and widening your musical fluency. This also works for music you don’t like.

• Is your music strictly guitar + vocal based? That very well may be the start of your SOUND, but if you’re feeling as though your style sounds like every other singer-songwriter, then maybe it’s time to experiment with other instruments. Thankfully VST plugins on your computer can emulate a ton of different instruments, so instead of a guitar, use a synth, instead of a piano, use a vibraphone. Again, see what inspires you, what you think is tasteful, and move ahead with that. BONUS POINTS: go to a yard sale or a flea market and buy whatever random cheap instruments they may happen to have. Challenge yourself to write a few songs using that, and maybe you’ll wind up with something great.

• Finally, challenge yourself by making a song in a different genre. That chord progression you’ve been toying with? Make it a ballad, make it a country song, a heavy hip-hop song, a rock song, etc. Try to make a song from a very random genre every few weeks. You’ll never know what you’re attracted to, and again, you’re sharpening your skills so that when you do finally find your sound, you’re much more experienced in realizing your vision.
  

3. Refining Your Sound

Sooner or later, you’re going to naturally hone in on the styles and vibes you most identify with. That’s great! Don’t shy away from this, music is supposed to be natural, from the heart, and relatively effortless. If you’ve found something that makes you happy, you’re in the right ballpark. The next step is delivering that style with confidence, and security - convincing your listeners that you know what you’re doing!

• Confidence isn’t born overnight, it’s something you need to work on, it’s something you need to believe. Once your lyrics feel like YOU, it’s time to focus on your delivery. I strongly suggest memorizing your lyrics before recording final vocals, so that you can focus on the swagger, the delivery, the cadences vs. reading the lyrics. Try crazy stuff! Put on a “cute” voice, put on an “angry” voice, an aggressive voice, etc. Smile into certain lyrics, laugh, yell, get mad, get sad, let it come from the soul. Finding various ways to let your personality shine through your delivery is crucial. Nobody wants to hear a guitar part or a vocal that sounds like it’s read off a piece of paper. Over time, you will develop your natural rhythm of flow and swagger, making your music uniquely you.

• Use the vast library of samples, plugins and effects to your advantage. We’ve all got access to create digital collages at every corner. Splice is a great resource for royalty-free samples, but please, PLEASE don’t just drag and drop them into your song and call it a day.

  Certain samples it’s okay, but 9 times out of 10, that’s just another way to sound like everyone else, using the same sample without any creative expression on top. Distort it, chop it up, add reverb, pitch it up, pitch it down, etc. On top of that, you have a great tool in your pocket: your phone.

  Go out to the beach and record the birds in voice memos, drag this into your DAW and sample them. Nobody else in the world has that same sample. It’s all yours. Don’t get lazy, you can create a totally unique sound and style by using all the digital tools at your fingertips. Over time you’ll develop a style that sounds uniquely yours. “Oh that’s clearly a Carter beat, he’s the only one I know who uses real bass and distorted 808’s at the same time.” (Not true, just a silly example haha)

4. Building Your Brand

Now that you’ve found a somewhat coherent style that feels uniquely yours, you get to do what I think is the fun part. Pairing that with visual and sensory branding. Is your music fun and beachy? Go create visual content that coincides with that look and feel. Of course, you want to make sure your visual identity is as unique as your sonic one, so repeat the same steps as above except with visuals in mind.

Research, learn, emulate, tweak, and finalize!!

• Create a database of other artists doing a similar visual style as you. Learn from them, see what types of fonts they’re using, colors, and what emotions their visuals are evoking.

• Make a Pinterest board. I love this damn site, I make a “moodboard” for almost anything visual I do. It’s incredibly helpful and offers a vast amount of visual resources to grab inspiration from.

• Each genre/sound has a different feel to it. This can be a positive and a negative. If you make visual branding that feels exactly like everyone else in that lane, it will be difficult to stand out, but if you make incredibly happy poppy music, and pair it with a sleek, dark, futuristic visual - it very well could help you stand out. With that said, making sure the tones of your music match the vibe of your visuals is super important. 

• Finally, it’s time to put everything into action. This can be done on a small or a large scale. Large being, find music video directors who make videos for the artists you like, save up some money, and have them bring your music to life. Small scale would be shooting a vertical video on your phone. Even this can match your brand. Opposed to singing your reggae song in your dark apartment, behind your computer, go out to the beach, or a park, or ANYWHERE sunny, and sing it there. It will help to make your brand more cohesive and natural.

5. Collaborating with Others

Making music with other people is one of the many joys that come from being a creative. You get to collaborate and expand on a style or sound you’ve grown, with someone who may be more experienced in that realm. I do sometimes feel as though collaboration can be a double-edged sword, but it’s necessary in the early stages of developing your sound + in the late stages once you have your sound developed.

• There are two ways to look at this. First, if you don’t yet know what YOUR style is, then working with a bunch of different producers and artists will help you to “try on different clothes” and see what fits best. You can work with a rap producer, a rock producer, a reggae producer, etc. and feel out what your soul is most drawn to. This is a very fun and important process in the early days of finding your sound.

• Second, I sometimes feel like working with other producers can be a hindrance. I only feel this way if you still don’t know what your sound is. If you’re somewhat lost musically, but have already released stuff, sometimes working with a ton of different producers can hurt your “brand.” Imagine having one song that's a heavy 808 filled trap beat, another that’s a cute acoustic song, and the next is a synth wave rigid house song. You’re not showcasing YOUR sound, or YOUR personality in the music. You’re sorta just floating on whatever beat the producer chose to work on with you that day. This is a good thing in the discovery of your sound, but sometimes it can lead to an in-cohesive and piecemeal style. This is also something that comes with time and confidence, because if you’re able to direct a producer to realize your vision, then it is your style, but a lot of newer songwriters find it hard to speak up and dictate what it is they want to hear from a session.

• Collaborating with other producers/artists can be incredibly useful once your distinct style is proven, and fully fleshed out. If you know exactly who you are when you walk into that room, you won’t settle for anything other than what sounds like you. Additionally, these producers will know what to expect when you walk through the door, making sure they’re there to match YOUR vibe, not the other way around. This comes with time, and tends to be more frequent in well established artists, with very clear styles and senses of self.

Conclusion

This is truly the most fun aspect of being a musician. It shouldn’t be scary, it shouldn’t be defeating, because if you’re ever stuck - there’s always a new band, a new album, a new plugin, a new instrument to listen to and toy with. Style and confidence come after a long period of trial and error. You become attracted to what speaks naturally to you, and you become more and more comfortable fitting into whatever mold it is that you’ve created. Keep pushing, keep experimenting, and hell - go make a polka song later today!