I'm starting this thread because i'd like to hear what instruments people like to use the most on LBP. Also, what instrument combo's and tricks do you like to use? It's always interesting to me to hear what people like to use, and why they like to use it.

Some of my personal favorites are:

Baiyon kit: It really is a very useful drum kit, even if you aren't into making EDM style music. It's my first choice when I want a good "thump" from a kick drum. The sounds are very "tight" and you can get a really good "smack" out of the snare if you blend it with the snare from the acoustic kit.

Acoustic kit: It sounds a little "fake" sometimes, but with just a little reverb it usually fixes it.

Beatbox kit 1: This is a kit that i'm just now starting to really like. Not for making "Beatbox" noises, but for some organic sounding percussion. Add some reverb and switch up the key, and you've got some good really nice sounds. Buddydestruction uses this kit quite a bit and his stuff is a good example of how to get these sounds.

ALL THE NEW TRIBAL DRUMS: They just sound really good and organic to me. Really great for jungle tracks (a pretty popular theme for platformer creators as well)

Harpsichord: Everything from brutal sounding bass to smooth sounding chords and leads. I frequently pair it with the Synth Ghost instrument and play with settings to get some really good lead synth tones (reverb and echo is pretty much a must for these tones).

Mosquito: This is one of my favorites. I really like to use it for some 80s sounding synth chords. I also like to blend it with the square wave for some really funky sounds.

Square Wave: You can do so much with the square. You can blend it with almost anything and come up with some really neat effects if you experiment a little. You can even get some percussive "thumps" out of it.

Ray Gun: Oh yis! The bassy grind you can get when you blend it with square and Triangle is probably the most brutal bass you can achieve with the LBP sequencer. Some really good lead tones and chords are possible as well with a little bit of timbre adjustment.

Triangle Wave: It's my go-to for that subtronic, in-your-face bass. Also a very good one for chords and leads.

Distorted Guitar: I'm not a fan of the defult sound of this one. However, it can be used for some very interesting synth-like effects.

Tennis/Worm: These two, when paired, might be my favorite out of all. I don't use these all of the time, but you can get a really cool retro bass sound from pairing them together. I've gotten everything from leads, chords, tribal percussion and even SFX out of these instruments. They are very low thermo (virtually none) and are very versatile.

These ones are my personal go-to instruments. It's all about finding the sort of tones you want to use and blend. I'm very interested in hearing all of yours and having some discussion about what you like and even a little of what you don't.

For example: I'm not a fan of the Horn instruments on here. They just sound very fake and cheap to me.

Remember, this isn't a thread about why you don't like the sequencer, what instruments you wish you had for it or it's limitations (there are plenty of other threads about that and you can discuss that in those). It's about what you like (and what you may not) out of the instruments that we do have.

Although I do not usually make music, I do have some fun sometimes when fiddling around with the music sequencer.

I am a very big fan of the Move Pack ones, especially the Clarinet and the Music Box. I do enjoy seeing how a song would sound when only using these. I have not yet got to fiddle much with the new instruments of LBP3, so I do not know yet about those. I also enjoy the Glass Harmonica, it adds a very peaceful, and/or mysterious vibe to a song, but definitely one I would not want to make a WHOLE song out of. The Choir Ahs sometimes is useful, but sometimes sounds really fake. I also like pairing Woodpecker, Worm, and Tennis Ball all with each other. As you can probably see, I enjoy the Whimsical ones the most.

Hmm, I love Square Wave, my main choice for the vocals of my song.
Concertina mixed with Strings makes a really nice sound equivalent to violin, I also add a Brass or Legato to add more impact.
I really like Mime as well, over bass anyways, I find bass to be inconsistent.
I like the piano, alone, it sounds pretty bad but properly tweaked, sounds great. I use triangle wave to get a smooth flute sound, and let's not forget distorted guitar, of course, I'd love better guitars, but distorted does a great job.
If anything, my most used instruments are Concertina and Square Wave.

that reminds me.. I did a really cool synth bass tone mixing Concertina, Square and Harpsi. it was a very 80s sounding tone that could be very useful

the electric bass can make some eerie sounds when you use the timbre and have the notes in a high pitch. I used it for a jungle call sound in one of my tunes

and yea, I agree that the piano can actually sound pretty good with the right tweaks. and it can sound pretty bad without them

@DiamondDiancie10 the Music Box is probably one of my favorites that I didn't mention, and especially by itself... I've made one tune that only used Music Box an it turned out pretty good. I think I might have to do another sometime.

if it sounds fake add some reverb/delay.

Glass harmonica: It's kind of rythmic and adds a calm undertone. I pretty much always use it in the background or as a backup for another instrument.

Noise: I love to use it as percussion. No seriously, it's a great drum that gives a peaceful song a tense overtone.

Pulse Wave: It makes a good bass, and a good chord. It's smooth and clean.

Koto: If tweaked properly it gives a nice string that sticks out from the other ones. But if including the initial strike, it sounds like a dying cat

Kalimba: When distorted it gives a soft ambient sound.

Bayon Shiny: More specifically the c6-c7 sound tweaked to the c4 range. I had to multiply it five times to get the sound to be hearable, but oh boy is it a good sound.

Bayon Guilford and bayon kyoto: Again, tweaked below a sounds normal range makes it very ambient

The Congas and the Dumbek: I don't need to explain myself :-P

Choir aahs: I love using the c7 aahs down in the c3 range, its so smooth. And, i like using short aahs as replacement for quick piano-like sounds.

Robot: Distroted gives this passing sound, like it's on a merry-go-round.


On the other hand, i hate the pianos, Bell and the distorted electric guitar, they sound like they're taken straight out of a midi file.

midi is just data, you are talking about inbuilt synth from soundcards on the pc and certain keyboards. and in order to fix that, you layer and apply reverb, a heavy kick with distorted guitar makes it hard hitting, i recommend pitching down the tones (in pitch) when sequencing harmonic intervals with them (power chords aren't really chords, but that and, etc.) it's also not possible to apply distortion in lbp unless you use square wave, etc, in certain ways. unless you are talking about phasing which is when you layer something multiple times where the frequencies clash.

midi is just data, you are talking about inbuilt synth from soundcards on the pc and certain keyboards. and in order to fix that, you layer and apply reverb, a heavy kick with distorted guitar makes it hard hitting, i recommend pitching down the tones (in pitch) when sequencing harmonic intervals with them (power chords aren't really chords, but that and, etc.) it's also not possible to apply distortion in lbp unless you use square wave, etc, in certain ways. unless you are talking about phasing which is when you layer something multiple times where the frequencies clash.


Sorry, i meant treble. I don't know my music terminology.

My favourite instruments are the Piano, Acoustic Kit 1, Electric Guitar (muted), Electric Guitar Distorted, Harp, Koto, Nylon String Guitar, Strings Legato, E-Piano, Marimba, Music Box, and Brass.

You can actually make some masterpieces with the music sequencer in LittleBigPlanet, you can even recreate whole songs, even though you can't always use all the instruments the actual song has.

The music sequencer is really great and easy to use for people with little to no musical experience.

With Kind Regards,

Jonay

I'm not an LBP composer, but I really dig the Surf Guitar from the recent Tiki Paradise level kit. So groovy.

those new instruments seem pretty neat. i wont be buying the pack to test it out but i've heard them in action. pretty neat addition

Groovy is about a song/an instrument that is being played in a certain rhythmical way, not the sounds from an instrument itself.

And surf music doesn't really have swing or any 'groovy' rhythmical aspects. Listen to surf legends like The Challangers, Dick Dale as examples, and you'll get what I mean.

(I like being the annoying unfunny, 'wants to correct people' guy, so just ignore this post)

I'm absolutely freaking awful at making music, but I like everything from the Tiki Kit.

I really don't like most of the tiki kit instruments, because i found out that most of the instruments are untuneable. One sound has one pitch and you can never change that, even when "cheating" it out of its normal pitch zone it stays the same. Although i do like the gong instrument, even though it kills the thermo.

I like the orchestral instruments. Probably because I've always been a fan of fantasy/RPG type games and those tend to be the best route to that sort of epic medieval sound in my experience

My favorite instruments... oh boi hurr weh go

Baiyon Kit 1, Brush Kit, Junk Kit, Surf Kit, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar Power Chords, Harp, Surf Guitar, Baiyon Kyoto, E-Piano, Harpsichord, Raygun, Robot, Square Wave, Strings, Tennis, Glass Harmonica, Glockenspiel, Kalimba, Music Box, Tubular Bells, Choir Aahs, Brass, and Pan Pipes.

Whew, that was a lot.

i love using them all. can't really find music to use the ant og the baiyon or junk instruments and I've made hundred of sequences. i'm a little miffed that certain instruments have sour notes but my absolute favorite is the oboe.

synth bass 2 is epic when used right.

I love the oboe, the pan flute, the marimba, the trumpets, the flute and the piano.

I love Cinematic Studio Strings for Kontakt.

is that an lbp3 instrument? o_o