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NEOGAF's Official Music Production Thread: calling all producers

Fusebox

Banned
Nice one man! What do you think of it?

I'm still lovin mine. Lets do some old school patch sharing, lol...

This is an electro pluck type of patch. Here's a tune I made with this patch doin some slow tweaking of the filter, metalizer and release envelopes. The changing LFO, white noise riser is from the brute too:

http://soundcloud.com/kaarma/inside-outside

7601177222_76ae701d6d_c.jpg



This one's an acidy, Josh Wink kind of sound with a DJ scratch undertone, if you're not firing MIDI at it from a DAW then set the arp to hold and get wicked on the mod wheel for some wicky wicky vinyl scratch madness:

7798843042_57b31d2ff1_c.jpg


And I mounted my new soundcard the other day!

7798845198_f19171c77e_c.jpg
 

Fusebox

Banned
Just had a quick listen to both of them.

Agent you've got that video-game sound nailed now man, you should be doing soundtracks for arcade games.

Sadsic that's a bit weird and depressing, not really my thing but there's some interesting sounds in there.

What did you guys both use to make those tunes?
 

VariantX04

Loser slave of the system :(
Just had a quick listen to both of them.

Agent you've got that video-game sound nailed now man, you should be doing soundtracks for arcade games.

Sadsic that's a bit weird and depressing, not really my thing but there's some interesting sounds in there.

What did you guys both use to make those tunes?

Still waiting for the offers to roll in. :| Thank you! I'm just glad that so far my singles and my albums sound almost completely different. Plan on keeping it that way for the foreseeable future. As for what I used, it's pretty much the usual: Logic Pro 9, Sylenth1, and Massive. I'm way too much of a noob/poor person to try and work with hardware synths.
 
Nice one man! What do you think of it?

I'm still lovin mine. Lets do some old school patch sharing, lol...

This is an electro pluck type of patch. Here's a tune I made with this patch doin some slow tweaking of the filter, metalizer and release envelopes. The changing LFO, white noise riser is from the brute too:

http://soundcloud.com/kaarma/inside-outside

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7109/7601177222_76ae701d6d_c.jpg


This one's an acidy, Josh Wink kind of sound with a DJ scratch undertone, if you're not firing MIDI at it from a DAW then set the arp to hold and get wicked on the mod wheel for some wicky wicky vinyl scratch madness:

7798843042_57b31d2ff1_c.jpg


And I mounted my new soundcard the other day!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8438/7798845198_f19171c77e_c.jpg

Loving the hell out of it. Created a sick patch yesterday that sounded right out of a 60's horror scifi flick. Of course that was halfway thru my screwing around session and I forgot to put it down on a preset sheet. I'll stumble back upon it someday lol. If I recreate it I'll def share it.

I'll def try your patches thanks!

Agent - Wassup with the Martha Stewart tags? :D
Sadsic - Like the atmosphere that track creates, cool indeed
 

Sadsic

Member
Just had a quick listen to both of them.

Agent you've got that video-game sound nailed now man, you should be doing soundtracks for arcade games.

Sadsic that's a bit weird and depressing, not really my thing but there's some interesting sounds in there.

What did you guys both use to make those tunes?

i used ableton live and i just sang into my webcam >_>
 

VariantX04

Loser slave of the system :(
Agent - Wassup with the Martha Stewart tags? :D
Sadsic - Like the atmosphere that track creates, cool indeed
Martha Stewart Urban Jams up in this bitch! But seriously, no reason other than I like to get a little ridiculous with my tags. It's pulled in some curious listeners before haha. Each single the tags get more and more ludicrous. I'm pretty serious when it comes to my album tags though. :p

i used ableton live and i just sang into my webcam >_>
That's one impressive webcam you have there. <_<
 

Fusebox

Banned
Loving the hell out of it. Created a sick patch yesterday that sounded right out of a 60's horror scifi flick. Of course that was halfway thru my screwing around session and I forgot to put it down on a preset sheet. I'll stumble back upon it someday lol. If I recreate it I'll def share it.

Lol I've done that a few times. The lack of patch memory is one thing about this synth that's equally good and bad.

On one hand it's so easy to make a good sound and then lose it by changing too many parameters, but on the other hand once you've figured out how you did make that sound it becomes easy to just dial it in manually any time and you end up treating it more like a musical instrument than a bank of presets.
 

Galang

Banned
I have no training in music, but In the past two years I've considered starting music production and about a year ago I bought an Akai Professional APC40 controller with a copy of Ableton. I would touch the program maybe once every few weeks for an hour and then get disinterested.

In the past week not sure what happened, but I've been spending a few hours a day doing various things in the program and following tutorials. It's been a very very long time since I've felt so enthusiastic about anything. Not sure if it will continue like this, but this thread was a very interesting read even though I don't understand a lot of the terminology. There's a lot of great sounding stuff in here, hopefully I'll be able to contribute someday!
 

OrangeOak

Member
I've been making music since 2005 with a 2 years break somewhere in between.
It's only my hobby and taking my skill and lack of talent in to the consideration it will remain that way forever.
I love doing it though.
Chillout,IDM,Downtempo,Ambient,Illbient are my favorite genres.
My program of choice is FL Studio.
Some of my tracks can be found here:http://soundcloud.com/ortrack
This is really awesome thread !
 

Fusebox

Banned
Galang, there's a fair few of us Ableton users in this thread so if you have any q's just hit us up man.

OrangeOak, I look forward to checking your soundcloud stuff out when I knock off work today.
 
So I used to do lots of hip hop music production up until about 6 years ago or so, used the MPC2000XL and Korg Triton mostly with a few soft synths to augment... I've been out of the game for quite a while but I just recently purchased a new Retina MacBook Pro and want to get back into things.. A lot of what I used to do centered around sample chopping, for example (some tracks I produced a while back):

http://www.beatport.com/track/a-portion-feat-2mex-original-mix/353122
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpUaMf3V-Y8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HfUWJh2ED4

Anyways, I'm just trying to figure out what would be the best kind of computer-only workflow that would fit best with this kind of stuff... I got Logic thinking that might be a good way to go but I've never used Ableton and I'm also wondering what the best virtual instruments and sample sets (for orchestral type sounds and instruments) would be the best to get.. I'm thinking of maybe just going the instrumental route with anything new that I make but I'm not sure yet. I also have an MPK49 but it doesn't integrate with Logic all that well, is there some other app it works better with?
 

Fusebox

Banned
For sample cutting Ableton is way better than Logic. I have a mate who regularly chops up old funk to make jackin house and he has both Ableton and logic and always raves about how much easier it is in Ableton. I'm a huge fan of Maschine too for auto-slicing loops and assigning hits to the pads. I think an Ableton + Maschine combo would blow you away for how easy it is to do stuff like that.
 
Duly noted.. I was contemplating getting the Maschine today too.

Yeah that settles it, I'm going to try out Ableton, because it always seemed like I was trying to get Logic to do stuff that it wasn't really designed to do.
 
So guys, I've always been fascinated by music production, and my girlfriend just bought me a AKAI LPK25 to get me "started", because I always play around for one hour before I get frustrated that I just don't "get" it.

Tutorials on youtube teach me barely anything. They don't show me how to make a nice track from scratch. They usually load up a bunch of samples that they've bought, let them play one after the other and that's it. Nothing detailed. How am I supposed to learn to produce?

I have access to Ableton Live and Reason (on Mac).

I just don't know what the steps are to making a nice track. Should I do it in session view? Do I use the instruments and samples that Ableton gives me?

I really, really want to make music, but I'm kind of stuck here.



Loving that track, Sadsic! Unlocks a lot of nice feelings in this summery weather.
 

Greg

Member
So guys, I've always been fascinated by music production, and my girlfriend just bought me a AKAI LPK25 to get me "started", because I always play around for one hour before I get frustrated that I just don't "get" it.

Tutorials on youtube teach me barely anything. They don't show me how to make a nice track from scratch. They usually load up a bunch of samples that they've bought, let them play one after the other and that's it. Nothing detailed. How am I supposed to learn to produce?

I have access to Ableton Live and Reason (on Mac).

I just don't know what the steps are to making a nice track. Should I do it in session view? Do I use the instruments and samples that Ableton gives me?

I really, really want to make music, but I'm kind of stuck here.

I wish there was an easier way to explain it, but it really comes down to just digging in and experimenting with everything you can get your hands on.

The tutorial you want doesn't exist because there are a million ways to start, arrange, and finish a track. Tutorials have their place, but everyone has their own methods that work for them, and you won't find yours unless you're doing it instead of watching it.

I started making the most progress towards what I wanted when I stepped away from tutorials, advice, and my idea of what I though a track was supposed to be. If you find a sound you like - play with it. If you don't know what something does - click it. Look at every bit of time spent working with the software/instrument as a learning experience, and just have fun.
 

Fusebox

Banned
So guys, I've always been fascinated by music production, and my girlfriend just bought me a AKAI LPK25 to get me "started", because I always play around for one hour before I get frustrated that I just don't "get" it.

Tutorials on youtube teach me barely anything. They don't show me how to make a nice track from scratch. They usually load up a bunch of samples that they've bought, let them play one after the other and that's it. Nothing detailed. How am I supposed to learn to produce?

I have access to Ableton Live and Reason (on Mac).

I just don't know what the steps are to making a nice track. Should I do it in session view? Do I use the instruments and samples that Ableton gives me?

I really, really want to make music, but I'm kind of stuck here.

There's no real formula man, your DAW is a blank canvas. What sort of music do you want to make? House music? Start in Abletons session view, drop in Impulse, create a MIDI clip of a 4/4kick drum and get it looping. Then add another track, open Analog and select a bass sound. Start playing around on your Akai until a cool bassline jumps out at you. Record it as a MIDI clip and then get it looping over the kick. Add a lead the same way, add a snare, add some highhats, just slowly start building a track.
 
Hey GAF! Want new noize? After 14 years of bedroomproducing I finally decided to get to the surface and start releasing stuff (soon, hopefully) under the name "Dynamoto". I have uploaded 5 Previews of my newest Tracks on my brandnew Soundcloud Page. I do Progressive House, bit of Dubstep, bit of D&B and bit of everything else, really.

Would be awesome if you guys could give the tracks a listen!

http://soundcloud.com/dynamoto

https://twitter.com/dynamotomusic

http://www.youtube.com/user/dynamotomusic (nothing on there for now)

lDyhn.png
 

Fusebox

Banned
Some cool sounds there man, but what's with this tiny preview shenanigans? Just set your tune so they can't be downloaded and put the whole thing up for us so I can hear it properly.
 
Hey GAF! Want new noize? After 14 years of bedroomproducing I finally decided to get to the surface and start releasing stuff (soon, hopefully) under the name "Dynamoto". I have uploaded 5 Previews of my newest Tracks on my brandnew Soundcloud Page. I do Progressive House, bit of Dubstep, bit of D&B and bit of everything else, really.

Would be awesome if you guys could give the tracks a listen!

http://soundcloud.com/dynamoto

https://twitter.com/dynamotomusic

http://www.youtube.com/user/dynamotomusic (nothing on there for now)

lDyhn.png
Drag and Under the Hood scared the hell out of my 8-month old daughter. She has the same reaction to the vacuum cleaner. I wasn't so harsh of a critic. I thought they sounded cool, with Under the Hood being the better of the two, imo. I really like When the Dust Settled. Has a nice melody. Good luck man.

Here is some of my most recent stuff:

http://soundcloud.com/dark-octave/gigabyte-intro

http://soundcloud.com/dark-octave/gigabyte-intermission

http://soundcloud.com/dark-octave/coach-rob-619-final
 
Thanks you guys! Heh, I really didn't want to scare any children! ;]
Yeah; the preview thingy is meh, I know. But it's because the songs really aren't finished and "Preview" sounds better than "WIP". And I just wanted to get some reactions. The more melodic ones are close to being completed though. Will post the finished versions.
 

IceCold

Member
I've always wanted to produce music. Years ago I tried to use fl studio and reason but the amount of features in them overwhelmed me. I had no idea what to do since I have no musical background and just gave up.

Then I saw this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTx3G6h2xyA

and it really inspired me and now I feel like giving it another shot. The problem is I have no idea where to begin. Are there any guides online for beginners? Like where to start in terms of software/hardware and stuff?
 

Tr4nce

Member
Yes, Reason can be very overwhelming at first, because the approach is just a little different than other DAW's. Every DAW is overwhelming maybe when I think about it, when you use it for the first time, especially if you haven't used any music production software before.

I'm sorry but the best way is just to buy one DAW, and go for it. I've been making music now for about 12 years, and I have learned so much. Just plunge in, check a few tutorials maybe for the DAW you will be using, that's the luxury that the Internet can offer you nowadays. Read up a bit about EQ'ing, FX such as reverb and delay, chorus etc. etc, making compositions and some sound synthesis maybe. But in the end, everyone has to just take the initial dive, and go for it. It can take years before you reach somewhat of a 'professional' sounding track, but never give up. The important thing is to have fun. Make music because you want to, out of passion, not for the money. Maybe start by 'remixing' a track you like, or 'rebuilding' it. You will learn much from it. Check the OP in this thread for a little bit more info. Now go and be creative! :)

Good luck.
 
i cant wait for the new maschine update. free massive yay. i have been out of the music game for a lil bit, maybe some new stuff to fiddle with will bring me back in for a while.
 

Fusebox

Banned
I agree the new coloured Maschine pads look cheesy, but I like them! No wonder they've been selling Maschine so cheap lately, moving the old stock to make way for this one.
 

Tr4nce

Member
Holy shit, I love knobs and buttons. But that studio picture just scares the fuck out of me :D

And Neos: wow, weird shit man. We live in great times indeed.
 

Fusebox

Banned
These just arrived in the post along with my new Eurorack case!!

7933534774_6c8d0d876c_c.jpg


7933532384_a42c051c57_z.jpg


He forgot to send my Silenway ES-3 module but he's expressing it to me overnight so I'll get it tomorrow. I'll throw some pics of the case up tonight when I take it home and unwrap it but I had a peek at it and it looks pretty sweet.
 

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
Hey guys!

Ok. I need help. I have a couple keyboards, a mic, Abelton Live, a laptop, and a desktop. I want to record music, and make some tracks. What do I need to connect the audio equipment to my computer and record? How much will it cost me?
 
Hey guys!

Ok. I need help. I have a couple keyboards, a mic, Abelton Live, a laptop, and a desktop. I want to record music, and make some tracks. What do I need to connect the audio equipment to my computer and record? How much will it cost me?
you will need to purchase an audio interface, this allows you to hook up your synth and microphone to your computer. make sure it has both TRS and MIDI inputs at least.

most of the stuff on this page will be sufficient i think..

http://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USB_Audio_Interfaces

I would hang around the $200-$300 area, thats just me though. For example the Focusrite scarlett ones might fit your needs.
 

Fusebox

Banned
Hey guys!

Ok. I need help. I have a couple keyboards, a mic, Abelton Live, a laptop, and a desktop. I want to record music, and make some tracks. What do I need to connect the audio equipment to my computer and record? How much will it cost me?

What keyboards have you got?
 
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