Diggin it. If this was dropped at a rave I'd go nuts
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NEOGAF's Official Music Production Thread: calling all producers
- Thread starter Tr4nce
- Start date
Diggin it. If this was dropped at a rave I'd go nuts
^^
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I've done some layering on the main synth and redone the mastering , now i'm happy with the result
https://soundcloud.com/blindzoom/tropid-original-mix
Thanks man
As always, great work.
I'm really really loving the work on vocals,dope stuff
GuitarAtomik
Member
Good stuff. I'm getting mad everyone is so much better at mixing/mastering than I am lol. None of my stuff ever sounds loud or punchy enough coming out of Ableton. Any tips or resources you guys use? I'm using Ozone and I have a basic understanding of what I'm doing but I've hit a brick wall lately.
I produce in Reason but use i'm usinig ableton+ozone too for mastering.
I've found this tutorial very useful, maybe it can help you too:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL93560577EBA16F24
IIRC there was a 4th video concerning the maximizer part, but it isn't in the playlist and i can't find it, maybe i remember wrong.
Fidelis Hodie
Infidelis Cras
Sup guys.
My indie-rock 90's revival (joking title here) band Exes (of that Taylor Swift cover 'fame' haha) is going to be releasing their first EP in the next few months. Readying all the details, though it's pretty much ready.
And the site I've been working on, which I'd love some thoughts on:
www.exesofficial.com
Thanks for any clicks and listens and criticism. Really means a lot!
My indie-rock 90's revival (joking title here) band Exes (of that Taylor Swift cover 'fame' haha) is going to be releasing their first EP in the next few months. Readying all the details, though it's pretty much ready.
First song is here:
And the site I've been working on, which I'd love some thoughts on:
www.exesofficial.com
Thanks for any clicks and listens and criticism. Really means a lot!
I don't think the plugin delay compensation in Ableton has ever been fixed properly and it's very easy to smear the shit out of your sound using it for mixing The moment I moved to a different DAW it felt like I'd had some earwax cleaned out.
Apart from that though and without knowing how you currently mix here's a few things I do that might help:
gain stage everything to about -12db except the kick which I'll leave up to -6db to leave myself heaps of headroom at the master for Ozone to do its thing.
Don't overcompress your individual tracks, if you 3:1 a percussion part and then 2:1 at the drum bus it and then 2:1 at the master it multiplies so that original part is now compressed 3 x 2 x 2 which is 12:1 unless I've got it all horribly wrong. The only time I really use compression on individual tracks is either limiting an external instrument when I'm tracking it in or using sidechain compression on my bass and cymbals. The exception is my snares, I love to compress the hell out of my snares, really hard at like 20:1 ratio to get that whipcrack effect.
Always slice the hell out of your individual tracks with EQ, cut anything you dont need on each track, here's a rough guide: http://soundsandgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/FM_clubmix_dsktp1.jpg
That should leave way more EQ and gain space for Ozone to get pumping, I find for dance music the Ozone genre presets for house (house basic, house stereo wide) etc are all good starting points on the master channel.
Let's all wish a happy birthday to Tr4nce.Hope you enjoyed it my man!
Hey man!
Been real busy with work in the summer, as usual. How are you doing? Sometimes I just forget this thread still exists, how bad is that? Anyway, how's the producing going with you? Myself, I'm currently working on a new remix again. Had a bad case of writers block, and no inspiration at all. But it's come back, finally. Man, it almost depressed me. Cheers man.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Thanks guys! Appreciate it.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Newest thing I started is here: https://soundcloud.com/you_i
Other recent stuff: https://soundcloud.com/merqutio
Older stuff: https://soundcloud.com/ikillpxls
Right now I've been using stuff straight out of Ableton with some Massive here and there and attempting to use Ozone to master. The older stuff was mostly made with Reason but I haven't been using that lately.
I honestly have very little knowledge of advanced mixing beyond the basics (ie don't compress too much, try not to make frequencies compete, etc). Executing some of that is a challenge for me though.
Teknopathetic
Member
Related to the Korg Volcas I saw this video of the Bass. Extremely awesome to be able to sequence each oscillator independently even though it's technically a "mono" synth. The features Korg manage to put on these little boxes are ridiculous. Motion sequence recording on a 150$ synth? Ridiculous.
ElectricThunder
Member
Who wants some literally oldest-school Russian synth technomagic to forge untold things with?
http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/
Dev for it looks to be ongoing/lively again after a major rewrite to harness the past unto this mysterious future.
http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/
Dev for it looks to be ongoing/lively again after a major rewrite to harness the past unto this mysterious future.
mixing is a beast in it's own sense. We use ozone but we also use some waves and NI stuff as well. I think one of the most important things about mixing is being an eq master. Knowing how to make stuff stick out and not be muddy. We're still learning better techniques every day. It just takes patience and practice. You gotta master compressors/eqs/freq ranges/etc
yo, just got around to listening to this. I really suck at checking up on forums. good stuff. Can I get a copy of this so we can drop it in our set? is there a bandcamp account or something? my email is cidfox@gmail.com
you have some really cool ideas dude. keep it up
Mp3 dowload link is in my soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/blindzoom/tropid-original-mix-mp3
If you prefer .wav, i can give you a private link,no problems
Hey this was pretty awesome. Left a comment over there as well. Gotta agree, would definitely love this at a rave.
-----=========-----------------
On the mixing thing, I mainly just use a Parametric EQ 2 and Maximus in FL Studio 11. Before that, I used Soundgoodizer. Yeah that's a terrible thing to just slap on stuff, but with some clever EQ and compression, it can work pretty well, especially for dance and other electronic tracks.
I've heard of a couple people just using the core tools in FL to mix. Anyone else here use those.
FloatingDivider
Member
Oh hey cool a place to share my music, yay! I like some of it, I dislike some of it, I've decided to share some of it. Mostly the things that are of sufficient length to be deemed an actual song as opposed to a musical idea. It's 4 short sub 3 minute songs. I should be ashamed because I've been producing for a year and a half but I'm always convinced I suck so I quit before I finish songs. Some of this is old and is some of the first stuff I've ever produced -- Pour me another shot of rain was the first song I've ever finished, I made it in Reaper using nothing but free vsts, I hadn't figured out drums yet so it's slow and sad so it doesn't need them. I'm actually fairly proud of it because I managed to play everything on my computer keyboard and it sounded fairly decent after tweaking the midi velocities.
The rest was made with the ableton stuff and kontakt8 which I splurged on after thoroughly enjoying myself with the previous song. I've made a bunch of practice stuff which I never finished but I think the ordering from oldest to newest continueing on from that point is:
My friends, Will You Fight ?
Which I actually really like, It's got everything braveheart samples, samples from eisenhowers farewell adress and drums I banged in on a pad like a boss. It doesn't have automation or any fancy stuff though because I hadn't read the manual at this point
Dancing In My Garden(Laura Mvula Green Garden Remix)
I made this because I like this song but dislike how crazy and hokey it gets in parts. So I stripped it down re-arranged it added a 4 to the floor kickdrum to make it feel more like a dance track. I also added a bunch of minor stuff most of this is not really my work so I shouldn't take too much credit for it. I also failed at using wave cancellation correctly so the piano sounding thingy bleeds through on the vocal sometimes and sounds muddy in the mix.
Violence Against Alarm Clocks.
This is actually the latest thing I've made, I hate parts of it but that was sort of the point.
It's actually just a bunch of things I've figured out how to do jammed together, it's got all the good stuff sidechain compression, delay on return tracks with automation, filtering automation. All the sound design was mine too -- no presets.
Most of my stuff is really too quiet by comparison because I haven't found any good guides on mastering and mixing that haven't been like throw a bunch of shit on the master bus and add an izotope transparant final mix. I'm broke and can't afford izotope so that's not going to happen, I imagine you could get the same effect with multiband compression, good mixing and a decent limiter plugin though but I haven't figured it out yet -- so most of my songs are just unmastered whatever sounded good on my headphones thingies. Also this selecting an artist name thingy is too hard.
The rest was made with the ableton stuff and kontakt8 which I splurged on after thoroughly enjoying myself with the previous song. I've made a bunch of practice stuff which I never finished but I think the ordering from oldest to newest continueing on from that point is:
My friends, Will You Fight ?
Which I actually really like, It's got everything braveheart samples, samples from eisenhowers farewell adress and drums I banged in on a pad like a boss. It doesn't have automation or any fancy stuff though because I hadn't read the manual at this point
Dancing In My Garden(Laura Mvula Green Garden Remix)
I made this because I like this song but dislike how crazy and hokey it gets in parts. So I stripped it down re-arranged it added a 4 to the floor kickdrum to make it feel more like a dance track. I also added a bunch of minor stuff most of this is not really my work so I shouldn't take too much credit for it. I also failed at using wave cancellation correctly so the piano sounding thingy bleeds through on the vocal sometimes and sounds muddy in the mix.
Violence Against Alarm Clocks.
This is actually the latest thing I've made, I hate parts of it but that was sort of the point.
It's actually just a bunch of things I've figured out how to do jammed together, it's got all the good stuff sidechain compression, delay on return tracks with automation, filtering automation. All the sound design was mine too -- no presets.
Most of my stuff is really too quiet by comparison because I haven't found any good guides on mastering and mixing that haven't been like throw a bunch of shit on the master bus and add an izotope transparant final mix. I'm broke and can't afford izotope so that's not going to happen, I imagine you could get the same effect with multiband compression, good mixing and a decent limiter plugin though but I haven't figured it out yet -- so most of my songs are just unmastered whatever sounded good on my headphones thingies. Also this selecting an artist name thingy is too hard.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I likes! Definitely will look out for the EP.
I really like this.
I thought I'd post this here. I released an EP a few weeks ago but I am horrible at marketing it and would love downloads or listens:
http://dennistseng.bandcamp.com/album/thirteen-strokes
It's a bit electronic, bit instrumental, bit beats. I really don't know what to call it.
Just listened to You_I, wasn't expecting a full vocal track! Very cool vibe and your mix isn't bad at all, it's a little flat overall but there's some good panning and good use of the frequency range, just a bit smeary in the low end. I reckon if you can get a bit more punch in the snare and maybe a bit of a tighter low end in that kick it would make the drums sound a bit more dynamic and a bit less flat.
Ahaha, that UI just broke my brain!
GuitarAtomik
Member
Just posted a new track. More synth RnB style:
YOU I - IKYK
Thanks! I agree and I'll try to work on that.
I checked out some of the resources you guys linked to earlier and applied it to my newest track and, though it still could use some work, it definitely got it to a point that I was happy with beyond what I had before. Thanks again!
YOU I - IKYK
Thanks! I agree and I'll try to work on that.
I checked out some of the resources you guys linked to earlier and applied it to my newest track and, though it still could use some work, it definitely got it to a point that I was happy with beyond what I had before. Thanks again!
Fidelis Hodie
Infidelis Cras
Dude, thank you! That means a lot.
Wow Blue Steel that is some nice music. Didn't see the Asian feel coming.
I suppose I'll join in and post some of the stuff I've done. It's mostly electronic and orchestral stuff. I've ben wanting to do music for games so I figured I'd just get practice and start making stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL93A486690CE26419
======
Hey guys, before I start, I just want to say that I don't work for the creator of the tournament or anything. I just participated in it and am posting about it because I think it's a cool event and want to see of anyone else would be interested.
So yeah, with that said...
For anyone interested, there's this music production competition called Asis Galvin's Battle of the Beats. The one coming up is the 11th one titled BOTB XTE 2. It's set up kind of like a fighting game tournament where two people go up against each other and their songs are judged based on a set of criteria like different themes and "feels" (i.e. exciting, tragedy).
Even though it's called Battle of the Beats, you can really make any genre as long as it fits the criteria of the round.
As I said, the tournament is set up in brackets. Here's how these brackets look for an example.
http://challonge.com/botbxte
For some reason, the final round bracket isn't updated, but its only criteria is that the person make a remix of a song on the NES, but nothing from Mario or Megaman games.
You can find the video that leads to the final round entries here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENetzJTct60
Any of the other entries from other rounds can be easily found by typing in "BOTB XTE" followed by "RD1" "RD2" and so on in YouTube.
For my final entry, I did remixes of a song from Little Nemo and God Zilla. .
http://youtu.be/JWbpWoP5oJI
Another one's starting pretty soon if anyone's interested. The introduction to the new one can be found here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx6G-0ZCR0k
I suppose I'll join in and post some of the stuff I've done. It's mostly electronic and orchestral stuff. I've ben wanting to do music for games so I figured I'd just get practice and start making stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL93A486690CE26419
======
Hey guys, before I start, I just want to say that I don't work for the creator of the tournament or anything. I just participated in it and am posting about it because I think it's a cool event and want to see of anyone else would be interested.
So yeah, with that said...
For anyone interested, there's this music production competition called Asis Galvin's Battle of the Beats. The one coming up is the 11th one titled BOTB XTE 2. It's set up kind of like a fighting game tournament where two people go up against each other and their songs are judged based on a set of criteria like different themes and "feels" (i.e. exciting, tragedy).
Even though it's called Battle of the Beats, you can really make any genre as long as it fits the criteria of the round.
As I said, the tournament is set up in brackets. Here's how these brackets look for an example.
http://challonge.com/botbxte
For some reason, the final round bracket isn't updated, but its only criteria is that the person make a remix of a song on the NES, but nothing from Mario or Megaman games.
You can find the video that leads to the final round entries here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENetzJTct60
Any of the other entries from other rounds can be easily found by typing in "BOTB XTE" followed by "RD1" "RD2" and so on in YouTube.
For my final entry, I did remixes of a song from Little Nemo and God Zilla. .
http://youtu.be/JWbpWoP5oJI
Another one's starting pretty soon if anyone's interested. The introduction to the new one can be found here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx6G-0ZCR0k
I would like a private link please! .wav would be best. sorry for delayed response again. Been busy as of late
Cool stuff in here! Glad to see people working on all kinds of music here!
Got inspired by the new Darkside album and this was the result: https://soundcloud.com/k-raw/darth-vati
Got inspired by the new Darkside album and this was the result: https://soundcloud.com/k-raw/darth-vati
VariantX04
Loser slave of the system :(
And now for something different: Swan Song
Found some old MIDI packs that I completely forgot I owned and holy shit was I blown away by the sounds I managed to get out of them. First time I use Logic X's Drummer functionality in a release, too. Would appreciate the feedback, gang.
Found some old MIDI packs that I completely forgot I owned and holy shit was I blown away by the sounds I managed to get out of them. First time I use Logic X's Drummer functionality in a release, too. Would appreciate the feedback, gang.
I've been trying to keep busy with as many projects as I can. Currently working on 4 games and an indie movie. I decided to tackle all of these at once mostly because i'm starting to run out of money haha. No support in Saudi could do that to a musician but i'm slowly getting my name out there. I hear you about writer's block. It can get really bad sometimes to the point where I don't even want to look at my MIDI keyboard. It's these little sparks of inspiration that come every once in a while that keep me going. Don't stop man. You were made for this.
User 73706
Banned
I've talked about it a little bit in the I'm Going To Make Music and You Can Too thread, but I don't think I've mentioned it in here. I just put up a preview for Mix and Match: Engagement Party, which is a small, free "dueling tracks" remix EP thing. Depending on how well it's received I might turn Mix and Match into a regular side project thing.
BigEvilTurtle
Banned
Having a tough time finding decent piano software/VSTs. Anyone have some suggestions? I'd use a real piano if I had one.
BigEvilTurtle
Banned
I have Alicia's and I don't like it very much. The key release sounds off and I just don't like the sound. I am looking for a modern sound though. With classical pianos there's often a slight hiss or static in the background but I'll look at Berlin.
Professor Chaos
Member
I don't know how much you have to spend but check out:
Soundiron's Emotional Piano, it sounds incredible.
Also, Pianoteq - gives you a lot of control over the piano's sound, more so than a sampled piano.
BigEvilTurtle
Banned
Nope. Haven't changed a thing since I got it.
BigEvilTurtle
Banned
Pianoteq is okay, and I'll check out Emotional as soon as I can.
A long time coming, but I'm finally comfortable with where I'm at to start releasing music. It's electronic, but I don't really listen to the genre to be able to specify beyond that. Any listens and downloads would be much appreciated!
www.digitalregards.com
www.digitalregards.com
I use Steinberg, The Grand 3. I've always liked it, used it since version 1.
Someone mentioned Satin. It is great, very soft and pillowy, very smooth over transients. Its not iLOK, Fusebox.
And of course Klanghelm SDRR. If you've got a few bucks, this is one of my new favorite processors, it sounds so damn good.
Someone mentioned Satin. It is great, very soft and pillowy, very smooth over transients. Its not iLOK, Fusebox.
And of course Klanghelm SDRR. If you've got a few bucks, this is one of my new favorite processors, it sounds so damn good.
A long time coming, but I'm finally comfortable with where I'm at to start releasing music. It's electronic, but I don't really listen to the genre to be able to specify beyond that. Any listens and downloads would be much appreciated!
www.digitalregards.com
now i've got to go to work, but i'll sure check this.
Just wanted to share this thing i'm working on, i have to fix the arpeggios, but overall this is really growing on me
https://soundcloud.com/blindzoom/veromaster
User 73706
Banned
I'm a little late to this, but for piano plugins I mostly use Piano One and The Giant. Piano One is more of a proof-of-concept one (it's free!), but if you put a crapton of reverb on it, it doesn't sound too bad. Example here.
The Giant is a bit more professional sounding and obviously has a little extra diversity to it in terms of samples, positioning, etc. Example here.
The Giant is a bit more professional sounding and obviously has a little extra diversity to it in terms of samples, positioning, etc. Example here.
LiveFromKyoto
Member
I am staring at a pile of like $6000 of high end modular gear that is collecting dust in a corner. Lately my musical drive and inspiration have been zero, because of life stuff, but I'm feeling motivated to change that.
I'm really wondering if I should sell a bunch of my gaming stuff and cancel my PS4 preorder just to eliminate the distraction. I'm realizing what a huge time sink games really are ("single player campaign only clocks in at 10-12 hours") and that I just don't realistically have time for both.
We need to do another G.A.M.E. release or something.
I'm really wondering if I should sell a bunch of my gaming stuff and cancel my PS4 preorder just to eliminate the distraction. I'm realizing what a huge time sink games really are ("single player campaign only clocks in at 10-12 hours") and that I just don't realistically have time for both.
We need to do another G.A.M.E. release or something.
Professor Chaos
Member
Just out of curiosity, what gear have you got?
What gear do you have? A picture or a list would be great!
OrlanisWorks
Banned
Heya, fellas. I made this on Saturday with Reason, from few of all the free refills/samples I have built up over the past year. What can I say, I am a cheapo broke person.
Trio (Chilled Mix) - Arty, Matisse & Sadko
Thoughts/criticisms are absolutely welcome. I have never really done something like this, because I've been obsessed with making EDM/House.
Trio (Chilled Mix) - Arty, Matisse & Sadko
Thoughts/criticisms are absolutely welcome. I have never really done something like this, because I've been obsessed with making EDM/House.
Hi guys, I recently bought a dj set and I really enjoy the occasionally mixing. However, I'd also love to get a little bit in production. Just for fun. I have a few questions
- What is a good program (to start)? I've played around in Ableton and it was really hard. I also heard from others it's not beginner friendly. I saw Fruity Loops Mac beta recently launched. What do you guys advice?
- I have no real clue where to start.. I know how you can make easy beats in Fruity Loops, but that's about it. I know the basics of underground music (4x4 etc). Does anyone have tips where to go or what's a good way to learn?
- What's exactly the difference between a keyboard and s
- A lot of producers use keyboards or synthesizers. I'd love to have one to play around, but sadly synthesizers are pretty expensive. Are there any cheap alternatives (I heard there are midi digital keyboards that aren't that expensive?). What I mean, is that I want to connect the keyboard to Fruity Loops (for example), "choose" the sound in Fruity Loops, and play it with a real keyboard/synthesizer. For example, a keyboard like this: Novations Launchkey Mini ($100), can I connect this to Fruity loops to hit the keys, or can I only use the "standard" tunes of the keyboard? I am sorry if I am confusing, but I have no idea how to explain this otherwise.
The music I'd like to play around with is (UK) house, deep house, tech house and ('future') garage. Using a Macbook.
E: To clarify, it's not required that the keyboard/synth can produce on his 'own', I tend to connect it to my Macbook and it's ok for me if the software/computer producers the sound, so it would only act as a controller.
- What is a good program (to start)? I've played around in Ableton and it was really hard. I also heard from others it's not beginner friendly. I saw Fruity Loops Mac beta recently launched. What do you guys advice?
- I have no real clue where to start.. I know how you can make easy beats in Fruity Loops, but that's about it. I know the basics of underground music (4x4 etc). Does anyone have tips where to go or what's a good way to learn?
- What's exactly the difference between a keyboard and s
- A lot of producers use keyboards or synthesizers. I'd love to have one to play around, but sadly synthesizers are pretty expensive. Are there any cheap alternatives (I heard there are midi digital keyboards that aren't that expensive?). What I mean, is that I want to connect the keyboard to Fruity Loops (for example), "choose" the sound in Fruity Loops, and play it with a real keyboard/synthesizer. For example, a keyboard like this: Novations Launchkey Mini ($100), can I connect this to Fruity loops to hit the keys, or can I only use the "standard" tunes of the keyboard? I am sorry if I am confusing, but I have no idea how to explain this otherwise.
The music I'd like to play around with is (UK) house, deep house, tech house and ('future') garage. Using a Macbook.
E: To clarify, it's not required that the keyboard/synth can produce on his 'own', I tend to connect it to my Macbook and it's ok for me if the software/computer producers the sound, so it would only act as a controller.
Teknopathetic
Member
1) All software have their learning curves. FL Studio (Fruity Loops) has a relatively lower learning curve than most, but it's still going to require some time on your end. There are plenty of tutorials for *all* of the software options available. Ableton, Logic (which is an option for you as a mac user), Renoise, Reaper, yada yada yada. There's plenty of resources to learn any one you choose, so try all of them.
2) To begin, you might want to start learning some music theory. Learn the notes, scales, chords, etc. that make up the foundation of music. There are tons of tutorials about this on youtube. You can literally search "Learn Music Theory" and get a ton of (fairly decent) videos about music theory. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of books, you could take courses at a local community college, etc. Specifically for the music you're interested in, in addition to basic music theory, you might also want to look into theory for Funk, Jazz, and Soul. These 3 genres are extremely influential to many styles of house (especially Deep House) and Garage.
3) A keyboard is simply that. A keyboard. It doesn't really produce any sound on its own (though some may have a few, very limited built in sounds). It simply sends information about you pressing notes on the keyboard to either your computer or a synthesizer.
A synthesizer "synthesizes" sound. You tweak a variety of parameters and it alters the sound to what you like. A synthesizer is not necessarily a keyboard. Many synthesizers have a keyboard attached to them, but what makes them a synthesizer is completely internal. There are software synthesizers, largely existing as "plugins" that you can install on your computer to use with your sequencer. Sequencers are another term for the software you use to "sequence" the music. Fruity Loops (FL Studio), Ableton, etc. these are Sequencers or Digital Audio Workstations.
3) Yes, that keyboard (and any USB MIDI keyboard) will connect to FL Studio and trigger software synthesizers and sounds.
2) To begin, you might want to start learning some music theory. Learn the notes, scales, chords, etc. that make up the foundation of music. There are tons of tutorials about this on youtube. You can literally search "Learn Music Theory" and get a ton of (fairly decent) videos about music theory. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of books, you could take courses at a local community college, etc. Specifically for the music you're interested in, in addition to basic music theory, you might also want to look into theory for Funk, Jazz, and Soul. These 3 genres are extremely influential to many styles of house (especially Deep House) and Garage.
3) A keyboard is simply that. A keyboard. It doesn't really produce any sound on its own (though some may have a few, very limited built in sounds). It simply sends information about you pressing notes on the keyboard to either your computer or a synthesizer.
A synthesizer "synthesizes" sound. You tweak a variety of parameters and it alters the sound to what you like. A synthesizer is not necessarily a keyboard. Many synthesizers have a keyboard attached to them, but what makes them a synthesizer is completely internal. There are software synthesizers, largely existing as "plugins" that you can install on your computer to use with your sequencer. Sequencers are another term for the software you use to "sequence" the music. Fruity Loops (FL Studio), Ableton, etc. these are Sequencers or Digital Audio Workstations.
3) Yes, that keyboard (and any USB MIDI keyboard) will connect to FL Studio and trigger software synthesizers and sounds.
If you're just starting you definitely want a midi controller. They're relatively cheap, easy to set up and can last you a long time. If you get really dedicated maybe you'll add synths to your set up someday, but you'll always have that midi controller. I would suggest getting something a little more robust than that controller (like this), especially if you expect to be using the keyboard traditionally in any way. That one you linked looks a little frustrating, though you would certainly be able to learn with it.
As for the program, I like Ableton a lot. There is a lot to learn, but if you just watch a few youtube tutorials and follow along you should be able to grasp the basics fairly quickly. The basic chopping up songs and fading them in and out you can probably learn in an hour or two.
As for the program, I like Ableton a lot. There is a lot to learn, but if you just watch a few youtube tutorials and follow along you should be able to grasp the basics fairly quickly. The basic chopping up songs and fading them in and out you can probably learn in an hour or two.
Professor Chaos
Member
I'd demo at least 3 different DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). Make sure you check out Logic, it's ridiculously cheap/powerful for what you get.
I'm not sure what Dj set up you have, but many Djs use Ableton Live, so you could look at using that for producing as well as integrating it with your Dj set up. Its the least 'traditional' out of all of the DAWs, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on your workflow. Ableton is great for jamming, and launching various loops together/experimenting. Most of the other DAWs only allow you to work in a linear fashion.
And for what its worth, all DAWs have a learning curve, so be careful not to get sucked into the debate of which ones better etc. All of them are perfectly capable, it just depends on your own working preferences, which is why its best to grab some demos before you commit to one.
And as the other guys have said, getting a midi controller is the way to go. There are tons of software synths out there.
I'm not sure what Dj set up you have, but many Djs use Ableton Live, so you could look at using that for producing as well as integrating it with your Dj set up. Its the least 'traditional' out of all of the DAWs, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on your workflow. Ableton is great for jamming, and launching various loops together/experimenting. Most of the other DAWs only allow you to work in a linear fashion.
And for what its worth, all DAWs have a learning curve, so be careful not to get sucked into the debate of which ones better etc. All of them are perfectly capable, it just depends on your own working preferences, which is why its best to grab some demos before you commit to one.
And as the other guys have said, getting a midi controller is the way to go. There are tons of software synths out there.
Hey thanks for the 3 very helpful replies above me(!!!), including the explanation. It's really appreciated. To comment (I am not going to quote all three...):
Teknopathetic: I am planning to learn more on music theory, I know the very basics as stated in my previous post. I think I will start with FL Studio for now (I fooled around in the program before), though I do have access to Lynda videos via my university. Lynda has a bunch of Ableton courses so that might be worth looking into.
About the (midi) keyboards: I will forget a real synthesizer for now. The digital ones seem quite nice, and doing exactly what I want.
Professior Chaos: I have a cheap Numark Pro 2 set with Traktor. Would it also be possible to bind a midi keyboard to Traktor, because it's midi? (and yes, Traktor supports more then 1 controller)?
Servbot24, the keyboard you posted (Novation Launchkey 49) looks very nice. But to be honest I'd rather spend less money. Do you (or someone else in this thread) has a cheaper alternative? Preferably around 100ish. Or I am being too picky?
Teknopathetic: I am planning to learn more on music theory, I know the very basics as stated in my previous post. I think I will start with FL Studio for now (I fooled around in the program before), though I do have access to Lynda videos via my university. Lynda has a bunch of Ableton courses so that might be worth looking into.
About the (midi) keyboards: I will forget a real synthesizer for now. The digital ones seem quite nice, and doing exactly what I want.
Professior Chaos: I have a cheap Numark Pro 2 set with Traktor. Would it also be possible to bind a midi keyboard to Traktor, because it's midi? (and yes, Traktor supports more then 1 controller)?
Servbot24, the keyboard you posted (Novation Launchkey 49) looks very nice. But to be honest I'd rather spend less money. Do you (or someone else in this thread) has a cheaper alternative? Preferably around 100ish. Or I am being too picky?
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