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NEOGAF's Official Music Production Thread: calling all producers

F

Fusebox

Banned
Anyone try the new Komplete Kontrol browser from NI? I'm having flashbacks to Kore but without the crazy modular options Kore provided and without the nifty controller. Feels totally meh at this stage tho I suppose might be good for people who rely on Komplete a lot more than I do.
 
D

Dreaver

Member
I installed Ableton this weekend for the first time. I've messed around with Logic as well before, but it never really clicked and I had a lot of trouble creating a track. However, somehow I managed to pull stuff off I never could in Logic. I'm really liking Ableton.

I created a techno track, and honestly, this is the first time I made a track where I really have the feeling it has a decent progress. I mean, yeah it's probably still pretty shitty, but I'm really happy with the result in such a short time (I watched a ton of tutorials though).

Anyway, here is the track: techno track

I would love some feedback on how to improve the track. It isn't mastered yet (tips are welcome though) and I'm thinking of adding some panning. I want it to sound dirty. like this Tim Wolff track for example.

Feedback?
 
X

Xrenity

Member
It sounds really 'flat' to me. Indeed try panning stuff (full right/left works really good in my experience) to make it sound much wider. You can also use reverb on some stuff to make it sound further away and create depth. But that's probably stuff you already know and I'm just not into Techno ;-)

And the kick doesn't really make an impact on me... It sounds heavily compressed. But maybe it's just not my type of music ;)

New track of mine: http://youtu.be/VfoEKWSlC-4
Used a sample captured on holiday as an ambient sound. Think it's a fun track.
 
N

Nyx

Member
After creating some beats in Reason 5 I thought it was time to hook up my M-Audio Oxygen v2 to play some leads, but Reason does not recognize the controller...

I went from XP to Windows 7 64 bit, in XP it worked flawlessly but now...

I installed the latest drivers for the Oxygen but it didn't help, Reason doesn't see it when I press a key on the controller. (when asked for it by Reason after searching for the controller in the settings)

Any ideas?
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
Looking for a recommendation for a free or very cheap vocoder plug in. Something simple to use but effective. Any help would be appreciated.
 
C

Cody_D165

Banned
Hey guys! I just found out there was a producton thread on GAF. I'm still kind of a scrub in a lot of ways, this is just something I've picked up doing in my spare time, so I'd appreciate any feedback on this track I just finished up. It's house/dance.

Timelapse
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
Cody_D165 said:
Hey guys! I just found out there was a producton thread on GAF. I'm still kind of a scrub in a lot of ways, this is just something I've picked up doing in my spare time, so I'd appreciate any feedback on this track I just finished up. It's house/dance.

Timelapse
Click to expand...

It's OK. The production values are good but the piano is a bit plinky plonky and it sounds like there is an accordion playing through it. I think you need to strengthen up your synths, get rid of the accordion and add a filthy bassline.
 
S

silentcapybara

Banned
Can anyone identify the hardware in this pic?

14780561241_8bf276697a_z.jpg
 
J

J10

Banned
Your first problem is your bedroom/garage/whatever wasn't designed by an acoustic engineer.

I've tried using cheap foamy things bought from Guitar Center as bass traps and saw no added benefits. I know where bass is felt best in my apartment, so if I really need to feel it I just go stand in those spots. Just angle your monitors 30-45 degrees so they don't reflect directly back at you from the wall behind you and try to find a sweet spot to sit in wherever you're working. You'll know it when you hear it if you trying listening to some professionally recorded music from that position.
 
C

Chris Metal

Member
thezerofire said:
What are good Waves stuff to pick up?
Click to expand...
API bundle, SSL4000, C4 comp, renaissance bundles, DeEsser, InPhase I think are most useful.

I find Kramer Tape has way too much high frequency colouring going on so I avoid that, better tape emulation out there. I do favour other plugin manufacturers over Waves in general, but I use the Waves Q10 for surgical EQ cuts.

McDsp has some great stuff and often overlooked, Softube are amazing, as are Soundtoys (echoboy is superb).

Steven Slate Digital plugs are crazy good... VCC, VBC, Trigger and VTM are the essentials.

UAD stuff outclasses everything usually... but that requires hardware and is quite pricey.

http://audiodeluxe.com/ has everything you need...
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
Wondering if people could give some input on panning. I usually make tracks with the kick, snare and bass in the centre and then percussion panned out so for example claps 30-40% left and hats 30-40% on the right or something like that. Thing is I'm not sure how that sounds on a big system in a room.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
Panning will be more pronounced in headphones than in a speaker setup. Take a look at the panning standards for acoustic drumsets. They've had decades to figure out a nice balanced stereo image for that so it's generally a good idea to derive from.
 
T

thezerofire

Banned
Oh also while I'm on a plugins mindset, do you guys have any recommendations for distortion? I have CamelCrusher but I'm not always happy with it
 
X

Xrenity

Member
Kenshin001 said:
Wondering if people could give some input on panning. I usually make tracks with the kick, snare and bass in the centre and then percussion panned out so for example claps 30-40% left and hats 30-40% on the right or something like that. Thing is I'm not sure how that sounds on a big system in a room.
Click to expand...
I do a lot of full left/right panning.

This article suggests that anything other than fully panning left/right doesn't really make much of a difference. You can better use reverbs for positioning.

I don't think it's that black/white, but to me it says that the difference between 30 and 40 panning doesn't really matter. That, plus I like really wide mixes.

I also use this plugin to widen my mixes: http://www.fluxhome.com/products.html
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
This thread is approaching the end, eh? Someone preparing the new thread? Good thing it moves slow.

Anyway I'm posting because after 15+ years of singer-songwriting all by my lonesome with a guitar and imagining vast amounts of music I never had a band or other outlet for*, I have ordered the full ableton suite + push (for $806!) and a blue yeti (for $70!). I have decent reference equipment but little on the hardware input and channel management part of the tripod of music production. However, with software and reference being strong, and a small touch of input with the amateur-passable mic and a nice guitar, I should be able to get rolling on a long-held dream. I'm guessing my stuff will suck at first, so here's to growing with you all.

*I have played with others a lot in my years, but never as part of my own creative production process.
 
C

Chris Murphy

Member
I've been trying for a while to make a track that has the current sound that is big in the UK at the moment. It's kind of old school house but sounding a bit garagey?

Think I've done it but with a breaks track. Just a sample at the moment and I do go a bit crazy synthy electro in the middle haha. Still pretty rough, no fills or any proper transitions but it's listenable. Wouldn't mind some opinions from people, if anyone has a spare 3 minutes?

https://soundcloud.com/imba/what-is-free

I have made it whilst being drunk and with headphones, so the levels could be completely crazy. It's sounding pretty good to me at the moment though haha.
 
T

thezerofire

Banned
Chris Murphy said:
I've been trying for a while to make a track that has the current sound that is big in the UK at the moment. It's kind of old school house but sounding a bit garagey?

Think I've done it but with a breaks track. Just a sample at the moment and I do go a bit crazy synthy electro in the middle haha. Still pretty rough, no fills or any proper transitions but it's listenable. Wouldn't mind some opinions from people, if anyone has a spare 3 minutes?

https://soundcloud.com/imba/what-is-free

I have made it whilst being drunk and with headphones, so the levels could be completely crazy. It's sounding pretty good to me at the moment though haha.
Click to expand...
I liked most of it but not really the synth change near the end, just didn't sit right with me
 
X

Xrenity

Member
Chris Murphy said:
I've been trying for a while to make a track that has the current sound that is big in the UK at the moment. It's kind of old school house but sounding a bit garagey?

Think I've done it but with a breaks track. Just a sample at the moment and I do go a bit crazy synthy electro in the middle haha. Still pretty rough, no fills or any proper transitions but it's listenable. Wouldn't mind some opinions from people, if anyone has a spare 3 minutes?

https://soundcloud.com/imba/what-is-free

I have made it whilst being drunk and with headphones, so the levels could be completely crazy. It's sounding pretty good to me at the moment though haha.
Click to expand...
Sounds cool man.

I'd tone down the main line a little bit, maybe get some EQ to filter out some loud frequencies. But other than that, great stuff man. This is something I would listen to.
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
I've been djing for 14 plus years but never really got into making music. Where could someone new to producing like me start? Software wise and whatnot.
 
J

J10

Banned
CarpeDeezNutz said:
I've been djing for 14 plus years but never really got into making music. Where could someone new to producing like me start? Software wise and whatnot.
Click to expand...

What kinda budget you got? What kind of equipment do you already have (computer specs, speakers, etc.)?
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
J10 said:
What kinda budget you got? What kind of equipment do you already have (computer specs, speakers, etc.)?
Click to expand...

Equipment wise I got two 14 inch subwoofers, four twelve inch speakers. Two technics 1200s, one of them is humming but I can get it fixed. Two cdj 100s and a HP laptop envy. Budget wise is a few hundred so not much but I could cut out my vices to save up more.
 
J

J10

Banned
That laptop should be fine processor wise for most current DAWs if its an i5 or i7. If you plan on working with samples and sample libraries, RAM is important - you probably have 6-8GB at a minimum, which is plenty to get started, but more RAM might be necessary if you start working with libraries like SampleTank or Kontakt and you're making especially dense arrangements.

DAWs: There's Reaper which is either cheap or relatively cheap, depending on which license you buy. I don't use it but I know people who do and they speak highly of it. It does not come bundled with any synths but it does come with effects. I use Ableton exclusively, which also starts out pretty cheap but gets a lot more expensive than Reaper if you go full featured. It comes bundled with some really good effects and instruments, and it's really user friendly.

Synths: There are plenty of decent free ones you can find with a few minutes of Googling. If you wanna spend a little, I would recommend Massive or Sylenth. Massive in particular has a really clever interface, but is pricier.

ROMplers: These have preset instruments like pianos, strings, brass, basses, synths, but sometimes with little or no sampling or editing capabilities beyond adding effects. I use Kontakt (full fledged sampling abilities) and Nexus (presets only). I've dabbled with older versions of SampleTank, and I didn't really care for it, but many others do. These get stupid expensive and require a bit of research. They're also a bit bloated in terms of hard drive space requirements.

Make sure you check all the system requirements for this stuff - things can get weird when it comes to 32/64 bit requirements.

MIDI Controller: You can draw MIDI notes in with a mouse or even play notes with your laptop keyboard, but maybe you want some real keys with which to control your synths. Music Radar has a list of good budget MIDI controllers. I'm not gonna be of any help here because I just use an old synth I bought a hundred years ago as a controller. All I know is, generally, the cheaper you go, the less sturdy and reliable a build you'll get. This is usually a case of "you get what you pay for."

Monitors: The speakers you have are probably fine for general listening. If you plan to ever get deep into mixing, you could get something like a pair of Yamaha NS10s for under $200.

Audio Interface: If you wanna bring sound from outside your computer into your computer (and vice versa - you probably wanna hook your laptop up to your speakers), you will need one of these. I've used the PreSonus Audio box and the M-Audio MobilPre and I like them both. Either one will cost less than a couple hundred dollars. Music Radar has a list of twelve of the best cheap ones. A little more research may be required.

Just figure out what you need most and spend accordingly. For any software you can't afford, you'll be amazed at how much legally free or cheap stuff you can find on the web that works really well.

When you get started, check YouTube often - it's incredibly helpful when it comes to reviews and in-depth tutorials.

Also, never buy anything made by Behringer.
 
J

J10

Banned
neshcom said:
Why do you think so? I've got two USB mixers from Behringer that are really nice (though I don't know any of their other products)
Click to expand...

Three mixers, an audio interface, two pairs of monitors, a mic, a pair of headphones - all cheap pieces of shit that either physically fell apart after a six months or stopped working properly in some respect.

The mixers in particular sounded like they were outputting cut off in the left channel at about 5khz, and the meters would randomly not light up. Never again.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
I've really been meaning to rewrite and change the OP as it's severely outdated (and a lot of the links don't work), I'll get around to that...some time.

I'd recommend you buy some small MIDI keyboard like Novation Launchkey, Korg MicroKey, or IK iRIG Keys

Then, if you don't already have one, get an audio interface. The main reason you want to use one instead of the onboard sound on your computer is for low latency ASIO drivers (and onboard sound cards are pretty shitty, sound quality wise), which reduces latency using MIDI keyboards and other MIDI related things. Steinberg UR22 or Presonus Audiobox.

Lastly, you'll want the software you'll be doing production in which are called Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). There's a large number of them, at various price ranges. There's not really any "better" or "worse" here, they all have their pros and cons. They all have demos, so download them and give them a try and see which one you feel most comfortable with and get that.

In no particular order (with prices next to them)

Ableton Live 9 -- Standard $500, currently on sale for the holidays for $359 here. Very popular with modern music producers.

Cubase 8 -- Pro $549. One of the original programs for computer music production, first version dates back to the late 80s. Also popular with modern music producers.

Presonus Studio One -- Professional $200, currently on sale for $139 here. Relatively new, but well regarded.

Bitwig Studio -- $449, currently on sale for the holidays for $255 here, add to cart to see discount. Very new (came out earlier this year), had a bit of a rocky launch, but recent patches and current discounts seems to have improved general opinion about it.

FL Studio -- Producer Edition $200. A lot of people's "entry" point into computer music production, has a silly stigma that it's for "kids" and beginners, but it's fully featured and more than capable of producing professional songs.

Sonar X3 -- $79, available for $59 on Steam and a few other places. Not commonly used by electronic/hip hop producers, but is fully featured and seemingly stable.

Renoise -- $89. Has a very different interface from everything else on here, a bit esoteric (but is actually my personal favorite). Has some shortcomings when it comes to recording audio.

Reaper -- $60. Has quite a large cult following. Cheap, stable, fully featured.

Reason -- $399, on sale for $340 here, add to cart to see discount. A self-contained production environment. Every other program here is capable of using 3rd party plugins (VST/AU), this one cannot. Instead, it uses proprietary instruments and effects made by the developers and community. It's decently popular with electronic music producers.

Native Instruments Maschine Mikro -- $350. Quite different from everything else on here. It's a very specialized software/hardware combination that has some shortcomings, specifically if you were into recording live instruments (like drums, guitars), but it's very fun and fast.

There's more, but that's off the top of my head. Note that a lot of those programs have varying price points and different editions. I chose the cheapest edition for each program that didn't have any crippling limitations, like lack of plugin support.

I personally recommend some of the more expensive programs like Reason, Bitwig, Studio One, and Cubase. Not because they're better, but because they come with a lot of instruments, effects, and sounds, so you don't need to go out and scour for free plugins and samples (at least initially). Reason in particular has pretty much everything you need built in. Ableton is an exception here, as Ableton Live Standard is mostly sampled instruments and effects, Ableton Live Suite is much more expensive but includes more synthesizers. However, as I said before, try out the demos for all of them and pick the one you think you'd be most comfortable with. They're mostly really expensive, so you shouldn't just spend the large amounts of money they're asking for without doing a decent amount of personal research and making sure you get what you really want.

Another thing to note is that your speakers are likely not "really" suited towards production and most producers use near field monitors like KRK Rokit 5s. That doesn't mean you can't use your speakers, but you need to be diligent about checking out how your songs sound on different sound systems (ipod headphones, car stereos, etc.) which you should do anyway, really. If you live in an apartment or have room mates, you may want to consider a pair of headphones like Audio-Technica ATH-M50 for late night work.


Edit: Oh, J10 already got you covered.
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
Wow, thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably buy pieces of equipment at a time. When I want to hear music from my computer I usually run an RCA plug from the headphone to my mixer. Gonna check out those audio interfaces. Also, I used to be able to record from my mixer to my desktop but it had a mic input. Does anyone know how to change the headphone jack to mic?

Again, thanks I'm gonna go through the past posts.
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
Chris Murphy said:
I've been trying for a while to make a track that has the current sound that is big in the UK at the moment. It's kind of old school house but sounding a bit garagey?

Think I've done it but with a breaks track. Just a sample at the moment and I do go a bit crazy synthy electro in the middle haha. Still pretty rough, no fills or any proper transitions but it's listenable. Wouldn't mind some opinions from people, if anyone has a spare 3 minutes?

https://soundcloud.com/imba/what-is-free

I have made it whilst being drunk and with headphones, so the levels could be completely crazy. It's sounding pretty good to me at the moment though haha.
Click to expand...

Nice track man. I like the old school sound. I really wish I could get my tracks sounding that clear and good. Not digging the vocals so much though.
 
I

Icyflamez96

Member
I first started making music early January, though I haven't really worked on it in months because my computer broke and I had school to focus on. I remember the month or so right before my computer broke, I was really struggling to get something made, so i'm surprised this one came out as smoothly as I did and turned out to be one of my better tracks (which isn't really saying much but ya know) https://soundcloud.com/lethal-input/trinity

Any tips?
 
L

lazygecko

Member
Now this is how you demo a new product

This is actually exactly what I wanted and (failed to) tried to create in Reaktor last year... A flanger that can retrigger itself based on MIDI or audio signal peaks. I had searched around for a plugin but couldn't find anything. It only existed as a guitar pedal effect. Count on Aly James to turn my dreams into reality. It goes beyond the scope of just flanging of course. Easily the most innovative thing I have seen for a while.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
Automating manually for every single note would be such a drag. Plus it's the LFO/Envelope itself that I want retriggered, which AFAIK isn't possible on standard flangers.
 
E

ElectricThunder

Member
Aly James is a global treasure in terms of what the man takes a stab at time and again---some stuff is long simmering towards perfection like FM Drive but all of his "little" experimental projects of late along these lines have seemingly been grand slams right out of the gate.
 
V

Voidguts

Member
I make all of my solo stuff in Reason 8, it's just the easiest thing for me to get my ideas up and running; probably because I've messed around with it for ages.. the christmas sale they had (have?) going on just about killed me. all of my gear is pretty entry level - many, many Reason racks, M-Audio AV40's, an Axiom 25 (without the drumpad ;_;) and a few iPad apps.

https://soundcloud.com/voidguts

the latest 2 tracks with AM Grim are songs I'm really proud of - he uses FL Studio and mostly free VST plug-ins, haha. we'd appreciate any/all feedback; I just started doing electro-whatever music 'seriously' around 8 months ago. my previous experience was all acoustic guitar & singing live with 1 microphone, so this is literally a new world for me and I'd love any advice.
 
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