BittyWings posted:

I think it depends on how many vsts/plugins you are planning on running- if you are just fiddling around with audio clips then a netbook should be ok, but if you wanna get involved in something like NI's Absynth, then you are gonna want a poo poo ton of RAM and a bigger screen for tweakage- even on 4Gb Ram and the latest ASIO drivers and blah blah blah, my rig can freak out occasionally when I get carried away.

The RAM issue also applies to how many plugins you want to use at once- I would suggest looking up effects busses now to save time and worry in the future- even if you go for a Macbook Pro which should handle it fine, it's still worthwhile stuff to learn.

Like unSavory said, a Mac is easy to set up and less likely to crap out on you- it also gives better routing options out the box than Windows.
Bear in mind though, that there are a lot of Windows-only plugins out there.

In regards to screen size, Ableton Live 8 has a 'zoom' feature, so running this on its own wouldn't be difficult to use on a netbook at all.

Are you planning on DJing or more the composing/'musical' side of things?
This will affect your choice, because if you want to use your new purchase as a virtual synth rig, then you want as much power as you can afford (actually, you want as much power as you can afford anyway). It's better to fork out more now than realise in a couple of months that you got the wrong thing and it can't cope.

TL:DR Just using Ableton? Most any recent netbook should be ok. Using 'heavy' plugins? Get a Macbook Pro or similar.

(BittyWings is proud owner of a PC, but has no qualms recommending Macs to others when appropriate.)

Limbertimbre posted:

Click here for the full 904x542 image.

Vember Audio SURGE.

This thing is insane. Best 99 bucks I've ever spent on music creation. It's even cleaner than an Access Virus or Nord Modular in some circumstances. I use it for every kind of synthesis, though primarily psytrance and bassy club music.

Give this serious consideration before dropping any money on software synthesizers. Dropping 20 bucks on Zeta, then trying to figure out how to get serious sounds out of it can be very frustrating, and often unnecessary.

http://vemberaudio.se/surge.php

edit: NI is crap.

cubicle gangster posted:

Does anyone have any experience with a maschine?

I can get £600 for my mixer, so I could shift it an get a maschine and an interface without spending much at all. It's very tempting, I hardly dj at all now.

Anacostia posted:

Elder posted:

Oh yeah, Surge is great. Insanely tweakable - everything can be tied to an LFO, and then you start modulating the LFOs with other LFOs...it's neat.

WanderingKid posted:

What about mod matrix? I like synths where everything can be a modulator too. :iamafag:

quote:

i'm thinking of getting into dj'ing (hopefully i can have it as a side job to pay my way through college) and am wondering what would be a good way to start? i've downloaded virtualdj and have a friend with turntables that she said she'd be willing to let me play with. i'm also constantly expanding my music library and plan on learning a bit of music theory eventually. problem is i have no idea where to even begin with virtualdj in terms of making loops, beats, scratching, etc. any help would be very much appreciated.

Yoozer posted:

If you haven't gotten U-He ACE yet now may be the time.

ASYMMETRICALTITS posted:

i posted this in the small questions thread but haven't really gotten an answer so hopefully you guys can help me out:


reading the op though, virtualdj isn't even mentioned. what's the opinion on the program? also, should i take dj'ing lessons to learn the very basics or is there a good online tutorial i can look at?

Fatal posted:

I hopped straight into digital djing which leaves alot of the basics behind (beatmatching, pitchmatching, etc.) and lets you get to the fun part. Downside to this is that I have little discipline in the actual practice but the upside is I was able to hit the ground running and be mixing relatively competently within a few days.

I think there are two key questions to ask yourself. Do I want to mix vinyl? and, do I want to scratch?

Fatal posted:

There is overlap for all djing "systems" and you can get setup to do everything, but that typically isn't in the budget of somebody just starting out. In fact, what is your budget?

ASYMMETRICALTITS posted:

what's the difference? i literally have no idea where to begin. i just downloaded vdj a week ago and am pretty lost.

quote:

i was hoping that i'd be able to learn the fundamentals through a program like vdj

Yoozer posted:

For scratching, you want the tactile feel; you want to have full control, and you want to have zero lag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgM9PaYcKK0

Seems like it's doing pretty well!

If the software corrects tempo and pitch for you it'll make you skip the fundamentals.

Tempo and pitch are inextricably linked with actual vinyl; speeding up makes the pitch go up and vice-versa. This poses an interesting problem; if you want to make song A segue into song B, it means that you need to decide quickly if the pitch can segue in a relatively painless way from song A to B. This works great if you have fifths - going from say, D minor to G minor works pretty well, though same note to same note is even better. Going from F# to C - not so much. So, you have to choose your tracks not only on the basis of whether they can get the crowd going but also on basis of pitch.

With software, beat and pitch become decoupled. This is a godsend; it means you can go from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCadcBR95oU (Salt & Pepa - Push it)

to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEurle2UWGc (Jean Michel Jarre - Zoolook)

to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucZRore0-EE (Prince - When Doves Cry)

without doing much; track 2 will be pulled in tune and in time by the software (it's in G# minor, the others in A minor) and the crowd will not even notice that you're speeding up or slowing down.

With vinyl, this would be a problem - track 2 would have to be sped up because it's a semitone lower. It would also have to be slowed down because it's faster than Push It. You can't do both at the same time, so it wouldn't be a smooth transition.

It also means that there's much more room for choosing tracks that do not fit properly with eachother. Technically you could slow a 140 bpm track down to the tempo of the three tracks above, but it'd sound awful and you'd hear the stretching artifacts.

Knowing about pitch/beatmatching means you've got a better hang on what goes together and what doesn't. It's not just a matter of knowing the music; it's also knowing a tiny, tiny bit about music theory. When you've got something doing the hard work for you, you'll be tempted to skip those basics.

Lowbo posted:

This is my entry in M.I.A's remix competition - dubstep but no wobbles

http://soundcloud.com/lowbo/steppin_up


feedback appreciated

Yoozer posted:

Live is not going to be better, just more confusing.

If you have your tracks chopped up in separate loops like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj3kF6dt4uo

Live will do a fantastic job. For entire tracks - nah, you're not going to learn much. The Virtual DJ software will probably be more effective - just try to get it to beatmatch/pitchmatch, first.

Volvagia posted:

Made this by chopping up a New Order song:

http://soundcloud.com/jmersere/touched

Lemme know what you think mix-wise!

RizieN posted:

Alright, so I made this bass sound in Simpler, in Ableton, from some tutorial on how to 'make a dub step style bass' I found, all the settings are here:



I mainly need the Filter, Freq, LFO (tuned to the tempo), Beats, and spread functions.

How can I get these applied to an audio signal (keyboard) coming into an audio channel?

Edit, I guess I can get my LFO and Rate(Beats) from Auto Filter...but that Freq and Spread I really need.

zeldadude posted:

Latest DnB song I've made. Feedback wanted

BittyWings posted:

Do you mean you want the effect that these settings create put onto an external source?
Your teminology seems a little muddled, so by 'beats' I'm assuming you mean LFO rate (how fast it wobbles) and by 'freq' I'm assuming you mean filter cutoff.

If so, download TAL Filter (it's free) and it will do everything you want- it adds stereo spread to the LFO signal, has variable filter modes (LP,HP,BP), a bunch of LFO shapes (Sine, Triangle, Square, Noise) and it runs either in sync to host tempo (ie 'beats') or has a free run mode where you can tweak it more to taste.


I hope I don't sound like a dick, but I'm just making sure we are on the same page here so we can offer the best advice!

RizieN posted:

I like being able to map that(edit, 'that' being frequency setting) to a knob, as well as how much LFO, and , i guess what I meant by beats, whether the LFO went to 1/8 , 1/16, or 1/32 etc. loving with those three knobs and getting the same effect on an analog input is what I need. With TAL it seems the 'beats' is a drop down menu where I'd have to click on it, instead of whip a knob real quick.