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Hmm good spot... Most of the complaints I've read seem to be with the touchpad (didn't even notice it when I had a play in the store, can't see what I'd use it for at this stage?) and the drum pads (hated them on my mates ni maschine, expect to never use them). Really liked the joystick design though so for 250 quid if it even smells like it might be off center it'll be getting replaced.
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Jan 2, 2013 21:34
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So I've been listening to some stuff by a fella that calls himself Disasterpeace (Fez soundtrack, bunch of other games) and I really love his sound. He calls it chiptunes but I think that's disingenuous. There's definitely a character there pioneered by some of the sound chips in old consoles, but nothing he makes is in any way possible on an old sound chip, plus you'd never hear musicality on that level on old rear end console games anyway. I know that's common of so-called chiptunes but there's a ton of modern touches to his stuff that branch out from simple chiptuney stuff. He's really inspiring me. I'm really stuck in my ways with kinda dark sounding hard rock/kinda doomy/maybe slightly progressive music, but I wanna explore electronic music, since there's a side of me that can write really beautiful music (at least in my opinion) that just doesn't fit my writing 'method' or whatever. But my first question is basically HOWWWWWWW. I don't have any real synths, I do have a midi controller that I can't really play, and most of my skill is guitar based. At the moment with my experiments I've just tried imitating certain electronic sounds that I like using VSTs and coming up with stuff on my guitar then programming it over. There has to be a better method than this. Plus, I hear stuff like http://disasterpeace.com/track/beyond and am kinda clueless when it comes to creating sounds like that. The opening volume swells, all the little touches to the sound that are beyond just 'here's a synth!' and whatnot. I know I'm not trying to be expert right off the bat but I'd at least like to know what the hell I'm doing. And since I'm mostly doing this via VSTs, are there any go-to recommendations for synths? I've got a bunch of free stuff, synth1, crystal, things like that. I'd like to acquire more stuff. Anyway, a bit rambling, but I hope you guys can point me in the right direction.
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Jan 2, 2013 21:54
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I really like this video The majority of synths and synth vsts you find are going to work in the same basic way - not to say that there aren't differences, but the princples are the same. It's intimidating to look at all those knobs, but getting a grasp of the basics isn't actually that hard, that video will let you know what each thing does, then just gently caress around with the knobs and look at presets to see how they do different things. If you're serious about it, you probably are going to want to get some kind of keyboard controller, but it isn't absolutely necessary at first, anything you can run a vst through will have some kind of virtual keyboard you can use. Chiptune type sounds can be done with any analog style synth really, they are very simple sounds, but there are a few things that specifically emulate different systems. I like tweakbench for NES stuff. Oh, and I'd say to stick with monophonic stuff at first - it's more straightforward, and there are some neat tricks you can do with only one voice that you might overlook otherwise.
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Jan 2, 2013 22:37
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Oh man I actually know what those knobs do now, before I'd just fiddle and try to approximate what I was after. Trial and error can be tedious. What sort of tricks do you mean with mono mixes? I've an affinity for layering and interesting stereo panning, that's usually how I mix, but if there's a bunch of cool stuff I can do in mono I'll give it a shot.
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Jan 2, 2013 23:15
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cat doter posted:What sort of tricks do you mean with mono mixes? As in the mode in which a synthesizer doesn not play more than one note at a time. The tricks he's talking about have most likely something to do with portamento, glide, arpeggiation and stuff like that. As stuff like that is being used in chiptunes quite heavily, it seems worth spending some time getting comfortable with the concepts through trying to work inside of a self imposed artificial limit.
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Jan 2, 2013 23:28
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Flipperwaldt posted:Monophonic as in the opposite of polyphonic. Not as in the opposite of stereophonic. See I didn't even know synths had that mode, I was thinking in terms of mixing. As far as restrictions I'm mostly finding sounds that I like and I'm trying to imitate them as closely as I can to familiarise myself with the concepts and controls and whatnot.
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Jan 3, 2013 00:55
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Also, in addition to the video above, Laserjet 4P's posts here have various excellent tutorial elements for Synth1. It's really recommended to go through them step by step; this will help you get more than a basic grasp on what's what.
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Jan 3, 2013 02:21
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^^^ hey, thanks for the shout-out!cat doter posted:But my first question is basically HOWWWWWWW. I don't have any real synths, I do have a midi controller that I can't really play, and most of my skill is guitar based. Real synths wouldn't do you much good anyway so do not feel bad about this. Get a DAW. What I would recommend in this case is not Reaper but Renoise. Almost as cheap as Reaper. Most importantly, it works in a different way: you can program the sequences and patterns in a way that's very close to the authoring tools chiptune folks used, including some of the limitations. Are you familiar with the music on the Amiga, or some early PC games in the time before GM/MIDI files came around? (but not the FM/AdLib stuff used as a weak substitute for MIDI) That was made with trackers - sequencers with integrated samplers that had monophonic tracks. This automatically leads to certain programming tricks that are hard/unintuitive in regular DAWs. There are a ridiculous number of free plugins that can help you out; lots of 'm really good. quote:I've got a bunch of free stuff, synth1, crystal, things like that. I'd like to acquire more stuff. U-he Tyrell - http://www.u-he.com/cms/tyrelln6 Variety of Sound - http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/ Vember Audio ShortCircuit - http://www.vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php - sample single-cycle waveforms and you can do some amazing stuff that would take ages to do with a conventional synth. But - focus on composition and getting to know your DAW first.
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Jan 3, 2013 23:53
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http://soundcloud.com/careyb/humble-unmastered work in progress minimal bass track using Cublicle Gansters bass technique with my sub end synth
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Jan 5, 2013 23:57
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Newwwwwww Music! http://snd.sc/UCKhrb Finally, some uplifting trance again 
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Jan 7, 2013 23:27
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Working on the soundtrack for my 1 Game A Month entry for january, a dark dnb type thing, I would love some feedback! https://soundcloud.com/fieldbalm/1gam-jan-wip-192kb
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Jan 8, 2013 01:55
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...
colonp fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Mar 8, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2013 15:23
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Sometimes I make dumb cyberpunk inspired music. I should probably stop playing so much deus ex. http://neonshudder.bandcamp.com/track/broken-english Edit: Can someone give me some kind of label to throw on the song I did? I put it on NG for funsies and threw it under industrial. I know it doesn't belong in that category but their options are limited so when someone decided to correct me and advised throwing it under techno I was bit taken back. I mean it's even further from techno than industrial, but I'm not sure where it "fits" in the bullshit subgenre blendings. The Mechanical Hand fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Jan 9, 2013 |
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Jan 9, 2013 16:37
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The synth and bass sounds are really strong and atmospheric man, really enjoyed. I think changing the kick to something deeper could really do a lot for the song, maaaybe the drums are a little dry but that is a taste thing. Techno sounds a lot more appropriate than industrial for this, I'm not sure what kind of genres artists like Danger and Kavinsky are considered but I'd group it in with that kind of thing to find people who like the sound.
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Jan 9, 2013 22:26
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Yeah I'd say ambient/melodic/progressive techno. Reminds me a little bit of Pete Namlook or Juan Atkins. Also that kick drum sounds like poo poo, and I only say that because the rest of the track is terrific.
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Jan 10, 2013 03:03
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Thanks for the feed back - much appreciated. Drums have been a weak point with me re: pretty much anything so I'll have to work on that. A lot.
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Jan 10, 2013 03:12
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I agree with field balm that deepening it (lowering the pitch and lowpassing) would help a lot. Part of the reason sine wave kicks (and 808 kicks specifically) are so popular is they're good at providing a solid foundation for a track without a lot of harmonic information that risks crowding out other parts of the song. You can use a little multiband distortion to give a sine kick a little strategic "bite" without it sounding like it's farting all over the place. Also make sure your drums are in tune with the key of the rest of the song. h_double fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Jan 10, 2013 |
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Jan 10, 2013 03:49
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The Mechanical Hand posted:Edit: Can someone give me some kind of label to throw on the song I did? I put it on NG for funsies and threw it under industrial. I know it doesn't belong in that category but their options are limited so when someone decided to correct me and advised throwing it under techno I was bit taken back. I mean it's even further from techno than industrial, but I'm not sure where it "fits" in the bullshit subgenre blendings. As a broad classification I don't think techno is too bad a tag for your stuff actually. It sounds like the atmospheric end of Detroit techno / electro meets old-school trance. Also, I've always loved the music in Deus Ex as well and if this is what it inspires you to produce by all means keep playing! 
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Jan 10, 2013 04:18
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I just finished something up and at this point no longer have any idea how to categorize it anymore. It's weird low-mid-tempo sorta trance-ish I dunno  http://soundcloud.com/killhamster/special-agents-just-what-is-on
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Jan 10, 2013 06:15
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This is probably a stupidly easy question. I usually use Reason - so I'm used to how things work in there - but I've been messing around in Reaper for a few days and I don't really get how to make things work with each other. I've got an arpeggiator (Kirnu) and want to use another VST through it (let's say Synth 1). Now I see the little I/O button with the sends and receives and stuff but I can't seem to find the right thing to do to make Kirnu make any noise. No matter what I do I just seem to get the sound unaltered from my synth.
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Jan 11, 2013 01:35
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Sears Poncho posted:This is probably a stupidly easy question. I usually use Reason - so I'm used to how things work in there - but I've been messing around in Reaper for a few days and I don't really get how to make things work with each other. Insert > Virtual instrument on new track... > Pick Kirnu > Click "Add" button > Pick Synth1 > Play chord You can add more plugins to the chain and as long as they pass the midi along, they'll all respond to the arpeggiator. You can sandwich Kirnu in between two plugins (just drag the names in the list!) and have the topmost play the notes you play and have the bottom one play them as interpreted by the arpeggiator simultaneously. Not all instruments do pass the midi on to the next plugin though and you'd have to start using the routing there if you wanted to make something layered. Try this first however, to get an idea of the basics.
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Jan 11, 2013 02:19
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drat, I could've sworn I tried that. That did the trick, thanks a lot.
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Jan 11, 2013 02:29
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how is your transition from reason to reaper?
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Jan 11, 2013 03:28
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Quincy Smallvoice posted:how is your transition from reason to reaper? Keep in mind I'm not exactly a power user. I've actually had Reaper for a while, but like 90% of me using it until recently has just been to throw in a VST to gently caress around with. The biggest thing for me is just getting used to the way things fit together - everything in Reason just kind of snaps together in a very natural way, and everything is designed to work with everything else. I'm sure a lot of that is just getting myself to develop new habits with Reaper. For the most part though I've found it really easy to go from one to the other, like 75% of things are done the same or in very similar ways. I've got no complaints with Reason, just trying to expand my horizons a bit. I was planning on taking a look at Ableton Live too. I am questioning a bit whether I really need anything besides Reason though, obviously the main thing is the bigger variety of instruments you can get with other programs, I've always had my eye on Komplete and some of the Arturia V stuff so would love to have command of something that can run VSTs natively, but I can't help but question if I can't really get similar results with the thing I already know (and have paid for already). Especially now that they have the Rack Extensions. Sears Poncho fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 04:06
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MIDI is 30 years old this month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xz7r6KnTbI
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Jan 11, 2013 05:39
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How do you guys think MIDI would be different if it was made today? Like, if nobody ever made a musical instrument that connects to a computer until yesterday. Midi is cool but it feels limiting in some ways. Would we just use USB considering how much more hand-in-hand MIDI devices are with computers nowadays? Would we even use a unique connector?
Lavender Philtrum fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 06:14
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Lavender Philtrum posted:How do you guys think MIDI would be different if it was made today? Like, if nobody ever made a musical instrument that connects to a computer until yesterday. Midi is cool but it feels limiting in some ways. Would we just use USB considering how much more hand-in-hand MIDI devices are with computers nowadays? Would we even use a unique connector? There would almost certainly be competing standards and patent slapfights any time someone tried something new. Probably a proprietary connector tossed in for giggles because everyone knows all the money is in cables. Best thing to ever happen to MIDI is that it was created 30 years ago.
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Jan 11, 2013 07:27
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Lavender Philtrum posted:How do you guys think MIDI would be different if it was made today? It'd probably carry audio as well and work with an existing proprietary standard - the few note signals are truly nothing compared to the bulk of audio that needs to be pumped over such a line. quote:Like, if nobody ever made a musical instrument that connects to a computer until yesterday. That sort of assumes that we never used computers to generate sound or control voltages either - so digital synthesizers would probably be big, self-contained, completely incompatible systems (think the ConBrio ADS2000 or the PPG Realizer - only worse) where you'd simply record the outgoing audio. Thing is, as soon as you start thinking about the role of communication in music, you'd come up with a standard. quote:Midi is cool but it feels limiting in some ways. Would we just use USB considering how much more hand-in-hand MIDI devices are with computers nowadays? Would we even use a unique connector? Yes, we would. If there's anything Roland loves it's developing some kind of non-compatible retarded proprietary standard or hardware that gets abandoned after 5 years. USB is sort of irrelevant; you need a standard that transmits the note messages, not just the audio, and for that we should switch to OSC. Make a cheap OSC > MIDI converter, hook up everything to your bog-standard router, and have time-stamped MIDI; right now timing accuracy requires some bullshit proprietary interface, and by putting that load on a separate device with enough MIDI outs we'd be finally rid of this bullshit. In case of CV/Gate, that was simply the most uncomplicated solution imaginable, and you still have bullshit like S-Trig, V/Hz, 1.2V/oct or 1V/oct. Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 13:54
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Hello again! I've finally managed to finish my EP and after sending it around to a few labels, I've been signed to Heavy Artillery Recordings!! They are most known for their artists Urban Assault and DJ Shortee (who I've had the great pleasure of opening for twice now). Anyway, I just wanted to drop in and give a big thank you to all the wonderful people in this thread. I've learned so much from this thread ever since I decided to buckle down and get serious about learning production in 2011. I hope to visit this thread more often and help others now that I have more time on my hands, to "pay it forward" and whatnot.
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Jan 12, 2013 08:26
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CareyB posted:http://soundcloud.com/careyb/humble-unmastered This is really great man you nailed the whole tune.
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Jan 12, 2013 20:21
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Does anyone have links to lengthy videos of artists making music? Like Airbase posted a workflow video that just shows him fiddling around with the beginnings of a track for 45 minutes. It was interesting. Supposedly there's one out there where Gareth Emery made an entire track in two hours. I think it was released in a computer music magazine, but I've never found a copy. The Airbase video can be found on his youtube channel if anyone's interested.
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Jan 13, 2013 05:58
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Does anyone know a good free Xylophone VST or instrument?
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Jan 13, 2013 15:46
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SynthesizerKaiser posted:Does anyone have links to lengthy videos of artists making music? Like Airbase posted a workflow video that just shows him fiddling around with the beginnings of a track for 45 minutes. It was interesting. Supposedly there's one out there where Gareth Emery made an entire track in two hours. I think it was released in a computer music magazine, but I've never found a copy. Tom Cosm does this from time to time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk0tUUp7Yxc
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Jan 13, 2013 17:34
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Here's a pretty cool one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hahu5GLy0z0 The dude is unbelievably fast.
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Jan 13, 2013 20:35
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killhamster posted:I just finished something up and at this point no longer have any idea how to categorize it anymore. It's weird low-mid-tempo sorta trance-ish I dunno I like it..sounds like Space Odyssey music to me
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Jan 13, 2013 21:42
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Thoogsby posted:Does anyone know a good free Xylophone VST or instrument? Never had a problem using the xylophone sounds in the M1 or Wavestation VSTs. General MIDI soundfonts will have xylophone sounds too. Kind of cheesy and 90s, but whatever.
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Jan 14, 2013 00:25
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Dlowmx posted:I like it..sounds like Space Odyssey music to me Thanks!  That track took off and got a ton of plays in a couple of days and I still have no idea why; I'm too cheap to pay for an upgraded account to check in the stats. Regardless, it was a fun one to produce and I'm glad it got some attention.
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Jan 14, 2013 00:51
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I did an experiment to see how feasable it is to make entire tracks in audiomulch, node based. Takes a loving age, but sounds like nothing else. http://soundcloud.com/downpour/node-based-techno-with There's a link to a screenshot of the file on there. I'm going to keep at this, but if it gets too far out of hand I may have to export stems and re-build it in ableton. (currently only at 11%cpu, but i dont know how easily i'll be able to manage doing sections)
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Jan 14, 2013 07:16
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cubicle gangster posted:I did an experiment to see how feasable it is to make entire tracks in audiomulch, node based. Takes a loving age, but sounds like nothing else. This is really cool. I've always been interested in granular synthesis but the desktop software I tried (like AudioMulch) always confused the hell out of me. Recently I've had a lot of luck with a few iPad/iPhone granular synthesis apps: Grain Science, iDensity and iPulsaret. They make granular synthesis very accessible, and I've been quite surprised at how productive I've been with using these apps. You're right about a lot of granular synth sounds being like nothing else. Most of the stuff I've done lately sounds pretty bizarre.
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Jan 15, 2013 00:12
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CareyB posted:http://soundcloud.com/careyb/humble-unmastered Such a simple atmosphere here... I really need to get more in tune with doing stuff like this, it's great. Here's something I worked on during the last week of my winter break. I'm pretty happy with it, and have been enjoying listening to it. I was going for more simplicity than I usually do. https://soundcloud.com/agreeculture/introduction-to-flight
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Jan 15, 2013 00:24
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