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No I want Neil Tennant! edit: that came out wrong
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Feb 27, 2013 06:56
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Ok guys I went with the Equator D5s for my monitors. Can't wait to see how bad my mixes really sound!
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Feb 27, 2013 23:36
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I'm concerned I'm not really progressing, so I thought I'd ask - I want to 'start from the beginning' and follow some basic tutorials to really get the basics of composing house/electro down. Can anyone recommend a tutorial that covers off the real idiot stuff, like composing a bassline & corresponding chords? I know heaps about sound design etc. but want to really drill in the compositional side of EDM production. I'm using Live and have a stack of VSTs. The music I'd like to be able to make is in the style of Feed Me / Porter Robinson / Zedd. I know it's a lofty goal and I think I'm getting there in some ways, but some days it feels like I don't know how to pair notes for basslines etc. well why not fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Mar 1, 2013 |
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Mar 1, 2013 13:13
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Dance music production's fundamentals series is a great choice for that. You can also check our the book by the same guy (Dance Music Manual). If you need something for ableton specific workflows - Tom Cosm's got you covered.
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Mar 1, 2013 13:54
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Honestly, just do every tutorial you can get your hands on.
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Mar 1, 2013 15:36
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The tutorials on DubSpot's blog are great.
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Mar 1, 2013 17:10
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I made this the other night. its just some cut ups, synths and goldbaby samples in Live 8 with a little cheap lexicon verb and a lil enossification... I know I should use less verb but just let me know what ya think? This is just a take of me in session view on a apc making the "arrangement". https://soundcloud.com/cloudbusters/gamma-day-venus
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Mar 2, 2013 01:11
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I have the 2nd Edition Dance Music Manual and Welsh's 2 synth books. For compositional analysis of dance music, the trick is to get a giant dry erase board and slowly take all the elements and tracks apart to learn. Write things like main theme 1 Kick X-x-X-x whole song Snare --x- first 16 Bass xx--xx--x-x-xxxx for 16 bars Sync Sweep ---- ---- ---- X-----> After 32 bars Main theme 2 Pad synth enters slowly reverse cymbal sweep at the start hihat x--x -x-- x--x -x-- Label these items like verse, break, 2nd break, hit, drop, main theme, "chorus" etc Once you do like 50 songs and then make your own songs with the EXACT arrangment you wrote on your dry erase board or paper. You will start to see trends. Like this woosh always happens in my favorite artist halfway thru the 3rd verse on tons of his songs.... Use your own sounds, effects, techniques, rhythms, and notes, but use POPULAR edm arrangements. Rkelly fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Mar 2, 2013 |
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Mar 2, 2013 01:53
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I get the structures that I'm meant to be using, I just can't quite seem to recognize how to put together a bassline effectively. My problem is that I can watch all these tutorials and they explain HOW to do something, but not WHY something works. For example, if I want to make an electro bassline, I string together groups of notes in clusters and modulate a filter cutoff - but I don't fundamentally understand which notes I'm selecting. What makes a good bassline? What bassline goes under a chord progression? There's a huge disconnect in the resources available and what's really needed to make effective music IMO. It's like, you can learn to make EDM sounds all day online, but no one actually mentions how to compose a tune properly. I've been at it over 2 years now and have progessed heaps, it's just frustrating when I feel like I've plateaued.
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Mar 2, 2013 03:58
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Stop looking for genre tutorials and start looking for theory tutorials.
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Mar 2, 2013 08:46
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wayfinder posted:Stop looking for genre tutorials and start looking for theory tutorials. Look up classic rock bass lines and play them on synth. Or early synthpop. You need to pay attention to KEY and what trends happen in music like 1-IV-V. Like Using a seventh or a 2nd in your key to lead to the first beat. You could study nirvana bass lines and get a long way.
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Mar 3, 2013 06:43
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thanks for the advice guys. I've been reading up on chord progressions (these cheats sheets are actually a little helpful) and have made some progress. I'm still overall happy with my progress, it's just true that you can learn to make music online without learning how to be a musician.
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Mar 3, 2013 10:10
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Has anyone busted open an MPD and put tape on the sensors for better response? Is it worth it? Referring to this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZViS288WH4
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Mar 3, 2013 10:19
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marb posted:Has anyone busted open an MPD and put tape on the sensors for better response? Is it worth it? Well, I did it with my MPK49. Used rubber tape (electric one) so that I could control the number of layers, and could remove the hack whenever I want (even if I had to reopen the box). Even with the smallest layer it changed the whole thing and mattered a LOT. The pads went to little sensitivity and having to push hard to trigger the lowest note to an easy fingertap where you can even just brush pads to have a response (and still no false positive!). It made my MPK49 pads from barely usable to a dream come true, for 30 mins of easy, painless and reversible work. So yeah, IMHO it's worth it. Without the hack, the piece is pretty unusable.
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Mar 3, 2013 10:50
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https://soundcloud.com/grandpa-ghost/bubblin
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Mar 5, 2013 10:21
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well why not posted:thanks for the advice guys. I've been reading up on chord progressions (these cheats sheets are actually a little helpful) and have made some progress. I'm still overall happy with my progress, it's just true that you can learn to make music online without learning how to be a musician. At the same time, don't feel too constricted by theory. In my early days of producing, I obsessively referenced 'proper' theories and chord arrangements. Treating music theory, especially classical chord progressions, as if they are hard set rules rather than themes and useful references, can make your music sound very consonant and insipid. Remember to use accidentals and improvise some chord movements, as well as humanizing note timing and velocities (except where the robotic/synth feel is intentional) When you're learning early composition, I've found the 'one asks, one answers' motif to be very helpful. Visualize the instruments as individuals 'talking' to one another- If the first part of a pattern, be it bassline or lead, has a general upwards movement moving away from the root note, it tends to sound unresolved, like it's asking a question. The last part should, in turn, 'come down', bringing a consonant 'closing' feel to the motif as if answering the question. Try switching up the instruments that do each bit as well- this is used in complextro all the time, where a simple lead or bass riff is formed, then each note (or every few) is played by a different synth. PoizenJam fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 18:14
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https://soundcloud.com/fastland/kahydron-preview I'm going to go back and finish this soon, I'm just curious about one thing: do you think the dry, bitcrushed rhythm elements, the syncopated ones, are too much? I think that's the main problem, I'm just away from my studio right now so I can't simply go and check how it sounds without them.
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Mar 7, 2013 15:45
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Been a while since I posted something, but here's a house/techno thing I'm currently working on. Thoughts? https://soundcloud.com/figure-8/i-find-your-lack-of-faith
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Mar 7, 2013 20:34
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Rivfader posted:Been a while since I posted something, but here's a house/techno thing I'm currently working on. That's the main beef I have with this, other than that I like it; very retro to me.
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Mar 7, 2013 21:17
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Flipperwaldt posted:If it were me, I'd pretty much highpass all hat/cymbal sounds to some degree to prevent them from cluttering up the track towards the middle/end. Then I'd reevaluate their levels. Especially the first hat thing you hear comes in a bit strong, comparing to some reference tracks. I don't know if this might point to an issue in your monitoring situation, perhaps. Agreed on that, it's a monitoring thing. My home setup plays it down a bit too much. Glad you like it 
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Mar 7, 2013 21:28
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Here's something a lot darker and a lot harder: http://soundcloud.com/wayfu/wayfinder-general-systems
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Mar 9, 2013 23:47
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wayfinder posted:Here's something a lot darker and a lot harder: http://soundcloud.com/wayfu/wayfinder-general-systems This is awesome and pretty much the big room techno sound I'm after myself. What's your secret?
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Mar 10, 2013 00:21
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Anger management issues
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Mar 10, 2013 00:46
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I like the track and I like the Culture reference! If I was gonna criticize it I'd complain about the number of breaks, but I have a definite preference for minimizing the number and length of them these days. breaks fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Mar 10, 2013 |
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Mar 10, 2013 01:51
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https://soundcloud.com/ellywu2/electro-house-first-go Some electro house thing I'm working on. Turns out, it's actually really hard to do!
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Mar 10, 2013 03:06
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Dump the completely useless bit at the start with the kicks or replace it with a really short drum fill/roll.
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Mar 10, 2013 03:29
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breaks posted:I like the track and I like the Culture reference! Thanks! I wrote a little blurb about the track somewhere else in which the break choice gets a little context:wayfinder posted:the idea of this track came about from an 8bit synth sequence – it's still in there, but not very prominently (you can hear it in the intro, it's that kind-of bass). it was just a rhythmic little gameboyish square, but once i put it through a decimator, it got interesting. so i added a bass and a kick. i re-used a progressive house kick that i knew works well on a big system and made it darker and longer, then used a growling deep bass. it took a while to get the mixing right on these three elements, i ended up taking out a huge chunk of the low frequencies on that bitcrushed synth, and i sacrificed an interesting chord stab in the sequence cause it sounded bad with my snare. the bass plays a G F# C C# pattern with notes that blend into each other, which sounds stupid as a concept when you think about it but is actually a great way to make that schranzy undefined deep offbeat noise. calculated low-freq dissonance.
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Mar 10, 2013 08:39
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This isn't club music per say, but I thought I'd share: I was messing about with the freshly installed copy of Live 9 and tried to make something like Kill The Noise. I didn't, like, at all. I ended up chopping up two drum loops from god knows where and made some 128bpm future-ish music. https://soundcloud.com/m-dubbs/miniatures I have a question - I know using drum loops like this isn't always ideal, and can fall into plagiarism pretty quickly. Here's a screenshot of the project :  I don't think the samples are recognizable and I'm pretty sure they're not going to be a legal problem or anything like that, I just thought it was interesting to see the multiple iterations of the same two samples cut into various patterns.
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Mar 11, 2013 08:34
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wayfinder posted:Thanks! This was a cool read, thanks for posting it!
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Mar 11, 2013 09:23
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wayfinder posted:Here's something a lot darker and a lot harder: http://soundcloud.com/wayfu/wayfinder-general-systems This is really goddamn cool. I can imagine this dropping in the middle of a set and just wrecking the floor. I have been really prolific lately. The other day though my little ancient Oxygen8 keyboard died, so I need to find a suitable replacement. I bought this thing years ago from a friend for fifty bucks; I'm assuming $50 now will get me more or less nothing. What's a decently priced, similarly featured 2 octave keyboard controller that I can look into?
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Mar 11, 2013 20:14
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There are many small MIDI keyboards on eBay for under $50 such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/M-Audio-Keystudio-25-25-Key-MIDI-Kybd-Controller-Used-/380588114290?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item589cd1c172 I've had much luck buying used audio/MIDI gear on eBay, in terms of quality, so long as the seller rating is high.
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Mar 11, 2013 21:11
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Hey-- I'm not really much of a musician but me and a friend made a thing last night, and it was pretty fun. Let me know what you think, I suppose! https://soundcloud.com/z0d14c/cocaine-rough
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Mar 12, 2013 14:06
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Reason 7 was announced. MIDI Out support! Proper Spectrum Analyzer / EQ! Holy poo poo! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca0YCbMtoM0
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Mar 13, 2013 01:31
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haakman posted:https://soundcloud.com/ellywu2/electro-house-first-go Throw some kicks in the buildup, it's not dubstep so it's allowed! Do some light ones though.
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Mar 13, 2013 01:53
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Das Butterbrot posted:Reason 7 was announced. MIDI Out support! Proper Spectrum Analyzer / EQ! Holy poo poo! I'm on the fence about this one. I don't have any hardware synths to wire up to it, but the spectrum analyzer and EQ look like a nice change, as does the channel grouping/busses. Not sure at all about the REX thing, since I've already got ReCycle if I need to create REX loops. Rack Extensions were more exciting. Either way, I signed up for the beta.
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Mar 13, 2013 04:24
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Channel grouping was possible before, but it was kind of a hassle to wire it all up manually each time you wanted to make a group. This change should improve the workflow a lot. The main draw for me though is finally being able to fully integrate my hardware synths into Reason. I don't think I'll need to use another DAW again
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Mar 13, 2013 12:43
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I can't help but laugh that it took propellerhead 13 years and 7 versions to include a spectrum analyzer.
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Mar 13, 2013 20:26
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I've never understood the draw of Reason. Why wouldn't you want to be able to use 3rd party stuff? I guess the idea is "our product is so good that you'll have everything you need in one simple package that will always work together", but there's always new and better stuff coming out, so it's impossible to make that claim with the rapidly changing nature of electronic music. Am I missing something? Reason users, why do you use Reason over other DAWs that are compatible with outside VSTs. (I know Rewire is supposed to get around this and run things through other DAWs, but then you have to buy 2 DAWs, so it kind of defeats the purpose, unless I'm overlooking a major piece of the puzzle).
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Mar 13, 2013 21:14
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For me its mainly workflow and stability (and that even my netbook can run it which makes trainrides to uni more bearable  ). Also, Reason supports 3rd party plugins via Rackextensions since Reason 6.5. I'd finally call it a full fledged DAW when 7 arrives.
Das Butterbrot fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 21:30
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| # ? May 25, 2024 17:30 |
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The interface seems very intuitive for me. Before I got into electronic music I was in a cruddy garage band and had more effects pedals than the rest of the band combined because I liked loving around with the sounds my guitar could make and routing those sounds around oddly. The cabling in Reason appealed to me and once I learned the rest of the program, I just stuck with it, so part of it is habit and familiarity. The Rack Extensions cover "new and better stuff coming out" and really, if you know your way around its synths, you don't need much else to get the sounds you want. I never did much in the way of recording external instruments, so that wasn't really a sticking point for me either.Dicky B posted:I can't help but laugh that it took propellerhead 13 years and 7 versions to include a spectrum analyzer. I definitely agree with this though. It's funny, there's now one spectrum analyzer RE out and another in beta testing.
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Mar 13, 2013 23:45
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