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field balm posted:You need a proco rat (or a cheap chinese clone)! I love the wierd grainy sound of rhe microverb, its all over my stuff - i think alesis stuff in general is the good sort of cheap. Any of those boxes do hood dubby delay? If not you defs need a analog bbd with knobs to tweak! 303 clone -> RAT... YES For sources, I definitely like the idea of an s900 for the grit. I have an MPC1000 that is from like 2006, but it's close enough since it is an MPC. I will probably use that as the main sequencer though. Also that stuff \/ flink127 posted:I would personally add a Korg M1 to the list (the VST version is great also). It's a great synth in itself but also has some essential sounds, like the piano rave sound, and "Organ 2" (think the very recognizable organ lead in songs like Robin S - Show Me Love). ooooh yeah the entire E-MU series of rack ROMplers are an awesome idea. For Korg gear, I'm thinking WaveStation, but I'll check out the M1. Software version is easy. Flipperwaldt posted:Get a Sherman FilterBank. Crucial.
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Nov 7, 2015 16:42
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Martytoof posted:I've always wondered how people with multiple hardware synths handle integration into a modern DAW. I've only ever had exposure to VSTs so just throwing an instrument into Ableton and messing with effects is second nature, but the whole concept of actually having something generate audio, then having to interface that into a DAW feels really foreign to me. I gather that there's a multi-port audio interface involved, but how do you guys handle MIDI controls of every device? Midi to the hardware synth to control it, audio back in from the synth to the PC and into Ableton. Once you tweak the timings for the audio lag on input and get a nice audio interface, it feels pretty much identical to a VST. I'm using a UR 44 to handle input from a Bass Station 2 and all of the Korg Volcas. The Bass Station 2 has a USB interface. The UR 44 has one midi out I use for one of the Volcas, and I have a handful of cheap $5 USB -> Midi cables for the rest. I plan on getting a midi splitter or better midi box for that later. The only downside is I'm having difficulty finding good interfaces in Ableton for the hardware instruments. I haven't yet hooked up anything advanced, so I end up doing all the instrument tweaking on the physical hardware and control the notes and playback over midi so far.
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Nov 7, 2015 19:34
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Just some things I finished up this weekend: https://soundcloud.com/tzer0/beach-of-circuit https://soundcloud.com/tzer0/the-depths Might get some more done the coming days.
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Nov 9, 2015 10:21
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Martytoof posted:I've always wondered how people with multiple hardware synths handle integration into a modern DAW. I think it's cool when I have to tell people that their JX3P will not be automatically recognized by Ableton Live. It's fun to see the dread on their face - "what, you mean it won't know how it works?". Well yeah, MIDI is a 1983 serial protocol, blame those who have been clinging to it (or don't, see how many of those USB things work in 20 years). quote:I've only ever had exposure to VSTs so just throwing an instrument into Ableton and messing with effects is second nature, but the whole concept of actually having something generate audio, then having to interface that into a DAW feels really foreign to me. I gather that there's a multi-port audio interface involved, but how do you guys handle MIDI controls of every device?  Anything that has CC numbers, great, otherwise get ready for pain. Older boxes choke on dense MIDI streams, forget automating much when you're dealing with a TX81Z or something.The question is not dumb but it's sort of an unsolved thing that depends on your preferences. You can use a big-rear end mixer and keep everything MIDI and use the computer as a combination of MIDI sequencer and harddisk recorder (aka the 90s bedroom producer approach but back then they had Atari STs and DAT recorders) You can record each track to audio, one by one, and build the whole thing in the computer (the classic studio approach). You can record an entire afternoon of tweaking and pick out the best parts (very useful with a modular) It depends on what you want, expect, are most comfortable with.
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Nov 10, 2015 00:06
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Well I meant integration in a wholistic sense, in the way my rear end integrates with my chair while I'm typing this post 
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Nov 10, 2015 14:41
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field balm posted:I finished (read: couldn't be bothered working on any further) a two track today. It's called Genocide City, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 1176. It's a dark, 140bpm techno/tech house thing. Lots of found sound percussion and synth stuff, and I've really started experimenting with extreme buss and parallel processing. Feedback would be welcomed! Just wanted to say these tracks are really good techno! Textures and sounds are super cool. I'm working on trying to figure out sample based house music: https://soundcloud.com/swanconnley/go-wrong/s-KafQC I feel I may have been too monotonous with the backing samples. https://soundcloud.com/swanconnley/fresh-air Blowdryer fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Nov 11, 2015 |
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Nov 11, 2015 20:10
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New EP from me https://soundcloud.com/mathbonus/sets/the-bottom-line-ep
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Nov 12, 2015 01:08
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How do you typically "put" music/tracking into a DAW like Reaper? Am I expected to hook up a (music) keyboard and have it record what I'm playing? Do they have support for patterns/macros like in trackers and MML, where I can create music with a simple UI or even just a text editor? (If it helps, I've only ever made music in MML via Visual MML, aside from putzing around with Bosca Ceoil, so I'm used to something that makes it simple to create patterns/macros/repetitive stuff.)
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Nov 15, 2015 01:22
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Pollyanna posted:How do you typically "put" music/tracking into a DAW like Reaper? Am I expected to hook up a (music) keyboard and have it record what I'm playing? Some DAWs are more linear in nature than others. In broad strokes, Ableton Live or Bitwig are more loop oriented than most of the others. Of course any DAW will let you copy/paste poo poo around to your heart's content. DAWs are flexible though. There are several arpeggiator and step sequencer plug ins around that will help smooth out re-using patterns and motifs. There's also stuff with a tracker/pattern based heritage like Renoise and Redux and probably a dozen of more obscure programs to check out, depending on why you're now looking at Reaper. Also depends on what you mean by macro.
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Nov 15, 2015 02:00
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Flipperwaldt posted:Yes. The alternative method in general is drawing in the stuff with a mouse. Which is very visual and there's very few computer keyboard action going on. Drawing stuff in with a mouse is what I remember doing way back when I was, like, 12, with some program called Saw...blade? Sawtooth? Something, but it was some sort of side-view tracker thing. I barely understood what I was doing with it. I feel that drawing stuff in is kind of slow and finicky, and I also haven't played a piano for over a decade, so neither feel like great choices to me (though I'd totally buy a physical synthesizer to play with). Being able to define a loop is one example, sure. I also want to be able to specify notes and progression without having to resort to inaccurate and badly performed recordings. Hand-typing it, like I do in MML, is an option. I can manually specify the lengths of notes, their pitch, and what instruments are used to generate them. It's very accurate and precise. Right now, I'm just looking to be able to make simple NES/Genesis/PC-98-like chiptunes and basic synthesizer fuckery (translation: I have no idea what I'm doing). I'm used to using things like Visual MML to put my songs together, since I've literally just started and that's what I was first linked to as a free "music-making" tool. Renoise and Redux seem interesting, or at the very least, are really slick looking. I haven't really used trackers before, meaning the kinds of trackers that look like I'm programming in assembly, but they're cool looking, I just have no loving clue what anything does. I saw that Redux seems to have something like that, so that's cool. "Macro" in this sense is the same concept of a macro as in MML. A set of notes, settings, filters, ADSR envelopes, etc. are specified and expanded/reused/modified as you will. You can see an example of macros in the MML file I linked above.
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Nov 15, 2015 02:25
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Pollyanna posted:"Macro" in this sense is the same concept of a macro as in MML. A set of notes, settings, filters, ADSR envelopes, etc. are specified and expanded/reused/modified as you will. You can see an example of macros in the MML file I linked above.
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Nov 15, 2015 13:33
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One thing it has taken me quite a while to get away from is the idea that music creation should be in any way "precise". I understand the desire, I was there too, but trying to recreate exactly what you "hear" in your head is fraught with peril and basically doomed to failure. It's much more enjoyable (to me, anyway) to have some kind of hardware interface (I use a Push) which I can get at least the broad strokes in with. I mean, when it goes in it'll be horribly out of time (though it's getting better with practice of course) and maybe I hit a couple "wrong" notes, but I can always fix it with a mouse after the fact in the clip editor. Same with automation: "twist the knobs until I come up with something cool" is much, much more effective than trying to decide beforehand whether a filter sweep would work and exactly how I should implement it, then drawing it in with the mouse. I started out wanting to basically be able to generate music with a text editor but I've come to embrace the imprecision of doing it on the fly based on what sounds good. I would just give a few DAWs a try. Ableton is good, and Tom Cosm has a few free videos which should cover the basics - he's really good. See which workflow works best for you. If it turns out that you feel most inspired by typing in note values, cool, but give the other ways a try too. You can even try a hybrid approach: Redux is a tracker VST that loads up in any DAW you want. Maybe a couple of tracks per song you use that as contrast against more organic stuff.
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Nov 15, 2015 20:48
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Dessert Rose posted:One thing it has taken me quite a while to get away from is the idea that music creation should be in any way "precise". I understand the desire, I was there too, but trying to recreate exactly what you "hear" in your head is fraught with peril and basically doomed to failure. As a counterpoint, I'm the absolute opposite of this. My experience with creating the stuff the way I envision it beforehand is really good, while I find aimless experimentation and live playing/automation in production and sequencing (as opposed to generating ideas and composition) very difficult to enjoy. It also produces way worse results.
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Nov 15, 2015 21:44
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I don't really have any concept of either. Everything I make is more or less off the seat of my pants. That piece of MML above evolved over a couple weeks from broad strokes in notes and composition into...whatever it is now. I just do whatever and end up somewhere, while thinking about what I'm doing and wondering how to improve as I go along. Tao called Tao.  I'm liking Renoise a lot. The tracker interface is surprisingly nice to use once you understand what the hell all of it means, and having a primarily keyboard-driven interface and quality-of-life tools like transpose commands and sequencing makes things way easier. I worked through the official tutorial and I think I'm at the point where I wanna go out, grab some good VSTs, and gently caress around like an idiot. At least, I know that I shouldn't be using any preset instruments or samples - why, I don't know, but I guess I shouldn't. Maybe I'll make another NES-ish song, assuming I can figure out how to mimic the limitations (channels etc.) in Renoise...
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Nov 15, 2015 23:09
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Coming from a band background i thought I'd need a bunch of midi controllers etc to make music, but once you get your software keyboard and mouse is the best and fastest, imo. Just don't even try with a touchpad, unless you like carpal tunnel! Reaper's midi and automation allow for insane precisison but there's a bit of a learning curve. Though if you figured out mml any daw should be easy! If you're specifically working on chip tunes a tracker is the way to go, nothing else makes those old arps and stuff so easily. field balm fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Nov 16, 2015 |
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Nov 16, 2015 00:23
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Here's an amazing collection of single cycle waveforms, by the way, for anyone into that: http://www.adventurekid.se/akrt/waveforms/adventure-kid-waveforms/
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Nov 16, 2015 00:34
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field balm posted:Coming from a band background i thought I'd need a bunch of midi controllers etc to make music, but once you get your software keyboard and mouse is the best and fastest, imo. Just don't even try with a touchpad, unless you like carpal tunnel! Weidly enough I do all my music stuff w/ a trackpad. I have one of those fancy apple bluetooth ones. I use a mouse all day at work, so the trackpad is a nice change. It kind of puts me in a different headspace.
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Nov 16, 2015 11:19
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I've got a cintiq, maybe I should give that a try for production...
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Nov 16, 2015 11:24
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That would be super fun to try. Particularly if there's hotkeys you could map to undo, copy / past etc.
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Nov 16, 2015 11:36
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I downloaded Reaper Friday night, opened it up and spent a little too long figuring out why the virtual midi keyboard wasn't playing anything. After I watched a few videos I was all ready to go for Saturday. Saturday I started reading The Dance Music Manual, watched a few more videos, and managed to make some noises with a synthesizer. After programming three different notes, I went back to playing with the VST. Every 15 minutes or so I'd look at a midi controller on Thomann.de. Last night I decided I would start and finish a track. It's the only way I'll achieve anything, starting something and actually finishing it. It's the same with anything, it's too easy to play around and not get anything done. I've done enough writing to know that ideas and first chapters are aplenty. It's only when you've completed something that you know where you stand. And I stand in a heap of fetid, green, unmastered poo. My first song was awful. I uploaded it to share it with some friends. Then listened back to it and promptly deleted it. With that being said, I was thinking of a melody and beats on the bus so I'm gonna keep dipping my toes into this new hobby. Mostly I've realised that I have recall for any of the music I listen to.
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Nov 16, 2015 11:55
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Everything anyone makes is awful. You just get slightly less awful as time goes by. If you really think it's that bad, post it somewhere here and people will tear it down for you to learn from  I myself don't really know what to make aside from some random beeps and boops, so far. I think I need to listen to more music and get more in-the-zone about it.
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Nov 16, 2015 13:37
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Is this where we can talk about FM chip emulation? Thinking a little more about OPN synth, I'm wondering how to emulate it with an OPM VST. It seems at first glance that they share a lot of features, and that I can probably pick what I need from an OPM VST. The stats on the OPNA (PC-98): 1. Six FM (really pulse-mod) channels/voices, four operators per channel (what's an operator?), including interval timers and an LFO 2. An implementation of the YM2149/SSG, basically 3 channels of square waves 3. A single ADPCM channel, for 8-bit samples 4 A built-in 6-channel "rhythm" tone generator, containing ROM-baked percussion tones (are these often used?) OPN2, the chip used in the Genesis/Mega Drive, is similar - I think it just has less FM channels. The OPM seems to have 8 FM channels, with four operators each. That takes care of the 6 FM channels in the OPNA and OPN2, but it doesn't look like the OPM has the SSG, DAC modes, rhythms, or ADPCM sampling capabilities. I don't think the OPM is sufficient to mimic the OPNA, so PC-98 is out the window - but OPN2 emulation is still possible! Maybe. Given a sine-wave LFO, that should take care of the Genesis. I'm still looking for a way to mimic the PC-98, so any advice on that front is greatly appreciated.
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Nov 16, 2015 16:33
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Pollyanna posted:Is this where we can talk about FM chip emulation? Thinking a little more about OPN synth, I'm wondering how to emulate it with an OPM VST. It seems at first glance that they share a lot of features, and that I can probably pick what I need from an OPM VST. The finer points of FM emulation escape me, but I do know that this dude makes really, really good Genesis and Mega Drive synth chip emulators: http://www.alyjameslab.com/alyjameslabfmdrive.html Might be a good starting point. long-ass nips Diane fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Nov 16, 2015 |
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Nov 16, 2015 17:06
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Unfortunately, the VSTs are Windows-only.  I don't understand why VSTs are platform-specific at all, there's no reason they should be.I may have to learn more about FM synthesis itself, and synthesizers in general, before I can comprehend making something in the OPNA/Genesis style. Hmmmmm. I also need to look into good VSTs, and how to get the sounds I want out of them. This is surprisingly complicated.
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Nov 16, 2015 17:49
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I'm incredibly honored to provide this month's guest mix for the Jaytech Music Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/jaytechmusic/jaytech-music-podcast-095  God that was hard for me to keep under wraps!
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Nov 16, 2015 20:40
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This is the second track I've written. https://soundcloud.com/mrendatious/track-two It's amazing how little I can even imagine musically. I (along with most of the world) have been listening to music all my life, but if you asked me to come up with something musical that track is the kind of thing I produce. Even trying to think of melodies or beats from any song I've heard leaves me stumped. Trying to think how different parts of a song transition is even worse. And that's before I get to synthesis or programming anything. It's no surprise given the stage I'm at, having just downloaded a DAW on Friday but even though I'm just starting I still have the ability to get to the end point of it and upload a track to soundcloud. I don't think I've been in such alien territory in years. It's good fun though, and nice to be challenged. And I'm listening to the podcast wayfinder linked to and now it's occurring to me about layering sounds, and adding the bits that really build up the atmosphere of the song. All this is certainly making me think.
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Nov 17, 2015 17:16
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wayfinder posted:I'm incredibly honored to provide this month's guest mix for the Jaytech Music Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/jaytechmusic/jaytech-music-podcast-095 Sweet! I didn't know you're in Berlin.
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Nov 17, 2015 18:06
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So I'm a poo poo, and I'm trying to extract the waveform of a particular instrument from a PC-98 track so I can use it elsewhere. Specifically, I want the electric-bass sounding chord-y sound that starts at about 0.5s in this video (excuse the anime): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNBTBmXb1Q4 I have a .wav of the first strum of that sound, but there's a different, lead instrument playing at the same time. I want to remove that part so I get just the pure bass guitar-y sound, and I don't have to worry about the lead synth. I assume I want some sort of frequency pass, since the guitar is at a lower frequency than the lead, and I've tried all sorts of passes - high, low, and band - but no matter what I do, the lead synth keeps showing up. Do I understand how to isolate it correctly? Here's the WAV/MP3 that I'm working off of, if it helps. I'll remove it if it's not considered OK to share parts of another track.
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Nov 17, 2015 20:16
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With sounds you've got a fundamental frequency that you perceive as the note it is and a whole lot of junk on top. Like a taste/texture thing, the junk on top makes it the timbre it is. The reason why you're unsuccessful in separating them -and indeed why it is for all practical purposes impossible to separate them, is that the sounds have overlapping frequency fields. The guitar may play a lower note, but the sounds both occupy most of the same space in the frequency spectrum. Unless you have an exact -and I mean exact- copy of the arpeggio solo and nothing else that you can subtract from it, which still would be pretty fiddly. There's some very expensive forensic software that can do things that are practically magic, but it's probably a better use of your time to source the same sort of sound elsewhere, to learn how to make that sound yourself or to pick a different sound altogether. Filtering or equalizing isn't going to cut it, in any case.
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Nov 17, 2015 20:55
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Another option is to embrace the jankiness and roll with it. Maybe tune some other synth to sound like the "unwanted" one and add a couple notes so it sounds like you did it on purpose.
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Nov 17, 2015 21:05
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Pollyanna posted:So I'm a poo poo, and I'm trying to extract the waveform of a particular instrument from a PC-98 track so I can use it elsewhere. Specifically, I want the electric-bass sounding chord-y sound that starts at about 0.5s in this video (excuse the anime): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNBTBmXb1Q4 I know there are plugins that play back video game music files for winamp, fubar, etc which let you isolate which channels are playing. No idea if something similar exists for pc-98 files but i've had luck with similar stuff for sampling genesis sounds. Some emulators let you control the audio channels, too. e: sounds like you want "hoot player" or an array of winamp plugins - most of the info is in japanese field balm fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Nov 18, 2015 |
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Nov 18, 2015 05:14
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I've been working on music for the past few days. I'm a beginner, so I know I'm going to be bad, but I didn't realise how bad. I spent the night making a song. I really liked it. I was into it. It sounded good. I went out to make a coffee, came back and played it again. It sounded completely different. All the bits were there. Nothing had changed in the software. I hadn't altered it in any way, but it sounded alien to me. Like I had created my own version of it in my head and was just now hearing the real version for the first time. I can't overstate how bad it is. I have no idea what I was hearing all night long, that I thought sounded good. I have genuinely lost faith in my ability to perceive things. I don't want to leave the house in case I walk into a bus, or this is the first symptoms of a nervous break down. Have I just typed a scramble of letters in this post? Am I really wearing clothes? I'm not sure I can tell.
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Nov 18, 2015 15:09
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Mrenda posted:I've been working on music for the past few days. I'm a beginner, so I know I'm going to be bad, but I didn't realise how bad. Make stuff you like listening to. Listen to a song or loop you've made repeatedly for a bit, then go do something else. Listen to it again later in the day or the next day or so, and there'll be bits where you expect <thing> to happen and it doesn't, and that's either a good or bad thing, but either way you'll know what you need to do to tighten it up. I say this as someone with about ten years of home production under my belt with not much to show wrt to completed efforts. Ignore all other music. Make poo poo you like, not poo poo you've heard. For eg, I'm working on this and I don't know whether it's good or bad, just that I kind of like the ideas and want to do something with it. This is about the 50th version, and there'll be another fifty before i decide if I should stick with it or move on (I usually move on).
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Nov 18, 2015 15:23
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Maybe you equalized the air pressure in your ears when you stood up to get a coffee. Happens to me all the time. It's a bitch when you're mixing a song and suddenly the entire frequency spectrum changes.
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Nov 18, 2015 15:39
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Every dumb loop I've made I make sure to copy to my phone and crank it in the car on my way to work. If it doesn't pass the car test I move on or it gets fixed.
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Nov 18, 2015 15:44
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Mrenda posted:Like I had created my own version of it in my head and was just now hearing the real version for the first time. I can't overstate how bad it is. I have no idea what I was hearing all night long, that I thought sounded good. What helps is not to get stuck in one project for hours at a time. I (roughly) work in 30 minute increments anyway. Go do something else or jump over to a different project. When you come back to it and it sucks, you only lost 30 minutes, which is peanuts.
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Nov 18, 2015 20:06
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I've been slowing down producing since getting a modular and trying to learn more actual music theory, actually sat down and made something over the weekend. I'd really appreciate some feedback. I think the arrangement is all a bit sudden and should be extended but Im not sure that I have enough interesting sounds to carry it. https://m.soundcloud.com/downpour/151124a
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Nov 24, 2015 15:35
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For all the jokes about musical spreadsheets, I'm having way more fun with Renoise than I've had with other DAWs.
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Nov 26, 2015 14:34
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Shat out another piece. It's probably a bit too harsh in the highs, but whatever, I think it's entertaining and I'm done with it. https://soundcloud.com/flipperwaldt/terror-level-4
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Nov 26, 2015 17:34
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Sounds good to me, you can always master with a brickwall lowpass if its too tinny or harsh up there
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Nov 26, 2015 20:43
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