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If you're not easily intimidated, just grab Reaper, Iblit and/or PolyIblit, and Ersdrums. See if you can get all that installed and get everything making some noise, Reaper has some bundled FX you can use. Those three plugins are here: http://www.bostreammail.net/ers/vstplugins.html If you are easily intimidated, I wouldn't recommend Reaper. It is a solid DAW, easily the best "free" one (you really ought to pay the 50 bucks if you end up liking it), but it's not the easiest thing to learn and it being ugly as poo poo doesn't help. Consider shelling out for Fruityloops or something, in this case. breaks fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Mar 23, 2008 |
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Mar 23, 2008 12:18
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I would really go with the Ion if you can find one. The 106 is a decent but not spectacular analog synth, it's much less versatile, and it is also notorious for its reliability problems. I actually think the Virus is also not a bad choice, provided you are the kind of person who likes to learn by jumping into the deep end of the pool. breaks fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Mar 24, 2008 |
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Mar 24, 2008 18:52
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Just in case, you want to use keytracking to modulate a parameter based on the pitch (played rather than of the oscillator per se). Voice Key -> Note in Thor. The effect you cite in the Pendulum tune sounds like white noise through a bandpass filter with some resonance on it, max out envelope->filter cutoff, long amp/filter envelope attack times, then through a phaser. breaks fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Apr 6, 2008 |
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Apr 6, 2008 06:34
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h_double posted:Small correction, what you've actually got listed there is electro house (which is related to electroclash), but despite the similar name is a very different sound from electro. As much as I agree with you about this, it's a lost cause. 
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Apr 13, 2008 03:22
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Or if you have a copy of live lite, or can buy one off ebay or craigslist for 15 bucks or something, you can get it for $350 instead... I've gone and reread the original post and I see that you do, indeed, have a copy of live lite... Just install it and see how you like it first of all, then whenever you run into its limitations (which is not hard) you can decide if you want to buy the full version.
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Apr 16, 2008 23:41
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blingasaurus rex posted:Ableton 7. I don't think I meant bandpass filter, I think I meant a brickwall high/low cut filter. Logic has one, I want to be able to eliminate everything above/below a certain frequency. I think you can probably do it in Ableton but I think it's more complicated than it has to be. Or maybe I'm dumb. I don't know what Logic's is like, but if you're just looking for a real steep filter, you could try Rubberfilter... It goes into and past the "ridiculous" range.
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May 3, 2008 07:35
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Long story short, there isn't any difference in the inherent audio quality between different DAWs. The quality of the EQs, effects, timestretching and so on can certainly vary, but of course you don't have to use the built in stuff if you don't want to.Yoozer posted:Whatever that hearsay was, it was completely made void with version 7 which got a new summing algorithm. Come on man don't give me an aneurysm. Digital summing is literally a plus b plus c equals d. There is no algorithm involved, they search-and-replaced "float" with "double" so that, by their own admission, they could put a bigger number on the box. IanTheM posted:You probably won't, or at least shouldn't be using Logic and Ableton to perform your songs live without having them be mostly rendered in the first place either. This is mind-boggling since that is what Ableton was originally made for and Logic can be a pretty good choice too, depending on your requirements. Also, sure Logic has advantages over Live, like a much better bundle of effects and instruments (and at a lower price than the full Live bundle). Of course it has a different feature set also, which is generally more powerful than Live, but also more complex and of course Live has got some things it doesn't. It just doesn't magically make everything sound better, is all. breaks fucked around with this message at 06:54 on May 5, 2008 |
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May 5, 2008 06:41
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Well that's fair enough, though personally I find that nowadays, on one of these speedy laptops, I can run as much stuff as I can conceivably control without any prerendering. I think I am irritable today and I saw the "shouldn't" and got annoyed.
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May 5, 2008 07:02
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Altoidss posted:But I have absolutely no idea how he sequenced it. It sounds to me like not only is he manipulating the pitch - making falls and stuff like that, but also the attack and release envelopes on a level I can't even begin to understand. Does he just micromanage it a lot, or is there some easier way I don't see? It sounds like mostly glide as the previous poster said. And there at least a couple different similar or identical patches in there. If you do want to manipulate attack and release, obviously you can modulate them in any of several different ways depending on your synths, and also you can use sidechain compression. You can easily hear a compressor sidechained from the kick (or something else with the same pattern) working on the chords after about 2:00. The main thing to keep in mind about this genre of music is that there is little to no magic in the production work, it's all pretty simple poo poo that has just been taken to ridiculously exaggerated extremes. Don't look too hard for complex solutions.
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May 18, 2008 10:37
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:This may or may not be a stupid question, but if I wanted to play a live show by myself, how would I go about doing that? There's no one answer here, it really depends on what you want to do exactly and your personal preferences. You would need to provide more information on what your goals are and what kind of music you want to make. Backing tracks are still the most common thing, but are tough to get away with in a one-man act. As far as the guitar amp stuff, well, no. The amp itself will basically work if you set the levels right or if the amp has got a line input, but I wouldn't recommend it. The speakers/cabs are completely different. Guitar speakers are very uneven, they function as a fairly drastic EQ on the guitar sound. Generally places that regularly have live music would have some kind of PA system and so you would not need an amp or speakers at all for the stuff coming out of the laptop. You would just go from your audio interface to their system.
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May 19, 2008 01:24
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This turned out really long, sorry if it's a bit much or overwhelming.Rageaholic Monkey posted:it's all electronic. In this case there is not really a straightforward setup as there is in the case of backing tracks, or DJ style, or laptop-as-synth-module people. It is a DIY, what works for you situation, so it's tough to be specific about what you should do. There are a huge number of choices you have to make and the answers are different for everybody. Think about what you want control over, to what extent, and what you can do without. The main things you can manipulate are the arrangement, the content of sequences/loops, synth parameters, and mixer/fx. More of one means less of the rest due to limitations on complexity and time. You also have to decide what you are going to use to enable your control over that stuff. There are a number of stock hardware options and a lot of modified/custom built stuff in use. What you can actually do with your chosen software is another important consideration. Custom stuff written in Reaktor or Max or actual code is also common. There are more tools available for chopping/destroying audio loops than there are MIDI loops. On the other hand you can tweak synth parameters in the latter case. The are more questions to be answered: How important is a polished sound (more live means less polished), do you want to bring in live instruments like your guitar (which is not the most straightforward choice because of how you typically hold and play it), is all this poo poo even going to run on your laptop, is it going to be entertaining for the audience to watch, on and on and on. You really have to spend time experimenting and iterating until you find something you're happy with. Personally, the core of my work-in-progress setup is a Lemur controlling a step sequencer which I wrote myself specifically for live use. It does exactly what I want very quickly, and I have more control over the sequence content than most laptop people, but on the other hand it puts certain limitations on that content and leaves me with less time to do other stuff. Every electronic live act is in the same situation; they can do some poo poo live that is impossible for everyone else, but they have a different set of restrictions as a result. Spend some time investigating what other people do. Off the top of my head, some examples for whom info is relatively easily available are Monolake/Robert Henke, Moldover, and Exile. For a more vanilla approach you could check out the videos that Tom COSM made. You can also draw some inspiration from people who do hardware live pa, so you could poke around the https://www.livepa.org forums. A live-looping approach is also possible (many guitarists, Kid Beyond, Imogen Heap, etc). It usually doesn't make much sense for dance tracks but might for your more ambient or postrocky work. Whatever you do, don't be one of those people who look like they are checking their email. There are a lot more of those people and I didn't include any of them because it's a poo poo performance. Actually, I almost omitted COSM because he mouses too often for my taste. Ideally you'd want to be able to do your whole set with the laptop closed. quote:I have a bunch of friends that are in local bands, and I go to see them pretty often. All the venues where they play are the same ones where I would want to play, and all of those have speaker systems. So with that being the case, all I'd need to buy would be a laptop and audio interface then? Yeah, that should be the case. Even so there are decisions to make, like what exactly you are going to put on the outputs. If there are any friendly sound guys (ha-ha) at those places you could try talking to them about it. My experience is that at rock-type places, the sound guy usually hates being sent a full mix. But different guys will have different opinions on that, it's becoming more common anyway, and if the sound guy is incompetent or doesn't give a poo poo then it may be better just to mix it yourself. Or you may need to mix for creative purposes so it can get to be a big clusterfuck, and so on.
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May 19, 2008 04:06
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OMGWTFAOLBBQ posted:Also, what is a "one shot"? A sample that is intended to be played through once. Like a single drum. Drums are usually where you hear this, to differentiate them from drum loop samples.
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Jun 26, 2008 19:33
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Live has got a distortion plugin somewhere, look in the effects. I know there is a bitcrusher/ratereducer (redux or something like that) which is one kind of distortion... There are lots of different types of distortion though, it may or may not do what you want.
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Jun 26, 2008 19:35
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My favorite phaser is probably the one from oligarc. http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=39 There is one that's a clone of a famous guitar pedal that's not too bad either but only mono, but I seem to have forgotten which one it was.
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Jul 10, 2008 22:41
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Sure you can use it even on stereo channels in any decent DAW, but sometimes mono in mono out is not what you want. Also, being a guitar pedal clone there were only two or three controls on it. Now that I've had a chance to think about it more, I'm pretty sure it was Antti's Phase 90 clone. http://antti.smartelectronix.com/
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Jul 11, 2008 00:19
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Terrible Horse posted:theres definitely some glide between the chords, but I'm just talking about the tone of the stab itself. It doesn't sound like a straight saw to me. Saws sound kinda like dzzzzttt and this sounds more like Ah! Ive been messing with both saws and squares with a fast but slight lfo vibrating the pitch, but thats not it. Maybe i'll just download some rave sample packs So the basic sound is saws, 4voice or so unison, crank detune and then turn it down until it stops beating real bad. The "aaaah"y quality you can get with careful positioning of the filters and use of reso. Unfortunately a nice easy formant chart is probably not so helpful with this particular sound. I would set a 12db lp wherever it needs to go to get the timbre right, then put a 12db bp below it and start sweeping around trying to get the ah bit. Use a pretty high resonance on both when doing that, then back it down later to get back to the ravey sound. Oh and don't forget to play minor thirds. Feel the ruuussshhhhhh breaks fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Jul 12, 2008 |
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Jul 12, 2008 05:26
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I use Maple, it doesn't work for 64-bit Windows though, so it's no use if you're using v64/xp64. http://www.hurchalla.com/Maple_driver.html
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Aug 2, 2008 21:33
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You have a fair point about mixing well and all, but I think it is wrong to say you never need to layer or process and then turn around and say you've gotten drum samples from somewhere and finding a big sounding sample is important. Well ok, someone else has layered or processed for you, that doesn't mean it never happened.
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Aug 14, 2008 03:55
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I Dig Gardening posted:Daft Punk makes their kicks by using a 303/808/909 through a 100$ compressor. And they probably have the best loving kicks in the industry. I wasn't trying to say you can't make a decent kick with an 808 and a compressor and an EQ or whatever. Certainly many people have and and many people will again. I can't really comment further about your samples without having heard them. I just think that in general it's kind of silly to say that you don't have to do much to drums you've taken from a sample CD (I can only assume since you have given no other information except making a comparison to the vengeance stuff), since the point of such a product is that you have some nice sounds already prepared for you. I'm not trying to rag on your methods or whatever, all I mean is that "find a sample" could be the answer to any "how do you make sound X" question, but it doesn't tell you much about how to actually make sound X.
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Aug 14, 2008 05:40
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Unison just means it stacks several voices for each note you play, presumably with some detune or stereo spread or what have you. The unison mode may or may not be monophonic also, it depends on the synth. On many synths it is, and on many others it isn't. It is certainly a possibility though.
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Aug 31, 2008 21:29
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The Axiom has more control options (knobs, sliders, pads...). I think the Axioms are probably the best value as far as these cheap MIDI keyboards go. The keyboards suck on all of them so you might as well go for features.
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Sep 11, 2008 19:44
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Yoozer posted:I bought D16 Devastor for that (which isn't free but cheap), but alternatively, http://www.simulanalog.org/ has a few stompboxes. Ohmicide is another good one, from OhmForce of course, and they are having a group buy soon I believe so you might be able to pick that up cheap... Or Kombinat from Audio Damage which I haven't used personally, but it's also inexpensive and has a good reputation. I can't think of any totally free ones that I really took a liking to.
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Oct 11, 2008 23:17
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You could relatively easily rig something up in Max/Reaktor/what-have-you to do what was described with any x/y pad that sends z / touched-or-not info. If not you could probably still figure something out based on how far away the newest values are from the old one, especially if the pad can reset to neutral values when not touched...
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Oct 25, 2008 06:13
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Also some of the Blue Cat Audio plugins (payware) can spit out MIDI CC based on the audio signal... Not sure if there is anything free. This is another thing that could be easily rigged up in Reaktor or Max, too. In Reaktor especially it should be a very easy patch... Uh, in Reaktor you could probably even have it automate a VST parameter, record it in your DAW, then copy and paste into the target automation track to get a higher vertical resolution. In something like Bidule or Usine you could probably even route VST automation to another plugin directly.
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Oct 27, 2008 22:35
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If your plugin has a MIDI map feature built in that might be the best way... Right clicking on a knob or slider on the UI is the most common way it is implemented, but it depends on the plugin. Otherwise hit the arrow next to the on/off button at the top of the plugin box in Live (not the plugin window...) to expand it, and you will get the first 128 VST parameters, and you can MIDI map any of those as you normally would. If the plugin has more than 128 parameters and you want parameter 129 or higher, you are out of luck without resorting to more complicated solutions. Search around on the official Ableton forums, you'll easily find a lot of bitching and a few workarounds.
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Nov 16, 2008 10:21
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You have a lot of options for this kind of thing. Assuming you are looking for something you could put in your pocket, the M-Audio Microtrack II, Roland R09HR and the Marantz 620 are all worth a look. The Microtrack is the only small, relatively inexpensive one I know of with a TRS jack that can phantom power a mic, the others use mini jacks. edit: well this was for the guy above me but I left the reply window open while I was getting some work done and he edited.
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Nov 18, 2008 21:54
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I couldn't tell for sure from that picture, but I found some others with google. It is a small modular synth. Most or all of the modules look like they are from Livewire who have got some pretty distinctive layouts on their gear. http://www.livewire-synthesizers.com/ And here is a better shot of the modules: http://flickr.com/photos/stevelouie/2526783219/ breaks fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Nov 20, 2008 |
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Nov 20, 2008 20:23
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A lot do if you right click a knob, or have some other way of doing it. But if the plugin doesn't allow you to do it, you can MIDI map any of the first 128 parameters using Live. Hit the little arrow between the power button and the wrench and then turn MIDI map mode on.
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Dec 14, 2008 06:53
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I thought the pads on the padkontrol were more playable than the MPD24 pads. In both cases I experimented with a variety of settings and gave it a few days to get acclimated. The knobs and faders from the MPD24 are a plus, obviously. For whatever it's worth it took about a week for the knobs on mine to start sending spurious data. Also they always act like pretend-rotaries, by which I mean they can't send any kind of +1/-1 stream. You may not care, but it sucked for my purposes. Presumably they adjust their internal value in response to incoming midi but I never tried it because they broke so quickly. I did hear that they fixed the knob problem on later batches. Anyway it basically comes down to playability vs utility. If you are just going to stick it in full levels mode and leave it there you might as well get the extra poo poo on the MPD24. If you're going to be a little more graceful with it the padkontrol is somewhat better in terms of actually playing the pads. I'd also tell you not to buy any Akai product because their support department is legendarily bad (to the point where I just said gently caress it, kept the broken mpd and won't buy any more akai products), but that's just my experience and admittedly my MPD was from the first run of them.
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Dec 23, 2008 06:51
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Halo posted:SYNTHS? I know Logic has great effects, but synths? Sculpture and Ultrabeat are great. EXS24 is also good, though for sampling I think the answer is almost always Kontakt these days. Most of the rest is a bit long in the tooth, but you could certainly do worse.
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Dec 30, 2008 21:22
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Lowness 72 posted:See, I picked up the Korg DS-10, which is basically a version of an old KORG synthesizer for the Nintendo DS. I know gently caress-all about making electronic music, but I LOVE using this thing. There is no Korg DS. DS-10 is a synthesizer, a simple step sequencer, and a little mixer and effects section all wrapped up into a DS cart. The synthesizer portion is based on the Korg MS-10 hardware synthesizer. The rest of it was created just for the DS-10 product. You can get similar functionality with other software but nothing works exactly the same way. Anyway, on the PC you want to look at Fruity Loops. It is somewhat similar and it's offered in several versions at different pricepoints, starting at around fifty bucks. There is also a demo available. Don't worry about the pricing of hardware stuff if you want to work with software. Hardware is much more expensive. MS-10s are not made anymore but they cost around $750 used, and the DS-10 cart is equivalent to 6 of them (more or less, there are many differences between the real MS-10 and the synth in the DS-10, which is more powerful in some ways and less so in others). breaks fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Jan 4, 2009 |
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Jan 4, 2009 12:30
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If on Cubase 4, also search "jrrshop cubase" on youtube (some/most of it is applicable to 3 also).
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Jan 22, 2009 18:33
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Cubase really isn't that scary. It does require some patience at first that you might not need with something like Ableton Live. With Live the whole program is designed to make certain things very easy, so you can get up and running quickly without even thinking about a manual. On the other hand as a result of this, if you want to do anything semi-unusual it's often impossible, difficult, or just doesn't really make sense. With Cubase you get more power and flexibility and it's relatively consistent with itself, but the tradeoff is that it's not quite as click-and-go up front. Even so, it's not the horrible nightmare that some people would have you believe everything except Live is.
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Jan 30, 2009 20:38
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Convolution reverbs often use more CPU than algorithmic ones, I guess it doesn't matter as much these days. Also, convolution can only capture static, linear systems and can't deal with dynamic or nonlinear things, for example reverb algorithms that use modulated delays. There are one or two plugins like Nebula that use an extended version of convolution to help solve some of the issues with capturing nonlinear devices, but this chews up even more CPU than the standard variety.
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Apr 23, 2009 06:00
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A lot of controllers will let you transpose by any amount you want; check the manual or mess around with it to see if you can make it happen. If not, you can find some software to do the same thing. If you play the white keys beginning on A, you have got A minor. D is a fifth down from A, so you need to transpose down a fifth or up a fourth (-7 or +5 semitones). Then D will be where the A was, and you can play a minor scale beginning there; in place of C you will have F.
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Apr 30, 2009 02:43
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Kai was taken posted:This is the worst. What kind of hardware are you using that loses 90% of it's value in a few years? So you're telling me that I can get an "obsolete" Virus for $150 on the street? He chose his words poorly but I think it's a fair point that hardware like Maschine that's tied to software and basically useless without it isn't likely to hold its value as well as hardware synths or even generic MIDI controllers do. On the other hand, the Korg Legacy Collection has got to be close to 5 years old now and the mini-MS-20 controller from that still sells for $200-$300 without the plugins, so it has lost little to no value (not accounting for inflation).
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May 19, 2009 01:16
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I agree with the recommendations for polyiblit, Bootsy's stuff and the digitalfishphones plugins. The Schwa and Stillwell plugins also deserve an honorable mention. They aren't free per se but they are very inexpensive and have very generous demos (nag screen only). I also disagree with a few things that have been mentioned. The Kjaerhus stuff is polished I guess, but also pretty bland. Synth1 is just bad, honestly.
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May 22, 2009 01:51
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You might also be interested in the various additive/resynth plugins, I think Alchemy and Morphine are the ones most worthy of attention at the moment.
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Jun 3, 2009 22:32
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AndysADinosaur posted:Now, with all that in mind, I think a loop pedal might be what I'm looking for. Does anyone have experience using live looping with electronic music? Loopers are more associated with guitars, voice, electro-acoustic stuff, anything but synths really. There's no reason you can't use them with a synth, but most people go for midi or audio clips instead. The main reasons are first that most people doing electronic stuff live are operating in more of a conductor/DJ role. The second one is that there is a lot more subtlety and nuance in a guitar or vocal performance than there is in your typical synth performance. It's often just not worth the trouble of capturing a live version, the time is better spent doing something else. My advice for any live electronic setup is that you have a firm idea of exactly how you want to perform before making large purchases. Ableton Live is great for variations on a theme of DJing clips, but doesn't really do much interesting otherwise. That may well change with the whole Live+Apc40+Max platform, but that battlestation is not yet fully armed and operational. Anyway; buy used/cheap/small and be prepared to resell and experiment until you have a clear vision of how you are going to operate, then that's the time to spend lots of money/effort making it happen.
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Jun 5, 2009 11:08
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:39 |
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The Looper is nice and all but it doesn't really do anything that loopers haven't already been doing for a long time. That was pretty much my point; if you are not doing clip djing than Live doesn't do much for you that you can't get done just as well with something else. If you can deal with a bit of a learning curve you can just download Zone Mobius, which is free, there is no need to spend $450 on Ableton to do that. And the learning curve is not really there because it's more difficult, they are both trivial to use in basic operation once you map a pedal, it's just that the manual is poorly written.
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Jun 5, 2009 17:56
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