The "how do I make electronic/club/DJ music" Megathread!

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ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

So MIDI is just like the roll on a player piano, or sheet music. It's just instructions of what to do. So if you press middle C on a midi controller, that sends a signal to the computer or synth saying "make the sounds of middle c!"

# ¿ Mar 7, 2008 15:37

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:55

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Packed Tightly posted:

Does anybody have drum and bass production experience? I won't post my questions here because I have a whole heap of genre specific ones, but if there's anybody out there who'd be willing to give me a bit of advice/answer some questions, it'd stop me from going crazy trying to figure this poo poo out.

Cheers.

I got you bro. The key is really the drums. Step 1: Speed up a drum break, and chop the gently caress out of it.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2008 14:16

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Three Red Lights posted:

How do you protect one while gigging

Best way I've found is to just keep it on you the whole time, unless you're really down for the people at the show and can keep it locked away backstage.

Three Red Lights posted:

Am I being a brand conditioned moron for automatically leaning towards a macbook without knowing why

I say don't go with mac unless you have a really good reason too. Too many people pick them up just because they think it's some industry standard, and then get all sad when they can't runny Fruity Loops or some free VST they want. If you want to use logic or digital performer, or are just more comfortable with a mac, by all means do it. But I'd suggest that you have a good reason for it.

I can't help you with price, though, since I haven't priced a laptop in ages.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2008 14:17

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Yoozer posted:

Anyway, for what you want to ask there's Dogs On Acid - a pretty big d'n'b forum where pretty much everything you could think of probably has been asked. It's just that several members have stupidly big signatures and retarded spelling.

and a couple big name producers hang around there, IIRC.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2008 16:10

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Ahem breakcore

_{this is gonna get silly, fast}

# ¿ Mar 12, 2008 19:26

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

midiyoke helps, but it's not as nice as that mac thing

# ¿ Mar 13, 2008 21:36

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

WanderingKid posted:

Aye. MIDI yoke is a bit of a pain in the arse. I yearn for something more intuitive (preferably with a nice mac GUI). drat what is that mac program. I want to do all my MIDI msging in something like that.

I believe that's the System Prefrences for MIDI/Audio in OSX. No special program.

I wish i was just *this* much better at programming so I could make a MIDIYolk with a nice gui. You can route MIDI all sorts of fun ways with a max patch, though.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2008 23:46

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

A lot of drum and bass comes from the kick and snare being really powerful. The speed comes in from ghost-hits on the snare and some hi-hats for window dressing. Once you have a solid kick and snare, you ornament it with the other stuff. That's how I do it, at least.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2008 17:26

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

I don't know any for OSX, but you could probably google "free AU vocoder" (abelton does, AUs, right?)

I don't mean to be a dick by saying "google it, fag", I just don't know what works well on mac. But the word you're looking for is "vocoder"

ManoliIsFat fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Mar 18, 2008

# ¿ Mar 18, 2008 19:30

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Yoozer posted:

- a Mac - (Hrvatski - Vatstep DSP.) - this is a slightly "whiny" voice.

isn't that a kid606 song? i mean like, i know how sampling works, but that's like the whole song. they even say 606 in it a bunch. hmmm...

ManoliIsFat fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Mar 18, 2008

# ¿ Mar 18, 2008 20:32

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

SeraphSlaughter posted:

This seems to be the most appropriate thread for this.

How would I go about creating some chiptune style stuff? I use Reason/Logic (like reason a little better for purely electronic things). Am I just going to need to find a plugin/refill that emulates NES style stuff? (not necessarily looking for NES only, just stuff that sounds 8/16-bit). Or is there a good way of getting the general sound out of some of the synths in reason? I noticed some presets have an 8-bit feel to them but aren't quite "there" for me.

Any kind of response is appreciated.

you could actually use a gameboy and write littlesounddj to a cart. that's how my boy wildman steve does it.

There's lots of ways to fake it with simple synths, but I'm not the man to explain how. I can KINDA do it, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to communicate how.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2008 20:42

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

unixbeard posted:

Ableton 7 can now do slicing similar to what you see in ReCycle.

god i need to upgrade.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2008 14:33

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Pretty Little Rainbow posted:

I have 0 talent and I'm horribly uncreative. Whats the best way to start just to learn the programs and poo poo? I was thinking of remixing stuff or something, what would be the best program for loving with somebody elses music and trying to pass it off as my own?

I think you shouldn't make electronic music. But if you must, try FL Studio. You won't need the pimp edition with all the fancy synths.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2008 14:41

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

WanderingKid posted:

In some DAWs you cant get it to work period (like FL Studio).

You can. You use a Peak Controller and put it on the mixer channel you want your knob to be affected by. You can then set any parameter (say, the ratio on your compresser) to be linked to the value of the controller. It can take some tweaking of the mapping formula to sound smooth, but it works alright.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2008 20:18

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

what program are you using that doesn't have one built in?

# ¿ May 3, 2008 00:15

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

sithael posted:

"Auto filter"
"EQ Three"
"EQ Eight"

These are the only ones that'll do him any good.

# ¿ May 3, 2008 06:13

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Rageaholic Monkey posted:

Thanks a lot That bass is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm trying to do the drum stuff right now.

This is a great help.

If you're trying to make more modern sounding drum and bass (not old school jungley, which is my fave), it'll be good to put in some ghost hits, too. On your snare track, play a couple snares quitely and right before and after the louder snare hits on the 2 and the 4 to make the beat feel more rushed. Also, drum and bass is not house music, so you don't want your kicks to fall on every beat. You'll want them to fall on the 1, and then only on upbeats (the "and" in "1 and 2 and 3 and 4").

# ¿ May 3, 2008 23:40

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Overbite posted:

I really want to start making electronic music but I have no budget. I'm looking to get a sound like NIN, Gravity Kills, KMFDM, ect. I'm guessing I should get a midi controller and some software like Fruity Loops but my budget is around $150 at the max. I have all these ideas for music I want to make but I have no idea where to get started.

If you're looking to save money, wait on the midi controller. And the best way to get started is just dive right in. I'd suggest Fruity Loops, as I think it's the most intuitive. Get a demo, and just start clicking around. Once you get the demo setup, we can help you in here. I'm not going to be able to help you get the industrial sound you want, but I can help you with the ins and outs of FL.

# ¿ May 10, 2008 15:02

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Overbite posted:

How hard is it to change the sounds of the drums? They were too clean for my tastes.

Really easy. Cut up a drum sound you want from a break, or get one of those sample kits with a bunch of drums, and try those out. Also, effects play a huge part in drums. A little bit of eqing can make a snare really pop or give a bass drum some umfff it didn't have before.

# ¿ May 10, 2008 19:41

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

I Dig Gardening posted:

The single for my new album. Total electroslut stuff. I love constructive criticism, what do you guys think?

It's good, but the vocals kinda fall flat for me. Distort them, pitch them differently, vocode them, chop them harder, SOMETHING to gently caress them up. The cowbells are hot, and the synth is nice. But the "oh so sexy" electro-clashy vocals just aren't doing it for me.

If it were MY track, I'd change that snare when the song drops to something a little snappier or harder, but that's probably just my dnb instincts.

Your production has gotten a lot cleaner over the months I've seen you posting here. Great job, bro.

# ¿ May 21, 2008 21:23

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

WanderingKid posted:

Piano roll is easy. Theres a tab near the top of the screen with 'Line' written in it. Click that and set it to 'none' and you can freely move around note triggers in the piano roll and make them any length you want. If you just want a finer degree of quantisation set it to '1/4 step' - this will let you stick 32 and 64th notes in the piano roll using the default timebase (96 PPQ).

also if you hold alt while you drag, it lets you move it around freely. i like doing it this way so i don't have to keep turning the snap on and off

# ¿ Jun 22, 2008 01:50

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

seiken posted:

anyone else got any feedback on this?

the intro is really weird because it sounds like its gonna be all trancey, and then you switch it up and then have a pretty decent drop. i'd say drop that first whole spacey part. its an alright track, but i get pretty bored with it.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2008 20:00

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Yoozer posted:

Load up a bog-standard but energetic bouncy pop song. Put the "Fade to Grey" effects rack over it. Assign one of the knobs on the keyboard to the wet/dry rotary on screen. Set it to dry.

Play the song.

Turn the knob after a while.

My favorite ableton live trick is to set the grid on beat repeat to a knob, and the "on" and "no triplets" to buttons, and make a techstep remix of whatever the gently caress I want whenever I want.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2008 18:59

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Its hard to have a catchall hard kick, as different situations call for different things. If I was making one, I'd make like gabber kicked that was distorted to all hell and resembled a sign wave. You can really gently caress with the sound of a kick with some slight eqing. Add a little to the high-mids, and it'll get punchier. Boost the really low frequencies (~30hz iirc) and you will feel the bass rumble of the kick. And it really depends on the kicks context with respect to all the other instruments that are going on.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2008 19:10

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

glitchkrieg posted:

Assigning a button for the hold function works wonders for that too.

That's what i meant, not the "device on" button.

Also assigning a knob to pitch decay.

OMGWTFAOLBBQ if you're gonna make hardcore, I'd suggest not investing in a drum pack. There's a bunch of free ones (the names all escape me for the moment), but you're gonna be distorting and compressing the kick so much, I don't think its worth it. You can really take nearly any kick and make it hardcore.

And ya, the synth isn't side chained, it's just short and trigged after each kick. That's a good trick to get a hardcore song moving, you put the synths between the kicks.

It'd look like this:

code:

bass: - x - x - x - x
kick: x - x - x - x -
      1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -

# ¿ Jun 26, 2008 20:55

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

OMGWTFAOLBBQ posted:

Dude, you just helped me out so much. Any other tips you can give me for making hardcore? Here's a question: Every other kick has a sound on top of it that makes it different.

If I had to

code:

open hats:   - x - - - x - - 
closed hats: x - x - x - x -
snare:       - - x - x - x - 
kick:        x - x - x - x -

             1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -

I'm not too sure about those hats (i don't know why i suck so bad at telling if they're on the beat or the "and") but it sounds like the snare is pitched and slowed down a little to make it hit harder and not be so snappy. Just play around with it, hardcore drums aren't too technical.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2008 23:47

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

OMGWTFAOLBBQ posted:

I think it's:
code:
Snare X - - - X - - - X - - - X
Kick  X - X - X - X - X - X - X
But I can't make it sound right. gently caress!

ya i messed up. yes the snare falls on every other kick. upload a sample of what it sounds like, i'll try to help.

Xarb posted:

From a quick listen it sounds to me a bit like this:

code:

ride cymb:   x - - - x - - - x - - - x - - -  
open hats:   - - x - - - x - - - x - - - x - 
closed hats: - x - - - x - - - x - - - x - -
snare:       - - - - x - - - - - - - x - - -
kick:        x - - - x - - - x - - - x - - -
             1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a

this is right i don't know how i messed it up so bad

ManoliIsFat fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jun 27, 2008

# ¿ Jun 27, 2008 01:28

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Ya, I was thinking on the way in to work today "I can't believe I told that kid to make a gabber kick its obvious the sound he's going for". I was very :420:

ed last night I don't even know why I tried talking about this poo poo.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2008 16:15

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

I Dig Gardening posted:

I asked Jesse and turns out it's just a reverse piano chord. I reversed the song and sure enough, it's just a loving piano chord. Retarded. Sounds so dope though.

That's a good tip. Reversing sounds that hit strong at first and then have a long, steady decay like a piano or like a smooth horn, can make an an awesome drop.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2008 15:03

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Ben and Stew posted:

Updated with more goodness

i hate the first couple of minutes, but i love the groove it falls in to. i was just not feeling how you cut the vocal sample at all, and i was sick of it pretty fast

# ¿ Jul 12, 2008 00:09

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

squidgee posted:

I honestly wouldn't go below 37 keys. I have a Korg MicroKontrol, and while I love it I find having only three octaves a bit limiting at times. I couldn't imagine only having two.

Its really not that bad if all you're writing are lead synths and the occasional chords here or there. When I use it, its only to try out a couple melodies out before I quantize it all, so I never find it limiting.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2008 18:32

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

That's the whole process of becoming an electronic musician, though. You can't expect them to start sounding right till you knock out at least a half a dozen to a dozen horrible tracks.

You can do it, I know you can. I find what makes me grow the most and learn the most as an electronic artist is to just constantly bang out tracks and keep your craft up. All art is a combination of creativity and craft, but I find that craft can carry you a lot of the way. You need those skills in place so that when you are creative as gently caress, you're able to articulate those ideas in your head easily.

But you really need to just knock out some tracks, even if they suck, because its the only way to learn.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2008 15:25

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

wayfinder posted:

I agree, and it's also important to GET poo poo DONE and not fiddle and fuzzle until everything is just so. You're just starting out, so it's gonna suck for a while, no matter what. Get songs DONE. Call them finished. Play them to people.

That's great advice because you can so easily get caught up in details that you neglect the rest of the track. You can ALWAYS go back and re-eq those hihats that are pissing you off, but its so much easier to do that when you have a whole song to work with and you're not stuck at square 1.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2008 19:36

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

glitchkrieg posted:

Personal request too - I've just picked up a Korg Electribe MX and I'm having fun without while working out what I can do. Just wondering if anyone has one/has used one and if they had any tips or pointers?

Improvising with it is really the best way to into it. Just program a beat as you go, wail on the arpegiator and loop some of your better stuff. I love messing with the lfo speed on the pitch of a synth. You can make so gnarly, acidy jams with that poo poo.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2008 01:11

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

squidgee posted:

So I downloaded a set of 8 bit refills for Reason a while ago, and I just rediscovered them while working on a song. Combining the samples with more traditional synths is sounding absolutely wicked. The sounds are so fun that I've started to look into 8 bit synths and trackers, and I've pretty much settled on getting Nanoloop or LSDJ since I already own the hardware.

Anyone have any familiar with these sequencers? What's better or worse about each? Any good alternatives? A lot of what I've read isn't particularly helpful, but I'm leaning towards Nanoloop because it has a nice looking interface and I'm not particularly familiar with trackers. However, I don't necessarily want to limit myself in terms of what I can do given the cost of a cartridge, and what I've read has mentioned that Nanoloop is a bit limited compared to LSDJ.

My bff uses LSDJ and loves it. Trackers are really easy to pick up if you've made electronic music before, so don't let that scare you. My boy (w.m.x) had only previously made tracks in fruity loops, learned renoise in like 4 hours, and was banging out beats on his gameboy in a couple days. I've never use nanoloop, so I can't help you there, but LSDJ is a tiny beast, especially if you have a way to flash samples to a cart.

quote:

EDIT: Also, has anyone used NitroTracker? The ability to transmit MIDI over wifi is intriguing.

I'm waiting for my cart, but I can't wait to rock this. I've only heard good things.

Your in NYC, right? We'll have to jam some time.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2008 15:12

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

There's a Donk vst out there that you just let run over your tracks and makes you a superstar. Some of the heads think its cheating, but it's just using the tools at your disposal IMHO.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2008 21:01

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

Threatis posted:

is that the one shitmatt made? if so, i love him forever.

He made an Ableton set for it, but I can't remember what his name was on myspace. 3363 posted it in the hd thread.

I was just making a bad dblue glitch joke.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2008 14:41

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

The Fog posted:

AFAIK, FL Studio does this out of the box.

Ya its called a peek controller, and you put it on a mixer track and then you can assign any parameter to it. Its sloppy as hell and you've gotta know your math pretty well to fudge some of the curves, but I find it useful and versatile as hell.

i need to play with buzz though. i've got max/msp down pretty good.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2008 17:38

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

cLin posted:

I see radio DJs do it a lot, they will be announcing something and it might take longer then the song can give. Do they just find a segment to loop? Cause that wouldn't make much sense to me since how would they make sure the lyrics match up at the beginning. Gah, whole thing confuses me yet it seems so simple.

Ya they usually just loop a couple bars or play the instrumental.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2008 17:39

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:55

ManoliIsFat: Oct 4, 2002

I Dig Gardening posted:

Who the gently caress has a donation button on their music webpage?

Lots of legit people who run netlabels do that. I don't, but it's a totally normal thing.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2009 02:00

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