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

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > The "how do I make electronic/club/DJ music" Megathread!

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Stux posted:

If you're running on an intel system try to avoid USB soundcards if you can, they dont keep up a good usb transfer rate and give burst errors. Nothing really serious, but annoying sometimes.

That might explain it, I use a Numark DJ I/O and get hissing sometimes. I'm on a Dell latitude whihc I think has an intel processor.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2008 21:44

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 01:37

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

I cant tell you how to get that sound but Danger sidechains his songs excessively, thats where the swallowed up, whump whump sound comes from.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2008 22:13

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

DumpOrCrap posted:

First off, this is a great thread. It's really motivated me to get going making music.

Here's my question though:

I bought Reason 4 and an M-Audio Axiom 25 keyboard. I've been working through all the modules in Reason, and really like the flexibility it gives you with all the synths and effects. However, I want to start incorporating samples into what I'm doing. It seems like ReCycle is a good tool to start building your own samples, but before I run out and spend another $250 I want to make sure I'm getting the most bang for my buck.

Would it make more sense to spend the money on Live or Logic rather than ReCycle? To the extent I wanted to continue to use Reason synths, I could ReWire them into either.

I've played around a fair bit with Live alot and have mixed feelings about it. I really like the Session view, but find the sequencer and sampler interfaces to be somewhat infuriating. I don't really have much experience with Logic. I know this question has as many answers as people answering, but does anyone have any guidance on pros / cons of each? Are there any really powerful features of ReCycle that I'm missing that would make it more attractive than the sampling features of the other two programs? Sorry for the rambling question, but any guidance would be appreciated.

I use Reason and Recycle is I think essential because its the only thing that can create the Rex files for use with Reason's samplers. However, I didnt pay for it :ninja:

and cant imagine paying 250 dollars for it. Its really just a slicer, nothing special. Make of that what you will.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2008 04:03

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Ive been djing at the hobby level (making my own mixes, playing house parties) on my lovely dell laptop running traktor for a little while, but it stutters and crashes and I want to run ableton, so this summer I'll be upgrading to a 2.1ghz macbook with 4 gigs of ram. I think this will be plenty to run ableton for DJing problems-free, but I'm also into producing. I've fiddled with Ableton for production and its ok but a bit weird, and I've heard it isnt the best for sound quality (just hearsay, I think I read JFK saying it on the MSTRKRFT message board) and I was thinking of using Logic. Can this macbook run both programs cleanly? Not at the same time mind you, just at all. I'm worried I wont have enough hard drive space for both, never mind processor power. A second computer is an option, but I'd rather just use the one macbook. Sorry if this is dumb, I've never used macs and am not sure what they are capable of, and my PC laptops have always run badly when theres too much crap on them

# ¿ May 5, 2008 04:18

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

So basically theres no advantage to Logic over Live? Great, one less thing to get.
But if youre DJing with Live, you have to warp your tracks. Are the transients just not noticable? I've heard lots of Ableton sets, both live and recorded, and I never noticed any.

# ¿ May 5, 2008 06:09

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

The Fog posted:

Just use whatever gives you the best results. Preferably let us know what genres you're looking to make. Chances are there's a few synths most people in that genre already use and have made presets for. Presets are invaluable and a great resource to learn from. For example, Minimonsta and Minimoog are used a lot for electro house, whereas Vanguard, z3ta+ and Sylenth1 are used a lot in trance. You can use those synths for lots of different genres, but if you're going for a trancy sound, it's probably easier to make in Vanguard than in Minimoog, which brings me back to my first point; choose whatever you get the best results with.

Is this the general attitude on presets? I read up on basic synthesis and made a few tunes in Reason with Subtractor and Maelstrom's initial patches and tried to make my own synths, but they sounded very 8-bit and chiptuney (not at all what I want). Then yesterday I made a track using some presets, which I modified both on the synth and through external effects, and the track sounded so much better. I'm definitely of the mindset that whatever works easiest is best, but it seems like programming the synth yourself is the best way to get original tones. So when someone says something like Massive is a great synth, do they mean it allows you to create the best synths from scratch, or it comes with the best presets?

Basically is using presets cheating, or shortchanging myself by using tones that everyone else with that piece of software is possibly using?

Terrible Horse fucked around with this message at 13:58 on May 23, 2008

# ¿ May 23, 2008 13:55

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Sock It posted:

Well, the problem is that I don't know what I want, since every program seems to have more features than I need. It's a bit intimidating, knowing so little, yet not really having the tools to learn.

Ideally I'd like two virtual 'decks' where I can adjust tempo/speed to beatmatch, fade in and out, apply effects, etc. I don't really need any sort of MIDI functionality.

I've tried Ableton, which seemed too complicated
Reason (I think?), which didn't run well on my crappy computer
Reaper, which didn't seem exactly right

Virtual DJ looks sort of right, but I haven't had a chance at the trial yet. Anyone have an opinion on it?

Thats all Traktor is. What about it did you find intimidating.

Virtual DJ and Cue are similar programs but I found them to be total poo poo compared to Traktor

# ¿ Jun 23, 2008 22:01

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

wayfinder posted:

http://www.yfinder.de/driven/index.php/2007/07/14/10_kick_samples_for_download

I've made a couple of my self-made kicks available, you could probably use those as a starting point for what I heard in your youtube video.

Thanks! I'm always looking for new drum samples. I've had good luck making a big kick from three layered samples from roland machines (mostly 808 and 909). A good kick has a Dooosh (low) a thhoop (hits you in the chest) and a click (self-explanatory), for anyone who is interested in making their own drums. Its not easy though.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2008 08:30

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to create that panicked, rave-y stab synth? The opening chords of this track http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=RblVmEOFXY8 are pretty much what I'm talking about. It sounds simple but I haven't been able to replicate it.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2008 06:06

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

sithael posted:

Sounds like saw waves and portamento to me.

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

# ¿ Jul 12, 2008 02:31

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Yoozer posted:

Seriously, either give sane, reproducible advice or don't. You can not do this with saw waves in the conventional way*.

Exactly.

Where to find it? Old-rear end sample CDs like this.

Protip: Classical music with lots of choirs. Carmina Burana, for instance! Let's hear what happens when we sample a choir:

http://www.theheartcore.com/music/carmina_sampling.mp3

Problem solved .

Pick any minor, major or fifth, make sure it's short, and load the fragment up into any software sampler. Yeah, they can do portamento, too. Try the same with old disco and pop music, you'll be surprised at the results (and the fact that you don't have to pay anything to clear these samples since they're almost impossible to trace back to the source.).

edit: This is why recreating the lead chord sound of James Brown Is Dead on any synthesizer is so goddamn hard.

_{* the unconventional way is to take an additive synthesizer with complex envelopes and 20,000 partials, and then to resynthesize everything so you end up with the separate sinewaves. You can do this either the clever automated way with a dose of Matlab or the manual way with a dose of autism.}

Thanks so much, thats exactly the sound I was looking for.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2008 08:57

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Or plan your remixes around the parts you can get. Not useful if you just want to do the original song with a fat bassline or whatever, but you can make cool sounding stuff if you take a bar of the chorus and turn it into a filtered swell, etc.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2008 04:42

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

I Dig Gardening posted:

I never, ever layer kick drums. I don't like the way it sounds at all. Plus I know for a fact that alot of my idols (MSTRKRFT and Daft Punk come to mind) don't layer kick drums on principle alone. MSTRKRFT has GIANT kicks and has openly stated there is never more than one kick in a song, it's all about processing and mixing.

If you listen to a couple of my songs I think you can tell I get kicks that are pretty loving heavy as it is. Why fix it if it's not broken? Why spend that hour or two layering a kick drum when I can get the sound I want simply from a good mix? I don't know, that's my take on it. Yours can be different.

So what do you do to them? I started the 3 layered kick method caus my stock 808 and 909 samples sounded too small. I've used single kicks from VEC Essential Club samples to better effect though. I guess the original sample quality is the most important thing

# ¿ Aug 14, 2008 02:06

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Vanmani posted:

I really like this idea for drums in Live. Might give it a go.

I tried this on the last track I made but my cpu really couldnt handle the extra tracks. If youve got a baller computer though, its great because you can easily take the hats out for a bar or whatever then bring them back in without messing with the MIDI

# ¿ Sep 20, 2008 00:14

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Any suggestions on where to go with these two tracks?

http://www.zshare.net/audio/20048218bfed081d/
This is an oringal, more loungey than I was going for.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/20048910a82eae9c/
This is a remix of Billy Says Go, I dont know where to take it.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2008 06:48

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

That is good advice, and I'd extend it to listening to stuff that isnt EDM at all, or even not listening to any music for a few hours before sitting down to write something. So much of electronic music is based on repeating patterns and rhythms, its easy to get something subconsciously stuck in your head, and you end up with something that sounds derivative, or even an outright rip off of something you just heard.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2008 18:36

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

SynthesizerKaiser posted:

What's this thing have to say about songwriting? Like patterns and stuff. I have some trouble figuring out what to do with notes other than have the bass follow the pads follow the lead. (Though some tracks do just that.)

I cant comment on this book in particular but I think a lot of electronic musicians would benefit from a simple music theory primer, especially if they havent played a conventional instrument before. There are very simple rules for what chord change = what melody etc, and electronic music follows them (depending on your genre). Again I cant recommend one but I know Berklee publishes primers that are less dry than usual.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2009 07:26

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Damien posted:

Yeah, I've gotten the "simplify, simplify" thing before, especially with basslines... I did use a scale, C minor, I think, but yeah the bassline skips around too much notewise to be coherent. Thanks for the advice, guys, I'll work on my style and structure.

None of the notes are 'out,' but rhythmically they are too weird for acid. i think you could get good results from taking the midi of the bassline, and applying it to the higher melody synths, and making a new bassline with the low acid sound youve got. getting too loopy and repetitive is definitely a danger in electronic production, but also with acid, or any techno really, its not really about making a song, its about making a groove that can go on for ever and ever. part of that is variation though.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2009 06:17

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

cubicle gangster posted:

I have no idea, what does freezing actually do to the track?

If it records it as temp audio and uses that as a placer while still having all the midi information there so I can change it later, I need to start using it I guess.

yeah it uses the audio that 'would be' playing so none of the effects etc are live, which takes all the calculations out of reverb and whatever else. I have a poo poo cpu and use a lot of reverb so i freeze tracks often. Its not a fix-all though, my comp still crawls even with 9-10 frozen tracks.

# ¿ May 1, 2009 15:44

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

I'm getting pretty sick of the limitations of Abletons Simple Delay, and I read something about how Abletons reverb isnt true stereo, it sums the input to a mono signal before producing the stereo output. Can anyone recommend some good delay and reverb vsts, particularly ones that have stereo imaging parameters and dont kill my cpu, if thats possible.

# ¿ May 9, 2009 20:25

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

What kind of computers are everyone using to make tracks. I'm asking because Im using a 2.66ghz single core with 2 gig ram, which isnt top of the line by any means, but my cpu just hit 325% while trying to play back a tune that has 14 tracks in it. No vsts. This cant be right. I can afford another computer

# ¿ May 20, 2009 20:15

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

I have a DJi/o that I use for cueing with traktor, but for making tracks in Ableton it gives worse performance than my onboard soundcard so I just use that. My buffer size is maxed, 1024 samples.

Its basically I can get the main skeleton of a tune done, but anything after that, I have to make changes blind, render to audio, have a listen to that, go back and make changes blind, etc. because it literally cant handle playback at all. Its very frustrating.

# ¿ May 20, 2009 20:22

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

A MIRACLE posted:

you'd be alot better off buying an external interface

the i/o is an external interface, although its pretty much bottom of the barrel.

# ¿ May 20, 2009 23:21

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Any time the waveform hits the top or bottom, you are losing sound data and making your track sound cheaper and less complex. Reduce your levels to avoid clipping, then amplify later in mastering etc. A properly mixed and mastered tune always sound bigger and better than a clipped to poo poo one.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2009 05:03

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

This isnt the thread for it, post tips on how to make my laptop sound like tiesto or gtfo

# ¿ Jun 4, 2009 21:48

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Altoidss posted:

Quick derail from the slapfight but does anyone have any tips for beatmatching/timestretching samples and a capellas in Logic it's very frustrating

If I don't know the BPM of the sample in advance usually by the time I get it in time it's been warped enough to sound like poo poo

listen to the non-a capella tune and try to find words that fall on beats is the only thing I've found useful. Ableton has a tap function but I've never used it, but that could work, let the vocals play while tapping the beat from your head. I use lots of a capellas but i like when theyre hosed up, but I know what you mean.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2009 04:43

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

some pretty straight up chilled summer techno http://www.zshare.net/audio/6184260297e5bf24/

would like to hear thoughts

trill rear end your sounds are pretty cool (first one more than the second, which were all pretty standard) but you need to work on your drums if you wanna make dubstep. They gotta swing and have lots of space, its more than just the snare on 3

Terrible Horse fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Jun 25, 2009

# ¿ Jun 25, 2009 13:40

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

trill rear end posted:

ok tried extra hard to make it lurch and swing and have space

feedback pls

ps this is just a draft, gonna change the siren and the lfo rate for a lot of it

filthy bass. not the kind of dubstep i dig but that is def dubstep. hats are definitely good but they are a bit static, need to change from measure to measure, breath along with what the bass is doing. youve definitely got the lurch/swing going, this tune makes me want to fall over. Agree with manoli that the bass needs to be a bit more on beat. its like jazz, bass keeps time, through either notes or wobble, drums skitter.

im jealous of your speed of output. my rate of a tune every two months or so is not working.

edit; btw

xpander posted:

Just twiddle some knobs and let the magic happen!

worst advice i ever heard. just caus youre using a laptop doesnt mean youre not a musician who has to learn his poo poo. learn dubstep drums by listening to dubstep tunes and writing them out on the staff/whatever method. try to recreate one exactly. there definitely an element of chance and spontaneity to this, especially with synth programming, but when youre going for a sound you need to learn the rules of the genre and work within it. knob twiddling is how we ended up with glitch and idm nonsense.

Terrible Horse fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Jul 9, 2009

# ¿ Jul 9, 2009 08:19

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

while I'm here how about this: http://www.zshare.net/audio/624254638a5a2d03/

its a remix of Tunnel by Shuttle. its not there yet. one of the problems with it is that its too long and slow so feel free to skip around

# ¿ Jul 9, 2009 09:22

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

word

# ¿ Jul 9, 2009 09:34

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

IanTheM posted:

http://soundcloud.com/stranger-song/i-wish-you-could-talk-stranger-song-remix

Was cutting up this amen break like this a bad idea?

Whats going on in the low end on this, is there reverb on the kick? I try to avoid that because it seems to make it boom too much, but i like the dark murky low end here

# ¿ Jul 24, 2009 03:46

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

IanTheM posted:

I like subtle basses not the mid-range wobbles.

Me too gonna explore that thanks

# ¿ Jul 24, 2009 20:10

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Yoozer or someone else, could you tell me how to get those big synth/string washes in old techno? Like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB3QoW4rdS4 (comes in at :44)
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_lrckYBTMo (right from beginning)

Are these just synthesized strings, or a preset on some vintage piece ill never get my hands on or what?

# ¿ Nov 4, 2009 17:21

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

4 tracks i made, intended to go together as a short album: http://soundcloud.com/dogworldmusic

theyre in reverse order and i dunno how to move them around, start at the bottom. would love to hear feedback and critique.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2010 15:56

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 01:37

Terrible Horse: Apr 27, 2004; :I

Longtiem posted:

I've got interference on the track Dust, that electronic whine you sometimes barely hear out of like the corner of your ear. When I paused the track it went away so I think it's something in the mix and not just my ears going to poo poo. For the first 1:30 or so it's there after that I didn't notice.

These tracks don't do anything for me. It feels like it's supposed to be ambient type stuff but the bass is way too strong and energetic for this to be background tunes, imo. But even with that, it doesn't have enough energy to be dance or club music. It's like a dubstep album without wobble. It feels like music made to overdose on oxycontin too, if that's your idea of a good time.

Hope that helps

youre not imagining that, Dust has tons of fizz and hiss. Sorry you didnt enjoy it. I listen to a lot of dubstep but cant stand the wobble stuff, and most of these are pretty straight 4x4 with dub/garage touches. Overdosing on OC does sound like a good time but that wasnt my intention for this music. Its not supposed to be ambient at all, but i wanted to get away from straight up 'track' type dance music, if you know what i mean. Thanks for listening anyway

PirateMathew posted:

Are you using deadbeat's reaktor ensemble for the beat? The samples sound way familiar.

Nah, dont know what that is. I use mostly Vengence minimal house for my drums, then found sounds (metal on concrete for hats, ropes, samples from tunes for vocals, etc_

Number Two Stunna posted:

I like this.

thanks

Terrible Horse fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Jun 12, 2010

# ¿ Jun 12, 2010 06:45

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > The "how do I make electronic/club/DJ music" Megathread!