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With all the threads about how do I make X, I'm going to try to make a megathread with all the information I can compile. Hopefully, if the thread gets awesome enough, it can be stickied. I'll try not to overlap too much from the home recording megathread, since it deals more with recording in general, and this deals specifically with electronic music. This thread isn't mean to be a perfect "this is how you make X", it's more meant to give enough of a direction that someone interested in making music could get a decent foundation to explore on their own. This has been contributed to by many people, and as such, referring to "what I do" is a reference to the author of that given part. The images provided are for reference only. I'm not endorsing any of these products specifically. Do your own research before you buy any gear. Or just ask here. Anything with a  is taken as a critical point for beginning. You pretty much have to at least have an understanding of these parts in order to do anything. Part I -- Gear and poo poo  What you must have A computer Anything within a few years old is fine, either PC or Mac (although on the PC side I'd use XP over Vista). OSX has better support for audio and MIDI routing, but either platform is pretty much going to be identical. It doesn't have to be top-of-the-line, especially considering most software has resource management built-in. Software You will need DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software. This is going to be your musical workbench. You will record and mix in it. A list of different types of software are. When I refer to "software", I'm referring to your DAW software, not your OS or software a device might be running, unless stated otherwise. Monitors (speakers) Actual monitors are sold by many companies. These are speakers designed to give flat responses so you can gauge what your mix sounds like. Any speakers will do, but remember that some speakers may color (give different frequency responses) your sound and that needs to be taken into consideration when mixing. Also, I've found it helps to have a shitass pair of desktop computer speakers, and a pair of cheap earbuds. Most people aren't going to be listening to your mix on $5000 Genelecs, so you should keep that in mind when you mix. Remember: A solid mix will sound good on any speakers. If your mix sounds great on your desktop but sounds like rear end (EG, it's muddy, you can't tell instruments apart) on your iPod, it needs work. What you don't have to have but helpsMIDI controller A MIDI controller is typically a keyboard, but instead of producing sounds, it sends data to your computer and your software interprets that and does something. For example, if you start recording in your software and play notes on your controller, the software will track those as a series of notes (not audio), to which you can then attatch a Synth, Sampler, or other device or plugin to to play that sound. More on MIDI later, you'll learn to love it. Some controllers (like this Axiom) have other features, like buttons or knobs or pads. These can be assigned in your software to do things. For example, you can assign a knob to change a filter, or volume control, or a parameter on an EQ.  M-Audio Axiom Headphones Not a neccessity, but it's always nice to have them to use as either a reference (to make sure your poo poo doesn't suck once the speakers are an inch from your ears) or maybe you want to want to sketch out some ideas without waking up your What you may or may not need depending on styleMicrophone / Preamp If you plan on singing, or recording something. Mic's and pre's are almost entirely subjective on what's good and what sucks, although the Shure SM-57/SM-58 are regarded as good all-around mics for about $100-$120. Refer to the recording megathread at the bottom for mic suggestions. Outboard gear Computers and software have advanced to the point where they match outboard synthesizers as far as sound goes. The sonic difference between software instruments and hardware is negligible. However, there are still many reasons why people still like having physical gear (physical manipulation, playing live, taking a load off your CPU, resale value, "classic" instrument). Using or not using outboard gear is almost completely subjective; some people swear by it, and some people have everything they need contained in a laptop. If you're going for outboard gear, you will need.. Audio Interface An audio Interface is a box that gives you multiple I/O's (inputs and outputs) which lets you hook gear and other poo poo up to it. It hooks into your computer either through USB, FireWire, or an internal bus (like PCI). Obviously, if you're hooking up outboard gear, you will need some sort of interface to hook it to. Remember that for outboard effects you will use up twice as many I/O's (one for the send and one for the return), and stereo also uses double. Here's a few examples of what gear takes up how many I/O's: 1 I/O: A microphone, a mono synth 2 I/Os: A stereo synth, a mono effect 3 I/Os: An effect with a mono input and stereo output (Reverb for example) 4 I/Os: A Stereo effect Any time you're sending an audio signal out of or in to your computer, you will be using one I/O per channel, or two I/O's for stereo. Actually, your computer already has at least two outputs built in--your headphone/speaker output. In a way, you can also think of an interface like giving you a lot more of those, as well as more of those line-in jacks most computers have too. Say you want to use your fancy-rear end mono delay box sitting on your desk, and you want to add delay to a snare drum you recorded in your DAW. In your DAW, you change the output routing of the snare track, and instead of it going to your master fader (and out your headphones/speakers), now it's going to shoot straight out one of your outputs on your interface. Now, you just plug in a cable from the interface output you choose, to the input of your fancy-rear end delay box. The snare is heading out of your interface, but instead of going to your speakers or headphones like the other tracks, it's getting routed to that fancy-rear end delay box. Set your delay box to make a pretty sound, and then run a cable from the output of your fancy-rear end delay box to an unused input on your interface. In your software, make a new audio track, and then set that channels input to whichever input your delay is coming from. So, your signal is going [Interface > Fancy-rear end Delay Box > Interface], and all your DAW does is assign the right tracks input and output to make sure your snare track is the one going out, instead of your tambourine track. These are the basics of any send and return. If your box has a stereo output, you use two cables, two interface I/O's (well, three if you count the signal heading in to the box), and you make two audio tracks instead.  Rear of the MOTU Traveller, you can see the different I/Os Software The lowdown on software: All of the "big" software suites are going to give you virtually the same end result. The difference mainly lies in three things: OS, workflow, and proprietary devices. Your OS of course is going to limit what you want to use. Although most software is cross-platform, certain things (like Logic) are usable only on one OS. Your workflow is how easily or how streamlined things are in your software. It's 100% subjective. Being able to smoothly record, edit, mix, and tweak is a sign of good workflow. If you feel like you're constantly "fighting" with your software to get it to do what you want, your workflow sucks. All software is going to feel like it has a crappy workflow when you first start, because you're not used to it. If it still feels like that a month later, you may need a change. Proprietary devices are devices that only work with one specific piece of software. All software have these for minor effects like compressors and EQ, and some have them for things like synths. If there's a specific proprietary device you can't live without, you are going to have to use that software (or ReWire, discussed later) If I remember right, most goons are using Logic, Cubase, or Live, but many also have Reason as a second client. Cubase FL Studio (Win) Live Logic (OSX) Pro Tools Reason Sonar (Win) The major free software suites are Audacity, or Garageband (OSX) There are also many other software suites available, like Nuendo, Project5, ACiD or Audition. Unfortunately here, due to differences in software, there's no universal way to say "to do X you do Y" (to add an effect you click here). The ideas are all the same, in the sense that the way devices are chained together stays the same, but the exact method of going about doing it (EG, which menu to go into) varies. Some software suites come with built-in tutorials, too, and there are many online for anything you can think of. I'm a broke motherfucker but want an SSL Yeah, you'd wonder why manufacturers then bother to make anything expensive, right? Anyway, when you are looking for anything and you're starting out or you have already some experience, specify the following: - A BUDGET IN NUMBERS OF EUROS OR DOLLARS OR GP. I cannot stress this enough; we don't know what you mean with "cheap" or "not too expensive". Give us a hard number and we'll give you a shopping list. - poo poo YOU ALREADY OWN. This saves everyone the trouble of trying to spend your cash on the gear twice. This includes any computers. - DIRECTION AND PURPOSE - Do you want to play live or just in the studio? Do you dislike computers for making music? Do you live in a refrigerator box and can't buy anything larger than a jar of mustard? Do you want to record guitars, drums, vocals or will you handle everything with synthesizers? Are you a guitar player and you want to make something like Radiohead, NIN, The Prodigy? PluginsA plugin is a device (instrument or effect) that is added to software to expand it's functionality (Note: Reason does NOT support Plugins). They come in three types: VST, DXI, and AU. DXI plugins are Windows-only. AU plugins are OSX only (and must be universal binaries to work on intel Macs). VST plugins are for either platform, although they must be specifically used on whichever platform they're made for (EG, a Windows VST wouldn't work on a Mac and vice-versa). If you aren't using outboard gear, plugins are going to be your instruments. My advice on plugins it not to overdo it. "BUT KAI", you say, "WOULDN'T HAVING 300 PLUGINS GIVE ME MORE OPTIONS THAN HAVING JUST THREE/EIGHT/N?" Yes, and no. With the complexity of many modern plugins, it takes practice to be good with them. Unless you're content with just clicking through the stock presets, you're probably better off to learn how to create whatever sounds you want out of only a few plugins, and slowly expand. Of course, this (like everything) is subjective, and if you want to scroll through presets, go for it, it's your sound. Part II -- Transgenred people GenresWHO CARES. Make what you want. Electronic music is only second to rock in the number of bullshit genres people make up. I could get very in depth about how genres technically are made, but that sucks. If you want to make trance and you end up with a house track, who gives a drat? If you want to make DnB and you end up with god knows what, why does it matter? This list is just to give a general "sense" of what some genres feel like. It's not a perfect and unquestionable list covering everything, and the songs picked were the result of a whimsical dart-toss. This section mainly exists so that instead of saying "I WANT TO MAKE MUSIC THAT SOUNDS LIKE AQUA", you can tell what genre you're interested in, which may help to know when it comes down to some musical or technical aspects (EG, a trance lead is programmed differently than an ambient lead). Ambient (Enigma - Eppur Si Muove) Glorified elevator music. Very airy, very floaty, may or may not have a beat structure. Breaks (DJ Icey - Moving Days) For the people who think 4-to-the-floor sucks. Drum n Bass (Concord Dawn - Morning Light) Fast and percussion-oriented with more chops more than a Japanese chef. Electro (Fisherspooner - Emerge) Take 80's fashion, glam rock, drum machines, dudes dressing like women, and give it a spice of new wave, and mix on high for six minutes. Eurodance (E-Rotic - Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex) Doesn't have to be from Europe, but they get the blame. Generic, happy, "poppy", and a pile of cheese, either some of the most addicting cheese you've ever had, or poo poo so nasty you don't want to be within 100 feet. House (Deep Dish - Say Hello) "Groovier" than trance, usually has walking basslines with less focus on leads. Bouncing is for E addicts and trance fans, House cats groove. Techno (Mr Deviant - Surrounded by Evil) Less musically structured than other genres, may or may not even be musically "correct" in regards to chords and progressions. Also the genre that most people clump all electronic music in to. Trance (Above & Beyond - Alone Tonight) The euphoric, hands-in-the-air genre. Big builds, big leads, DJs with big egos. Trip-Hop (Portishead - Humming) Date stood you up? Raining outside? Found yourself in a smoky, dimly-lit lounge? This is the music of your life. Whateverthefuck (Aphex Twin - ∆Mi-1=-a∑Di[n][∑Fij[n-1]+Fexti[n-1]]) Whatever goes in here. Experimental, "my cat sat on my gear and this is what happened" and "noise" music, things like that. Call it what you like. If you really get into a genre, you can pick apart the differences between putting adjectives in front of a genre, like club, underground, progressive, tech, anthem, or whatever. Just keep in mind that chaining adjectives together makes you sound like an elitist prick. "Yeah, I make ambient tech rave noise beat core.. not that you'd know anything about that" If you're ever stuck and absolutely have to nail a genre on it, I usually go with "dance" or just "electronic". Seriously though, don't worry about your genre. Make whatever you feel like. You want to add an overdriven guitar to your ambient track? Do it, see what happens. Who knows, maybe it'll catch on. Part III -- Technically speaking.. MIDI If you're making electronic music, you need to know MIDI. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is basically a way of sending digital musical information to your computer, or other devices. For example, let's say you hit a key on your MIDI keyboard. Your keyboard is going to send out what key you hit, how hard you hit it, and how long you held it for. If your software is recording at the time, you can play whatever you feel like, and your software will interpret that and create a score that you later can assign an instrument to and make music. This is important in electronic music, because it's going to be what your software reads to determine which notes to play. In that sense, you can think of MIDI as being like the sheet music of electronic music, sort of like how a player piano plays a roll of punched-hole paper. Also, MIDI files can be loaded into your software and assigned to instruments. If you're into remixing, loading up a MIDI of the original song, or maybe just a certain part or some riffs, can help you get an idea of what the song is like, what key it's in, note progressions, etc. Just don't slap on some synths, add reverb, and call it a remix; you aren't going to be able to sneak it in under the radar. MIDI can also send messages from gear when knobs are turned or buttons are pressed. Because of this, you can assign things in your software to be controlled by your MIDI device. For example, you can assign a knob to a filter cutoff, and then spin the knob to adjust it instead of clicking and moving your mouse. You can assign faders to your volume control, and do all your mixing without touching your computer. Some MIDI controllers also have motorized faders, so if you adjust something in your software, it will move the fader assigned to it on your gear. MIDI from external gear can be transmitted via 5-pin MIDI cable, or via USB, which most devices are using nowadays. MIDI does not make sound. Never. Not once. When you play a MIDI file on your computer, your computer is actually interpreting the notes contained in the file, and assigning a sound to them that your computer has stored on it, based on what "instrument" a given track in the MIDI file says it has (EG, piano, kick drum). A huge collection of electronic MIDI files can be found here, and there are many places online to find them as well. MixingMixing is so complicated that it could warrant it's own thread, and everybody has a different opinion on how to do it. However, one of the thing in electronic music (dance specifically) is that the kick is far stronger than in other genres (like rock), and it's what drives the song. This is how you get a kick that can knock down a wall, but still sits nice with the rest of the track. Over everything that isn't the kick or the bass, and that plays at the same time as the kick (EG, a pad that only plays during the middle of the track when no kick is present is fine to leave without it), put a high-pass filter at around 200-500 hz or so. Basically, you should be able to mute your kick and bass, stick your toe in the little hole in your sub and not feel a thing while the song plays. This frees up your sub to focus only on the kick and bass. EQ carving is also very important especially in electronic music, where you may have many, many elements playing at the same time. Say you've got a really high squeaky supersaw arpeggio playing. Put a high-pass filter on it, then play your entire mix (don't solo the track). Crank up your filters cutoff point higher and higher until you start to hear it cut into the supersaw, then bring it back a little. Oftentimes, a sound will have a very wide range of frequencies, but only a certain range is pronounced when you combine it with the other elements in a song. By removing those elements that get hidden behind other sounds, you're opening up space for other things in your song to sit. This isn't mixing a rock band, where you've got your bass, drums, guitars, and vocalist. You might have 15 different things going on and you need them all to sit well together. Not saying that this isn't important in other genres, but the more elements you add, the more carefully you have to balance them. Depending on style, you might not want a wall-breaking kick, you might want something softer. Keep your genre in mind when mixing. MasteringMastering is a combination of EQ, compression, excitement, widening, reverb, and dynamics (could be more, could be less, but usually these in general). It is applied over the entire mix to give it that "finished" feel. A lot of new cats think that mastering is the magic wand of music. that it turns anything good. Not really. Mastering is more like the polish on the car. If your paintjob sucks, polish isn't going to save it, although it may help to accentuate the lovely parts. However, with a solid mix, mastering it will make it shine. Always master your tracks. Better yet, if you can get someone else (who knows what they're doing) to master for you, it'll usually help, since they've got a more neutral ear to the project. In regards to a CD, it can also include making sure your levels from track to track are even and other technical details (like Redbook Audio standards). Master FaderDon't touch it. Really. I know it's tempting, but unless you're really sure of what you're doing, leave it alone. If your mix is too loud, turn your other channels down, not your master fader. Also, when you're rendering your mix, make sure you never go above 0dB on your master bus. Digital 0 is the "highest" level you can achieve without clipping. If your mix touches 0, it's fine, but at 0.1 you've got problems. The little red lights usually turn on then, too. ReWireReWire is a technology developed by Propellerheads that allows you to route audio and MIDI from one application to another. Say your favorite instrument is a proprietary instrument and it's in software you aren't using. Through the magic of computers, ReWire lets you route channels between each other, regardless of what program they sit in. This allows you to take a MIDI file, shoot it to a synth in another program, then have that program output the synth's audio back into your main program. Awesome. When ReWiring, one program is the master, one is the slave. The slave program just follows the master, in regards to things like tempo, and it doesn't output it's own sound, instead, relying on coming in on a channel in the master program instead. Think of ReWire like an internal send/return system. It functions the same way, but instead of audio running through cables on the floor, it runs from program to program through the magic of computers. SidechainingAs soon as some pretentious kids from Paris discovered that you can apply compression to a sound triggered by the emergence of another sound, they stumbled upon probably one of the greatest production innovations of our time. Sidechain compression. Sounds quite complicated, right? It's really not. The EQ is one of the most important tools a good producer/engineer has. A proper EQ job can change the entire quality of your sound, and your track. EQs also make producers more aware of how their different tracks relate to one another. It makes us realize that most of the time, multiple sounds exist in the same frequency range. The most common culprit? The bass and kick drum. ESPECIALLY in House music. When two loud sounds exist on the same frequency range, it causes master peaking. This is very bad, because it creates noise and makes your track sound like poo poo. The producers of the past would combat this by either turning down both sounds so they don't peak, or (in House's case) keeping the kick drum huge while syncopating the bass line so they never interact. This is why a lot of early House had syncopated bass lines. Nowadays, we can use a Compressor (used normally to prevent peaking on a track) to "squeeze" a track down so we can keep the volume on everything except the frequencies that peak. All you need is a compressor that takes a key input. Your "key" track is the sound that you want to be over top of everything else in the mix. So if I were making a house tune, I'd probably make my kick track the "key". In Digital Performer, and in traditional studios, I would assign the kick to an Auxiliary send, which is basically a carbon copy of the track which doesn't make any noise in the audible mix. In your compressor, set the "Key Input" to either the track you want (if your DAW allows this) or the Aux Send for which you sent your kick track to. This compressor will now only function if a kick drum sound is present. Maximize your compression ratio and begin playing the track. Now, slowly lower the threshold until you get the desired amount of sidechaining. The sound that you've just sidechained should appear to "duck" out of the mix every time the kick drum is hit. Sidechaining isn't limited to one track, you can sidechain with the kick drum as a key input for every track if you'd like. There's no limits! Now, you don't have to necessarily turn the ratio ALL the way up every time you sidechain. Changing the ratio also affects the sound of your sidechain, but turning it up all the way ensures that you'll hear the effects of the compression. Now that you know what to listen for, it's easier to detect. Sidechaining also doesn't necessarily have to be with the kick. If there's too many high-ends going on in my mix, I will sidechain the snare drum so the tune doesn't clip every backbeat. Part IV -- Tricks for a dolla Using Softsynths (VSTis)If you've chosen to go the softsynth route, there's something you need to remember: softsynths are instruments. Let me just repeat that: softsynths are instruments. Treat them as such. A lot of beginners (myself included) treat softsynths as nothing more than magical music generators. They'll surf through presets, find themselves annoyed that a certain free VSTi doesn't have the sounds they're looking for in its sound bank, and download a new one. Don't do this. Treat each VSTi like a hardware synthesizer that you dropped hundreds of dollars on (and if you're dealing with commercial VSTis, you may very well have spent hundreds on it). Learn the ins and outs of how to program it before you move on to a new one. The same goes for effects: learn how to use what you have before moving on. You should be treating your DAW like a real studio. Learn the ins and outs of each plugin as though it was a real piece of hardware. Play with it. Twiddle knobs. Ignore the presets, except when you're really stumped for inspiration or when you're just starting to play with a plugin and not sure what it's capable of. My personal suggestion is to start off with one nice, flexible commercial VSTi and one or two free ones, along with one of each common effect (flanger, chorus, reverb, etc). A suite that comes with these things already, like FL Studio, Logic Pro, or Reason, is an alternative to buying them piecemeal. Get to know your instruments. You'd be shocked by how much one can do with very little. Once you reach their limitations-the point when you just can't do what you want to with the plugins you have, not "I can't figure out how to make it sound good"-then buy or download some more. For an example of how flexible most softsynths are, I made a really quick (and sloppy) demo using nothing but Native Instruments FM8. The demo is nothing exquisite, since I made it specifically for this post about 10 minutes, but it should give you an idea of what's possible using one single plugin and no effects:  If one can do that with just FM8, a synthesizer I'm unfamiliar with and (ironically) often have to turn to presets to use, imagine what one can do with FM8, another VSTi, and a couple of effects. Personally, I didn't come to this realization until recently, but if you avoid the pitfall of surfing through presets and downloading new plugins constantly you'll learn how to make original sounding music a lot faster than I have. Learn from my mistake: all of my preset use and abuse means that I know far less about production than I should. Don't hamstring yourself in the same way. Synthetic Vocals - the Cher effect (Daft Punk - "One More Time") - that's the Antares Auto-Tune. Pretty infamous, not only because every no-talent jackass uses it but also because the producers of Cher lied through their teeth in a Sound On Sound interview to protect their "secret". This myth persisted for several years, and Sound On Sound eventually rectified it. - the Zapp & Roger effect (Daft Punk - "Digital Love") - that's the Talkbox. How to make one for really really cheap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EIQxwotn3k - and a demo of the improved version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APgzky3RujA - the vocoder (Kraftwerk - The Robots, ELO - Twilight, shitloads of more songs). There are several plugins for this, but the Prosoniq Orange Vocoder is pretty good for software (and was most likely used in Chicane ft. Brian Adams - Don't Give Up - a Speak & Spell - (Kraftwerk - Numbers). This was a toy - a talking calculator made by Texas Instruments. Prices went up like crazy when people figured out what you could do with this in a musical context. - an Atari (U96 - Das Boot). For this, see AnalogX SayIt > http://www.analogx.com/CONTENTS/download/audio/sayit.htm - a Mac - (Hrvatski - Vatstep DSP.) - this is a slightly "whiny" voice. VIDEOGAME SOUNDS Early consoles had limited audio hardware. If you want to make convincing chiptunes, 30 tracks with EQ and convolution reverb are not what you need. Yes - you can use multiple tracks, as long as you take care that no more than N sounds "overlap" at the same time, where "N" is the number of "voices" or "tracks" the system offered. This means you have to plan stuff in advance and think of creative voicings and solutions since chords just don't work that well. Emulation To study it, just playing the game on your old-beaten up console is not enough. Try to find GYM (Genesis) SPC, (SNES) and NSF (NES) sound files and listen to them without the effects. Many of these can either be converted to plain old MIDI files or have MIDI equivalents, which makes it easier for you to make remixes of any kind (hey, who cares if you're tonedeaf anyway, right  ).Possible consoles NES: 2 channels of pulse waves, 1 triangle wave (it has this high overtone because of the bandwidth. Fake it with a bitreducer), 1 noise channel and one channel that can do PCM (samples) and other tricks. C64: SID chip, pretty advanced. Has filters and extensive modulation options. Can do samples, too, with creative hacking. 3 tracks plus a noise channel that could do some weird stuff. The C64 has a richer sound palette and a radically different way of doing sounds than the NES; not so much because the NES couldn't do C64-like stuff (check the game "Solstice" for this - I suspect the programmer wasn't unfamiliar with the C64) but because the entire culture was different. SNES: sample-playback. Just get a lo-fi sampler, 8 bits, mono, 22khz, and pick short, looping waves or extract these from SPC files (SNES sound files) and you'll be fine. However, it's hard to do convincingly, unless you use a SNES soundfont. Check the link for a funky demo and the Reason files. You know I mentioned limitations: keep your samples as small as possible. This presents yet more of a challenge as you have to keep it below 64 kb for all the samples (some games get around this by loading soundsets from the cartridge every time they need it). If you need a capable sampler, check [urlhttp://vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php=]Vember Audio ShortCircuit[.url]. Genesis/Megadrive: has the Master System soundchip plus a 6-voice 6-part 4-op FM synthesizer. This makes all those bright, metallic and glassy sounds. DiscoDSP Discovery or Native Instruments FM8 (just don't use the last 2 operators or the filters) will help you out. For hardware, there's the cheap-as-chips, tough-to-program but true-to-structure 8 voice 8 part 4-op FM synthesizer called the Yamaha TX81z. It's got the advantage of having more waveforms than just the sine, so you could make some 1-operator saw or square wave presets that would take up the role of the Master System sound chip. Master System: Sort of like the NES, only different. Everything newer: gently caress you, those things use CD audio. Polyphony Of course, back then that limit sucked, too, so here's how they got around it: - arpeggio - this is the typically "blippy" sound of the Commodore 64. - fast switching - this works especially well with drums. In the old age they basically switched presets (the settings) really really fast on a single track or left miniscule gaps to give the illusion of multiple instruments playing at the same time. Chorus Some sounds have this shimmering chorus effect. That's simply sacrificing 2 tracks so they play at the same time, but detune one oscillator subtly from the other. This, combined with hard left and right panning, gives you pseudo-stereo chorus. Delay This is simply repeating the same note after say, 1/8th or 3/16th note with a lower volume. Make sure that you don't overlap stuff too much; respect the track limit. Reverb This is perhaps the tricky one, but you can fake reverb-like effects by putting a sound at a high volume, then you reduce the volume to 15-20% and leave the sound playing. So you get a LOUDquiet kind of thing per note. On the Megadrive this is easier; as you reduce the modulation of the FM, the sound is more like a sinewave, so you get a free filtering-like effect thrown in with it. EQ On the NES, you could fake this with pulsewidth. The square waves offer 50%, 25% and 12.5% "duty cycles". The names "square" and "pulse" are interchangeable like "square" and "rectangle" are. As you can see here, the part of the wave that's "up" and the part that is "down" isn't equal. If they are, then it's called a "50% pulsewave", or a 50% "duty cycle". A narrow wave will sound more nasal and "thinner", so if you want to make filter or EQ-like effects, use that. Variation Don't play the melody with the same sound all the time. Vary it - like, play the chorus with a 50% pulse, play the verse with a 25% pulse. Use arpeggios to make people think more instruments are playing than actually are. Don't put everything at the same volume; many composers had classical backgrounds and the limits forced them not only to be really creative with thinking of melodies that didn't make you want to ram your head through the TV but also with dynamics. Expression Imagine a violin player; usually they at a little "trill" (vibrato) to the end of a note (not every time, because that just drives you nuts and it's unnecessary flourish). This is done by routing an LFO to the pitch, and using a delay (or automating the influence of the LFO with the modulation wheel or a knob). Just play the note and let the LFO gradually kick in. Coin/Mushroom Listen to slowed-down versions of sound effects to figure out what exactly is happening. These are little sonic artworks, short 3 or 4-tone melodies transposed up and down with volume changes, sometimes atonal. Can't catch this crap in 16th notes, no sir. Generic computer sounds These bleeps and bloops are made by putting a so-called S&H LFO routed to the pitch. This one has a randomized waveform that looks blocky and is either signified by the icon of such a blocky wave or the text "S&H" (which means "Sample and Hold"). See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsLIHfG9UwU (the first 30 seconds or so). NES sounds As you can see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES#Audio the NES' audio hardware isn't that spectacular. The above linked YMCK plugin can do the trick nicely, but for some sounds you might want to use a sampler with a bit-crusher that reduces sample frequency to 11khz and 4 bits (resulting in typically "raw" and noisy sounds). Genesis sounds FM synthesis is not straightforward, but then again, people don't associate chiptunes or VGM with FM that much, so you can do whatever you want here; again, just keep yourself to the limits of tracks and operators. Part V -- HALP ME PLZ :science::science::sun: What bit/sample rate should I use? It doesn't matter. Technically speaking, you lose some audio fidelity when you downsample (say if you started in 48khz and bounced your mix in 44.1), but the truth is, as long as you're not using some god-awful converters nobody is going to be able to tell. Stick with whichever bit rate works the best with the gear you're using, or which reflects what you want the final bounce to be. Just remember it's going to sound crazy as poo poo if you bounce it to something other than 44.1khz/16 bit and put it on a CD. :sun: I don't have sound! You can't really do much if you're not getting any audio. Presuming your poo poo is hooked up (eg, your speakers aren't plugged into the ethernet jack), your problem is likely with your signal flow. This especially happens with new Reason users, since it has the most "manual" routing of other software. 1) Is the device on? It sound stupid, but some things you have to engage before they work (EQ's are the worst at this). You could turn knobs all you want, but unless that button to engage is is pressed, nothing will happen. Also make sure your output volume is up, some devices may start muted or start with the channel fader down. 2) Is the device I'm trying to produce sound getting input from somewhere (EG, a MIDI file or a keyboard?) I've pounded away at my keyboard wondering why I couldn't get something to work, only to discover I set it to the wrong input channel. 3) Is the device outputting it sounds anywhere? If you're sure you've got 1 and 2 down, check where your device is outputting is sound too. Anywhere? the master bus? Another channel? Make sure it's going the right direction. This is mainly an issue when dealing with Reason or outboard gear. :sun: How do I make sound XYZ If you can pull a sample of it and post it, somebody is bound to know. :sun: Where to buy poo poo online Musicians Friend Sweetwater zZounds MusicStore Thomann Nova Musik :sun: Other resources Home Computer Recording Megathread Sound on Sound techniques articles KVR Audio: Huge database on software and plugins Native Instruments Plugins The Dance Music Manual -- Book learnin' PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Jun 8, 2010 |
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Mar 7, 2008 01:14
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Last edit: Minor edits and clarifications. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Jun 8, 2010 |
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Mar 7, 2008 01:14
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First Time Caller posted:Great thread, and I'm glad someone stepped up and made one. This is pretty basic info, but absolutely critical info nevertheless. I was thinking this, but the thing with mixing is that it's so general, it'd be hard to piece it down. Aside from telling someone how to push faders, mixing is almost all preference. How loud do I make this snare? Well gently caress if I know, how loud do you want it? Should you compress it? I don't know, what does the rest of the track sound like? That's the reason I was trying to keep it really technical. I tried to cover the EQ carve in the OP, but aside from little things like that, I'm not sure how to go about posting mixing help. edit: I was considering adding "this is what a compressor/filter/gate/whatever" does and how to use it, but that could make the post REALLY loving huge unless it's just going to cover a few devices, which I'm not certain which ones are "important" enough to add. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Mar 7, 2008 |
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Mar 7, 2008 01:30
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OP updated. Some information was trimmed because it was already stated, or to clean it up a hair. I also siren'd things that are very important to know. Also adding youtube links to the genres, and switching a few songs for ones with videos.Zaxxon posted:If you are vocoding a voice you don't need autotune. The pitch of the output signal will be the pitch of the vocoder's carrier wave. I put them in separetly for the sake if simplicity. I think it's easier to understand it if you look at it in two parts, one to modulate pitch and one to affect tone. Plus, vocoders aren't the easiest things to learn when you're just starting out, anyway. I have that article on Synthesis I wrote that I can append, but I'm not sure how I should go about the audio clips. It seems kind of suckass to have a bunch of clips on tindeck. Gary the Llama posted:I've been looking to get my first hardware synth so the discussions about the MicroKORG and R3 are great. Any other opinions on a good first synth? (Less than $500 would be great.) You could try a JP8000 if you like 90's trance. Or, just drop some money on a good MIDI controller, if you're not that worried about sound. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Mar 7, 2008 |
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Mar 7, 2008 21:05
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Updated OP I threw in a tricks section for just general "this is how I do XYZ and you should try it" sort of ideas, since there's a lot of techniques people use. My idea is to put the "universal" techniques in the main parts (EG, carving out bass and sidechaining), and the personal or unique techniques in the tricks section. edit: I want this to be more of a community-driven collection, so if anyone things that a section should be added, or moved, or something should be changed, it's fine to post that here too. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Mar 8, 2008 |
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Mar 8, 2008 22:25
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Altoidss posted:This is a crosspost from my own thread (should I close it?). That was terrible. It sounded like it was downmixed in mono. Musically it sounded fine (like the arrangement, although the kick intro is really cliché), but technically it needs a hell of a lot of work. Namely stereo separation is my biggest issue, the chimes arps sounded really cheesey, and the drums are waaaay too stock. The main saws aren't too bad, but I'd throw some EQ over everything to enhance the elements. Clean it up and reupload it.
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Mar 11, 2008 08:37
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Altoidss posted:I don't know how. That is the extent of my abilities. There's nothing wrong with it sounding bad, everyone's early songs suck pretty hard. As long as you recognize where you're falling short and can improve on it, that's what's important. Stereo separation is to wiiiiiiiiiden the stereo field. Panning is one way of accomplishing this, as well as using stereo effects. If you're rolling with reason, stereo effects have two outputs, while mono effects have just one. Generally speaking, you should keep things out of the dead center, except for your kick and your bass. Of course, it's open for interpretation exactly where things should lie, but just moving them around a little should give you a decent starting point. The arpeggio sounds cheesey like it's just stock from an 80's synth. Honestly, I'd replace it altogether with a different sound, but if you're married to it, it needs some strong EQ. You can buy 909 samples nearly everywhere. I'm sure you can even find decent ones for free if you search around. The "stock" 909 isn't used much anymore (it is, like the kicks, but almost always heavily modified or layered to mask the "stock" sound), it was so overdone in the 90's that it's a pretty big faux pas to use it dry.
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Mar 12, 2008 05:33
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Altoidss posted:Where? I have no clue how to get new drum samples, and I certainly can't afford to buy them at the moment. Just search for "free 909 sample" or "free drum samples" and see what turns up.
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Mar 12, 2008 05:58
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Added Electro to the OP. If Eurodance gets a genre, Electro should. I think this pretty much covers most of the "main" genres, or at least enough to trace back derivative roots.
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Mar 12, 2008 19:05
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Three Red Lights posted:Question{s} I'd say go with a Mac because of the ease of use with audio and MIDI routing. If you're not using any external gear, it's a crapshoot then, use whatever you want. I do everything on a MacBook Pro. Unless you're aiming for Windows-only software like FruityLoops or Project5.
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Mar 12, 2008 20:37
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Stux posted:What do macs do with audio and midi routing different than pcs? (asking for information not starting a faggoty mac vs pc debate) They have an excellent app that will show you all MIDI/audio gear attached to your machine, all their inputs and outputs, and then allow you to manually adjust the routing between them. I don't have any gear hooked up right now or I'd take a screenie of it. Someone with an interface and some MIDI gear hooked up should take one. I wouldn't say it's the reason to get one, but it's something to take into consideration when weighing your options.
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Mar 13, 2008 17:58
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WanderingKid posted:I've seen many people confuse stereo separation with panning and advise other forum goers on this subject accordingly. Stereo separation is very different to panning and has its own set of problems that have to be dealt with accordingly. Yes, but when you're entire song is mixed in mono, I'd say that it's more important to understand panning and stereo effects than it is how phase calculations work to create space. The worst thing to do is give a long-winded and complex technical explanation when all they need is a simple fix. It's the same reason why most nerds suck rear end at helping people. Sure, if his song was in stereo and had utilized correct panning and stereo already, I'd say explaining phase shifts for spacial creation is a good next step, but it's not something you need to know at that level. It's the same reason I intentionally left off all the extra MIDI information and data charts, which pins do what, and other messages. It's only going to make explaining MIDI needlessly complicated, and 95% of people can work without knowing it anyway. edit: Not saying you specifically, I'm just saying in general. The whole point of the initial OP isn't to be some Wikipedian Library of Alexandria, it's mean to be extremely simple to understand, and carry the solid, core information you'll need to accomplish 85% of things. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Mar 13, 2008 |
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Mar 13, 2008 22:04
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I want to put some short + and -'s for the software suites linked in the top, just to give an idea, I was thinking two of each for pro's and con's, or three and two or whatever, just as long as it's the same for all of them. EG Pro Tools + Most "standard" software suite around + Comes with an audio interface - Requires proprietary hardware to run, which can cause problems with laptops - "LE" version has limited tracks, the next up version is very expensive Live + Excellent workflow and ease of use + Can play Live performances - No included synths (available for purchase as extras) - Something Something Something Reason + Incredibly flexible routing options + Something Something Something - No plugin support - No (standard) multitrack for recording audio
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Mar 15, 2008 03:28
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Cyne posted:Huh, that's funny, I like Live's effects so much I barely use anything else for signal processing except some Sonalksis plug-ins (love that TBK filter), so I will have to heavily disagree with this. I've never had any problems with Live's stock plugins. I'm generally comparing them to the other stock plugins that suites have. Of course Live's reverb isn't going to sound as good as an $800 reverb plug, so I'm trying to put somewhat reasonable expectations on the software. And what are you referring to with MIDI to keyboard? As in, your computer's keyboard can be switched to transmit MIDI notes? Cyne posted:For me a big part of the appeal in Live is definitely a function of the specific kind of music I produce. I make techno with an ambient/dub edge and basically creamed myself at seeing not less than four delay units. Basically I think for most kinds of electronic music they're perfectly functional and if you don't like them can still at least make decent stand-ins until you get some new plug-ins. For me they're perfect though. I'm trying to keep things like this in mind too: staying within the expectations of the genre. Since this is about electronic music, it doesn't matter if your DAW sucks rear end for multitracking, at least not like it would if this were The "how do I make three-piece rock band music" Megathread! Having things like superior MIDI support, ease of making and managing complex effect chains, CPU load balancing (because of the amount of plugins that are potentially going to be firing at once), track freezing and flattening, and working with collections of gear like synths weighs the curve somewhat. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Mar 15, 2008 |
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Mar 15, 2008 06:53
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Now that I think about it, would it be better to have a chart of specific features of different software suites? For example, number of possible voices (software limitations), bare-bones price, "decked-out" price, ability to freeze, multicore/multiprocessor support, plugin support, and other things like that? If so, what are some ideas of things that should be put on there? They should be things that are reasonably considered facts, but not things like "Ease of use? Check or no check", those can go in comments or +/-'s.
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Mar 15, 2008 07:01
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Yoozer posted:I was going to just leave that in the bottom section, but evidently it gets missed. I also forgot how awesome Chicane was. Christof posted:I think a few good topics to cover would be musical theory, good books or classes to take. Instruments to learn or basics of chords and keys. Subtractive synthesis. Mixing specific genres with examples. Also, ultimately, I think a lot of producers would like to take their music live to the club, so good ideas for topics would be on how to promote yourself and land gigs at clubs. Possibly good stuff to use ( for example, M audio Midi controllers vs Korg Kaos pads, samplers, etc.) Vinyl vs CD/mp3 tables, speakers, monitors, etc... I wouldn't do theory: Theory applies universally across the board. One book has been added to the OP, but if there's anyting else electronic-specific to read, I could add that too. I have something I wrote on synthesis awhile back. I could always add it in, but I'm not sure what to do with it since it's really goddamn long and I don't want to stretch out the thread. This really isn't for DJing/Performance, more just music production. But, if everyone really wanted to add that in, I don't have a problem with it. The issue with mixing (I think I said this some posts up) is that it's almost entirely subjective, so anything on mixing should be something that's pretty much universally accepted as being something you always do. I'm just hoping to stay away from too many opinionated techniques. I guess the idea is that if I pull 100 songs at random and 98 of them have technique XYZ then it's fine to go in (EG, keep your kick in the center). PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Mar 19, 2008 |
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Mar 19, 2008 14:01
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Added Trip-Hop to the OP. Hopefully this will finish all genres.
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Mar 20, 2008 05:30
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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. I've never had this happen on P4 systems. I don't know what the Core 2's are doing, though.
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Mar 29, 2008 20:55
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Vilenarios posted:I've certainly learned a lot through this thread. Been using Ableton w/ Ezdrummer (and Impulse for the more electronic drums) and Amplitube for my drums/guitar/bass and then misc instruments for all my effects and what not. I'll probably get a small midi controller sooner or later. Nothing to do with a MIDI controller, but the new drum racks in Live 7 are loving excellent if you get something like a Trigger Finger. Waaaay better than Impulse is.
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Mar 31, 2008 16:32
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I'm a Live whore, I'd take Live 7 over anything (even though I'm still using 6). I started using it at 5, loved it, and have never looked back.
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Apr 4, 2008 16:37
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DumpOrCrap posted:I'm thinking Live wins over Recycle because of all the other If I wasn't using Live, I'd probably be using Logic. That being said, I still take Live over a huge margin.
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Apr 5, 2008 07:46
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you get with it, but what about Live vs. Logic? Any compelling reasons to give Logic a serious look?
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IanTheM posted:I've been wondering the same thing, how much would a poo poo DJ set that I can use with a computer cost? Is there any point to having one asides from not looking like a horrendous nerd at a show? Is it a good investment if you only plan to be using non-vinyl? The only downside I see at the moment would be the lack of an extra sound card on my computer to listen to the mic. You can DJ with pretty much any laptop and Live, and a soundcard that has at least 2 I/O's. If you want controllers, there's all sorts of MIDI gear, depending on what you're looking for. Sasha has a custom-made surface he uses for his gigs. If you want something non-contained, you can get some CD decks for like $400, get a soundcard with at least four stereo I/O's, and hook those to it instead.
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Apr 6, 2008 00:29
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Quincy Smallvoice posted:PS: Its probably mentioned but you forgot RTAS plugins. Yeah, but amount of people using Pro Tools for electronic is getting pretty slim as it is, and I don't want to get into proprietary software protocols because it usually just confuses people.
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Apr 6, 2008 05:32
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You really don't need the full version of Live for DJing, unless you also plan on making music with it. The LE version would work fine.
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Apr 9, 2008 16:28
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If you're talking about a noise sweep, it's a really narrow BP filter with moving frequency.
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Apr 12, 2008 00:26
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The reason the genre descriptions are like they are is because genres are too sporadic to consider fitting into a tight description. Like was said, 2008 trace is a lot different from 1996 trance. Are we going to describe electro from 1980, or what most people are listening to now? Also, the descriptions are used to illustrate the point of how ridiculous it is when people try and push these tight labels over genres. Plus, nobody is ever going to be completely content with any description or clip, just like people will argue until they day they die of what one song encompasses the entire genre of "gangster rap". I think describing the genres like they are is now far better than trying to come up with some long-winded serious historical look at it that 98% of people don't care about, especially starting out. Remember, this is a guide for people new to the genre to get easy information on how to begin, not to shove as much history down their throats as possible. But, this is supposed to be what everyone wants, so if everybody would rather have a pasted Wiki paragraph for every genre, I'll change it. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Apr 14, 2008 |
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Apr 14, 2008 03:19
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I got Live Lite 4 with my MIDI controller, got a free Lite 6 upgrade (Ableton had some special going on), then just upgraded to full for not very much after that.
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Apr 17, 2008 00:58
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Reason's devices are actually really good, the catch is that you're gonna have to do some clever hacking and stacking of them. If you're just messing around with one device or throwing a preset over it, you're probably not going to get what you're looking for.
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Apr 29, 2008 18:20
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I think it's the fact that most developers like that are huge neckbeards and actually enjoy making things hard to use because it makes them feel superior or something. I don't use what I use because it's "more powerful" than anything else, I use it because it's a loving cinch to do whatever I want to do. It's the same reason I think doing analogue mixing is crap--I don't WANT to have to scrounge around for "engage" buttons, make sure I'm on the right path, recheck my patchbay, and wonder what the hell is going on if I'm not getting any sound. Your software wins because it's easy to use, not because it's got some advertised endless list of features that most people don't care about anyway. Especially if you're not the one with the biggest slice of the pie.
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May 4, 2008 23:43
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I'm of the opinion that people who spend tens of thousands of dollars on all sorts of extra bullshit for their studios are idiots. GUYS WE NEED DIAMOND-ENCRUSTED CABLES THROUGHOUT THE BUILDING OR ELSE..... OUR SIGNAL The way I look at it is this: If your track or album is mixed reasonably well, nobody is going to give a poo poo if your kick sits a decibel above whatever, or if you should pan your snare 7 ticks or 8. Especially considering the market that we're all in (I presume nobody is mixing for Madonna), people are going to be more concerned with what you're producing, and less concerned with how you're producing. Nobody is going to go "Yeah that's a pretty sweet track there brosef except for the fact that you put your HP filter at 500hz instead of 460. Sorry, you would have had some Grammy material but now it's the worst motherfucking song I've ever heard." Take your track, listen to it at home. Sound good? Put it on your iPod, listen to it in your car, and have some cheap desktop computer speakers. Still sound good? You're clear for 99.99% of listening conditions people have. I'm not saying that you shouldn't at least reasonably try to get accurate sound reproduction with your gear, and maybe throwing some foam around where you can, but there's really no need to spend thousands of dollars trying to pad up your basement. Decent monitors? Decent headphones? You don't live in a concrete refrigerator box? You're set. Maybe not the "audiophile" who spent $30,000 rewiring his house for DC, but who gives a poo poo, someone will always bitch about something. "Audiophiles" can be some of the biggest morons on the planet, even worse in the studios. Nobody cares if you're recording at 192 or 96. Seriously. It doesn't matter. Nobody can tell. Nobody cares if your bass is up a decibel. If your mix has no glaring problems that prevents you from enjoying it, it's fine. I think one of the bigger issues for people is trying to make everything sound perfect. Mute the third hat in the 12th measure? Does it matter? How much basil do you add to the pasta sauce? Just add it, if the entire thing tastes good nobody is going to be like gently caress MAN you should have put an extra quarter of a teaspoon in there. If they do, tell them to shut the gently caress up and they don't have to consume it. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 22:07 on May 8, 2008 |
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May 8, 2008 22:01
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I'd suggest saying gently caress Fruity and using Live right off the bat. I found that Fruity tries way to hard to be "cool" to attract the new producer, and turns out to be really counter-intuitive once you figure out what you're doing and want to expand.Stux posted:I assumed studio because he said "I'm of the opinion that people who spend tens of thousands of dollars on all sorts of extra bullshit for their studios are idiots." I was referring to a personal thing, not a professional studio with clients and what-not, because most people refer to their own setup as their "studio". My bad for not clarifying. Sure, if you've got a huge budget pro studio, drop a quarter mil on an SSL. Not sure where to ask, but I'm going to post a bunch of records on CraigsList here soon, but don't know what to ask for them. quote:4 Strings - Until You Love Me Anyone have a ballpark estimate for the lot? Everything except maybe four or five are in excellent shape. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 11, 2008 |
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May 11, 2008 02:23
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You don't actually need a MIDI controller to do anything. I'd wait to buy one until you're sure this is something you want to do. I didn't have one for months and I managed just fine.
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May 11, 2008 22:16
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blingasaurus rex posted:http://www.zshare.net/audio/11872215f8030daa/ What are you using for the lead that comes in at 2:32? I've been looking for that sound.
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May 11, 2008 23:47
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Yoozer posted:That's oscillator sync. I could come pretty near in 2 minutes with Pro-53 and Synth1. Give me a reasonably close setup for it and I'm going to try to hack it with what I've got to work with.
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May 12, 2008 03:23
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Siamey posted:Hey guys, how do I go about getting the singing simpletext style poo poo in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey0hM5ZQzy4 I'd just open Ventrilo and put something in the chat window for the TTS engine to speak, while looping back my system output to an armed channel. I don't know a lot about vocal processing like that since I don't use it myself, but most things are done with autotune and/or a vocoder.
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May 14, 2008 06:33
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I think you have to manually nudge the audio you record a little bit because of the delay from re-wire recording, unless the autodelay can be set forwards.
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May 14, 2008 20:09
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The one plug I miss being on OSX is Sytrus http://www.image-line.com/documents/sytrus.html Click the audio demo at the top. Is there a comparitible plug on OSX that produces similar sounds? Sytrus is really metallic and smooth, which I haven't found elsewhere. I've looked at like Massive by NI, but it's too dirty for me.
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May 20, 2008 07:37
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I Dig Gardening posted:I use Ableton for absolutely everything. I would probably use Pro Tools if I recorded stuff, but all of it is 100% soft synth so there is no real need to. That and probably four or five VSTs is all I use. Thanks for the compliment man How much do you use Live's onboard synths? I ask because I use Operator for 90% of sounds.
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May 23, 2008 21:26
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http://download.yousendit.com/8BD0336C2892D115 So here's a loop I grabbed from a MIDI file. I'm not making a project out of it, but what I'm trying to do is to get Operator to reasonably sound like a guitar. Operator is still one of the more unique instruments I've used, so I'm trying to experiment with it to see exactly what I can come up with. Every instrument is Operator, except the drums, which are just some of the samples that come default with Live. The project file is zipped there, as well as an MP3, for the other software users, if they still want to listen. 1.1 meg download. I think the guitars sound like they're supposed to be guitars, but I especially think the attack on the solo sounds really sudden Made with Live 6.
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May 23, 2008 21:53
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I think it's more the fact that new producers think that more is better, and having a stack of 80 plugs is far superior than just using three or four. Plus, it's far easier to get a stacks of plugs than it is to get hardware, which I think makes some people not appreciate what it can do as much. The issue then comes in the fact that most people like that never take the time (or in most cases, have the knowledge) to learn how different devices sound, and how to best utilize them to make the sounds they want, including learning how things work. This is a reason a lot of scrubs stay away from Reason, since a lot of the time you're forced to do certain things by hand, which means knowing how devices work. Instead, they just scroll through a list of presets until they find something close enough. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that--after all, that may be the sound they were looking for (I use reverb presets all the time), but it limits their ability to be able to create a sound if needed. Either that, or they settle for the "close enough". I think some people collect plugs just for the sake of collecting plugs. Unless you're some hotshot studio owner, there's no real reason to have six different DAWs and 25 compressors. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 01:39 on May 24, 2008 |
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May 24, 2008 01:36
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