Dark Lab / Studio Thread

[loopdon]

Very nice setup Opuswerk. Looks like it would be a blast to jam on all that gear.

That's one thing about software that you miss out on, jamming your gear like an instrument. Of course you can have controllers and whatnot to do it, but it's just not as intuitive as dedicated gear. The knobs on most synths feel really nice, unlike most MIDI controllers. I can't stand endless knobs and velocity curves. The knobs on my Arturia keyboard send out jumpy values, so there's always little spikes and drops in my recorded automation, which I usually have to go back and edit manually. (Arturia's keyboards are a waste BTW, my Axiom 49 before this was way better.)

Software forces you to approach music production like a programmer. You are building music rather than playing it, if that makes any sense. Which works for me since I have a programming background and I enjoy building things in a technical manner, but I wish software had better controllers than what's currently on the market so I could jam every now and then without all the hassle.

All depends on the setup, how YOU decide to work it, and of course, the quality of your controllers, if you spend more on high end controllers, you get nicer nobs and faders.
Personally I find no difference to using hardware/software none of it is the same as actually playing an instrument (I play guitar, keyboard and drums), so it is never really like playing music. Dance music is sequenced, it is all pushing buttons and twiddling nobs, regardless of setup.
IF you are approaching your music as a programmer with software, then the problem is yours, not the tools.

Been thinking about this a lot lately. The closest i have come to playing and instrument - and to me it
really was - was djing. Not in public, only with close friends/ alone. I just loved getting lost in the moment, driven by intuition.
To this day i think this jamming aspect is something i have really been sorely missing when it comes to producing. I am not blaming anybody, that's out of question.
I have some controllers but somehow it's just not as instant. I have been thinking using some sort of pen on a touch-screen
would be something i'd love to try. Anybody feeling this?

[Lost to the Void]

The apc40 is a good tool for jamming, with Ableton anyway.

I use touchable wirelessly, on my ipad, which is great

[ARiFF]

ive been having a lot of fun with a dual launchpad setup at home. Even upon this point that i can actually play chords and such on it when its mapped to a softsynth. Too bad it's not velocity sensitive though.

[arc]

Well, this thread didn't work out like I hoped it would.

[Críoch]

haha

[aimlessaudio]

I need money.

[arc]

@aimlessaudio

You gotta start somewhere!

[Opuswerk]

All depends on the setup, how YOU decide to work it, and of course, the quality of your controllers, if you spend more on high end controllers, you get nicer nobs and faders.
Personally I find no difference to using hardware/software none of it is the same as actually playing an instrument (I play guitar, keyboard and drums), so it is never really like playing music. Dance music is sequenced, it is all pushing buttons and twiddling nobs, regardless of setup.
IF you are approaching your music as a programmer with software, then the problem is yours, not the tools.

Been thinking about this a lot lately. The closest i have come to playing and instrument - and to me it
really was - was djing. Not in public, only with close friends/ alone. I just loved getting lost in the moment, driven by intuition.
To this day i think this jamming aspect is something i have really been sorely missing when it comes to producing. I am not blaming anybody, that's out of question.
I have some controllers but somehow it's just not as instant. I have been thinking using some sort of pen on a touch-screen
would be something i'd love to try. Anybody feeling this?

I actually started buying gear, mostly because i also wasn't satisfied with controllers. However, now that i've streamlined my workflow quite a bit, i suppose i should / could dedicate the Bitstream to controlling TyrellN6, as I have it literally all my tracks. I believe it would have just about the right amount of knobs. To the ones using controllers, do you have some sort of fixed setup, with already assigned parameters in a template file? Do you assign controls to parameters every time you work on a track? I very much struggle to integrate them in my production process, as easy it is to do, especially in Live. Would love to know how other people have their whole studio setup to jam and play their tracks.

@arc: I just came back from a crazy synth friend who really knows about gear. He recently grabbed a ipad Alesis IO dock. With the right software on the ipad, it can really get you very far, and it gets very tactile too. Still I believe if i got that, i would mostly end up using some specific iPad synths, rather than use it as a controller... The mapping thing kills my brain

IF you are approaching your music as a programmer with software, then the problem is yours, not the tools.

I very much agree with Lost to the void on this, and following a thread that's been posted on mnml.nl about elctronic soul, i feel approaching music as a musician really is a key element to instilling soul in your music.

[arc]

@arc: I just came back from a crazy synth friend who really knows about gear. He recently grabbed a ipad Alesis IO dock. With the right software on the ipad, it can really get you very far, and it gets very tactile too. Still I believe if i got that, i would mostly end up using some specific iPad synths, rather than use it as a controller... The mapping thing kills my brain

I'm very anti-Apple, so iPads are never going to be something I use unfortunately. But I actually just got my Axiom 49 back and I couldn't be happier about it. When I picked up the Arturia keyboard I gave the Axiom to my dad, but eventually realized the Arturia was complete shit (unlike their software) and told him I wanted to trade back for it. It's such a better quality controller, it makes such a difference for your productions.

But I usually take the time to map all the knobs and faders to the params I use the most in my VSTs. The knobs will usually get mapped to cutoff and reso, and the remaining 6 to things like cutoff env. amount, LFO rate, chorus amount, or delay amount. I map the faders to envelopes, usually the filter env and amp env, so I can quickly turn pads into stabs or vice versa. As much as I love the Axiom though, it still doesn't have enough knobs and faders for me, so I'm thinking about getting one of the Korg nano series controllers so I can have other params to tweak instead of using the mouse.

Also, I think there's a balance between having jam sessions where you make music spontaneously, and where you sit and program music in a very methodical way (like programming). I can't have one without the other, both techniques complement each other.

[serial]

Ok here is my bedroom!


controller: vestax vci-100
keyboard: akai mpk25
audio interface: esi u46-xl
speakers: Adam A7

I was planing to get that akai apc40 or maybe that new ableton push ^^ but I don't believe I will have any money soon xD
also NI Maschine would be a cool to have (:

cheers

S

[Mono-xID]

my crappy environment...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Mattias]

Ace with the levitating screen monitor stand, gotta get me one of those

[Mono-xID]

5.99 Euro's at a home improvement store

[Hades]

Software forces you to approach music production like a programmer. You are building music rather than playing it, if that makes any sense.

I can definitely understand what you're saying.
I had a typical classical piano training for years, before I switched to electronics later on (still play piano, but mainly it's synths), and I can't help but thinking "man, I should be more trying to "click" in stuff if I want to make the kind of techno I'd like to make.
I mean, I have an XV88 at the central position of my studio because I couldn't live without having 88 keys in front of me, and it's gotta be hammerweighted action. So I play in 95% of my stuff, and I love that way of working, but you know, no matter how good you can play, you'll always have little timing errors here and there. Usually those give the whole thing a bit more human feel to it, but I find myself correcting stuff afterwards to get it almost perfectly locked in. And yet I still think : it souds too natural, not enough "electronical".
And I'm very convinced there are too many basslines or lead lines that I simply won't get if I start playing stuff and improvizing, just because you won't be playing these very monotonous, rhythmic lines with your hands.
They come from stuff that gets "clicked" in, sequenced, arpeggiated,...
You'd almost have to be playing the piano kind of like a drummer to get these results.

I'd probably be way better of if I started to make house music. But that's not where my heart lies...

but I wish software had better controllers than what's currently on the market so I could jam every now and then without all the hassle.

That's one thing I do enjoy about having bought so much hardware over the years (although I enjoy using software just as much) and having a setup that enables jamming.
Yes, there's a world of difference between controllers quality-wise, so if you get a good quality controller you'll have a better experience, but it's still a lot less intuitive if you always have to assign stuff a lot, than if you just switch on synths and get going.


btw : how do you upload pictures on this thread ?
Do you have to upload them to some site first ? and then use the img button ?
sorry for the retard question.

[arc]

Hades, upload an image to http://www.imgur.com, get the link to the image and put it inside the IMG tag.

[Hades]

small test

[Hades]

good, it seems to work...
very easy website to upload and copy/paste url stuff afterwards (thx arc !!)

part 1

[Hades]

part 2

[Hades]

A few weeks ago I had one of my friends take some sexy gear pics that I can put up on my website
(when it's finished some day in the future)

mind you, these pics are more "demo"-pics, they're rather made for "piece by piece" images rather than to get a general overview of the room. It's also kind of impossible to take more general pictures of the 360° working place.

I'm facing a 24" screen connected to my macbook pro. underneath there's my XV88 (main set of keys) with an APC40.
there's a few controllers on top of the desk too.

At my right there's 2x 16 parts rack. You only get to see 1 in the pics.
(In the mean time my 2nd one is housing a Sherman 2x2 filterbank.)
On top of those racks are my SH101+303+Biscuit+XBase
I should find some free place there in the near future, cause I'm expecting a circuit bended R5 drum computer next week.
I'll probably put the SH101 + Xbase on some cheap laptop stands so that I can use the space underneath the stands.
Horizontal space is always an issue.

Behind me is the 3-tier stand with Andromeda+Juno60+JX10

At my left is my mixer.

There's also a K-station on the bottom, that I leave there with a pair of headphones so my daughter can mess around with it. Worked fine for a while, and made sure her fiddlings didn't bother my stuff too much, but more and more she wants to mess around with my Biscuit, or even mixer, or my new Sherman.
And she's only 5 and not the musical one of my 2 kids (that's the one that's only 1,5 , she literally goes nuts every time she enters the room)

[Hades]

and for all of you that start getting all ashamed of your mostly software setups.
Don't sweat it, it took me years and years to save up for all this,
and your output is highly likely to be way better than mine, and in the end, that's all that counts.

(though I gotta admit it might be hard to take such sexy pics of a software setup)

Btw : one of the harder things of setting this all up was actually thinking about how and where you gotta put all this so that it stays nice and neat, plus all within arms reach so it all stays easy accessable.