Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
Lance
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Lance »

What kind of soundcard should you get, how can you know the one that you need? Why do you need one? Sorry for my ignorance. And yes, i know, I will keep producing forever when i buy this stuff. I've been playing guitar for decades now, so I usually don't give up, even if I keep it around to mess with for fun..

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Wiu
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Wiu »

It's a tricky one really. I love hardware myself, but it really gets expensive and kinda addictive. You defo get a lot more for your money in the world of software. If you have a decent amount of $$'s to put into it and a decent amount of space you'll not have much of a problem if you stick with it. I'd been making music purely on a computer for years before I bought some hardware and whilst there was still a bit of a learning curve (hooking it all up and get it working properly with MIDI etc etc) it's something I'm really glad I did. That said, working in the box (ITB) is great too. A decent DAW like Ableton (and obviously an audio interface, monitor speakers, MIDI controller and half decent PC/Mac) will literally get you making music quickly.

If I was in your shoes I'd try to get a demo of one of the main DAW's working on your old PC, throw on a pair of headphones and just have a mess around for a week or so. Just stick with it to get through the whole 'how the fuck does this thing work!?!' phase and see what happens. Don't rush into anything. At least if you spend a bit of time with ITB music production software you'll know if it's something you could work with and enjoy or just totally loathe.
Thank you for the laughs, debate, new music found, production tips etc etc over the years. I wish Subsekt and everyone all the best for the future. Wiu.

Lance
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Lance »

@Wiu Great advice! Now where can I download a demo, and which one is a good choice? Do I need anything to download it, or just a computer and mouse and speakers? Also, what can you do, or better yet, NOT DO with a demo, as opposed to the non-demo versions?

The_G
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by The_G »

Lance wrote:Got ya. Over here in the states, nobody cares much about the music made here.
Getting off topic a bit here, but that isn't really true, man. Go see Mills play in NYC or LA. The house will be packed to the rafters.

On the other hand, it may be true in the Detroit area now. When I lived there, already ages ago, there was a lot of hometown pride. And any night where Mills, May, Saunderson, Hood, H*wtin (before he got all douchey), Larkin, etc. played would be packed. But again, that was ages ago.

And yeah...maybe it's different now. Not too long ago I got to know this 20-something kid from Detroit (city) and I mentioned that I'm an old techno head.

His response: "oh shit, I love EDM!" :cry:

So maybe you are right about Michigan right now, sad as that might be. But don't generalize from that experience to other parts of the country that are very, very different. Michigan can be very provincial, and a lot of people don't even like driving to Chicago or Toronto.

Here in LA people have more of a global mindset, I think.

Kuchta
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Kuchta »

KlockerBen wrote:In my opinion, I should keep all the hardware you have now. Invest in a good computer, then buy a daw (ableton, logic,...), buy some good headphones and later on buy some studio monitors.
I agree with this.

Hardware is a great way to learn ow to build electronic music. It's all of the fundamentals without drop down menus and unlimited options that computers give you.

Master what you have, make patterns, learn what a filter, envelopes, LFOs and effects do, and get into the sequencers on the machine. Those basics will remain with you no matter how much you learn.

Then, get a computer with a DAW. Personally, I would stick with the hardware only, and add to that, maybe get a little mixer. It's more fun, and can be had for peanuts these days. But what a computer will let you do, especially if you are on a budget or don't want to invest massively into this just yet, it will allow you to multitrack the instruments that you have. So instead of buying five more synths, you can make a sound, record it into the computer, and then use the same synth to make a fresh sound to layer your track that way (multi tracking).

Personally, the most fun I ever had making music was when I was pretty much where you are now. A couple of synths and a few cables. Marvelling at the most basic beats and synth lines. It's magic, and you never quite get that excitement back (even when you find yourself owning a hundred grands worth of gear in a fully treated studio... in fact.. especially then).

Go slowly, don't thing the next purchase is the answer, and master what you have before moving on. Most of all, enjoy it or your music will never sound great.

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Hades
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Hades »

will try and put in a few words later,
but gotta finish my mix first, damn stupid perfectionism... :evil:

but to OP : if you haven't gotten a DAW yet.
I have 2 extra licenses for Live 8 (suite version) that I don't need anymore,
I'll be very happy to sell one of these for a very reasonable price.
After all, they're just collecting digital dust now...

It might not be live 9, but it's the suite version, and if you then decide to upgrade to Live 9, you'll get a very good discount.
Live 8 suite will give you everything you need for ages...
Sin cambios no hay mariposa


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Críoch
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Críoch »

Top man Tom!!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
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Lost to the Void
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Lost to the Void »

Hades wrote:will try and put in a few words later,
but gotta finish my mix first, damn stupid perfectionism... :evil:

but to OP : if you haven't gotten a DAW yet.
I have 2 extra licenses for Live 8 (suite version) that I don't need anymore,
I'll be very happy to sell one of these for a very reasonable price.
After all, they're just collecting digital dust now...

It might not be live 9, but it's the suite version, and if you then decide to upgrade to Live 9, you'll get a very good discount.
Live 8 suite will give you everything you need for ages...
Why have you got 2 extra licenses?
Did you actually buy it 3 times and have 2 left over?
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
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Hades
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Hades »

Lost to the Void wrote:
Hades wrote:will try and put in a few words later,
but gotta finish my mix first, damn stupid perfectionism... :evil:

but to OP : if you haven't gotten a DAW yet.
I have 2 extra licenses for Live 8 (suite version) that I don't need anymore,
I'll be very happy to sell one of these for a very reasonable price.
After all, they're just collecting digital dust now...

It might not be live 9, but it's the suite version, and if you then decide to upgrade to Live 9, you'll get a very good discount.
Live 8 suite will give you everything you need for ages...
Why have you got 2 extra licenses?
Did you actually buy it 3 times and have 2 left over?
I used to give sound design courses, remember ?
So at the time, I had 2 extra laptops and 2 extra Live licenses.
I officially quit doing that 2,5 years ago, so they've been collecting digital dust ever since...
Sin cambios no hay mariposa


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Lost to the Void
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Lost to the Void »

Remember?
Had no idea to be honest.
Which essay did you mention that in?
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Hades
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Hades »

Lost to the Void wrote:Remember?
Had no idea to be honest.
Which essay did you mention that in?
hmm...
I don't do essay's.

if it's not a short novel or novel,
or, even preferably, saga,
I usually can't be bothered. :mrgreen:

I actually mentioned this in one of the very first few posts I wrote (and once in a while in other posts over the years),
which was around the time you called me utterly stupid for buying those recoil stabilizers :lol:
(and you were most likely right for doing so, or at least for me paying way too much for these damn things),
and one of our members even took one of my 1-on-1 trainings after reading one of these first posts...
(Ariff, but it must have been ages since I've seen him here).

The idea back then was that I wanted to offer some kind of alternative to the 2 or 3 "modern music schools" that the Flemish part of my country had to offer.
I was rather disgusted by the prices they asked for the very little they gave in return.
I invested quite a bit of time and money into that project tbh,
even went on a personal training for a week to London, by the 1st Ableton trainer ever
(not that I learned so much looking back now, but yeah, that was 7+ years ago)

Anyway, my idealism meant asking little money for very personalized 1-on-1 lessons,
which could be sound design, or just as well simple piano lessons or music theory or whatever the customer asked for.
But yeah, as it usually goes, idealism doesn't get you very far in the real world...
Some day, the music school closest to where I live got a government donation of approx. 600.000€
(no joke !!! :shock: :shock: how the fuck are you supposed to compete with something like that, honestly !!),
and I got a house call of a tax auditor, who was,
just as always in our fucked up country, looking to make any small guy pay because they can't get the big fish,
which was about the time I gave up on idealism,
and had to pay a few €€€ to our government, though I never even did anything illegal,
apart from not making enough profit according to their standards... :|

so far for idealism...
Sin cambios no hay mariposa


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mainst09
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by mainst09 »

Hades wrote:
Lost to the Void wrote:Remember?
Had no idea to be honest.
Which essay did you mention that in?
hmm...
I don't do essay's.

if it's not a short novel or novel,
or, even preferably, saga,
I usually can't be bothered. :mrgreen:

I actually mentioned this in one of the very first few posts I wrote (and once in a while in other posts over the years),
which was around the time you called me utterly stupid for buying those recoil stabilizers :lol:
(and you were most likely right for doing so, or at least for me paying way too much for these damn things),
and one of our members even took one of my 1-on-1 trainings after reading one of these first posts...
(Ariff, but it must have been ages since I've seen him here).

The idea back then was that I wanted to offer some kind of alternative to the 2 or 3 "modern music schools" that the Flemish part of my country had to offer.
I was rather disgusted by the prices they asked for the very little they gave in return.
I invested quite a bit of time and money into that project tbh,
even went on a personal training for a week to London, by the 1st Ableton trainer ever
(not that I learned so much looking back now, but yeah, that was 7+ years ago)

Anyway, my idealism meant asking little money for very personalized 1-on-1 lessons,
which could be sound design, or just as well simple piano lessons or music theory or whatever the customer asked for.
But yeah, as it usually goes, idealism doesn't get you very far in the real world...
Some day, the music school closest to where I live got a government donation of approx. 600.000€
(no joke !!! :shock: :shock: how the fuck are you supposed to compete with something like that, honestly !!),
and I got a house call of a tax auditor, who was,
just as always in our fucked up country, looking to make any small guy pay because they can't get the big fish,
which was about the time I gave up on idealism,
and had to pay a few €€€ to our government, though I never even did anything illegal,
apart from not making enough profit according to their standards... :|

so far for idealism...

LOL you never told me this, i feel raped
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terly
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by terly »

Have you been playing around with your er-1? If you are thinking of going down the hardware route, learn how to make some simple stuff with that before you buy a bunch of gear. I have some friends who work only with hardware and have good results but most of them learned with computers initially, so you might want to learn how it works a bit with a computer before you try with hardware.

I understand not wanting to use a computer for whatever reason, and sonically you might prefer recording your limited hardware to 4-track or whatever.

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Hades
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Hades »

mainst09 wrote: LOL you never told me this, i feel raped
well, I wish I could laugh with it, but in the end it costed me too much money for it to be funny.
I'm pretty sure I told you this at some point,
maybe you just didn't remember, like Steve.
This happened years ago though.
(way before I started raping you, you fuckflaps ! :mrgreen: )

I'm not sorry I invested my time into it,
and since it was just a small side-profession, done out of idealism,
I never wanted to make any real money out of it either,
but yeah, I had too much other shit happening in my life to really have enough spare time for it,
with my sister dying, renovating my house, my youngest being born,...
Sin cambios no hay mariposa


Lance
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by Lance »

@terly Yes. The Er-1 is pretty easy to figure out, as is my Boss Sp-303. My Korg Microkorg is kinda annoying. When I take a preset sound and try to fuck with it, it winds up sounds like garbage, or a sound that goes in and out(get your mind out of the gutter you pervs) and has no use at all. I'm looking for nice pads, ambient sounds that stay forever without disappearing, clanks, clunks i.e. Basic Channel type of sounds, etc. I like a lot of Kompakt music as well..

terly
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Re: Any help with music production would be appreciated..

Post by terly »

I haven't used a microkorg in ages but when I did it was pretty easy to get ambient sounds from it ... I was using it with some fx though, a line 6 delay modeller.


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