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Topic: Making Electronic Music (Read 1091 times) |
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Taylor
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Making Electronic Music
« Thread started on: Dec 19th, 2007, 10:44pm » |
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im alright with answering questions, so i guess im up to itill put up some of the most asked questions
just remember, i dont know everything
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| « Last Edit: Jul 15th, 2008, 02:56am by Taylor » |
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Taylor
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #1 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 10:52pm » |
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OMFG BIG QUESTION #1: what do i need?
software wise, these are the big sequencers:
digidesign pro tools[mac/pc]-www.digidesign.com
apple logic[mac]-www.apple.com
ableton[mac/pc]-www.ableton.com
imageline fruity loops[pc]-http://fruityloops.com/
propellerheads reason[mac/pc] more of a vst but what the hell-www.propellerheads.se
there are demos of pretty much all of these, so go see what you like and what fits your style
almost all of those have built in instruments, but its always good to build a VST collection to create your own sound
but if you really wanna get your ideas down nice and quick you need a midi keyboard
some good keyboards include:
the m audio axiom series-http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=axiom
the novation remote series-http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=novation+remote
the edirol pcr series-http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=pcr
audio interfaces
an audio interface is what it sounds like, its how you interface your audio with your computer, its all your sound inputs and outputs, pretty much an external sound card
theres a lot of these, they can range from simple to crazy so ill just give you a link
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation/computer-hardware-recording-cards-audio-interfaces?N=100001+304891
monitors
monitors are essentially speakers with a flat EQ so you can get an accurate representation of your songs audio image
some good cheap monitors include:
the krk rokit series-http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=krk+rokit
the yamaha hs series- http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=yamaha+monitor
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| « Last Edit: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:09pm by Taylor » |
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dmargaret
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #2 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:06pm » |
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Big ups to Taylor.
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Taylor
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #3 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:22pm » |
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thanks
ok, now that youve got your gear, heres a basic how to of how to hook it up
first off, MIDI IS COMMANDS, NOT AUDIO, A MIDI KEYBOARD WILL NOT MAKE NOISE NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY, GET OVER IT
lets start with MIDI, alright, odds are if you just bought a controller, it probably has USB, so install your drivers, and its plug and play from there, your keyboard should include directions on how to get most major programs to recognize it
as a general rule its usually under the preferences and there will be a section devoted to MIDI and just hit scan or whatever and if youre drivers are installed and running it should recognize them
now, lets say youve got a juno or some other MIDI capable synth laying around and you want to use that as a controller, now it gets a bit more complicated
youve got MIDI in and MIDI out and MIDI through:
MIDI in is for sending data to your sequencer or to another synth or whatever, MIDI out is for hooking into the synth you want to be played, MIDI through is so you can daisy chain MIDI devices (i think, ive never been a big mid thru user, correct me if im wrong)
now to hook up your MIDI controller to your computer youre gonna want one of these http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-USB-MIDIsport-1x1-MIDI-Interface?sku=701258
MOTU also makes very nice MIDI interfaces with multiple IOs(in/outs)
oh,you can use your soundcard as a midi interface if it has the proper joystick ports and you buy the proper adapter
thats as far as im going with MIDI for now, ill leave this lesson with a nice picture for you
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Taylor
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #4 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:29pm » |
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ok now for your monitors, this part is easy, just put them in the audio out of your fancy new audio interface
seriously, unless you stole your gear you should be able to hook it up since most gear will either come with a manual or if youre buying it secondhand im sure whoevers selling it will explain it to you or you can go download the manual
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dmargaret
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #5 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:31pm » |
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MIDI is the major mystery for me. I'm reading up as much as I can. I'm getting my head around it a little bit. MIDI and proper mixing, those are the major problems for me. I just never have time to sit and try out the new things I've learned because I work so much.
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Taylor
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #6 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:33pm » |
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on Dec 19th, 2007, 11:31pm, dmargaret wrote:| MIDI is the major mystery for me. I'm reading up as much as I can. I'm getting my head around it a little bit. MIDI and proper mixing, those are the major problems for me. I just never have time to sit and try out the new things I've learned because I work so much. |
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yeah, even though MIDI is a protocol and its pretty much standard, stuff varies from synth to synth
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| « Last Edit: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:34pm by Taylor » |
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Taylor
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #7 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 11:47pm » |
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ok now for some producing basics, you should find your own style by experimenting so im not gonna tell you how to do anything, im just gonna explain how it works
panning
pan is short for panorama, so picture each element of your song as a person playing that instrument, it basically makes sure your sounds play well with each other and dont get in each others way, when i pan stuff, i set it up like a stage, you know, the drummer and the vocalist in the middle, you can also use panning to create a wall of sound, but this takes up a lot of room in your audio image
mixing
mixing is mixing all the individual instrument tracks together to make sure they sound nice n purdy
so turn up the lead sounds or sounds you want to emphasize, i believe jesse said the kick should always be the loudest thing in the mix
if 2 sounds are clashing, lower ones volume and pan them out of the way of each other
ok, my mixing description sucks i know, but theres really not much to explain
EQ
short for equalization, this is where you can boost or chop the frequency of one sound or your entire mix, this step should NEVER be overlooked, super important
summary: the main purpose of all the things aforementioned is to make sure that all your different tracks dont clash, basically its like cutting your tracks so they fit together like puzzle peices to form a nice pretty picture
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davidwolf
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #8 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 12:33am » |
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the only thing about midi that i didnt get before is that while a sequencer can control a soft synth., it can also control a hardware synth. that is dope...but thats it, i dont see why that one question caused all this fuss.
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dmargaret
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #9 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 12:43am » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 12:33am, davidwolf wrote:| a sequencer can control a soft synth., it can also control a hardware synth. that is dope... |
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That's exactly what I'm interested in.
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dmargaret
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #10 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 12:44am » |
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on Dec 19th, 2007, 10:44pm, Taylor [internet] wrote:| just remember, im 15, i dont know everything |
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I'm old enough to be your (very young and cool) dad.
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slinky
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #11 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 05:56am » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 12:33am, davidwolf wrote:| the only thing about midi that i didnt get before is that while a sequencer can control a soft synth., it can also control a hardware synth. that is dope...but thats it, i dont see why that one question caused all this fuss. |
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This thread obviously isn't for you. It's for the new people that register weekly and ask Jesse how they can start making electronic music, what do they need and so on.
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evax
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #12 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 08:56am » |
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good job taylor.
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davidwolf
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #13 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 1:28pm » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 05:56am, slinky wrote:| This thread obviously isn't for you. It's for the new people that register weekly and ask Jesse how they can start making electronic music, what do they need and so on. |
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i understand that. i just think maybe they could come here and ask those questions instead of us creating a tutorial that you could find online if you wanted. usually when i have a question its for a very specific thing, i dont need to read through a ton of general and obvious information. but whatever, i guess its not hurting anyone.
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CDFG
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Re: Making Electronic Music
« Reply #14 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 4:02pm » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 1:28pm, davidwolf wrote:| i understand that. i just think maybe they could come here and ask those questions instead of us creating a tutorial that you could find online if you wanted. usually when i have a question its for a very specific thing, i dont need to read through a ton of general and obvious information. but whatever, i guess its not hurting anyone. |
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taylor is the man. knowledge is power.
now, for a bunch of useless information about everyone's favorite pandoras box: compression!
http://recording.org/ftopict-33269.html
found this yesterday and had to share it... what better place than here!
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DiBergi: "Why don’t you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number, and make that a little louder?"
Nigel (after taking a moment to let this sink in): "These go to 11."
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