i'm interested in learning how to mix/make music using the PC. ne1 do it ? if so, what prog(s) are recommended (any useful tutorials/sites).

i've heard of fruity loops & cubase, any good ?

i'm a complete beginner, dont play any instruments fantastic sense of rhythm, though

hey up there boojum

i used to run a midi based studio which myself and my mate took around schools and the like ill give you a quck run down on wot i know

CUBASE sx (xp) top program has mixer effects etc runs in tandem with various other stuff ie reason rebirth

REASON the all in one standalone shit hot synth and sequencer i have a synth which i can control the knobs on reason via the knobs of the synth excellent !!!

REBIRTH the tb 303 emulator (dosent sound like the real thing though) this is a good standalone synth you can move the knobs etc which are all recorded by the software ( good but not a patch on reason )

RECYCLE good for cutting stuff up ie drum loops etc

FRUITY LOOPS to be honest dont have to much experience with this because reason blows this away

SOUND FORGE this is cool for editing samples adding effects extracting single drum sounds etc

sonic foundry ACID this works in tandem with the above this plays the samples editted with sound forge

there is tons and tons of music software out there ideally you would want a controller keyboard to play the software synths good amp and speakers to ( ive bust plenty of cheap speakers dont handle the frequency range to well) if i can be of any help or you have any questions let me know ill answer them if i can

have fun with the tunes mate

peppi

ps a good book on keyboard playing including chords and scales will help you no end too

hi,

i use my PC for making music, i use Cubase, Acid, and rebirth, reason now and again.

there is not alot of point using cubase unless you are going to record instruments and have a reasonably fast PC, there are a few nice VST instruments included with cubase but as soon as you have a few of them running at the same time as well as a few plug-in effects then you will see you system performance slow down quite dramatically. i would maybe recommend using Cubasis to start with as its not such a steep learning curve.

Acid is a "paint by numbers" loop based software with the instant gratification effect. IMO its great to get a few drum and bass grooves going before i record some real instruments. But its also alot more than that, its got some great beat quantizing facilities and tempo changing of loops is second to non.

Fruity loops is ok, but not my thing. If your gonna go down the band in a box solution you might as well jump straight in and got for propeller headz Reason and Rebirth.

hope this helps a bit boojum

EDIT: there are lots of loops to be downloaded for ACID on the t'internet, and also you will be able to create some nice grooves using the VST instruments even if you cant play any instruments.

ill have a look for some tutorial and resource websites later today

BOOJUM wot version of windows are you running by the way?????????????????????????

peppi

wow, cheers for the info

pc wise i got an athlon xp 2600+ with 512 megs ddr ram, running win2k pro. will that be able to run everything ?

also, while i'm thinking, anyone know owt about soundcards ? i need one cos at the mo i'm using onboard (alc655 chip, ac97 2.2, 6 channel dunno what any of that means ),but dont know shit from soundcards - go from £10 to £150+, all look the bloody same. prefer not to spend more than £50 (prefer to spend a lot less...)

A good entry level sound card would be a m-audio audiophile, Im using one at the moment and it runs like a dream. A low latency audio card is a must when using a midi controller. you can pick one of these up for under £80.

mindhunter

boojum

your computer is a better spec than mine !
mine does the job so you should have no probs running the software
as for the soundcard its as long as a piece of string with the more you pay the better it gets you should be looking for a card with a low latency i have a midiman 2496 delta which works fine with reason etc in windows 98 but isnt so hot in xp i paid about 150 for it a few years ago youll probably find something better now for a better price have a butchers at "sound on sound" magazine theres always up to date stuff in there when you install a new soundcard it may be a idea to disable the on board one as it may cause conflicts keep us posted as to what your gonna do ! if you need any help no probs mate

peppi

ps looks like mindhunter beat me to it the same card even

Im using Reason and Tracktion, a fine combo
havnt done anything for a while, gave it up to learn how to grow pot but now thats sorted...................

hey potty i use reason along with a supernova 2 keyboard spectacular mate !

whats tracktion havent seen that one before ?????

peppi

heres my little bedroom studio....

1.3 Amd duron , 1 gig ram running cubase sx as sequencer and for recording all processed through the audiophile 24/96 card, the outputs of the card are running through a little behringer 6 channel mixer, Korg ER-1 drum machine routed through the mixer , same with the novation k-station, they both receive midi data via a midisport 2x2 midi hub. The outputs on the mixer run back into the sound card. I also use an m-audio oxygen to control various soft synths , mixer channels etc through cubase.

Its a simple little setup but I love it, only thing thats missing right now is a decent set of studio monitors althought the akg monitoring headphones are superb

other than growing weed this is my favourite hobby to date ...

mindhunter

Hey peppi, Tracktion is a ......well have a read, well cheap but a mental bit software now come with a finaliser box, see pic.. and only 50 quid!! bee using it right from the start.
Reason then becomes a rewired vst which is well cool cos you can route the Reason sound channels back to Tracktion and process them seperatly .

PP

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion/index.html

Hope thats pkok to post link here ??????????

mindhunter

top lil setup youve got there mate !

i myself have a limited setup which consists of the following

2-2 pentium gig ram same card as yourself the supernova 2 this is fed straight into the input of the computer no mixer !

software wise i have sx along with halion reason ,rebirth a ton of plugins (vst) soundforge acid recycle fruity loops various soft synths

these all combined are well enough for the job
do you have any latency issues ?? i just dont get along with xp thinking of a dual boot system with xp and 98 (i always found 98 much more usable than xp

peppi

looks welll cool mate !

have a got this right its like a mixer for ya reason channels etc along with audio channels etc

peppi

I use it mainly as a vst host but its a whole load more than that, audio sequencer,, modular filters!!, midi editor.. loads of free plugins on net go discover VST and put Reason in its place!!





* Audio Playback and Recording features
* Editing
* Plug-in Support (VST & VSTi)
* Butt-Kickin' Built-in Sampler
* Rack Filters
* ReWire 2.0 Support
* Instant Help
* Project Management features
* Collaborative Working

u tried win2k ? i used to be a 98 zealot, tried xp... utter shite, wall 2 wall hardware conflicts. gave 2k a go, wouldnt go back to 98 now - no exaggeration, ive had no crashes & not seen the blue screen of death since installing 2k, & the pooter seems faster now, too.

yep i run reason and sx at the same time top stuff mate i prefer to get as much of the sequence goin in vst(ie playin reason rather than using reasons sequencer) play my audio in there and the samples too so i can use the built in mixer to mix the tracks i used to have a load of rack gear ,big mixer etc but find this set up does a equally good job so all the rest of the stuff got sold this is way more compact its even setup in the kitchen

peppi

boojum

nope not tried it mate the thing been with 98 ive a mountain of software for it that i know works rock solid mate i never had any agro from it !

xp on the other hand

peppi

I think its down to 5ms not even noticeable, I also have a dual boot system both xp pro ,one for my audio stuff and the other for everything else not had any problems to date

mindhunter

just cant get on with xp the latency is pants !

i also find music software and the net is a bit of a pain in the ass i was gonna put 98 on as well and not set the net up in there just using xp for the net

what do you think about that rekon it would be cool ???????????

peppi

Should be cool man tbh I think xp is the dogs danglies. Take a look here musicxp.net , very uselful site for tweaking your xp system for running audio applications. Things like network traffic and antivirus software really mess things up pops , crackeles and clicks all easily sorted if you follow the guides on that site hope its of use to you

mindhunter

cheers mate ill take a look later
the problem i have is the driver i think? either that or the version of sx ive got it wouldnt even pass the test at the begining but the older version of vst ive got ( the 98 version) is solid it doesnt even crash !
the net probs are things like icq messages stopping play etc small stuff but a bitch all the same !

peppi

some great setups the.

mine goes as such:

Maudio Delta 1010
Evolution Controller Keyboard
Korg NS5r Synth Module
Doepfer Poket Control
Roland VM-3100 Digital Mixer
Spirit Absolute Zero Monitors

i have a few guitar knocking round, my main baby is a Gibson "The Paul" i have had for 11 years, its a special edition and was made in 1978

will post piccie when my camera is charged

is anyone thinking online collaboration?

i know recorded audio files is out of scope because of bandwidth issues but we could share patches from reasen and rebirth and VSTi's and effects plugins, even midi sequences?

needs more thinking through but might be fun and help bojum learn some tricks along the way

fine idea mate !
i have the same monitors as ya self with a samson amp

yep it would take some organisation midi files patches etc as for sending audio around now that would take some doin it would be fine broadband style dont know what we could do with modem speeds though

peppi

What kind of music are you looking to make Boojum?

I'd reccommend Fruityloops for anyone starting out (not saying it's amateur software... far from it. Just easier to get your head around), its an excellent tool for building drum patterns.

My setup consists of
AMD Athlon 700mhz, 398ish mb RAM
Audiophile 2496 soundcard
Soundcraft Absolute 2 monitors
Cubase SX
FLStudio (as a virtual instrument, inside Cubase)
FM7
z3ta
Albino
junglist
Halion

I make drum n bass mostly, but I piss about with other genres when I lose inspiration

rebirth is easy to grasp too !!!!

peppi

Bit of a luddite with new technology, still using an old version of Cakewalk when I hook up to the PC.

Got an upright piano I enjoy playing but prefer spending time with my Korg Karma workstation.

dunno, really ( as it sez in the orb's little fluffy clouds, really just "layering different sounds on top of each other", playing with beats & drum loops, whatever, no real genre in mind, i like rhythms & beats) but i got no musical knowledge, no keyboards, no hardware apart from the pooter. & most of this thread has gone waaaaay over my head, but if it's got a manual i'll learn how to do it, i'm a very good learner.

As Nick said early - I found Fruityloops a good place to start, gives good results, isnt over-complicated and is stoner friendly! - If you combine it with Cooledit and audiograbber for ripping and chopping up samples to sequence in Fruity then you're away. Rebirth and fruity go well together if you fancy that acid feel. I've heard Crazy crazy immaculately produced tunes made with just these.

I've tried Reason and got fucked off with it straight away - too much bollocks to get your head round, and Acid was just a bit shit really. Cubase and all the other stuff is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head. I tried Traktor for mixing and faux-scratching mp3's.Also Final Scratch is the bollocks if you've got decks, mixer and good computer - and a shed load of mp3's.

I've messed about with these progs in the past a fair bit but nothing comes close to getting your sticky mitts on some vinyl and scratching like a tuppeny whore on tuesday!

peace,
B

Good Luck with the music whatever style.

and remember rock and roll should be peopled by misfits outcasts freaks and magicians.

i hope you all make war you can dance to.




BOMB IT!

well i'm halfway there then

Do you want to join my band?