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NEOGAF's Official Music Production Thread: calling all producers

"What a sick little thing! I bet it's gonna be 500 bucks at least though!"

All of Elektron's products are around 1300 USD at a minimum, so...yeah. 500 bucks at least, indeed.
 

Tr4nce

Member
I don't think I will ever buy such a product though. It's an amazing neat feat, but I just don't have the need for such a thing. Not yet, anyways...
 
Teknopathetic said:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/...-elektron-octatrack-explains-why-its-awesome/
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2010/03/24/messe10-revolutionary-sampler/

elektron_octatrack.jpg


:O~~~

A new hardware sampler...that's something you don't see very often these days. I still love my Yamaha A4000.
 

Chemo

Member
I really want that Elektron Octatrack. Really.

Finishing up an EP I've been working on for a while, probably end up releasing it sometime next month... I'll post info and such when it gets closer if anyone's interested in checking it out.

In the meantime, back to work...
 

Dartastic

Member
I'm still pretty beginner status, but I'm finally sorta wrapping up a song that I really like, for once. I'm getting all the pieces in place, but it's gonna come down to recording it at proper levels, finishing the lyrics, singing it well, etc. I'll figure that out once the arrangement is in place. =p I'm using Reason and I'm rewiring into Ableton. I have my Drums and synth patterned out in Reason, and they're just going straight into Ableton. Problem is, I need to sidechain some stuff and I have no idea how. Observe.

This is my reason setup. 3&4 are my synth, and 5&6 are my redrum.
screen-capture-4-1.png


This is Ableton. 2 is synth, 3 is drum. I need to sidechain the synth to the drum. It sounds ok now, but I'm sure it could sound better, and I uh, have no idea how to do it. Help?
screen-capture-3-1.png


...Oh yeah, another problem I'm having is that my midi controller is controlling both Reason inputs (redrum and subtraktor) at once sometimes. I don't like that.
 

Tr4nce

Member
Dartastic said:
This is my reason setup. 3&4 are my synth, and 5&6 are my redrum.
screen-capture-4-1.png

I am not the person to be giving advice about Rewiring Reason with another program, because I haven't experienced much with that, but why are you not routing your synths and drums into the mixer? I am not familiar with Reason 4, but why are you routing the left ReDrum output to a different channel than than right output of the ReDrum?

Route the outputs of your ReDrum and your synths to the mixer, L outputs to the L channel on the mixer and R outputs to the R channel on the mixer. Then route your master out outputs of the mixer to the mastering device. Maybe this will give you a better sound? Also about the sidechaining, check out the little mini tutorial I did a few posts back.

Link
 

BowieZ

Banned
I would have contributed more to this thread in the past two weeks but I was busy working on my "Starship Mario" theme. Here is a picture of the end result :lol



Woulda posted the tune in the SMG thread but I get accused of whoring; nobody likes me over there.

Teknopathetic said:
Saw this on CDM: Ohm Studio. A new Sequencer that allows for total collaboration with other users over the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4eRu7iHR_I

Really interesting, the fact that it's a separate program might be an issue for many people, though.
Hey that is interesting. I definitely would love to get into more collaboration work. This reminds me of that site where you can upload musical bits and bobs and odds and ends that you made that you freely give other people the right to use. Can't remember what it is now.
 

Alucrid

Banned
Outdoor Miner said:
Man the world of MIDI is such a bitch for a newbie.

Quite. I have a question and I guess this is an okay place for it. What would be the difference between getting a keyboard synth like in the first few pages vs a microkorg?
 
"Quite. I have a question and I guess this is an okay place for it. What would be the difference between getting a keyboard synth like in the first few pages vs a microkorg?"


Well, one difference is MIDI over USB. The keyboards on the first few pages are a lot older (which isn't a bad thing in the music world), but as such are straight up MIDI only. You'll need something to interface with MIDI.

The other difference is probably usability. Those keyboards on the first page have most of the controls you need right on the front panel, whereas the Microkorg has a lot of menu diving through the LCD and only using 2-3 knobs for *everything* which is...fairly annoying.

Also, the Microkorg is a straight up Virtual Analog subtractive synth (I believe it might have some very rudimentary Frequency Modulation, I can't recall offhand), whereas some of those synths on the first page are FM (see above) or sample based synthesis/rompler which are both fairly different and in the case of FM synthesis, not really advisable for a beginner, IMO.

Also the microkorg has a vocoder which may or may not light your world on fire, but they are very fun.

And the microkorg has small keys (hence the name) which not everyone is a fan of.


Edit: Also, one of the keyboards on the first page is just that. A keyboard. A controller for interfacing with your computer, it makes no noise on its own, it's used to control music software.
 

Alucrid

Banned
Teknopathetic said:
"Quite. I have a question and I guess this is an okay place for it. What would be the difference between getting a keyboard synth like in the first few pages vs a microkorg?"


Well, one difference is MIDI over USB. The keyboards on the first few pages are a lot older (which isn't a bad thing in the music world), but as such are straight up MIDI only. You'll need something to interface with MIDI.

The other difference is probably usability. Those keyboards on the first page have most of the controls you need right on the front panel, whereas the Microkorg has a lot of menu diving through the LCD and only using 2-3 knobs for *everything* which is...fairly annoying.

Also, the Microkorg is a straight up Virtual Analog subtractive synth (I believe it might have some very rudimentary Frequency Modulation, I can't recall offhand), whereas some of those synths on the first page are FM (see above) or sample based synthesis/rompler which are both fairly different and in the case of FM synthesis, not really advisable for a beginner, IMO.

Also the microkorg has a vocoder which may or may not light your world on fire, but they are very fun.

And the microkorg has small keys (hence the name) which not everyone is a fan of.


Edit: Also, one of the keyboards on the first page is just that. A keyboard. A controller for interfacing with your computer, it makes no noise on its own, it's used to control music software.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer. Seems to me like a microkorg is the best bet, especially since I can just plug it into an amp and play around with it without possibly encountering the midi or FM synth issues. I knew of somewhat cluttered controls of the microkorg but hopefully I'll be able (well, probably will be able) to get through that and I was able to try one out a few days ago and luckily the minikeys didn't bother me.
 

Carlisle

Member
I'm looking to upgrade my hardware a bit, and I'm hoping I can get some insight here. My current rig is about 7 years old (controller + synth). And while it has served me well and I plan to continue to use it, I want something more compact, portable, and all-inclusive for when I'm not at home for long periods of time.

I've been writing music for about 10 years now... mostly as a hobby. I love writing video game music especially, so orchestral sounds are just as important as pop sounds, hiphop sounds, etc. My current controller is a full keyboard, so I'm looking for something I can carry around if I'm out of the house for a week. Probably something in the 25-key range, with a synth in it too. I have no plans or interest in live performance... just private composing, mixing, producing, sampling, etc.

I've been eyeing this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001YJOTKI/?tag=neogaf0e-20 recently. It's a bit pricey, but it seems to have everything I'm looking for and it gets solid reviews across the board. My main concern besides the price is that most of these reviews are from trance/dance/techno producers... so I dunno how good this would serve if I want to write a concerto.

Are there better options than this machine for me? Preferably a couple hundred bucks cheaper? Am I looking in the wrong place?
 

stldave2

Member
My "current" setup (photo was taken last year, but not much has changed other than some bits and baubles)...

thedesk.jpg



But that all gets ripped out next week because the new Fairlight Xynergi w/ 3 XE6 sidecars and a custom Argosy console gets here the second week of May!!!

SO freaking excited:D
 

btkadams

Member
stldave2 said:
My "current" setup (photo was taken last year, but not much has changed other than some bits and baubles)...

thedesk.jpg



But that all gets ripped out next week because the new Fairlight Xynergi w/ 3 XE6 sidecars and a custom Argosy console gets here the second week of May!!!

SO freaking excited:D
geez, how much money is sitting there in that photo?

id take a picture of my setup but i don't know if you'd be able to see it lol
 

stldave2

Member
btkadams said:
geez, how much money is sitting there in that photo?

id take a picture of my setup but i don't know if you'd be able to see it lol


Well what I paid for it and what it is worth are two extremely different numbers :lol

I actually got pretty good "trade-in value" on the prodigy to go towards the new xynergi setup. I'll try to remember to post up a picture when all the new stuff arrives, it should look drastically different. Console aside, the 3 24" monitors and a 46" lcd tv above will look awesome!
 

btkadams

Member
im having some trouble mastering my song im working on. i just can't seem to compress it loud enough. i've got all the synths routing to a bass bus, then the bass bus and all the other noises routed to a main bus, then the drums and main bus routed to the master. i know that it's lame to squash/compress shit so that its so loud, but im a dj and i need my shit to be the same loudness as all the other music im playing.

UGH, just venting i guess.
 
"Thanks for the comprehensive answer. Seems to me like a microkorg is the best bet, especially since I can just plug it into an amp and play around with it without possibly encountering the midi or FM synth issues. I knew of somewhat cluttered controls of the microkorg but hopefully I'll be able (well, probably will be able) to get through that and I was able to try one out a few days ago and luckily the minikeys didn't bother me."

Well those other synths don't require you to use midi. You only need to worry about MIDI when it comes to sequencing or controlling the synth via a sequencer/software or using the synth to control other hardware, etc. For just making noise through an amp (though, I do believe most synths are line level? And guitar/bass amps have instrument level inputs? I can't recall off hand, also, you may run into range issues for really low notes. Might be better to hook it up into a mixer/PA).


"im having some trouble mastering my song im working on. i just can't seem to compress it loud enough. i've got all the synths routing to a bass bus, then the bass bus and all the other noises routed to a main bus, then the drums and main bus routed to the master. i know that it's lame to squash/compress shit so that its so loud, but im a dj and i need my shit to be the same loudness as all the other music im playing."

Use a limiter instead of a compressor? Alternatively, just turn the song up louder when it's time to play it :p.
 

Carlisle

Member
Ok, well I guess the Novation X-Station isn't quite what I'm looking for, but it's close. Apparently what I need is more of a sample playback module... Something like the X-Station, but with a more natural soundbank (i.e. strings, brass, piano, winds). Portability is pretty important, so I like the 25 key set up of the X-Station... and I love the editing/synthesizer features as well as the "all-in-one" aspect of a controller/synth.

But the sound style I'm looking for isn't quite there. Can someone point me in the right direction? I might swing by a Guitar Center this weekend and talk to a rep there as well, but I'd like to go in having a better idea of my options before someone tries to sell me on their products.
 

Carlisle

Member
Sorry to keep spamming but I got one last question. I've decided what I'm gonna get, and they have it in stock at my local guitar center. But it's $30 cheaper if I go the amazon route. How have you guys fared with ordering expensive equipment like this online? I've heard some horror stories, and this product, while new, is sold from a marketplace seller. Is $30 worth the guarantee that I'll get it in one piece? Or am
I worrying too much?

All my previous equipment I've bought in person. Never even bought from the manufacturer online store, let alone a 3rd party retailer.
 

Chemo

Member
Finally finished up my record. Here's the final track:

Seasons in absentia.

Definitely a headphone affair, probably more accessible than the last few tracks I shared, but still may not be your thing. Enjoy, maybe! :lol
 

Nyx

Member
So, what does producing GAF think about a samplepack-contest ?

I can upload a samplepack, we all make tracks from these samples (any genre, with preferably no other samples used at all, otherwise as less as possible), then decide who made the best one ? (just for fun)
 

btkadams

Member
Nyx said:
So, what does producing GAF think about a samplepack-contest ?

I can upload a samplepack, we all make tracks from these samples (any genre, with preferably no other samples used at all, otherwise as less as possible), then decide who made the best one ? (just for fun)
yes lets
 
YES

Extend that rule to no other synths/softsynths/outside recordings as well. Make things more interesting.

Chemo said:
Finally finished up my record. Here's the final track:

Seasons in absentia.

Definitely a headphone affair, probably more accessible than the last few tracks I shared, but still may not be your thing. Enjoy, maybe! :lol

This is really good stuff. As a composer I get a lot out of listening to it. I'll listen to your other tracks soon.
 

Nyx

Member
HappyBivouac said:
YES

Extend that rule to no other synths/softsynths/outside recordings as well. Make things more interesting.

I usually find it better to let people have a bit more freedom, sometimes you want some kind of sound which would fit perfectly in what you have created from the pack alone, but then won't be able to add it.

As long as everyone tries to keep the extra samples to a minimum, it should be interesting enough imo.
 

Nyx

Member
So I finished the pack, 21 samples to play with.

The NeoGAF Music Production Thread Samplepack Contest #1

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/21973198/NeoGAF_Samplepack.rar

Rules :

- Try and use samples from the pack only (you don't have to use them all), when you do decide to use additional stuff, please keep it to a minimum.
- Any genre is allowed although the samples are housemusic based I guess.
- The track must be no longer than 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
- Final entry date is May 28th. (6 weeks)
- Anything else goes.

I've joined some of these contests on other forums in the past, and it's a lot of fun to create something with a limited amount of samples, and it's awesome to hear all the different creations in the end.

We could vote for the best one afterwards, but in the end I think that it's fun enough to just create and listen. :)

Hope a lot of people enter and enjoy themselves.

Happy producing !
 
I'll download the pack and get to work after I'm off work. Looking forward to it.

Also: I have a question for producers who do their own music. Have you had much luck getting people to give a shit about your music? How about without playing live? I'm incredibly cautious about promoting online because I'd hate to be that annoying guy who runs around getting banned from forums. This is one of the most difficult things to wrap my head around, and I'm too easily discouraged into complacency/laziness. I receive pretty positive words for my music from people that hear it, but with music it's always a matter of getting the right people to hear it.

What have you guys done for this? I've emailed my own college radio station about getting my music some play, but got no reply. Should I be more aggressive? How do I get word of mouth to spread aside from playing live? I think I have some pretty solid stuff going on, but it's very niche. Electronic music with heavy influence from prog/psychedelic rock & other genres is hard to promote.

note: i do plan on getting some live shows set up soon, but I need to practice and somehow afford some decent equipment. What are people's live setups like? Live electronic music is alien to me but I really want to get into it.
 

rSpooky

Member
Looks good.. will keep an eye on the thread but am a little busy with life and dudebro right now.
:)
Besides, I'd end up adding to much to the samples anyway ;) Just can't help myself.
look forward to some of you guys's entries tho
 

Solaros

Member
Yasae said:
Regarding Truant's work: I would say Addictive Drums sound a lot better in general. I can still hear some machine-gunning from the snare and whatnot, but it's pretty close. Lots of attention to detail, and not especially complex parts. Surprisingly good sounding for a podxt on the guitars and bass. Perhaps not every emulation is amazing; there's some fuzziness and phasiness on certain signals that sounds unnatural.

He also mults the bass - basically duplicates the track how many ever times, and designates each as belonging to a separate frequency band or makes them sound different entirely. For example, track 1 could be Bass_Low, where you have a low pass at say... 250Hz. Then there's track 2 which is Bass_Mid, with a high pass around the same area and a low pass around 4kHz. Finally there's track 3 as Bass_High, with a high pass around 4kHz. There are important frequencies in each of these ranges even for bass. It's best to listen for phase cancellation aplenty with this technique, as you do have crossover ranges, but I've never had any major problems with it.

I know this sounds almost exactly like multiband compression. Still, it gives you a lot more control over the shape of a sound rather than just compressing a frequency range. You might saturate, add a delay, add some other effect, add a transient designer, compress, eq, etc to just one bass track of the three. (It also has a lot of potential for abuse I suppose.)

Imogen Heap does this for vocals. Michael Brauer (look him up) does this for bass and snares quite a bit, too. It helps reinforce harmonics that compression does not bring out - because as you know, bass can hit some fundamentals much harder than others. It increases transferability between systems.




...Unfortunately none of that's going to fix your major problems. Better programming, a better choice of samples, and a better sense of space would help greatly.
This has helped me out quite a bit. I'll make a new track with some of the things I've learned lately to see what I get. Thanks again for the help.
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
Here's my shit:

- Soundelux U195 large diaphragm condenser mic

- Josephson C42 matched pair small diaphragm condensers

- Other mics: Shure SM57(new model), SM57 "Vintage" Unidyne III model, (2x) Sennheiser MD421, Shure SM7b, Audix i5, AKG D112, Audix D6, Sennheiser e604

- Chandler TG2 dual channel preamp

- Groove Tubes Brick preamp

- Dynaudio BM5a studio monitors

- M-Audio DMP3 preamp

- Mytek 96khz AD converter

- UAD-1 plugin effects card

- Intel core i5 computer with 4gb ram

- Cubase 5 digital audio workstation

- Presonus Firepod digital audio interface

- Alesis Ion analog modelling synth

- kurzweill k2000 synth

- Yamaha PSR540

- Peavey Classic 30 amp

- A couple shitty to decent guitars and basses
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
Alucrid said:
Thanks for the comprehensive answer. Seems to me like a microkorg is the best bet, especially since I can just plug it into an amp and play around with it without possibly encountering the midi or FM synth issues. I knew of somewhat cluttered controls of the microkorg but hopefully I'll be able (well, probably will be able) to get through that and I was able to try one out a few days ago and luckily the minikeys didn't bother me.

I would look into an Akai MiniAK. It has larger keys and IMO the sound quality is LEAGUES ahead of the now 10 year old microkorg sound engine.
 

Truant

Member
I'm in the middle of the huge ass process of changing from Cubase on PC to Pro Tools on Mac.

I know it's a step back in some ways, but it's also a step forward in a lot of other ways. Digi are working on ADC for LE as we speak, and that's basically the biggest issue right now.

I bought a brand new iMac 27" i7/8GB ram, a Digi 003Rack+ and a G-Tech 1TB external FW drive.

The 003 is not as good as my current interface, which I'm selling tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be able to tell the difference.

It was just a matter of time before I jumped on the Pro Tools train, and I've never used a Mac in my life before. Going to be a HUGE transition for me, but hopefully a more stable and noiseless environment to work in.

Now, if only those damn ash clouds would clear, my new iMac would get here next week...
 
So I'm just now trying to teach myself Ableton Live because I want to do live versions of some of my songs, all of which were made in FL. Does anyone know if there's an easy way to move my midi and plugin data over from a .flp into Live?
 

Fusebox

Banned
btkadams said:
im having some trouble mastering my song im working on. i just can't seem to compress it loud enough. i've got all the synths routing to a bass bus, then the bass bus and all the other noises routed to a main bus, then the drums and main bus routed to the master. i know that it's lame to squash/compress shit so that its so loud, but im a dj and i need my shit to be the same loudness as all the other music im playing.

UGH, just venting i guess.

Forget compression, just slam your master with the kjaerhus classic limiter for some insta-volume.
 

pirahna1

Member
Fusebox said:
Forget compression, just slam your master with the kjaerhus classic limiter for some insta-volume.

This is the correct answer. Kjaerhaus has a couple settings either in the manual of the Classic Master Limiter, or on the website. I think you'll want to set it to -4.0 db (or maybe -6.0?) for a nice boost in volume on your master track.

Try a few different settings and check the volume on a system other than your PC, either a PA if you have access, or on a regular stereo.
 

hoverX

Member
just bought a new laptop (17" i7 mbp) and have been wanting to get into amateur music production for quite some time now. I was thinking of getting a copy of Logic Express 9 and an Akai mpk49. Any comments?
 
hoverX said:
just bought a new laptop (17" i7 mbp) and have been wanting to get into amateur music production for quite some time now. I was thinking of getting a copy of Logic Express 9 and an Akai mpk49. Any comments?

What's your musical background? What kind of music are you into? Ever composed music? What kind of music do you want to create?

(I'm not the guy to go to for "by the books" production, nor am i the type of guy who gets a hard-on for the cleanest, punchiest, sexiest drum tracks. (not that I'm bashing on that approach) I am very much a composition-centered approach kind of guy. There are plenty of dudes around here who can go on at great lengths about production techniques though.)
 

btkadams

Member
hey ableton users, i have a question. when playing through an ableton set with about 80 songs in it, i sometimes get a stutter in the audio (it pauses and then continues). is this my computer being choked by the 2gb of memory? i've got an early 2008 macbook pro running snow leopard. i've been thinking about upping the memory to 4 gb. would that solve this problem?
 

hoverX

Member
HappyBivouac said:
What's your musical background? What kind of music are you into? Ever composed music? What kind of music do you want to create?

(I'm not the guy to go to for "by the books" production, nor am i the type of guy who gets a hard-on for the cleanest, punchiest, sexiest drum tracks. (not that I'm bashing on that approach) I am very much a composition-centered approach kind of guy. There are plenty of dudes around here who can go on at great lengths about production techniques though.)

I think i'd like to create mostly hip-hop. I've got a somewhat newfound interest in electro as well.

i've posted this same question on other forums and someone made mention of the fact that some of the knobs aren't mapped to anything in Logic. is this person just a rookie? or does he have a valid point?
 

Fusebox

Banned
btkadams said:
hey ableton users, i have a question. when playing through an ableton set with about 80 songs in it, i sometimes get a stutter in the audio (it pauses and then continues). is this my computer being choked by the 2gb of memory? i've got an early 2008 macbook pro running snow leopard. i've been thinking about upping the memory to 4 gb. would that solve this problem?

How many devices plugged in? My laptop used to choke occasionally because my USB soundcard wasn't getting enough juice when I also had my external HD, mouse, keyboard, Novation remote etc all plugged in at once.
 

btkadams

Member
Fusebox said:
How many devices plugged in? My laptop used to choke occasionally because my USB soundcard wasn't getting enough juice when I also had my external HD, mouse, keyboard, Novation remote etc all plugged in at once.
this is with no programs running except for ableton (and istat). wifi and bluetooth are off. only using trackpad so no mouse.

nothing is plugged in but these 2 device:
firepod plugged in via firewire.
apc40 plugged in via usb.

my other thoughts are that its my hdd getting choked because its 5400rpm. i seem to remember the hiccups happening when i am playing and i click to play another track on top.

the stutter is like once in a 3 hour set though so its not a constant occurrance, otherwise id prob be more helpful in whats causing it.
 

Chemo

Member
HappyBivouac said:
This is really good stuff. As a composer I get a lot out of listening to it. I'll listen to your other tracks soon.
Hey, thanks! I actually just uploaded the entirety of Phobos, the album I wrapped up, to my SoundCloud account a few days back.

Just checked out the work on your site, excellent stuff... really enjoying it.
 
Chemo said:
Hey, thanks! I actually just uploaded the entirety of Phobos, the album I wrapped up, to my SoundCloud account a few days back.

Just checked out the work on your site, excellent stuff... really enjoying it.

Yep, I actually went and listened to the entire album after I listened to that tune. All really solid. Your production's a lot cleaner than mine.

Of course most of my tunes end up having 30-50 channels/instruments by the time I'm done, so I guess it lends itself to a more raw, rock-inspired production. That's my excuse anyway. :lol
 
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