Starting out, Few questions...

slim · Post by **slim** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:32 pm

So right, was thinking, i am hopefully heading off to uni for a good five years (any other medical heads out there?) and was figuring i would like to start producing while i'm at it.

Have already said i would love to learn but the gear costs a fuckload, and the last thing i wanna discover is that i am a bit shit and have just spent my student loan on badass software and midi controllers, rather than, say food.

BUT... have seen some websites selling ableton live 6.0 for 25 dollars which is about 12 - 13 quid. Not bad, i think. So, a few questions.

I know very little about production, got many ideas, and i know what kind of sound i would go for, but technically if you asked me to talk in any depth about compression i would probably run away crying. Do you think you can go from technophobic wasteman with a few ideas to a decent producer with a bit of tinkering, a few books and some hard graft?

I love the look of ableton, seems intuitive and generally awesome, would you guys recomend it?

This OEM downloading business, 12 quid for a badass piece of tecnology sounds like a no-brainer, but should i reconsider? Would i be missing out?

Any other advice you would give?

Thanks

janner · Post by **janner** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:04 am

go for it mate, i started producing while I was at uni (back in the days when PC were dog shit and you had to buy well expensive outboard gear to do anything decent) and the beauty of it is you have so much time on your hands you can really get into it and learn a lot in a couple of years. i went from having very limited knowledge of production/arrangement/engineering to having a dnb tune pressed & released on a big label. proof that it can be done

ableton sounds like a good place to start - loads of heads are using it now and say it's wicked. i only use it for studio mixes but there's no doubt that heavy tunes have been build with it. plus it's very user friendly and comes with a load of useful tutorials so you can jump straight in

only other approach would be to speak to the right dodgy people, get an internet connection and start downloading warez - cheap as chips but can your conscience take the strain. these days software is sooooo good that as long as you have a decent PC, soundcard and monitors/speakers you can do it all virtually to a very high standard. no real need for mixers, outboard effects, synths etc.

only other advice i would give is get to know the right/like-minded people so that you can POOL YOUR RESOURCES, EXPERIENCES & CONTACTS

gravious · Post by **gravious** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:09 am

Slim wrote:So right, was thinking, i am hopefully heading off to uni for a good five years (any other medical heads out there?) and was figuring i would like to start producing while i'm at it.

Have already said i would love to learn but the gear costs a fuckload, and the last thing i wanna discover is that i am a bit shit and have just spent my student loan on badass software and midi controllers, rather than, say food.

BUT... have seen some websites selling ableton live 6.0 for 25 dollars which is about 12 - 13 quid. Not bad, i think. So, a few questions.

I know very little about production, got many ideas, and i know what kind of sound i would go for, but technically if you asked me to talk in any depth about compression i would probably run away crying. Do you think you can go from technophobic wasteman with a few ideas to a decent producer with a bit of tinkering, a few books and some hard graft?

I love the look of ableton, seems intuitive and generally awesome, would you guys recomend it?

This OEM downloading business, 12 quid for a badass piece of tecnology sounds like a no-brainer, but should i reconsider? Would i be missing out?

Any other advice you would give?

Thanks

Go for it mate!

I did exactly the same at uni, and I loved it then and love it now. Its nice having a hobby where you've made something at the end of it.

Re software and the like - if you already have a half-decent computer, it shouldn't be too expensive to get started on some software. Hardware/outboard stuff isn't strictly necessary for the budget setup. However, if you want to go down this road eBay is your friend. Likewise for software actually. £12 sounds suspiciously cheap for ableton...

Also, I'd download a few different sudio/sequencer program demos and have a fiddle to see what feels best before committing (FL studio, Reason, Cubase, Ableton).

plk · Post by **plk** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:29 pm

gravious wrote:
Slim wrote:Also, I'd download a few different sudio/sequencer program demos and have a fiddle to see what feels best before committing (FL studio, Reason, Cubase, Ableton).

I second that...good advice.

whineo · Post by **whineo** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:20 pm

£12 for ableton live 6.0 sounds dodgy. £500 usually

Reason is a pretty good place to start - everything is there that you need - all self contained and won't bake your cpu (well ver 2.5 that is and depends on your pc specs) - Ableton is great and works really well with midi.

as long as you sit down and learn the basic concepts they can be applied to every DAW

my advice would be to get a decent music production sound card and studio monitors asap.
You tube has some good stuff for ableton tips and production forums have some priceless info on offer.

slim · Post by **slim** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:13 pm

Thanks for the help so far guys,

http://www.ellsworthband.com/index.php? ... rogid=8561

That is what i saw, it does sound distinctly dodgy, but they claim all their software is a full version etc, there are a few catches which sound reasonable, but i do still wonder where the other 490 quid is going...

Soundcardwise i have a 2nd hand M - Audio USB audiophile card (Working from a laptop), i have a feeling that isn't gonna cut it, and some Logitech X530 speakers with a sub.

I'm not majorly naive and i know i am not gonna be getting much of the stuff i will need from the pound shop, but if i can work with what i've got it would be nice. (Edit, just realised these won't have a flat response, so are pretty much useless)

Will get some demos on the download, but haven't really got the time to fuck around with them seriously at the mo, cheers for that Gravious, don't wanna get too lovestruck with ableton, then wish i had gone for reason or FL. But it does look good...

ekaj · Post by **ekaj** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:06 am

The only advice I can give is to experiment and stick to what you enjoy!

1233221 · Post by **1233221** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:55 pm

fruity loops

rekordah · Post by **rekordah** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:57 pm

1233221 wrote:fruity loops

b-lam · Post by **b-lam** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:54 am

i dont know which m-audio soundcard u got but they're usually fine for producing on, mine's zero latency...and since i dont record audio through the soundcard its great for me.

yeh other ppl have said it and i can only back it up: try demo's! spend a couple of days on each...see which one u take to...like u said, u don't really want to spend any money unless u KNOW u want it...

dubsteppa · Post by **dubsteppa** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:42 pm

i got fl studio ableton cubase reason all 4 nothing just download the fucking programs man thats what torrents are 4

dollars · Post by **dollars** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:06 pm

dubsteppa wrote:i got fl studio ableton cubase reason all 4 nothing just download the fucking programs man thats what torrents are 4

No, wait.

shook · Post by **shook** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:37 pm

No FL or Reason.
If you wanna do it right from the start, Proper Sequencer (Cubase Sx3, Logic, Tools), loads of warezed plug ins, and spend time using your ears critically. The compressor and the EQ are your best friend.

Safe.

boy_arena · Post by **boy_arena** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:44 pm

Im new to this site guys, and this is my first post, WHOOOP!

Im in exactly the same position as you right now mate,

Iv just got my hands on reason and a chunky book and some tutorials to get me goin iv finally realised that this is that path i want to take, and at this stage its both exciting and scary as there is so much hardware/software out there i hope i chose the right stuff.

But i know you guys will help me out lol.

thinking · Post by **thinking** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:31 pm

dubsteppa wrote:i got fl studio ableton cubase reason all 4 nothing just download the fucking programs man thats what torrents are 4

brilliant. If everyone did this there would be no software to write beats on - and then there wouldn't be any tunes to buy, would there?

good thinking.

djake · Post by **djake** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:44 pm

ThinKing wrote:
dubsteppa wrote:i got fl studio ableton cubase reason all 4 nothing just download the fucking programs man thats what torrents are 4
brilliant. If everyone did this there would be no software to write beats on - and then there wouldn't be any tunes to buy, would there?

good thinking.

x2

ekstrak · Post by **ekstrak** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:48 pm

get yourself some hardware is my advice.

sounds like you're on budget so dont spend small on something crap.. instead buy a basic control keyboard / percussion pad / rotary midi controller.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop ... s_id/e/954

http://www.dv247.com/invt/21930/

http://www.dv247.com/news/Alesis%20Cont ... ler/131161

trust me, it'll lively up your process no end.. nothing worse than a mouse as a front end to your DAW.

sully_shanks · Post by **sully_shanks** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:23 am

SHOOK wrote:No FL or Reason.
If you wanna do it right from the start, Proper Sequencer (Cubase Sx3, Logic, Tools), loads of warezed plug ins, and spend time using your ears critically. The compressor and the EQ are your best friend.

Safe.

theres nowt wrong with either of those programs.
u dont need to use cubase or logic to make proper tunes
ure a lot more likely to sound a bit presetcore if you use low end ware though...

slim · Post by **slim** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:41 pm

ekstrak wrote:get yourself some hardware is my advice.

sounds like you're on budget so dont spend small on something crap.. instead buy a basic control keyboard / percussion pad / rotary midi controller.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop ... s_id/e/954

http://www.dv247.com/invt/21930/

http://www.dv247.com/news/Alesis%20Cont ... ler/131161

trust me, it'll lively up your process no end.. nothing worse than a mouse as a front end to your DAW.

I'm actually already onto this one, can probably get an m-audio oxygen 8 quite cheap, like the look of it, but it doesn't mention anything about ASIO compatibility, does that mean there would be some mad lag problems? I would guess no, cos i know of many people who use them, but just wanna get an opinion off you lot first.

Again cheers for the advice, hoping to get cracking over the summer.

vadarfone · Post by **vadarfone** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:11 pm

Renoise. Download the demo from www.renoise.com. You can do nearly everything with the demo and you wont need any hardware. It will also run on pretty much any pc or mac, even if it is an old one.

You can wire hardware into it if you want to at a later date.

Also, it is by far the quickest way to make tracks. You literally bang them out with the qwerty keyboard.

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