Dubstepforum.com

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the boards but from what I've seen after clicking around for a couple days, this community is a true gem and an amazing, beautiful resource.

Some background — I'm a total novice with respect to music production. I took classical piano lessons back in junior high, dropped it, and now I regret that decision deeply, since I recently made the hefty decision to re-devote myself to making music (specifically, dubstep and its related genres). The allure is too great. Whenever I listen to a song I'm thinking about how I'd remix it or how I would have done it differently. It's too much to bear. I'm a fast learner, good with technology, and have been led to believe I have some musical talent. So can a 20 year old who frittered away the last 6-7 years of his life on nothing remarkable still become proficiently skilled in the language of sound waves? We'll see. I hope missing that crucial time-window for talent development (adolescence) hasn't totally closed the door on this particular area of creativity...

ANYWAYS,

I own the second-latest version of Logic Studio and when I start delving into it I plan to get the latest one, so this question pertains to the latest versions of the software.

My questions have to do with peoples' experience of Logic, MainStage, and Ableton Live in both production settings and live performances.

Has anyone used MainStage as a DJ rig? Would it even make sense? MainStage has access to all of Logic's functionality in a totally customizable workspace—that seems pretty powerful, no? So how come I haven't really heard about it being used by producer-dj's? I could imagine MainStage, the Stanton SCS 1 (http://www.enterthesystem.com/system/) and a Macbook Pro being a dream setup for someone who's spent a few years remixing King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Scientist into dubstep magnificence (as I plan to) and who wants to perform these productions with a some live remixing and fiddling. Yes? No?

Ableton Live seems to garner an incredible amount of praise from everywhere I've heard about it. What are its advantages for both producing and performing over Logic/MainStage?

For example, if you had to make a guess, why would someone like Bassnectar use Ableton over Logic/MainStage?

Finally, any general thoughts about Logic, MainStage, and Ableton Live in the relevant context would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. And I look forward to getting to know some of you as I set down the long, long path of learning to make pretty rhythms.

i can't help with your actual question but i can tell you that 20 is not too old AT ALL. don't even think that for a second for god sake. the fact that you have some experience with classical music will be brilliant. so many people involved in electronic music don't know the first thing about music theory and never learn a thing. when i started getting involved in production i found that the classical piano i had done as a child helped me immensely. like you i gave it up but took it back up again and this time i had a real passion for it unlike as a kid when i felt like i was being forced .

To be brief, the chief advantage of Ableton for performance purposes is that it's very easy to trigger loops and whole tunes and mix and mash them up without them drifting out of tempo. I imagine you could do the same with MainStage, but I suspect it would be more difficult and timeconsuming. As for production, Ableton allows you to put down ideas very quickly, which is why many producers favour it (although some mixdown in another DAW such as Logic).

Best advice, though, is to download the demo of Ableton and try it out for yourself.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, OF. I've been watching some videos demo-ing the Akai APC40 Ableton controller. It looks freakishly simple and intuitive. Makes what you're saying about Live very clear.

That said, does anyone have experience or knowledge re: MainStage as a DJ rig? I still can't seem to find any examples or descriptions of it used in this context.

Any other related thoughts would be appreciated as well.

Welcome mate. like has bin mentioned 20 is by no means a bad age to get into production even if you only remember the tiniest bit of what was taught to you then that'll make a massive difference. A heck of a lot of producers nowadays are self taught.
Can't help with your Logic Question tho but have you tried the Logic forums, or even posting to somewhere like Computer Music, which I might add is reccomended for learning the basics and then some.

Good luck

Dogen wrote:I still can't seem to find any examples or descriptions of it used in this context.

What does that tell u?

Not saying follow the herd, but the herd has wisdom on occasion. Don't forget to check out the launch pad too vs the apc40.

Re the musical training. After begging for music lessons as a kid, and not receiving for financial + parental selfishness reason - like my dads had a boat, an airplane, and a motorcycle, lolz, I feel like I've got a certain musical paralysis. It's like trying to lift up your arm after u just slept on it for 6 hours, you look at it, you try to move it, but nothing happens... ha ha, frustrating, but whatevers, limitations are gifts too. U just gotta figure out how to be a three legged dog.

unless your tits are saggin' and you're firing blanks, age doesn't matter.

the folks i know who like mainstage are largely keyboard players, who no longer have to carry around even rack-mounted synths-- it's a wonder of a beast for them. I know NIN was using it as a nerve center for their most recent tour, especially for vocal effects and what looked like drum fx as well.

ableton is scarily customizable not just in terms of what it does, but how you interact with it. i love my apc40, practice with it all the time and feel like i'm just scratching the surface of what all can be done in it.

I'm not 100% sure, but i think mainstage is more geared towards keyboardists etc...

this meaning someone in a band who plays piano/synths. I don't think it plays loops like ableton for live performance but allows you to switch between different types of instruments reallly quickly. If what ive said is true then mainstage isn't really gonna be suitable for a Dubstep DJ (or any other type of dj) unless you assigned the keys to samples. But to be honest i reckon you could do that in ableton and make it beat sync or some crazy shit like that...

when i get the money i'm definitely going for ableton...

You know... I've been wondering the same thing? Any new news on this? What about the synts in Logic... how do the compare to that of Live?

Dogen wrote:So can a 20 year old who frittered away the last 6-7 years of his life on nothing remarkable still become proficiently skilled in the language of sound waves? We'll see. I hope missing that crucial time-window for talent development (adolescence) hasn't totally closed the door on this particular area of creativity...

there have been studies done that show 19-24 is the best time to actually learn something.