Beginner to Electronic music production ! HELP

[Mellotronfan89]

Hello Everybody !

I picked up a 2.2ghz MacBook Pro for school and I wanted to start getting into alot of Electronic Music Production. I wanted to know if anyone could recommend some could programs for this type of field. I would like to do alot of stuff similar to Kraftwerk, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, etc. so whatever seems good for those artists please feel free to submit. I really want to make sounds that are very bizarre, but I would like your advice for some good programs that can best achieve this.

Also, How do you cut up drum beats and make them 'stutter' ? You can hear alot of this on Squarepusher's album's & many more artists similar to him. I apologize for being a beginner, but it is very hard to find people to converse about this stuff.

Thanks !

[backplay]

Originally Posted by Mellotronfan89

Hello Everybody !

I picked up a 2.2ghz MacBook Pro for school and I wanted to start getting into alot of Electronic Music Production. I wanted to know if anyone could recommend some could programs for this type of field. I would like to do alot of stuff similar to Kraftwerk, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, etc. so whatever seems good for those artists please feel free to submit. I really want to make sounds that are very bizarre, but I would like your advice for some good programs that can best achieve this.

Also, How do you cut up drum beats and make them 'stutter' ? You can hear alot of this on Squarepusher's album's & many more artists similar to him. I apologize for being a beginner, but it is very hard to find people to converse about this stuff.

Thanks !

Alot of time and patience, thats the first step!

You haven't mentioned your budget, that is also an important factor. I will make it as cheap as possible.

First of you will need a host program. Most of those guys who make Squarepusher kind of stuff started with a tracker, like Octamed.
It's 2007 now and must of us want extensive use of vsti's and plugs so you'll need a VST host. If you want it cheap and good go for reaper REAPER | Features Overview . If you want it verry good and not so cheap go for Logic, but you will be pulling your hair out for the next months.

If you want a vst host you will need plugins to shape your sound and play with instruments. Their are many nice free vst's on the web, do a search and you will find many!
If you want the good stuff right away check NI Reaktor, this synth-fx-sampler-sequencer-... will give you satisfaction guaranteed! Their are some pretty crazy sounds that this unit can create!
For your drums you can use a few sample cd's and a vst sampler to load everything in. Nice sample cd's for crazy drums are NI Synthetic Drums and Soniccouture. Nice Samplers: NI Battery, NI Kontakt and Mach5.
If you want to use fx on your tracks check Ohmforce, Audiodamage, Voxogene, PSP Audioware,... these companies make fx at a reasonable price.
This one is also nice and it's free Glitch VST by dblue

A good alternative could be Reason Propellerhead Software . You won't be able to use vst's with it but it will learn you the basics of production. And as you progress you can always Rewire it to a vst host, but that's another story.

Read alot and ask other people for advice, and experiment, experiment & experiment, that't the only way you will learn!

[sexxy]

Keys, Synths & Samplers - Harmony Central Musician Community Forums

lots of synth demos in .mp3
im looking a yamaha tg77/sy77 right now,
sy22 has out of the ordinary sounds

crazy sounds = lot of effetcs, ring mod, disortio, modulation, trance gate audiodamage bigseq, basementarts frantic filter, tone2 filterbank3, etc..
also passing signal through tube hhb radius10 or similar mic-pres change the sounds
or devices like thermonic culture vulture

playin backwards,etc...
in hardware::
tc electronic fireworx
Introduction
has lots of really kool presets, even i dont like the vocoder algorithm sound, everything else its great

you could learn alot by undestanding how the presets work
ensoniq dp4 also a few nice/weird presets
eventide harmonizer 3000,3000dx, 3500, 4000, etc...
lexicon pcm81, mpx1,
etc....

some synth patches from kidnepro, are really weird

Audio DEMOS:

This track is cross-fading from one preset to the next...
Voice Preset # 010 – LITTLE SPEAKER
Voice Preset # 008 – THE WISPERER
Voice Preset # 024 – SYNTH-FILTER
Voice Preset # 141 – D-DAY
Voice Preset # 055 – THE TALKING MACHINE
Voice Preset # 005 – WALKIE-TALKIE
Voice Preset # 164 – HAVOKS BAD DREAM
Voice Preset # 067 – VOCAL SPREAD
Voice Preset # 022 – ENVELOPE FILTER 2
Voice Preset # 142 – JAPANESE TOYS
Voice Preset # 043 – DEVILS VOICE
Voice Preset # 140 – TELEPHONE
Voice Preset # 054 – BELLYSIZER
Voice Preset # 179 – WHERE WILL IT END


Wet Mix (1:04 / 0.98MB)
http://www.tcelectronic.com/media/fireworx01.mp3

[gsilbers]

for school? berlkee by any chance?

i would suggest logic express or pro. it comes with synths and samples so u can start off. or garageband which is already in your mac.
Reason 3 is also a good investment.


in logic or garageband the best thing is to grab a song that u like from the artist u mentioned and get that track into one track and imitate as close as u can and this way u learn what its going on. same deal like playing piano and learning bethoven and such.

you can also check video tutorials in futuremusic magazine or youtube videos.
in apple.com in the logic page at the bottom there is a few videos of ways of producing electronic music. the remix videos is good.

[gsilbers]

as for the stutter fx. its just cutting an audio file and copy pasiting it a lot of times. then cut up on eof the cutup parts and cut it again and paiste it a lot of times and so on. there are also programs that do this like "glitch" sadly... not for mac

[sexxy]

also.. yamaha fx900 has serial/paraller effects capability

the other yamaha efects spx90,spx900,spx990,spx2000 are verry straight forward, no complex internal routings like fx900

alesis q20, digitech, lexicon pcm42 replica pspaudioware.com,
uaudio.com uad-1 roland space echo 201 replica, some vintage guitar rack units, etc.. etc..

[Tibbon]

You should know what you want to do musically before you touch your tools. Know the rhythms you want, and programming them will be all that much more easy.

The computer is just the tool to record them with, or get the sounds. What you're wanting is how to do the music side, and we can't really explain that well here.

[gsilbers]

good point. thoery is a good thing.

[Stevil]

TweakHeadz Lab Electronic Musician's Hangout

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by gsilbers

good point. thoery is a good thing.

It's not just theory. It's having musical ideas. Realizing that electronic music isn't just random drum patterns, stock arpegios, and wandering leads. It's music, and it needs musical thought and intention for it to be good. You can't just start hitting buttons and expect shit to stick to the wall.

[Doktorfuture]

> Kraftwerk, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars
> I really want to make sounds that are very bizarre

#1: Download LOTS of audio unit demos. a) they're free, b) you can really try out lots of stuff with zero risk and find what you think is cool. I like all the bands you like, and I also make lots of bizarre sounds, so here's what I recommend you check out:

1) Cycling74 Hipno - great effects. Can feed it any ol junk and nice sounds emerge.
2) Cycling74 Max/MSP - if you think you can 'visually program'. Years of fun here.
-> Max/MSP is a visual environment that lets you visually make sequencers, synths, effects, samplers and crazy hybrids. Lots of free 'plugins you can DL that work with it.
3) Plogue Bidule - A visual 'pipe' interface that lets you 'wire up' virtual studios. Really cheap to buy. This is totally awesome and lets you just go ultracrazy with ease. Think: take any input, sample it, mangle it into any AU or VST effect, convert audio to MIDI pitches, feed AU and VST synths, make feedback loops, etc... Just great.
4) Even if you're doing new stuff, don't forget about a good drum sampler thangie. The best for new and old sounds is, I think: GURU by www.fxpansion.com. It's a 'sampler', 'drum machine', 'sound exploration environment'.

I happen to think that these DAW 'recorders' are pretty useless for creative sound design and 'next-gen' sequencing.

On the Mac, there is one totally awesome sequencer you should try: Numerology by the company Five12. I've done "Kraftwerk, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars" using it all the time.

So, to summarize, here's a two week toy plan:
- www.cycling74.com -> Hipno. Maybe MAX/MSP if you're brave (READ/DO the tutorials to 'get it').
- www.plogue.com -> Plogue Bidule. The tabula raza of low-cost high-power sound design
- www.fxpansion.com -> Drums and beyond. Can do every style (even stutter stuff).
- www.five12.com -> Modular 'sequencer'. Nu-skool version of Old-skool sequencers. Version 2 being worked on. Great for 'stutter' sequences.

And download any synths/effects you think are cool.

Now, everything I've suggested will 'blow your mind' because it's not the standard 'DAW + Plugins' approach. I've suggested a 'modular' approach. Modular means you can essentially re-wire, re-organize, and re-purpose everything with almost no rules, but also do all the 'bread and butter'.

For basic 'DAW' stuff, save your money and use Garage Band. It's fine for layering wave files, doing some basic mixing, and basic midi stuff should you need it. Plus, its latest version can record 24 bit audio too. It really is quite powerful, and I use it more than Logic these days (best stay away from Logic).

Finally, take a peek at this company:

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/

They make two nice products, a wave editor (maybe best on Mac), and Rax (a virtual rack for synths and effects, which can also record). Their other products are good too.

Go deep into this stuff and you'll surely impress your friends, make exciting new enemies, and have sex-a-plenty!

Paul Sop

Originally Posted by Mellotronfan89

Hello Everybody !

I picked up a 2.2ghz MacBook Pro for school and I wanted to start getting into alot of Electronic Music Production. I wanted to know if anyone could recommend some could programs for this type of field. I would like to do alot of stuff similar to Kraftwerk, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, etc. so whatever seems good for those artists please feel free to submit. I really want to make sounds that are very bizarre, but I would like your advice for some good programs that can best achieve this.

Also, How do you cut up drum beats and make them 'stutter' ? You can hear alot of this on Squarepusher's album's & many more artists similar to him. I apologize for being a beginner, but it is very hard to find people to converse about this stuff.

Thanks !

[Mellotronfan89]

Thanks Everybody !

I appreciate all of your suggestions. I will be sure to do all research and experimentation with the stuff that you have given me.

Thanks again !

Mellotronfan89

[Doktorfuture]

Oh, one last thing. Since Logic Studio is out now, you might also benefit from looking at that. That's different from what I said above, but that's because Logic Studio was just released, and is now very inexpensive and quite good.

Originally Posted by Mellotronfan89

Thanks Everybody !

I appreciate all of your suggestions. I will be sure to do all research and experimentation with the stuff that you have given me.

Thanks again !

Mellotronfan89