Starting Out - Producing

[sternumbreaks]

Hey all,

I'm very interested in learning to start making my own beats. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone that produces electronically, and have basically no idea where to start.

I've had turntables for nearly two years and play around town every now and again, but never had the oppurtunity due to time or the drive to learn how beats are made and what goes into it. I play drumnbass and breaks, but have also been into hip hop for a long time. I've come to the point where i'd like to learn how it all works and try to put out things that I have bouncing around inside my head.

For a beginner, what program(s) would you recommend I start with? Something that'll allow me to learn the ropes and get the basics down would be preferred! Any great tutorial site links would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[flippo]

I started in Reason and still use it predominantly. It gets a bit of a bum rap, but II recon it's perfect to start on.

It's memory efficient, it's stable, it's got everything you need right there, there are no temptations of going through 400 million VST plugins to find the magic one that will make your tunes come alive (because It wont use VST plugins). Subtractor is a great basic synth that will help you learn the ropes of making sounds, samplers are adequte, and if you want to get adventerous you can get some fantastic noises out of the Maelstrom synth. Thor is a bit of a confusing beast and I've only used it once, but it seems to be very popular synth also. All these synths/samplers are included.

Dr Rex loop player is good for getting things going quickly untill you get more comfortable building your own complex drum sequences form individual samples.

Bit of a trade off in quality, the audio engine isn't fantastic and the effect's aren't magnificent, but it's a bit of a steep learning curve before you will really start to notice that, then you can move into a more powerful sequencer when you think it is holding you back.

[FoundationStepper]

yeah, good call flippo. for beats stuff certainly.

people will also reccomend abeltron i guess, which is also very user friendly.

dont take the path i took - logic, max/msp! (but i dont write beats)

[Direkt]

Here, here - Flippo.

[flippo]

dont take the path i took - logic, max/msp! (but i dont write beats)

what do you write?

[FoundationStepper]

im working on a sound art project for my masters exploring the character and aesthetics of building materials such as window frames and sheet metal bought into resonance and manipulated by hand. The idea is for gallery installation combining the layered sound of rattling/vibrating ojbects with physical sensation through a sepcially designed vibrating floor (floor and speaker cone) which vibrates the body at about 100Hz and below, replacing what a sub would do.

[flippo]

I did wonder what you had that but kicker for heh. interesting

[FoundationStepper]

i guess the other major part is exploring the idea of composition (not really music) for the body as opposed to the ears - explroing what is interesting phyically.

im trying to find a blurring point between music and ambient vibration - reminds me that id be really interested in getting bare basslines from people such as yourself to use as the basis for creating sensation that i can blur from being rhymical/musical to more a full on physical drone. so any wavs of bass loops would be really ace to try out on.

[unsoundbwoy]

i am not starting a long discussion about the merits of particular sequencers here ...
but ...
i found reason really counter intuitive. thumbs up for dr. rex and that matrix thing but i struggled with programming and sequencing in it. i realize most people find it to be the most straight forward so i see the merit of flippo's idea and especially the validity of being limited to package plugins...

if i was starting out i'd find one friend or associate who uses reason, one who uses ableton, one who uses FL Studio, one who uses a tracker and one who uses cubase or logic. then i'd go and hang out and watch them working for an hour or two and see which platform looks like someone writing a track in a way that you think you could roll with and which ways look like someone on a computer clicking buttons. then i'd play with that sequencer for the next year or so.

for some people its easiest to be in a very midi/pattern based interface like reason or FL, for some audio tracks and long sequences work best (like logic or cubase) or a combination (like ableton) and some take to trackers really well.

[enigneyratorelknaw]

i am not starting a long discussion about the merits of particular sequencers here ...
but ...
i found reason really counter intuitive. thumbs up for dr. rex and that matrix thing but i struggled with programming and sequencing in it. i realize most people find it to be the most straight forward so i see the merit of flippo's idea and especially the validity of being limited to package plugins...

if i was starting out i'd find one friend or associate who uses reason, one who uses ableton, one who uses FL Studio, one who uses a tracker and one who uses cubase or logic. then i'd go and hang out and watch them working for an hour or two and see which platform looks like someone writing a track in a way that you think you could roll with and which ways look like someone on a computer clicking buttons. then i'd play with that sequencer for the next year or so.

for some people its easiest to be in a very midi/pattern based interface like reason or FL, for some audio tracks and long sequences work best (like logic or cubase) or a combination (like ableton) and some take to trackers really well.

That reminds me i've been meaning to hang out in the corner and watch ya at work, maybe next weekend oi

[a1studmuffin]

Both Ableton and Reason are great places to start learning fundamental concepts with good tutorials + an easy learning curve. Personally I feel Ableton is the best mix of ease-of-use vs functionality - I use it for everything I do these days (original tracks, mixes, and remixes) and have no desire to move over to a more traditional sequencer like Cubase, Logic or Pro Tools. The VST support means you can add as many new synths/effects as you like, but I'd recommend only adding 1 or 2 plugins at a time to really get to know them properly.

[sternumbreaks]

Cheers for all the info guys, much appreciated.

[Andrez]

im working on a sound art project for my masters exploring the character and aesthetics of building materials such as window frames and sheet metal bought into resonance and manipulated by hand. The idea is for gallery installation combining the layered sound of rattling/vibrating ojbects with physical sensation through a sepcially designed vibrating floor (floor and speaker cone) which vibrates the body at about 100Hz and below, replacing what a sub would do.

That sounds very cool. Love to hear the results!

[Lephrenic]

"It's just ease through the steps, just flip it, stick it, and see ya later, bye!"

[nic]

i lold

[unsoundbwoy]

i found both reason and ableton the biggest headfucks to use.

cubase / logic all day long

sometimes not trying too hard to be user friendly or having a radical interface or whatever can be more straightforward.

[flippo]

I think steve works primarily with samples, which would be difficult in reason actually now that I think about it.

reason's good if you want to use the samples as a building block, sample bassed synthesis if you will. (like single hits, or turning some ambience into a pad), but for normal sampling it'spretty ordinary because you cant easily dump large peices of audio in without using a sampler.

[a1studmuffin]

Yeah that's what drove me nuts about it. I like Live because it lets you work like you would in Cubase/Logic, except with (in my opinion) a more intuitive interface. Plus the Session view is handy for building loops, although I still prefer the Arrangement view simply because you can work with chopping up samples easier (same point flippo was making). You don't need to worry about selecting different tools to do different things either, it's almost context sensitive based on where you hover the mouse, which is a huge time saver IMO. I can't really speak for Logic, but Cubase freaked me out at how backwards the UI was - it felt like being a Photoshop user trying to learn Macromedia Flash's (horrible) UI. I'm sure once you get used to it you can work really fast, but I just found Live "made sense" to me a lot quicker. Horses for courses though.

[Andrez]

Yep, I'd have to agree with this assessment. Nice one.

[Lephrenic]

Logic heads, don't forget about the ninja:

http://melbournebeats.com/forum/viewtop ... =5&t=13332

[Lauer]

Another thing, just read a lot, as much as you can...theres good magazines like futuremusic that know what they're on about, include sample dvd's with video tutorials and stuff not to mention tutorials in the mag itself. It wont make much sense at the start but you'll start to get it pretty quickly and most importantly just spend as much time as possible.

[Blaxter]

I reckon the idea of sitting in on other peeps recording/producing sessions to get an idea of different software is pretty sound. Also check out what outboard gear they use which may assist you in deciding what you want to invest in for hardware, eg midi controller/pads/ FX/ compressors etc. Also, you may want to look into how they master their tracks as this can involve different programes from the sequencers/ multitrackers that tunes are written with.

[a1studmuffin]

If you can find someone experienced who's using the same software/OS you want to learn and is willing to sit down with you for a few hours and take you through their working process, you'll get a HUGE leg up.

[tatestrauss]

Hey Mate,

A good friend of mine who taught me Logic Studio has decided to teach Logic Studio as a new job.

Thought some of you might find this helpful as i got stuck for ages!!!

www.ozmusiclessons.com
e: [email protected]
m: 0421 048 340

Melbourne Based.

[witty_pseudonym]

I'm a total noob at all this too, but what are your thoughts on Fruity Loops?

I know a few people who recommend it and can teach me how to get started, so I thought I'd go with that.

It's daunting tbh. Definitely has the potential to make me into a hermit.

[Blaxter]

I'm a total noob at all this too, but what are your thoughts on Fruity Loops?

I know a few people who recommend it and can teach me how to get started, so I thought I'd go with that.

It's daunting tbh. Definitely has the potential to make me into a hermit.

For whats its worth, I use FL a lot.

[Direkt]

Fruity Loops is great if you're intro creating your own beats etc.

I know a few people who use it very well. I love it for beats.

Once you get your head around it, you may want to look at another program for sequencing (such as Cubase) in conjunction with FL, but until that point - happy programming!

[Flash]

Fruity Loops ftw tbh.
very easy to learn, id recommend starting on it, its very quick to get your ideas into motion without too much fiddling, which is great when you are starting out

[Lephrenic]

More Logic Ninja shenanigans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM_I3nuccQM

[Blaxter]

Suburbian myth holds that Concord Dawn made their first album using Fruity Loops.
I use it in conjunction with sound Forge and Acid.

[Direkt]

Cliffery uses FL with Tools.

As does Wasp, although I believe he was mainly just FL up till recently.

Great local producers IMO.

[nic]

witty make flash learn you tbh

[a1studmuffin]

I believe Deadmau5 uses FL Studio...

[mrj]

He's also ghey.

I'm just saying is all.

[deviant]

Habersham uses FL too

monster producer

[deviant]

actually, just found this...

http://www.flstudio.com/documents/powerusers.html