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 (nobody)...and 628 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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Hi all I haven't posted here in ages but I've been browsing around for the past few weeks and its been nice seeing the changes...hope everyone's well :) Anyway, like everyone else I am keen to start tweaking some sounds and do some musicmaking as a hobby, but preferably using hardware (though its going to take me forever to save up for it all). I have honestly tried to use FL, I've had it for almost a year now, but it's really not 'clicking' with me in any way, so I'm willing to try something else. I've looked on eBay for gear and stuff, and I checked heaps of existing topics, like and and , but I'm still seeking a few answers: *What are some decent brand names that are good to start working with and become familiar with? From what I've read there's no point buying high-end stuff to begin with, it gets outdated fast and its too complex anyway for a n00b. *What gear is the bare minimum required for electronic music? I guess a few synths, a sampler, a drum machine and a sequencer? and also *With hardware, what do you actually USE to record your finished tracks? Maybe this is really simple and obvious, but as you can tell I'm uneducated with all this stuff! Oh and I'm happy to use software for some part of the process if its necessary, i'm not totally anti-software. But I think I'd just like to mess around with hardware first. And why not? I've got nothing else to spend my money on! My budget for this isn't great as I'm at uni full-time, but any advice you can give me is appreciated. Thanks :) |
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oh and one last question: what is a synth module? |
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oh bugger those links fucked up sorry... |
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honestly if you can't work out fl i'd save yourself a few grand or get into car culture. |
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failing that go to future music magazine buyers guide i guess is the less cuntish answer. |
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I built my set up (which i am now selling) on the budget of a uni student. You can do pretty well hardware wise with some clever investments. Hardware synths are all very well and good but you need to bare in mind that if you wnat to compose anything more than you can play with two hands your gonna need either a sequencer or at least a four track. I've found novation to be cheap and cheerful when it comes to knobs to twiddle and theres nowt wrong with the sounds either. as for whats a bar minimum it totally depends on what ya wanna do, i suggest you get a midi controller becaus ethat way you can at least just record your songs into FL and then have FL play the parts on whatever hardware synth you end up getting. |
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yeah well my computer's a heap of shit, I think that's why I can never get motivated to create anything interesting. it's like as soon as i boot up any software, the cpu goes over the top and it ends up just pissing me off |
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i managed with a amd 1.1 and 128mb of ram running FL. Its a game of patients. |
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yeah i guess you're right. what is a synth module? |
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its just a synthesier without a keyboard. you basically connect it via midi to either a sequencer such as FL or a midi controller keyboard. |
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You can record to anything that records audio of course :p Computers, tapes, dats, minidiscs etc. |
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A decent 3 channel mixer, EA-1 ER-1 ES-1 and a kaoss pad to make tracks and an amp, headphone and speakers to hear it all, and tape recorder to record it all can be had for well under £800 if you buy it all second hand. Bear in mind though, that whilst you can certainly do good stuff with this sort of setup, you will quickly find it limiting. Also, provided you've already got a PC, you could get a low latency soundcard with midi in, a copy of Ableton live and a good midi controller for less cash and it'd be just as hands on and a lot more expandable. I've met people who are pretty decent at music who reckon if you're good with a sampler, you don't need a synth (just manipulate exisiting multisamples). Following that school of thought, you don't need a drum machine either. I like software and hardware. I like the spontenaety of hardware and I can see the appeal of the way everything is "hands on". However, I think a lot of hardware purists really overlook the possibilities of software and gloss over the failings of hardware; for example, hardware can memory crashes wiping out all your patterns/samples, just like software, hardware can also fall out of synch, freeze, etc. It also isn't completely hands on; lots of stuff needs an additional midi controller in order to tweak all the parameters. Likewise, a windows xp box set up just for doing music, with an underclocked cpu is vastly more stable than music PCs used to be and can be just as hands on as hardware when you use a few midi controllers with it. It's, as is often the case, a situation where "percieved wisdom" is 3-5 years behind the actual reality. Most modern hardware is little more than a PC in a box anyway and lots of synths these days are digital. |
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For someone in your position, I'd recommend the software program Reason. Easy to use, comparatively cheap and it'll let you gradually learn about hardware setups without having to fully understand midi etc. from the off. Personally, I prefer floops and think it's easier (although I've used both extensively), but lots of people I know who can't get on with floops "click" with Reason. Incidentally, I think diving in at the deep end with cubase or logic sequencing a load of hardware will just put you off, as well as being expensive and for a beginner, confering no real benefits over the setups described. |
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microkorg - for synth editing/modeling soundforge 8- creating the loops/sounds fl5-for arangement- also for step sequencing beats, as you download sound samples of 808s/707/909 etc Phoscyon-for tb-303nes but if you dont like fl5, then help me out, i dont like it either |
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thanks for your respnses everyone, really appreciate that. zero-cool: good to see another xltronic-er in perth, what suburb you in? |
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