Music Producers / Studio Thread

[heBAY]

of course, and im not trying to discredit him. but its definately not the level of musicianship as to actually preform the drums from "funky drummer" by james brown, rather than sample it. i just feel like things have become marginalized and trivialized in production these days. too much time spent on small things, and not enough time spent on the whole project.

I hear your point...I really do...but I don't think Just BLaze or sampling "Funky Drummer" should be cited as ideal examples. 1. Just is, as we agreed, an amazing Hip Hop producer...he's one of the only one's I can look to for actual sampling and good use of sampling at that (it's not just "Oh that's the Neptunes/Timbaland/Swizz Triton Kit"). That being said, sampling is an art of it's own within Hip Hop production...of course just looping up James Brown breaks isn't something new (probably was one of the first artists to be looped up)...but when a dude like Just does it, I'm sure he knows that it's not being revolutionary...but more for it's throwback appeal. In other words, I don't think he's expecting a standing ovation for sampling Funky Drummer...since he's done so much other crazy shit really lol. From the first time I heard him on Pun's and Tragedy's albums in the very late 90's/2000 to now, I think he's paid enough dues to be able to charge that type of crazy money.

(And yes, the large amount money and the Internet have plenty to do with the bullshit production/music that comes out today).

[heBAY]

A great example of this shit is the new 50 Cent joint "I Get Money"...the beat actually sounds good on some quick listen, bump in the whip shit. But the drums are from Cassidy's "I'm A Hustler" (at least the snare is)...in other words someone sampled Swizz's drums and used them in the exact same manner...then put a heavy saw-type synth over 'em. Viola...50 Cent single.

I hate that about new Hip Hop producers these days...cats just want to make a dollar from being a hit...want to be featured on the E Network or MTV Cribs cause they believe that's real life. So they take elements off of someone else's hit and figure if it worked once, it can work again...and the problem is with these uneducated-through-media/corporate-force-feeding listeners...it DOES work because nobody knows what integrity is.

Okay vent over.

[naturaljax]

man since OiNK has gone down I've had a hard time find good places to download singles that include the instrumental, vocal, and combined tracks (forget the technical term...)

anyone have any good reccomendations?

[emceedrive]

Seeing how theres people into djing, rapping, art, and obviously clothes, it seems natural that there should be some beat-makers on sufu.....post some of your work and what you used to make it for everyone else to feed and be impressed by

soundclick.com/emceedrivebeats

start at the top, its much prettier than the bottom few beats

leave some feedback

[keagan]

http://www.junodownload.com/artists/Keagen/

uhgdfhh

fhfh

[mrjameskent]

Hey,

Haven't seen a thread on this for a while, interested to see who's producing their own music, what your using etc.

I've just finished a rough mix of my first track, using Ableton Live 7.

january 2008 - james kent.m4a - 12.91MB

J

[poshpol]

hey i used to produce quite a bit in the past, but lately i havent had too much time to dabble in my own stuff. i still work in the field, so im pretty qualified to give technical advice if ever u need some help with whatever.

most recently i was doing some minimal house stuff for a local label. my home setup is mostly soft based but with some decent hardware. MOTU 828 MKII, old school JBL passive monitors with Bryston amp. Running Cubase SX with plug ins. other gear includes mics, Kawai K4, roland tr 505 (ghetto), and more crap i cant think of now.

[arcticfox]

Hey,

Haven't seen a thread on this for a while, interested to see who's producing their own music, what your using etc.

Yeah, its not as if anybody was posting on this thread all of just yesterday...

http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=45234

[ghostdeini]

someone I know is offering me a barely used (<20 times) microkorg with a USB midi adapter and an 8 foot RCA cable. I know relatively little about synthesizers but studied piano for ~10 years growing up and am interested in dabbling in music (particularly electronic music) again. at under $400 I can afford this piece of hardware. so... should I go for it? I've heard good things and it looks like it's loaded with features

[keagan]

mircokorgs are the MIM strats of SYNTHESIZERS.

boring as hell every single preset has been rinsed to fucking oblivion

[ghostdeini]

oooookay... care to suggest anything better in the same price range? because it's looking like I might be able to snag the microkorg for $300 flat and that is a steal. also I'm not looking to make MASSIV CHOONS, but rather entertain myself and friends at home... so I don't really care if the presets are played out

[heBAY]

I'd get a MicroKORG just to throw threw a few pedals and shit. That's just me though. I'm not going to use it for dance music or the like.

[Guest larry]

I'd say go for the microkorg. Not like its alot of money and it could be a stepping stone on to other things once you get the hang of it.

[jeepster]

oooookay... care to suggest anything better in the same price range? because it's looking like I might be able to snag the microkorg for $300 flat and that is a steal. also I'm not looking to make MASSIV CHOONS, but rather entertain myself and friends at home... so I don't really care if the presets are played out

isn't a brand new one like $350? Not much of a bargain.

Just get some old ass keyboards off of ebay and grab some distortion pedals as well. More interesting.

[altwaev]

oooookay... care to suggest anything better in the same price range? because it's looking like I might be able to snag the microkorg for $300 flat and that is a steal. also I'm not looking to make MASSIV CHOONS, but rather entertain myself and friends at home... so I don't really care if the presets are played out

if you're thinking about playing live or recording on a 4track or something, the built in sounds of the microkorg would be nice to have...

otherwise, the sounds are pretty useless and you'll only be using the microkorg as a midi controller to your audio program. For $200 to $250 you can get a MUCH nicer midi controller that has full size keys, some pads and sliders, and built in USB.

i had a microkorg for almost 4 years. i just sold it to get an M-audio axiom; now i have more controls and money left over.

[ghostdeini]

yeah I got in touch with the dude selling the microkorg and he's $350 FIRM. sooo with that in mind, I began considering just buying a brand new one since it comes with a warranty. and THEN, I read what this dude had to say:

if you're thinking about playing live or recording on a 4track or something, the built in sounds of the microkorg would be nice to have...

otherwise, the sounds are pretty useless and you'll only be using the microkorg as a midi controller to your audio program. For $200 to $250 you can get a MUCH nicer midi controller that has full size keys, some pads and sliders, and built in USB.

i had a microkorg for almost 4 years. i just sold it to get an M-audio axiom; now i have more controls and money left over.

I'm really just looking to fart around with a fairly powerful synth (which explains why I was looking for something as feature-packed as the microkorg) but with an easy learning curve. this is my first synth ever and I'm looking for a piece of hardware that allows me plenty of room to experiment with -- full-size keys would be VERY nice, now that it's been mentioned -- and doesn't really break the bank.

also I liked the microkorg's ability to have an audio IN so you could manipulate that source with the microkorg... I am also liking the look of the microkorg and the hardware-based sounds, rather than relying on software (which is a process in itself to learn) to create music -- or can I accomplish this with another keyboard?

[Double D]

Fuck hardware if you've only got that kind of budget. Absynth and a good MIDI controller will blow any hardware in that price range out of the water... bear in mind that most software synths can be run as standalone apps and so the learning curve is no different to a synth (and a hell of a lot easier when you consider the amount of visual feedback you get on soft synths).

If you're hell bent on buying a hardware synth to have some fun with I'd seriously consider going vintage... 80s Roland synths are pretty cheap and sound fat as hell compared to their modern cousins.

[heBAY]

Fuck hardware if you've only got that kind of budget. Absynth and a good MIDI controller will blow any hardware in that price range out of the water... bear in mind that most software synths can be run as standalone apps and so the learning curve is no different to a synth (and a hell of a lot easier when you consider the amount of visual feedback you get on soft synths).

If you're hell bent on buying a hardware synth to have some fun with I'd seriously consider going vintage... 80s Roland synths are pretty cheap and sound fat as hell compared to their modern cousins.

Pretty much agreed...esp. on the vintage route. Most old school synths do not grow in resale value overtime, therefore a "crazy deal" is right around the corner if you search smart enough.

[Quinnskimo]

Does anyone know of a good program where you can compose your own sheet music and get some sort of playback? I remember way back in the day in middle school or something dicking around in the computer labs where you could basically set your time signature, key, and tempo, and then just decide what type of note you want and what instrument plays it, place it on the clef, and then you could play it back. I remember everything sounding like shit, but damn, that would be a great way to start putting music together.

[martinj]

Does anyone know of a good program where you can compose your own sheet music and get some sort of playback? I remember way back in the day in middle school or something dicking around in the computer labs where you could basically set your time signature, key, and tempo, and then just decide what type of note you want and what instrument plays it, place it on the clef, and then you could play it back. I remember everything sounding like shit, but damn, that would be a great way to start putting music together.

Sibelius and Finale are the big ones,

I use Sibelius 5 but you dont need that expensive ones. I think one of the cheaper Finale products would be great for you.

http://www.finalemusic.com/ http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

Finale and Sibelius imo are same level

http://www.finalemusic.com/songwriter/ 49 USD

[Quinnskimo]

not even close to the cheap-o old software i played with as a kid, but awesome suggestions. thank you.

[keagan]

guitar pro does intonation, it's like 60 bucks though. Logic pro does intonation too but I don't think thats what you want.

might wanna look at band in a box by NI. Its complete shit. But it's probably the closest to what you want.

[RFKorp]

I just realized I've never participated in this thread. And it's absolutely boggling my mind how I didn't notice it. I've got a lot of detailed opinions that could respond to specific points from months ago. But I'm just gonna make a long personal post instead.

On a PC, your editing needs are covered beautifully by a combination of Vegas for multi-tracking and Soundforge for single track editing. The programs are both excellent and talk very well to each other.

On a mac, I recommend a similarly structured combination of Digital Performer and Peak. DP is a fantastic program. I'd do all my work in it if I could. But I work professionally in a field where everyone lives and dies by ProTools. So I've gotta split my time so I don't get rusty on the other program. Which is a shame. Though ProTools is finally starting to get better maybe.

I'll also say Logic is a pretty great program too for multi-track editing and sequencing and all that. But I dunno. There's something a little less intuitive about it than DP for me. Others feel the opposite. I say try them out and decide for yourself.

Also of note: both Logic and DP will produce sheet music off of any midi data you record. So you'll have notes on a page as well as playback. But if you want to make PRETTY sheet music, you've gotta get a copy of Sibelius. I've made some seriously silly experimental scores using that program. Big white spaces, staves with too many lines, whatever. It can customize to lay out your notes in whatever manner you think communicates them to a performer. Also, although I haven't confirmed this for sure, I think the latest version of Sibelius will sync up with other high end sample libraries like the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and shit and you can make the playback from that program sound pretty hot even if still a bit mechanical.

Now... onto more performative software. I use Live a lot as a sound playback system in theater. Very customizable and controllable if you're just playing things back and need them to loop and need these to stop when that starts and this to auto-follow that and whatever. The other thing it is AMAZING at is working as a live signal processor. Feed it audio from some external mic or instrument or whatever, load it up with plugins on lots of effect send channels, and you can do some amazing work. I made a shitton of recordings that way between 2004 and 2007. It eventually got a little old as a primary shtick but it's still a valuable tool in my arsenal.

Then there are the REALLY customizable programs. Supercollider, Max/MSP, Reaktor, etc. I love what Max is capable of but it's not the most user friendly program unless you're already into PROGRAMMING. Reaktor for example on the other hand is much more graphically intuitive. And not quite as infinitely capable. But there's also one other very important difference. The audio that Max outputs sort of sounds like crap. Very cold and digital. Which sometimes is what you might want. But it has none of the warmth one tends to be looking for when making a software synth. Reaktor on the other hand produces that sound very well.

And lastly, re: the epic mac vs pc debate that can never help but happen. Let me say this... my IBM Thinkpad held up to anything I threw at it. I mixed some insanely processor heavy shit on there and it didn't miss a beat. Sure, I completely fried my motherboard after 2 years but that's what the warrantee is for. My Macbook Pro couldn't handle SHIT. Everything crashes and shuts down under the same pressure that the Thinkpad handled like a champ. If you're willing to shell out the dough, the Mac Pro that I use for work lately blows the rest of it out of the water, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could build a PC that does it just as well for less money.

And I couldn't figure out where to put this in so I'll tag it onto the end of the post, but I've lately been using EZDrummer in order to program drum parts on music when I know that I don't have the right kit or style to set up mics and play them myself. Pretty excellent piece of software.

[Guest larry]

Good advice there.

Myself, I tend to avoid giving what to buy advice as I was on that round about myself at one stage and its really something you have to figure out on your own and part of the fun.

Out of interest, my current setup is logic, metric halo channel strip on every track, psp vintage warmer, battery and circle, in combination with some old analog synths and pedals. Find that I'm using soft synths more and more though, just for the connivence sake.

[keagan]

do you like circle?

im afraid to try it. everyone says its seepeeyou heavy.

[Guest larry]

Yeah, it can be heavy, its in ni massive territory. I avoid the more complex presets as they are abit too signature anyway and just program my own which is where circle comes into its own.

I like whats going on here:

http://www.futureaudioworkshop.com/circle/effects/

[Double D]

MaxMSP is pure sex. Far too easy to waste away three hours creating a crazy system that in the end produces a completely useless cacophony though. Most useful for creating new plugins to run in Pluggo in my opinion, great for creating barmy delays and granular slices.

Never looked into Circle, I'm so behind the times at the moment with all this new software.

[martinj]

not even close to the cheap-o old software i played with as a kid, but awesome suggestions. thank you.

What did you use? Those apps (more expensive ones) are extremely good imo....can't see what they are missing,

[Double D]

Had a play with Circle yesterday... sounds fucking naughty.

[Quinnskimo]

Wow. It seems we have a lot of people here with quite a bit of musical knowledge. I was hoping one of you would help identify an instrument sound for me. I'm looking for an extremely deep and resonant drum sound, pretty much on par with the song "Sunday Noises" from this link: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=43096393

Any input for getting a sound like this, or something close to this would be much appreciated. As you can tell, very little attack, HUGE decay/resonance, VERY deep. Soft mallet on...what? I'm no percussionist.