producing tunes...but which software?!

[sebirepsax]

Hello

say i wanted to try and produce my own tunes, what program should i use? preferably freeware...but just tell me what you consider best for a beginner.

Thanks

s

[shudder]

if you're after freeware your best bet is a tracker. jon (the carp dreamer) knows more about trackers than me, because i think they're "teh shitecore".

free software i would recommend you czech out:

rebirth - since propellerheads stopped producing it they've made it a free iso download, go here: www.rebirthmuseum.com (http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/)

you can also get various bits of free music production software from www.hitsquad.com/smm/ (http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/).

..and that's about it.

if you don't mind investing in some software i would recommend you get:

reason v3
acid (any version will do. i use acid pro 1, the recent versions by sony have video editing tools and other useless things like that. you can download acid xpress which is free and limited to a few channels, but it'll give you an idea of what to expect from it)
fl studio 5
soundforge

any questions?

[Emmet]

Reason is a great studoi all in one package for the first timer.

Acid Xpress..yup, yup yup for messing around with yer audio.

I live by the bible that is Cubase, have a look at Cubase SE for the most cut down version.

People swear by different software packages; Cubase, Reason, Logic, DP etc..everyone has their own preference and to be honest in this day and age theres nothing pretty much wrong with any of them.

Have fun.

[shudder]

agreed. no one can really tell you what software to use, you just have to try and combine everything until you're happy with what works best for you.

trackers are shit though.

[Leon]

About Acid. I have Acid Pro 4.0. I use Reason to make my tracks, but would like to do the build up and stuff in Acid Pro. But when I Save loops in Reason, they (of course) get cut off at the end of the loop. Is there some other way to do it, like I can connect Reason to Acid in some sort of way?
Thanks

[shudder]

you can set the looping parameters in the bottom right of reason. the default should be set to 9.

[Renze]

Cos no one has said it yet: Ableton Live is also a great producing tool. It's not free, but at least you can try the demo from www.ableton.com (http://www.ableton.com) and see if you like it. It supports VST instruments and effects and tons of free VSTs can be found at www.kvraudio.com (http://www.kvraudio.com)

[thee carp dreamer]

i make all my wav files in wordpad

[thee carp dreamer]

ok, i use an awesome program called jeskola buzz. www.buzzmachines.com
it's a tracker. a lot of people are shit-scared of trackers cos they require something called knowledge (ain't that right, ben? p.s. i may be in bedford for your gig, but then again i may not. haven't decided yet.)

trackers go down the page, whereas sequencers and other such programs go across the page.

you program the synths and drum machines using 1s and 0s. also you can add loops and samples that don't come from machines using samplers and loopers.

you connect them up to effects, which you also program using 1s and 0s.
good things to do with effects: compress the fuck out of the drums, delay the shit out of the synths, eq the bass so it sounds like jah wobble doing a fart, and compress royally any 303s you might have gurgling around in the mix.

you then connect them up to the master, and record into acid pro 5.0, where you will then edit out your fuck-ups and add any additional shizzle.

then you eq it properly and master it using hardware/software/whatever.

it's taken me roughly 5 years of hardcore experimentation to work out how to use trackers properly, but they're much better for producing live by entering lines of code while you're playing and fucking around with the effects.

[Future Proof]

I'd recommend d/l'ing Reason's demo. Unfortunately you're going to have to make some kind of monetary investment to find out if this is something you'll want to really dive into, but Reason's demo should at least give you a secure feeling on buying the program.

And why Reason? It has everything you'll need in it -- synthesizers, samplers, loop devices, drum machines, effects, and the ability to sequence out your music and export it. I've been making the next step out of it but the next step is a $200 drum sampler (Battery 2), a $700 sequencing program (Cubase SX 3.0) and Reaktor 5, which runs at about $350. But then again, that's pretty much a drop in the bucket compared to what I've already spent...

Good luck, let us know if you have more questions.

[shudder]

excuse me prof. shitface of the university of shut the fuck up. trackers (especially buzz) are cheapy things that love to crash whereas with sequencers you can make pretty shapes with blocks and pass it off as music.

if you come to my gig i'll buy you a pint of red stripe, as long as you promise to neck it and be my bitch.

[holden]

Fruity Loops 5 gives you a lot for freeware.
Acid XPress in a pinch, though it's quite limited (i have Acid 5.0, so it's hard to go back to basics).

There's scores of lil drum machines out there if you just want to fool around with sounds. Stuff like Hammerhead, AnalogX, etc.

[thee carp dreamer]

excuse me prof. shitface of the university of shut the fuck up. trackers (especially buzz) are cheapy things that love to crash whereas with sequencers you can make pretty shapes with blocks and pass it off as music.

if you come to my gig i'll buy you a pint of red stripe, as long as you promise to neck it and be my bitch.

1) i made my own alterations to buzz, and it hasn't crashed since. that's cos i rock.

2) university rocks. all the girls get freaky constantly.

3) red stripe, eh? how very men-behaving-badly of you. :cool: and yea, i'll probably be there, and possibly take some hooligans along. maybe.

[shudder]

you wont bring anyone with you, you have no friends. how else would you have time to make 40 minute tracks?!

[Professor]

i use live and reaktor and some outboard gear and record into protools. it's a dark path. i suggest getting all the demos you can get your hands on and see what's comfortable. get friendly with one and save your money till you are ready to spend it. cus you will have to spend it sometime if you are serious.

[shudder]

how the hell does reaktor work? i saw a video of exile playing live off it and it sounded sweet so i downloaded a demo but i gave up after about 30 nano seconds. it just looks like a glorified tracker - ?

[thee carp dreamer]

you wont bring anyone with you, you have no friends. how else would you have time to make 40 minute tracks?!

you just wish you could write tracks that last longer than 3 mins 30.
;)

[shudder]

my last track was 3:48 so fuck you.

[Renze]

OK, I take it you don't have a professional or prosumer soundcard. You don't need one if you're just starting out, but I recommend getting the ASIO4ALL drivers for your crappy AC'97 or SoundBlaster Live (or whatever you use). You can download them at www.asio4all.com (http://www.asio4all.com). They're better drivers for use in software such as Reason, Live, Cubase etc.
Eventually though, an upgrade to a better soundcard is a good idea.

[Future Proof]

excuse me prof. shitface of the university of shut the fuck up. trackers (especially buzz) are cheapy things that love to crash whereas with sequencers you can make pretty shapes with blocks and pass it off as music.

if you come to my gig i'll buy you a pint of red stripe, as long as you promise to neck it and be my bitch.

PWNED!!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!1!1!!!!!

[adam]

I didn't think he was old enough to buy booze.

[thee carp dreamer]

I didn't think he was old enough to buy booze.

mate, i'm not a yank. ;)

anyway, yea. LOL JIMMY WTF BBQ>???!!!!!11

so, ben. are you actually playing live this time, or pretending to do stuff again? :D

[Leon]

Dude, good times.

Anyway, I'm way too fucking lazy and stupid to try to understand Jeskola Buzz. But I think this would be a program you'd like to use. It's free and it offers very much. I guess it takes some time to find out all the features, but if you know how to deal with it, it's great.

[shudder]

oh i'll be pressing buttons.

[shudder]

don't listen to leon trackers are evil.

[TheRev]

Trackers are for programmers that want to make music. So for some people they are more intuitive. Though if you come at music as a performer first then they don't make a whole lot of sense.

Personally I prefer the hands on appraoch that programs like Acid and Live offer.

Basically, if this is your first fooray into making any sort of music, get whatever you can get your hands on within your budget and just practice the art of making music. If you can perfect yourself as a musician, it won't matter what software / hardware you are using. They are all just conduits, like a trumpet or a saxophone is to a standard performer. One isn't better than the other per se, but one may be more comfortable to one person over another.

That said get yourself acquainted with a sequencer like Reason or Live because if you want to expand you'll be able to jump from those to something more complex than if you start off with a Tracker.

Nix all that if you come from a programming background though.

[thee carp dreamer]

by the way, i know fuck-all about programming. not a thing at all. just thought i'd mention that, incase anyone thought you had to have a phd in comuter science and programming before you can use a tracker.

but i agree with the idea that you should find as much software as possible, because sticking with one piece of software means that you will have a distictive sound that is obviously created in that software. i'm thinking of reason in particular.

[tiq]

i use reason 2.5 (i know this version is outdated and it isn't freeware)
you have many options, it's very versatile, it's easy to use and you can make it as big and extended as you'd like

[tonnerre]

i may be the only mac user on this entire thread, but I use Sound Studio by Felt Tip Software a lot. Prior to that was Cakewalk Metro but I think they discontinued it so it won't run on OSX?

[botkiller]

I use hardware - the roland groovebox 505, a tr-909, and some other machines - then on software I'm a fan of cubase SX and reason 3.0 with as many refills as you can muster, as the factory refill is crap. ableton is amazing, but I can't get myself to use it yet. if you wanna fool with some great sound design and have fun try out synth edit - www.synthedit.com (http://www.synthedit.com) - which is free, and as for trackers, my favourite is renoise, www.renoise.com (http://www.renoise.com). I love it, because you can use VST's in it (aphex twin has used it to make tracks, apparently), but you can do that in madtracker as well - www.madtracker.org - as of recent. both are free to use and have low registration fees. fruity loops is great, acid is fun for mixing. if you're looking to stay cost concious I'd suggest getting the free rebirth, renoise and some free vst's off of http://www.kvraudio.com/ . there's a lot of good stuff out there. as for hardware in your computer, I use an maudio audiophile 24/96 and I love that card, the ASIO is great and very low-latency, and it's cheap now, as it's "outdated". it's also nice to have a good external keyboard, such as Radium 61 key or something of that like.

you don't need to be a programmer to use this stuff - just spend some time learning.

there's really a lot of good free stuff out there, and I would suggest being careful about what you buy until you've tried it. Reason is great - but I hated it until 3.0, and I thought I'd wasted my money when I bought it at 2.0. Spend some time seeing what you like, what you want to drop money on. You might find that you're a hadware person, and it's better to direct your money the right way, of course.

i'm fooling with all this right now, and really liking what I'm doing, on average.

good luck!

[Biopharmer]

I have FL Studio 6.0, producer edition. And it is boss.
Get some software synths to go with it though, like the FM7 by Native Instruments, or the Minimoog v, by Arturia
(I own all of the above)

[King of Snake]

I haven't used it myself but I've head some good things about Mackie's Traktion. Which is basically a sequencer in the cubase sense (rather than a tracker) but only costs about $150

link (http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion2/index.html)


Myself I use Cubase SL 2, of which i bought second hand for about 150 Euro, so that's not too bad either. I use this in conjunction with a Creamware Scope system, some VSTi's (Battery, Albino 2, ImpOscar) and a Nord Rack II.

[Cadevil]

I haven't used it myself but I've head some good things about Mackie's Traktion. Which is basically a sequencer in the cubase sense (rather than a tracker) but only costs about $150

link (http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion2/index.html)


Myself I use Cubase SL 2, of which i bought second hand for about 150 Euro, so that's not too bad either. I use this in conjunction with a Creamware Scope system, some VSTi's (Battery, Albino 2, ImpOscar) and a Nord Rack II.

Anyone use this program rewired with Reason?...looks to be perfect for those Reason users who want VST integration. :eek:

[King of Snake]

well I don't use it but yes, ReWire into Cubase should work perfectly. I used to ReWire ReBirth into Cubase VST all the time.

[Cadevil]

Sorry, I meant Traktion 2...

I've seen mixed reviews about this program. I've been using exclusively Reason 3.0 to make music...with some outside recordings via Adobe Audition. Always looking to expand (with an eye on cost) into a better sequencer and VST support would be nice...Eventually want better harware as well...currently on M-audio Ozone

[splattered123]

What Reason Refills do you suggest?

I saw Drumkits v 2.0... any good?

What else is decent out there?

[adam]

I don't really care for Reason any more. Live, and Battery 2. Battery 2 is so worth the money.

[Future Proof]

Once you Rewire Reason into a DAW like Cubase or Live5, Reason becomes a much better piece of software. All of Reason's modules are adequately made but the stand-alone program's sound engine is so crappy that at first listen you'd be convinced that Battery or Reaktor is way better. But once you route the audio into Cubase and let Cubase handle the signal processing, the sound quality makes a noticeable jump.

In all, I'm very happy that I own the software packages that I do (Reason, Cubase, Reaktor 5, Battery 2, Live5) and I recommend buying what you can, the more the merrier. I'm also happy with my choice to purchase Live5 after already buying Cubase; even though Cubase has better sound quality (IMHO), Live5 is easier to write and compose in and since I do a broad mix of engineering, split 50/50 between organic recording and playing and sequencing, each DAW has its place in my arsenal and paradigms towards music.

[Camiel]

I use Ableton Live to produce music. I find it very intuitive. The funny thing is, that I can create my tracks with only a sh101, MS2000 and drum (and loop)samples. No need for a rompler or something. I even have limited my gear. Anyone interested in a sequential circuits multitrak?

[verbal]

I use Ableton Live to produce music. I find it very intuitive. The funny thing is, that I can create my tracks with only a sh101, MS2000 and drum (and loop)samples. No need for a rompler or something. I even have limited my gear. Anyone interested in a sequential circuits multitrak?

Did you learn it with the manual? Just played with it? Seperate book?

I've been playing with borrowed copies of Live and Reason to see if I want to drop the cash on them. They're both worthy and will be purchased in the near future. I'm just trying to decide which to get first. :)

[Camiel]

Just playing with it. The help function is useful and I've used an ableton special from a mag.

[holden]

Q: has anyone used Cakewalk Plasma? i've used its samples and loops, but found the interface difficult. Acid seems much friendlier. And also, how's the demo for Ableton? Is it one of these limited time demos or one with minimal capabilities? i'd rather the latter just for fooling around...hatew it when freeware expires;)