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Get Started Making Music

learningmusic.ableton.com

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Re: Get Started Making Music

#171

Post by discohead »

flavor8 wrote: post #131

I got into programming as a kid through a desire to make music (my first program was a "song" written in pascal, playing a series beep tones at different frequencies and durations.) I got into trackers (fast, impulse, buzz) in my teens, and then synths. These days I have a strong preference towards "hardware"* only music making -- I spend most of my waking life staring at a screen, so I find it satisfying to step awa…

My story is similar to yours. I've just recently gone from 100% hardware to a more hybrid setup. I found that while I was having more fun with the hardware setup I wasn't finishing songs. Personally, I still need a computer to do editing and arranging. My new setup is a small eurorack skiff, Bitwig 3 and NI Maschine Mk3/Jam/S49 Mk2 w/ Komplete Ultimate. The integration between NI hardware and Maschine/Komplete Kontrol is amazing, feels like the best of both worlds. I'm definitely considering the Push 2 for Bitwig, although the Maschine Jam does a pretty good job as Bitwig controller.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#172

Post by romaniv »

munificent wrote: post #161
flavor8 wrote: post #131

I got into programming as a kid through a desire to make music (my first program was a "song" written in pascal, playing a series beep tones at different frequencies and durations.) I got into trackers (fast, impulse, buzz) in my teens, and then synths. These days I have a strong preference towards "hardware"* only music making -- I spend most of my waking life staring at a screen, so I find it satisfying to step awa…

I'm getting back into making electronic music now and I've agonized over where to go the software/computer/DAW route or hardware/groovebox/sequencer. Right now, I'm doing it all on a computer using Reason and a very nice MIDI controller (Arturia KeyLab 61 mkii The main things I like about doing it all on a computer are: * Great screen and interface. It's easy to drag and drop and see the composition visually. Boxes l…

>Any thoughts on how to dip my toes in the water with hardware to see if that's a better fit?

How much money is "dip my toes"? If you're talking less than a hundred bucks for some cool toys, you can buy Korg Volca and one of PO-x0 series from Teenage Engineering.

If you're thinking $500+ you can get something like Alesis Micron (designed by Bret Victor, BTW) or Korg Electribe, or Elektron Model:Sample. If you're fine with real-time recording, you can instead get something like Behringer Neutron or Kors Minilogue. You can make entire tracks on those even if all you have is a linear recorder.

If you're in ~$1000+ range you can buy Analog Four or OP-1. The former is a very practical machine, the latter is a marvel of design, very fun and great for experiments.

Or you could go for a workstation. FA-06 has pretty good UX, although it's closer to DAW-on-a-keyboard than other things I mentioned here.

Find a device you like and learn it inside out. It's a very rewarding experience. Also, try to buy a used device. You can save tons of money this way.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#173

Post by discohead »

WarDores wrote: post #158
flavor8 wrote: post #131

I got into programming as a kid through a desire to make music (my first program was a "song" written in pascal, playing a series beep tones at different frequencies and durations.) I got into trackers (fast, impulse, buzz) in my teens, and then synths. These days I have a strong preference towards "hardware"* only music making -- I spend most of my waking life staring at a screen, so I find it satisfying to step awa…

I'm in the same boat. However, I love the flexibility of a DAW. My "hybrid" solution is the Ableton Push (small LCD screen, but not a monitor) and Komplete Kontrol S88 keyboard. Still get my soft synths, but I can do a ton without even looking at my monitor. I have both facing my window rather than my screen, and it's surprisingly easy to get in the flow.

Same here.. I went all in on NI, Maschine Mk3, Jam, S49 Mk2 and Komplete Ultimate. It feels like the best of both worlds. Step sequencing and arranging on the Jam is so nice.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#174

Post by PavlovsCat »

enqk wrote: post #119
vectorEQ wrote: post #118

prefer renoise, it's cheap and super easy to work with :D. Never actually liked the workflow of ableton (personal flavour i suppose), its audio engine is fairly decent, but imho for 500ish euros it costs to get the suite it's a bit expensive for what u get. Cubase has a much superior audio and processing engine like Logic Pro for mac users, and is in a similar pricing range. It has less quality built-in dps etc. ,but…

funnily enough, the founder/creator of renoise was working for Ableton in the early years of renoise

Is there a source for this? I never heard that before, though I know Renoise started out as a fork of NoiseTrekker so to speak:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renoise

> I started coding 2 years ago with this project, so I'm more musician than coder I started making music with protracker

https://web.archive.org/web/20020803155023/http://noerror.sc...

Re: Get Started Making Music

#175

Post by winternett »

romaniv wrote: post #172
munificent wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting back into making electronic music now and I've agonized over where to go the software/computer/DAW route or hardware/groovebox/sequencer. Right now, I'm doing it all on a computer using Reason and a very nice MIDI controller (Arturia KeyLab 61 mkii The main things I like about doing it all on a computer are: * Great screen and interface. It's easy to drag and drop and see the composition visually. Boxes l…

>Any thoughts on how to dip my toes in the water with hardware to see if that's a better fit? How much money is "dip my toes"? If you're talking less than a hundred bucks for some cool toys, you can buy Korg Volca and one of PO-x0 series from Teenage Engineering. If you're thinking $500+ you can get something like Alesis Micron (designed by Bret Victor, BTW) or Korg Electribe, or Elektron Model:Sample. If you're fine…

Using hardware now is like using a land line with a rotary phone to make phone calls... It's pretty outdated to use hardware unless it's a unique or live instrument. Also if you use Hardware, you end up with a lot of complications in terms of recording your music into digital format, and you'll likely lose the things you create because hardware can easily get lost, stolen, reset, etc... Hardware interfaces are nothing like modern software interfaces now, so you'll also be learning a lot of stuff, but not stuff that allows you to jump into the modern world of music production.

If you are just starting out, in my opinion, the best way to get into working things out is to just dive deep into a software based music DAW, you can try Garage Band or Fruity Loops, which have a slightly lower learning curve than other tools, there are also tons of tutorials on youtube. Ableton is a bit overdone and technical as a starting point, but then again, most valuable skills don't have very easy entry/starting points in life.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#176

Post by adwi »

romaniv wrote: post #172
munificent wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting back into making electronic music now and I've agonized over where to go the software/computer/DAW route or hardware/groovebox/sequencer. Right now, I'm doing it all on a computer using Reason and a very nice MIDI controller (Arturia KeyLab 61 mkii The main things I like about doing it all on a computer are: * Great screen and interface. It's easy to drag and drop and see the composition visually. Boxes l…

>Any thoughts on how to dip my toes in the water with hardware to see if that's a better fit? How much money is "dip my toes"? If you're talking less than a hundred bucks for some cool toys, you can buy Korg Volca and one of PO-x0 series from Teenage Engineering. If you're thinking $500+ you can get something like Alesis Micron (designed by Bret Victor, BTW) or Korg Electribe, or Elektron Model:Sample. If you're fine…

The OP1 is one of the most delightful, inspiring and shockingly deep instruments I’ve ever played, cannot recommend enough. I’m a software + acoustic instrument based guy but I find it indespensible.

When I was younger I was a serious musician but stepped away out of creative frustration. Getting a used OP1 on a whim many years later reignited that drive. It’s helped inspire writing my first full album—which isn’t “electronic” as most would associate with it, it’s just such an inspiring tool to get things started and make soundscapes and beats etc.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#177

Post by seph-reed »

seph-reed wrote: post #37
cubano wrote: post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

Just want you to know someone else agrees.

It's been kind of eating at me a bit. I want people to get into music, so what about this could feel so bad?

After a day of sitting on the thought, I think it's this: They come at it from the most over-glorified, super-high, angle. The place where all of the fame to talent ratio is wayyyy on the fame side. It's not that talented people don't loop, but there's already enough people falling into that music trap without it being literally the first thing they're introduced to musically.

Coming at it from drum loops first seems like a good way to ruin any chance a person had of being patient with the practice. Why work for years to hone in on an instrument when it sounds so much better to just play prefab loops?

Re: Get Started Making Music

#178

Post by brokenmachine »

space-dandy wrote: post #144
krn wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ableton is a different ballgame if you have the Push interface. Bitwig, started by former developers of Ableton, supports Ableton Push and many other MIDI controllers[1], and is probably the most advanced DAW for electronic music production currently available. It's not as popular as Ableton, because it's much newer and most people rarely switch DAWs they are used to. > Other than that Reaper needs a mention, it is…

I'm an owner of Bitwig and a huge fan; that being said I think it's more fair to say that Bitwig supports Ableton Push with a few asterisks. It is supported as far as the Bitwig scripting API can support it. The experience is not the same as using Push natively with Ableton.

What are the differences? Does the screen work?

I have a Push 2 with Ableton.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#180

Post by nineteen999 »

winternett wrote: post #175
romaniv wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Any thoughts on how to dip my toes in the water with hardware to see if that's a better fit? How much money is "dip my toes"? If you're talking less than a hundred bucks for some cool toys, you can buy Korg Volca and one of PO-x0 series from Teenage Engineering. If you're thinking $500+ you can get something like Alesis Micron (designed by Bret Victor, BTW) or Korg Electribe, or Elektron Model:Sample. If you're fine…

Using hardware now is like using a land line with a rotary phone to make phone calls... It's pretty outdated to use hardware unless it's a unique or live instrument. Also if you use Hardware, you end up with a lot of complications in terms of recording your music into digital format, and you'll likely lose the things you create because hardware can easily get lost, stolen, reset, etc... Hardware interfaces are nothin…

Jeepers, I know your comment is coming from an electronic music mindset, but to those who learned audio engineering by setting up drum kits, amplifiers, pianos and mic'ing them by hand are probably having a bit of a chuckle at your "hardware" comment.

No malintention meant here, and as far as electronic instruments go I agree with what you're saying, I just know several drummers and guitar players who would by quite incensed by the comparison with their instruments to rotary phones.

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