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Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#21

Post by przemoc »

jodoherty wrote: post #4

I use a little Akai LPK25 keyboard (fits perfectly right above my computer keyboard, so I just reach up a little to play) with seq24 for editing/recording MIDI notes and zynaddsubfx as a synthesizer on Linux. It's a straightforward, simple, and clean setup. Notes in seq24 are displayed in piano-roll format, and you can compose looping patterns that you can then combine into song patterns. I'll also use an electric gu…

Didn't know there is such USB keyboard (but I felt that there should be something like that). Thanks for informing me about it and apps I didn't know before.

Two octaves (actually almost three) I could easily get on computer keyboard (not that convenient, I know), so it doesn't look that useful to me, also because 2 octaves are not enough for most of two-hand plays.

So Renoise has computer keyboard as music keyboard mode? Good to know. I'll have to check it whether it works as I would like it too.

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#22

Post by przemoc »

seagaia wrote: post #11

If you absolutely can't spend money on anything, I'd go with PxTone for bare-bones prototyping. It runs on Wine. It is point-and-click tracker. http://buzinkai.net/PXTone/tutorial/ It's an incredibly lightweight tracker or whatever, and comes with preloaded instruments (basic chiptune-ish sounds). But when you're prototyping a song or trying to get an idea down really fast, you shouldn't worry too much about the inst…

Thanks for your comment. Point-and-click is not what I am looking for (at least for input stage), but I'll look at it later. It's not that I cannot spend some money, but I would like to definitely avoid additional expenses (see also comment in my new thread).

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#23

Post by przemoc »

MostAwesomeDude wrote: post #3

I am a professional musician. For getting things typeset, I use Lilypond, and the two tools I use are vim and rumor. ( https://launchpad.net/rumor ) Very simple, but it gets the job done. For live performance, I have a USB keyboard and several voices in Csound ( http://www.csounds.com/ ) and run the whole thing through a keyboard amp. Cheap and effective.

Thank you for comment. Did not hear about rumor before. I'll have to definitely check this out, even though it's not suited for prototyping. I'll test Csound too.

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#24

Post by przemoc »

wanorris wrote: post #13

Another vote for the Akai LPK25 -- it's superportable, so it's easy either to keep right by your computer, or even to throw into a laptop bag and have along with you. Personally I like Sonar (the current generation Cakewalk) on Windows as a software solution. I can't speak to Linux solutions. I also keep some composition apps on my Android phone. If you really want to capture musical ideas wherever you are, a phone i…

Thanks for your comment. I don't have a smartphone, so I have to skip mobile solutions. :)

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#25

Post by przemoc »

meatsock wrote: post #8

the problem is finding a software sequencer you can get comfortable with. pick one and stick with it, and use it every day. don't give up on a track till you've spent an hour on it, as there's no better practice than finessing an idea you're not sold on to improvement (this will come in handy if you end up doing it for money). with an apt combination of keyboard shortcuts and smart combinations of presets, no amount…

Thank you for a good tip. Being good in anything usually requires spending some time on it. I'll possibly invest more time if I found that particular sequencer/tool that works as I would like it to and its workflow is convenient for me.

I'll check audiomulch later. What is PD?

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#26

Post by przemoc »

bphogan wrote: post #14

Ableton Live with the Session view is how I make my music. In fact, here's a stupid rough video of how I do my stuff. http://www.bphogan.com/files/videos/livesession.mov

Thanks for commenting. Ableton Live is undoubtedly a great software. AFAIK it's not suited for rapid prototyping.

Here is some nice stuff. Just in case somebody haven't seen it yet.

Making of "The Prodigy - Voodoo People" in Ableton by Jim Pavloff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZYLp5uX9Yw

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#27

Post by przemoc »

ltamake wrote: post #7

I have a Yamaha DGX-500 that I bought from a bloke at my office. It works great and is compatible with FL Studio. Saves about 5 songs, though.

Thanks for your comment. I know that some recent keyboards have memory for lot of songs, LCDs displaying recorded music and such, also USB port to store it on pendrive. It should be quite productive.

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#29

Post by przemoc »

symphonyapp wrote: post #12

If you have an iPad, check out: http://symphonypro.net . The app allows you to create and edit sheet music. There's a built in keyboard and a real-time recording feature. If you have a Core MIDI compatible device, you connect it to your iPad and input notes in real time from that as well. Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers

Thanks for slipping in. I don't have any Apple product.

(But I'll possibly buy some MacBook if there will be TrackPoint in it - sadly I feel it is quite unlikely to happen. I know there are others like me, though.)

Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?

#30

Post by przemoc »

troyal7562 wrote: post #16

The best solution, of course, is to develop this "sound recognition skill". While the amount of work it takes get there is significant, the benefits far exceed the mere ability to transcribe what is in your head. Most people think that the ability is magic, so that whe you develop this ability, people will think you are some kind of musical genius. It is similar to how the computer illiterate respond to programmers.…

Thank you for comment. Developing such skill would be awesome. I have some grasp of intervals (far from perfect), but not scales, so I have to find the first tone to properly continue. When I find the scale, it's easier to follow the melody, but I can never go error-free on first play real-time.

Do you have any tips about learning this skill efficiently, useful resources, etc.? If I could at least improve in a short time, I would consider investing my time into it.

I understand (a bit) your feel about writing on staff paper. But I was never able to quickly do it and preserve acceptable look of my scores.

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