Guitar, voice, imagination. Next I write a few notes and lyrics on paper. Then I start to record for real...
Thanks for sharing your story.
Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#32Ableton 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
Did you watch the clip I posted tho? Using the session view, I can prototype really quickly by recording simple loops. I used to use lots of other tools, but I am so much faster with the session view. I can record things in parts and then move them around to see if I like what I'm hearing. Very organic.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#33Logic or Digital Performer on the mac, Cubase on PC. If you're very score-centric, Sibelius. Buy a quality audio interface with MIDI ports. Not cheap, but the only way to get genuinely high quality MIDI and score editing. Trackers are a crutch for people without a musical education and simply aren't sophisticated enough. They represent music mechanically, using an abstraction that collapses in the face of something a…
There's a delay column in Renoise that make triplets trivial. The Lua API and users writing scripts, such as this "Fractional Notes Generator" makes it even more trivial: http://www.renoise.com/board/index.php?/topic/28248-allow-fl... I thought this was hacker news were people actually knew how to code? Musically educated in what? Last time I checked we're not troubadours performing occitan lyric poetry in the high m…
Musically educated in what? Music. Not genre-based electronic music, but music in it's broadest sense - from bebop to Bulgarian folk music, from Stravinsky to Stockhausen, from Abba to Zappa.
I write music for sync. I need things like timecode support, which is a weird niche thing, but also things like tempo and time signature maps, which aren't.
In a proper sequencer, I can play in a phrase, then instantly quantise it to any time signature and any tuplet I want. Septuplets in 9/8 are no more difficult than straight eights in 4/4. The grid in my piano roll display will conform to my chosen timing, as will the output of my score editor. I can draw in a series of gradual tempo changes to an automation channel, or extract tempo and groove from an audio or MIDI track to use as a tempo map. If that sounds like an exotic requirement, try arranging a piece in a tracker based around drums recorded without a click, or using a tracker to arrange a version of, say, "Anyone Who Had A Heart" by Burt Bacharach.
Trackers represent music in a way that is alien to people who can read classical notation and who have studied composition. Someone with a modicum of training can follow an orchestral score with dozens of parts, scanning the score in real time and picking out the harmonic progression and main melodic theme. That's simply not possible with a tracker, either using numerical or piano roll display. Not an issue if you make primitive electronic music, a cataclysmic failure if you deal with big, complicated arrangements.
Trackers are a toy. They're intolerably crude if you're a professional user who has deadlines to meet, but also intolerably crude if you're merely an amateur with musical training. Tracker users don't know what they're missing, overwhelmingly because they can't read or write music, have little understanding of musical theory and no experience of playing in ensemble with trained musicians.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#34Digital trackers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracker_(music_software) I have yet to find a faster way from idea to music. It's clunky to get into until you spend some time to learn the idea and build up a collection of music and wrap your brain around the entire concept, but it's a few decades old a very mature concept with tens of thousands of works created with this method. Here's a site that streams tracked musi…
Thanks for your comment. I am aware of digital trackers (I mentioned modplug), was even using FastTracker 2 back in the old days (but not for a long time). I like scene music, especially old school chip tunes. I heard about renoise before. I'll maybe try its trial version, but I doubt trackers are really what I am looking for as they lack proper recording feature (at least the ones I tried). Check also the comment in…
Yeah, it seems like you might have more of a desire for live performance tools. Maybe even something simple like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miMM8R1CSM8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25VGdNU3nrU
which can produce really great results.
And once you're happy with the results, "record" the individual parts with a midi tool so you have the notes down someplace for recall later.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a delay column in Renoise that make triplets trivial. The Lua API and users writing scripts, such as this "Fractional Notes Generator" makes it even more trivial: http://www.renoise.com/board/index.php?/topic/28248-allow-fl... I thought this was hacker news were people actually knew how to code? Musically educated in what? Last time I checked we're not troubadours performing occitan lyric poetry in the high m…
Musically educated in what? Music. Not genre-based electronic music, but music in it's broadest sense - from bebop to Bulgarian folk music, from Stravinsky to Stockhausen, from Abba to Zappa. I write music for sync. I need things like timecode support, which is a weird niche thing, but also things like tempo and time signature maps, which aren't. In a proper sequencer, I can play in a phrase, then instantly quantise…
Again, you are confusing "right tool for the job" with your silly prejudices.
Take me for example, I know Stockhausen because I studied him in my fine arts undergraduate degree in Electroacoustic studies at university.
To recap, the question was somewhere along the lines of "how do you prototype music, I have a casio?" not "how do you write a serialist score for a chamber ensemble?"
Even then, The Linux Laptop Orchestra based in the music department at Virgina Tech uses trackers. Of course this isn't the score to Star Wars and a house in Malibu; it is very left field stuff, but it can't be denied that this is serious contemporary practice for anyone in the know.
Regards,
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
Did you watch the clip I posted tho? Using the session view, I can prototype really quickly by recording simple loops. I used to use lots of other tools, but I am so much faster with the session view. I can record things in parts and then move them around to see if I like what I'm hearing. Very organic.
Sorry, I did not, as I am short on time recently. I have done it just now in speeded up way and indeed, session view looks quite interesting and useful for music prototyping (assuming you already clearly know what to play, doesn't look equally good for trial and error method).
Thank you for being stubborn and convincing me about AL usefulness. I won't spend 350EUR on it, though.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Musically educated in what? Music. Not genre-based electronic music, but music in it's broadest sense - from bebop to Bulgarian folk music, from Stravinsky to Stockhausen, from Abba to Zappa. I write music for sync. I need things like timecode support, which is a weird niche thing, but also things like tempo and time signature maps, which aren't. In a proper sequencer, I can play in a phrase, then instantly quantise…
Again, you are confusing "right tool for the job" with your silly prejudices. Take me for example, I know Stockhausen because I studied him in my fine arts undergraduate degree in Electroacoustic studies at university. To recap, the question was somewhere along the lines of "how do you prototype music, I have a casio?" not "how do you write a serialist score for a chamber ensemble?" Even then, The Linux Laptop Orches…
Thank you conner_bw and jdietrich for covering topic a bit more deeply here. I am open-minded and I like discussions from various PoV. Even if I am only a guy with casio (somehow it sounded like a really lame thing, is it? :>), I happily get to know more about professional-like stuff, as I am perfectionist deep in my heart. But I also almost always try to find the most effective way of what I am doing (and often this finding part takes more time than doing the job, oh well...), like writing scripts for one-time task that could be done quicker by hand, etc.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you watch the clip I posted tho? Using the session view, I can prototype really quickly by recording simple loops. I used to use lots of other tools, but I am so much faster with the session view. I can record things in parts and then move them around to see if I like what I'm hearing. Very organic.
Sorry, I did not, as I am short on time recently. I have done it just now in speeded up way and indeed, session view looks quite interesting and useful for music prototyping (assuming you already clearly know what to play, doesn't look equally good for trial and error method). Thank you for being stubborn and convincing me about AL usefulness. I won't spend 350EUR on it, though.
No problem. And depending on the USB midi input controller you get, you might be able to get a free LE (limited edition) copy with it.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for your comment. I am aware of digital trackers (I mentioned modplug), was even using FastTracker 2 back in the old days (but not for a long time). I like scene music, especially old school chip tunes. I heard about renoise before. I'll maybe try its trial version, but I doubt trackers are really what I am looking for as they lack proper recording feature (at least the ones I tried). Check also the comment in…
Yeah, it seems like you might have more of a desire for live performance tools. Maybe even something simple like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miMM8R1CSM8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25VGdNU3nrU which can produce really great results. And once you're happy with the results, "record" the individual parts with a midi tool so you have the notes down someplace for recall later.
Thanks for your comment. Maybe you're right. These YT examples are really nice. Even though I can hum or sign accurately (thus this has clear advantage over playing), I am more inclined in getting track of my melodies early (i.e. what I am actually crafting, is it F#, G or G# scale, etc.), so I don't think voice-way is the right solution (maybe I'm wrong, as it would be more efficient assuming good recording and looping devices, still it's not that good for every kind of music), but definitely interesting one.
Re: Ask HN: What are your music prototyping solutions?
#40Digital trackers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracker_(music_software) I have yet to find a faster way from idea to music. It's clunky to get into until you spend some time to learn the idea and build up a collection of music and wrap your brain around the entire concept, but it's a few decades old a very mature concept with tens of thousands of works created with this method. Here's a site that streams tracked musi…
+1 for Renoise. I've heard some awesome compositions made on it, and it's the natural evolution of demoscene trackers. For a sample, see the following video with the track 'Leandi' by Mosaik (a fairly known demoscene musician): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N-f4sSU75I
Thanks for comment. Tracker evolution is a good thing, but somehow recent works from trackers sounding like from DAWs/sequencers, with MBs of samples per instrument, etc. are not what I am looking in them. Back then you had .xm, several KBs total, with 4 tracks and listening experience could be ecstatic. Now you can have quality-wise perfect tune, more complex with dozen tracks, but the spirit is not there IMO. I am not saying that you cannot use trackers for some serious stuff, but for me they will be mostly only tools for old school projects.
Renoise is not a tracker, or pure-tracker-alone software, so it is kind of different beast.