Incinerator Drone

For that particular one I was using Ableton's Analog. I'm messing with the LFOs now, I see what you mean. Kind of amazed that I never noticed this before, I usually play with every little knob. Analog even has a section that says "Vibrato" right on it. I still think it would be nice to have a VST to use on some of my more limited plugins. I have a few that only have a small handful of knobs and I don't recall seeing LFO on those.

I'm trying to figure out what the difference between these two is, but it seems confusing, especially as (apparently) some manufacturers just kind of put whatever name they feel like on them? Can someone explain this to me? Anyway, I'm running Ableton Live 8 and it doesn't seem to contain either as an effect. What I am trying to do right now specifically is to get this: http://www.negativeworld.org/etc/sample1.mp3 To sound a bit more wobbly, like this: http://www.negativeworld.org/etc/sample2.mp3 I got it a tad wobbly using the synth controls, but I can't get any more with the synth itself so I'd live to pick up an effect that could do it. Plus I just managing stuff like this through effects anyway, and there are a billion other sounds in the music I make that I would like to use this type of effect on, so might as well find it. So with that said, does it matter if I go tremolo versus vibrato? And does anyone have any suggestions for a good VST effect? Preferably a free / cheap one?

I'm in the need of both a sound card and a mic (and a MIDI controller but putting that on hold for now.) I used to have an M-Audio Firewire sound card but... I had some trouble with it to be honest. Not sure if it was my machine or the sound card or the wire but almost every time I used it, it was very tough to get my computer to recognize it, and it would often short out mid-recording and I'd have to reboot my machine to get it recognized again. So I hesitate around M-Audio, but I'm willing to give them another shot if it's a generally good option. Right now I have an HP machine with Windows 7 and no firewire ports, so I'd probably be looking USB. I really don't want to spend over $200 or so. The major use will be recording guitars, but I want to record some vocals as well. I probably only need one port, not planning on recording multiple things at once. Any recommendations? I'm also a little confused about how a pre-amp fits into the overall equation. With my old M-Audio I had borrowed a pre-amp but I could never tell the difference between using it and not when I recorded guitars. I'm not doubting that they are important (I was probably just doing it wrong) but I don't "get" it. If this is something I will need I suppose I could use recommendations there as well. For the mic I was thinking of going with the seemingly well recommended (from another thread) SM58. http://www.zzounds.com/item--SHUSM58 This might be a dumb question, but as the mic comes with no cord, what kind of cord should I get with it? It'd be kind of silly to spend $100 on a mic and then screw up with buying the cord somehow.

Hmm my brother just recommended the Akai 49 to me. $400 retail. Could probably get it for cheaper but that's still a bit steep at the moment. Ah well. Better to make a good investment once than to buy a cheap one and have it suck and then break on me. Wish my car wasn't in the shop. I was doing pretty well financially until I decided to go grad school WHATWASITHINKING? He's also going to let me borrow his smaller maudio for a bit just to play around with it. Although he doesn't seem to like it much. But if I'm going to have to save up for something nice that might be awhile, so it'd be cool to have something to mess with in the meanwhile.

Oh yeah, octaves not frets. I did piano as a kid and then switched to guitars as a teenager, but of course I know the difference, brain just wasn't working. For the MIDI Controller sounds I understand that MIDI is just note data, but I kind of vaguely recall being in a band like 10 years ago where the keyboardist had a MIDI Controller that had on-board memory so he could load different sounds into it. Or maybe I was just confused about how it worked, I was just a guitarist then and didn't get too involved in what he was doing. Does this kind of MIDI Controller sound feasible or is it all in my head? I'm trying to cut down the amount of gear needed to play live in whatever ways possible. I don't believe that I will need drum pads. On the other hand, if they don't add significant cost it might be worth having. Hmm. Knobs to control sound on the fly sound pretty important for live playing. So yeah I realize everyone's needs are going to be different but do any of you guys at least have some recommendations of ones that work well for you? Right now I'm looking around and just seeing a billion that all kind of look the same to me.

What's up? Up until this point I've pretty much been doing all of my sequencing point and click style. But that's silly, I used to play piano, I know how to play the darn keyboard, so why don't I have a MIDI Controller yet? Good question. So I need to get one. I think I'd prefer one with a couple of frets. Not but I dunno... these 49 key ones look ok. Maybe even something bigger, if it won't break the bank. I'm currently running Ableton Live 8.2.2 on a Windows 7 machine, if that matters. And I don't have firewire or anything fancy, just plain ol' USB. First a few questions: 1. Does anyone play live with their MIDI Controller? Is this common or am I weird for wanting to do it? If I'm playing live do I need to have it hooked up to my computer or can I store a bunch of stuff on it and then plug right into a monitor or whatever? 2. Does running it straight into my laptop through USB make sense or do I need to get an external sound card and hook it up through there? (I'm probably planning on getting one soon anyway to record live guitars and vocals... maybe I should get that first? Or choose them together?) Anyway, thanks for any and all help.

Really? That's... interesting. And a huge knock against it, for me. How do people who use Reason utilize stuff that isn't built in, just build tracks separately outside of Reason and add them together later? So... clarify something for me. I'm working under the assumption that with a MIDI keyboard you can record live. Which is fine, if you're a spot on player. But you can also use it just to help track in some fashion without having to be spot on?

My friend didn't help with Ableton, in fact said friend has never used it, they just happened to have it because another friend installed it on their computer. I'm still trying to decide between Ableton and Reason, I have friends who use both and I'm trying to decide which of said friends would actually help me out versus the ones that are too busy/etc. to help much, heh. It's true that there is probably a lot Orion can do that I never bothered learning, but I'd still prefer to get something that is more standard when it comes to people making electronic music, and no one I talk to EVER uses Orion. So to clarify a bit more, I have done everything off of my laptop because I haven't really had spare time and money lately. Mostly because I have been in grad school for the last two years and paying out of pocket. But I'm almost finished and ready to get back into music! So I'd like to get a controller keyboard eventually and learn how to use it. I did play piano as a child and I still have some skills. Question: what do you mean by "hunting and pecking", I am not familiar with those terms. As for software costs though, that isn't as big of an issue because my brother is a label owner / producer and he gets a ton of free (legal) software and often passes it my way. I'd have to talk to him, but I think he can get me almost anything I want, if not for free than at least at a discount.

Well, to clarify a bit I know that my sound won't instantly change by switching, but there are a few things about Orion that I just don't like. For one, it crashes a fair amount and runs sketchy even when it doesn't crash. But from a user interface standpoint, it just seems lacking. I was messing with Ableton on a friend's computer and in like 20 minutes I was able to do some stuff with volume and effects and the likes that on Orion is a huge hassle (at least as far as I know.) So maybe I'm mostly just looking for something that makes more intuitive sense to me. I also think it would help to use something that is more "standard" because whenever I try to find help with Orion, no one I know is using it. I know a lot more people who use Ableton and Reason. So basically, a large part of why I want to switch is to be able to get more support, both from people I already know and from forums. But I also think Orion is not the best DAW (and it seems someone here agrees with me.) Ok, let's see: OS: Windows 7 DAW: Orion Pro ver 7.0 Preloaded VSTs?: Monobass Plucked String Tomcat Wasp XP WaveFusion XR 909 VSTs added by me: Basic 64 EVM Bassline v1-3 Pro-53 Slayer 2 Spook Keys Peach / Toad / Triforce Triangle I arcDev Mainliner X2 Arturia Minimoog V Chip32 Korg LegacyCell Korg MS-20 Korg Polysix Korg Wavestation mellowsound QuadraSID Moog Modular V2 Effects added by me: Direct X WAVES - Um, like a billion of them. Boss DS-1 Boss SD-1 dBlue Glitch V1.3 GCM900 Pro53-FX PS1 Rednef Twin Slayer 2FX Tubescreamer Univibe ke_FIR V1 TC Native Bundle Wagner Sharp Probably missing some but that is the extent of it. I should maybe also clarify that right now I'm doing everything directly off of my laptop, no external gear. Hmm, probably the "New Video Game Nerdcore Rock project" but I'm basically still experimenting, no idea where this is all going.

Ok, so I've been making music for a couple of years now. The thing is, I still feel like I'm basically an 8/10 (being generous here) in song-writing and a 1/10 in production. Here are some examples: http://soundcloud.com/andrew-nee Now, when I listen to a lot of the stuff people are doing here the production values are way higher. I'm actually wondering if there is just something I'm missing from the start, like my core set of drum / synth / etc. samples are weak or who knows what. Anyway, I decided that the best way to move forward is to go back to the basics. I want to start over. Right now I'm running Orion on Windows XP. But I've never really heard of many people using Orion... is there a reason for this? Is something like Ableton Live a better option? Why do so many people use Macs, are they actually superior? What drum and bass samples do you guys use? Synths? Effects? Short version: 1. What computer / OS / music software would you guys recommend? 2. What drums / bass / synths / etc. plug-ins would you guys recommend? 3. What effect plug-ins would you guys recommend? 4. Anything other helpful information. I think my eventual goal is to get my production values at least to the point where I can listen to music on here and not feel super far off from it.

I don't think I'm really quite at OC Remix level yet, but I figured I'd post this here anyway and see what you guys think. Constructive criticism is nice... if the feedback involves the sound quality, some tips on specific things to do would be nice also (I'm still learning a lot there.) http://soundcloud.com/andrew-nee/09-bit-trip-runner-zone-1/ I don't think I'm going to come back to this one (no time... in grad school, running a website, barely finding time for my original music, work, girlfriend, etc.) so I marked it finished, even though it could probably still use a lot of work. But I'm still looking for feedback. Positive feedback is appreciated as well!

I'm just curious, I'm trying to write some sort of electro rock type stuff and I'm not really sure what the best way to approach distorted parts are. I want to get something kind of like the distortion that kicks in in this song at about the 0:31 mark... http://www.negativeworld.org/etc/timetopretend.mp3 I have tried a few things and the best I could get was taking a bass line (VST: EVM Bassline) and using a distortion effect (Boss DS-1) on it. And that resulted in this, at about the 0:22 mark... http://www.negativeworld.org/etc/megaman7ish.mp3 But it sounds really low and harsh, I want something softer/smoother and maybe a bit higher. I've tried using the distortion effect on synths but I don't get much of an effect. I've tried using my Guitar Rig pedals but those end up REALLY harsh. What do you think they are using to get that sound in the first song I posted? Or what can I use to get something similar? Bonus Question: Is that distorted sound the bass or is there a bass line going in addition to that? It may be because I'm on my laptop and can't really hear much bass at the moment, but I really can't tell...

I have a couple of free VSTs that are old school gamey... Peach Toad Link? Basic 64 But as stated above, FF 7 isn't 8-bit music. These will help you make stuff more like old NES tunes, for the most part. I also have: Quadrasid Which has some old school gamey sounds but a lot of modern sounds too. It's a pretty neat VST but I haven't figured out how to work a lot of the options on it yet.

Basically I've been writing music for 10+ years, but until a few years ago it was all for punk rock bands and such, where all I was really doing was the actual song writing, and outside of getting my amp set up and messing with a few effect pedals, I pretty much never did anything on the production end. Electronic music is a lot different, I write a song and that's just the start. But then I'm never quite sure where to go from there. I read Zircon's remixing thread, which helps sort of on a general level, but I'm still pretty clueless about how to put this stuff into action and people say vague things like "you just have to start trying things out on your own" but it's like ok... where to begin? I know there is no set path for any given song, but on the other hand, my brother came in once and was listening to this totally raw song of mine and spent like 15 minutes on it and made it sound 100% better. So there have to be some general concepts I'm missing. Now, for one specific thing that confuses me. I'm always told that with each sound to never let it get into the red. Ok. But then I end up with a VERY QUIET mix. And I've been told what you do from there is to put a limit on it and boost the gain. So I bring my .wav file into Audition, add hard limiting to I dunno... -3 db? And then boost input slowly by 1 db or so each time to get to a decent overall volume but... It still gets distorted. So then I feel kind of stuck like, even putting aside the fact that there are a million things I don't understand about getting good sound quality, I can't even figure out how to make my final mixes the correct volume. So for instance, here is a clip I am working on where the final mix stays out of the red (though to be honest the drums still get up in the red a bit on their individual levels, my drums are always WAY higher in the red than everything else) and it is very, very quiet... http://www.negativeworld.org/mymusic/electronic/bittriptest3.mp3 And here it is at a more appropriate volume, but this was being up in the red... http://www.negativeworld.org/mymusic/electronic/bittriptest2.mp3 I'm not really sure how to get the first to be the second while staying out of the red.

What do you mean by punchy, like the bass kicks and such? I feel like there is a LOT I need to learn about production (I basically know nothing) and I'm not sure how much time I have to learn everything (grad school, on a short summer break right now) so I'm thinking of just trying to focus on one thing say "drums" and get that down better. I'm working on revamping the drums now. I pulled the bass kick out of the rest and tried to make it bouncier. I think the general rule of frequencies for drums is low for bass and high for the rest? Here is a part of it with somewhat more prominent bass kick. I'm not sure if this actually makes it better or just muddier though, I kind of lose the ability to judge this stuff after awhile... http://www.negativeworld.org/mymusic/electronic/bittriptest2.mp3

In fact I basically made this as a fan thing to send to the Bit.Trip guys and wasn't going to bother naming it, but then I thought hey, might as well get some feedback on OCRemix. http://www.negativeworld.org/mymusic/electronic/bittriptest.mp3 Although it's probably not good enough to try to submit seriously to the site. I think the melodies and song writing and everything came out well, though I still don't actually know much about production values and I'm kind of winging it there. I know what *I* like and don't like about this work in progress, I wonder if it will be the same stuff that others like and don't like? What do you guys (and girls?) think?

Basically I'm doing an electronic project with a huge rock/hardcore edge to it. And the moment I'm getting some decent fuzz sounds by applying BOSS overdrive effects (SD-1, etc.) to a bass VST. However I want to get a more "guitarish" feel, and all of the guitar VSTs I know of sound kind of crappy. Even with bass there is probably something better to use than an overdrive pedal. Anyone know any good ways to emulate guitar-ish distortion outside of recording actual guitars? Or any interesting ways to get to a cool distorted sound, doesn't even necessarily have to be guitar based.

Hey guys, I just sort of accidentally got signed to an indie electronic label here in Chicago. Weird story that. But that was the label owner's reply to a demo I sent him. Anyway I have a couple of demos up on my Myspace, a single releasing on a comp on said label next month, and an EP coming out well... whenever I get around to it. http://www.mypace.com/andrewnee Production quality is a bit weak (definitely my weakness) but I think the song writing is quality and I'm supposed to be working with a producer eventually to get some of the sound quality a bit better. Let me know what you think, and if you like it, add me as a friend! Always looking for other artists to keep in touch with and possibly collaborate with on projects (for instance, definitely want a vocalist sometime soon...)

I'll have to wait until work to get some examples of what I'm looking for, but here is a song I'm working on now with electronics + guitars and the guitar sounds so harsh and out of place when it comes in... http://www.negativeworld.org/mymusic/unfinished/indiegame1.mp3 The guitar comes in around the 0:55 mark, does chords for a half a minute and then some single string stuff for 20 seconds or so. Also appears at the same part later in the song. None of it quite seems to fit to me...

I hope this makes sense. I wrote punk rock/etc. for years and recently I got into electronic, I've done pretty well keeping them separate but I'm trying to bring both my major influences together in one project. The problem is, whenever I write electronic parts and try to put electric guitars in them, they sound WRONG. Even when I get the guitars and electronics to work nice together, the distortions/etc. sound too ROCK. I'm trying to get a sound more like the Postal Service or something. For guitar recording I'm using Guitar Rig 3 and the built in amps and pedals and stuff in there. I'm thinking maybe just find a really clean distortion, record, and then bring it into Orion and apply some kind of effects to it to make it sound more electronic-ish and fit in with the rest of what I'm doing in Orion. Just not sure what effects to try out. Anyone have any ideas?

Nah never tried Syntendo, I'll check that out. Turns out I already have Magic 8-Bit but I'll check out that other one. As for the effects, I'm sure you CAN record them from emulator but I'm also sure they have to be out there somewhere already so it'd save a lot of trouble. I remember like a year ago I found a place where I got a ton of the Super Mario 1/2/3 effects, I mean a TON but I can't recall where it was.

I'm looking to take classic gaming sounds and styles and make them a bit more modernized... in my own pieces. Something along the lines of what bit.trip beat on WiiWare is doing, if any of you have played that. Right now I have a "Basic" computer VST and 3 NES ones (Peach, Toad, Link) all of which I like a lot, but I want to find some that sound erm... more advanced but still video game-ish, if that makes sense? Especially a bass, the bass I use for my songs right now sounds more like a rock bass than a good electronic bass. I feel like right now I have some nice old school gaming VSTs and then some typical synths and stuff but nothing in between. Also, anyone know a good place to get a lot of game effects quickly and easily? I have a few Mario effects but I want more... Mega Man, Castlevania, whatever. Give myself more to play with.

This may be a dumb question, but is putting too much high frequency stuff in one place what causes the kind of muddy sound? And what exactly do you do about it, just equalize an instrument or two down into the lower frequencies? And this may be an even dumber question, but on my equalizer there is high (gain) and high (freq) as well as low (gain) and low (freq). So to take an instrument and put it into a lower frequency... do I move the low (gain) AND the low (freq) knobs up a bit while dropping the high (gain) AND high (freq) knobs? And if I have a couple instruments in both the lower and higher frequencies, do I want to make sure the freq knobs are a bit different on each one? Like say... one all the way up, one mostly up, one 75% up, etc. Does it work like that?

Ok, I messed around with a lot of effects, mostly reverb. Trying to see if I can find that mix between smoothing things out without watering them out too much. It SEEMS to have helped a lot. Anyone want to check it out and give some feedback? http://www.myspace.com/auroraunit313 It's the first song, the one called "Spiraling In Circles Forever." I pretty much used some reverb and / or delay on almost every track, except the bass and drum tracks, which didn't seem to take to them as well. I'm not sure what else I can even do on the effects end. I think it may be time to start on figuring out compression and equalizing? Not saying I've mastered using effects or anything, ha ha.