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loomcore

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Posts posted by loomcore

  1. You automate tempo the same way you automate normal effects parameters - right-click on the tempo and click 'Edit Automation'. A new track appears in the Transport track. Press W and draw a box where you want the tempo to change. Pres Q, then double-click on the new box. Press W again and click inside the box to plot points to map out the tempo changes - basically it's a graph of tempo against time; the tempo follows the line as the song progresses. When you've drawn in your tempo vector, press Q and click outside of the box. Your tempo is now automated :-)

  2. That being said, I've really excelled with Reason. The added benefit of learning with Reason is that once you're familiar and comfortable with it, you'll also have a fairly solid foundation for how physical audio/recording gear works. I took a class in college on studio recording, and even though I'd never touched a soundboard before, I was already way ahead of everyone else. It's because "recording" electronic music with Reason is so darn similar to recording "real" music with physical gear.

    This. I started learning Reason a few years ago, I now do sound design for the Cambridge Footlights ;-)

    The great thing about Reason is that it's really simple to pick up, but offers pretty much limitless possibilities once you're good with it. Many people complain about the lack of VST support, but it does encourage you to learn yourself some synthesis, and the fact that it looks like a rackful of gear is pretty damn helpful with regards to understanding signal flow and things like that. And with the advent of Record you can now record live audio into it as well, if that's what you're after. My only problem with it is the lack of MIDI out, but I think Record can do that as well (I don't use it myself, someone confirm?).

    What hardware other than a computer is ideal for producing superior mixes?

    None. But this doesn't mean you shouldn't look into other hardware. Ideally a computer should be the nucleus of your setup, around which everything else interacts. You can't beat the sheer visceral pleasure of dicking about with some proper synths, and hearing your mix coming together with everything working as one is pretty amazing. That said, it is possible (and often preferable) to do a mix entirely on a computer, especially given how expensive hardware can be. My advice: start with just a computer and Reason, get used to writing your own original music first, learn how synthesis works, learn how MIDI works, start getting some cheap second-hand hardware, get Record or another DAW you can ReWire Reason into and go from there. Most importantly, have fun with it! It is art after all ;-)

  3. I quit using Reason at 3 and haven't upgraded to Reason 4 or Record. Is there a compelling reason to do it now? I kind of got tired of having to navigate a huge rack of equipment with an insane combination of wires in the back, and trying to figure out which automation tracks matched to which mixer channels when doing mixing and effects.

    I don't know about Record personally, but Reason 4 is infinitely better than Reason 3 - it's worth switching to 4 for the new sequencer alone :-) Apart from that, you get Thor, a ridiculously powerful new synth, a new arpeggiator, easier automation and loads of other cool stuff :-D

    (Also FYI, you can turn the wires off and just have nodes with lines that appear when you click them ;-))

    If you're not turned on by that you're doing it wrong :(

    So true ;-) I learned half of what I know about hardware from Reason lol

  4. Glad to be of service :-)

    If you want to import a MIDI sequence, just open a new session, then go File -> Import MIDI (or something like that), then browse to your .mid file. It'll bring up a load of tracks with the note data assigned to empty Combinators - if you're ReMixing properly, I find it easier to have two sessions open at once, one with the imported MIDI sequence and one that will be the actual song you're working on - that way you can copy-paste little bits of the original as and when you need them. Of course, if you're just doing a few experiments with changing the instruments and stuff, then just change the Combinators in the session with the imported note data.

  5. In the transport bar, right-click on the time signature setting and select 'Edit Automation'. Whilst in the sequencer, press W to switch to draw mode. Draw a box in the transport track where you want your song to be in a different time signature. Press Q to go back to selection mode. Click once on the new box, then click on the down arrow next to where it says 4/4 (assuming that was your original time signature) and select your new signature. The area the box covers is where your song will be in the new signature. Hope that helped :-)

  6. I might have to go looking for some Lego Island midi's...

    Good luck with that :neutral: I did have a look, but I wasn't hopeful... with good reason it turned out :-P

    Just figure it out by ear if you can, or find someone who can help you otherwise. I'll have a go for you if you want, but I'm probably not overly reliable ;-)

  7. Thanks for the tips guys! I'll get a new revision uploaded as soon as I can.

    Re the intro, I'll admit I wasn't overly sure about it, but I was lacking in ideas. Keeping with the same theme, I might use some samples of the in-game radio station's DJ instead, which would let me do a better ending as well, come to think of it :)

    Nice beats and piano, it really nails the rave vibe here. The robo-chorus vocals fight for attention with the filtered lady vocals, and when both are on I prefer just hearing the filtered vocals. But the robo vocals are fine on the solo parts.

    I don't have any filtered lady vocals in the chorus; that was a synth playing the chrous melody with the synthesised vocals (it's sidechain-compressed by the robo-voice with a high-ish release). I'll make a new synth patch for this, and maybe lose the chorus vocals and keep, like you say, just the solo bits.

    Thanks for the feedback! Keep it coming please ;D

  8. I liked this, but it needs to go somewhere I bit quicker I think; like Theophany says, sort out your percussion a bit; even if you prefer to keep drums fairly minimal, they need to be prominent, and feature for longer. Some nice rich pads would be cool too. Otherwise it's pretty nice :smile:

  9. I was more so thinking about, are there certain effects, particularly synths, or articulations(?) that may be much more difficult for a novice to pull off at all?

    For example, the oscillations in the first 20 seconds of zircon's ReMix, "Desertion," is something that I get the impression takes being very familiar with your programs in order to pull off.

    It all really depends on how much previous knowledge of synthesis, sound design, sampling, etc. you have; don't worry if it's little or none, just get learning! If you're a geek like me you'll probably find it interesting anyway. Play around with synths and things in your DAW, and read up on certain aspects of music production that you find tricky when you can. There're plenty of online tutorials for this, especially the theory behind sound synthesis. I recommend Reason rather than Fruity Loops; I find that it makes signal path much clearer (but then again, I am somewhat biased, being self-taught with Reason :wink:).

    And BTW those "oscillations" (assuming I'm thinking of the same bit you are) are really easy to pull off. Read up on LFOs. 8-)

    I stepped in with the notion that some songs may have more difficult technical features in comparison to others, and since being properly conservative to the source is a must here on OCR, I assumed that some songs are more complex than others even before considering a ReMixer's interpretation.

    I guess this still all ties back to the amount of passion I have for a particular source regardless of technicality, but this is also a factor as well, right?

    This is true, but it all depends upon what you have in mind to do with a particular song - I'm not going to tell you to limit yourself, but since you're new to this, perhaps aim low to start off with; do a few draft ReMixes to learn a bit, as practice, before submitting one proper. Use the WIP forum for advice and guidance, and adapt your draft/s into an acceptable ReMix once you're feeling confident(-ish :wink:). Never stop experimenting; you'll keep stumbling across new way to make your compositions sound awesome. It's the difficult technical features that make your work stand out. Good luck!

    (It helps too if you listen to a lot of electronic music, and try to think about what the producer has done to achieve a certain effect; try to emulate that as a means of practicing.)

    --EDIT--

    As implied by summer "vacation," I'm still just a college student, sophomore specifically, and I get the sense that most everyone on OCRemix is older than me.

    *checks profile* I'm younger than you! lol :smile:

  10. It's a good end goal, but it takes a long time for music to become intuitive and to recognize what the standards are. It's really easy to deceive yourself into thinking something is awesome just because you made it.

    This is so true. Just going back and listening to some of the first pieces I ever made is enlightening; sure, I cringe hearing everything I did wrong, but it makes you realise just how easy it is to go, "Yeah, I can do music, me," especially when your mates are too kind about your mixes.

    To answer the original question, I've been producing electronic music in various forms for 2 or 3 years now, ocasionally doing game tunes as a side project - I've not submitted anything to OCR yet (most of my game remixes get half-done and forgotten about), though I did once do a grime/dubstep version of Ice Cave from Pokémon G/S/C as part of a live set ;)

    Thanks to the time I've invested in music, I've picked up a reasonable amount of music theory, DSP and sound design along the way, and I now sound-design and songwrite for the Cambridge Footlights, amongst other things, which isn't bad for someone with no formal musical training ;) In other words, as the first post in this thread said:-

    If taken seriously, this thread can help a lot of prospective musicians get the idea that this isn't an overnight deal for ANYBODY... but it's always worth it at the end.
  11. Oh, no, you don't want to read the manual! Why would you do that? ;) hehe

    Seriously, though, once you've got basic operations down, playing around is the best way to learn, whichever tools you do end up using. If you're going to be using FL Studio, get yourself some good VSTs (instruments and FX plugins) - I recommend the DSK instruments, they're free and awesome (http://rekkerd.org/dsk-vsti/). Have fun and get creative! Best of luck to you :)

  12. Despite what I said earlier, I've started doing an acid house version of Brick By Brick now ;D

    I'll post it as a WIP when I get a bit further with it.

    --EDIT--

    My ReMix is now available on the WIP board here. Enjoy! ;D

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