XPRTNovice

Avaris - do you know of any VSTis that do that but are free? I'm still learning and a little bit gun shy about pumping money into a brand new hobby that I'm not sure I'll be any good at.

you people are awesome

Okay, wow, so this has opened up a whole new world of Cubase for me that I never knew existed. It's not quite as user friendly as FL, but it does essentially the same thing. I think it'll take some messing around before I can make this do what I want. The other suggestion of opening up the FL VSTi was great too - now I want to be able to integrate the two so that I have all my drums on one midi track that maps to the FLstudio VSTi. Otherwise I am going to have to have a separate midi track for every layer of my drums, which is not what I am going for... Edit: Let me clarify. Is there a VST that I can open, to which I can point that single drum track, that will allow me to load multiple samples on multiple channels? So, instead of me having to have 5 VST instruments open to load 5 samples, I can load 1 VST instrument to load 5 samples? I tried doing this with FL studio, but then it seemed to be mapping the LOOP and not the samples.

So, I'm just learning to use FLstudio to create drum tracks and loops because I like the interface, but I normally use Cubase SX for my audio recording, midi sequencing, and all that stuff. Is this a bad method? Should I just stick to one program, learn it really well, and then use that for every part of the remixing process? All of the tutorials I seem to see for people who do remixing stuff seem to exclusively use FL. If it's not a bad method, do any of you other guys do it? I'm finding it frustrating having to go back and forth between FLstudio and Cubase trying to see if the beat I've come up with matches the tracks I've already laid down to get the right sound.

Okay, so here's a minor update. I replaced the downloaded drum loop with one I made myself using fruity loops, but I still don't think I'm getting it right. I also added a second section that has potential but right now just sounds like chaos: http://soundcloud.com/xprtnovice/city-of-ancients-city-of

Hey guys, I just found a great 100% FREE resource, particularly for drum samples, that I haven't seen anywhere else. It's at www.sampleswap.org. Here's how it works. 1. Create a free account. Make sure to use a valid email address. 2. Log back into your account. 3. Go through the samples and click them to hear demos. You can then pick the ones you like and add them to your basket. Some of them are AIF format and some are wave. 4. You can have up to 20MB of samples in your basket at any given time. 5. When you're done, click download. It will email a download link to you, and within 5-10 minutes you'll be able to grab them all tied up nicely in a zip file that's really easy to add to your sample library. I went crazy looking for good free drum samples for a long time before I found this site. There are also instrument samples, but I haven't tested them for quality yet since I was just looking for drums. I'll probably investigate them soon and let you know what I found. I hope you guys find this useful.

Okay, so I've been spending some time trying to expand my knowledge and I'm not sure it's working. I tried to take your advice and start creating my own drum tracks. Right now I've been scouring the internet looking for drum samples. I have Kontakt, but I don't have the cash to be spending on .NKI files that are $100 for good quality samples. I know there have to be free samples out there that aren't crap. I've been browsing the forums, but there are over 35 pages of links and people talking about links...many of them are broken or 3 years old. Here's what I'm gathering - please let me know if I'm stupid. I can use my synth as the "in" MIDI, then force the "out" midi to be something like Kontakt. In the Kontakt, I can then load a .nki file that is mapped to certain samples. But I can also use a lot of other programs, like SFZ, to map to samples as well, right? So, in essence, I can sample my own saxophone by recording a single note, then load it as a sample into SFZ and play my keyboard like a sax. The advantage of the internet, then, is the ability to get samples of instruments I don't own or play. But that's so incredibly time consuming if you don't know where to go. I've been searching for 3 hours now for a drum kit that sounds the same quality as the loop I previously had in this track and I've come up with nothing. So that's where I am now on this project. If anyone has any words of wisdom, that might prevent me from just stopping and going back to playing Chopin.

Hey guys, That's some really solid basic advice, yes. Thanks, it helps clear up some of the fuzzy edges of my knowledge. Maybe I should elaborate a bit on what I've got, since both of you asked questions. DAW: Windows XP w/4GB RAM and 1TB external HDD Sennheiser HD280 headphones Cubase SX Fruityloops Studio (both of these programs severely outperform my knowledge of how to use them) TC electronic Konnekt 8 (2x mic/.25" jacks, additional aux jacks in the back) Not my favorite, and i kind of wanted to upgrade to a firebox, but we'll see A pair of low-end MXL condenser microphones, an SM-58, and an SM-57 Instruments: Various acoustic/electric stringed instruments (guitar, oud, mandolin) Piano, alto sax, clarinet Moog LittlePhatty tribute synth The Phatty, from what I can tell, doesn't have USB out. All it has is the regular .25" jack and midi, both of which I have plugged into my konnekt. So far I've done some samples that combine putting the synth directly into the audio track, and also using soundfonts/midi combinations using the phatty as the input device. What I think I am having the most trouble wrapping my head around is the concept of VSTs, and how to combine them with "patches" or "samples" or whatever it is they're called to create realistic sound that is inputted via MIDI. As it stands right now, I think maybe I'm going the wrong direction by using soundfonts, since that doesn't seem to get me an audio track - it outputs as a MIDI. Most of my knowledge has come through experimentation, so I can safely assume that a lot of it is based on misconceptions. Anyway, thanks guys. If, based on what I've written here, you get a bit of a better idea of where I am the dumbest, some enlightenment would be much appreciated.

I'm probably coming out there in late March to see Distant Worlds...It's only like a 30 dollar train ride.

I want to laugh, but I want to make sure you're joking first.

D'oh. I won't be here for much longer, myself. I have plans to move in September, but who knows.

Thanks for the drumming tip, but I was talking more about the mechanics of putting a drum patch into Cubase and making it sound real. I know how to construct a beat (I actually can drum a bit myself) but I'm already getting kind of tired of scouring the net for hours on end trying to find patches. And the plugins I'm using are really cumbersome...I have to open a new VST channel every time I want to change an instrument, and all that. I guess it will just take some time to figure out how to do all of this. I'd be happy to roll in with some sax on any track you want, anytime.

Thanks guys. That's great feedback and encouragement. Oh - organ breaks are coming. The balance is an issue, but an organ break is imminent. The beat is a sample from a random website that I looped. I'm not even really sure how to begin forming my own beats. Yes, I'm that new. Most of the tracks are live, via either my synth or MIDI. The drums are the only thing sampled. The sax - my first love - is live.

Hey all, I'm very timid about doing this remixing thing, and I just need some validation. Am I on the right track here? http://soundcloud.com/xprtnovice/city-of-ancients-city-of-funk I don't even know what to ask for feedback. This is really just a small sample of an idea that hasn't really come to fruition yet. My equipment consists of a LittlePhatty synth and Cubase SX, but aside from that I'm pretty clueless. XPRT

Yeah, you're right. I like laying down tracks using my synth (I have a LittlePhatty) but when it comes to pairing patches and samples with tracks/MIDI, that can become very frustrating, because I don't know how to export them both at once. I have to convert MIDI to audio first, all in separate tracks. And the levels are all jacked up. There's just so much to think about, you know?

Hey Rozo, I did take a look at your guide. I found it helpful, but in a lot of ways it just helped me realize just how great and vast my own ignorance can be. I have a long way to go before I can produce anything, I think. Thanks, XPRT

Hey all, Long time listener, first time on the forum. I'm just getting into all of this, and I know there are lots of resources available to me here on the website. I'm more of a learner by observation, though, and I was wondering if there are any remixers near Kansas City that might be willing to have me essentially watch the act of creation and ask a lot of annoying questions. I would offer free lunch or something as payment (or my skills on guitar/sax/clarinet/vocal percussion as a sample?) A little unorthodox, I know, but I feel like I could really soak up the skills while watching a lot more than spending 3-4 hours hunting around looking for the right drum patch. My experience so far has been that I spend precious little time writing the music and a hell of a lot of time messing with my DAW. XPRT

I just had to post this because this is the first time I've ever done anything even remotely like this with music. I know it's terrible - I mean really bad - but I laughed my way through doing it and thought someone else might laugh too. The whistling and guitar are live in the beginning (I fancy myself this generation's Bing Crosby). Everything else is poorly mixed and barely in tempo with itself. So, please save the hate mail - I know it sucks! Download or stream it here. PS: Wait until 1:20 for the actual remixing.

YES! Thank you. Let me devour this... And guy, by the way. Joe.

Thanks Dusk, but that's kind of what I was talking about. Those links assume I already have a base knowledge of what a sample is, how to put it in recording software, and all that stuff. Maybe I'm trying to start doing something that is so out of my league that I need professional education? I guess what I'm looking for is someone to start by saying, "Hey, if you want to make sweet remixes like djpretzl, first you need a piece of software like cakewalk or cubase...then you need...oh and you also need...then when you have that you can...." etc.

Hey guys, First post on OCRemix's forums. Nice to meet you all. I'm an experienced musician with some homegrown recording experience...I have Cubase and can lay down a track and make it sound pretty, mostly through stumbling around and feeling around what's right. But I've never done any kind of synthetic music before and I'm not sure where to start. I've looked around the tutorial pages here, but a lot of them seem to be geared toward people who already have a good idea what they're doing. Personally, I'm totally confused as to what kind of stuff I need in order to start making music. I have questions like: What's a patch? What's a soundfont? etc. Anyway, if there's a link I'm missing that will help me out, please do point me in that direction. The last thing I want is a repetitive noob post. Thanks PN