Halt Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I was looking over the guides. and it seemed to me, you need actual equipment? Im not real sure. so i thought i would ask. as I am short on money. Building a new Computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moseph Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 You can spend thousands if you're really into music production, but there's stuff available for free/cheap that will work. As far as software goes, Audacity (free) and Reaper ($50 for a non-commercial license) are popular free/cheap programs. You can find free sample libraries and software synths at Hammersound and KVR, and other places if you look around. If you're thinking about recording live instruments and want something better than a dinky computer microphone, you'd be looking at a $50 to $250 purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halt Posted July 10, 2008 Author Share Posted July 10, 2008 You can spend thousands if you're really into music production, but there's stuff available for free/cheap that will work. As far as software goes, Audacity (free) and Reaper ($50 for a non-commercial license) are popular free/cheap programs. You can find free sample libraries and software synths at Hammersound and KVR, and other places if you look around.If you're thinking about recording live instruments and want something better than a dinky computer microphone, you'd be looking at a $50 to $250 purchase. I was looking around.I just want to remix, something fun to do in spare time. As i am making a site, under development, this could a side add-on you know? FruityLoops, how good is that? what are its capabilites? ect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moseph Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 FruityLoops is really popular here. You can't really go wrong with it. If you haven't found it already, there's a demo available here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halt Posted July 10, 2008 Author Share Posted July 10, 2008 FruityLoops is really popular here. You can't really go wrong with it. If you haven't found it already, there's a demo available here. Looks good, ill toy with the demo. when it finishes, in 1hr or so, Damn my bad internet -.-. wont start doing much till my get my PC built since im on a laptop, Space is limited. with only 1gb of ram, i need a PC Anything else you could inform me with, that could overall help me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hy Bound Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Well, there are a ton of guides and stuff on here already. Once you've come to grips the concepts of what all of the FX and stuff does you should have a better understanding in how to use it. Overall, just spend time experimenting with everything. If you can't hear a difference in a knob or slider you're changing, take it to the extreme; if you still can't hear it, leave it in the extreme position and move something else. It can be frustrating at first, but keep with it. As far as the free/cheap stuff; you can still get some pretty good sounds from free VSTs and the like. Hell, BGC and Overcoat use a lot of free/cheap stuff and their music is da bees knees, son. Though, there are several parts of BGC's studio I'd want to... acquire from him... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halt Posted July 10, 2008 Author Share Posted July 10, 2008 Only thing that bothers me is the Price O.O Like, Wow. 200-400$ is it really worth it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Only thing that bothers me is the Price O.O Like, Wow. 200-400$ is it really worth it? Well, it depends on how serious you are about remixing. I started off with just the demo of FL for a few months until I decided I really was going to get serious with it. I always recommend going with Producer Edition with the optional Soundfont Player plugin, which should run you around $185 last time I checked. It's really one of the most cost-effective options out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoozer Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I was looking around.I just want to remix You want to make music. FruityLoops, how good is that? FL Studio is used by several remixers if that's recommendation enough. what are its capabilites? ect. You probably wouldn't believe it, but they've got a demo version on their site. Download that. edit: wait, you did. Only thing that bothers me is the Price O.O Like, Wow. 200-400$ is it really worth it? Yes, because making music has never been so cheap in the entire history of mankind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Vagrance Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Only thing that bothers me is the Price O.O Like, Wow. 200-400$ is it really worth it? Ableton Live is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halt Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 You want to make music.FL Studio is used by several remixers if that's recommendation enough. You probably wouldn't believe it, but they've got a demo version on their site. Download that. edit: wait, you did. Yes, because making music has never been so cheap in the entire history of mankind. Ahaha, I did. i may just clean out the shit i dont use on here to free up some memory for the Demo, and ignore the False Positives, IF AVG will let me. Otherwise ill find a solution so it doesnt become a bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 It can be done for cheap or even free. In fact, it can be done extremely well for cheap or free, if you're creative. You can do a lot with reaper and free VSTs and soundfonts, and it is completely possible to create a passable and even an exceptional remix without spending a lot of money; definitely doable for under $100 and debatably doable for free (depending on what qualifies as "exceptional.") That said, if you're willing to spend money, you can HUGELY expand your options. The first thing you should get is a sequencer that you are comfortable working with. As far as capabilities, most of the popular sequencers are more or less equivalent; it's more a matter of which has the workflow that best suites your tastes. Reaper is $50 (for a recreational license), and it can, from what I understand, do just about everything you will probably ever need it to do. FL is pretty popular at around $200, and used by some excellent remixers, such as Zircon (who does music professionally) and DarkeSword. Note that DarkeSword uses (I believe) all free samples and effects. (Zircon uses about $33295720935780293850293587092875092375908 worth of additional samples and effects). Two other popular options are Cubase and Sonar; I use Sonar, and absolutely love it. The second thing you should get is a good soundcard. There are probably other remixers who can give you better guidance with this than I can, but I do know that there are some excellent options out there for under $100. The third thing you should get is good headphones (as far as headphones vs speakers: the best speakers are definitely better than the best headphones, but a >$100 pair of headphones will beat the shit out of a >$100 pair of speakers). You want headphones that are acoustically transparent; that is, you don't want headphones with built-in bass boost or anything like that. After that (assuming you're not doing any live instrument recording, which is another can of worms altogether), odds are everything else you'll want will be samples and effects; and you can get perfectly usable ones on the internet for free. Be warned; good sequencers are generally pretty complicated, and pretty intimidating when you're just starting; just stick with it and give yourself time to learn, and don't get discouraged when your first few mixes suck; everybody's do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Vagrance Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 ABLETON!!!! Seriously, if you want to start making music fairly professionally and cheap, get something like http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeyStudio49i-main.html. It comes with a slightly stripped down version of Ableton Live (but at this stage, thats ok), plus it acts as both a sound card and a keyboard controller (it even includes a Mic in!). This, plus a mic can get you started just fine. This site has a borderline FL fetish which is understandable because most people here learned how to sequence on FL, but you'd be doing a lot of harm if you didn't check out Ableton Live. Honestly, I've never been so enthusiastic about a sequencer in my life, and a lot of big-name producers are switching over (Sasha, Armin van Buuren, Evil Nine, Del tha Funkee Homosapien). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunahorum Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 I would recommend fooling around with FL demo or reaper with synth1 for a while. Try out sytrus in FL. There's a lot to absorb so don't worry about "not getting it". Open up a demo project and get a general idea of what is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDRKirby(ISQ) Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Regarding soundcards, I'm still using the one I have built-in to my computer. I haven't bothered to actually check, but I'm guessing it's pretty crappy since it's an onboard...whatever, you know, nonprofessional consumer soundcard. Sure, I'm probably losing some kind of audio quality in the digital to analog conversion, but that's not really that much of a concern to me (not really that heavy on the audiophile stuff). If I wanted better sound quality I'd first invest in a better pair of headphones (from experience I am -fairly- sure the ones I have are too heavy on the bass). I do no recording at ALL (everything is sequenced by hand)--this is why I can get away with not having a good soundcard. Also the rest of my computer is good enough that it'll never choke, even on a busy project (though the really beastly project files require tweaking the buffer size, but even so it's not that big of a deal). so it's not necessarily important to get a better soundcard, though it is extremely dependent on what you are doing. either that or I'm totally missing some knowledge as to what soundcards do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 I would recommend fooling around with FL demo. A decent recommendation for a beginner. Try out sytrus in FL. Something I would probably NEVER suggest to a beginner, like... ever... (sorry max) Seriously though, the first thing to do if you're interested, decide what you actually want to be able to do, then try out demos for a few DAWs (digital audio workstations, the program where all the music making is done) if you're still interested after that, then think about buying one, you'll want to buy the one that you understand the most and like the most after fiddling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Software that you use is not as important as what you know. Learn music theory first. Get yourself a cheap keyboard, or if your family has a piano then go use that. LEARN MUSIC THEORY. That's the single most important thing you can do when learning to do ANYTHING musical. After you learn theory, READ UP ON THE HISTORY OF MUSIC PRODUCTION AND WHAT IT MEANS TO MIX, MASTER, ENGINEER, AND PRODUCE A SONG. Of course, you won't do that, because SquallRoth8923 tells you that he "made this awesum remix with Reason and I dont no n e theory!" sure his remix will suck, but being as inexperienced as you are, you wont know the difference, and so the cycle will begin again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazygecko Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 I learned a minimal amount of theory, and that was after I started submitting shit to OCR. Mostly I just go by trial & error and what feels right. What's important is getting the ideas from your head to something concrete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hy Bound Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Truthfully, Vagrance, I would definitely say Ableton Live would be one of the worst programs to start out with... All of the actual music making instruments are extra. You need to start out with something that has some on-board synths and samplers. Though I do agree that Live is by far my favorite DAW; just not for beginners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I agree that you should learn some theory, but I want to clarify: learning theory doesn't necessarily mean in a formal, classroom-type setting. There are a ton of remixers with little or no formal training. I would guess that probably half the remixers on this site (at least) never took any formal music theory training. BUT! This is not the same as not knowing theory. You don't have to know the specific terminology, but you do have to have a feel for the application of the principals in your music. You have to understand chord structure and progression, you have to understand time signature and key signature, and you have to be able to apply this knowledge in your music. This is something that some people can simply learn by ear from trial and error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoozer Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Besides, theory is easy. It helps. It removes the "crap, what would fit best after that" lottery of trying to find the right keys. If you want anything cheaper than FL Studio - get yourself a guitar, learn how to make music on that, and then start using a computer. You'll spend less time messing with audio interfaces, settings, sequencing and the rest of the rocket science and more time actually making music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastEncore Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Actually I found it only expensive when you want to do something vocal. Honestly, and secretly I have used most sequencers out there and now I'm pretty stuck on FL Studio with the SoundFont plugin so at that point quality became a matter of the fonts I used. And I actually got all that free. Rather the method legal or not, ah who cares. Point is it's out there available and mostly free. Point is once you have it, can you use it. And well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Outside of the money I paid for FL Studio and my midi keyboard I've been going completely on freeware so far, it's amazing how many freeware VST's there are if you take the time to look. Besides, theory is easy. It helps. It removes the "crap, what would fit best after that" lottery of trying to find the right keys. lol, I love how finding notes on a staff is the final lesson on that site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunahorum Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 You should attempt to re-create a song you like. That would be beneficial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halt Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 Music Theory, Well, buying a keyboard. Err. If i must it will have to weight until later. Im on a tight budget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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