Need advice on production please

Junglist_007

learning difficulties
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Hi peeps, I know theres few threads on here about production and geting started. But i wanted ask my own questions and get the answers. I been looking around at differnt production packages and bits. But don't really understand what it's all about.

1.What's the best package to use Albenton live 7, Cubase etc... So many differnt packages.

2.What are fruit loops?

3.Do i need MIDI Controller?

4.Do i need samplers DNB

5.If i got all them bits i can start to production tunes. Iv'e only got cheap laptop does that matter? Does it matter about sound card.

I really want to have a go at production see what tunes i can come up with. Thanks for any advice you can give me.
 
1 and 2, its a program you make awesome drum and bass
3 and 4, no you dont but it helps
5 and on, thats going to be just fine, long as you have a full duplex ccard, which i beleive they all are these days.
 
1. to start off with either Reason or Fruity Loops

2. It is a music production software package http://www.flstudio.com/ good for beginners and also indepth enough for pros to use

3. not necessarily as you can manually draw ur bits on the piano roll within the software program u use, but eventually u may want one as u probably will find it easier to play your notes on the keyboard (sometimes easier to compose that way) and record it that way

4. i used to think i needed a hardware sampler, but some music software packages come with an inbuilt sampler (eg Reason has the NN-19 and NN-XT) and you can always get a vst sampler for programs such as Fruity Loops - so not really a biggy its pretty easy to get a hold of one

5. Well normally its better to have a decent cpu as the slower the cpu ther harder you will find it to have big projects, really experiment to see what ur laptop can handle, it may be ok for the very beginning when ur just learning whats what (thats what i did) but eventually u will probably need to get something faster as ur productions get bigger. As for soundcard, its not essential for beginners but with a decent soundcard you will have a better representation of the sounds you're making so again that will become more important as you get better

hope that helps matey :D
 
Why does no1 ever recommend cubase to start on lol. i know alot of people say its hard to use but it really aint...

all u gotta do to get started is create a project, insert a midi track, link it to ur vst and your away.

i personally think fruity is alot more confusing than cubase. Ive found cubase alot easier to get my head around than fruity????

A midi controller is good to have but its not needed. it jus makes tings a bit easier when you want to come up with a bassline or melody.

as ur using a laptop for production, itll be ok for basic recordings and producing but if you want to take things a step higher youll most likely need a usb or firewire audio interface as im guessing your soundcard only supports 41,000.

Youll also want a set of monitors if you want to get your mixing down right. (monitors are speakers that let you hear a bigger range of frequencies than normal speakers)

If you really wana get into the producing i would suggest getting a desktop computer for it. they would suit you needs better than a laptop. Also if you go for a desktop it would save buying an expensive audio interface as you would only need to buy a pci interface which you can pick up for like £50 instead of the £300 an interface will cost you.

Youll Get better sound quality from your tunes with a higher samplerate.

The setup i got and it suits me just fine is...

2.8 g ht p4
2 gig ram
M-Audio Axiom 49 Midi Controller (really nice bit of kit)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (excellent pci-Audio interface)
2 Monitor Screens (good to sometimes have one prog on one screen and one on the other(saves switching windows all the time)

M-Audio Monitors yet to come.

Here are some links if you interested in buying some production gear.


Axiom 49 midi keyboard/controller
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Axiom49.html

Other good Midi keyboards/controllers
http://www.smarter.com/midi-keyboards-controllers/pl--ch-33--ca-568.html

Audiophile pci interfaces
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html

A firewire/usb audio interface
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=recording

Get a look at some of that and if your willing to spend a few quid to make ur shit better then there ya go.

Ive recommended alot of m-audio stuff as im a user of them and i think thier gear is really nice (looks good, good quality) Also the customer support with m-audio is second to none. Theyve been about for quite sum time aswell. People may know them as MIDIMAN.

Hope dis helps m8

Daps
 
^^^^ Nice one mate :D yeah M-Audio do a lot of quaity stuff eh ;) I really wanna get 2 screens as well a I use Cubase and Reason, jus makes things easier (depending on ur set up ofcourse)
 
Why does no1 ever recommend cubase to start on lol. i know alot of people say its hard to use but it really aint...

all u gotta do to get started is create a project, insert a midi track, link it to ur vst and your away.

i personally think fruity is alot more confusing than cubase. Ive found cubase alot easier to get my head around than fruity????

A midi controller is good to have but its not needed. it jus makes tings a bit easier when you want to come up with a bassline or melody.

as ur using a laptop for production, itll be ok for basic recordings and producing but if you want to take things a step higher youll most likely need a usb or firewire audio interface as im guessing your soundcard only supports 41,000.

Youll also want a set of monitors if you want to get your mixing down right. (monitors are speakers that let you hear a bigger range of frequencies than normal speakers)

If you really wana get into the producing i would suggest getting a desktop computer for it. they would suit you needs better than a laptop. Also if you go for a desktop it would save buying an expensive audio interface as you would only need to buy a pci interface which you can pick up for like £50 instead of the £300 an interface will cost you.

Youll Get better sound quality from your tunes with a higher samplerate.

The setup i got and it suits me just fine is...

2.8 g ht p4
2 gig ram
M-Audio Axiom 49 Midi Controller (really nice bit of kit)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (excellent pci-Audio interface)
2 Monitor Screens (good to sometimes have one prog on one screen and one on the other(saves switching windows all the time)

M-Audio Monitors yet to come.

Here are some links if you interested in buying some production gear.


Axiom 49 midi keyboard/controller
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Axiom49.html

Other good Midi keyboards/controllers
http://www.smarter.com/midi-keyboards-controllers/pl--ch-33--ca-568.html

Audiophile pci interfaces
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html

A firewire/usb audio interface
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=recording

Get a look at some of that and if your willing to spend a few quid to make ur shit better then there ya go.

Ive recommended alot of m-audio stuff as im a user of them and i think thier gear is really nice (looks good, good quality) Also the customer support with m-audio is second to none. Theyve been about for quite sum time aswell. People may know them as MIDIMAN.

Hope dis helps m8

Daps


Cheers for the info. I'm gonna look the links up now. Have u got pic of your setup? I was told cubase easyer to use. I got basic laptop, dunno what sound card in it. Are mac computers better for production on or don't it matter? cheers
 
yeah i use 2 monitors as i use reason, fruity and cubase. makes it ALOT easier:P


Yeah m-audio is good shit. Im taking a photo of my setup now.

As for mac or pc im not sure as ive never used a mac.

if your a pc user then i would say stick with pc. I also believe theres alot more files and compatability is easier with a pc rather than a mac.

and yeah. cubase is so much easier than fruity. fruity has too much buttons and different things for a beginner. Cubase is good as it has its default vst's (lm7, a1, monologue and so on) (not that fruity doesnt) and you can also get alot of good sounds from these if you jus fuck about. And if you ever want to take it a bit further and start downloading some vst's/vsti's (Vst are a plugin for changing the sound, e.g reverb, distortion, delay. And Vsti's are A plugin but instead of an effect, they are a generator so they generate the sounds rather than add effects) You can get alot of good free vst's and and also paid ones.

If you need ne help starting out jus gimme a shout and ill point you out a few basics.

Safe
 
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LOVE MY MIC STAND LOL!!!! FUCK DA CAMERA I SAY LOL
 
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i'll tell you what there actually is a lot of truth in what WbWhisper is saying about Cubase - but end of the day each to their own, its down to the producer, not the program u use :D

weird cuz i at first found Cubase really hard to use, it was because i just didn't understand bog standard basics eg lil things like the "snap" feature (doh) and i also didn't have any vsts and that was my main problem really

The main Reason I advocate Reason (lol!) is because it has a lot of good instruments, all in one package so when u get the program you get - drum machine, samplers, synths, effects etc etc that are all really good an work well together

Now i'm slowly getting more and more involved in Cubase purely due to the ease of working with audio files (and using vsts!!!!) and yeah its a pretty straight forward program to use man!

ps nice one Young Tuna - glad to be appreciated :D
 
also a sampler is for any music! you can get samplers that are vst's and u just load them into cubase then load a sound into that sampler usually in the form of .wav Samples can be downloaded from anywhere and u can get them free or paid for.
 
Something that would really help is to get good samples to start with.

Go to filefront and search psitech, he's got REALLY good starter samples.
 
no worries man. i know how hard it is to get started up on production and to know wat u need for it.

oh and the rasta napkin, my girl brought it back from the dam 4 me lol.

Daps
 
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