Newbie Here! Basic D&B Production software..Serious Beginner!!

ChrisPage

New Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2010
Kinda got the drum and bass bug again since my youth and play more of it than any other genre at the mo. Never really had the want to produce anything before but for some reason i fancy having a go and making some drum and bass sounds.

What you recommended as a first cheap starting point for laptop based production, had a look some stuff but it i have no clue whats good or bad, complicted or easy to use.

I no its not gunna be childs play what ever i get but i once had a play on a reason demo and just couldnt get my head around it.

Any thoughts
 
cant go wrong with Ableton, loads of tutorials about, lots of people on here that use it too, so help aint far away, also Cubase has a significant following and massive tutorial base on the webs. Ableton Lite/LE is dirt cheap, even given away with allot of controllers (even cheap ones), it'll keep you going long enough to make some music and work out if you want to spend more £

The most important thing when starting out imo, is to use something that you can easily get help with, if you have any friends that produce, find out what they use, and if you think their music sounds ok (or if not, are they fanatical enough about it?), use what they use and learn it together
 
Can't go wrong with reaper/renoise for beginners.. reaper is £40 to buy and renoise is £50, both of which offer an unlimited trial period anyway, although with renoise you cannot render to WAV with the trial version. Compare those prices to the kind of prices you pay for reason/cubase/ableton.. and it's pretty amazing. Of course pirating software is a whole different story but..
 
Actually it doesn't matters what you are going to use, just check what you think you'll enjoy working with and then start following tutorials.
 
Think Mizst really hit the nail on the head there... Try and get in with a crowd so you can all learn and bounce ideas of one and other you'll learn 10 times quicker. Unfortunately for me I can't do this as, A) There not a big D&B scene in Dublin and B) I live out in the stix!. :(

Also, I think Ableton is a great way to start. As was already stated there is so much support for it tutorial wise. I found it a lot easier to lean that FL Studio or Reaper, but that just my personal preference. Most of them can all do a decent job if used correctly.

The one thing I would say, and I say this as a beginner, resist the temptation to buy lots of Synth VSTs initially. I wished I'd just bought an Virus in the first place I would have saved quite a bit of cash. That said I just have bought a Virus and it's winging it's way to me as we speak. Got a decent deal off ebay (thanks to advice given here) - So keep your eyes peeled.

Also, there is some pretty decent free VST synths you can check out.
 
I'm using FL studio atm, with just moderate to heavy Desktop.
I'm still in the learn to FL, but i'm starting to get the hang of it,
using:
- tutorials on youtube
- just plain sound synthesis tutorials,
- Messing around on it and try to make something.
- THIS FORUM where i got most help from.

if it doesn't work put it aside and don't be like me (i work, and i work on it, even though i don't succeed and start to screwing things of badly)

One major tip i can give you: Keep your eyes & ears open. You can pick up a bit of knowledge here and there.
Like a few weeks ago, i found out there's a Synthesizer & dj convention in Ghent in belgium, Which isn't that far from my home. And i'll be going,
it's small things that make you better & better
 
Wow folks didnt expect this response, A1 Forum you have here.

Will take in on board and it totally makes sense to get something that has lots of support via youtube etc (wehre we we be without youtube i have to say!!!)

Still not up with all the terminology, not sure what Virus is? more software? that Robmobius has just purchased...

Great stuff

if i get stuck with anything i will be straight on here
 
Virus is an awsome hardware synth, abletons built in Analog, Operator and FX almost stop me having wet dreams about the Virus snow
 
Sweet, so if i go down the ableton root...what package should a start at, someone mentioned lite?? do i need anything else? am i right in thing you can upgrade as well?
 
The most important thing when starting out imo, is to use something that you can easily get help with, if you have any friends that produce, find out what they use, and if you think their music sounds ok (or if not, are they fanatical enough about it?), use what they use and learn it together

I find it is really hard to actually find people who are interested, willing to learn, will to spend the time on it, and actually care. So many people always talk to me about it and say they want to learn but never actually do anything about it.
 
Sweet, so if i go down the ableton root...what package should a start at, someone mentioned lite?? do i need anything else? am i right in thing you can upgrade as well?

you can download a 30 day trial from ableton, see if you like it, there are other 'try before you buy' options, but they are not official/endorsed/legal, and are often a bit unstable

i'd get a midi controller rather than buying software outright, one with piano key and a few faders/pots to start out with, doesnt have to be expensive, get one that includes Ableton Live Intro( or Lite/LE), often they include a discount for an upgrade to the full version of Live (Ableton Live or Ableton Live Suite). midi controllers will work with most software and are pretty essential to production imo

note that Lite/LE/Live Intro, is limited in what you can do with it, for eg you can only load 4 VST instruments in one project, this will mean you will have to 'bounce' channels down to audio files frequently, having said that, working with audio files can be allot more powerful than live instruments, I found switching to audio made me far more creative and gave me allot more control for getting sounds fat n filthy

If you want a full copy, the price varies from a few hundred to over £700, depending what upgrade options you have, worth shopping around, some midicontrollers give away the full version which works out insanly cheap
 
Hey,

As was already said... you can just download a demo and see if you like it, I found it so ez to use and I'm thoroughly shite with anything technical (still got a lot to learn tho'...).

There is a lite version alright...That would prolly do you for a wee bit (especially ,if you just nabbed a few free vst soft synths, etc.) and it's pretty cheap. But to be honest I think you should at least go for" Studio Live" I got it and not "the suite". However, I did end up buying the Ableton sampler not long afterwards. Which is imaginatively called "sampler" - go Ableton! ;).

The suite has loads of studio quality samples and most of the VST synths. Which as Mizst said, are really high quality. I wanted to find my own samples and ones that would be more suited to Dark DnB, so I didn't bother with the whole suite in the end. Plus, you can get loads of decent quality samples for free (have a look at that recent "help with drums" thread). :)

The other thing I should mention you don't have to run out and buy a new Virus. There's some very cool vst synths out there. A lot of people are using NI Massive as one example. I use that and Rob Papen's Predator as well as Massive.

Massive has a shit load of support, so you can get loads knowledge from various sources.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaMxK0XnA_c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK1ocGVDibg

For Predator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDmYNqRQPM
 
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Seriously blown away with all the support, many thanks, going to start having a look around, try some demos and get back to you!

Thanks again!
 
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