Music Production Software

[Paul 8v]

Me and a friend are thinking of putting a few tracks together, we're thinking of guitar samples with digital drum and bass beats, kind of like Pendulum or the Prodigy, that sort of thing.
Both of us have used Cubase at college many years ago but is there a program more suited to that sort of music with inbuilt patches for modulating waves, distortion, phasing etc?
I know cubase can be used for this but last time I checked it was quite pricy, is there anything a bit better/cheaper on the market where I can also include live vocal and guitar samples?

Many thanks

Paul

[OlliePlimsoll]

Ableton Suite-Logic-Reason-Fruity Loops. Are you on Mac or PC? I prefer Ableton and Logic.

I use Ableton on my Mac,which runs well. A good VST id recommend is NI's Massive Synth. Would produce some good sounds for what genre you're looking to produce.

[Paul 8v]

Thanks Ollie, I'm on PC (Would love a mac though) I'll check it out

[ShadownINja]

Kristal Audio Engine - free; to layer audio.

Audacity - free; for editing audio.

FL Studio - demo is free and full is ultra cheap; for creating sounds/phrases/compositions.

As a man, you'll probably want to spend £5000 on various synths, though. http://www.musicradar.com/gear/tech/

[Paul 8v]

Cool, if I try some free ones if it doesn't work then I've lost nothing. You're right, I would want a kick ass synth, It's the same with every hobby, I start off trying it on the cheap then after the first week want to spend x number of hundred pounds on the best piece of equipment available!

[LDN]

I know a guy who composed music for U.S TV series using Fruity Loops or 'FL' as it's now called. Have fun using FL and learn the ropes maybe?

[ShadownINja]

FL Studio is good but you have to put a bit of work into it to make it not sound like you've got FL Studio.

[LDN]

ShadownINja said:

FL Studio is good but you have to put a bit of work into it to make it not sound like you've got FL Studio.

Very true; same goes for Reason.

[Paul 8v]

Just downloading the fruity loops demo now, I'll see how I get on

[Dam0ZR]

Presonus studio one pro
Cakewalk sonar 8

theres a lot out there and can get confusing but these two are pretty good for me.

[ShadownINja]

I used to use Cakewalk Audio Pro something until it kept crashing. It is (was?) a very powerful piece of software. Dump a piece of audio down and manipulate it within the track. I expect rivals can do it, too, but I was impressed.

[Paul 8v]

I see what you mean about finding it hard to make it sound like it's not been done on FL!

[OlliePlimsoll]

Paul 8v said:

I see what you mean about finding it hard to make it sound like it's not been done on FL!

Buy a midi keyboard

[Paul 8v]

OlliePlimsoll said:

Paul 8v said:

I see what you mean about finding it hard to make it sound like it's not been done on FL!

Buy a midi keyboard

At college we used to have loads of Midi voices we could use to be fair I know how to do all the tricks when its digitally programmed to make is sound less like it's been done by a robot. It's just having the space for a great keboard is a bit of an issue. Are there andy compact cheap ones people could reccomend, I can always transpose the notes a few octaves if neccessary!

Edited by Paul 8v on Friday 20th August 15:51

[ShadownINja]

The key thing is to not use the presets at the top.

[Paul 8v]

ShadownINja said:

The key thing is to not use the presets at the top.

Do you record your own samples? I'm finding it hard to get anything that sounds like a proper druma nd bass beat, they all just keep sounding like rock groves, do drum and bass beats generally tnd to have the high hat on every quaver? That might be where I'm going wrong

[ShadownINja]

Why not rip a sample of whichever drum loop you are trying to recreate and slow it right down but maintain the pitch in Audacity.

[sadako]

Paul 8v said:

ShadownINja said:

The key thing is to not use the presets at the top.

Do you record your own samples? I'm finding it hard to get anything that sounds like a proper druma nd bass beat, they all just keep sounding like rock groves, do drum and bass beats generally tnd to have the high hat on every quaver? That might be where I'm going wrong

Yes, all the drum and bass people are sampling "Amen Brother" for the instruments and then going apest with them.

[Guvna]

Based on the type of music you want to make I would strongly recommend Ableton Live Suite.

http://www.ableton.com/

It is very different to most other sequencers so if your going on a learning curve anyway this is the best to learn for dance music. Prodigy use alot of samples and Ableton can not be beaten when it comes to quantising and stretching audio. See this for example (recreating prodigy in ableton):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU5Dn-WaElI

It also comes with a nice range of synths, samplers etc in the Suite version. You really just need that, some monitors, soundcard, a midi keyboard and bob's your uncle.

You can also DJ with Ableton and in my opinion it is very much the future.

[ShadownINja]

sadako said:

Paul 8v said:

ShadownINja said:

The key thing is to not use the presets at the top.

Do you record your own samples? I'm finding it hard to get anything that sounds like a proper druma nd bass beat, they all just keep sounding like rock groves, do drum and bass beats generally tnd to have the high hat on every quaver? That might be where I'm going wrong

Yes, all the drum and bass people are sampling "Amen Brother" for the instruments and then going apest with them.

Well, doesn't it depend on the "style" of DnB. You could sequence some loops from scratch using your own (well-)edited drum samples/hits.