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djgraemeb
Junior Member
United Kingdom
117 posts
Joined: Jan, 2009
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 Posted - 2013/04/26 : 13:19:40
OK people. I really want to start making some tracks, I love DJing but I want to start making music. Only problem is I don't have a clue what I need lol. The closest I've come to making tracks is back when I was a teenager playing music making games on the playstation 1 lol. So my question is, what do I need? I know I'll need software, so what software is out there? other that software, what else will I need to get started?
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Hard2Get
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
12,837 posts
Joined: Jun, 2001
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 14:42:35
FL is a good starting point. It has everything you need in one. You can get the general idea of how to make a track while using that. It's very intuitive i find. Then if you like you can move on to more things (other sequencers, additional VSTi's etc). Although FL is more than capable of doing everything you need as a sequencer. It is possible that you may prefer others but you won't know that until you know what you are doing enough to be able to tell.
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Edited by - Hard2Get on 2013/04/26 14:43:52 |
Audio Warfare
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
3,047 posts
Joined: Mar, 2009
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 14:46:53
Initially you'll need:
A half decent computer
A DAW (Cubase, FL Studio, Logic etc.)
PATIENCE
I would play around with just what the DAW offers at first to see if you can find your feet and enjoy doing it.
After that, how much money do you have. The essentials Id say will be monitor speakers, sample packs, new synths, room treatment, midi keyboard. At the end of the day you can spend as much or as little as you like. There is no reason you couldn't make a fantastic track using just the stuff bundled with the DAW and a set of headphones, extra tools at your disposal is never a bad thing though.
__________________________________
Listen to released and forthcoming Audio Warfare/Audio Weaponry tunes here:-
http://soundcloud.com/audio-warfare
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Hard2Get
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
12,837 posts
Joined: Jun, 2001
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 14:58:38
Personally i think computers have been good enough for the last 10 years for it not to be a concern what the speed is. If you get greedy and use a silly amount of processing and massive VSTi's then yeah, but it's not necessary.
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Dys7
Advanced Member
United States
1,231 posts
Joined: Nov, 2011
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 15:13:50
Now hold on, in absolutely no way is monitor speakers, room treatment, or a midi keyboard necessary out of the box.
If you start producing a while, and decide you want to take it to another level, then absolutely. Until then though, you don't need it.
FL is very nice for starting out. - that's a DAW, or the program that you physically write and render your music in.
VSTs are the instruments that create sounds beyond basic shots. Pianos, strings, basses, leads, etc
While the on-board FL stuff is good until you get the hang of it, after you get past that point, there are a few VSTs that most producers use. I would reccomend Sylenth1, Massive, and Nexus. That's your leads, basses, and everything else. While they all can do all of them, I've found those are what each of those excel in.
Samples are the shot sounds you hear in songs -
Kicks, hats, claps, ride, crash, lasers, sweeps, etc.
The way to go here would be Vengeance Essential Clubsounds. There are 4, but the best of them all in my own opinion is the fourth. You probably will indeed need a sample pack once you get the hang of FL, because FL's onboard samples are horrible and almost nonexistant.
__________________________________
The above comment was likely written when I was *literally* 13, so please don't judge me too hard.
---
The Spirit at the Edge of Infinity
Check out my cheesy fiddlings here:
http://soundcloud.com/dys7dj/
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Edited by - Dys7 on 2013/04/26 15:14:42 |
Audio Warfare
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
3,047 posts
Joined: Mar, 2009
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 15:17:11
quote:
Originally posted by Hard2Get:
Personally i think computers have been good enough for the last 10 years for it not to be a concern what the speed is. If you get greedy and use a silly amount of processing and massive VSTi's then yeah, but it's not necessary.
Aren't you running SX3 though? If he has a more recent DAW it will hog way more resources. Programmers get lazy when the have more space to breathe. ;)
Also depends what plugins you're using too. I've got an absolutely fantastic synth called Diversion but it would cripple a fairly new low end PC with just one or two instances. An old PC just flat out couldn't run it at all.
In fact:
"It is highly recommended to run Diversion on Intel Core i5 or i7 processors. Please make sure you have the following system specifications:
Modern powerful processor
Windows XP SP2/XP SP3/Vista/Seven
VST 2.4 compatible host software"
;)
quote:
Originally posted by Dys7:
Now hold on, in absolutely no way is monitor speakers, room treatment, or a midi keyboard necessary out of the box.
If you start producing a while, and decide you want to take it to another level, then absolutely. Until then though, you don't need it.
That's pretty much what my post says lol
quote:
Originally posted by Dys7:
VSTs are the instruments that create sounds beyond basic shots. Pianos, strings, basses, leads, etc
VST is actually the technology that connects software synths, romplers, samplers, fx units etc. to you DAW. A VST Instrument can be any of these things and more.
Things like Sylenth1, Massive etc are softsynths. The likes of Nexus are Romplers that play back a recorded sample with limited editing capabilities rather than actually generating a sound.
__________________________________
Listen to released and forthcoming Audio Warfare/Audio Weaponry tunes here:-
http://soundcloud.com/audio-warfare
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Edited by - Audio Warfare on 2013/04/26 15:31:41 |
Triquatra
Moderator
United Kingdom
12,635 posts
Joined: Nov, 2003
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 15:34:27
This is the only thing you will ever need.
(the microphone is essential, don't get one without it, else the whole point of the built in vocoder is lost!)
latest version has a 'powerstomp' button - you press it, and just at the right moment it gives you a 'powerstomp fill'. Deluxe version comes with a "WOMP WUB" Lever, if you yank the lever at just the right moment, Jay pops out and does a impromptu dubstep breakdown for you!
__________________________________
Triquatra/Bee Trax/Cuttlefish
http://www.hardcoreunderground.co.uk/ - http://CLSM.net -
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Edited by - Triquatra on 2013/04/26 15:37:28 |
Audio Warfare
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
3,047 posts
Joined: Mar, 2009
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 15:36:21
quote:
Originally posted by Triquatra:
This is the only thing you will ever need.
(the microphone is essential, don't get one without it, else the whole point of the built in vocoder is lost!)
Look out for Rowan playing a live set on this bad boy at the next Slammin' Vinyl. Mind blowing.
__________________________________
Listen to released and forthcoming Audio Warfare/Audio Weaponry tunes here:-
http://soundcloud.com/audio-warfare
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Hard2Get
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
12,837 posts
Joined: Jun, 2001
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 15:44:13
By the way:
DAW = Digital audio workstation
VST = Virtual studio technology
VSTi = Virtual studio technology instrument
VST and VSTi typically refer to software versions of traditionally used hardware like synths and effects (reverb, delay etc).
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Edited by - Hard2Get on 2013/04/26 15:48:31 |
_Jay_
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
6,868 posts
Joined: Oct, 2011
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 16:22:44
I like reading these threads.
__________________________________
http://HardcoreHighlights.com/
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Charger
Senior Member
Singapore
278 posts
Joined: Jun, 2012
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 18:30:38
If you are just starting out, you probably might want to familiarize with the piano scale chart.
http://www.pianoscales.org/chart.html
It's the most basic thing you want to look out for before starting to produce. There will be times that your early tracks may sound out of tune but keep trying and you'll somehow get the hang of it.
Don't be disheartened if your tracks don't sound great after getting the hang of scales, at least you could pen down ideas properly, which will give you a sense of direction in creating a track.
And another thing that you might already have exposure to would probably be making a DJ Friendly track (since you do DJ) if you are observant enough.
Keep your ideas of the track in the form of 4, 8, 16 or 32-bar variations if you are making dance music tracks. This will ensure your track to be able to mix in and out of other commercially released tracks with ease. The idea in your track may be awesome with an 11-bar loop, but chances are that you'll realize that your track will not be picked up by other DJs to play in a mix if you do not follow the rules of creating a DJ friendly track.
Probably you might want to familiarize with the arrangement of a specific dance genre like hardcore, there are several types of arrangement trend:
An example of an original mix track arrangement would progress like this:
DJ intro -> Breakdown -> Chorus -> Breakdown -> 2x Chorus -> DJ Outro
or
DJ intro -> Breakdown -> Buildup -> Chorus -> Bridge -> Chorus -> DJ Outro
An example of an intro mix track arrangement:
Breakdown buildup -> DJ intro -> Breakdown -> Chorus -> Breakdown -> Chorus -> DJ Outro
To define the following:
DJ Intro -> Kick & percussion progressing to kick & bass combination type of arrangement (Try to keep this portion as sparse as possible to avoid your track from trainwrecking when mixing into)
Breakdown -> Pads & strings combination with minimalistic elements like delayed piano or bleeps (This is to ensure the dancefloor has some timeout for resting instead of dancing like an exhausted retard with no rest at all)
Buildup -> Portion of a track which starts from maybe a 2 bar silence from the breakdown, with increasing energy levels from the sounds of lead filtering or snare rolls on bass.
Chorus -> Make this part of the track the most exciting and happening by dropping something that will turn the crowd crazy (This should be the most memorable part of your track, making your crowd go jumping for more with the high energy level)
Bridge -> Kick & bass combination with snareclaps (Another part where the crowd takes a breather from a tiring dance)
DJ Outro -> Kick & bass combination (The elements of your track should be decreasing as it nears the end of the track, to provide space for the incoming track to mix into)
This are just the basic stuff as a dance music producer should know.
In any case, reading up books & music production texts and articles, as well as watching tutorial videos on your own should build up your knowledge about music production if you do have a keen interest in it (which is apparently what I do during my free time on weekends). And most importantly, familiarize with your plugins and create tracks.
Or probably, if you are a person who can only learn via tutoring, you might want to attend production masterclasses by some of the established producers (e.g. DJ Kurt, Joey Riot, Paul-F, Hardcore Underground Crew). Your skills will improve tremendously in a short time but it's really more like what you pay is what you get. 
One last note for you to be mentally prepared is very honest feedbacks from your production mates or listeners. Honest in the sense that you have to learn how to be able to put aside your ego, and take constructive criticism of your tracks. Your early tracks may probably have terrible technical feedbacks. This is actually a good sign as you can use the negative feedbacks as a form of zooming into your potential problems and improve from there. Never try to start a fight or turn cold at the person who gives you feedback. Even if you don't agree with what the person who gave you advice or feedback for your track, just swallow your pride and take a gulp of that bitter medicine down your throat and politely thank him or her. This is one of the key reasons why quite a number of people back out of music production at an early stage because they can't accept the fact that their tracks are bad (when in reality they're real bad).
Hope this set of advices will bring you somewhere one day.
__________________________________
For updates of my tracks & free downloads:
http://www.soundcloud.com/hedgehog-charger
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DJ Hellfury
Advanced Member
Austria
2,237 posts
Joined: Feb, 2007
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 19:00:58
quote:
Originally posted by _Jay_:
I like reading these threads.
Yes, those threads are very informative. *pressing encore-button*
:)
__________________________________
DJ, Event & Label Manager
Hardcore Shows Soundcloud
Hellfury Soundcloud
Label Bandcamp
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djgraemeb
Junior Member
United Kingdom
117 posts
Joined: Jan, 2009
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 20:26:51
WOW! thanks everyone, this is exactly what I needed to know. So first thing is to get a DAW, being on a budget FL looks like a good choice to start out, after having a quick look. Thanks again everyone! 
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djgraemeb
Junior Member
United Kingdom
117 posts
Joined: Jan, 2009
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 20:28:27
quote:
Originally posted by Triquatra:
This is the only thing you will ever need.
(the microphone is essential, don't get one without it, else the whole point of the built in vocoder is lost!)
latest version has a 'powerstomp' button - you press it, and just at the right moment it gives you a 'powerstomp fill'. Deluxe version comes with a "WOMP WUB" Lever, if you yank the lever at just the right moment, Jay pops out and does a impromptu dubstep breakdown for you!
this thing looks amazing! looool!
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Phobz
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
893 posts
Joined: Jan, 2006
13 hardcore releases
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Posted - 2013/04/26 : 21:30:55
^^ I think i've been doing it wrong. That workstation looks insane! Look at all those buttons :O
__________________________________
http://www.soundcloud.com/phobz
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