Studio's - lets talk about 'em for a second

[djadonis206]

if yer not gonna get it professionaly mastered, i.e you're running some kind of project studio, well....thats where you start to collect more gear etc.
just a theory....

Nah, you just need a mastering suite of plugs or a nice multiband Hardware compressor / eq

mastering might make a record sparkle and shine but if it's a crap song and a bad mix it's going to sound like a shiney piece of shit - unfortunately

[Hatchets McGee]

mastering might make a record sparkle and shine but if it's a crap song and a bad mix it's going to sound like a shiney piece of shit - unfortunately

thats debateable...
especially with glitchy stuff. it doesnt take a genius to make glitchy stuff, the quality of the textures is what wins people over imo (and having your glitch-hop professionaly mastered will certainly help your textures stand out)

but like you say, 'you just need a mastering suite of plugs or a nice multiband Hardware compressor / eq' - and thats where it starts...

[djadonis206]

I don't really know that much about Glitch - read this tutorial below (regarding beat making, mastering etc)

The Glitch, minimal thing is more of a state of mind more than anything - I've heard some amazing minimal, have yet to hear any glitch that I thought was funky but minimal aint bad

but as producers, djs and followers of the glitch movement I think it's a state of mind - "I like glitchy stuff, fuck off"

Hey fellas read this

Production Tutorial

He gives some very good ideas and you can kind of see how it's done - sort of

[tomperson]

Whatever. I totally agree, gear/software lust is becoming more and more of a problem for us all. There are so many tempting software suites out there, and everyone seems to have so different opinions/ways of working. Reading forums is so cool and you learn so much, but it also distracts you from making music and easily takes you into the gear lust train.

And as for talent, indeed, its absolutely necessary, but you're forgetting an essential part of the equation: patience and tenacity. When you start a new track there's so much energy into creating new sounds and such, but after a while, finishing it can become much more of an excercise of endurance. That's why there's so much people with lots of gear and of good "ideas" but with nothing finished.

My 2cents.

[djadonis206]

Endurance and patience yes - but when I think of patience I think about Labels and distributors..."Oh my, I did that track 2 years ago and it just came out."

A lot of it depends on where you're at in your music journey. Once you have enough "snap-on" tools it's like bam, here's a track, here's a remix and here's a side project for a co-worker - all in one weekend

Personally it takes me about a day to write a track - but that's personal stuff...I've been blessed to have a couple people interested in my music and for them it takes about a week, maybe 2 depends on my schedule. My partner just agreed to get some stuff to somebody on Monday, "uhhhhhhhhh, Monday?" Not gonna happen, sorry. I have to take my old lady out tonight, tutoring tomorrow night but Sunday's wide open but I was planning on getting stoned all day and hooking up my Nord Lead - I have Monday and Tuesday off

Everyone is different for sure. The reason's I don't finish tracks

1) too much other shit to do, school or women <--->

2) The track is garbage and it's not going anywhere...I take the cool pieces and turn them into Live Files but the rest...blah

3) the track sucks

4) the track sucks

5) the track sucks

FYI I have a 9-5 which hasn't banned Myspace or Ableton so...I get 9 hours of posting posting posting posting and more posting

[dj superflat]

i find myself slipping into gear lust, then shake my head and realize even with just live, i have infinitely more options than just about any musician ever, leaving aside the past couple years. it's like when the first digital delays came out that could hold . . . [wait for it] . . . 16 PRESETS!! you thought you were in delay heaven. now i really am in heaven, but the bar keeps moving, i keep drooling, etc. and i agree with adonis' main point -- if the music isn't good, all the gear in the world won't help. by contrast, if the music's good, even bad production will generally be acceptable. i think some people just have to be honest that they're in music for the tinkering, messing about with new gear and programs, as much as for making music. it's like guys who are into tying their own flies for fishing but don't really ever fish much. nothing wrong with that, if that's what makes you happy. if what's really fun to you is making new reaktor ensembles, that's just as valid as most folks homegrown tunes that don't really go anywhere (in terms of mass commercial acceptance). or if live's what you "play" instead of video games, enjoy. i think production of finished "product" is overrated, because most of us aren't doing this as anything more than a marginally expensive hobby. this forum's a good example -- if you're a real producer, you might check in occasionally for the rare but useful tip. otherwise, you're too busy making music to get much out of what's really just a live chat room.

[djadonis206]

Word
FYI some bigger producers actually contribute quit a bit - one of them has 4000 + posts about what I don't know but there posts

[djadonis206]

i was just thinking about what you said DSF

and come to think about it I am a little bit of a tinker / collector of weird shit that makes noise. Granted as I got deeper into production and realised the nord, virus and mpc in my studio were more for show (collectables) than anything else - sold 'em and got on with.

But after I learned more and more through software now I'm back in a collector mode for the sake of a sound or two here or there

I used to think you had to write your whole song with the Nord and got frustrated when it wasn't doing it for me

but now I'm a little more content and realize from this point forward any bit I add to the studio will do just that add to the studio

it can be a blop in my next track or a monster lead line - who knows

I'm starting to get it

[dj superflat]

i use zvex fx the same way -- most of them can't be used often or much, but occasionally, they really take something somewhere. so i keep them around (and i just kinda think they're cool anyways).

[no_barcode]

I fixed my gear lust by getting rid of:

- Akai MPC 4000 Plus

- Akai MPC 1000

- Alesis Ion

- Alesis Drum Machine... you know, the popular one from way back when.

- Boss DR-550 Drum Machine

- Ensoniq ASR 10

- Ensoniq ASR X

- Korg X3

- Korg N364

- Kurzweil K2000S

- Kurzweil K2600S

- Roland JX8

- Various obscure drum machines

- Yamaha Workstation (don't recal the model -- it had physical modeling, sampling, sequencing, FM, etc...?)

========

- Cubase SX 2.0

- Orion Platinum

- FLStudio

- Sonar

- Various VSTis (Kontakt, ABSynth 2, etc, etc)

========

Now I just use Ableton Live and Operator (and Impulse and Simpler, of course)

I've been writing about a song a week lately. Couldn't be happier.

[funknotik]

I consider hardware like researching your roots. Anyway learning something new is always good isnt it? Im stuck with mostly software because im poorer than dirt, but if I had the cash I would buy a little fatty moog synth and an mpc. Sadly that will probably never happen....


Best music I've ever made was with two turntables, a microphone, and flstudio...Live is a new thing for me...When im not home i got my laptop and some new trial versions of daws...always experimenting..But if you wander to far of the beaten path you can end up making noises and never finishing anything. Everything in moderation right?

[Hatchets McGee]

i find myself slipping into gear lust, then shake my head and realize even with just live, i have infinitely more options than just about any musician ever, leaving aside the past couple years. it's like when the first digital delays came out that could hold . . . [wait for it] . . . 16 PRESETS!! you thought you were in delay heaven. now i really am in heaven, but the bar keeps moving, i keep drooling, etc. and i agree with adonis' main point -- if the music isn't good, all the gear in the world won't help. by contrast, if the music's good, even bad production will generally be acceptable. i think some people just have to be honest that they're in music for the tinkering, messing about with new gear and programs, as much as for making music. it's like guys who are into tying their own flies for fishing but don't really ever fish much. nothing wrong with that, if that's what makes you happy. if what's really fun to you is making new reaktor ensembles, that's just as valid as most folks homegrown tunes that don't really go anywhere (in terms of mass commercial acceptance). or if live's what you "play" instead of video games, enjoy. i think production of finished "product" is overrated, because most of us aren't doing this as anything more than a marginally expensive hobby. this forum's a good example -- if you're a real producer, you might check in occasionally for the rare but useful tip. otherwise, you're too busy making music to get much out of what's really just a live chat room.

right on!

[djadonis206]

I consider hardware like researching your roots. Anyway learning something new is always good isnt it? Im stuck with mostly software because im poorer than dirt, but if I had the cash I would buy a little fatty moog synth and an mpc. Sadly that will probably never happen....

There's an electribe EA-1 synth on craigslist seattle for $75

that's a start

[njh]

using just software is great if you only want to do electronic music.
but if you want to do anything else you do need a little more gear.
you can not get a real guitar sound out of software. and you do need a good mic unless you want every vocal track to sound lo fi.
also if you want your drums to sound real its better just to use real drums.
like i said this you can do it all with software thing really only applys to electronic music.

[sonsofthehounds]

the industry has us on lock.....'you need this....actually, come to think of it you need this aswell'....this ain't news to anyone on here but sometimes just tinkering with new gear is fun...sure it doesn't finish tracks but you might have enjoyed yourself, the same way a kid does kicking a football around in his brand new england strip after watching his team win . It's up to you...it's there for the taking...there's no illusions here....finish tracks and get your shit out there if you want to........otherwise just enjoy yourself