Musicians Corner

[amazinghorse]

Hello iS friends!
In this topic we talk about all related to magic process of music making!
I have some experience in this kind of art, and want to share with you[All this is my exclusive for iS]!

Don't be shy to ask any questions or share your experience!
DAW's / Synth's / Gear's / Techniques / Share Places / Labels ... all goes here!
Or maybe you have your own tracks?

For newbies here's a tutorial in QA style

Q : What I need to do something(good)?


A 0 : Do you really need it?
I mean... someone sayd: all best music already here and you got whole life to explore it, but whole life is not enough.

A 1 : You need a good sound card and at least mediocre PC/MAC
Nice lowest budget card for beginner:

Behringer U-CONTROL UCA222

This gear rescued me every time when I was on the road!
On live / recording / listening... always works perfectly.
Sound very nice for this contingent.
And price...
For me it's best low budget sound card ever.
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx

Review: http://henryranch.net/reviews/behringer-uca202-stereo-usb-analog-to-digital-audio-converter/

Q 1.1 : I don't have any budget at all! ... Am I hopeless    ?
A 1.1 : Not necessary. You still can use your integrated audio(Realtek\SoundMax\e.t.c).
But remember that ->this devices are not intended for any kind of music production!   <-
Also, if you on windows you need a special driver (because default windows audio engine are HORRIBLE   for any kind of music production.
Grab this driver here -> http://www.asio4all.com/
ASIO4ALL is a hardware independent low latency ASIO driver for WDM audio devices. It uses WDM Kernel-Streaming and sometimes even more sophisticated methods to achieve its objectives.
ASIO4ALL is very far from ideal, but it's definitely better than windows default engine!
In good sound cards you get warm and cosy native ASIO driver by default   !

A 1.2 : You need a good monitor headphones(you just can't hear exactly what you are doing in crappy or gamer oriented  headphones!)
Nice low budget headphones for beginner:

AKG K44

http://www.akg.com/K44+Perception-827.html?pid=2040

A 1.3 : You need a good monitor speakers(you also just can't hear exactly what you are doing in crappy speakers, and I warn you from doing anything with laptop or pseudo "china-hi-fi 1 million Watt of s**t" speakers!   )
Nice low budget speakers for beginner:

M-Audio BX8 D2

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MAudioBX8D2.html

Q 1.3 : Can I use only headphones?
A 1.3 :
For editing, submixing  : OK
For (good)main mixing : To be honest... not enough
Mastering?                      : no way!

A 2 : Get some DAW(digital audio workstation), sound editor, several (S E V E R A L ) VST synths/effects.
VST - is an interface for integrating software audio synthesizer and effect plugins with audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware with software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware, and VST is supported by a large number of audio applications.

Top 10 Best Music Production Software – Digital Audio Workstations
Top 5 Audio Editors
The 54 best VST/AU plugin synths in the world today
The 30 best VST plug-in effects in the world today
GOLDEN RULES HERE :
Choose one DAW and sound editor( it's like one love ).
Don't grab tons of VST's synth/fx at once, take a good one/two and learn how to work with them ... read manual!
Newbie with a VST-zoo looks like dumb monkey with tons of books and all books has torn and messed up with a kilos of monkey s**t.. sad picture    .
 
A 3 : Get a good learning material and learn with patience and attention!
But not from YouTube videos like [EpicPartyTwerkingBro - H0w_T0_M4K3_Super$Epic$Punchy$Crunchy$Bouncing Beats like *Famous DJ/Artist Name Here*]!
Btw... youtube have a very small amount of good learning videos about music making.
Take a professional book or video course.

A 4 : PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!


QA For those who already tried do something in music making :


Q : What do you say about hardware synths?
I heard *Famous DJ/Artist Name Here* use *Synth name here*!
A : If you don't know how to play, it will be just a piece of noisy plastic for you, maybe with good presets(read about presets below)!
If you know at least basics of synthesis, already read all reviews about this synth ... want perform on stage(and you know what you want perform)... why not buy one   !
BUT REMEMBER : *Synth name here* NOT WILL MAKE YOU *Famous DJ/Artist Name Here* !

Q : PRESETS MAN !!! AND SAMPLES !!! I HAVE A 100∞TB OF THIS S**T!, WHAT DID YA SAY NOW BRO?
A : If all of your music made only of samples and presets:
You are happy little cassette player with one album on repeat: "I've heard this before VOL 100∞"    .

Q : I wanna sound like *Famous DJ/Artist Name Here* !
A : Copycats are sound very boring to me...
But if you want to pick a style...
First of all you must have a well trained ears(you must hear notes, octaves, chords... of song)!
You need to inspect style very deep... like in microscope(hours, days...)
And off course you need a strong knowledge in synthesis, sampling and music theory to reproduce it!
(... It's about genres with "at least medium complexity"   ...   )

Q : I have one goal : be rich and famous, how?!
A : If you want make music only for a money, this is will be a product.
Not music at all.
And you will get a huge competition in "music-fast-food world" business full of bureaucracy, no matter how good you are in ...music.

Q : Why do you post this on this site(iS not pro-audio related)?
A : Because I believe that iS is not just a another torrent invites forum, and first of all it's a community of peoples who love to share, share their best!
You can read this as a my catch phrase : iS - More than a torrent invites!
 

Little Tips

• Always train your ears!(listen all instruments in a song, also try to listen all parts separately (ehhh... it's very difficult on bad headphones or speakers   ).
• Feel the rhythm(... drum every rhythm with a pencil  ... everywhere! , looks little strange... but who cares!   )
• Try to make your own style... no matter what trend it is, individuality matters!
• Don't make a star dreams, just doing it!
• Don't force yourself if you can't do it right now, or if something going wrong, it's for fun remember?
• Your ears get very tired after several hours of work, take a rest!(or you can mess up a lot! )
• You hear music in different ways... almost every time...

That's all for now, hope you like it!
And as I said before : questions are welcome!

[Inviter]

This topic will cost millions to real Musicians for sure, lot of valuable information.

Thank you so much for those info mate, Cheers!

[phoenix]

valuable topic

thx m8                

[amazinghorse]

Inviter, phoenix : THX, I'm glad you liked i!
 
Here is some additional info about ASIO4ALL configuration.
I remember a hard times...when I had P4-1.7 512RAM and integrated SoundMax audio.
I had troubles after first installation, because at that time didn't know how to configure it properly.
So here is a nice video tutorial from Native Instruments!

[amazinghorse]

Also...

Here is all my collection(about several years of careful collecting) of useful links for home studio musician.

---

News and Reviews
http://www.musicradar.com/
http://www.sonicstate.com/
http://www.kvraudio.com/
http://www.pluginboutique.com/
http://www.vstreview.com/
http://rekkerd.org/
http://www.prosoundweb.com/

Awesome Blogs
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/
http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/
http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/
http://www.matrixsynth.com/
http://www.synthtopia.com/
http://www.vintagesynth.com/
http://www.modulatethis.com/

http://www.wavingsounds.com/

Forums
https://www.gearslutz.com/
http://audiosex.pro/
http://homerecording.com/
http://recording.org/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Synthesizers

E-Magazines
http://digitalmusicianonline.com/
http://www.soundonsound.com/
http://www.mixonline.com/

BEST FREE STUFF
Remember that free doesn't mean crappy!
I have found a real diamonds in free stuff, without any analogues on commercial side!
Btw... you can use only free materials for your tracks and sound ******* awesome!
Сonfirmed many times by many people!
VST
http://www.vst4free.com/
http://www.myvst.com/
http://www.vstplanet.com/
http://www.vstwarehouse.com/
http://www.studiotoolz.net/
SAMPLES & LOOPS
http://samples.kb6.de/
https://www.freesound.org/
http://www.findsounds.com/
http://www.looperman.com/
http://sampleswap.org/
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free-music-samples-download-loops-hits-and-multis-217833
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-samples/
http://free-loops.com/

SCENE STUFF
http://audioz.eu/
Audionews.org (AN) [iS Review]
ProAudioTorrents.org (PAT) [iS Review]
 

Have a good time my friends!

[corrintose]

 

 

Also... 

Here is all my collection(about several years of careful collecting) of useful links for home studio musician.

 

News and Reviews

http://www.musicradar.com/

http://www.sonicstate.com/

http://www.kvraudio.com/

http://www.pluginboutique.com/

http://www.vstreview.com/

http://rekkerd.org/

http://www.prosoundweb.com/

Awesome Blogs

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/

http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/

http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/

http://www.matrixsynth.com/

http://www.synthtopia.com/

http://www.vintagesynth.com/

http://www.modulatethis.com/

Forums

https://www.gearslutz.com/

http://audiosex.pro/

http://homerecording.com/

http://recording.org/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Synthesizers

E-Magazines

http://digitalmusicianonline.com/

http://www.soundonsound.com/

http://www.mixonline.com/

BEST FREE STUFF

Remember that free doesn't mean crappy!

I have found a real diamonds in free stuff, without any analogues on commercial side!

Btw... you can use only free materials for your tracks and sound ******* awesome!

Сonfirmed many times by many people!

VST

http://www.vst4free.com/

http://www.myvst.com/

http://www.vstplanet.com/

http://www.vstwarehouse.com/

http://www.studiotoolz.net/

SAMPLES & LOOPS

http://samples.kb6.de/

https://www.freesound.org/

http://www.findsounds.com/

http://www.looperman.com/

http://sampleswap.org/

http://www.musicrada...d-multis-217833

http://bedroomproduc...m/free-samples/

http://free-loops.com/

SCENE STUFF

http://audioz.eu/

Audionews.org (AN) [iS Review]

ProAudioTorrents.org (PAT) [iS Review]

 

Have a good time my friends! 

 

Awesome Blogs

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/

http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/

http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/

http://www.matrixsynth.com/

http://www.synthtopia.com/

http://www.vintagesynth.com/

http://www.modulatethis.com/

 

I agree with that too! But i would also add this one http://www.wavingsounds.com

 

Thanks!

[amazinghorse]

I agree with that too! But i would also add this one http://www.wavingsounds.com

 

Thanks!

added, thx!

[midomido]

nice good  topic

thanks