What electronic music hardware/software/tutorial combo do I need?
October 29, 2016 10:04 PM Subscribe
I want to make a very specific kind of electronic music purely for fun, but getting a bit overwhelmed by all the hardware and software options out there, as well as the best way to actually learn them effectively with super limited time. Can someone help a snowflake out? Difficulty level: Sampling from Apple Music or Spotify
So basically, I just want to make some very simple mixes/mashups. I want to pluck out my favourite bits out of songs from vocals to instrumentals and slowly build a library of various pieces. From there, I want to be able to 'play' these bits like instruments in my spare time, and when I get into a nice groove, record it to a track that I can listen to later. Basically like a mixtape, but with much smaller excerpts of songs that in some cases might overlap Or maybe sort of like a mashup, but not just simply putting acapella tracks over instrumentals, etc.
The last time I experimented with this, was when Native Instruments released the first Maschine. I tried it out with the version of ableton that was out at the moment, but I found it to be a very frustrating experience.
Obviously there is the learning curve involved, but I just felt there was simply too much time spent in front of the computer tweaking waveforms and getting into wormholes of online forums and youtube tutorials for seemingly basic things, and I just sort of threw my hands up and gave up, as I really wanted to be getting *away* from the computer more through this process and just have it be a more natural and intuitive process, but I found it was really more of the opposite.
Checking things out around five years later, it seems there are so many more options around, so I thought that it might be nice to come back to this idea to see if I can establish this hobby that I have been interested in for a long time now.
Looking back at Ableton, it seems their Push 2 controller could do the job, and I've seen a few online tutorials that mildly confirm this, but given the other discussions here, I thought some folks in the green might have some opinion or an alternative suggestions of other hardware that might be worth a look? (note, I am mac-based)
Three further branches to this question.
1) As all my music has been uploaded to my iCloud music library and matched, I no longer have any local files to sample. I assume I would have to use something like Audio Hijack to actually get my samples - is this correct?
2) What are the current best places online to learn the software and hardware at my own pace? I saw Point Blank music school has some great tutorials. Are there any other leaders in the field?
3) Let me again state that I am coming at this as a total amateur here. I think I'm fairly technically minded, but this whole thing is purely for fun :)
Thank you!!
So basically, I just want to make some very simple mixes/mashups. I want to pluck out my favourite bits out of songs from vocals to instrumentals and slowly build a library of various pieces. From there, I want to be able to 'play' these bits like instruments in my spare time, and when I get into a nice groove, record it to a track that I can listen to later. Basically like a mixtape, but with much smaller excerpts of songs that in some cases might overlap Or maybe sort of like a mashup, but not just simply putting acapella tracks over instrumentals, etc.
The last time I experimented with this, was when Native Instruments released the first Maschine. I tried it out with the version of ableton that was out at the moment, but I found it to be a very frustrating experience.
Obviously there is the learning curve involved, but I just felt there was simply too much time spent in front of the computer tweaking waveforms and getting into wormholes of online forums and youtube tutorials for seemingly basic things, and I just sort of threw my hands up and gave up, as I really wanted to be getting *away* from the computer more through this process and just have it be a more natural and intuitive process, but I found it was really more of the opposite.
Checking things out around five years later, it seems there are so many more options around, so I thought that it might be nice to come back to this idea to see if I can establish this hobby that I have been interested in for a long time now.
Looking back at Ableton, it seems their Push 2 controller could do the job, and I've seen a few online tutorials that mildly confirm this, but given the other discussions here, I thought some folks in the green might have some opinion or an alternative suggestions of other hardware that might be worth a look? (note, I am mac-based)
Three further branches to this question.
1) As all my music has been uploaded to my iCloud music library and matched, I no longer have any local files to sample. I assume I would have to use something like Audio Hijack to actually get my samples - is this correct?
2) What are the current best places online to learn the software and hardware at my own pace? I saw Point Blank music school has some great tutorials. Are there any other leaders in the field?
3) Let me again state that I am coming at this as a total amateur here. I think I'm fairly technically minded, but this whole thing is purely for fun :)
Thank you!!
It sounds like DJ software might be your friend here, in that it will be designed specifically to help you match tempos and keys. I can't recommend any myself but I know folks who use Traktor.
Do you know of any artists who kind of do what you're trying to do? If so, try to research what they use. If you don't, there's a clue that it might be harder than you think. I can't tell you how many times I've thrown my hands up in the air chasing my own electronic muse. Good luck!
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:48 AM on October 30, 2016
Do you know of any artists who kind of do what you're trying to do? If so, try to research what they use. If you don't, there's a clue that it might be harder than you think. I can't tell you how many times I've thrown my hands up in the air chasing my own electronic muse. Good luck!
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:48 AM on October 30, 2016
For any music that you uploaded to icloud you should be able to download DRM free versions to sample directly.
posted by doctord at 6:54 AM on October 30, 2016
posted by doctord at 6:54 AM on October 30, 2016
Could you give an example of what type of music you are trying to make? Ableton can pretty much do any and everything, but it might be overkill for your purposes.
posted by Brent Parker at 7:34 AM on October 30, 2016
posted by Brent Parker at 7:34 AM on October 30, 2016
I recently did a performance with my iPhone connected to a bunch of MIDI stuff over USB. I recorded sounds with a USB sound card connected to a cheap voice recorded via audio cable, and then played them back into a sampler on my phone called elsa. It was a little slow to do, but ultimately I was able to play bird sounds on a MIDI keyboard. All ya gotta do is hack your away around whatever limitations you've got. Audio hijack is probably how you'd do it.
posted by oceanjesse at 10:44 AM on October 30, 2016
posted by oceanjesse at 10:44 AM on October 30, 2016
Best answer: So yeah, there are two technical problems to solve when making a mashup:
1. how do I get good-sounding source audio?
2. how do I get the bits of source audio to play at the same speeds, or loop one while playing all of the other?
(1) might matter or it might not, depending on how well the tunes get along in the first place. Judicious EQ (to favor the bits you want from each) goes a long way here. Getting raw audio by plugging your LINE OUT into your LINE IN (assuming your machine has both those ports) is the original audio hijack :)
(2) Ableton provides very precise tools for this but not everybody likes how they framed the problem. I strongly recommend playing with clips in "repitch" mode for a while, fine-adjusting their original tempo. If one song is the backbone of the mix, figure out what tempo it's at by looping successively longer bits of it (a quarter note, a bar, 32 bars...) and match the others to it.
posted by runehog at 11:43 AM on October 30, 2016
1. how do I get good-sounding source audio?
2. how do I get the bits of source audio to play at the same speeds, or loop one while playing all of the other?
(1) might matter or it might not, depending on how well the tunes get along in the first place. Judicious EQ (to favor the bits you want from each) goes a long way here. Getting raw audio by plugging your LINE OUT into your LINE IN (assuming your machine has both those ports) is the original audio hijack :)
(2) Ableton provides very precise tools for this but not everybody likes how they framed the problem. I strongly recommend playing with clips in "repitch" mode for a while, fine-adjusting their original tempo. If one song is the backbone of the mix, figure out what tempo it's at by looping successively longer bits of it (a quarter note, a bar, 32 bars...) and match the others to it.
posted by runehog at 11:43 AM on October 30, 2016
There are folks out there who do tutoring sessions (by hour usually) for people just starting with electronic music. (I know one person that does, specializing in Abelton.) Send me a msg if you need the info.
posted by typecloud at 6:22 AM on October 31, 2016
posted by typecloud at 6:22 AM on October 31, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
There is going to be a learning curve. I don't think this is as simple as you think to get good results. You're kind of saying "I just want to play the guitar, I don't want to learn to play guitar."
Audio Hijack should work for this.
posted by bongo_x at 11:45 PM on October 29, 2016