Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Movies / TV / Entertainment - I'd like to be an electronic musician.
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Liquid Pi Experiment
Posts: 65/138 |
I've just said theres no such thing as an instrument or vocal mic! anyway, get yourself a copy of cubase, its an amazing piece of software.
Another thing that'd be good for electronic music would be Propellerheads Reason (make sure you get version 2.x) you can tie it in with cubase to produce a really good track. |
witeasprinwow
Posts: 403/555 |
Originally posted by Liquid Pi Experiment
Just let me debunk that myth right now! There is NO rule that says this mic HAS to be used for vocals
LIKE I SAID (Grr! Fucking read what I say!), you don't HAVE to have a voca; mic to record vocals, and you don't HAVE to have a instrumental mic to record instruments. However, some mics are tailored to be best for a specific purpose (IE micing a guitar cab in the studio vs micing a guitar cab on stage, the change in environment means you will want to use different kinds of mics for each situation)... I know this because I've miced a guitar cab with both a instrument and vocal mic and recorded, and while they both sounded superb (Shure quality!), the instrumental mic was noticably better sounding.
I've never used Cubase, but for the record, "Cool Edit Pro" is just a different veresion of "Adobe Audition". Adobe bought the software later down the road and renamed it, but if you compare the two, they are almost identical. |
Liquid Pi Experiment
Posts: 64/138 |
I'm doing a degree in Audio and Recording Technology, so hear me out.
This is how I got started, "aquire" yourself a copy of Cubase SX, or another VST capable program.
What sound card have you got?
Have you got a keyboard with midi capabilities? (not essential, but it helps. A lot.)
How much RAM have you got?
My recording/production rig at home is about what you need to even begin to dream of professional sounding music:
P4 2.4gHz, 1gb RAM, Creative Audigy 2. Running a "legit" copy of cubase sx 2.01 (amazing software, simply amazing) and another "legit" copy of cool edit pro (essential if you want to work with samples). My monitors are a pair of jamo speakers (can't remember the exact spec, not at home 10" woofer/2" tweeter I think) going through a 100 watt studio amp.
Theres tons of amazing sounding VST plugin instruments for free out on the net, snoop around a bit and you'll find a treasure trove.
Originally posted by witeasprinwow
Do note that some mics are designed for vocals while others are designed for instruments, and while you can use vocal mics for instruments and vice versa, it won't sound quite as nice.
Just let me debunk that myth right now! There is NO rule that says this mic HAS to be used for vocals. Manufacturers design their mics for general purpose, whether its a shitty |
Clockworkz
Posts: 1411/2002 |
The kind of music I wanna make is like......
...."borrow" Moby's song, Bed. Or the song, 18. |
witeasprinwow
Posts: 386/555 |
Really, all you NEED to get started are professional monitoring headphones and shitty microphone. You can get a good pair for those for about $100 USD. A shitty microphone will run you about $30, since you'll probably want to be able to record your voice or the sounds of things around the house. To be blunt, recording software will cost you many hundreds of dollars in stores, just get Adobe Audition and Frooty Loops off the net.
That comes to a grand total of $130 dollars to get the very basic necessities. If you're gonna buy more things, I would get these:
-A new soundcard. Makes everything sound better. I use a Delta 66 and a M-Audio external interface for it. Run me $300.
-Studio Monitors. Makes it so much easier to mix / master. Will run you $300 bucks for two Beringher 100-watters, you'll also need a spot on your soundcard to plug in left and right 1/4th jacks (or buy 1/4th to 1/8th jack converters) as they're independant of each other and you CAN'T mix with mono speakers. The Delta 66 / M-Audio takes care of this for me.
From there, you should buy things as you deem them necessary and have the money. Think about what you could use in your music and get that. Would a turntable give you the kinds of sounds you want? If so, research and find one that you like that's within your price range. Don't like the sound quality on what you record? Maybe a nicer one (I reccomend Shure SM57s and SM58s) would remedy that.
I find www.musiciansfriend.com is a good starting spot, although you need to research what you buy much more thoroughly than the info they post on that site or you will probably get ripped off.
By the way, there is a HUGE learning curve for this stuff. As if coming up with catchy licks isn't hard enough, there's a sea of stuff to know about how to mix and master the music, more than I know now and probably more than I ever will know. You have a lot of reading to do  |
Legion
Posts: 2006/5657 |
Make sure you're dead serious about this though. It would be a shame to spend all that money only to have your equipment sitting in your attic/closet 6 months later. |
Clockworkz
Posts: 1405/2002 |
Wow, uh.... geez. I better get a job! I mean, I gotta shell out a LOT of money, apparently! That iPod can wait, I gues... |
Legion
Posts: 1990/5657 |
*punts to the Entertainment forum*
SCORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE! |
witeasprinwow
Posts: 379/555 |
To start, wrong fourm.
But WOAH. Big step there.
First off, you're gonna want some basic music classes somewhere. There's a lot about music to learn - Rythms (And polyrythms and crap), notes and pitches, scales, modes, chords, ect... Even for relatively musically simple electronic music (Meant as no offense, simple can be good, but electronic music generally is simple), you're going to want to know the basics.
Now then, exactly what do you mean by "Musician"? Are you going to DJ in front of people, or make your own electronic album but not do any live performances anywhere, or are you gonna do a Paul Oakenfold or Fatboy Slim type thing where you both put out CDs and play for crowds?
As for actually making the music... How much money are you willing to dump into this? You can spend a SHITLOAD of money on music stuff! (I'd say all my current guitar gear comes to about $2500 + or - some, and that's even with me getting stuff used and "borrowing" recording software) Having a starting price range would be good. You can keep the price down if you're willing to stay digital, IE making good use of the computer hardware you already have. Do some research and think about exactly what you're going to need to make the kind of music you will want to make.
What you're probably gonna want:
-Some sort of professional studio monitoring headphones. You know, the big-ass studio kind. I spent $100 dollars on mine. Make sure they are MONITORING headphones and not just bigass headphones, you specifically want MONITORING headphones because they don't "help" the music sound any better like most speakers are designed to. Basically, if you can get it to sound good on monitoring equipment, it will sound GREAT in a real stereo system.
-Some professional monitors would be good, but if you wanna scrap on money, you can do without them. It might make the mixing and mastering process a little harder, but considering I paid $300 dollars for two 100 watt monitors (You WANT two, one for left and one for right)... That hassle might be worth saving the $300 to you.
-Unless you have a drumkit and a lot of microphones (You can spend many thousands on this kind of rig), or know someone who does and is willing to play for you, you will need a drum machine. I suggest "borrowing" Frooty Loops from your favorite "software borrowing" source. This will sorta be the "base of operations" for your music, most of it will probably all come together right here.
-You may want a microphone to record your own voice or some noises or whatever you want to use as a sample. I use two mics at the same time to record my guitar sounds, a shitty $15 dollar mic that was actually designed for use with an Xbox and a professional-grade $100 mic. You can make either kind work. Do note that some mics are designed for vocals while others are designed for instruments, and while you can use vocal mics for instruments and vice versa, it won't sound quite as nice.
-If you're recording something, you can save cash by recording it into your computer. I suggest going back to yoru "software borrowing" source and borrowing Adobe Audition. This will be the other "base of operations" for the production of your music.
-If you're recording into your computer, you may want a new soundcard. I dropped about $300 dollars on sound-based computer hardware. You can use your onboard, it just won't sound as good.
-You're gonna want a LOT of sound loops and samples. You can download a lot of these for free.
That's the basics You're gonna want a lot more if you want to DJ live, a turn table and record to hold all your sound clips and a PA system to get the music out to the crowd and so on...
In short you can spend as little as, say, $100 to get started, or literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on a professional recording studio. The choice is yours.
Good luck man. The first step is quite a big one, but once you're in the swing of it, it's fucking GREAT. |
Wlokos
Posts: 117/176 |
Ah, I write a lot of electronic music. I use www.noteworthysoftware.com (Noteworthy composer). It's a great, erasy to lean/use program that is cheap. On the higher end, there are better ones, but they are much more difficult and expensive, and I dislike them. |
Clockworkz
Posts: 1403/2002 |
Moby fuled my passion for this...
Anyway, where do I get started? What hardware, software, expenses, synths, etc. do I need? I really want to do this; ever since I listened to my first Moby album, I wanted to do this for the longest time, so all I wanna know is where to start. Thanks for any help! |
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