making beats
making beats
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- nocomply3
OK friends, I know this is a dumb and loaded question, and I don't know if this is the best place to ask... but, like, how?
How do you make and record beats?
I have ideas for songs that have been kicking around in my head for years, and I made a promise to myself that in this next year I'm actually going to do some writing/recording.
I play guitar and ukulele. I can do a little drumming and keys.
But what if I wanted to make a beat/backing track to do my stuff over?
Should I record live samples and loop them somehow?
Should I just use the sample sounds in Garage Band (are they even any good?).
Should I buy a drum machine thing (how do those even work?!)
The last time I recorded was on a four track. I was playing trumpet in a ska band in high school that never made it out of my friend's garage.
So, like, where do I start? How can I do it cheaply? I don't want a super-produced sound. I don't want it to be perfect. I want it to be real.
Honestly, I kinda just want to do it all live on a 4-track. I want to make music – not poke around on a computer. But I'm sure there's a better way.
Thanks for all who share any advise/wisdom here!
- yes, get a drum machine. drum machine will be your best friend.futurefood
- i would find a cheap laptop and run free software ( ie. Reaper) and get a small interface (focusrite). just as fun as 4 track but with flexibilityfuturefood
- also, there are loads of vids on youtube of people with simple gear making great music.futurefood
- If you can play a lot of instruments well enough to do a live-looping gig then get a nice looper pedal - Boss RC505 is super easy to use.microkorg
- Fuck it and just buy an old 4 track on eBay. LOTS of synth and modular folk are recording their stuff to tape these days for the analog noise/sound.microkorg
- Most important thing is that the method you choose is FUN and satisfying in some way. If its a chore then you're never gonna do it.microkorg
- Got an iPad? Theres some great sequencing/sampling apps, drum machines, synths apps etc that you can make sounds and record on too.microkorg
- Thanks for the tips! Going to look into the stuff you have mentioned.nocomply
- Korg Gadget, Beatmaker 3, Akai iMPC Pro - all decent music making apps. You can hook up your ipad to MidiControllers too.microkorg
- The guys at GuitarCenter would have a field day w this! jk. The cheap and easy way is pretty much poking around on computer.caterpus
- i use AppleLoops ALL THE TIME for work in sound design and composition for tv/film the trick is manipulate them to make them original n appropriate.caterpus
- that said, buy a simple digital interface n Logic n never use GarbageBand. U get a ton of great plugins and loops or just record ur own. HIT ME UP ; ]caterpus
- i usually start with a break these days and try and get the structure of a song together as quickly as possible then go in to the studio with a drummer andkingsteven
- track drums so i often just sample breaks off youtube as a catalyst (also means i'm not tempted to stick with them) there was some discussion of the drum brokerkingsteven
- a few posts ago, i'd have a look at that if you don't fancy sitting on tracks for a year before they're done. honestly there's nothing better than a good breakkingsteven
- as catalyst for writing good tracks. 3 parts of good break + good bass + good guitar + good synths. if i can't get it down in a few hours, and i don't think ikingsteven
- can listen to it ad infinitum - i usually know it's not going to make it and start again!kingsteven
- iMaschine app for phone and ipad is a cheap way to get in.stoplying
- mg334
Once in a while I get to make an ambient track to accompany video a friend of mine shoots of artist Phillip K Smith III’s incredible light installations. Got to make this for his current Detroit installation, Detroit Skybridge.
/- https://archinect.co…mg33
- Moody. Good work.section_014
- niceautoflavour
- Well done! I like.BustySaintClaire
- I photographed Phillip last year and I was struck by his curiosity and passion. Seems like he's really getting the attention he deservesmartinadolfsson
- Thanks everyone! I don't know him, I just do stuff with the photographer, who has some amazing work on his site: https://www.lanceger…mg33
- Here's another one I did music for:
https://www.lanceger…mg33 - It was fun that, for both of these, I didn't see the video beforehand, we just chatted about the desired sound, and both fit really well in the end.mg33
- futurefood4
mechanical engineer + custom built instruments = doom metal
- http://i.imgur.com/u…prophetone
- the music is dreadful, the instruments are awesome.hans_glib
- that second gif, all I see is fistingautoflavour
- dem knobsimbecile
- the knobs just look like arcade spinners to me. did some with machined tops like that for an installation years ago.kingsteven
- kingsteven1
300 quid, not a clone, well laid out and a good selection of components... interesting blendable oscillators, great filter... what's going to break first?
- a mate has already ordered this and the moog clone. effing bargains, no mistakehans_glib
- this Nick Batt presenter is classic uk music shop guy...shapesalad
- Should be pretty good, but the "what's gonna break 1st" comment is real. A lot of eurorack is built with the mindset of quality without $$$ concerns.section_014
- osc sync! oh how i missed you.
my coworker naysays, but behringer's image will change greatly in next few yearsfuturefood - at least they made it look like a 300 quid synth with that shitty wave pattern. "we can't make it look too good, people will expect it to work..."kingsteven
- I am just waiting for the model D to finally be in stock...prophetone
- if they put the patch bay on the right the least they could do would be to color code them to the knobs.cannonball1978
- why do you need colour coding when you can have a 90s rave flyer explosionprophetone
- hahah, why do I even need a synth when DJ Hyper Justie and Sonic B are playing every night this week at the Forum. 300 quid better spent on eccies!kingsteven
- Literally every behringer gear I have ever purchased have needed returning due to failure under warranty.. I’m talking at least 6-7 timesautoflavour
- It’s cheap for a reasonautoflavour
- yep, i have a bunch of that behringer rack gear too. they are 100 quid yearly consumables. been through 3 graphics in 10 years. 2 headphone amps etc.kingsteven
- develop a fault in the first year but will keep working in retard mode until you replace it. rehearsal room PA is frankenstein's rack of half working beh units.kingsteven
- a good graphic costs > 350 probably costs 250 to manufacture, test etc. Behringer are popping theres out for 30 quid a pop with no QC, let them fail in use...kingsteven
- imagine 90% fail in 3 years... only 10% are returned under warranty - chuck it in the trash send them another. laughing all the way to the bank.kingsteven
- mantrakid4
- Kinda trippy its been over a week of daily beats. It been actually kinda... er.. life affirming. I never regret it once i start up.mantrakid
- ooooooooh OP field.. makes me think I should probably spend more time on my OP-1autoflavour
- been following on YouTube! dope!
So dirty, I had to flag as inappropriatefuturefood - Nice work, making beats! subbed to you on the YouTubeprophetone
- Hahha big love futurefood & prophetone ❤️ Thanks for peeping it!!!!mantrakid
- lodef5
- visuals with C4Dlodef
- nice visualizer.ApeRobot
- ty. went with something simple in the end. a simple logo AV works.lodef
- How much did Atticus Ross contribute to this?NBQ00
- I don't know what he did on this track specifically. I'd like to know what they used, there is a sound I cant tell if its guitar or synth.lodef
- autoflavour4
- Chonkitakt™mort_
- Midichonk2000™prophetone
- could it be smaller, sure. would it fit neatly between other elektron devices.. no.
also its built like a tankautoflavour - also, realistically it would likely have black faders, not red.. just didn't have enough black chroma caps aroundautoflavour
- There must be a Faderfox controller that covers everything you have there. Was it more of a learning project?mort_
- The red faders are cool - they give it personality and it looks like it belongs there with the Elektrons.mort_
- Looks awesome! congrats on the project!microkorg
- mort, there are any number of midi controllers, fader fox or otherwise.. none are ones I built for myselfautoflavour
- imbecile5
- It’s beautiful, but comes at a hefty price!prophetone
- are these back in production?futurefood
- well they sold out so quickly it wouldn't surprise mehans_glib
- ApeRobot4
Releasing a new EP.
- https://goo.gl/JVf5h…ApeRobot
- love this!kingsteven
- Great. A bit of variation to the snare would be good,some filtering, delay effects etc.fruitsalad
- snare sounds good to me - tight. nice.fadein11
- thanksApeRobot
- Steezaygarbage
- futurefood5
I've been growing more and more obsessed (maybe even rabid) with the Mellotron and was looking to expand the sample options. I ordered these sound cards which came in a cool little custom metal case.
This also gave me a chance to communicate with the mastermind behind this project, Markus Resch. He made the M4000D possible and is a truly humble and kind man.
These cards contain almost all samples available across the many early machines including the Mellotron Mk1/Mk2 and Chamberlin Music Master. Around 528 unique samples.
These should keep me busy for a long while :)
Below are some great examples of compositions made only using the Mellotron and sound cards.
Mellotron Variations - band that includes Pat Sansone of Wilco
They Might Be Giants - John Flansburgh uses the Mellotron often throughout many TMBG records and created this little composition for their Dial-A-Song service.
Short and sweetly quirky..
- I really love the idea of the Mellotron, so cool, a neat weirdo concept for sound creation, would love to have one but I could see myself using in limited waysprophetone
- And the price point is the real barrier of course, so very expensive, but prob worth it if you will use it in ways like that amazing TMBG TDCprophetone
- That being said the Micro version is not out of reach price wise, but no expansions... one day maybeprophetone
- Maybe I can start a Residents type of one man band, all spooky spacey and ambient with loads of fx sounding like a 1930s halloween cartoon acid tripprophetone
- ^my true aim! lolfuturefood
- The Micro is fucking dope! I highly recommend. Yea, no expansions, sadly. Though, the internal sounds are so good.futurefood
- You should check out the M-Tron Pro. It is seriously one the best Mellotron emulators and works great as a VST.futurefood
- It also gives you access to the coveted Streetly samples through purchased packs. Amazing sounds.futurefood
- thumbs up emojiprophetone
- I've been using the Arturia Mellotron plug in and it's amazing. You tried that?Ianbolton
- futurefood4
Ok, so I won't be getting the Prophet 6 anytime soon like I thought I would.
Until then, I picked up something I've waited a loooonnng time for. It was such a great deal I couldn't pass it up.
It pairs so well with my minimoog voyager, too!
- Oooof wow nice one, very coolprophetone
- Wow. That’s class! Enjoy.mort_
- wow a proper rarity,looks in great nick - what was the damage?hans_glib
- oh, ok it's the digital version, my bad.hans_glib
- It’s 4000D, but it has wooden keys like the original haha
https://happymag.tv/…futurefood
- mort_5
Not nearly as awe-inspiring as autoflavour's but progressing nicely.
I have a really tight hybrid setup now using CV tools in Ableton and the Expert Sleepers ES-9 audio interface module in the rack. Everything in Ableton can be run through the modular - CV pitch and gate sequences from Ableton into oscillator / envelope modules, audio tracks from Ableton into modular effects and back into Ableton. Outboard synths via USB midi. The flexibility is nuts. And weirdly, no syncing or latency issues. None.
I'm also awaiting a MI Beads and an intellijel Dual ADSR and I'm trying to shift the 1010 Bitbox sampler to fund a Morphagene.
- (Usually a lot more patch cables plugged in but I just last night I shifted things around a bit and had to unplug half of them.)mort_
- nice.. some fun bits of kit there.. I haven't really ventured too far into Ableton interaction past simple midi clock out. I'm a bit of a luddite in that regardautoflavour
- im a little on the fence about the intellijel ADSR.. I think I just need a bit more time with it, but its not been what I was anticipating out of the box yetautoflavour
- and yep, beads.. fuck.. I ordered that in March.. but foolishly clicked land shipping from Canada.. its on a boat somewhere.. slowly making its way.autoflavour
- didn't even leave Canada until late mayautoflavour
- what's driving your quad vca? I just picked up a quadrax the other day to replace my quadra.. can recommendautoflavour
- Using the envelopes on Tides and Peaks with the VCA as stop gap while I wait for the dual ADSR. Is it the lack of CV control on the ADSR that you didn’t like?mort_
- Quadrax looks pretty awesome.mort_
- @auto if your audio interface has DC coupled outputs, you’re good to go with CV tools. My Focusrite didn’t so had to change it for the ES-9.mort_
- Don’t have DC coupled outputs.. but it’s not like Im lacking cv .. im very much a wham bam kinda guy.. don’t go too deep on things now daysautoflavour
- It’s all super fast and loose.. record a bunch of takes and then just move on. Short attention spanautoflavour
- As for Adsr, just still getting the feel for it.. just yet to get it do exactly what I want when I wantautoflavour
- Wish I'd got the Quardax now - looks so much more versatile. I'll see how I get on when the ADSR arrives. Bought it used so should resell without losing much.mort_
- I do love the idea of sliders for ADSRs though - a visual representation of the envelope.mort_
- yeah kind of why I got it also.. look don't let me discourage you, I am still learning pretty much everything.. my to learn list for this rig is like 70% of itautoflavour
- im still trying to get my head around Marbles.. and that's not that hardautoflavour
- just picked up at RND STEP from SSF and Div Kid.. super fun. the OCHD he did also is great.. just simple random funautoflavour
- and I'm sure I am just not using the ADSR right.. or the quadrax for that matter. or any of it.autoflavour
- Yeah same. I picked up Marbles because it came up locally for a great price. It will remain a mystery until I read the manual and watch some tutorials.mort_
- Wow, Mort, you've totally gone for it. Nice set up man. So much analohgue!Ianbolton
- Cheers Ian. There's actually a healthy mix of both analog and digital in there.mort_
- I think I might have got something somewhat useful out of the marbles last night.. nothing ground breaking but at least kind of musicalautoflavour
- Nice! Now do a Marbles video ;)mort_
- autoflavour3
so a Machinedrum came up for 500 .. given the last price I saw was 1500.. I grabbed it..
now I have 2..Double rainbow
- Hol;y fuck! nice price! shiiit. Saw this pic come up in my instagram feed and I thought 'you bastard! two Machinedrums!' :Pmicrokorg
- wow, nice price.futurefood
- It’s not without its flaws. 2 LED are dead and one trigger button needs replacing. But sequenced from the digitakt, it’s totally fine.autoflavour
- Still.. 500..autoflavour
- Filled the hole left by the octatrack I soldautoflavour
- you son of a gun, nice price indeeedprophetone
- Sometimes I forget if auto makes beats, or is this for his podcast or does he run a museum ;-)oey_oey
- auto works for council making videos on waste management. and occasionally for the university. everything else is just fun
distractions.autoflavour - auto has also been collecting machines since 1996, so its not like I just went and spent 40k off the batautoflavour
- ^ hahaha!oey_oey
- microkorg3
- so many attempts to better the 303 but they never sound right - that demo doesn't sound great.fadein11
- the TT303 is the closest i have heard.. and even then its a 24db filter instead of the 18db..autoflavour
- who's the cute lil acid muffin?prophetone
- sexy little box (even for a non beat maker like me).uan
- I don't think it's trying to be one of the real 303 emulators. It's got it's own values - the waveform sketch is cool.microkorg
- Looks like a really nice instrument for live jamming - especially for about £220!!!microkorg
- the price is definitely rightautoflavour
- just not sure i can justify another 303autoflavour
- that said, i have never heard of this company and they looked to be making some pretty sexy gear.autoflavour
- Made in Francemicrokorg
- Couldn't resist. Ordered one! :)microkorg
- 303's suck.section_014
- haha, yeah man, acid sucks!!prophetone
- prophetone2
- oh bloody hellhans_glib
- Thing of beauty.mort_
- $$$prophetone
- Half the price of its big brother, but still could never justify spending $2k on a synth.mort_
- there's always the behringer. but then you're supporting child prostitution or qanon or some such shitehans_glib
- ^wtf?futurefood
- Looks and sounds great, but turned off by price. I was expecting $1300-1500futurefood
- lol @hansmort_
- I'm a non-musician. What does this thing actually *do*?Continuity
- makes beautifully warm analog bleeps and bloops, awesome fun uiprophetone
- i wish i could justify cost of one, tough when cheaper for Moog Granny and/or other cool synths that I’d prob get firstprophetone
- i remember lusting over the clone kit 2600 many years ago, even that was $$ for kit + bomprophetone
- ...the TTSH
https://youtu.be/YZC…prophetone - call me crazy but I’d prefer the full size beast over a scaled down versionprophetone
- i agree - for some reason it makes the sound much more impressive. but i'm going to spend the money on a bike instead - i'll get a lot more use out of it.hans_glib
- like I have space for something that big *eyerolllautoflavour
- mort_5
- so much wild, angry screech and bloop goodness in such a small box, i love itprophetone
- $550usd so not a cheap little guy but a point was made that it packs the features of more than that $ if were eurorack modulesprophetone
- but yeah if you techno this is a beast esp for live knob twiddlingprophetone
- I have the Moog DFAM and it’s the most fun synth I own. This looks up there with it.mort_
- Hainbach’s take on it
https://youtu.be/VZ-…mort_ - saw this video earlier, man what a little box!microkorg
- 0 Coast from Make Noise also looks funmort_
- autoflavour3
Latest acquisition..
Kinda lusted after one since 1999..
will be interested to see how it changes my music as I don’t usually use 8bit sounds- niceprophetone
- huh, does that have an actual MOS 6581 chip in it? if so, that's pretty cool.
looks terrible though! :)Nairn - i had an early one, wish i'd never sold it. such a characterful synth, the little ghost noises it makes when it's not in use are incredible...kingsteven
- the SID chip is an incredible piece of design. even though the C64 was 8-bit, the SID is internally 16bit oscillators and analog filter and modulation...kingsteven
- yeah, actual MOS6581 .. from the look of the manual and everything that came with it I think it was from the 2001 batch .. its pretty gnarlyautoflavour
- had a quick play yesterday, super raw.. looks like a synth made by hand.. interestingly tho, the angle its on is the exact the same as the Digitone keys,autoflavour
- which its sitting next to in my studio, so even 20 years apart, elektron paying attention to aesthetics ..autoflavour
- and yep, kinda noisy kingsteven.. but I guess that's the charm.. I can't wait to have some proper time to play with it.. been so distracted lately with kitchenautoflavour
- Reno's I have been in the studio like 3-4 times over the past 3 months.. and that was just to work from home.. summer holidays is going to be funautoflavour
- Did you get it for a good price? Just asking as usually see these for sale for stupid prices but then it drops and drops until someone buys it ;)microkorg
- it was $900 AUD.. so like 480 pounds or soautoflavour
- seemed like a good deal.. there is 1 on Reverb currently for $1925 AUDautoflavour
- yeah thats a really decent price for one. they usually about £700 that they go for but folk advertise them about £1200 toomicrokorg
- good price, sold mine for more than that in 2004kingsteven
- inteliboy4
- i like her, she got GASprophetone
- enjoyed this too, cool lass with gas!microkorg
- cuteutopian
- Anyone who has an octatrack as the heart of the setup is good with me.. also German is a plus..autoflavour
- futurefood5
- watprophetone
- been waiting for this one, was expecting more knobskingsteven
- to be honest im getting a little fatigued by all these reissues.. nothing interesting about them accept priceautoflavour
- exceptautoflavour
- spunji8
I made a tune. Here it is...
