Music Technology.

[Inverse]

Opening this thread so Me and Screaming Coasters don't fill the Happy Things thread with nerd-talk... feel free to join in if you like music and stuff.

PROTOOLS 8 has arrived and it is installing as i type!! YES!!

*Screams with you*
Lemmi know what its like, I'll probably get it in a couple months so fill me in!

I use software synths mostly, there are some hardware synth at uni i use, Oberheim something-or-other and a couple of Roland rack synths. But most of the time i like to build my own software synths in Reaktor. Do you use Reaktor? Real techy-nerdy stuff.

I tried using a demo of Reaktor but without any user-manuals, I had no idea what I was doing. Would you be able to teach me, because it is something I want to buy next as all the top dance producers use it.

In terms of softsynth, I'm using all the stuff that came with the Bombfactory stuff Digital Village threw in with my 003.

For monitors i'm on M-Audio DX4s :? They're good for their size, but i think they're next on my upgrade list.

I highly recommend Dynaudio! For my money, I haven't found a pair of monitors to out do my BM12's. They cost me a £2000 for the pair, but they have come down a lot now and I think the retail for just over £650 each, so £1300.

If you need any future mixing /re-mixing work, think of me.

How much would you charge for say a 26 track stem mix and mastering?

PT8 is really slick. The extra voices at LE level are really usefull and the plugins sound really lush for a base pack. They say they've improved the MIDI user friendlyness... and i guess they have, but not as much as i had believed. It's still the king for real audio, and the new playlist view with elastic time is really easy to use. On top of that, it looks sexy, and runs a lot without chewing CPU. Very good, you own LE 7.4? Buy the downloadable upgrade for £92 from the Digidesign website.

Reaktor might be pretty hard to teach, especially over a distance, i recomend you watch a tutorial on how to put a basic subtractive synth together and then i am more than willing to answer any questions and help with whatever i can. Just remember that Reaktor is more logical thinking and maths than music, but you can make truely 100% original synths and patches for your synths with it. Check out my RS-2 for a good exaple of the insanity that Reaktor can create.

Dynaudios are **** hot. We have a surround-sound set at uni, really nice. I've been told that they have a distintive colour that makes people mix in a certain way without knowing it. I've not heard the proof myself, but i've been told be reliable source, I think they sound lovely, personally i'm eyeing up KRK Rokit 7s.

Around £50 but i'll evaluate the track and let you know if it'll be easier than average, then i'll charge less. I'll always try to mix in the studio rather than at home which gives it a real pro feel. That depends on if i can get into the studio when you want it done.

 

[lol]

Today we take a look at how to bake a perfectly moist chocolate cake

I've encountered many people who have gone to uni to study music technology, and every one of them has the a few things in common. They learn about music technology (hurrrr) and then proceed to amass countless amounts of soft/hardware, and blab endlessly about what they've learned as if they've known it forever. The last thing they have in common is that when you actually hear their music, it's usually pretty poor and amateur.

It's an odd combination to behold - Someone who professes to being good at making music, but isn't. I guarantee you that 80% of these people are attanding, or have attended a related course at university.

Tune in next week for sock monkeys

 

[Inverse]

I sugest you listen before you slag off... then you can cry over my 100% 1st-class success in assignments.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

I've just downloaded the ProTools 7.42 update and boy, its quicker! It also updated the 003's firmware and thats a lot more responsive and precise. I dunno if that was an intentional fix but my latency has gone right down. Now, if thats just a free update, I'm excited to see what version 8 can deliver! How are you getting on with it?

I've been playing around with Reaktor but I still can't make sense of it. I'm going to have to watch something on youtube to get a grips with it. I'm glad I didn't jump the gun and just buy it, I'm just going to sit tight with the demo for now. Saying that, I've been having fun with your synths which leads me to a question - would you be willing to make a synth for me? If I give you the sound I want the synth to copy, could you do? Or even create me a synth module so it's possible for me to do? I'll pay you a fee if need be.

More news - I had something cool delivered to my door yesterday.

Korg DS-10. Yep, a Korg synthesizer for the Nintendo DS! Now I never have to sit on the train thinking about a tune, hoping I wont forget it by the time I get back home. I can sequence it into this. Wooh.

Oh by the way, what University you studying at?
I've just become a client of Hurricane Studios in Depford Bridge. They are helping get into the industry and I'm even producing with The New Devices, who are signed with Sony BMG. So we'll see what happens with that.

 

[Ollie]

I have no idea what you are all on about.

I would like to know though but fear I'd get lost instantly as my knowledge on music and stuff is zilch.

 

[lol]

I might not have been talking about you, Inverse.

Anyway, I have listened. There will be no crying.

 

[Inverse]

^ I appologise "lol", that was a rather drunken, aggressive post. It was beneath me.

ProTools8 does see a big performance upgrade from 7.3 (which i was running) i have no direct comparison vs 7.4. I've heard good things about the DS-10, crazy idea though. I study at TVU Reading, 3 year Bachaler degree called "Music Technology Specialist" i will progress to the masters afterwards.

Reaktor takes a lot of time, i'll be up for building you a small synth, but it may get delayed until June as i'm busy on the tech front for a while. Alternativly i could help you create the sound on either of my current synths, or a comercial synth we both have access to, i can craft a sound and send you the patch. I found Hurricane Studios's website... looks pretty good, small but with some quality gear. That'll be good.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Yer Hurricane is a good institute. They have taught me a lot, and they've hooked me up with a whole bunch of famous producers and artists. All I have to do now is make it work.

The sound thing, if you PM me you msn could I send you a couple of song examples and see what you could do around that?

 

[Sara]

I'm even producing with The New Devices, who are signed with Sony BMG. So we'll see what happens with that.

[pedant]It's just Sony now[/pedant]

They bought out BMG's 50% share late last year.

Following on slightly from what Lol said, and as someone who did this, got the jobs, bought the tshirt then switched to the business etc. unless you're going to work in production (by that i mean film/TV/be a foley artist), the qualification is meaningless. In the world of recorded music (and by this i mean you engineer or produce an album that is then released for sale and gets played on the radio etc) the jobs don't come around because you have a degree, they come around because of who you know and who you trained with (existing, successful producers and studios, not colleges*). This is fine if you understand that and are prepared to go back to the start and learn from scratch at a studio again, but I really wouldn't waste years learning it all at uni only to go out in to the real world and discover that in order to get anywhere in making music you need to suck it up and pretend like you know nothing, spending several years making tea before they let you solder a wire.

Other things to consider are that many studios are going out of business so jobs are sparse, even for the established engineers and producers and whether you like it or not, the serious money is in pop music. Could you really stand 16 hours of auto tuning Girls Aloud while they squeal their way through one line? Only to have to go back and do another 16 hours of the same for 4 weeks solid?

*and don't get me started on the music business degrees that have popped up all over the place...

 

[lol]

But they've hooked him up with loads of famous artists and producers AND he's friends with Adam Ginsberg, you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Who are you to comment like that 'lol'?
I am friends with Adam Ginsberg, yes, but what has that got to do with it?

Whatever, I am meeting with New Devices April 14th to discus further development of my tracks and to arrange production time. Don't believe me? - Deptford Bridge, Hurricane Studios, 12pm.
Don't be late.

Oh Sara, to comment, I agree with you to an extent. I got an A* GCSE music. I then went on to A Level music but I left because I couldn't see any point in it. I do however regret it somewhat as now, I can't get on a music engineering course without paying through the nose for it. Engineering is EVERYTHING in production and I wish I had kept it up, but now I'm left to learn the hard way, through the cups of teas.

 

[lol]

Don't believe you? No, I just don't give a ****, because all this talk of I know these people, I can do this, is totally and utterly worthless with the absence of actual music to go with it.

Who am I to comment like that? It's an internet forum dude, nobody's anybody.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Just a shame I do have the music to go with it then, isn't it. It's my career so who gives a ****? I do and I don't want anybody else telling me differently.

 

[Sara]

Erol, I don't doubt you're working with New Devices, I'm just saying its just Sony not Sonybmg now...

Oh Sara, to comment, I agree with you to an extent. I got an A* GCSE music. I then went on to A Level music but I left because I couldn't see any point in it. I do however regret it somewhat as now, I can't get on a music engineering course without paying through the nose for it. Engineering is EVERYTHING in production and I wish I had kept it up, but now I'm left to learn the hard way, through the cups of teas

But thats just it, you're not learning the hard way, you're doing it the right way. I did the courses then found out when I left that to get a job I had to go back to pretending i knew nothing and start from scratch on reception in Metropolis making cups of tea. It was so incredibly frustrating. Even more so when after a while I realised i didn't really like being holed up in a studio for all hours after all, so switched to the business side of things. I wish I'd saved myself a year and just gone straight in to studios from school instead of doing the course then discovering studios don't trust the education (quite rightly in some cases).

But they've hooked him up with loads of famous artists and producers AND he's friends with Adam Ginsberg, you don't know what you're talking about.

Was that directed at me? I'm confused. Maybe my first post was in spanish or something cos I can't see how you'd comment like that after what I wrote? :?

 

[Harvey]

Fact:

No one cares.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Cared enough to read it though.

 

[Harvey]

Poor quality rhetoric and equally sub-standard attempts at witty remarks hold no weight here I am afraid.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

You got the recipe just right - clever words mixed with a dash of poor grammar. I think I shall follow this as it seems to work for you.

Sara, could you pm me your msn, I'd like a chat since you're in the industry

 

[Slayed]

I don't understand where all this vitriol is coming from - it's just a topic about music technology. Let's keep it polite and on topic please.

 

[The Claw]

Wow after reading the first few posts I'm quite impressed. I don't have the world's greatest setup, in fact it's quite primitive: just a regular desktop running Cubase SX3 and my 61-key Korg M3 hooked up to it. I have a fair few plugin packages from Sonnox and Waves and a have a decent library of pre-made loops and samples that I got from Sony. I also have a microphone in my Korg so I can mess around with some vocoding stuff but I don't do that very much. I can be very hard on myself when it comes to making music so if anyone would like to give me some help or something that would be great.