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fung_us_among_us


Registered: 12/08/02
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need help making music
#5372515 - 03/06/06 09:49 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i've been trying to make some experimental stuff with various programs... fruity loops, audacity, cubase.. some other stuff. i have a pretty nice keyboard hooked up through MIDI USB to my computer.
the trouble i'm having is with making beats. i want to do beats with a good hip-hop feel.. maybe something faster like drum and bass. the problem is all the beats i make using the step sequencer in FL sound too mechanical.. they don't have that rhythmic feel i'm going for.
something like the beat on "Chromakey Dreamcoat" by Boards of Canada maybe. i know it helps to use more realistic drum samples than the ones that come with FL but i don't know where to get many of those and don't want the drums in all my songs to sound the same.
i don't know.. any help is appreciated. another problem is that my MIDI USB is slow for some reason, so you can't play a beat well through a VST instrument or whatever.. because there's a slight delay or whatever.
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BoneMan
Shrimpin ain't easy


Registered: 02/09/05
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Here's my advice. Fuck MIDI. Use the regular audio output or headphone jack on the keyboard to connect to your computer. Then record the audio live instead of step sequencing.
I think its a hell of a lot easier. The downside is that you need to be able to play the keyboard and have precise timing. If you dont have good enough time to record it live...practice!
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fung_us_among_us


Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 6,906
Loc: Central Oregon
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Re: need help making music [Re: BoneMan]
#5372990 - 03/06/06 11:57 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i hook it up that way a lot of times.. but the only problem is i can't get the same effects how i want them. unless theres a way to do effects on line-in in real time?
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stefan
work in progress

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1. listen carefully how beats are constructed in tracks you like 2. it probably sounds mechanical because every note has the same velocity. play a little with velocity and it will probably sound a lot less mechanical
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lukeboots
fresh futuristic

Registered: 02/04/04
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Loc: Grand Ole Operating Syste...
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Re: need help making music [Re: stefan]
#5373228 - 03/07/06 01:35 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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the velocity, and seriously, get away from prepackaged FL samples. they're terrible. get used to cutting up notes in the piano roll (in FL only). you'll be able to place hits/notes outside of the 16 beat frame.
I added an attachment of a short track.. I used FL to make the beat, maybe that's the kind of thing you're talking about / looking for?
--------------------
funky ass music: Planet of Dinosaurs // Rich Whiskey
Edited by lukeboots (03/07/06 01:41 AM)
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fung_us_among_us


Registered: 12/08/02
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Loc: Central Oregon
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Re: need help making music [Re: lukeboots]
#5373235 - 03/07/06 01:46 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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yeah i haven't used the piano roll at all yet.. i should practice with that.
and i don't just use prepackaged samples.. i've been sampling clips of shit in audacity and messing with the tempo/pitch and it ends up just being weird distorted noises. i've been making really noisy experimental stuff but i want it to be a little more techno, that's why i was asking about the beats.
i don't really know much about note velocity, either. i know how to get to it in FL using the step sequencer or whatever.. but what does it mean for a note to have a higher/lower velocity?
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stefan
work in progress

Registered: 04/11/01
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the how hard the note is 'hit'. Real musicians don't hit every note as hard so you can play with velocity to let it sound more real. Not only with drums, but also on melodies and bass etc etc
you can also tweak the drum samples within fruityloops to customize them 
maybe you can let us hear a track (or part of a -) so we can hear what you mean and give you feedback on it
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kotik
fuckingsuperhero


Registered: 06/29/04
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Re: need help making music [Re: stefan]
#5373349 - 03/07/06 05:21 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Here's my advice. Fuck MIDI.
bad advice. why eliminate such a powerful tool?
Quote:
use the regular audio output or headphone jack on the keyboard to connect to your computer. Then record the audio live instead of step sequencing.
again, bad advice. doing this limits the quality to your soundcard, and if you ever want to make a change, you have to re-record. This would be a step backward, getting into linear editing. The whole point of going digital is for non-linear.
Quote:
I think its a hell of a lot easier. The downside is that you need to be able to play the keyboard and have precise timing. If you dont have good enough time to record it live...practice!
this is where midi comes in. you record midi, you notice a mistake, then just open up the piano roll and correct it. no replaying is needed. Thats just the surface.
to get around the "technical" sound (and I do know what you mean) experiment with the Humanizing presets, and try throwing a swing on your track around 66%-71%.
also, melodies and etc that sound mechanical can sometimes be easily fixed as simple as selecting all the notes and shifting them a few milliseconds later.. it can make a track sound more natural.
-------------------- No statements made in any post or message by myself should be construed to mean that I am now, or have ever been, participating in or considering participation in any activities in violation of any local, state, or federal laws. All posts are works of fiction.
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JacquesCousteau
Being.


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AHAHAHAHHAHAHA...
Oh shit. I just had to post to say your avatar is fucking awesome.
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BoneMan
Shrimpin ain't easy


Registered: 02/09/05
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Loc: new new england
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Log in to view attachment
Knowledge "What's Beef?" The rapper on this track created the drums, I did all the synths/piano/bass. We used no MIDI on this track.
Maybe I'm just not used to MIDI. But the way I record hip hop beats is in real time, using the sounds on my friends yamaha motif. Im sure that we'd use MIDI more if we had a cheap keyboard with lame sounds on it.
We've messed with MIDI but it takes a lot longer. Plus I consider myself a musician, not just a hip hop producer, and I enjoy the challenge of playing things in perfect time without making any mistakes.
Edited by BoneMan (03/07/06 07:45 AM)
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kotik
fuckingsuperhero


Registered: 06/29/04
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Re: need help making music [Re: BoneMan]
#5374360 - 03/07/06 02:07 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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likewise, i didnt mean to be harsh, just being frank for the sake of argument.
personally i started playing piano at 3, and pretty much played nothing but classical until 12-13, when i transitioned to ragtime, eventually jazz, and then who knows from there, a mix of not playing and just farting around for a few years.
the only reason i say that MIDI should not be ignored, is because of what is in the original post:
Quote:
experimental stuff with various programs... fruity loops, audacity, cubase.. some other stuff. i have a pretty nice keyboard hooked up through MIDI USB to my computer.
suggesting to step backward (technologically), would probablyh not be the best. i too prefer analog and realtime, but you have to admit, for someone just starting that is not the easiest route, especially if you have a usb keyboard and software.
-------------------- No statements made in any post or message by myself should be construed to mean that I am now, or have ever been, participating in or considering participation in any activities in violation of any local, state, or federal laws. All posts are works of fiction.
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fung_us_among_us


Registered: 12/08/02
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Re: need help making music [Re: kotik]
#5374683 - 03/07/06 03:14 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i would use midi all the time if i could just get it to play in real time. is it that i don't have enough ram or can MIDI USB just not play fast enough for me? should i get a soundcard with MIDI and switch to that instead?
also will you explain a little better how to shift the notes and all that? do i have to do it in piano roll or can i do it in step sequencer? i'm putting off learning piano roll until the last minute because it seems so complicated.
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Blastrid
e l e m e n t al i t y


Registered: 01/14/02
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I can answer your second question:
In the step sequencer, you see the little button in the upper right with little bars on it? click that, and whatever instrument/channel you have selected, a drop-down velocity meter will come up for each step. This is equivalent to the line-dots at the bottom of the piano roll for each MIDI note. In that drop-down thing in the SS, the slider can go to Velocity, Pitch, shift, cutoff.... it's pretty handy esp for sequencing drums and changing their velocity.
-------------------- Blas'?trid (bl?s tr?d) n. 3rd generation derivitave of a combination of 'bastard' and 'blasted'. Used as both an insult or an expletive. ex. Blastrid! Stereopattern <--My music.
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fung_us_among_us


Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 6,906
Loc: Central Oregon
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Re: need help making music [Re: Blastrid]
#5374819 - 03/07/06 03:58 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i knew how to get to that already.. i just have no idea how to make it actually sound good. guess i'll just have to mess with it some and figure out which notes should be higher velocity than others, or whatever.
if i were making a standard DNB drum loop... the "boom boom tsh tsh boom tsh" kind.. would i want more velocity on the boom (kick drum) usually?
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kotik
fuckingsuperhero


Registered: 06/29/04
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if you dont mind, go ahead and post some stuff you are working on that you dont like. just post the FL file, you can save it as a zip
-------------------- No statements made in any post or message by myself should be construed to mean that I am now, or have ever been, participating in or considering participation in any activities in violation of any local, state, or federal laws. All posts are works of fiction.
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fung_us_among_us


Registered: 12/08/02
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Re: need help making music [Re: kotik]
#5375587 - 03/07/06 07:21 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i don't really have much so far.. hang on i'll try to get some stuff together.
in the meantime, here's a link to my music page on myspace. it's just got rough mixes but i'm not sure if i'm going to go back and add more or just make new songs out of them.
Katzenjammer Noise
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