Computer music.

So... I had some high hopes of making some music with my computer (can you believe it?!), and tried Max/MSP, thinking that it would give me the best creative control and interesting abilities.

Ummm... so after not knowing what I was doing for a couple of hours, I am lead to think that making music with a computer involves annoying programs like FLoops and that mess. I hear all this nice music made by these nice folding boxes, and get really ticked off because it just looks like a long tunnel of Abeltons and .vsts is looming in front of me.

Is this all there is?

I really apologize for being such an annoying baby, but I figured that you lot would know more than me.

P.S., in case you're thinking that I'm an ultra-annoying baby trying to find something to do with my time, I have been making music with hardware for a couple of years. I've tried to stay away from CPU stuff, but now I'm just too poor and envious. I'd love to use a CPU for creative abilities, but thinking about all these annoying, overformatted, 16-step, bullshit programs makes me depressed.

get reaktor....its more intuitive...

you don't have to use floops (btw the steps can be extended behond 16, or you can use the piano-roll) or ableton. you could use cubase or a tracker, like renoise... VSTs are great man. you can automate all the knobs and stuff. fun.

if you want to use something like max/msp, yeah, you're going to have to put a lot of time into learning it. i think it's more for programmers than musicians/amateur knob twiddlers (or a combination at least.. technically minded musicians). it's great as a sound source but i was lost trying to make something very basic with it.

  test pattern said:

get reaktor....its more intuitive...

do you make music entirely with reaktor?

www.synthmaker.com

  dugbert said:

www.synthmaker.com

You could try AudioMulch....Audiomulch.com

When most people want to learn to play guitar, they don't try to build the guitar first.

  heliumb said:

When most people want to learn to play guitar, they don't try to build the guitar first.

my thought exactly.

when you made music with hardware, did you build the hardware first?

"man, i feel so restricted by these strings and frets, i'm going to invent my own stringed instrument."

pwn

Reason's probably the most intuitive high quality program for easy music making. I use it on occassion in conjunction with Acid... but usually I just use Acid unless I want a thick bass sound or particular synth sound that I know Reason is capable of. It's hard to make good sounding synths in Reason, but the rhodes/piano/organ sounds are decent, as are some of the basses. You can come up with some cool sounding acid-type stuff with it too.

I've tried Renoise (tracker program) before, and it's way over my head. I have no idea how to come up with melodies in that program, and the drum programming for me is awkward, though obviously it works really well for some people (vsnares).

I wouldn't recommend Fruityloops, but it is where I started, and it's dead simple to figure out.

...or it could just be that he isn't yet fluent with the programs he's using. If someone doesn't understand a program's set-up, they could be a musical genius and not come up with anything on it.

"why is it that most electronic music produced today, if i may be rude about it, belongs to the squeek-and-jibber school, so to speak?"

  Yggdrasil said:

"why is it that most electronic music produced today, if i may be rude about it, belongs to the squeek-and-jibber school, so to speak?"

what

  ULCRESHXOBG said:

  Yggdrasil said:

"why is it that most electronic music produced today, if i may be rude about it, belongs to the squeek-and-jibber school, so to speak?"

what

Thanks for the advice.

I'll admit that I'm really stupid as far as technology goes. The idea of making music with a computer (other than my field of tangled wires and boxes) was liberating, a little. I might find something eventually, but I guess I should really just "stfu".

I wanted to make something modern, I guess. I've lived a life sheltered from this stuff so far.

Maybe... some day...

Your hardware and MIDI cable + MIDI converter + Cubase/Logic/etc. = you making music.

I thought that would be fun. ^

Well, I'm playing with Renoise, and it's kind've OK. I like this .VST thing a little. A program that uses those is a tracker, right?

I hate/apologize for talking about this here. I just know that you all want to send me dog crap in the mail.

Nope, pretty much any program on the computer that allows for recording of any kind is compatible with VSTs, unless it's dated. Trackers from what I understand are programs that are set-up like renoise, with those little rectangles moving from the top to the bottom of the screen. I tried another tracker program that had this exact set-up, in fact the only way to differentiate it from renoise was that it had it's name at the top instead of "renoise". Cubase, Acid, Protools, Vegas, and a whole slew of other programs all use VSTs but are not trackers. ...Actually i don't even know the technical name for such programs, referring to them as "recording software" or "programs I sequence/record my music in." I really don't keep up to snuff on the terminology side of things. Someone else could probably better explain what a tracker is. Reason's not a tracker either, nor is fruityloops... Hehe, I can just identify what it isn't.

Reason isn't very intuitive if your used to fruity loops, or acid, or other apps. but if you're used to hardware, it may be the most intuitive for you, since it simulates rack hardware and patch cables and leads and such.

I 've always called cubase etc. 'sequencers'. I guess a tracker makes sense if you're used to hardware because hardware sequencers use the same kind of logic as trackers (I believe, never used hardware.. ;) ). but cubase, logic etc. are very, very easy to understand, easier than writing something on max/msp by a million miles...

reason is good, and can be quite intuative to those who are used to hardware, but i've always found it a little limiting. my advice is stick to a tracker I guess, and use it in conjunction with a high end vst like reaktor, that way you can learn one of the ways to sequence on a computer, and get used to a computer based audio-sculpoting environment in one go!

oh yeah, trackers are rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllll intuitive.

lol

i mean, who doesn't speak hex as a second language?

i actually think thisket is taking the piss

no one can be that fucking naive when it comes to making 'computer music'

if not tho...

1. get a DAW that suits you

2. get some VST's you might like - if you want to sound like AE dont bother D/L an organ VST - clogging up your VST folder with shite is a real creative killer.

3. dont sit down and think - right i must make a groundbreaking glitch fest track, think - right i'm going to sit down and have fun and in the process learn how to use my DAW

Reaktor is excellent by the way, but many people like to go for the snob/wank factor by saying 'yeah i did it all in my own MAX/MSP Audiomulch creations' this of course is total wank and these people are probably talking shit and should be shot.

mo

PS - there is no wrong DAW try FL you might like it, just cos 99% of people dont know jack shit about it and only use 1% of it's features is no reason to knock it.

fuck computer music

I'm really that naive. I don't particularly enjoy it, but I'm REALLY STUPID. Some of you might remember me writing a thread about "what device can control my MIDI hardware?". I really didn't know then, and I don't know much about "computer music" now. I've said it a few times, but I bought the first synthesizer I ever played. Long story about how I got interested. I lived in a town where 7420937% of the people thought a coffee maker was advanced, even the kids. That of course being the deep South of the USA...

I'm having fun with Renoise, actually loads of fun. I understand maybe half of it, and I know how to work .VSTs now. It's really liberating, because I'll get disheartened by making music with all those clumsy machines (which I still love...) and being afraid of whacking them with cords by accident, not to mention sitting for hours with my MC-500 trying to make "intricate" songs. I much rather the sound of them in a masturbatory/geeky way, but this cpu stuff is a big liberator.

Now... I like Renoise, but I keep hearing abot Reaktor and Reason. If anyone wants to compare them, then please. Or does it even matter that much at this point? By the way, I don't believe in paying for software.

Thanks for paying attention. I don't care if you want to talk angrily, I'm learning.

  blicero said:

oh yeah, trackers are rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllll intuitive.

 

lol

 

i mean, who doesn't speak hex as a second language?

dude, i'm a born and bred cubase user but i can pick up renoise for a jam and get around it with a fair bit of ease. it takes a wiki search and a little effort to get used to hex, i meam , we can all count to 10, how much harder is it to add a few more symbols to bring us into the teens? besides, its all just experimentation anyway, you can just treat it as further letter's, greater values to start with and it will all turn out fine :)

thisket:, i say if you're getting along with renoise, go with it