Ok here comes a total n00b post. Bought a cheap, portable midi keyboard controller to mess around with free/open-source softsynths and DAWs to see if I might like the all-computer method of making music. Been messing with it for several hours now and cannot get this MPK Mini to trigger any sounds at all. Tried with ZynAddSubFX standalone, tried it within LMMS (free DAW) on some VSTi's, tried in VSTHost, and still nothing. As far as I can tell, input is mapped to Ch1 and everything appears to recognize the MPK as the midi input device, but it triggers no sounds. Tested the device in MIDI-OX to check that it wasn't dead. Anyone know what I'm not doing?

I think you can download a trial of Ableton, so I would download that and see if it works with that. If it doesn't, you're probably not doing something right. Someone should be able to help you here, if that doesn't work, though.

Here's a few Mashups I did about a year ago: My SoundCloud Page | Let me know what you think. I know they could use some "Cleaning up/Mastering".

I'm about to dive back into music and start producing original tracks/beats and do some collaborations with my buddy Adam (Jetpak Fuel). I'm hoping to pick up some equipment (ASR & MPC) along with a Mac Book Pro, which is really what I need. I'll let you know when I upload some new "ISH" onto my SoundCloud page.

Keep On Keepin' On...

-FreshISHt

This is a track from one of my projects -- Rectifier. It's kind of piano meets experimental drum 'n bass. Lots of beat slicing and loop manipulation going on. Created on Cubase 5, with a little Reaktor and FL Studio 8.

I don't really know **** about mixing/mastering, so there's that. Critiques very much welcome.

CandyKreep, I like the last half of your song the most, it sounds Squarepusher style, maybe you know already but I put a link.

No, I'm not familiar with them really. Thanks for the link, cool stuff.

Thoughts on my bon iver remix? this version is actually an edit of my remix someone else made but I think I prefer it.

https://soundcloud.com/r0ads/bon-ive...fte-remix-ro-a

Interview with bass music legend VIVEK.



Going to SYSTEM is at the top of my things-to-do-before-I-die list.

Final round of EDC vegas tickets go on sale tomorrow at 12 PT - in case anyone was wondering. They will sell out - dis spectacle is not 2 B missed.

think im just waiting until edc orlando, but in the meantime...

got ultra tickets bam

Hi!

I have in a short time become a reg here: /bbv4life/progressive-house-trance-etc-music-thread-547299/

Now I came across this, and became inspirated to try doing something myself, not just "choosing carefully" among what others have done:



Any ideas how to start and develop in remixing? Which programs would be the best?

Just discovered /studio/electronic-music-production-1190752/, somehow missed it. My theme is so close, so please, can some mod merge this thread with it. Thanks!

done

If you have any of the major DAWs, I'm pretty sure they are all represented here in this thread. If you don't know what a DAW is, then I think there are some recommendations in this thread or you can check youtube to see how they all look. The big secret is: they can all accomplish the same things but just in different ways and it is a matter of preference.

I'm not advocating stealing, but I've been told that there are ways to test out the software without spending the pretty big amount of money that they cost. Some programs have demos / other ways...

If you don't know where to get started, send me a PM. There is also a skype group. Youtube is a great resource for learning about music production.

/wordthoughtvomit

Thanks for the advice! Think I'll start by coming back to this thread regularly, slowly trying to get into it. Will go through the two trance/house etc threads in BBV4L as well. Let's see if something comes out of this with time.

gl mang.

You guys prolly have heard of freesound by now but incase anyone hasn't it's a great site to get samples of literally anything no matter how random. I downloaded a bunch of elec guitar samples from there the other day which I'm looking forward to playing with

bump!

Great interview with garage/dubstep legend DJ Hatcha:

Awesome, I'm always scrounging for new sample sources. I've found a lot of cool stuff from vinyl blogs on blogspot and the like.

Anyone take vocal samples from vinyl? I'm still tying to figure out how a lot of the EDM producers get such clean sounding vocal samples from vinyl without getting the background music. Surely they can't just be taking the samples from the beginning of tracks when there are no other sounds going on.

A lot of the guys on the PLM label like Pretty Lights and Michal Menert use all vinyl samples and their vocals are so perfect. Any ideas?

I'm assuming a few of you DJ as well? Is there anyone who DJs and gets paid that I can PM with? I have some questions that I'd like guidance on.

There are a good number of tutorials on YouTube about how to remove background from vocals for the various DAWS - it is tedious, but it can definitely be done with some practice / plugin magic.

Care to elaborate? The only method I've seen was done in Audacity, and it required having an instrumental version of the song, as well as the normal version, layering the two on top of each other, and a mix of eq'ing, and other processes I'm not too familiar with, to essentially take out, or be left with, everything that is mixed to the center, which is generally vocals and drums.

What sort of plugins are you referencing?

It doesn't work very often. The key to getting it to work is that one of several factors have to be in place. First, if the mix and instrumental were mastered at the same time, it will always work perfectly. If the mix and instrumental had very similar mastering, it will mostly work. If the mix and instrumental were done at completely different times, with a completely different sound, it will never work. These days, it's almost a requirement in music (for released songs) to provide a mix and instrumental for anything of decent exposure. In something like dance music, where we are discussing this, most mastering is done by the person mixing the song. Therefore, you would have a high degree of success pulling out the vocal on anything done within the last couple of years, provided you can find the instrumental in the exact same mp3 compression as the mixed version. It would certainly be the case on anything I've mixed for dance music.

The big problem comes from the idea that I might mix something that's going to a real mastering engineer for CD/Vinyl. My instrumental (not always asked to provide this) would not be mastered in the same way as the full mix. Therefore, the results won't quite work or even not at all.

Here's the basic process, and you don't need a special program or EQ to do it. Get the mix, and an instrumental (the closer the mix and instrumental sound to each other all the way down to mp3 compression the more success you will have). Import them into whatever workstation you desire. Make sure they are perfectly synched with each other (I mean perfectly, the higher the amount of phasing, the more in synch you are). Then find a plug-in that allows you to flip the phase. The symbol for a phase flip switch is a 0 with a / through it.



In this photo, it's the button right above the output knob.

Once you've found a plug-in that allows you to flip the phase (most channel strip plug-ins have them), put that plug-in on either the mix or instrumental track. Click the flip phase button, and if you successfully did it, you should hear only the vocal (sometimes you hear a weird throbbing underneath, which usually isn't undesirable when putting music against something). Once you achieve the desired effect, if you can, record the acapella on to another set of tracks, import it into your session, and have fun.

Similarly, if you have an acapella and a mix track separate, but no instrumental, you can do the same thing to create an instrumental track. What you're doing is throwing the element you're trying to get rid of out of phase, causing complete cancellation of the sound you don't want. To create an acapella from a mix and instrumental, you are canceling out the music via a phase flip. If you need any clarifications, let me know.

Nunnehi, awesome explaination. It sounds a lot more simple than it is, I'm sure, but with enough practice I should be able to get it down.

What program do you use to accomplish this?

I use Reason 6.5 as my workstation, and as far as I know, there is no phase flipping. I also have Audacity and Recycle, but I am pretty sure this cannot be achieved in Recycle. I will be getting a new laptop in a couple of weeks, and will be using Reason with Rewire, and will start leaning how to use Abelton. Can it be done in Abelton?

Thanks.

I've never used Reason, Audacity, or Recycle before, so I can't speak to them. You can mess with the phase in the Audio Effects Utility plug-in in Ableton, but I've never tried it (odd that an individual channel has controls that say Phz-L, Phz-R when it's typically just one switch). I use Pro Tools 10, and have several VST/RTAS plug-ins that can do it. It's pretty essential to have that ability, as it is very handy. I did some brief research about Reason, and it doesn't look like it's easy to do with that program unless you have VST plug-ins for it (it would be on almost any channel strip plug-in).