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Making Electronic Music

Started by chutnut, September 22, 2021, 02:32:47 PM

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chutnut

Anyone here into making electronic music? What do you use and how?

I've been using Cubase for over 20 years now (since I was about 15), with a few extended breaks along the way. Originally making noise/ambient/glitch stuff, but over the years I got more into dance music and started focusing on that. I do still like to make the odd more experimental tune, if stuff like that can even still be considered experimental.
To be honest I never really started learning how to actually produce properly until a couple of years ago, at first I was just chuffed that I could have a recorded copy of music that I made and that was enough for me, only ever focused on the creative side. The production side I just tried to figure out as I went along (doesn't really work).

I've tried to learn max/msp in the past as it sounds incredible, but had to accept that it's all way over my head and to stick to more traditional methods
All the trendy kids these days like to use Ableton, and the max/msp integration did tempt me, but at the end of the day I can do pretty much everything I need in Cubase already so why make things more complicated by moving over to something else.

So basically my set up is Cubase (+plugins), an Allen & Heath mixer, a Focusrite Scarlett audio interface, an SM57, and a few budget hardware synths/drum machines that I just use for recording individual sounds into Cubase.
I refuse to use sample packs so I make beats using sounds recorded myself, or sometimes Drumazon (a VST emulation of a 909).
As far as VST synths go I'd say I use Absynth the most, followed by Diversion, both are really fun to use and can create some proper mind bending sounds

Interested to see what kind of stuff people make and what techniques/equipment they use

purlieu

I tire easily so I've used so many things over the years. Started out with FruityLoops 2 back in 2001, moved on to Logic in 2004, used Reason for a while in 2010-2011, then Ableton for a few years. It's very hard to get an easily installable, working cracked version for Mac these days and I've been using Reaper ever since. It's a wonderful bit of a software, pretty easy to use and does everything you'd want a DAW to do, the trial version is basically fully working and infinite (other than a 'Buy now' notice when you open it up) and a license is very affordable.

I'm similar when it comes to sound sources, I don't like sticking to any particular approach. I have tons of free VSTs and a few bought ones, I tend to pick one at random and see what I can do with it. I also have a few bits of hardware, which I can't use at the moment as there's no room so they're all in a drawer, a few Korg Volcas, a MicroKorg, a Pocket Operator and a Stylophone. I do a lot of sampling as well, and tend to carry my Zoom H2n with my to do field recordings which I incorporate in a lot of my music. I try and use my guitar a lot. I tend to like stuff that's not overly polished, with a bit of grit in it, and sampling, field recordings and real instruments can really help add that kind of texture nicely.

Been making music one way or another for 25 years, since I was 12, and doing it in at least a semi-serious way for 16 or 17, although the early stuff is pretty badly mixed in places now and makes me cringe at times. I'm pretty stubborn and adopted an "I know best" DIY attitude for a while, but the past five years or so I've been taking a lot more seriously and think I've probably reached a stage where some of my stuff can match up with 'professional' music. I've released a lot of stuff in various ways over the years, although at least half of it is utter bollocks and is totally unreferenced on my Bandcamp page. In keeping with my working style, I don't stick to a particular style. I started out doing some quite stark, bleak sounding vaguely ambient stuff, I went through a period of doing quite warm acoustic-based ambient music, I tend to work with ambient-techno type stuff now, although I've dabbled in harsh noise, glitchy IDM, abstract collage stuff, drone, dnb and other stuff inbetween.

Proactive

Been at it on and off for over 20 years now, used to be what you'd very broadly describe as hip hop but most of what I do now is house, of the more deep/jazzy type. Had a break of about 5 years ending a couple years ago as I'd hit a wall, but oddly found that I was somehow better at it for the time off. Would quite like to get some stuff signed over the next couple of years but we'll see.

I was thinking the other day how I've always been a bit embarrassed/ashamed that I'm not a "proper" musician, but then I thought do you know what, I reckon I'd be a far better guitarist than a producer in the eyes of the casual observer if I'd have been at that as long as I've been making music.

That's not to say it's harder than mastering an instrument by any means, but to be someone that creates, from scratch, every musical element of a track, arranges it interestingly and makes the final mix sound professional enough to not stick out like a sore thumb against properly released stuff... That's no piece of piss despite what many people might think.

Gear wise I'm strictly in the box using Ableton. I have Native Instruments Komplete, some of which is decent, but more recently I've got a Roland Cloud premium sub, and I absolutely love it. Plenty of spend on mixing oriented plugins as well, preferring stuff that gives simple results from a few parameters, stuff like Gulfoss, Oxford Inflator etc. Also have Ozone 9 which gives pretty good mastering results easily, although I'd like to start using a proper mastering engineer once I feel I've made something worthy of spending the money on.

DrGreggles

I don't really use it much, except for creating a few bits and some editing, but Ableton has a free 90 day trial.

https://www.ableton.com/en/

chutnut

Quote from: purlieu on September 22, 2021, 03:33:36 PM
I've been using Reaper ever since. It's a wonderful bit of a software, pretty easy to use and does everything you'd want a DAW to do, the trial version is basically fully working and infinite (other than a 'Buy now' notice when you open it up) and a license is very affordable.
I heard about Reaper recently actually, seems to have a pretty good rep!


Quote from: purlieu on September 22, 2021, 03:33:36 PM
a few Korg Volcas, a MicroKorg, a Pocket Operator and a Stylophone.
I've got a Volca (keys) and Pocket Operator (the drum one) too, they are really fun to play around with but fairly limited, especially the Pocket Operator which you can hear coming a mile away. I've got a Monotribe as well, the drum sounds can sound really nice when scrubbed up a bit (but really clicky and horrible otherwise)


chutnut

Quote from: Proactive on September 22, 2021, 04:53:47 PM
most of what I do now is house, of the more deep/jazzy type. Had a break of about 5 years ending a couple years ago as I'd hit a wall, but oddly found that I was somehow better at it for the time off. Would quite like to get some stuff signed over the next couple of years but we'll see.

This sounds right up my street! I'm in the same position re getting something signed, I've had a few mp3 releases over the years but I really don't like any of them anymore and would be nice to get something on vinyl at least. I just really lack any motivation for that side of things, every now and again I get pumped up about getting something proper together to send out to labels but then just end up sacking it off straight away

Quote from: Proactive on September 22, 2021, 04:53:47 PM
I was thinking the other day how I've always been a bit embarrassed/ashamed that I'm not a "proper" musician, but then I thought do you know what, I reckon I'd be a far better guitarist than a producer in the eyes of the casual observer if I'd have been at that as long as I've been making music.
Some of my favourite music is made by people who aren't 'proper' musicians tbh

Quote from: Proactive on September 22, 2021, 04:53:47 PM
although I'd like to start using a proper mastering engineer once I feel I've made something worthy of spending the money on.
This is another thing I've been tempted to do many times, I just can't really justify the cost yet. I reckon I can do an OK job of mastering to keep myself happy for now, although I know no matter how good you are you shouldn't be mastering your own tracks

chutnut

Also feel free to post any links to tracks, would be interesting to hear!

purlieu

Quote from: chutnut on September 22, 2021, 05:53:13 PM
I've got a Volca (keys) and Pocket Operator (the drum one) too, they are really fun to play around with but fairly limited, especially the Pocket Operator which you can hear coming a mile away.
Yeah, not especially diverse but they're nice in the right context. My Pocket Operator was a gift, only used it a couple of times but it's a fun bleepy thing that works nicely when I need a fun bleepy sound. I recorded a whole album of my five Volcas and MicroKorg recorded to 4-track tape and it's pretty varied once you get everything together.
Quote from: chutnut on September 22, 2021, 05:59:38 PM
Also feel free to post any links to tracks, would be interesting to hear!
We had a Music you've made thread somewhere but I can't find it. I've not really got anything on sites like Soundcloud (Bandcamp and Spotify links etc. are generally considered self-promotion so discouraged).
I have no idea what the policy is on YouTube links as, technically, I'll be earning 0.000000167p or something from each play, but assuming Neil has no issues, then here are a couple of recent tracks of mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENOQ_RgKQ90
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbaWN_6Ar6U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWlYaTUZ1g
These are all a mix of samples and VSTs done in Reaper.

Nice tracks chutnut.

I really wouldn't worry about getting stuff professionally mastered unless it's getting a full label release, it's such a small difference nowdays & A&R's would likely handle it if they felt it necessary.

House is a feeling 😊

You might find this video interview with the head of Spinnin' A&R interesting.


chutnut

Quote from: Better Midlands on September 22, 2021, 06:44:08 PM
Nice tracks chutnut.

Those tracks aren't mine! But I agree they're nice, good work. I especially like the 2nd one


Here's some of mine if anyone's interested
https://www.soundcloud.com/relativestate/tracks

Oops sorry Purlieu - praise still stands.

Good stuff chutnut, really enjoying 11-2 right now.

chutnut

Quote from: Better Midlands on September 22, 2021, 07:26:28 PM
Oops sorry Purlieu - praise still stands.

Good stuff chutnut, really enjoying 11-2 right now.

Nice one! As you can probably tell I hate naming tracks which is why they all have that silly numbering system

chutnut

Quote from: purlieu on September 22, 2021, 06:26:34 PM
but assuming Neil has no issues, then here are a couple of recent tracks of mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENOQ_RgKQ90
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbaWN_6Ar6U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWlYaTUZ1g
These are all a mix of samples and VSTs done in Reaper.

Having another listen to these and really enjoying them, got a nice 90s Warp vibe

chutnut

I've just seen that DestroyFX have updated their plugins and made them 64bit compatible. This is very good news for me as I used the Buffer Underrun vst for years, and it was one of the plugins I was most bummed out about losing when I upgraded to 64bit (the others are a lot of fun too).

The hardest to let go of was Vokator though, that was an absolute beast and still the best vst effect I've ever used, I still have a look around every now and again to see if anyone's making anything similar but haven't found anything decent yet


popcorn

I listen to shitloads of electronic music but I find it very difficult to make. I have bits of rhythms or sounds in my head and I spend hours trying to get them out of my head and into Ableton but it never comes out right. I find it much easier to sequence chords and melodies in a traditional songwriting kind of way, but I find that frustrating because I'm fascinated by all the structures and shapes of abstract electronic music, I want to be doing that instead.

Tell you what is brilliant though - connecting up drum machines and synths with people and just making mad twiddly bleepy music for hours on end. Deeply therapeutic.

Quote from: popcorn on September 23, 2021, 11:28:39 AM
Tell you what is brilliant though - connecting up drum machines and synths with people and just making mad twiddly bleepy music for hours on end. Deeply therapeutic.

Totally agree with that, IMO probably the best way to make tracks - just record into a DAW as a stereo track and edit down to a decent length.

chutnut

Yeah I agree too, the main reason I got my mixer was to link up all the little synths I've got and have jams with mates
Haven't done it in years though

popcorn

There's a synth jam event happening in Cambridge next week if anyone can make it over there.

DrGreggles



chutnut

Well despite what I said about how I couldn't be bothered to move over to another DAW, I thought I'd give Reaper a go today and enjoying it a lot!
Took a while to get my head around how the tracks and routing work (using a same generic track for everything from midi to return fx was a bit of a headfuck at first!) but pretty much away now. I'd also been having some nasty CPU overload + crashing issues with Cubase recently that seem to be completely solved with Reaper. Might end up sticking with it
The only thing I don't really like so far is not having a scissor or normal pointing tool

purlieu

Scissor is just click where you want and the press 's'. The various types of pointer can be used in combination with different keyboard buttons, it can be a faff working out which (especially on Mac with the lack of right mouse!) but it's not too hard to customise.

Thanks for the kind words on the tracks, people. :) Very fond of those ones myself.

chutnut

Cheers I've been messing around with the customised toolbars and different preferences and I'm a lot more happy with the interface now (resetting the play position when clicking anywhere in the background was doing my head in, I have a compulsive urge to constantly click on the background of anything I'm using to make sure nothing's highlighted). Snipping still doesn't seem quite as intuitive as I'm used to, and quickly glueing together then re-editing patterns is going to take a lot longer for me until I get the hang of it properly. I'm probably still missing something to be honest, I'll just keep learning!
I must say trying to learn new things like this is so much easier in the days of YouTube, I remember back in the early 2000's banging my head against all the really obtuse user guides regularly.

I've finished my first track (or the first draft of it anyway) and I'm pretty sure I'm just going to use this from now on. The CPU load never went over about 45% at any point, whereas on Cubase I would have been struggling disabling VST instruments and bouncing down to try and stop it freaking out from pretty early on. I was assuming it was my laptop this whole time, I was considering replacing everything from the graphics card to the whole machine

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I was using a basic DAW called Magix for ages as while it wasn't fancy it was very user-friendly with almost nothing unintuitively fiddly which I found the problem with.. Well, almost everything else. There wasn't any reason to get rid of it as you could just tack on vsts and it still did the basic drag and drop timeline very tidily.

I got into making electronic music through a very early version of Acid then lots of computer game daws like Music 2000 and ejay before Magix started up.

Have made everything from epic trance, drone, shoegaze.
My own phases are Club music - > Ambient acoustic with psych and Berlin school influences and choral vocals (yes really) - > Shoegaze - > Ambient/downtempo

Last published work is this though I have an unreleased record made a couple of years later.

https://archive.org/details/siro688JackAnderton-Vale

Not making any electronic music currently, as have a house move and broken computer to sort out but hoping to get back into it. I have Reaper now so transitioning across to use that.

chutnut

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 30, 2021, 08:04:16 PM

Last published work is this though I have an unreleased record made a couple of years later.

https://archive.org/details/siro688JackAnderton-Vale


This is really nice man! Very organic/warm sounding

Rizla

I just got one of the Behringer 808 clones, it's a hoot. Been experimenting with syncing it to the Roland MC202 (a technological cul-de-sac of a device if ever there was one) via DINsync (which the Behringer actually puts out via minijack, I was amazed to find - turns out I don't need to spend £70 on that doepfer MIDI-DINsync box after all, just had to awkwardly solder up a DIN-minijack lead with the correct pin config), then using the 2nd track of the 202's sequencer to drive said 101 via CV/Gate. It's pleasing when it works, but fuck me you need to keep your eye on the ball. Another ploy is to use the 808 trigger outs to run the 101's built in sequencer via clock in, loads of fun but a bit limiting as it only goes up to 32 notes. The great thing about the Behringer stuff is you can USB it to the computer and make the patterns and sequences there, completely missing the point of having the hardware in the first place! And some clever sod's even made an app that converts MIDI data into sequences for the 202 which can then be loaded via the tape in, like a speccy program, yet to resort to that though

popcorn

Quote from: Rizla on October 04, 2021, 01:01:53 AM
Another ploy is to use the 808 trigger outs to run the 101's built in sequencer via clock in, loads of fun but a bit limiting as it only goes up to 32 notes.


I've never understood what this involves - like every time it plays a snare note it triggers a D note on your synth or something?


Rizla

Quote from: popcorn on October 04, 2021, 01:04:45 AM
I've never understood what this involves - like every time it plays a snare note it triggers a D note on your synth or something?
Yeah sort of - plug a jack from one of the 808's 3 "trigger outs" (corresponding to accent, handclap and claves on the original, on the behringer they can be anything) to the 101's "clock in", then you program a sequence of notes into the sequencer of the 101 - the 808 will then trigger those notes as and when accent (or cowbell or whatever) occurs in the rhythm pattern. You can trigger an arpeggiator pattern the same way.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: chutnut on October 03, 2021, 01:24:54 PM
This is really nice man! Very organic/warm sounding

Thank you for your kind words :)