GRcade Musician's Club - Do You "Do" Music?

mokeyjoe wrote:Can't you save it as something a bit smaller than a .wav?

It's like Derren Brown. It doesn't work at a smaller resolution.

This is a good time to admit I know nothing about filetypes.

http://www.myspace.com/abattleshipcalledquotminksquot

I've got a new song called No Reason. It's a bit depressing, but there you go.

Fm wrote:

mokeyjoe wrote:Can't you save it as something a bit smaller than a .wav?

It's like Derren Brown. It doesn't work at a smaller resolution.

This is a good time to admit I know nothing about filetypes.

Import the wav file into Reaper or Audacity (or Pro Tools/Logic etc if you have them, you richer than me bastard) and then go into File on the taskbar and bounce/render the file into mp3 format.



Right, time for my question. Is there anything out there for free that will allow me to draw notes onto a score (like you can in Logic, for example) and produce MIDI sounds?

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Fm wrote:

mokeyjoe wrote:Can't you save it as something a bit smaller than a .wav?

It's like Derren Brown. It doesn't work at a smaller resolution.

This is a good time to admit I know nothing about filetypes.

Import the wav file into Reaper or Audacity (or Pro Tools/Logic etc if you have them, you richer than me bastard) and then go into File on the taskbar and bounce/render the file into mp3 format.



Right, time for my question. Is there anything out there for free that will allow me to draw notes onto a score (like you can in Logic, for example) and produce MIDI sounds?

There's Reaper, which is a whole open source DAW:

http://www.reaper.fm/

What the...

Reaper is what I use, but I've never seen those features before! I haven't really looked, to be honest...

A brief bit of Gameboy-ish chiptune. Just practice really, but I'm fairly happy with it for a first go.

http://8bitcollective.com/music/mokeyjoe/Dreambubble/

mokeyjoe wrote:A brief bit of Gameboy-ish chiptune. Just practice really, but I'm fairly happy with it for a first go.

http://8bitcollective.com/music/mokeyjoe/Dreambubble/

Nice one man, at first I was like.. ok, but then once it got going it was a good'n.

I've got something sort of simmilar, it's a bit slower and isn't completely 8bit, just wrote the melody with a 8bit sounding synth.

http://soundcloud.com/jigsoreriffs/riffs-strange-jingly-thing-not-finnished

Abs wrote:

mokeyjoe wrote:A brief bit of Gameboy-ish chiptune. Just practice really, but I'm fairly happy with it for a first go.

http://8bitcollective.com/music/mokeyjoe/Dreambubble/

Nice one man, at first I was like.. ok, but then once it got going it was a good'n.

I've got something sort of simmilar, it's a bit slower and isn't completely 8bit, just wrote the melody with a 8bit sounding synth.

http://soundcloud.com/jigsoreriffs/riffs-strange-jingly-thing-not-finnished

Lol, yeah. It is about 75% build up. Next time I'll do a less lopsided tune.

What synth did you use on your's? It sounds pretty authentic.

mokeyjoe wrote:Lol, yeah. It is about 75% build up. Next time I'll do a less lopsided tune.

What synth did you use on your's? It sounds pretty authentic.

The Operator Synth in Ableton Live.

It can probably be done with any synth though, I just set it to a basic square wave and set the decay to a fairly low setting so it just sounds like a nintendo bleep.. I also made it all just slightly out of time for added wonky effect.

Both excellent pieces!

Sound cloud looks well massive, I've bookmarked your page Abs, cool stuff on there, laid back, nice considered instrumentation, not overcrowded etc., good forum browsing music actually!! Bit gooseberry fool at describing this kinda music... I guess it's just cool yo. Imma gonna listen over time.

Have noticed that your beats seem to be 100% velocity most the time, do you use drum pads or sequence in Live? You could get more varied drum intensity using pads (unless that's not your thing) - I've just bought a little Akai USB controller with knobs and faders for 49 quid and Akai make the best pads IMO m8. Or you could just edit the velocity levels manually in the MIDI piano roll.

http://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/shop/vie ... LPD&page=1



Just upgraded my studio stuff, including splashing out on some half decent cables.

Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio interface w/ 8 XLR/TRS pre-amps, level meters and 10 outputs



M-Audio BX5a Deluxe monitors



Combined with my existing monitors this gooseberry fool will let me work on 5.1 surround sound soundscapes which I'm doing for my fine art degree, and mixing surround soundtracks for film students (and myself obviously)

Proper big jam with my 6-piece psychedelic rock last night in a warehouse in my town, it's this massive bohemian artist's place what they rent out and converted into art and music studios. They have a full size snooker table, bars, good amps, drum, mics, mixers, massive Roland PA things, pretty good gooseberry fool. Will upload some pics at some point. Bunch of nutters run the place, just hanging around developing photographs while smoking and swearing about why each other hasn't done something or left something locked/unlocked or whatever the strawberry float.

Made some pretty strawberry floated up ambient music, managed to get the most sweet sustained smooth feedback from my Ibanez + JCM800 combo. Had my keyboardist on the Arturia Minimoog VST synth going through massive bass drivers - now with portable gear we can finally use computer-based stuff live.

Thanks Ben!

I pretty much allways sequence the beats in Live, I normally prefer the sound of a samples (never loops though!) but you are right about the varied intensity actually, it would make it sound more organic n that

But yeah, my actual production skills are not so hot, and my speaker set up gets shitter all the time, i'd kill for some of that stuff you've got!

- post some of your tunes innit, and those photos!

Imma gonna upload the ambient mad feedback bit, and some other crazy gooseberry fool, and maybe some more considered wonky jazzy rock bits. Gotta sift through all the waves (they're all about 30-55m long ) and pick out the good stuff from the improv madness (that's how we work really).

Variable velocity does make things sound a lil' more natural/human, yeah, which I prefer, or combining that with real harsh/hard-hitting beats.. I prefer to play all my synth lines in live with my MIDI keyboard, and play drums that way too (will be using pads once my Akai arrives) and then edit them / tighten them up after. That way my personal groove gets in the music more.. and I might line up the main beats nice and tight to help lay down the beat more, especially for dancey stuff.

Pick yourself up an old Marantz/Denon/Panasonic/Kenwood/Cambridge amp at a boot sale with some proper size hi-fi speakers with 3 or more drivers mate! It'll do you good for 20-30 squids, better than anything you can buy new or second hand with modern stuff these days..

I feel bad Abs, I'm just rinsing my student loan while I can and also selling off old stuff I saved up all my middle class white boy and work money for over the years.. when I was younger I didn't really spend loads of money out and about cos I was a massive loser (nah, just didn't rinse the clubs and pubs and cinema etc., or do drugs!! Drugs are bad m'kay), and if I asked for any gifts etc. it was always some kinda audio gear thing or a contribution towards a musical instrument. Which is always easier to convince your mummy and daddy for than an iPod or a Playstation. At least that was the case for my first electric and acoustic guitar (which were 7 years apart and I played since I was seven so earned it really). Paid for my new Ibanez myself and my younger brother built my acoustic by hand. I never got driving lessons or a car or any of that gooseberry fool, and my family never goes on holiday. Slowly saved up cash from anywhere I got it. Made a few websites, fixed gooseberry fool for people, did my chores, got my grades, got some bob out of that. I can get away with counting the costs towards my mental tally for "equipment costs" since I mostly work in audio now, gonna be doing sonic art here on out I think, just don't really paint or draw any more and think there is more out there in theatre/music/stage-oriented stuff, and visualisation. If I'm lucky to have any money, I only spend it on creative tools... and gigs.. and whiskey. Taken me years to accumulate this stuff. Computer-based recording makes it a hell of a lot cheaper as well. Show my appreciation by making the most of what I have productively. That's my philosophy, yo.

Here is a little mega minimalist thing I did a while ago (not done much electronic music lately, unless you count my mate going mental in Reaktor with me on guitar after Glade - still wearing my wristband!!), first time I really bothered to use the Live drum machine library. The synth is Reason ReWired thru Live though, and piano is Live Essential Instrument Collection, everything else is Live effects. Waves L3 Multimaximiser multi-band compressor/limiter. Oh yeah strawberry floating hot glitch VST plug-in called dBlue Glitch, Windoze-only though:

http://illformed.org/plugins/glitch/

http://www.thegreengecko.co.uk/misc/lun ... d_like.mp3

Very minimal so not that interesting to listen to.. but I like the simple little piano lines.

Green Gecko wrote:http://illformed.org/plugins/glitch/

http://www.thegreengecko.co.uk/misc/lun ... d_like.mp3

Very minimal so not that interesting to listen to.. but I like the simple little piano lines.

Yeah I used to rinse the gooseberry fool out of that vst when I used to make breakcore!

This tune is good btw, sounds really nice when the drums stop apart from the hats and the sweeping pads come in.

Abs wrote:
I've got something sort of simmilar, it's a bit slower and isn't completely 8bit, just wrote the melody with a 8bit sounding synth.

http://soundcloud.com/jigsoreriffs/riffs-strange-jingly-thing-not-finnished

I like this. The weirdly compelling pitch-bend on that synth line makes it kind of addictive, like you're waiting for it to fall apart, but it just levels out in time. Nice.

Abs wrote:Yeah I used to rinse the gooseberry fool out of that vst when I used to make breakcore!

This tune is good btw, sounds really nice when the drums stop apart from the hats and the sweeping pads come in.

Cheers brederin'.

And lolol dBlue glitch is awesome for that, I made some ridiculous mixes that sounded like the theme tune for Gremlins with glitched up breaks and loads of layered strings, and then this techno beat came in with some lo-fi megabass synth, it was mental. I think I made it at 3am in uni halls while there were loads of parties going on outside but I was too stuck into the music to bother going out (gooseberry fool parties anyway to be honest). I should get back to doing some more minimal electric stuff.. it's quite relaxing and focused.. or I could bring in some guitar stuff, in line with that piano sort of style but on guitar.

Will upload the band tunes once I get back to uni and can master it on my monitors, cos I can't be bothered doing it twice. I'm warning you though it's a really harsh, deliberately messed up 60s psychedelic acid sort of sound, with really hard sounding riffs and gritty guitar doodling, not unlike Beefheart/Zappa with more post-punk influences like Joy Division. It frequently reminds me of what some demented psychotic clown child's mind might sound like. Although it is more people's thing than I had expected. What is needs is some interesting corrupted lyrics, unfortunately at this last jam the venue managed to misplace all of its mic clips (and only its mic clips). I had to gaffa tape my condenser mic to a mic stand.

Got my new gear, monitor sound fantastic, focusrite seems to work well but getting firewire dropouts with my motherboard's firewire chipset, so gonna install the recommended Texas Instruments firewire chipset I bought and see if that fixes things (as was my intention anyway, I'm just being lazy).

Akai LPD8 pads are amazing!! The lights make playing it a right laugh, it's also a good extra layer of feedback cos you can see when you've definitely hit them hard enough (and they are very sensitive). Having knobs directly next to the pads lets you easily manipulate the drums while you're playing them with two hands on one small, 34g controller. The control panel is very flexible is well.

Just mucking about with ambient-like settings on an industrial sort of Ableton drum rack:

http://www.thegreengecko.co.uk/misc/lun ... erisms.mp3

Loads of fun. Well pleased with it for just £49!! It definitely seems better quality than the Korg Nano.. and it has decent pads and knobs on the same device (for that with korg you need 2 of their Nano things).

hey i'm a relative noob around here, but i suppose this'd be a bit of background
been playing drums for around 3 years, was in a metal band untill very recently when we discovered the singer was a dick and the band broke up

however, did some recording, 4 songs worth, link here

www.myspace.com/mournival

eager to hear what people think, you guys would see this objectively i suppose

Nice, I like it.

What was the recording set up like? It doesn't sound like you're quite getting the signal levels that you could be, even though I'm pretty sure there's a hefty amount of compression going on there.

Also, is your snare drum your average wide build type? I used to be in a death metal band and I bought a brass deep snare drum which is about as deep as it is wide. It gave a harsher sound and is more suited to your type of music. Also, tighten it up a little.

It's a shame about the singer as he sounds pretty good.

I've finally assembled an EP - Latecomer, comprising 6 tracks (now top of my playlist). I've re-recorded 95% of the vocals (bar some harmonies), mixed them better and mastered them.

When I say 'mastered', I mean imported the bounces into Cubase, smoothed track-by-track inconsistencies using EQ and volume adjustments (to the best of my ability) also normalised all tracks to -2dB, added a touch of compression, then strapped PSP vintage warmer over it all.

I even remembered to use the uv22 dither plugin (post-fader, of course) - as I'd bounced the individual tracks to 32 bit resolution, knowing there'd be gain adjustments performed on them later and there's no point allowing 2 opportunities for quantisation noise to appear.