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beat/music production programs?


Zack Morris

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so I have been thinking about maybe playing with some different programs to start making some music and things. Something where I can import samples from my turntables, and other musical instruments I own with ease would be nice. I used to mess around with fruitloops but I never really liked the feel for the program. So what are some of the programs some of you use and what do suggest I try to start out with?

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I'd get Reason or Pro Tools to start with. It's going to take you some time to learn the ropes, and those are the two production suites everybody seems to use.

 

Both of those are pretty versatile and will allow you to do almost anthing you could think of...I mean, FruityLoops and ACID are okay, but compared to Reason they seem like toys.

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i guess it depends what you're looking to do... Reason is synth based... acid, ableton, and fruityloops are all loop based.... my boy that's produced tracks for capadonna used to swear by ACID and Fruityloops, but he probably uses protools now that he's got an mpc... haven't really had a real conversation with him about it in a couple years now that his egos inflated. cocky bastard.

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i use ACID mostly to cut samples and fruityloops to put it all toghether, iv also got a korgpadkontrol to drum in samples with. whats ever gets the job done you know? but patience is the key, none of these programs can be considered "toys" condsidering most of them will run you 200$ up to the thousands. ive never used reson befor, but i can tell you fruity loops is a VERY good tool to have. patience is also important, dont go gettign these programs thinking your going to master it in a day that will only lead to your frustration

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if you already have turntable and a mixer you might want to think about going with some more hardware and getting some sort of a mid range sampler to mess around with and then a cheap/free recording software to record it all...

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You know, now that I think about it, I'd go with ProTools and a MPC for anything sample based. Or, schizophrenia has a point....going with the hardware method is sometimes easier.

 

I was a little hasty. FruityLoops is okay as long as you use it in conjunction with something like Reason or ProTools...but, the interface is incredibly frustrating.

 

It's going to take a while for you to get up to speed on any of the above. But, if you have any friends who do production, they can be a huge help.

 

I used to make beats with a friend of mine using Reason, and about all I was good for was finding breaks and samples and saying, "I think you should move this over here, and turn that down....and maybe try the other thing..." I kind of understood it after a while, but he was able to get around in Reason a lot faster than I could, so I'd let him do all the skilled labor, ha ha.

 

All I use nowadays is MixMeister 6 Pro, which is a fun DJ program but it's not exactly what you're looking for, I believe. PM me if you are interested in checking it out, though.

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homie

use acid 6.0 and download some fruityloop drumkits and you'll be straight. you can use acid to sample anything when your turntables are hooked up to your pc. its really easy to lay down tracks and import soft synths etc etc.

if you know nothing about music machines i dont suggest you get reason and learning fruityloops is a pain in the ass. aicd is kind of straight forward. u just lay it down and thats basically it. you just need some knowledge about counting beats .

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i heard ableton live is a lot like acid, but better more bells and whistles, etc.... i dunno i'm probably getting one of the two and AKAI is coming out with an MPC looking usb control with a screen and all... i need to record though damnit...

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MPC's are fun, though. I'd like to check out the MPC USB controller sosmetime, that sounds nice (and probably costs a hell of a lot less).

 

SpyD is on point about computers having an advantage over hardware as far as storage and speed, just bear in mind that he does this (production) all the time and probably worked on getting his shit dialed in just the way he wanted for a while.

 

He's the man when it comes to this sort of stuff, though, so I'd take his advice over mine.

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Wassup with some tutorials or something? I fuck with pro tools for recording my tracks but I rap and know nothing about making beats. I always have these ill beats in my mind so I was thinking of fucking around making some. Last time I tried to use fruity loops I had no idea what the fuck was going on. I just need to know like how to put the bass and make it repeat how I want, and how to put the drum and repeat, and how to put a sample over top, and then how to move all these shits around until I got a sick beat.

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  • 3 years later...

On PC I would use Ableton Suite, on Mac - Logic Studio.

 

Their 'top' versions come with many instruments and plugins, and you can still use VST's as opposed to Reason. FL Studio falls short imo because of the short mixer faders. Cubase is wack for not having a demo. Pro Tools - you need to have a compatible interface.

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for me... i just barely got into making beats about 3 months ago, been djing since i was 18, but i went a cheeeeap ass route, downloaded a free recording program called Audacity, use Fruityloops for my drums, my wheel of steel n mixer are plugged into some lil RCA to USB (right!? analog to digital connection) i found at Hastings... needless to say i just need to find a website to load my ish up to.

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there is no such thing as "best music programs".

 

what you do with what you use is all that matters....

 

 

 

"What’s all the more impressive is that he crafts these beats using not the hip-hop producers’ usual tools of choice – the Akai MPC series or Emu SP-1200 sampling drum machines – but AST, an obsolete piece of tracker software. He explains: “AST was shareware for the Soundblaster AWE64 Gold card – a really popular card, nothing really specialised – and I still use it now"-

 

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/dabrye

 

 

 

 

"He insists that everything he needs is squarely within this program, formerly called Fruityloops, running DXi instrumentation."-

 

http://remixmag.com/artists/remix_little_feat/

 

 

 

 

"I recorded it on tape, came back here, put it on CD, and DOOM made a song out of it. Niggas be sleeping, thinking they need all this gear. "

 

http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2005/05/mad-skills

nohotlinkplease-01.jpg

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