dance music

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Dee Jay

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what is the best way of going about making dance music

through softwares or using sound modules

i have a roland xp50 keyboard and has a 16 track sequencer . i make my own beats there and then record it into the computer using the sound card

is that a cool way of doing dance songs or softwares like reason or fruity loops will be a better choice
 
Well, think about what the world was like when people fist started doing techno and stuff back in the late 80's ;) There was no Reason, no Floops, softsynths were unheard of and there were no sequencers with audio capabilities. Add to this trying to sync 808s, 909s and 303s using the DIN sync, which was dodgy most of the time. Add to that maybe a DX7, perhaps a Juno, and maybe some sampler like AKAI S950. Now think how some great stuff was done using pretty much these basic means of production.

Fast forward to 2006, and well, what you've got is way too many choices, most of which just confuse everybody, make everyone think that they "have" to have some piece of gear because it's the "standard" in some genre of music. Add to this all the unlistenable, washed out, cliched, formulaic stuff that's beeing released and you realise that it's not the tools, it's the person using them.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is don't worry about what "tools" you need. Just come up with a setup that you feel comfortable with, allows you to create the sounds you want, and is efficient for you. There is no software, hardware, instrument, mixer, soundcard or computer that's specific to a certain genre of music (.... OK, OK a 303 has become the staple sound of acid, but, only in the same sense as guitars are part of heavy metal... you can do other music using either of these instruments).

Having spewed out all that nonsense, probably some kind of an audio/MIDI sequencer/DAW will probably make your life a lot easier than using the sequencer in the xp50. The big four are Logic, Cubase, Sonar and Digital Performer.

Reason and Floops might be good choices when first starting out, but eventually you will outgrow them.

A couple of other good choices are Traktion and Magix.
 
dance music replies

i want to thank you all for your suggestions and as 1 of the guys above that was suggesting back in the 80 how dance music was done
i was thinking of doing it in the same kind of line
but i guess going and collecting all those old type of gear would be costly
i have heard the samples in the reason and they sound exactly what i am looking for. plus reason is not that costly too
xp 50 sequencer is good but when it come to doing some edits that makes it a bit difficult
thats why i was thinking of getting some good software and see how things start from there.

thank you all for taking the time to reply and pointing me in the right direction.
i will start doing some stuff and post them up here for your opnions.

Dee Jay
 
Dee Jay said:
i want to thank you all for your suggestions and as 1 of the guys above that was suggesting back in the 80 how dance music was done
i was thinking of doing it in the same kind of line
but i guess going and collecting all those old type of gear would be costly
Click to expand...
Well, I wasn't suggesting you went and got all those instruments. That's just plain crazy. What I was trying to illustrate is that there isn't one "right" or "wrong" way of doing it.

Basically look at what you, YOU feel comfortable with, and what would complement your way of thinking and workflow. That's the most important part. If you feel Reason would work for you, then go for it. It's certainly a capable piece of software. And later on, if you feel you need to stretch out your wings more, then you can get a sequencer such as Cubase or Logic and ReWire Reason to it.

One note though. Since Reason is a completely closed environment, you won't be able to record the outputs of your Roland or any outboard into it.
 
dance song

sup bro. sorry i didn't mean for it to sound like that and yeah right i could afford all that gear and all .

but yeah i will play around with reason first . no i don't need to record into reason i just want to get some techno style sound coming out and i will record them into my 4 track recorder . then add vocals and then record everything back into the computer and burn onto a cd .

thanks

Dee Jay
 
I'll second reason. It emulates hardware routing very well and its a good classroom for getting into hardware synths

Also check out rebirth, it's free

www.rebirthmuseum.com

I prefer hardware and only dont really use virtual instruments at all. Older gear is very capable and fairly cheap plus you can usually sell at the same price you bought it for.
 
Dee Jay said:
what is the best way of going about making dance music

through softwares or using sound modules

i have a roland xp50 keyboard and has a 16 track sequencer . i make my own beats there and then record it into the computer using the sound card

is that a cool way of doing dance songs or softwares like reason or fruity loops will be a better choice
Click to expand...

Well, I'm sure you'll get many different answers in which you can accomplish your success but I'd say there are many choices to choose from and which ever one suites you the best "WIN'S". :D There are lots of good resources here you will find and lots of help too but it all come down to the way you want that dance song to sound. . .
I mean, I have heard some people create dance songs, and to me I though it wasn't that great, but a lot of other people thought it was great. So it all depends on how one is hearing the track. . . .

I do alot of dance music, especically the older 80's dance stuff. I do have both software (reason 3.0) and hardware (sound modules) to do this kind of stuff. I personally use hardware as I find it more flexiable and better quality than software.

In the hardware scene, of course it gets a bit costly when you have to collect good quality gear to produce that pro type of sound, as opposed to software like reason for under $500 you can do some pretty good dance music their.

What I use the most to create a dance tracks is with my Motif ES Rack, Roland TD5, and of course the rest of your bells and whistles (like mixers,eq,effects) and of course not to forget Cakewalk 9 sequencing software. And I get a pretty good dance track out of all this.

Of course, it's all that tweaking that matters too. Just because you have all that gear doesn't mean you can make it sound good like other people, if you have no clue about sound structure. . . . Fine tuning a sound does take alot of time and ear to create that warm feeling and for that sound to sound right anywhere.

So good luck and have lots of fun creating dance beats. . . :)
 
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