Help a rocker out?

[TelePaul]

Thanks all for the advice and information. I spent a while on the FL studio site, and though I was totally clueless about some of the features mentioned, I'm going to download the demo and if I can find my around it a little then go ahead and buy the $100 version. I figure between that, my digital recorder, and my PC and keyboard we should be able to come up with something. The keyboard is supposed to be able to be used as a MIDI controller or as an external MIDI tone generator for stuff sequenced on the PC, so we'll see how that goes. If we can get a handle on the synthetic stuff, who knows, perhaps we can find some room for some old school guitar power chords .

Thanks again folks.

TC

Sounds like a good plan. You kinda need a sequencer...one you have one, even a basic one, you can start piecing loops together.

 

[Oancient1]

He's a lucky kid to have a dad that encourages him even though you might not understand why he likes the music he does. Make sure to come back and post his tracks when he gets started. I'm sure we would all be interested to hear the results. Good luck.

Well the other side of that is that his "understanding" dad once "wasted" the first 15 years of his adult life playing rock for a living, and is therefore as old as dirt. Kinda got in the way when he was going through the sports deal. But these days the jam sessions in the basement are quite fun. Hopefully you'll hear the both of us at least some of results we get.

 

[Oancient1]

Sounds like a good plan. You kinda need a sequencer...one you have one, even a basic one, you can start piecing loops together.

My Yamaha keys have an internal sequencer, but using the keys to make beats is a pain, so I downloaded Reaper (thanks for the suggestion). Guess the first step with that will be to figure out just what a loop is and then how to piece them together.

 

[bknot1]

Reaper is a powerful sequencer so thats a good download...

a loop is just that a loop... say you played a riff 4/4 measures/bars then you take recorded riff and loop it ie... 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 etc etc.. now you have your riff recorded you can loop it out as far as you want and mute or take out any parts you might want silenced..

I use hardware for my recordings but its basically the same process just software can make it go faster and it takes a bit of the learning curve out of it for the younger generation..

 

[Oancient1]

a loop is just that a loop... say you played a riff 4/4 measures/bars then you take recorded riff and loop it ie... 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 etc etc.. now you have your riff recorded you can loop it out as far as you want and mute or take out any parts you might want silenced..

Is the loop being repeated MIDI data, or recorded audio? If the latter, how is the repeating timed to provide an even beat?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. If there is a free FAQ somewhere that answers such basic questions just let me know. My experience with MIDI is basically knowing the basics of how it works (tracks, channels, voices, pan, volume), programming MIDI backing with te patterns function of my Tascam Pocketstudio 5 digital recorder, and using the "User Songs" function of my Yamaha keys to "record" MIDI files for the same purpose.

 

[Fieva]

The loop could be either MIDI data or recorded audio. IMO a MIDI loop is a lot easier to repeat over and over and make changes throughout parts of the song than the same loop made with hardware (but this could just be relative to my specific experience).

But on both of them you should be able to quantize, and I would suggest that your son start making beats using quantize (maybe not a full 100%, but more like an 85-95%) until he gets familiar with his craft...then making sounds come in on time should be pretty natural to where he won't need it as much (in most cases).

By the way, outside of getting info from us (not that we mind, we're happy to help), Google can be your best friend...trust me on this one. I found a lot of nifty little tips and tricks by searching on Google and then tweaking them to my own specific tastes.

BTW if you guys do record a rock/rap mixed song, post it up...I love it when two genres come together and make something happen.


Fiev

 

[Oancient1]

Thanks again for the info Fiev. You might have a chuckle at knowing I had to google "quantize" to know what you meant. (The word has a quite different meaning to me as a technician.) Yeah, I would say that quantize is definitely the way to go.

TC

 

[Fieva]

Nothin wrong with that...Most drummers may or may not know that one. The guy who mentored me a long time ago taught me stuff like that.

I still Google different types of things that I either don't know or want to become more knowledgeable on...it's good for you!


This message sponsored in part by Google Inc.

HAHAHAHA
Fiev.

 

[Oancient1]

Update

Most drummers may or may not know that one.

No drummer here Fiev -- mostly just a guitar player and singer. He's the drummer.

Update - played with Reaper and FL Studio demo programs this weekend, mostly FL Studio. Didn't figure out how to do much of anything as the playback on the demo song had this nasty sounding digital distortion (?) that I spent too much time dealing with. I thought at first it might be something to keep me from producing anything final with the demo program. But then I think I solved the problem by selecting ASIO something or other for audio device instead of the Sigma something or other that I know is what is in my laptop. confused Afterward, I did manage to start a new song from a template and how to a create beat of one measure but could not figure out how to get the measure to repeat. I eventually discovered that the demo help menus might actually help me learn, but before that I got frustrated and went away for the PC to record some backing beats and bass lines into a MIDI file on the Yamaha keys. Next thing I'll try is to see if I can import that MIDI somehow into FL Studio, cut out some of the better measures loop them, and maybe try assigning more appropriate voices to the MIDI notes. I will also just load the demo on the kid's PC to see what he can figure out on his own -- he is likely to do better than I.

TC

 

[Fieva]

I agree...put the demo on the kid's PC and let him toy around with it and find out some stuff just from googling. From what I hear FLs learning curve is much simpler than Reason's curve.

You know that part of making music is experimentation.

Fiev.

 

[dnkygirl]

No drummer here Fiev -- mostly just a guitar player and singer. He's the drummer.

Update - played with Reaper and FL Studio demo programs this weekend, mostly FL Studio. Didn't figure out how to do much of anything as the playback on the demo song had this nasty sounding digital distortion (?) that I spent too much time dealing with. I thought at first it might be something to keep me from producing anything final with the demo program. But then I think I solved the problem by selecting ASIO something or other for audio device instead of the Sigma something or other that I know is what is in my laptop. confused Afterward, I did manage to start a new song from a template and how to a create beat of one measure but could not figure out how to get the measure to repeat. I eventually discovered that the demo help menus might actually help me learn, but before that I got frustrated and went away for the PC to record some backing beats and bass lines into a MIDI file on the Yamaha keys. Next thing I'll try is to see if I can import that MIDI somehow into FL Studio, cut out some of the better measures loop them, and maybe try assigning more appropriate voices to the MIDI notes. I will also just load the demo on the kid's PC to see what he can figure out on his own -- he is likely to do better than I.

TC

You might want to go to: www.grooveboxmusic.com they have a monthly fee of 20-25 bucks which will allow you to take your time in that video library. It will take you from basics... which you really need... to advanced... It was well worth the bucks for me when i was learning reason. I didn't understand the concepts of how to really use the redrum and join the loop player along with it. I can create full songs now and am getting better at drum programming. As we all know with learning... it's one step at a time.


Demi