Questions on a Live/Jam set-up

[Fallbreaker]

Coming from the world of folk music and acoustic guitars, am quite the newbie when it comes to electronic music. However, I listen to it constantly and am determined to mix some of my own. My gear collection is currently limited to my laptop, an M-Audio Axiom 25, FL Studio, a decent mic, and other odd ends.

I know just enough of FL Studio to mix beats and compose some basic tunes, but I am nowhere near designing my own sounds or anything of that sort. My current goal is to set up my laptop with my M-Audio Axiom so that I can jam with friends, acting like a drum kit of sorts or whatever else is needed. We're not playing anything too fast or complicated, just a little jazzy, instrumental, post-rock sort of deal at the time being.

Anyway, I was wondering if you guys could offer me any useful tips or point me towards to some helpful information. Thanks.

 

[spazex]

I usually play on the acoustic/rock, electronica/dance; I found that sometimes when trying a new genre of sorts it is mainly trial and error somewhat. If I haven’t confused myself reading your question, it sounds somewhat easy what you want to achieve, this link may offer a bit more information http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeyRig25.html if not, I’m sure we all will come up with something that will do the trick. Good luck.

 

[Fallbreaker]

I'm actually very familiar with the genre, it's just that I normally just play acoustic guitar, so I'm not sure where to start as far as set-up goes. Such as, how should I map out the Axiom? Any basic set of instruments or samples I should use? How should I make use of the dials and drum pads? Should I have a few beats or something prepared? Any tips on making the percussion sound spacey?

My goal is to get competent enough on the fly in order to jam and then explore from there.

 

[spazex]

First sorry if my words get a bit strange, my English is not that great sometimes.

I basically set up using warm pads and string piano samples along with some prepped sounds, I tweak the pads to get the right sound. Basic instruments – calliope, bass slide are great.... you said you want a spacey percussion, I down’d a sample called space choir from Free Sound-- http://www.freesound.org/index.php you can try looking there, I’m not sure if it is still listed; it should be. A friend recorded a similar sound and soft synth-voice and tracked it through N-Track. Yeah and you will first want softened hi-hat to start out.

 

[Fallbreaker]

Awesome, thanks for the link.

Getting the right sounds and VSTs aren't so much the problem for me. My current issue is how to set-up the Axiom with FL Studio, the best places to map things to, and other basic methods I would need to employ while using such a set-up for jamming. I'm great with computers but pretty much a newbie when it comes to the midi controller and making it work well with FL Studio.