Synth & Drums

[owenrees_73]

Hello everyone, my name is Owen and I am a young and very ambitious music lover. I am starting from scratch knowing absolutely nothing, so sorry for asking silly questions. I want to use some sort of electronic synthasizer to create background texture, and then add drum beats over the top. Can someone please explain the basics and some key terms, and point me in the right direction to suitable software? I am going to start researching now by reading as much of these threads as possible. Thank you.

Owen

 

[sjfoote]

Owen,

Do you intend to create your own musical backgrounds for the drums, or are you interested in using pre-recorded loops for that task?

In reality, you don't need a synth to create ambient backgrouds and textures, as most all of the consumer based recordig programs are filled with these loops - ready for you to use. The same thing applies to the drums too -most all the programs have some sort of drum loops available. I have used Cakewalk's Music Creator 3, MAGIX's Music Maker 6, and their new Samplitude and all of these programs have loop capability. Of these, I think the MAGIX products are geared more toward the loop based music.

Creating you own music with a synth requires a lot more hardware/software/computer knowledge and expense, but it can be done.

Good luck with your music!

 

[zacanger]

hitsquad.com/smm
any software you want, drum machines, computer synths, track recorders, etc., you can probably find them there.

 

[noisewreck]

If you're just starting out, I'd recommend you look into one of the all-in-one music studios such as FL Studio, Reason, Cakewalk Project or even Kinetic.

They are all very capable of doing what you're looking for right out of the box. Reason perhaps has the better instruments right out of the box, however with FL Studio and Project you can later on add your own instruments and FX as they support VST plugin technology. This way, once you get comfortable and more familiar with what's out there, you would be able to get the specific instruments for your needs.

There are 3 items that you need for what you want to do: A sequencer, a synth and a sampler. All of the software that I recommended includes them all.

I would also recommend you read as much of the music magasines as you can... and although I am in the US, I find the British publications far more helpful specially for beginners. Specifically take a look at Computer Music and Future Music (there is a US edition of Future Music too, but I'd skip it).

In fact every issue of Computer Music comes bundled with a music studio (sequencer, synth, sampler) on a DVD, so you might even go that route and get to making music with just the price of a magazine.

 

[daav]

noisewreck gave you some great things to start with, it sound like Fruity Loops is right up your alley.

if it helps, i bought the cheapest ever used yamaha keyboard on ebay ($70 or so) that had a midi out and have used it with software like that to trigger synthetic drum stuff and keys noises. It is a great way to get your feet wet for a very little amount of $$.

Daav