Hey.

i am from Latin america and i started to make some music 5 years ago as a hobby. now i have some money to buy my stuff and start a production that is one of the things in my life that i have as a goal.

so actually i have like 150 tracks but maybe only 20 or 30 are ready to shine and use.
i need more stuff.

now i have a PC with FL10 and a lot of Plugins.
but i started to put some effects to my tracks and the Processor is just not enough. i cant keep working on my PC because i cant hear what i am creating putting the effects on the tracks.

my question is.
-What is the best Computer that i can have and not only the computer but the complete stuff. (external soundcard etc).
-a good Midi Keyboard.
-The best Effect generator for White Noise and the most used in trance production.

shamely i recently discover how to play with the effects on Fruity loops and all of my tracks are without any affect. (so now i understand why was so borde to listen my tracks even having a great melody).

i would really apreciate your help.

here is the only track that i tryed to with come effects.

http://soundcloud.com/skeld/kiddo-s



PD: by the way.. my name is not Jose.. is Federico. lol

hahah sorry, I just thought everybody from Latin America is named Jose. haha jk

Ahora si. First off. How much is the most you are willing to spend on each item? That will determine our recommendations.

On the computer end, you have a lot of options. It depends how much money you have saved. Macs used to be standard for music production, but now you can get a PC with similar specs for a lot less. The entry level Macs will actually work pretty well. You can buy a Mac Mini for cheaper than an iMac, but you really can't upgrade them, but to be honest, it shouldn't be a big deal anymore because now a days everything runs through USB or Firewire. A lot of people I know are now choosing iMacs over MacPro's because MacPro's are really expensive and iMacs work pretty well. I'm sorry I can't help you choose a PC because I don't know much about them, but I know quite a bit about Macs. lol Again, let us know your budget.

Also, do you have Monitors? Those will help you out a lot.

A good midi keyboard? How many keys? Again, how much are you willing to spend on a keyboard? Do you want portability or strictly for studio use? Recently, I purchased a cheap Akai Mini MPK keyboard to use at work or when on the road. It's SMALL, portable, CHEAP and it works.

Soundcards, wow, you're going to get a lot of different answers on this one. I'll leave it up to everyone else.

___________________
EDM is not a trend, it's a lifestyle. You either get it or you don't.

ok. here i Go...

i´ve been reading about the endless discution about FLStudio and the other DAW´s so i am not specting a lot of comments i understand that FL Studio doesnt Run in MAC OS. I tryed to use Ableton Live a year ago but it was too heavy for the PC it needs more resources and in that time i didnt have so much money. so i want to keep the FLS.

i can spend US$ 6,000.00 on my production stuff. i can spend that money only on the stuff i need to produce.
i will be mixing my own music in a Club that is from a friend and he have all the decks and mixers to make that.

so i can spend US$ 6,000.00 in a Laptop. an external Sound card (if needed), Keyboard ( i need this one just to put the notes on the FL, actually the 90% of my tracks are made simply with the FL Piano Roll and i think that is obviuos. keyboard gives you more freedom to create.)
a high end pair of Headphones, earphones or however you call it in English.
and yes.. a couple of LCD Monitors.

my target is to Remake the tracks that i like and i have created. and make a couple of new ones.

my friend that owns the Club will pay me 200 bucks for every night that i play on his club (6 per month) and that money will be for keep buying things.
as i said music is not a business for me, i have a well payed position but i would really like to make my own production.

i forgot something.
actually i have a lot of Software (90% legally bought) but i am kinda oldfashioned about Plugins. and i am allways looking for the best synths and pads.
i ask you to recomend me a plug in to make some withe noise and most trance used effects.

I'll go ahead and give you my recommendations on software plugins which you might find useful.

If you're interested in making all your own sounds yourself, there are a good variety of software synths out there that can do what you need.

A good (though sometimes overhyped) "bread and butter synth" is LennarDigital Sylenth1. It can get you about 80% of the sounds you're after. Alternatives include but are not limited to U-HE zebra 2, Tone2 Gladiator, CamelAudio Alchemy, cakewalk z3ta+, and so on. Most of these have built-in effects that you can resort to, but if you want additional third party effects, I recommend using CamelAudio CamelSpace as a starting place.

Another option for software "synth" is ReFx Nexus. This isn't a synth in the traditional sense but rather a ROMpler (essentially a synth sampler). You can use this option if you prefer to just cycle through pre-made presets rather then making your own from scratch. Some people love this option, and some absolutely hate it. It's up to you.

As for other effects, such as EQ, compression, filtering, and delay - I personally prefer the FabFilter variety (FabFilter Pro-Q, Pro-C, Volcano, Timeless).

Hope this helps to get you started. Don't forget to do a lot of research on past topics in this forum - you'll find way more information on what you need.

Cheers

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There are two secrets to success: 1. Never tell everything you know.

Very useful Info. actualy i have the Sylenth1 and just got the Absynth that is a monster...

does have an external soundcard help the performance of my Computer? or the key is RAM and Processor ?

it is very important for me to have a recomendation about what PC Laptop i have to buy.

all my production work will live in my laptop.
so i think i need an awesome pair of HeadPhonesk, EarPhones whatever... and a Pretty decent Midi Keyboard.

Thanks on advance.

There's such a wide variety of things you can use. The most important things to spend your money on are:

1) Your monitors and/or headphones. If you plan to work mostly on headphones, don't be afraid to chunk a big amount of money into this area. The device through which your ears receive the sound is in my opinion the single most important factor when it comes to sound quality. The difference between decent headphones and great headphones is phenomenal, whereas the difference between a decent sound interface and a really expensive one isn't as drastic. I'm not going to rule out the importance of monitors here, but seeing as how you specifically requested headphone feedback, I'll give you food for thought with the following options:

AKG Q702/K702 (Q701/K701 would work too)
Sennheiser HD600, HD650
Grado (I didn't research these as much, but I hear good things)

I personally use the Sennheiser HD650, and my perception of sound has improved dramatically over the Sony MDR7506 I had used for years before (also great starter headphones).


2) Your sound interface. This will determine how well your digital audio gets converted to analog. The better the digital-to-audio converters, the better the sound quality. The quality of your sound interface highly influences not just how good the sound is to you, but also the quality of the rendering. Just like with headphones, there's a huge market for interfaces and there are quite a few to pick from. I'll list brands I know from my own research from (generally) cheapest to more expensive. Again, keep in mind this is not inclusive of everything that's out there, but rather is a starting point for you:

M-Audio (FastTrack, etc)
Focusrite (Saffire Pro, etc)
Echo (Audiofire, Gina, Layla, etc)
Mackie
MOTU (828 mkIII, 2408, etc)
RME (Multiface, Fireface, etc)


As for which laptop to get - I'll have to leave that to someone else since I use a desktop and I'm not a fan of working on laptops. Although these days their processing power and memory limits aren't quite so different from desktops, I still feel like you can get a hell of a lot more juice out of a desktop.

In general though:

More processing power translates to the ability to simultaneously process more sounds in real-time. This will be useful if you have tons of plug-ins loaded at once. Although you could always bounce to audio and save yourself some CPU usage, it's still nice to not have to do this all the time.

More RAM will translate to how many samples you can load in memory at one time. These days, RAM isn't as much of an issue. Then again, I have 8GB so I don't know. I'm sure someone here has an experience to share where they didn't have enough memory. I would put my money towards higher processor speed first in any case.

For MIDI keyboard, I don't think you need to get too fancy for dance music. I use M-audio Axiom 49 and it does everything I need it to do.




Cheers

___________________
There are two secrets to success: 1. Never tell everything you know.

Last edited by cl0ckw3rk on Oct-08-2011 at 08:37

ver useful info.

actually i am making a list.
estimating like 300 in the Headphones, 150 in the Interface, 400 in the Keyboard. thats 900 bucks. now i need the CORE... the Laptop... i am specting for someone who can help.

what more i will going to need ?

as i said. i´ve been making music for long but nothing like that i want to do now...

Since you seem to have the money for it, get a MacBook Pro. You can't go wrong with it and yes, you can install Windows on it. I own one and I use it for production as well. It works flawless.

___________________
EDM is not a trend, it's a lifestyle. You either get it or you don't.

are you sure that it will not be an issue ?? talking about the FL Studio.

i understand that the advantage of having a MAC is the stability of the OS (MAC OS). so now i ask about "is really a good idea to buy a MAC if I am going to use Windows" ???

i just want to be sure.

quote:

Originally posted by Skeld ver useful info. actually i am making a list. estimating like 300 in the Headphones, 150 in the Interface, 400 in the Keyboard. thats 900 bucks. now i need the CORE... the Laptop... i am specting for someone who can help. what more i will going to need ? as i said. i´ve been making music for long but nothing like that i want to do now...

$400 for a midi controller is over the top i think, unless your getting a midi/synth controller. I have a oxygen25 tho i am selling it because two octaves is riding me up the bum bum, so make sure you get a midi at least 49 keys or more, if you like to play that is, unless you prefer piano roll But, for me the m-audio oxygen range does the job easy to assign parameters in logic as well, if you go that way or FL for that matter. But an Axiom wil be fine, there all one in the same i think.

You can get an oxygen g2 49 key for around $140 im sure!

EBAY!!!

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You won't need more than $200 for a decent MIDI keyboard. Take the extra $200 from that and get yourself a better sound interface.

As for the laptop, I strongly recommend you have some kind of firewire connectivity for when it comes time to hook up the sound interface. I don't recommend buying a USB sound interface. A Macbook Pro would take care of that.

Also, since Macs are Intel-based machines, rest assured that you can run Windows just fine on it.

___________________
There are two secrets to success: 1. Never tell everything you know.