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TOTA Track Productions (pg. 9)
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| DJ_Elyot |
No... can't do that... but copy pasting works just fine for me.
Suppose I want to make the next pattern of a track... make a new pattern, copy the most recent pattern over, change a few things or add something, etc. I never really re-use patterns... the track essentially counts from 0 to whenever without ever repeating a number. It's easy to copy paste blocks of any size, and you can interpolate effects so that you don't have to enter 300 values for a filter or something... u just enter the first and the last one and it'll interpolate for you. The only problem is that interpolations are always linear... it would be nice to have a spline or a logarithmic algorithm, but that would be easy to implement, given the fact that MPT is now open-source. I'm sure there are lots of add-ons and goodies people have made as well, but I haven't been checking recently.
I think I'm just good enough at it that it is no longer tedious... Ctrl-left End End Shift-Home-Home ctrl-c ctrl-right ctrl-v is like... memorized in my cerebellum. |
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| djdustx |
well i did experiment with modplug...and i have to say i dont deny that this program has endless possibilites...but for me its all about layout and organization...
and well i cant work with this prog...the layout/design is so bland
a big influence on my creativity is my visual perseption...colors and themes tingle my art-sy braincells and i produce...
but back to what i mentioned earlier...i've displayed my thread on the track i was workin on...honest opinions welcome :D
http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...6109&forumid=74
Sebasano |
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| DigiNut |
^^ It's an acquired taste, I suppose.
Tracking/modding tends to be more popular with actual musicians and people who are solid in their theory and composition; it gives you way more control over what you can do with melodic lines. In fruityloops for example, it can actually be pretty tough and tedious to do simple things like a crescendo. Mods really are a lot more flexible, but you sacrifice a lot of "power" for that flexibility. It's also a throwback - 10 years ago the average PC wasn't anywhere near powerful to handle concepts like VST or ASIO, so that's what many of us learned on, and more modern software is a luxury.
I'd never dream of using a program like Reason or Fruityloops to do an instrumental track. Even Cubase can make things difficult. Mods are just the way to go for that; anyone who's worked with video games will tell you that.
It's about personal taste I suppose... once you get the hang of certain concepts in a program like Fruityloops then you can do a lot with it, but more importantly, you can do it FAST. And for me, that's important, because the longer it takes me to finish a track, the more I lose interest and inspiration, which is exactly why I have so many unfinished mods... |
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| DJ El Kay Dee |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
It's about personal taste I suppose... once you get the hang of certain concepts in a program like Fruityloops then you can do a lot with it, but more importantly, you can do it FAST. |
ahh fruityloops..
i been using that since 2.1 and now at the point of 5, i just cant switch to anything else....tried cubase, ableton live, etc etc...just dont cut it....i love my mango |
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| DJ_Elyot |
I do know a lot about music theory, and I love modding for the amount of control I have over the music. When I try to make a track with software like fruity or reason, it takes me forever to get things together because it's so hard to get things precisely as I want them. I guess it's cuz I'm a perfectionist.
Modding DOESN'T provide a means to create sounds... I have to download free sample packs or record samples from another program or my own hardware, but it will do all of the envelopes and sequencing... all I have to provide is the raw tone generation.
I wish there was a program that combined the benefits of both... say, you could have a GUI interface where you could build patterns and record real-time changes in effect parameters, but then press a button and switch to a code window... kinda like Dreamweaver or something, where you design in one window and have the HTML in another. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ El Kay Dee
ahh fruityloops..
i been using that since 2.1 and now at the point of 5, i just cant switch to anything else....tried cubase, ableton live, etc etc...just dont cut it....i love my mango |
It really just depends on what you want to do. I thought 2.1 was garbage and used Cubase until they were late into version 3 of FL... 4 seems quite nice, never seen 5.
There is, however, one thing I can't stand about FL and that is the realtime recording. It's just not up to par with programs like cubase - if I hook up a filter (or even just a normal track) for example and record 10 seconds, stop, and then record some more later on, it erases the first part I recorded. Even if it's on what they laughingly call "mix" mode. Right now I get around it by creating different patterns for every realtime recording segment, but I find that VERY annoying.
Other than that though, yes, quality program. 
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Elyot
I wish there was a program that combined the benefits of both... say, you could have a GUI interface where you could build patterns and record real-time changes in effect parameters, but then press a button and switch to a code window... kinda like Dreamweaver or something, where you design in one window and have the HTML in another. |
There is, it's called fruity + MIDI keyboard. ;)
Once you get used to FL, you really can get almost the same level of control as a mod would give you. It's just a bit of a learning curve.
I believe that ProTools is pretty excellent in the usability category too, but I've never had the opportunity to play around on a full-fledged ProTools station. |
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| DJ_Elyot |
I agree that Fruity would probably work just fine if I got really good at it. I just hate recording changes live. Never tried ProTools. Most of the newest software has problems running on my ancient WIN98 operating system anyways. Maybe I'll see if I can get my hands on a demo or something.
And even if I had the money, I'd invest in a good synth long before I'd bother getting software.
Modplug does have some limitations... its filters could be a bit more advanced, and a lot of the newer effects (like stretching) aren't supported, but most of those kind of changes can be made in another program. VST support also fixes this problem, to a degree... but VST support is relatively new so there are some limitations. I think you can only map VSTs to channels, not to instruments or samples, but it wouldn't be too hard to implement. |
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| DigiNut |
Ah, you wouldn't want to try running ProTools on an ancient Win98 system.
Really, ProTools is meant to be run on dedicated workstations with special hardware. It is not "PC" software. You can run it on PC, but you're definitely not getting the most out of it that way.
If I had an assload of money I'd get an E-mu E4X Turbo... *drool* but I'd settle for an 1820M and Proteus X. :D Ah man, if I could get my hands on that kind of I'd spend a HELL of a lot more time producing... |
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| Nrg2Nfinit |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
Ah, you wouldn't want to try running ProTools on an ancient Win98 system.
Really, ProTools is meant to be run on dedicated workstations with special hardware. It is not "PC" software. You can run it on PC, but you're definitely not getting the most out of it that way.
If I had an assload of money I'd get an E-mu E4X Turbo... *drool* but I'd settle for an 1820M and Proteus X. :D Ah man, if I could get my hands on that kind of I'd spend a HELL of a lot more time producing... |
alot of producers these days simply rely on software and perhaps midi controllers
its easier to get more professional sounds from hardware though.
Dont forget reason, its a great program to use as well :)
i know that producers like flutlicht use fruity loops and their stuff sounds very professional |
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| DJ El Kay Dee |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit
i know that producers like flutlicht use fruity loops and their stuff sounds very professional |
BT as well...until recently he started using ableton live as well cos of his "live symphonies"
but fruity is good..its just that its too easy to use which makes the extremely technical producers not ahve faith in it |
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| DigiNut |
Fruityloops is software, those things I was talking about are mostly hardware (or emulated hardware). Trust me, there is NOTHING like a hardware sampler to unleash the creativity in you... I once got the chance to play around on an E-mu sampler from some family friend and in about 20 minutes I had something as good as what normally takes me a week to do on my PC. :eek: Un-in'-believable...
And I mean it helps too that you've got a whole friggin' stack of CDs (or some 10-odd gigs of hard drive) just full of instruments all easily searchable and categorized... you don't even really need to tweak them because you're guaranteed to find SOMETHING in there that already sounds right.
A lot of producers that use Reason/Fruity/etc. probably have decent VST plugins, like Proteus X or Emulator X... there's just no comparison between those packages and something like SimSynth. The 3x oscillator can really only take you so far... ;) I still figure that the vast majority of successful producers use ProTools though. |
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| ++ EGO ++ |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ El Kay Dee
BT as well...until recently he started using ableton live as well cos of his "live symphonies"
but fruity is good..its just that its too easy to use which makes the extremely technical producers not ahve faith in it |
well he also uses reason
and i think he mentioned sonar before |
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