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Kickin' it up a notch!
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| Xylence |
| All my life (Or atleast all the time of my life that I've been producing electronica) I've been using FL Studio. It's an okay program, though I hate all the samples and most of the Vsti it has. Lately I've really been wanting to kick it up a notch and instead, work with hardware. I posted a forum before, to find out the best synth, I was told the Access Virus. I got a change to play around with it at a Music Center, but anywho, I wanted to ask you hardcore producers, what do I exactly need, and anything you guys rec when it comes to sequencers, if there are any other cool synths that would really help production, equalizers, speakers; The works! Can anyone give me a hand? |
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| Energy_3 |
I guess it comes down to personal preference, i mean the samples in fruity may be to the liking of someones ears other then your own. For myself i love the virus sound making more handtrance. I have had novation ks-5, yamaha CS1x i think thats was it, which al presented their own unique quality of sound. Im not familiar a lot with VST's.
when it comes to monitors i have just got some M-audios bx8a's and there are lots around which are all relatively good. then i would just get a reasonable sound card with a few ins and outs, or interface of somesort depending on how much and where you want to go with your production. I know of people who use no hardware at all all vsts and produce amazing sound, again just preference. I mean just midi keyboard computer etc. sequences well i use ableton, have used cubase and i consider them rather similar in nature. tho of course deep down they are al slightly different,
I think just get a computer heaps of info on here in terms of what you would need to start with, sound card, midi keyboard some good vst's or a keyboard like virus, novation etc, some monitors heaps around, and sequencer like cubase or logic, and plenty of info on all of this as well.
all the best:happy2: |
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| DJ RANN |
Try cubase first - totally different in terms of sequencer layout to FL, but probably the easiest learning curve out of most of the sequencers. Logic is great but I've just found it to have a slightly harder learning curve when starting or switch from a totally different platform.
The virus is great too, but don't discount VST's and don't be put off by FL. There are some amazing sounding softsynths and compared to hardware it's a lot cheaper to get a library of different sound sources going.
As for hardware vs software - it's really down to personal preference but just be aware that going the hardware route will cost you a lot more and it can be an expensive way of learning which way you like to produce.
My advice, try cubase, get some softsynths and check out the virus to see if you like it. |
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| Floorfiller |
| quote: | Originally posted by Xylence
what do I exactly need |
talent...i would start there. |
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| Watts |
| Just get some third-party samples. Also the 3xOsc is a might fine soft-synth. I recommend studying subtractive synthesis if you can't get it to do what you want. |
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| Xylence |
| I know about the 3xosc, it's probably the only synth from FL I tolerate. And all my samples are third party. I make the kicks myself, and I have over 10gs in 3rd party samples, but I want to get more serious. Oh yeah, and I have several VSTs that are sweet. Vanguard, V-station, Albino 3, Absynth, Blue, Iblit and many more. |
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| Jimb0b |
| I think a lot of people tend to put there lack of ability down to the tools they are using. Im not saying this is the case with you, but it could be an expensive decision if you find that you cant make the sounds you want with hardware either. I would advise as someone said earlier, try a different sequencer and some VST's and see how you get on, if you find this still doesnt work for you, then dont expect it to all magically come together once you have a few pieces of hardware to admire. |
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| Theran |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jimb0b
I think a lot of people tend to put there lack of ability down to the tools they are using. Im not saying this is the case with you, but it could be an expensive decision if you find that you cant make the sounds you want with hardware either. I would advise as someone said earlier, try a different sequencer and some VST's and see how you get on, if you find this still doesnt work for you, then dont expect it to all magically come together once you have a few pieces of hardware to admire. |
I know exactly what you're talking about. I owned a Virus C a few years ago. I had sold it really fast because I wasn't able to do anything decent with it, or in other words, I didn't make a afford.
Ever since I sold it, I wanted to get it back, and finally got it. After an hour tweaking, I got really excited again and embraced the Virus in my heart forever ;).
But be aware, the Virus isn't one of the easiest synths to program! |
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| Raphie |
My opinion: I really dislike the "standard Fruity sound"
With this i mean, the standard templates, banks, patches, FX, swing ect.
When you listen in the promotion subforum, you pick out those tracks directly. I don't even rate them anymore.
Then.... there are guys who are using solely the sequencing function of Fruity coming to great results.
So let's talk instruments first:
In really depends on what you want en what your budget is and what kind of results you want to achieve? Do you want to be the next "Cascada in a box" or are you more on the experimental side of things? Also what is your budget.
For instant "mainstream" dance gratification use Fruity + NEXUS + Vanguard. This gives you all the sounds to make airplay worthy 13 in a dozen top 40 tracks.
If you want to be a bit more on the experimental side, have your own taste and just want a vast library of all sorts of synthesis and sampling techniques, then buy Komplete 5 (with Kore2) then you baseline of instruments which allows you to do EVERYTHING
On the HW side first of all buy a good controller (Novation SL series Automap) and maybe 1 good VA synth for leads and jamming (i.e. the Virus TI desktop)
Sequencers:
If you're ready to take the blue pill and leave everything behind, then try Ableton 7.
If you want total control try Cubase, if you want to focus with limited tooling try Reason.
I've played with all of them in the past few years and the funny thing is though there main task is to trigger your instruments and FX their workflow all bring different results. With Reason i found myself drifting to hiphop, with Ableton i came easily to great electro/techno results (maybe because of the loops) With Cubase i am able to write "songs"... I don't know if this is the same for everyone but this is just my 2 cents.
Bottom line is: Where do you want to go and how much money are you prepared to spend on it. |
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| Fledz |
It's all about VSTs and hardware imho. Why not stick with a sequencer you're used to? For example I use Ableton Live 7 exclusively but I would never touch the inbuilt synths. Why? Because they just don't suit the type of music that I make. I much prefer Albino, Blue, Korg Legacy, Omnisphere, Vanguard and some others.
I wouldn't agree that Cubase is one of the easiest to learn. Ableton is much easier to learn as is FL Studio, unless of course they have drastically improved it since SX3. I've never tried Cubase 4 but I hear it has some damn nice plugins that come with it. Could be quite good if you're going for a lot of hardware. |
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