Starting Production

You really don’t need much these days… even the LDP8 is probably more than you’ll need for production – though it will be nice, don’t get me wrong.

If you’re planning to make electronic music, and you intend to use a VST capable DAW, then the Massive plug-in from NI is likely to be your go-to tone generator… and if you don’t intend to use a VST capable DAW, then rethink your plan. 😉

You might want to sign up for the free Coursera “Introduction to Music Production.” It looks potentially pretty good. I’m a bit beyond Intro level, but I’ve signed up for it anyway just because there’s always more to learn.

I definitely recommend the keyboard, even without a strong keyboard playing skill, it will make note creation much easier for you. The LPD8 will make a lot of your work easier, and it’s a very decent price, so it won’t hurt, just is not absolutely necessary.

Yeah, Massive is just a VST instrument, a very good one – it will take some time to learn how to make your own good patches with it, but it will be time well spent, and the built in sounds will also keep you happy to start with.

Ableton is one DAW that would support Massive, yeah… the list of DAWs is very very long. I personally use Ableton, but I’ve got my eye on Bitwig as a possible change in the future.

Fruity Loops is also really popular, as is Logic Pro if you’re on a Mac. If you’re an old school computer music geek that’s made MODs or other tracker like formats, there’s also Renoise, although I would only recommend it if you really want a tracker interface, as it is rather fiddly for doing things if you are not already familiar with that workflow – it’s not worth the trouble if you don’t already know it, as you can get the same results from a lot of other DAWs.

As I said, in my case, I am not very good at constructive criticism because I am not good at understanding myself why I don’t care for something. It’s slightly easier with my own tracks only because I have spent a lot more time with them.

That said, I will be happy to do what I can, but it is rare for me to be able to actually identify what could be improved.

As Cheeku said, Soundcloud is your first point of contact, though… that’s the best way to distribute the tracks you want input on.

Thanks to whoever mentioned Reaper above, I’d read about that somewhere recently but didn’t know it was a free DAW. So far I’ve played a little with Maschine 2.0 and Audacity. I’m not looking to spend a fortune but would totally try something else that was reasonable. Have toyed with the idea of trying Studio One artist, but will play with Audacity, Reaper, and likely look into other free programs first.

I’ve been looking into stuff more, as I have a friend that I’m going to ask to collaborate with me, and he plays keys. I don’t play keys at all so I ended up picking up Maschine Mikro. But my buddy doesn’t have a lot of cash and I’m hoping to talk him into picking up something so we can work together, even if I have to help fund it partially.

Things I’m looking into, for us, and would be on my list if I played keys at all…….
MPK Mini Mk2 at $99
MPK25 at $199
APC Key25 looks cool at $129

My buddy said 25 keys isn’t enough, 49 would do though… his keyboard/synth thing(Yamaha) is the size up from 49, sixty something. I’d think 49 would be a happy medium as far as size, price, and usability.

With that said, I’m going to look into the Novation Launchkey 49, at $199 it looks to be cool. I’m gong to look into the software that comes with each of these as well. The Launchkey has a 25 key at $149 and a MINI at $99. I would guess that all of these would be good options unless there’s a reason you wanted the pads on a separate controller than the keys.

I play some simple percussion but no other instruments. That is part of why I chose the Mikro. Also, it’s SMALL….
Just my thoughts, hope it was somewhat helpful…. now to read the above comments again to see if I can snag a nugget or two besides putting Reaper on my list of stuff to check out…. Keep us posted, and best of luck…

@Flynn: Arturia Minilab and MPK Mini are both pretty durable. I would choose the MiniLab because it has touch-strips for pitch bend and modulation. MiniLab comes with a huge software bundle too. The knobs on the MPK Mini have a limited range. They are not endless, like the ones on MiniLab. For some reason I don’t like endless rotary encoders.

Another thing to point out is that if you’re producing electronic music, I doubt you’ll do much more than play simple chords and single octave melodies with the keyboard. So, I guess 25 keys is fine, 49 keys is great and 61 keys is overkill. Just my opinion. 🙂

@Santa Creek Furrows: You’re welcome, but know this: REAPER is not free. I repeat: REAPER is NOT free. I started with REAPER a couple of years back and I loved it. The point is that REAPER gives you a fully functional trial version with no snags, no “saving-disabled” and NO time limitations. It says that you can try it only for 60-days but my trial version continued to work even when the 60-days ended. 🙂 I looked it up the REAPER forums and found out that the trial version will never end!! And it’s fully functional!! So, I read REAPER’s license agreement and found out that it doesn’t stop you from making commercial tracks with the trial version.

So, in theory, REAPER is free. [But it’s 60USD if you wanna buy it] 🙂 My “trial-version” of REAPER is still working fine but I’ve switched to Ableton now (My uncle had a copy of Ableton lying unused and I loved the way that it works) 🙂

Hope I helped,
Cheeku