Ableton/GarageBand/making music

[KandyKing]

Got my MacBook pro a few weeks ago and want to start playing around making music etc mainly electronic and techno housemusic.

I have ableton and traktor install but you have to bear in mind I am a complete beginner! The closest I've come to making music in the past was the music game on ps1 lol! Anyone got any hints or tips to point me in the right direction? Been watching a few vids on YouTube only had a little play on ableton but seems really complicated, where do peopleget samples from and stuff? Can you cut samples out of existing songs? For example could itake a beat and cut it and use it?

Also do I need synths etc to plug in or can ijust use ableton as it is standalone kind of thing. Sorry for been a complete noob on this guys, eventually I'm wanting to setup a little studio in my spare room kinda thing!

 

[Christopher]

There's a few on here that use Macs for production. I wouldn't know where to start with that side of things though mate.

 

[Reev]

Traktor is used for DJing, not making music - so I wouldn't bother with that just yet.


I've used Ableton quite a lot for DJing but never for production, so I'm not going to be very well versed in that side of things, but there are quite a few plug-ins that come with Ableton that I've heard good things about, such as Simpler and Impulse. Ableton should also come bundled with some tutorials built in to the program, so try them first. Also, check out the Ableton forum, there might be a couple of walkthroughs on there to help get you started. There are also some very helpful videos here from a producer called Airbase, but they probably won't be as helpful if you haven't used the program yet.


Personally, for production I recommend trying Logic - it's what I've been using for the past couple of years and once you get over the initial learning curve it's amazingly powerful. This can also be a downside however, as the program is so vast it can take absolutely ages to learn the majority of it. Again, Youtube comes up trumps with stuff like SFLogicNinja's tutorials, which I found immensely helpful when I first started using the program.

 

[CupDude]

Give Reason a go.. easy to get the hang of, more of a complete set of tools than Logic or Ableton and good for techno / electronic stuff for a beginner at least. Then learn Logic!

 

[SamP]

Only problem with Reason is, all the music produced on it sounds so similar. Take Dubstep as a genre, its near enough a 50:50 split between whats produced on FruityLoops and Reason. And it shows BAD.

Traktors a brilliant program, use it all the time in conjunction with a Xone 2d and Xone 62. Need some CDJ's but im skint atm. Once youve got stuck in with Ableton you wont regret it, especially if you get an external controler, (Monome anyone?) might just be me, but touching/feeling stuff is far easier to make tasty tunes than blindly gazing into a screen.

 

[snick01]

i buy computer music, or future music regularly. each month they have a packed magazine with loads of tutorials in, and also a DVD jammed full of drum samples, live instrument samples etc etc.

but yeah, you can sample from absolutely everything, from sound effects from games, to movie quotes, to old swing songs to last weeks number 1!

i use FL Studio on the PC.. it has took me well over 2 years to make even semi-listenable music, it takes a long time and alot of patience!

 

[snick01]

Also do I need synths etc to plug in or can ijust use ableton as it is standalone kind of thing. Sorry for been a complete noob on this guys, eventually I'm wanting to setup a little studio in my spare room kinda thing!

noyou dont need to buy anything else, its a standalone system. Ableton supports plugins called 'VST's or VSTi's, these come in the forms of software synthesiers, software effects and also mastering plugins.

ableton comes with a few built in software synthesizers, that is all you will need for now. my advice is dont even look at any plugins untill you understand how and what every ableton plug in does, as i made this mistake and ended up with loads of VST's that i coulddnt use and never became good at a perticular one.

By all means, you can buy hardware synths, but for a novice it is a complete waste of money as 99.9 times out of 100 you woulddnt be able to hear the difference between hard/soft synths.


good beginner tutorial for ableton:
http://emusictips.com/2009/04/programming-beats-in-ableton-live/