Members mcintire319 Posted September 22, 2009 Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 I've been a long time music fan particularly most types of electronica, and have always had a desire to make music. I've dabbled in various music making softwares but have been daunted and discouraged from continuing on. (FL Studio mainly, few other lesser known beat making kits) I make a good salary at my current job and am a college student so unless any necessary purchases are too ostentatious or useless for a beginner, i'm open to many things. I'm currently running a home-built desktop with an Intel Core 2 Duo 3.2 gHz processor, Creative x-Fi gaming sound card (no midi unfortunately), MSI branded nvidia 8800Ultra, 3 gigs of ram(4 owned, ddr3 but running x86 so 4 isn't supported) all on windows XP. I own Windows vista but chose to downgrade, I can also list my motherboard if necessary. I have a baseline korg keyboard (SP-100) with a midi output but it is very basic so I am unsure of how useful as far as hooking it up to my PC goes. My main questions are: What do I need to get started in making entry-level techno music, and What can I use to make beats and music tonight without the potential hardware upgrades (all pending software availability). Some of my favorite artists are Deadmau5, Kaskade, Armin Van Buuren, Benny Benassi, Justice, and Ferry Corsten. I prefer Progressive and House music mainly if that has any bearing on software choices. Thanks in advance guys! P.S. Any plugins to software that will enable me to use/create 8-bit/16-bit sounds? [EDIT]P.S.S. I am also a big fan of Hip-Hop music and Hip-Hop beat-making, and would be interested in any equipment that could cross over between the two genres. [EDIT2]I should also state that I have a good background in music. I have played piano going on 14 years now, I played the Saxophone for 6 or so years, and am teaching myself guitar currently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unfed Posted September 22, 2009 Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 FL Studio is more than enough to get started (certainly capable of making great tracks), i'd suggest putting in some more effort getting to know it. there's a handful of good '8-bit' plug-ins out there, a few that come to mind (at least for C64 SID sounds) are: ReFX QuadraSIDBasic 64Unknown 6438911 bytes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mcintire319 Posted September 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 At the moment it isn't installed. (Never actually owned it anway. Aaarrrgh i'm a pirate!) I don't necessarily mind initial learning time, but is FL Studio one of the better digital audio workstation programs there is? I'd rather start with the best (which may very well be FL studio as far as I know). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted September 22, 2009 Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 LIke most things, "best" is subjective. It depends mainly on your needs and intents. In your case, I'd say FL is a good place to start. But please go buy a legitimate copy if you plan to use it. You might also consider looking at Reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mcintire319 Posted September 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 Done a little research and i've settled on Ableton 8. Seems like my kind of software. Need a little more on the hardware side of things, how basic can my keyboard be before it is not even worth attaching to my pc. IE: Korg SP-100 Also, what is a baseline mixer/drum kit that I can buy that will not hinder my growth as a musician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted September 22, 2009 Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 If you really wish to get into DAW software. For the type of music you like I think that Ableton Live 8 might be a wiser choice than FL Studio. You might qualify for an Academic discount if you are a student. Both software packages have demo versions so you can try them out. You can also get a student discount on the Ableton Live 8 Suite which will get you some really nice software instruments. FL Studio has various levels of purchase that include various software instruments depending on the level. There is another software sequencer that is gaining popularity called Reaper that is priced very reasonably. Eventually you will probably want to get an audio interface (a firewire interface) and some decent monitors. I would also suggest reading the forums at kvraudio.com as there is lots of information there concerning all this stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted September 22, 2009 Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 Done a little research and i've settled on Ableton 8.Seems like my kind of software. Aha! You typed that as I was typing my last post. You can always try it for a while before you buy to make sure you like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Metrosonus Posted September 22, 2009 Members Share Posted September 22, 2009 ableton doesnt' come with softsynths though. see if you can pick up a copy of Ubershcall's techno trance essentials, which will give you all the drums you'll need then add a few synths like lennar digital sylenth1, novation's Vstation, rob papen's albino & predator. that should be more than enough.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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