Electronic beats

I know this is the most general topic title ever but I'll try to explain. I'm just looking for something that I can add electronic style beats to my acoustic songs. I'm recording the songs to a click in Cubase, and have experience using midi and have programmed EZ Drummer pretty extensively. EZ Drummer is fantastic, but I'm looking for something much more electronic sounding ala The Postal Service. Hope I posted in the right place. Thanks -

Z

Check out Microtonic (uTonic) by Sonic Charge.

you want hardware or software?

software wise, any of the native instruments stuff comes in VST so it would be compatible with your DAW. there's tons of others too, too many to list, go to kvraudio.com and take a look through their plugins.

if you want hardware, there are some good options as well. what is your budget?

uTonic rocks, I agree. It has a pattern sequencer that might be useful for you, but I don't use it. You could probably program the patterns in Cubase just as easily and more extensively.

Whether this helps or not, Jimmy Tamborello has been known to use the Elektron Machinedrum, probably the best hardware option for this kind of stuff.

There are also a lot of good software options for glitchy beats... such as Microtonic, as mentioned.

It's funny you say that because when I started looking into this I googled "guy from postal service gear" and came up with this video:

I can't remember all the stuff he has but it is considerable. Lots and lots of cool hardware. Very daunting. FWIW he uses Cubase.

I'm looking for more of a software-based approach right now because I've got other hardware on the budget right now. I will look at some of these suggestions tonight.

Aw man this Microtonic looks sweet. I wonder how well it would work with my midi keyboard. Hmmmmmm....

I personally make most of my beats in Ableton Live, I'm a big fan of Drum Racks and Impulse. Sometimes I'll use Fruity Loops or a Korg Electribe ER-1 or Yamaha RS7000.

Check KVR for free drum machine VSTis, the only one I can think of right now is the DSK MiniDrumz. Also maybe you wanna look up some glitch VSTs.

Native Instruments has free Kontakt and Kore players on their website, these include some drum kits plus you can buy more kits for them cheap. I'm considering this myself.

You may also want a pad controller like the Korgs or Akais; actually Akai LPD8 is my personal favorite.

The hardware I like includes the Electribes and the RS7000, or the Akai XR20 and MPCs, though theres more an investment in money and time the more expensive/fancy they get. and I really like the NI Maschine of course.

I would decide first on your budget and what you wish to accomplish. Some questions to consider would be

1) You have a MIDI keyboard and Cubase already. Do want a drum controller?

2) Do you wish to use primarily synthesized (or sampled) analog drum sounds or to also use sample libraries and loops?

3) Do you want to have a program that has a rudimentary or advanced sequencer built in or do you plan to sequence the drum sounds using Cubase?

Some programs to consider:

Rudimentary built-in sequencers and analog simulation:

Sonic Charge uTonic

D16 Group Drumazon (or other)

Sample, loop, and synth based with no sequencer

LinPlug RMV (Demo videos)

Sample and loop based with in-depth sequencer but can also send midi to sequence software instruments (including other drum modules):

FxPansion Guru

Sample and loop based with in-depth sequencer but can also send midi to sequence software instruments (including other drum modules) and comes with cool controller:

Native Instruments Machine

I have experience with Guru and Maschine and like them both. Maschine is my newest toy that is getting a lot of attention. uTonic is a long time favorite with electronica people and the D16 group stuff gets a lot of love here; both of these plugins will get you going right out of the virtual box making the sounds you want. Guru is a very nice piece of software that has a sort of "in between" price point but it is all sample based - the included library and free add-ons is huge. Guru is very complex and is the kind of thing you can spend a long time just learning (Maschine is similarly if not more complex). LinPlug makes really good stuff but RMV is one of their products that I don't own (I have Alpha, Albino, and CronoX+Sophistry). Looking at what RMV can do though, it also seems like a very sweet piece of software and highly tweakable between synthesized drum noises, samples, and sliced loops (I am tempted in a bad way since as a LinPlug customer I have a personal holiday discount code - no no BAD GRIBS - smacks own head ). Also it is called RMV for a reason as it is the fifth generation - it has seen lots of use by people over the years. Also looking at the tutorial videos it looks like it would be really easy to map your MIDI controller notes to any pad you like to bang out your beats on that.

There are definitely a lot of great suggestions here. I've been playing with uTonic and I like it a lot. I do have a midi keyboard and it is working perfectly with uTonic. I can see some limitations though. For example:

-It would be nice to be able to easily add my own sounds and play them via uTonic. It may be able to do this but I don't see a quick way of doing so compared to the RMV tutorials I watched.

-The sequencing options on the instrument are nice but pretty useless for recording without a way of copying them over to the Cubase midi track.

However I do love the sounds that come with the trial and I can only imagine the patches that are provided with purchase make this thing even better. If I was doing something more extensive I can see moving toward software or hardware with more features, but for what I'm doing I think uTonic is going to more than suffice. Thanks for all the great replies.

Z

Fruity Loops is worth a look. You have plenty of synthesis options and a no brainer way of adding outside sounds, via VST instruments or your own samples. People slag on it a lot since it's a cheaply priced, entry level deal, but it'll pretty much do whatever you want without getting to complicated- as far as electronic, pattern based beat making goes- in a dead on intuitive way. I like it precisely for electronic rythms and some synth playing, mostly because it's barely there. It never gets in the way, you almost never have to think about the program and it's easy to focus on putting stuff together. Besides all that, the lay out is a great learing tool for understanding the mechanics of programming based electronic rythm production. Team it up with a good audio program and you can set it and forget it. Make a loop, export it, chop it, stretch it, bring it back and let calgon take you away. It ain't fancy, but it gets the job done and doesn't kick your dog into the sun, unless you want it to.

floops has hands-down the best piano roll + midi editing tools I've seen in software; welll its better than Live's and I'm not a fan of traditional DAWs. the routing options in FL seem to put other programs to shame and I can run it as a VST in Live.

should mention that the Proteus VX has some nice kits and its free from EMU

That would be antithetical to the product. It's a synthesizer, not a sample player. There's plenty of other drum-oriented sample players for those needs.

FL is both.

FL Studio is more like a DAW now.

Check out Tattoo. It should be released real soon and it looks like it could be very nice indeed!

http://www.audiodamage.com/instruments/product.php?pid=AD024

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

Hugo

Well it looks like uTonic isn't playing nicely with my soundcard, which isn't too surprising with the issues I've had with my soundcard.

Is Fruity Loops capable of making uTonic type beats out of the box? I've been checking out their website but there's so many features and plugins to take in at once.

I was reading the Linplug forum at KVR and noticed several requests for RMV to be stripped of the sampling capabilities and made into a drum synthesizer only with the same control structure and drum synths (presumed to sell at a lower price). Linplug replied that they are not going to do that right now, but someone else pointed out that Linplug already makes a product that is sort of like that in CM-505. That is a drum synthesizer plugin that comes on the Computer Music DVD (it is on the DVD in every magazine). The capabilities are not nearly as deep as RMV, but it will get you there for simple electronic beat sounds sequenced VIA Cubase. There are other goodies on the Computer Music DVD too, like a slightly enhanced version of Linplug Free Alpha (sorta in between the free version on Linplug's site and the full version). That is a very capable basic virtual analog synthesizer plugin. I think the magazine rack price of CM is ballpark $20 in the US now.

Probably. Most FL-Studio versions come with DrumSynth, which looks like (at first glance) to fit the bill. (I admit, I haven't used this plugin much to know, I'm not a big glitchy beat composer. )

I'd actually go for at least the Producer Edition, because you get SliceX with that. (SliceX allows you to take a beat loop and slice it up into MIDI trigger-able sections. Good for making interesting rhythms...)

FL-Studio *is* more like a DAW in many ways, but it also works pretty well as a VST within a DAW.

The German accent on the guy doing the RMV tutorial is nearly worth the price alone! RMV looks very, very cool. I wish the cost was a little lower.

While we're adding things to the list, I noticed that EZ Drummer has its own electronic beats product now. They just released it in 2009.

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=55

EZ Drummer is fantastic, but in the case of electronic beats it might be a little bit limited. The thing that comes to mind is that it would be a little more work to add effects to individual sounds. For example, adding delay and some panning to a clavier-type sound would require you to isolate that sound onto its own track and then applying the effect to that track alone. I guess that's really the limitation of EZ Drummer in general. Their Superior product line would probably do a whole lot more.

Another option is the MFB-522. It is cheaper than some software!

Plus it is a fully analog drum machine with TR style step writing.

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

http://www.mfberlin.de/Produkte/Musikelektronik/MFB-522/MFB-522e/mfb-522e.html

Hugo

Audiomulch!

It has a really great demo - fully featured for 60 days. Granted it's more of a modular style set up, but I think that's closer to what you need to get dntel type sounds. I think it does a pretty good job of balancing ease of use with the complexity to really twist your sounds. On the upside it doesn't really mimic any features of Cubase. Anyway try the demo when you have some free time.

[YOUTUBE]

Also, watch the live patching video on the youtube channel and be aware you can process sounds as they come in too, not just loops.

I liked your music. Make sure you post the results after you have added some electronic sounds!

I watched some of the videos on their website. WOW. So amazing. I downloaded it and started to play with it - it seems like it would take a while to get a hang of, but the way you can drag and drop effects and sounds into a visual sort of workflow. It's almost like its own instrument. Is this something you use foodeaters?

Give us a try for your drum loop needs, we've got thousands of loops.

http://www.zenhiser.com/categories/Drum-Loops/