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i have no idea what im doing
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# ¿ Sep 1, 2024 04:13 |
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Jonny 290 posted:i will go on record as saying that i have never once in my life been made aware of somebody writing a _song_ with a bunch of eurorack gear. every time it's "look at this poo poo its loving crazy" and then them plugging cables in and just letting an arp run while they twiddle a cutoff or decay knob. but if you enjoy it and will use the gear, go for it to be fair, this is all synth hardware now. daws and VSTs have obviated basically all physical modules and synths, unless you’re all in on analog-only.
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yeah I only have a couple physical modules cuz I like playing with them. they’re fun for sketching some stuff out and mucking around, but actual composition, production, and synth patch exploration happens in a daw and vsts.
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thats really why im more interested in learning to compose than in going whole hog on synth tech
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dawless has the romanticism and the idea that having physical modules makes it easier to focus, but in practice the lack of long-form sequencing and automation really fucks you, especially if you’re not a performer
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gassy answer to the above: lol buy a sequencer and stuff
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Zam Wesell posted:good post. my approach to anything i make is “it’s been done before, and by someone better and smarter than you”. because the truth is that there’s a finite amount of combinations and permutations out there, and there are so many people who make music with so much time spent before you that the bottom of the barrel has been worn away to dust. nothing you make is going to be original or The Next Big Thing, so give up on that. just make whatever, because what you make doesn’t really matter to anyone except yourself. Zam Wesell posted:personally what I've found works the best for me is starting out "dawless" for inspiration/to get a groove going/loving around with synth patches etc, but letting the computer take over when I've got a proper track going and don't want the "limits" of hardware anymore (especially with regards to sequencing and automation). best of both worlds imo. this is more or less the direction I’m heading and it’s really only that I have a couple physical modules already and I want to work with one of them in a way that isn’t a huge pain in the dick also people keep looking at dawless as a way to force themselves into creativity but you’re just gonna anxiety scroll on your phone anyway so no amount of physical hardware will save you if your brain is hosed
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but you should ignore me cuz I bought a bunch of music gear today that I’ll prolly just ignore 🤡
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how do you guys like, continue to build something out i have a tiny ~52 second track that I can hear a kernel of good ideas in, i think, but it’s wrapped in a hard shell of jank. i want to make it longer and meaningfully add to it, but i don’t know what that entails. new movements or musical ideas? spins on existing ideas? add an entirely new track or instrument? pepper fx everywhere? i’m clearly starting to butt up against a wall in terms of composition. putting notes in a tracker is easy enough, the actual tool is familiar, but now there’s the hard part of “what SHOULD you do?”, and nobody really knows how to guide people through that.
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been thinkin a bit about my creative process. i freeze up when i think about iteration, and i only ever really come up with stuff when i'm, like...half asleep. or in a particular mental state. which is to say that everything i think of shows up when i'm trying to go to bed!!!! so i gotta figure out how to get in that mental state at will. and i suspect it has something to do with distractions, time of day, fatigue, adderall, coffee...idk. i know i can do it, i just have almost no control over it and it gives me a lot of anxiety. not sure what to do about that. Woolwich Bagnet posted:I tend to just start with something simple and every 4 6 or 8 measures or whatever build on it with harmonies, variations etc. Then once I've done that for a while I go back and start moving things around based on how I want it to build or move around. Or I go through my old ideas and see if something fits. i'm actually far more likely to add new ideas rather than iterate on existing ones. here's an example track that i don't think i've shared before: https://soundcloud.com/retrocombine/i-should-really-learn-how-to-name-things note how many distinct musical ideas are present, and how i don't really reuse much. and even despite that, it goes maybe 52 seconds before repeating. and then i listen to stuff like this that gets a solid like 2 minutes out of a handful of ideas. like goddamn. quote:If you have a ton of stuff in that small span already try breaking out each instrument or progression of notes separately. Maybe remove or add some here and there to see how it sounds. oh i've definitely run into this a lot. like i can always bolt on more random poo poo in like the same key or whatever, but more is not better, and i have no idea what actually goes well together. the answer of "what should i put here?" is an extremely open-ended question, which doesn't make me feel free. or more precisely, it makes me feel more free to fail, not more free to succeed. quote:Sometimes though I just hit a brick wall of welp I have no idea where to go next so I put it down and come back to it later. Sometimes I'll put that new thing down and it doesn't flow at all so I put it in my ideas files. same. to be fair, i do like what i make! but just because i like something doesn't mean it's actually good, or that anyone else likes it. it's really hard to come to terms with that and build that confidence, because i see my own stuff as pretty goddamn dorky, stereotypical, derivative, or embarrassing. whenever i think about music, i keep getting the image in my head of someone listening to my stuff and going "this is really lame". QuantumPotato posted:same. unless i'm doing something for a specific purpose (like someone asks me for a lil ambient loop to go in the background of a video or something) i'll do the Bill Watterson thing, i'll spend a couple hours improvising and record the whole session. when i'm done for the day, i delete the recording. occasionally i'll chop a piece out and send it to some friends for feedback, but taking away the pressure of "making a record" has made me infinitely happier with the act of making music. i have occasionally thought of live streaming the sessions though, but that feels like too much work. "making a record" is kinda pointless honestly, because... echinopsis posted:I’m a bit the same. I’ve kind of realised no one really wants to hear my recorded music. Everyone has the entirety of recorded music in their pocket these days, and it’s impossible for me to compete against it. ...there's just so much competition that tracks and songs on their own don't shine. there's a reason most tunes people like these days are like themes or soundtracks, or introduced to them by something or someone they already like. they have a meaningful context that brings the music past "just a song". hell, just ask me about all the music i only know about and enjoyed because it was in a video game or because a vtuber covered it! you wanna get your stuff out there and get people to listen and get hooked? compose for something. a game, a movie, a tv show, a video series, a streamer, an anthem or something. music in and of itself just doesn't end up mattering in our world, which utterly sucks but that's what we have to deal with now quote:So, yeah, it’s just about playing and enjoying, and in this case it has an overall purpose, but recorded music ain’t that. it's hard to balance "i want to enjoy what i make" and "i want to do something that isn't pointless". i've thought a lot about why i'm trying to learn to compose and produce and play my instrument, and i keep coming to the conclusion that none of this has any point at all. nobody's going to listen to me, i'm not going to advance the field, i may not even come up with anything particularly unique. i might like what i put together, but i also see all its flaws. so...why am i doing this? Achmed Jones posted:i get stuck and frustrated and churn out another 50sec thing that id like to turn into a track but don't know how big same
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gently caress a music gently caress it
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i need to amass like a solid chunk of 1/4 cables and matching adapters cuz not only do I need to route these stupid volcas to a mixer I also need to translate their 3.5 aux outs to the biggies
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who is the rear end in a top hat who changed audio cable sizes? huh???? huh???????????
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but everything I have is 3.5 ![]()
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I guess that’s korg’s fault tho
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wondering if I should get a bunch of 3.5 cables and 8->4 adapters or the opposite
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went with a mix, 6 multicolored 1/4s and a few 8->4 adapters i can always hit up target or something for aux cables
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now I need a mixer ![]()
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Jonny 290 posted:
![]() can I not just get one of these or something https://reverb.com/item/54073529-behringer-xenyx-1202-12-input-mixer https://reverb.com/item/53631605-c14695-yamaha-mg10-2-mixer im also tempted to just get a cheap laptop and an audio interface but man that’s $$$
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bringin my volca drum to work gonna make a couple kits - “realistic” kit: 1 standard kick drum, 1 standard snare, 1 standard tom, 1 closed hi hat (jam up the release and it’s an open hi hat), 1 mid-pitch clap, maybe 1 metallic thing like a cowbell - 808 kit: 1 808 kick drum, 1 808 snare drum, 1 808 tom, 1 808 hi hat, 1 808 clap, 1 808 cowbell - potential insane garbage kit: 8x the weirdest thing I can make also what’s the harmonic difference between a kick and a tom anyway
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ooh and maybe I’ll grab a book of drum machine patterns and work through them
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sounds like i have free reign to blow a benjie+ on a used mix12fx ![]()
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man there’s so many loving mixers I don’t even know how many channels I’ll ever actually need, or whether onboard fx are ever worth it, or some poo poo head hurty.
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mix12fx for sure it looks like
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quote:In a mixer, an aux bus is signal path that is auxiliary to the main audio path of the mixer. Aux buses are often used for aux sends, and aux returns but can sometimes simply be secondary paths for submixing. so its grouped output
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basically right now I wanna be able to mix 4-5 (drum+fm+nts1+td-3+?) synths/outputs together and still be able to handle any pedals i decide to get for them so that’s what, 6ish channels?
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https://reverb.com/item/52484601-behringer-eurorack-mx802a-8-input-mixer fuckit the one thing that concerns me is the wires in the back, i wonder if there’s a way to fix it edit: there’s also this https://reverb.com/item/49439416-behringer-xenyx-1202fx-12-input-mixer-with-effects
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Eurorack MX802A 8-Input (actually 6) for 63, or Xenyx 1202FX 12-Input (actually 8) for 100![]()
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that’s $10.50 per channel vs $12.5 per channel + onboard fx think the mx802a wins
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what’s the usb for? recording onto a device?
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hmmm I don’t see usb on the mx802a…what does yours look like again?
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https://reverb.com/item/26595115-be...audio-interface ill get the q1002usb
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ill have to figure out how to record off it if i ever do more than just jam out on my headphones prolly find a used laptop that can handle a decent daw like reaper or w/e
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i like it! i was looking at the nubass but those are still going for 230 new, 150-175 used. and as much as i like the volca as a concept the td-3 is perfectly good in comparison as soon as i figure out how to sequence it
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oh yeah, and ill need pedals. that’s one huge advantage of the daw…Achmed Jones posted:
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Achmed Jones posted:sequencing it sucks so bad, i either just gently caress around with the keyboard or hook it up to ableton i cant help but think theres some reason for it to be like that. maybe what its designed for is most easily sequenced or at least thought of in that fashion. like some sorta hosed up api, or stack-oriented programming. otherwise i cant explain why pitch and duration/rest are sequenced completely separately Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Apr 29, 2022 |
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i suppose it wouldnt have gotten so famous if it wasnt so weird
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lol i cant get sequencing working
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# ¿ Sep 1, 2024 04:13 |
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internal clock was off https://youtu.be/wnEaXv2prc8 suck cess
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