Hi guys, Does anybody hear make music/beats on a Mac? I'm wanting to give it a go so was wondering what's the best software? And what equipment I might need in the long run? Ideally that Isn't too complicated but I'm happy to sit and do some learning. I'm not particularly musical, or at least I've never played an instrument properly so it's gonna be a learning curve. Thanks guys, I11matic
Best software? A lot of money to drop for a starter. Thats all I know. I could help you out with Hardware equipment/analog but software not so much. I can tell you for starting, you might wanna just try a decent program like Logic Express. What are you trying to do? Use the programmed sounds, or sample to make your beats?
Ableton live. It is possible to do everything from your mac keyboard, but a midi (piano) keyboard would be ideal for most.
I've got Logic Pro so I'm good for that, but could get other stuff, I tried Ableton Live but it was way too much as a beginner. I've got a Trigger Finger Pro too which seems cool, I actually fucked up installing it so it doesn't work at the minute cos I havent had the time to fix it but I basically wanna get into making Hip Hop beats, sampling and drums etc.
I found Ableton so damn confusing man! I've got Logic Pro and a Trigger Finger Pro so I've got the software and a midi controller (when I figure it out), I really wanna be sampling and adding drum beats and stuff.
I've got a copy of Logic Pro man, it seems a lot easier to use than Ableton was! Torrent-ial downpour.
My homie I do music with uses his logic express, and being around me ( sampling everything from vinyl and the way I work analog and create my Hip-Hop sound.. not style) he took his style but he uses techniques of analog equiptment and emulates it pretty nice on software. Just know your sound and style, and practice with what you got, cuz you definitly got the resourses already. You run software, im assuming you wouldnt mind sampling from the internet.
Thanks man, I'd love to sample from vinyl but I don't really have the money or knowledge to do it, I'll happily sample from the internet/MP3s for now!
Ableton is meant for live performances so the main view is the clip launcher. Its made so you can switch from clip to clip on the fly with a remix deck or something, its a bit clunky for composing but for live improvised performances its the one you want. My workflow is to compose and create the song in logic, bounce it out, chop it up and throw it into ableton. The real power you're gonna get is from some 3rd party VSTs. Native instruments plugins are very popular for a good reason... FM8 is one of, if not my favorite synth of all time, the detail and character you can get with FM synthesis is unparalleled... EXCEPT, maybe, for spectral synthesis, which is totally the shit. a lot of people love massive because you can modulate any paramater with any other parameter, but i like Xfer Serum because it offers the same thing AND the ability to import your own samples as wavetables, and then mix that with other samples or waveforms to create some seriously crazy shit. I used to use sylenth as well because its one of those additive synths that can make really fat sounding saws but Serum gets even fatter so its replaced a lot of my other synths. I've been playing with Izotope Iris too which has the same ability to sample and synthesize like serum with the added benefit of being able to select the waveforms visually with a paintbrush, which only adobe audition and a few others that aren't even synthesizers have offered. You're not fucking with high pass or low pass, you can pick and choose your frequencies manually, turn a water droplet and a saw into a lush unique pad, its awesome.