da hell is luvstep??? i'm getting to old to follow all those genres...

 

I'm in so deep. I own so many cool plugins. Yet, if I had to start all over again, I would limit myself to free stuff and maybe a couple paid favorites. That's one way to narrow the choices. It's kind of cool to use your creative resourcefulness to make it all work with a limited array of stuff. Back in the day, I had a guitar, bass, drum machine, mic, 4-track recorder, and a simple effects unit. That's all! I was highly creative and knocked out a rough demo version of a song per day (some good, some not so good). I remember my friend from China came for a visit. She asked me to take her to the store to buy breakfast cereal. She took a walk down the aisle of the supermarket and probably had the same feeling you and I have about plugins . . . AHHHHHHHHHH!

 

that's prolly the best comparison i've ever heard on this matter

 

@Kookaboo Ok, cause with a synth like that, if I'm gonna put in the time I want to make sure it's time on the right thing.

@statik Idk wtf luvstep is either, but when I looked for a list of genres it was there, but now when I google it, it says it's more a group than a genre, I have no fk'ing clue.

@tommyzai I used to think the US was a first world country, until I started to notice all the tech was coming out first in China and the Pacific rim. It is true China was "backward" a few decades ago, but you'd be surprised what trillions of US dollars starting in the 1980s in manufacturing plant and equipment and then jobs can do to transform a country. Same like Russia, it's not like that any more waiting in line for one piece of salami and bread.

I do go "OMFG" when I look at a vsti like Reaktor or Absynth, now Zebra 2, then I go back to what I did in grad school and say, ok, suspend disbelief, you may be able to do this...surprisingly, I always was able to...but with the synths, with this amount of time it has become more opaque.

I have taken a step back. Even if I collect a couple more plugin collections, I'm concentrating on either the principles of recording, mixing and faux mastering (I've been told without real equip we can get close, but you can't really master without hardware) or synth programming (I identify the type of synth, but most now are compound synths, mixing sound production types) and start now to look at things like formulas, such that if I need to get something done now, I'll follow a recipe and then check the result and tweak (computer wants to change that to twerk).

But with soundscapes and the evolving sounds of electronic music, I don't see any vocabulary even, let alone how I can start to wrap my head around it. I see how ppl are sequencing things over time, but when you have multiple things evolving at the same time my brain goes down cause I can't handle tracking all the variables yet. I'm starting to see the classes of modulators, envelopes and lfos (which really are an idealized form of envelope), but when you chop a sound up and throw them in the air like you don't care and resynthesize the sound, I start to wonder, wtf?

Well, I couldn't take a nap, cause I started to audition Zebra 2, and found it can go together with Absynth and Dex, and now I realized I can't freakin figure out how to record a track when I'm playing on the keyboard and having it feed multiple instruments at the same time in Cubase or Pro Tools. You'd think you'd just make a new track/bus and have it record, right? Yikes, well, lets see what I wasn't watching or falling asleep to in all my tuts for my DAWs...I have to admit, I wasn't up to composing anything, so I didn't think I needed to know...I do remember the multiple takes thing, but that was one track at a time...maybe I do that and copy the midi? That would suck, I'd have to play the other tracks in my mind to get the sounds evolving right...that sounds hard, cause I've found different soundscapes can interact together in a musical performance and how you vary one changes how you'd choose to vary the other...kinda like a dance with two ppl not yet in a fight, but happy together.

 

Last edited: May 5, 2016

basically that's what ya do yeah, although certain daws allow a miditrack to send to several vst's by setting them to the same channel or you could try some rack-vst where you can load multiple vst's but not sure if this also applies to generators and not just to effects

 

have all your VST instruments responding to the same midi channel and make sure you arm for recording before you play.

 

I hear you.
The problem is with certain music you need all that shit somewhere stored.Kind of hard to replicate or substitute a cello or a trombone with a freebie that sounds like shyt.

 

I completely forgot about making instrument tracks in Cubase and then just driving them with one midi track. I just set up my common FX tracks for sends or side chaining and load a default session, unlike Pro Tools, if I dare load a Piano Songwriter session, I have a billion tracks and a dozen busses not assigned. Like dude, Piano, FXs, Main. Ty, come again.

...but does Sibelius interface with Pro Tools somehow? or what, I'm suspicious it does.

I'm letting my mind relax trying to play some pop songs at a 175% slower pace. That I do use Audition for, cause it's just so easy to do, though waiting for it to load blows...and hearing the vocal in tune but doing a vibrato so slow is kinda nauseating, but I'm not waiting another 2 mins just for Audition to load to rip out the vocal. Don't slow down "All of Me" oh god...but I have to play something. I considered using Melodyne to fix the freaky vibratos, but like dude, just relax and play.

Stay safe, I'm gonna try to actually understand subtractive synthesis tomorrow, cause I'm missing something but, I only know idk.

 

@flashback23 Now that I've actually come across one of those synths, I think Predator, I understand your suggestion. Ty.

@SPACENGINEER Sry, I didn't respond previously, there were too many names being thrown around. I actually got that synth, but haven't looked at it yet because I'm looking at Zebra 2 and after going down learning about Absynth in a day, I had to learn ADSR envelopes are not more complicated LFOs, and Absynths envelopes that can be shaped in any way ARE the generalization of LFOs or ADSRs for that matter.

@statik, @Pinkman, et al. Ok, pretty straight forward. Make a midi track, pull up the vsti rack, choose, click record on track and record. hmmm. I think I need to use the click track though and it's not obvious in cubase, but I'll make a loop. Pro tools just has the ability to have one...I'm gonna try now in Pro Tools...

Looks like I'm gonna play in Cubase for now because it just works or is simpler to get to work for me at this time, even though I really like PT's smart tool, going back to PT as I can tolerate to slowly fix my ignorance in getting midi instruments to work...

I now think I have enough info and direction to make stuff and see what happens, though I still don't understand what wavetable synthesis is...and have days of tutorials to go thru and some go thru without falling asleep this time. I'm gonna go from simplest to more complicated, which seems to be subtraction synthesis, hoping as I go, information chunking happens and I can see more. I may have to install all this stuff on my workstation cause it looks like using Reaktor to build stuff may help understanding all this...I still can't believe a LP filter changes a sound so much with a little bump of resonance, and simple shaping of volume affects the sound so much.

Interestingly the soundscapes of the guys here made are virtually all not dissonant. So at least I'm not alone in that preference. Am I wrong to think soundscapes like Artic Storm - Driving Thoughts could be a base for a melody or more, similar to the idea of We R Comets - Far Away From Here, from the "Atmospheres For The Expanded Mind (320)" tracks ppl here made? I haven't heard anyone yet combine two or more evolving soundscapes anywhere though. Could be my cave I live in.

Maybe I can make the trailer for something simple like my FUC ITs, or Feline Urban Commandos in Training by the end of june...we'll see:


I wanted to thank everyone who has contributed. This may take me a few days to a couple weeks to sit with and actually be able to come back with intelligent questions.

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Uh oh, maybe the tutorials that demonstrate how to turn on the computer really is necessary for Pro Tools to work...I can only play an audio track, I see the midi from my keyboard being sent, but no sound, even after I chose the only vsti I actually installed for a 64bit aax or wtf Pro Tools vsts are called. I have to go back and install all the instruments I can that have the Pro Tools compatibility...and watch the tuts that say: Step 1) Make sure hands are dry; Step 2) Plug midi cable in into the midi device out and out into the midi device in; Step 3) Find a square hole, that's a USB port, push hard and deep until it's all the way in...fk.

It also chooses the windows sound device driver and not the ASIO and it doesn't give me a choice, mofo.

I remember I have 2 different types plugins that can load the vsts in a way PT can read them, one from Blue Cat I think Remote Control or Patch Work? and KiloHearts. Never needed to use them before...is this way just more efficient?

I fixed the Xpand!2 problem, it sees it now, I hear the audio track, but no instruments...is it something simple I missed?

 

Last edited: May 6, 2016

I got the beginning of the FUCs Trailer, but without most of the Foley added.



I was using a bamboo flute vsti that is so old it has no PT equivalent, and something was crashing the heck out of my DAW in Cubase. I was afraid to add much processing at all, so it's kinda ruff.

The Timpani drum is supposed to sound crazy, cause there's a weird cat that goes crazy playing it, in the trailer...I included a picture of him as a baby, you don't want to see what he looks like now.

Uh oh, the whole play the stuff on different devices really is a thing...I didn't hear half the low end on my throw away internet laptop...yikes.

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PS. The whole cat thing started as a joke while I was learning CGI stuff, and I've kept it, because nowadays, the only pussy I can get close too are virtual cats and toons I used to play in games before I decided to make stuff for games (that don't look like warmed over death). I'm not into www.ourtime.com

 

Last edited: May 13, 2016

How many years do you have to learn the stuff?

 

Well, since I've been married, I've lost my fear of death, and actually welcome it, so the amount of time I have is: until I die.

This toolset is for a Machinima project, and if you think audio production is a mess, you should see the CGI side. It's easier to understand what you want but harder to implement, that I'll admit than getting that "sound." So this Art and Music Therapy project has no ending, just I assume better product(s) as I go.

There was this Japanese CEO that used to wake up in the middle of the night for a years to pursue his avocation. I've been lucky like Icarus, to fly higher and higher in life, only to end up in a spectacular fall. I have only avocation now.

This is my way of finding beauty after seeing only horror. Makes it easier for me to stick around so if I again get the chance to mentor my sons, they'd have a mentor.
Nothing like unajudicated punishment in the US, that never happens... happens all the time, I'm not unique, sadly. I get to see my older son after 4 years this Wednesday because of delays of years in court, which I still haven't gotten my day in...but when a son gets thrown out of his home too, he no longer is under threat and can recant, which he did, so I wonder what he looks like now?

I don't own any cats but, I use cats as my avatar. Why do you think I do that? I think (not sure) I do that because I want to be around pussycat but, nowadays it's just too dangerous. So, I make my own. The only pussycats I can ask to do something and they just do it are the ones I create or play. What a pathetic world we live in. It wasn't always this way. There were feminine women once, not just male women like today. I know cause I was gonna marry a feminine woman once, years ago, but MS got her.



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"Men: If you want to become fearless in the face of death, get married. You will no longer fear death, but actually may welcome it." -- forgot who said that, but I live it, occasionally breaking the grip of overwhelming enemies for short spaces of time creating Art (there's an argument in the CGI community what is Art, but I've made it simple: Anything one person can do for another to create an experience for them that which they don't have access to any other way. So e.g., the new Star Wars movie is not Art, because it was derivative and amateur: when was the last time you saw a girl holding a long stick that she held dear? Uh, everywhere!)

 

Last edited: May 13, 2016