Which program should i use?

Vestax-VCI-300-USB-Controller.jpg


One of these guys. Although, you don't need it, they are useful. I use time controlled records with traktor so I don't use those. But you can just mix on the computer without external controllers. They just make mixing more convenient.
 
DawgTheHallMonitor said:
Id like to start making my own mixes and and stuff like that.
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Do you mean mixes as in learning to DJ and mixing as in DJ sets, or mixes as in making your own tunes from scratch and playing your own music?

If the first, I have no idea, I don't DJ but have been told Traktor is good. I have a few friends who use Ableton and various different control surfaces.

If the second, and you want to make your own music, you would need a DAW (digital audio workstation). Logic, Ableton, and Cubase are the most common for electronic music as far as I know, all have their own characters and personalities. There are some free ones knocking about, but I couldn't talk about them.
There is no right or wrong programme, whichever you go with you will need to spend hours learning and playing with it.
Stick with one, lots of people think "I can't use Cubase, I'll try Logic" and swap around, and instead of knowing how to use one after a couple of months, they are struggling to get the basics of the new one they have chosen.

Some VSTi (Virtual Studio Instrument) which are synths on your computer and load up in the programme. There are lots of good free ones floating around online. Some may be specifically for your chosen genre, others may not be, try some out and see what you like. Most synths work in exactly the same way.

A bit of synthesis knowledge will help.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

^^^
This will tell you how to make all of your sounds which will help. You can use samples (pre-recorded audio clips) as well. There are lots of free sample packs online, or if you want to PM me I can send you some.

Knowing the general tools and tricks will help as well:

Equalization (EQ) explained
How and when to use EQ
Compression made easy
Compression
Advanced Compression 1
Advanced Compression 2
Creating depth in your mix
Improving a stereo mix

Most DAW's come with their own EQ and Compressors and things included which are just fine for learning on. Alternatively you can find free ones online too.

One good thing to remember, many people think that the more expensive the software is, the better it is, which is generally true (but not always). However, there is very little need for someone just starting out to get a complex multiband compressor with Mid/side and sidechain capabilities, you will just end up confusing yourself before you even know what you need to be doing :)

There are lots of developers out there making free software, some are just as good as what the pros make and charge £500 for.

Good luck and enjoy the wonderful, frustrating, fulfilling, depressing, amazing, challenging, creative and fun world of music production :)
 
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Wow Witch, thank you very much for all that. I guess id like to start trying to work with both ideas, mixing and creating my own stuff.
If you dont Dj how do you know so much about it?
 
There are merits to learning both, and I think most people in the know would encourage you to do both if you have time and patience. Learning to DJ can teach you song structures, makes you listen and analyse the smaller details of your favourite tunes, which may be overlooked as a casual listener. Also give you good ideas of transitions between songs for when you come to play your own music live.

I wish I could DJ, I was really into metal when I was younger and learned to make and play metal, so DJing never really interested me, and now I'm at the point where I could learn to DJ and play other peoples music, or I can spend my time making my own music which is a lot more appealing to me.

If you want to learn to do both. I would recommend getting a copy Ableton Live. It's a great program and very efficient for electronic music production. It also has the ability to be used as a DJ tool eliminating the need to get extra software, and there are some excellent features to take your studio project into the live domain with very little effort.

A good advantage of Ableton is that any hardware you would use to make your own music (such as MIDI Keyboards and Launchpads) can be integrated into DJ sets without the need to go out and buy separate bits of kit for each which would cost more money (so long as the kit is MIDI orientated (Musical Instrument Digital Interface).

I know how to DJ, and I can play with decks as a bit of entertainment (at my expense) among friends, but I can't properly DJ, I couldn't do it in a club or anything (well I could if I wanted to clear the venue ;) ) and have never made a serious effort to learn.
 
By a set of 1210's before the price goes through the roof. HTFR are wanting £799 per turntable now so double the price they were already. They were discontinued last year so will be worth a bomb and they last forever, nothing beats the sound of vinyl through proper studio moniters imo. They will always release vinyl as well even if the market does shrink, millions of people still owns decks, the used to out sell guitars at one point.
 
Or buy some 1200s used and look out for people selling their records as a collection or something. Manually beatmatching is a very useful skill to have. Depends what genre of edm. MP3s are cheaper. Serato may be an option. I'm sure the demo is available for both. its the constant vinyl vs mp3s vs cdjs debate.
 
darkinthepark said:
By a set of 1210's before the price goes through the roof. HTFR are wanting £799 per turntable now so double the price they were already. They were discontinued last year so will be worth a bomb and they last forever, nothing beats the sound of vinyl through proper studio moniters imo. They will always release vinyl as well even if the market does shrink, millions of people still owns decks, the used to out sell guitars at one point.
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I would love but i hardly have any money. There is just so much more to this than i thought there was. In time i will learn it. Thank you for the advice.

jpgrdnr said:
Or buy some 1200s used and look out for people selling their records as a collection or something. Manually beatmatching is a very useful skill to have. Depends what genre of edm. MP3s are cheaper. Serato may be an option. I'm sure the demo is available for both. its the constant vinyl vs mp3s vs cdjs debate.
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Fortunately my dad has a very large vinyl collection. And how hard is beatmatching? Ive never tried it
 
darkinthepark said:
By a set of 1210's before the price goes through the roof. HTFR are wanting £799 per turntable now so double the price they were already. They were discontinued last year so will be worth a bomb and they last forever, nothing beats the sound of vinyl through proper studio moniters imo. They will always release vinyl as well even if the market does shrink, millions of people still owns decks, the used to out sell guitars at one point.
Click to expand...

Nah, that was just a rumor, they are only halting manufacture, not ending it. also, there are turntables that are as good or better for way cheaper. Stantons are a great place to start

but yeah, to the OP, traktor, serato, VDJ, and others are all good, just depends on the price you want to spend and how much you want to do with it. If all you want to do is mix tracks, and not worry about loops, effects, samples, etc, go with vdj, its a fine program to learn on. I would reccomend either getting cdj's or a pair of turntables, though, controllerism is fine once you know what you are doing, but until you learn where to drop in and how songs are structured, not relying on a sync button is the way to go.

also, beatmatching is hard, but not impossible. If thats a route you decide to go, come back here and start a thread, you will get lots of tips im sure. in fact UTSE first, there may already be a thread, im not sure, but i wouldnt be surprised
 
Beatmatching is one of those skills that's either something you're naturally inclined or takes solid practice to get down. Its kinda like the roots of Djing. Hawtin describes it as a pain but he can already do mad beatmatching. I suck at it personally and there is nothing worse than two kicks being poorly matched. I think for the beginner DJ who is serious being good at beatmatching is like putting your work in, its just going to make you a better DJ. Its also a good lesson in tempo and pitch change. Taking a 140 bpm psy track and a 120 bpm house track and making them work or realizing they don't work is a really good lesson to learn.
 
if this is your first entry into making digital music id say fruity loops. its such a gay name for a program but it can do everything from beat making to hosting VST synths you can find on audio forum websites that have links to all the cracked and hacked progz.

and yeah, if you want to start mixing listen to all the music you can, and find some cheap decks and a mixer and some records to mess around with before you drop a bunch of money on technics and a pioneer mixer.

depending on what you want to spin, look for stuff in the genre that is drum heavy or has a strong down beat, 4/4 makes it easy to beat match.

i grew up playijg the drums and always had a good ear for beatmatching. my fav is doing stuff half time like drum and bass with hip hop since you can basically go 180bpm and 90bpm and do fun tricks with that. plus you find things that do not work.

and every once in a while you are mixing something and are like damn this sounds good! i wish i could have recorded that
 
rincewindrocks said:
Nah, that was just a rumor, they are only halting manufacture, not ending it. also, there are turntables that are as good or better for way cheaper. Stantons are a great place to start

but yeah, to the OP, traktor, serato, VDJ, and others are all good, just depends on the price you want to spend and how much you want to do with it. If all you want to do is mix tracks, and not worry about loops, effects, samples, etc, go with vdj, its a fine program to learn on. I would reccomend either getting cdj's or a pair of turntables, though, controllerism is fine once you know what you are doing, but until you learn where to drop in and how songs are structured, not relying on a sync button is the way to go.

also, beatmatching is hard, but not impossible. If thats a route you decide to go, come back here and start a thread, you will get lots of tips im sure. in fact UTSE first, there may already be a thread, im not sure, but i wouldnt be surprised
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Nah 1210's all the way for me, club standard and will last a life time as they are built like tanks.
 
jpgrdnr said:
Beatmatching is one of those skills that's either something you're naturally inclined or takes solid practice to get down. Its kinda like the roots of Djing. Hawtin describes it as a pain but he can already do mad beatmatching. I suck at it personally and there is nothing worse than two kicks being poorly matched. I think for the beginner DJ who is serious being good at beatmatching is like putting your work in, its just going to make you a better DJ. Its also a good lesson in tempo and pitch change. Taking a 140 bpm psy track and a 120 bpm house track and making them work or realizing they don't work is a really good lesson to learn.
Click to expand...

To beat mix to a decent standard takes years imo. I bought decks @ 15 and even though I knew how beat matching works and could do semi decent mixes it takes years and years to get it proper locked. The best way to learn is to get 2 vinyl the same and set the pitch to 0 on both tunes and try dropping the beats in the right place and listen to how locked beats sound -being the same vinyl they will be in perfect sync if your decks are calibrated proper.
 
darkinthepark said:
Nah 1210's all the way for me, club standard and will last a life time as they are built like tanks.
Click to expand...

im not saying dont eventually get 1210's, cause they are good. I just meant they are expensive, and not worth buying for your first set unless your parents are making like $500k+ a year and buying them for you. there are good to decent turntables that are much cheaper, and that will allow a beginner to practice.

Plus, if you get shitty turntables and learn on them, anything better will be a piece of cake. Wisdom told to me from a DJ whos been doing his thing for 15 years.
 
Burn.The.Witches said:
Do you mean mixes as in learning to DJ and mixing as in DJ sets, or mixes as in making your own tunes from scratch and playing your own music?

If the first, I have no idea, I don't DJ but have been told Traktor is good. I have a few friends who use Ableton and various different control surfaces.

If the second, and you want to make your own music, you would need a DAW (digital audio workstation). Logic, Ableton, and Cubase are the most common for electronic music as far as I know, all have their own characters and personalities. There are some free ones knocking about, but I couldn't talk about them.
There is no right or wrong programme, whichever you go with you will need to spend hours learning and playing with it.
Stick with one, lots of people think "I can't use Cubase, I'll try Logic" and swap around, and instead of knowing how to use one after a couple of months, they are struggling to get the basics of the new one they have chosen.

Some VSTi (Virtual Studio Instrument) which are synths on your computer and load up in the programme. There are lots of good free ones floating around online. Some may be specifically for your chosen genre, others may not be, try some out and see what you like. Most synths work in exactly the same way.

A bit of synthesis knowledge will help.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

^^^
This will tell you how to make all of your sounds which will help. You can use samples (pre-recorded audio clips) as well. There are lots of free sample packs online, or if you want to PM me I can send you some.

Knowing the general tools and tricks will help as well:

Equalization (EQ) explained
How and when to use EQ
Compression made easy
Compression
Advanced Compression 1
Advanced Compression 2
Creating depth in your mix
Improving a stereo mix

Most DAW's come with their own EQ and Compressors and things included which are just fine for learning on. Alternatively you can find free ones online too.

One good thing to remember, many people think that the more expensive the software is, the better it is, which is generally true (but not always). However, there is very little need for someone just starting out to get a complex multiband compressor with Mid/side and sidechain capabilities, you will just end up confusing yourself before you even know what you need to be doing :)

There are lots of developers out there making free software, some are just as good as what the pros make and charge £500 for.

Good luck and enjoy the wonderful, frustrating, fulfilling, depressing, amazing, challenging, creative and fun world of music production :)
Click to expand...

well posted mate.


If anyone has any detailed queries about the differences and quirks of each indiviidual software, Im available for q's.
Im a music producer and record label owner/dj and know most software pretty well.

happy mixing guys and girls
 
StarOceanHouse said:
Vestax-VCI-300-USB-Controller.jpg


One of these guys. Although, you don't need it, they are useful. I use time controlled records with traktor so I don't use those. But you can just mix on the computer without external controllers. They just make mixing more convenient.
Click to expand...

To be frank, this bit of hardware is more of an amatuer gimmick than a useful quality sounding, robust, well developed professional DJ's device IMHO.

If using traktor, i would reccommend just getting a decent mixer (pioneer DJM series - even an old 600)
and using vinyl or CDJ control for real time mixing.
You could just tap that Beat match button, but you won't learn to mix properly, and you wont be very versatile in the long run. Going back to back will be impossible, rescuing mistakes hard (if you cant beat match - you cant just mix in a record or a cd should you desire/should your pc crash/not have it with you) and BPM counting software is unreliable especially with breakbeats/broken beats/Drum and bass rhythms. If it doesnt automatically sync it for you, you cant mix it in because, well, you cant mix!!!

Im not a vinyl purist or anyhting, though thats how i learnt decades ago (yikes).
An artist should move with new technology, and use it to be more versatile. but dont be dependent on anything!
 
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