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Making Electonic Music


TheAlphaNerd

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So I've developed this fascination / infatuation with creating digital music, and am looking at putting together some gear. Only problem being that I am on quite a budget. I spent all my moneys on concerts and beer!

So here's a list of the gear I would like to have in my dream set-up.

Korg: MicroKorg (Synth with Vocoder)

Korg: Kaoss Pad 3 (Sampler)

Livid: OHM (Midi MCP that's works naively with VJing software and Abelton)

Now questions I have

1. Anyone have a cheap MicroKorg?

2. Anyone know about DIY Midi Controllers, and what the price / performance difference would be between a homebrew device and something like the Livid Ohm

3. Based on the devices I'm looking at, can you think of similar devices that might be a little bit cheaper.

4. Any software other than ableton that can be suggested... what OS do you suggest

P.S. For anyone who shares my interest I found this really cool software for the Nintendo Ds called KORG DS-10... which is amazing!!!!

I also found this awesome open source application called livid looper.

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P.S. For anyone who shares my interest I found this really cool software for the Nintendo Ds called KORG DS-10... which is amazing!!!!

That was going to be my answer to #3.

Have you been able to do anything useful with the product? I played around with it for a few minutes. It was neat but the interface overwhelmed me.

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Have you been able to do anything useful with the product? I played around with it for a few minutes. It was neat but the interface overwhelmed me.

Ollie, the software is surprisingly intuitive if you give it an hour or so. What I found helped a whole bunch was using the demo track, and isolated tracks and seeing what was done to create the sounds I was hearing.

As far as using the product... it's possible to do something useful with it. The only problem with it is that it only has the stereo output, and the only way of syncing it to a computer based software is by pressing play at the right time.

It can be utilized at making decent loops on the fly though.

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me and my friends have been having ALOT of fun playing around with "Reason". it is a "virtual" rack that you can flip around to change "virtual" patch cords and such. if your into paying (or demo-ing) it can be found at propellerheads.co.uk or i believe you can find copies available on many torrent sites. lots of fun to play around with!

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$350 for a microkorg is awesome. It's definitely a great portable tool.

Novation's x-station is (from what I understand) a great mide/audio interface with loads of user assignable controls. It might be exactly what you're looking for, but about $300 more than Dave's MicroKorg.

There are a number of really cost effective midi controllers on the market...especially used gear that's well taken care of.

People always want to upgrade their cheap stuff. You need to start with cheap stuff. Someone else will want your cheap stuff when you can afford nicer stuff.

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ok if the important thing here is 'on a budget' then go software...this is one of the most pirated genres of software, prolly right behind games! Everything is out there, something simple and great to learn step sequencing and drum/bass interaction is ReBirth, hell of a lot easier to get your feet wet there than in a overly complex program like Reason.

if you have to have hardware and wanna get your fingers wet then grab an old Groovebox - mc-505 or what not...drums, bass, squelch, twist blink, twitch...i'm pretty sure it has all those techno buttons and they are dirt cheap used...again, great place to start, instant gratification.

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i would agree that Reason can be intimidating. it is complex. but there are LOTS of tutorials on youtube though, and we've been having lots of fun with it. it has everything right there to make your own electronic masterpiece! i LOVE the graphic rack mount interface! and it's just cool being able to flip it around (at the push of a button) so's to fiddle with patch cords....sry we have fun with it! (as you can tell)

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