Best software & equipment for more electro music production (Ableton??)

[deaninja]

Hey guys,

I've been DJing for about 6 months and have absolutely loved it. I run Traktor on an S4 with a Midi Fighter and love tearing up parties and clubs. However, I've had a very extensive musical background previous to this (acappella, guitar, violin, piano) and now I'm interested in delving a lot more into the production side of electro music rather than making mashups and regular remixes off Traktor. I'm completely in love with the progressive house genre along with electro/house/trance. Essentially I want to try to become the next Avicii (or just try it out for a bit to see if I'm any good at it).

I bought an APC40 a month or so ago (during my mashup phase) but really haven't had a chance to run it. I have Ableton Live and I haven't completely delved into it as it looked pretty complicated at first glance. From what I understand, it is definitely more on the production side but also shares lots of qualities with DJing. I just want to know what would be the best software to really explore the production side of music before investing a lot of my time into learning the software (and getting the equipment).

I definitely want software where I can create melodies and harmonies very easily and manipulate them with all the effects while throwing in clips of anything. Also, having the most instruments and sound varieties available to me are important. Most importantly, I would really like software where I can program in all the notes, beats, clips, etc in a paused time frame (garageband-esque) so I can easily edit anything that I'm producing. But I also want it to have live music capturing functions too so I can easily input any of my ideas. I've heard that Ableton Live is what I maybe should lean towards but I'm asking all of you so I can get the best advice on what to invest my time into learning.

I'm also probably going to get a piano keyboard midi controller so it'd be easier for me to add in melodies and musical notes in a traditional music sense so if anyone has good suggestions on one in a decent price range, I'd love that too. Thanks all.

[mablack]

Hey guys,

I've been DJing for about 6 months and have absolutely loved it. I run Traktor on an S4 with a Midi Fighter and love tearing up parties and clubs. However, I've had a very extensive musical background previous to this (acappella, guitar, violin, piano) and now I'm interested in delving a lot more into the production side of electro music rather than making mashups and regular remixes off Traktor. I'm completely in love with the progressive house genre along with electro/house/trance. Essentially I want to try to become the next Avicii (or just try it out for a bit to see if I'm any good at it).

I bought an APC40 a month or so ago (during my mashup phase) but really haven't had a chance to run it. I have Ableton Live and I haven't completely delved into it as it looked pretty complicated at first glance. From what I understand, it is definitely more on the production side but also shares lots of qualities with DJing. I just want to know what would be the best software to really explore the production side of music before investing a lot of my time into learning the software (and getting the equipment).

I definitely want software where I can create melodies and harmonies very easily and manipulate them with all the effects while throwing in clips of anything. Also, having the most instruments and sound varieties available to me are important. Most importantly, I would really like software where I can program in all the notes, beats, clips, etc in a paused time frame (garageband-esque) so I can easily edit anything that I'm producing. But I also want it to have live music capturing functions too so I can easily input any of my ideas. I've heard that Ableton Live is what I maybe should lean towards but I'm asking all of you so I can get the best advice on what to invest my time into learning.

I'm also probably going to get a piano keyboard midi controller so it'd be easier for me to add in melodies and musical notes in a traditional music sense so if anyone has good suggestions on one in a decent price range, I'd love that too. Thanks all.

I've been writing in ableton for a few years and the only wisdom I can share is that you won't use the APC to do anything but play live. Writing with it is stupid because your envelops end up allll overrr the placeeee. Any time you move anything it makes 20 envelop points and you end up having to edit and redraw them in later anyways. Chances are, if you're like me, and most people I know, you'll end up drawing in more and more of the writing and fx parameters you do. You have to move around so much when you're mastering things that it's almost impossible to record performances of anything but pitches. For recording my synths, I use a super cheap m-audio midi piano... anything really works for that. Drums you'll generally want to draw in too simply because the velocities will screw with the mix.

For performing check out these videos...

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...XqeTBEwaftyLSA

http://www.ableton.com/articles/bath...trosynths1980s


I have a producer mindset and not a live performance mindset for ableton as I still dj with Traktor. Hope this helps...

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

Ableton is great if want to do alot of samples personally I will always enjoy fls fruity loops studio. They both have the essentials vst support sample support just for purity I enjoy fls but enjoy Ableton too for its ability to incorporate samples good. I know when I used it lots I found various issues with some vstis so it was a slight pain where as fruity handled them perfectly. But both get the job done

[MaxOne]

Yeah Ableton. Most stuff can be done with that.

I like Logic (if you got a mac).

Imo a combo of ableton and logic is the way to go

[Nesquigs]

I'm in the same boat.

They're right, the apc is good for mashups and I've found. For making a bunch of mini loops and playing them to get ideas for what I'm trying I produce.

Ableton is awesome, yet daunting software to learn, when you finally make a break through tho it's the best feeling.

Experiment, enjoy, and does what sounds right. You'll start to pick apart songs and see how they all fit together like you would if you were mixing tracks normally.

Good luck. The fb chat is great for bouncing ideas off people. Check it out.

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

I found Ableton to be a rather low learning curve for production. But I had been using fruity loops and reason for years before ever using Ableton

[Nesquigs]

Yeah, well for someone who doesn't have much experience. The blank slate of able ton can be kinda daunting before you know how to manipulate it.

Kinda how I (and seems like the op) was/is

I'm still learning.

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

Oh right the change view button had me stumped for a day or so then I googled it lol Jk yeah I know what ya mean with no prior it would be daunting

[deco]

no one is suggesting maschine and using it with tpro? surprised by that.
i used to have maschine but don't any longer

i could see a person using maschine with a keyboard plugged to the midi in on the maschine hardware - then you can bang out beats and melodies.

apparently you can send those loops over to tpro2's sample decks in a live situation.

anyone think this could be a good way to go?

i'm at a point where i'd like to give production another stab but can't decide between ableton or maschine again. i bought the imaschine app and use it all the time - really miss my maschine now.

[deaninja]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

So would you say that Fruity Loops or Logic still have pretty solid sample incorporations? How are the virtual instruments in ableton and am I able to add more in easily if I can? I also have a Mac (or PC since it's dual boot).

I just want to choose the right software to start with so I don't have to waste time learning a program that I don't need to know as much. Although, it sounds if I learn one, you start to get the idea of how to use the others.