Just bought myself the akai lpd8 and lpk25 to try and get a bit more hands on with production as the whole point and click thing doesn’t feel right.
Any advice vids or tutorials that anyone can share when first getting into production would be really helpful. As these items are new i can’t really find much online but i guess there like other pad controls and keys etc ..
Main things I would like to start looking into are …
1 - Using the Pads to create beats, Drums pattern theory (getting an idea of what patterns create what mood or sound)
2 - Using the keys to create synths, Music Theory, Chords, for playing bass lines etc ..
3 - Anything else you think would be usefull for a production noooob!
what genre are you interested in producing? that’s going to shape the path of your production journey.
here are some random tips:
-sign up for kvraudio forum, search like no tomorrow, notice the subforums and start trying to figure out what software you are going to want to try with your midi controllers. kvr is a great resource.
-for your genre youtube various searches like ableton house music, fruity loops making hiphop, etc., and more general searches like house drum patterns etc. also look up vids of those akai controllers you got and see how other people are using them.
-take an evening and try the different DAWs you researched on kvr. try each demo. try the basic functionally that you have learned from your youtube searches and see what DAW you feel most at home at. you can always switch down the road but once you find one, at least for a while stick to it. remember a jack of all trades is a master of none.
-at this point in the game you’ll get the feeling that you need to spend alot more money to get “serious.” this is consumerism knocking at the door of your creativity. don’t answer, send out the dog, whatever, just don’t get caught up in it. using an average computer today with even the freeware DAW stuff that is out there is WELL beyond what a beginner needs to get started. This stuff is out of a dream to people that were making music 25 years ago.
-don’t rush the creative process by putting your music out “there” too early.
-experiment, don’t try to sound like everyone else on beatport.
If you dont allready know Ableton Live in my opinion is one of the best production tools right now…i’ve used FL Studio (Fruity Loops) for about 6-7 years, and other programs before that, and have recently moved onto Ableton Live 8…check out Tom Cosm’s production videos, i believe they will help you find a work flow that can allow you to quickly make good music http://www.cosm.co.nz/ or search Tom Cosm on youtube
This is something i will be looking at, picked up a korg padkontrol got a friend who is going to give me a crash course in Ableton live 8 as well, currently i work with a friend making tracks, but would like to be able to do some myself as well
definitely going to look at this guys website cheers for the pointers!
quantize your sampler to a specific timing (i.e. 1/8th 1/4th 3/16th etc etc). This way when recording your drum track it’ll sound play as close to perfect timing as you can get…ableton lets you do this..and it could be the most lifesaving thing. If you haven’t got perfect timing then this trick helps you fake it a little better so you don’t have to be too perfect..especially in those early hours of the morning.
sidenote..
I also know that reason has an option to quantize during/after you record…but its not always perfect..
What it does is play a chord. So if you set it to minor and then press and hold the c note it will play the notes in c minor one after another. Advanced options include the ability to set the number of octaves it selects notes from, many chord selections, speed played after another. Maybe more..
Hope this helps!
