DJing/Producing: Where to Start?
DJing/Producing: Where to Start? Posted on: 15.09.2011 by Lawrence Temme Hello all! Excuse me for any noobish mistakes I might have made in this post. I don't have much experience with community s, yet I feel that my situation requires outside help. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about my experience before I start firing away with questions. I have been an avid fan of EDM for about 1.5 years now, and I'm looking into taking that love for it one step further through either DJing or Producing. I have experimented with a light edition of the Virtual DJ software w/o any digital controllers/turntables/etc. for a while, making mash-ups and mixes. My favorite genres include dubstep, house, electro house, trance, and drum & bass; thus, these are the genres in which I would like to produce music. My main question is this: if I want to eventually produce, is it smart to buy a digital DJ controller and then progress? Or is it better to buy the stuff needed for production? I am looking into purchasing a Traktor Kontrol S4 to DJ at parties, clubs, anywhere really since I feel that I have a good enough grasp on beat matching and mixing. However, I feel that I will grow tired of just mixing other artists' songs together eventually. I have done a little bit of research into the basics of producing. I know that I'll need a DAW (leaning towards Ableton since it's oriented for both live performance and production), a MIDI controller (such as the APC40 or the NI Maschine), and some VSTs (Komplete 8 from NI sounds appealing). Aside from this, however, I know nothing about where to even start as a producer. How have you guys/girls learned to produce? I've seen stuff about online courses in producing dubstep, house, and trance, yet those are expensive and will definitely set me back for gear purchases. How do producers perform live? The way I've always defined "live" is along the lines of deadmau5, who has all his gear onstage and strings together tracks on the fly, or Skrillex, who runs his stuff through Ableton and then uses a MIDI (the M-Audio Trigger Finger) to manipulate effects/EQs/etc. I know some producers just DJ their songs (don't really consider that a live performance). What VSTs are best for producing respective genres? What exactly do the MIDI controllers do (as in, how do you use a MIDI controller for live performance and mixing)? Obviously the biggest question here is just a matter of finances. As a high school senior (and thus someone who's financial situation is pretty dependent), I need to be very careful about doing my research and deciding which gear is best for the path that I'd like to take. Thank You for any help/suggestions/etc. you can give me!! | |
22.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by liam1895
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| Arline Receveur 22.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by Warwolt
Not only that but massive has unique performer which I dont see in any other VST out there? |
| Lawrence Temme 15.09.2011 | Hello all! Excuse me for any noobish mistakes I might have made in this post. I don't have much experience with community s, yet I feel that my situation requires outside help. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about my experience before I start firing away with questions. I have been an avid fan of EDM for about 1.5 years now, and I'm looking into taking that love for it one step further through either DJing or Producing. I have experimented with a light edition of the Virtual DJ software w/o any digital controllers/turntables/etc. for a while, making mash-ups and mixes. My favorite genres include dubstep, house, electro house, trance, and drum & bass; thus, these are the genres in which I would like to produce music. My main question is this: if I want to eventually produce, is it smart to buy a digital DJ controller and then progress? Or is it better to buy the stuff needed for production? I am looking into purchasing a Traktor Kontrol S4 to DJ at parties, clubs, anywhere really since I feel that I have a good enough grasp on beat matching and mixing. However, I feel that I will grow tired of just mixing other artists' songs together eventually. I have done a little bit of research into the basics of producing. I know that I'll need a DAW (leaning towards Ableton since it's oriented for both live performance and production), a MIDI controller (such as the APC40 or the NI Maschine), and some VSTs (Komplete 8 from NI sounds appealing). Aside from this, however, I know nothing about where to even start as a producer. How have you guys/girls learned to produce? I've seen stuff about online courses in producing dubstep, house, and trance, yet those are expensive and will definitely set me back for gear purchases. How do producers perform live? The way I've always defined "live" is along the lines of deadmau5, who has all his gear onstage and strings together tracks on the fly, or Skrillex, who runs his stuff through Ableton and then uses a MIDI (the M-Audio Trigger Finger) to manipulate effects/EQs/etc. I know some producers just DJ their songs (don't really consider that a live performance). What VSTs are best for producing respective genres? What exactly do the MIDI controllers do (as in, how do you use a MIDI controller for live performance and mixing)? Obviously the biggest question here is just a matter of finances. As a high school senior (and thus someone who's financial situation is pretty dependent), I need to be very careful about doing my research and deciding which gear is best for the path that I'd like to take. Thank You for any help/suggestions/etc. you can give me!! |
| Stanley Topoleski 05.10.2011 | Vst Cafe lots of free samples and vst's there that's all you really need to get started, you don't need gear at all actually, just good headphones. once you feel like this is something you love then go out and get gear. you would probably start with a midi controller and a cheap recording interface by then an all in one dj controller like the vci would work too. most importantly just mess about with your "Preferred" software (its all preference) and have fun |
| Lawrence Temme 30.09.2011 | Thanks for the responses guys!! Very helpful! I'm going to stick with DJing for now and experiment with some DAWs in the meantime! Once I find one I like and get the hang of putting together tracks, I believe I'll invest in a keyboard and drumpad. Definitely getting Massive once I get a DAW as well; it seems like many of the YouTube tutorials I've looked up on Massive produce good sounds for both house and dubstep. Once again, thanks a ton! Can't even begin to describe how awesome these responses have been. If anything, I guess I've learned that I shouldn't bite off more than I can chew! |
| Monroe Vandeslunt 23.09.2011 | Choosing your DAW is kinda like choosing a car. There is no right or wrong just what works for you, (insert random comment bagging FL studio here), but I recommend reaper for someone who doesn't want to commit a lot of cash because the other alternatives are very expensive. Get some synths and samples and beat making stuff. There are some excellent stuff out there for not a whole lot of money. Sylenth1, TAL noisemaker, Zebra2 come to mind for synths. As for samples, just look on the interwebs there are heaps of free sounds out there. Lastly practice practice practice. It is not important how good your tools are in the beginning when you know nothing. What is more important is getting your hands dirty and giving it a go. |
| Glennie Hoppenstedt 22.09.2011 | -DAW -Laptop powerful enough to run DAW smoothly (doesn't need to be very powerful) ^ All you really need in the beginning. Eventually when you're confident enough with the basics you'd want -MIDI keyboard (and optionally, a software synth like massive or z3ta+ etc) or a hardware synth (a lot more expensive) -Good monitors and acoustic treatment for your studio/room. For performance, ableton live and midi controllers are good. You don't need to buy ableton off the bat for production. Some do, but you don't need to. You can still create your own samples in any DAW, export them as .wav files and play them in ableton live. And for DJing, that's completely different yeah. Like a NI controller or CDJ's or whatever. You can't use them for production though. |
22.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by liam1895
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| Laraine Arceo 22.09.2011 | Like someone suggested, bedroom DJ for a bit and produce some tracks... see what you like the most. Personally I prefer producing |
| Stephaine Hains 22.09.2011 | If you plan on producing complextro/dub like tracks, I would suggest massive, but if you plan on producing like a dada life/afrojack/angello etc. style, sylenth1 is great.. but agreed on logic, comes with all the synths you need |
| Celine Surico 22.09.2011 | There are plenty of free and good synths out there like the TAL Noisemaker and synth1 that has just been ported to Mac (VST only but Ableton handles VSTs.) I like Massive but there are ways to get good electro and techno sounds without that investment. Or as a general package, get Logic and you could be up and running with plenty of sw synths and plug-ins. |
| Irwin Ney 22.09.2011 | My first advice would be, start investing in things that you can use in DJing/Producing and on your real life. If your money is short, start with a Macbook and nothing else. Buy an audio interface and a good headphone for pre cueing and producing If you like touch interfaces and want to be able to change your controller surface when you like without expend more money, buy an iPAD (the cheapier version, iPAD1 16gb wi-fi only) If some more tactile control is needed but you still don't know what route to go, get an general/modular/inexpensive one, like a Korg Nano Kontrol or even a x1. As you practice and change your mappings you will fall in love by one and then go for the big investment route, in software or hardware... I did that since last year, and next month I will start to playing out with the mobile/compact setup that I want without expend money in random gear. |
| Tatum Ansaldo 22.09.2011 | If the question is DJing or producing, try both without spending too much. You might find that production isn't for you, which will be annoying if you've just gone out and spent a couple of grand on gear. Try the free version of ableton and see if you get a feel for it. |
| Arline Receveur 22.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by Warwolt
Not only that but massive has unique performer which I dont see in any other VST out there? |
| Mirta Follweiler 22.09.2011 | You don't even need Massive. People tend to believe that you NEED massive to make certain sounds while that might not actually be true. |
| Arline Receveur 21.09.2011 | Doesnt matter about how much money you have its about how commited and the passion you have for making music. If you have no producing experience then all I can say to you is you wont be making music from day one. It's about getting in those fun hours of practise in. As for what you'll need in terms of hardware your going to need more then just a drum machine if you want to create any electro dance genre if you want to get things sped up. I recommend buying a Akai MPK Mini with is a 25 key midi keyboard with 8 drum pads. Great Piece of hardware. As for genre's your looking to want to produce I recommend a good sequencer based DAW (Fl Studio, Logic or Ableton) with Massive which is pretty much all you need. Massive can create any sound you want it to and you can also find some good presets out there. Get some good drum samples too! As for performing live believe of it at beatmashing tbh. Now I believe your a little confused on production and live performance. Think of live performance as a set in DJ. Producing is jammin out and making some tunes and mix/master them at end. A midi controller is just a controller for parameters in a software. Simplest way I can explain this to you is believe of your keyboard your typing on as a midi controller (Yes, You can use it as a Midi Controller if thats what your asking yourself). But anyway for now I give you what I recommend you look into for your producing. DAW (Ableton Live, Fl Studio, Reason or Logic) VSTi (Massive, Sylenth1 or Albino) Hardware (Studio Monitors, Midi Keyboard and Drumpad, Headphones and Sound Interface) Samples Willingness to learn and time Have some fun! It's what its about for me. I could mess around for hours not even wanting to make something just learning new stuff. Practise = Perfect. |
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