Question by : What is the best laptop for an electronic producer and dj?
I am in need of a laptop that is able to run ableton live 8 and virtual dj DJC edition well and fast. I dont care if its mac or windows and it has to be under $ 850.
Best answer:
Answer by VenuG
Sony Vio is a good option
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Question by *LiFe$ : What program can i use to make electronic music?
I would want to start making my own music but i don’t know what program to use. I want to be able to make progressive house, trance, and minimal techno. What would be best, ableton, fl studio, logic, or any other program out there, it dont matter how hard it is to use, i just want a good quality program. Also what other equipment can i get to start on my home studio? Thanx in advance
Best answer:
Answer by I 8 Tax
techno rave by ejay
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You might not expect a handheld game console, the gadget kids use to play Pokemon, to prove much worth as a musical instrument. But even in the age of readily-available computer plug-ins and iPhone apps, the DS holds its own. In the hands of two sets of artists, we find music that stands alone, independent of the gimmick of the device on which it was made. For these artists, the limitations of a fold-up touchscreen – entirely independent of doubling as a phone, or a computer, or a Facebook-browsing engine, or a powerful 64-bit DAW – apparently prove enticing. Beginning with Korg’s DS-10 cartridge, they use a stylus-operated software synth with its own unique character.
On some level, I almost hesitate to wax poetic about the fact that these were made with a Nintendo DS at all, because what these are, really, is love letters to synthesis.
And as it happens, both are available as free downloads from Bandcamp.
First up: AuxPulse is the duo of Rutger Muller and Michael Vultoo, based in Amsterdam and Kockengen, Netherlands, respectively. Late last year, they debuted their first album at Amsterdam’s prestgious Stedelijk Museum of modern art, playing a big set (two and a half hours) on small devices. Primarily employing the Nintendo DS, they nonetheless produce sounds that are rich and layered, sometimes even tending to the ambient exploration, not just the rawer chip-music sounds regularly associated with Nintendo handhelds.
Their music is trippy but danceable, unapologetically electronic, fully exploiting the DS-10′s idiosyncratic sonic character, one that’s slightly lower-fidelity than many soft synths (or even iPhone apps), without being “chippy” in the sense of retro devices. Dark textures collide with precise, clockwork rhythms, in sounds that sometimes tend to acid techno and sci fi game realms. (Lo-acid-fi, anyone?)
As you watch them live, you also see the value of the interface compositionally, both in terms of its pattern banks and its more conventional synth controls, all manipulated with the added precision of a stylus.
As they put it:
We aim to bring experimentation back to the dancefloor by expressing a psychedelic atmosphere through the use of a variety of rhythms and moods. Some of our inspirations are analogue synthesizers, acid, IDM, hardcore, gabber, ambient and oldschool electro.
Right now we mainly use the KORG DS-10 synthesizer for Nintendo DS to compose and improvise our music. When playing live we fuck with the synths as much as we can, trying to surprise ourselves with new sounds.
Our first album was recently released in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam! Now we perform regularly, trying to open up some minds and move some feet.
The album, on Bandcamp:
Dream Stages by AuxPulse
And on SoundCloud:
Bonus: an interview with them (in Dutch, naturally)
In a very different direction, Princeton, New Jersey-based DJ and producer Christian Montoya (love and tonic records) produces music on the DS-10 that’s drier and more exposed, as he programs intricate bass music on the unprocessed Nintendo cart. Christian works as a game designer by day, and channels some of the DS-10′s game music and so-called “chip music” heritage. The results, though, are a perfect marriage of game chip-waveform rawness, nude bass and synth and percussion sounds, and carefully-concocted grooves. For anyone concerned that game systems could hinder moving your butt out of the seat, this album is required listening. It’s utterly stripped-bare dance goodness – and it turns out the DS bass sounds fantastic.
Grab the record for free:
DS-10 users, got any tips for us on getting the most out of a Nintendo handheld and this KORG synth? Let us know.
You’ve heard us bang on about it for nearly two years now. Polyphonic tuning – the biggest advancement in guitar tuning since Pete Doherty learnt the ‘fifth fret method’ – was spearheaded in 2009 by TC Electronic with its PolyTune stompbox.
Oh, how we marvelled at its sleek design, ease of use and jaw dropping ability to listen to all of your strings at once. Then came the iPhone app and we began to wonder how TC could evolve further.
The answer recently arrived on our desk. Still with the wouldn’t-look-out-of-place-in-the-Apple-Store design, the PolyTune Mini features the same polyphonic tuning as its bigger brother, plus the recently introduced Capo and Drop-D modes.
The main difference is that it’s about 20 per cent smaller, measuring 51mm wide by 93mm front-to-back. Of course, there are a few other limitations: you can’t update the Mini over USB and it will only run from a power supply (no battery).
The Mini has different modes, depending how you tune, all of which can be selected by pressing the small button on the side of the pedal. You can go for standard, dropped tunings (with standard intervals up to five semitones) or tell the pedal you’re using a capo (up to the seventh fret).
It works exactly as before: plug in, strum your strings and the pedal’s six LED ‘columns’ (one for each string) detect your tuning. Green is in tune, above is sharp, below is flat.
TC has also introduced the Drop-D tuning mode for the Mini. This calibrates the pedal for the ‘tone-down’ interval on your low string. It’s accessed by holding down the stomp switch for a couple of seconds and can work in combination with the other dropped modes for achieving, say, drop B tuning.
All of this talk of polyphony might feel as though you’re reading a keyboard mag, and if tuning up one string at a time is more your thing you can still do it. The PolyTune Mini jumps seamlessly between the two modes.
When it senses only one note has been played, the display reacts like a traditional chromatic tuner with a virtual needle. Simply strumming two or more strings together kicks it back into polyphonic mode again.
TC Electronic has clearly worked hard to push things forward of late. While the mini didn’t leave our jaws dropped like the original, it’s still the cutest, best value tuner we can think of for the price.
Yes it has some shortcomings when compared to its big brother: the PSU only (not included) operation and the lack of a daisy-chain power output and USB socket. The fact that it can’t be updated shouldn’t be a problem – we’re buying it for what it is, not what it could be – plus the range of tuning options available is more than enough.
If you want all of those extras, they’re available for a bit more cash. Otherwise, you’ll save pedal board space, and money, with the PolyTune Mini.
Read more about TC Electronic PolyTune Mini at MusicRadar.com
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Question by js: i want to make electronic music…what program should i purchase?
so im really interested in making electronic music and i have some experience using the free version of fruityloops but thats about it
where should i start?
Best answer:
Answer by Eric
FL studios 9 would be the best start but there are others out there. Nuendo and Ableton Live has helped other people but from personal experience FL studios is the best. I use it myself. Most of these programs can be quite pricey though but price to quality, its FL studio.
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LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad – Live @ Electronic Beats (Part 1)
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Question by Jester Race: What is the best DAW for experimental electronic music?
I play keyboard, and I love weird, sci-fi, experimental, glitchy electronic music. For a long time I’ve intended to create my own. I’ve recently discovered DAWs. I keep reading about top notch programs like Cubase, Reason, etc. However, I can only afford between $ 100-$ 200 at the moment, financial situation is tough. I’ve sampled demos of Magix Music Maker 16, Acoustica Mixcraft, and FL Studio 9. Though I’m looking for something -made- for editing the heck out of sounds, with a lot of settings toward this end. FL Studio appears to be more on that side, however – I found the interface horribly confusing and disorderly; I messed around with it for a week and it just wasn’t clicking. I’ve read about REAPER – nothing but great things; however it seems like this is less suited to electronic music, and the kind of fine-tuning I would need to do and not have a headache.
So, which DAW for experimental electronic music?
Best answer:
Answer by Chet
http://traverso-daw.org/
And its free
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I had the pleasure this year of working on a book that draws from over 30 years of coverage of Electronic Dance Music’s evolution. Collecting pages primarily from Keyboard, with additional content from Remix, we retrace the relationship of machines and music, technology and movement, in producing the sounds to which people dance.
It’s impossible to be encyclopedic in such an endeavor, but part of what I enjoyed about working on the project was getting to see through the eyes of the artists. You hear them talk in astounding detail about how they actual craft what they make. They curse their gear and long for more usable tools. They lament challenges in the scene that echo today. And they talk, musician to musician, about why they do what they do, what most personally they’re trying to express. (One advantage of being a magazine like Keyboard is that you’re not talking to a music journalist, but a fellow practitioner; you don’t have to shy away from technical details or explain to an outsider, and that comes across.)
I hope to run an excerpt here on CDM, so if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know.
I do very much want to get this out in the world and read – otherwise, I’d go get a real job — but I’m constrained by the slow trickle of print books into the channel. Stock in some places is still three weeks out; B&N as I write this says they’re in stock for immediate shipping.
The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music @ Amazon
See the Table of Contents below, plus more pictures to give you a taste.
I also have to say, I’m hugely indebted to the folks at Hal Leonard (of which Backbeat is an imprint) for allowing me free reign on this project, and making it look terrific, and to Steve Fortner and especially Lori Kennedy at Keyboard for an archival effort that was nothing short of heroic. You may imagine we’re sitting on some massive electronic collection of articles from Keyboard’s decades of publishing. We’re not. We pulled a whole bunch of this from paper, which is how I wound up sitting in a coffee shop in Toronto in the hours (literally) up to the manuscript deadline removing errant carriage returns.
Table of Contents: I imagine your first question would likely be, why [x] and not [y]? Believe me, this was my own first question. In the end, as I said, the book is not so much a timeline of EDM, or an encyclopedia. It’s a series of snapshots, chosen from my perspective to be partially representative, but also to build a story between pieces, and to find some of the richest writing in the magazine. The magazine has its own biases, but that itself tells a story; between the pages, between the lines, there’s a tale of the music and technology that I think does emerge.
And for me, finding that connection point between human and machine was especially important, so you’ll see that thread, unsurprisingly, woven into the text. Do let me know what you think if you pick up a copy.
Preface
1. Kraftwerk
“Electronic Minstrels of the Global Village”
By Jim Aikin, March 1982
2. Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The Units, Wall of Voodoo, Japan, Our Daughters Wedding
“New Synthesizer Rock”
By Robert Doerschuk, June 1982
3. The Ethnomusicology of Dance Music
“Denise Dalphond Goes Inside EDM Culture’s Roots”
By Peter Kirn, June 2011
4. Frankie Knuckles, Jesse Saunders, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk
“The Fathers of Chicago House”
By Greg Rule, August 1997
5. Juan Atkins
“Juan Atkins: Techno Starts Here”
By Robert Doerschuk, July 1995
6. Electronic Body Music
“Front 242: The Aggressive Edge of Rhythm and the Power of Recycled Culture”
By Robert L. Doerschuk, September 1989
“The Art of Extreme Noise”
By Francis Preve, September 2003
7. Rise of the Machines
“Roland CR-78, TR-808 and TR-909: Classic Beat Boxes”
By Mark Vail, May 1994
“Akai MPC60”
By Freff, November 1988
“Propellerhead: Propelling Changes”
By Mark Vail, April 1999
8. Charlie Clouser on Techno
“Techno How To”
By Charlie Clouser, September 1993
9. The Orb
“Inside the Ambient Techno Ultraworld”
By Robert Doerschuk, June 1995
10. Orbital, Meat Beat Manifesto, Underworld
“Plugged!”
By Greg Rule and Caspar Melville, October 1996
11. Aphex Twin
“Still Hacking After All These Years”
By Greg Rule, April 1997
12. Chemical Brothers
“Water into Acid: The Chemical Brothers Blow Up”
By Greg Rule, June 1997
13. Daft Punk
“Robopop: Part Man, Part Machine, All Daft Punk.”
By Chris Gill, May 2001
14. Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva
“The Sounds of Science: Richie Hawtin Puts the Tech in Techno”
By Chris Gill, December 2001
“Technical Itch: John Acquaviva gets his FinalScratch”
By Stacia Monteith, December 2001
15. BT
“The Mind of BT”
By Stephen Fortner, December 2005
16. Amon Tobin
“The Big Score”
By Bill Murphy, April 2007
17. Flying Lotus
“Flying Lotus: Darkness & Light”
By Noah Levine, August 2008
“Flying Lotus: On Splicing Bebop and Hip-Hop DNA”
By Drew Hinshaw, July 2010
18. Autechre
“Autechre: Easy to Be Hard”
By Ken Micallef, April 2008
“5 Questions with Rob Brown of Autechre”
By Greg Rule, June 1996
19. Crystal Method
“Crystal Method: United by Synths, Divided by Night”
By Peter Kirn, November 2009
20. Robert Henke (Monolake)
“The Composer, Artist, and Ableton Live Imagineer Looks to the Future”
By Peter Kirn, June 2011
Keyboard Presents the Evolution of Electronic Dance Music
Ed. Peter Kirn
2011
Previously:
Across Time and Space, Tracing the Evolution of Western Dance Music: Data Visualization
And, incidentally, if you recommend a reading list to go with this, I’d love to read it! For the Northern Hemisphere, we’ll have some good material to help inspire us through the winter…
For very occasional updates on the book (like when it’s actually in stock in places like Amazon, and a possible party early in 2012), sign up for the book’s mailing list:
Me doing a little looping jam in Ableton Live. Came up with it all on the fly, so it might be a little rough in parts, maybe kinda repetitive in the middle, but I think it’s pretty decent overall Stylus RMX for the drums, Trilian for the Bass, Zebra2 for the lead, Guitar Rig 4 on the guitar
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Read the full story @ KVR Audio
TC has confirmed that its cross-platform LM6 Radar Loudness Meter, scheduled for launch December 2011, will also support Avid’s new AAX plug-in format. LM6 Radar Loudness Meter will be available [Read More]
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