Question by killinit: I want to start making hip hop beats with hardware?
should i get an mpc 500, mpc 1000, mc-808 groovebox, or something else
and also will i need to buy software like fl studios or something
Best answer:
Answer by Lets get free
me too
Give your answer to this question below!
FL Studio’s live performance functionality has been teased for some time online, attracting enraptured eyeballs and plenty of discussion online. Now, you can give it a try for yourself in the new FL Studio 10.5 beta. My prediction: it’s definitely huge for FL Studio die-hards, but it could also attract some “lapsed” FL users back to the fold, and it’s almost certainly a reason to fire up a copy of Windows. (That’s the sound of a bunch of Boot Camp installations.)
The best way to see what the performance mode is about is in the video above. It’s actually a bit more basic than some of the teasers we’ve seen – there isn’t quite as much fancy trigger-mode action – but it’s easier to follow how the software works.
I’m of the mind that music and music technology alike benefit from a range of ideas, even conflicting ideas. What I like about FL Studio’s approach to performance is that it isn’t exactly like what you get with Ableton Live. It’s not unrelated – we’re looking at several controllers designed for Ableton, and there are certainly noticeable similarities in the ability to trigger blocks of time, some owed to Ableton and some more generally attributable to loop and sample tools over the years. But you get some new angles, and there’s really no mistaking this for anything other than FL. A few highlights, evident in the video:
More videos in Image-Line’s development series, or read the manual.
I love this slicing workflow, too, using Slicex and not just the Playlist:
It’s really that moment where you take your finished, linear arrangement and start remixing it in non-linear fashion – without having to switch software modes or resample the content – that I think is a big deal. (It’s especially nice when you slice up existing bits of that arrangement even further.) This is not only something you can’t do directly in Ableton Live, but it’s distinct from live performance workflows in a lot of other hardware and software.
Now, whether that’s actually musically useful is another question, and certainly the musical result in these videos is not distinguishable from what people are doing with Ableton – for better or for worse.
But, then, that’s really down to you, the users, as much as the tool.
FL Studio 10.5 is, according to developer Image-Line, a step on the way to the finished FL Studio 11.
This should also tantalize some users (and, I hope, attract some of our cleverer CDM readers and FL users):
We are looking for input from iOS (iPad/iPhone/iPod touch) and Android users to help with touch-based support/scripting/ideas for Performance Mode (see left).
More on that, in case you missed it in FL’s newsletter.
For working directly on mobile, FL Studio mobile has also gotten an update.
Full details of what’s in 10.5 from Image-Line:
- Performance Mode – Trigger Clips using your mouse, touch screen, typing keyboard or MIDI controller.
- New controllers supported – APC20/40, Launchpad, Block, MASCHINE / MASCHINE MIKRO, padKONTROL
- Unique controller MIDI input port – Controllers can now be assigned unique input & output ports for feedback.
- Linking includes MIDI input port – Links now use MIDI input ports to avoid conflict between controllers
- New Content Library – The content library has received a complete overhaul based on user input.
Options > Project general settings > Play truncated notes in clips – Restores notes overlapping slice points in Pattern Clips.- Horizontal/Vertical movement locking – Shift (horizontal lock) & Ctrl (vertical lock) when moving items.
- Piano roll click & hold functions – Glue notes, Mouse wheel velocity change, Mouse wheel tool select.
- Piano roll – Brush tool: Monophonic step mode (hold shift for old behavior). Chop chords: Strum & Articulate tools.
- Improved Tap Tempo & Fine control – Updated algorithm + nudge control for Performance Mode.
- Instrument Channels – Ctrl+mouse wheel on Channel button to change the mixer track.
- Stay open sub-menus – Right click to check several menu items without closing them.
- Plugin Picker – Start typing plugin names to highlight entries.
- Right-click data enter – Most controls now allow a Right-click option to type in values.
10.5 Beta [Image-Line]
Native Instruments had already revealed that it would add new hands-on remixing capabilities to its flagship DJ hardware and software line. But today, we get to see precisely what form that will take, with a grid of light-up, colored pads that seek to make DJing with Traktor as much about remixing tracks as playing them.
Plenty of DJs and electronic musicians have been doing just that via a variety of methods. Some use samplers like the MPC, some hardware like Korg’s KAOSS line, some combine live and DJ sets in software like Ableton Live, and some even use custom creations built in tools like Max and NI’s own Reaktor. What sets Traktor Kontrol F1 apart is an approach that melds those sampling/remixing features with DJ-style decks, in something NI calls “Remix Decks.”
The function of the touch-sensitive, light-up LED colored pads is a bit different from similar offerings, as well. Any light-up grid of pads will recall hardware for Ableton Live and devices like the ground-breaking monome grid controller. As with the Ableton solutions, those F1 pads do indeed launch clips, as well as everything from full tracks to loops and one-shot samples (samples that play once without looping).
These triggers act as shortcuts, too, however, with settings like Punch mode, effects assignment, and sample muting mappable to the matrix of pads, too. There are 16 pads, as on iconic hardware like the MPC, but you can scroll through pages on an encoder. You can also trigger functions like Sync, Quantize, Sample Size, and Reverse. As such, the F1 is a bit like a compendium of everything we’ve seen in grid controllers. You could treat it like an MPC with more conventional samples, you could treat it like Ableton’s Session View of clips, or use it as a set of shortcut keys as we’ve seen in hardware like DJ Tech Tools’ MIDI Fighter – or some combination, or more than any of those things.
In case you don’t want to combine this with another controller – perhaps hoping to squeeze into cramped quarters in a DJ booth – there’s also a set of four volume faders and four filter knobs.
The release today is also about new functionality in Traktor Pro software itself. Delivered in the 2.5 release, the new build packs up to 64 slots for samples – much as you’d find in a sampler or something like Ableton Live – right in the DJ tool. These samples then play on up to four decks. The “Remix Deck” is differentiated from a normal “Deck” in that it adds beat grids, BPM, and key information associated with those samples – again, a bit as you’d find in looping software. (I’d utter the word Ableton again, but it’s really Acid and Propellerheads’ REX that introduced that idea.)
To me, it’s really the combination of those sampling-style functions with DJ-style decks that are interesting. The moment you bring the deck metaphor back, you’re re-entering a realm that’s more comfortable for DJs. On the other hand, all this remix business could finally bridge some of the gap between DJ software and production tools for producers who find themselves juggling both roles.
We won’t get shipping hardware until May 30, but I hope to talk to NI more about it before then. US$ 279 / 249 € is the full price. Given that comes with a full copy of Traktor Pro 2.5, I’m not sure if the software has become free or controllers are becoming standard dongles for software. There are also 4 GB of pre-remixed sound content to get you started. You existing users of the Pro hardware and software will get Traktor Pro 2.5 as a free update.
NI is assuming you’ll use this alongside a mixer or their own S4 and S2 controllers, but it’d be nice to try to only use this, I must admit. Oh, and there’s also a new bit of luggage for it for when you hit the road.
DMC champion (read: internationally-recognized) DJ Shiftee shows off the new instrument. I got to meet Shiftee through Dubspot, and the guy is an immensely-talented musician with an incredible sense of rhythm, as well as a supremely nice guy.
Now, I want someone standing behind me shouting me on as I work. It’d sound a little different.
“P.K.! P.K. here in X-Berg! Berlin, baby! It’s cold! It’s wet! You’ve got the granular reprocessor! You’re crunching up sensitive acoustic piano sounds! You’re making MeeBlip noises acid basslines, you’re coding now! You’re doing generative – what’s that? I think you’ve got a bug. You lost your 3D camera in your reactive Processing.
And now you’re blogging, blogging, go hit the spell check. Add in that Oxford Comma. My boys, Struck & White.
Publish that s***…”
The original vision of the MeeBlip was to make something affordable, something open and hackable, something anyone could get, something that could tell a story, and something we’d use to make some music. And since those are all goals of Create Digital Music, too, it’s a perfect physical compliment to what we do. For me, personally, it means putting my money where my (blogging) mouth is. It’s a chance to learn.
So that makes this a really special week. It hasn’t been easy getting here, but now the MeeBlip begins its second chapter.
This week, we’re announcing availability of the MeeBlip SE. US$ 139 (intro price) buys you a version you can put together in a few minutes with just a screwdriver, a complete, MIDI-capable digital hardware synth. (We ship most places worldwide – and we’re shipping now.) Through incredible work by the MeeBlip’s principal designer, Canadian James Grahame, the SE revises our original design:
But, of course, as we learned how to make the synth better, we learned a lot more about how to make the business of making a synth better. Learning is wonderful: I’ve been floored by seeing what people have done with these instruments, by seeing them pop up in unexpected places and making brilliant, unexpected sounds. Learning is also painful. We made some mistakes, as demand for the MeeBlip went beyond what we expected, and the limitations of the chip we chose made developing our more ambitious ideas take longer than we wanted.
In other words, users have been incredibly inspiring – reality has sometimes been incredibly challenging – and those are the two things that have moved us forward.
So, it’s now a daily task to work on ways of making the MeeBlip more accessible, more available, and better.
While we work on that, you can now find all of our schematics and code – including many, many hours of James’ work, in particular – on GitHub. Axel Werner, a programmer in our community, has already contributed to making that code better, so when you play a MeeBlip, you’re playing some of his work, too. (The lesson of open source: if just one person does something with what you share, it’s already worth it. And Axel’s not alone.)
I’m working mainly on documentation – both for users just wanting to make music (even if this is their first synth), and developers who want to learn about code and sound.
You can learn about the MeeBlip, read those new docs as they’re added, keep up with the latest, and – if you like – buy the new MeeBlip SE as a kit or quick-build synth – at the synth’s site:
I can’t talk about the MeeBlip nearly as well as its users can show it.
Case in point: we didn’t know one Jeremy Leaird-Koch until the video above popped in our inbox. It’s a demo video of the MeeBlip SE, and it shows off all the new sonic features of the instrument, and demonstrates the PWM width functionality, and shows how to make music, and does a timelapse of building the kit from scratch. Here’s the funny part: we didn’t ask him to do this. His demo video puts anything we’d make to shame.
Jeremy’s story behind this, and the reason there are two MeeBlips in there, was even more amazing. He wrote us about a month ago:
My boyfriend and I had put off exchanging Christmas gifts because I was waiting for the MeeBlip kit (his present) to arrive. Finally, about a week or so after XMAS, it came, I wrapped it up, and gave it to him. I unwrap his present to me, and it’s in a Canada Post box, too. Turns out we got each other the exact same thing. Two MeeBlip kits. Absolutely hilarious.
Anyways, the next day we built them up and played around with them. We also made this little video documenting one of the builds and our first explorations of what it could do. Damn, what a fun little box.
I nearly cried – well, for two reasons. One was, it was a clear explanation of why you go nuts trying to make a synth. The other was, we really screwed up shipping in 2011, and if anything told me to never let that happen again, this story did. We’ve changed the way we source parts, the way we assemble the MeeBlip, and the way we distribute it, and it’s one of the things I think about every morning when I wake up. But thanks, Jeremy and your boyfriend; you’ve absolutely inspired us.
And most importantly, I want to hear more music, made on whatever thing you choose, because I really enjoyed it. And that’s what this is all about.
Side note: if you like soldering, you want the MeeBlip Build Everything kit for intro US$ 119, which is what he has here. If you don’t, don’t let this scare you; you can get the Quick Build and just use a screwdriver, and it doesn’t take a whole lot longer than this does in fast-forward timelapse time.
Question by inquizative: can someone please explain the use of sends and buses on a mixer, whether DAW or hardware?
When recording in programs like Logic, Cubase etc, why do people always use sends and buses etc? Can someone explain this in a real ‘dummy’ kind of way and if possible recommend any good books on the subject for beginners? Basically I don’t understand why you can’t just put any effects you want to use on an audio/software inst channel within your DAW? why do people always talk about sends and buses?
Many thanks for anyone who offers up help on this, I appreciate it isn’t going to be a short answer.
Many thanks for your answer Andreas, thats a really helpful answer!
Best answer:
Answer by Andreas W
It’s a matter of efficiency, mostly.
Imagine you want to add reverb to some of your tracks. Well, reverb is typically quite a processor hungry effect. Adding reverb to 7 different tracks would, without sends, take seven individual effects.
With a send/return structure you can load up a single reverb, and then send from each track to that effect, greatly reducing the processor load. It also allows you to easily manage the “space” with easily controlled send knobs instead of an effect on each track.
Busses can also be used to managed larger groups of tracks; imagine sending all the drum tracks to a buss and then adjusting the volume on that, or compressing all tracks as one, etc.
Hope this helps.
What do you think? Answer below!
If you’re lamenting the demise of the dedicated Lemur display and multi-touch controller – since reincarnated as an iPad app – you might be intrigued by the Emulator. Like the Lemur, the Emulator uses a modular array of touch controls, with more than a casual nod at JazzMutant’s original. Here, though, the touch display is embedded in display hardware. (The vendor provides basically custom software and systems integration; unlike JazzMutant, they’re using off-the-shelf display and touch hardware, though that could actually be a good thing in the long run.)
Most amusingly, you get wooden end caps on this. They’ve even appended “1974″ to the name. It’ll be perfect for the Enterprise bridge I’m building in my living room with shag carpeting and lava lamps.
Specs:
Glass (“chemically-strengthened” — possibly Gorilla Glass or similar), with projected capacitive touch
4 touch points
“Less than 4 ms latency” reported under Windows 8 and Mac OS X
1920 x 1080 display, 22″ (55.8 cm)
15-pin analog, Display Port inputs (via adapter – not sure if you get an actual digital in)
17.5 lbs (7.9 kg)
You can make your own control layouts, or use included ones built for use with Traktor DJ or Ableton Live.
No pricing info yet; shipping February. Updated: Preorder pricing is US$ 2495. (Thanks, Jeff!) Given the relatively low cost of multi-touch displays, that sounds to me a bit steep, if in line with former Lemur pricing.
Now, of course, because this uses commercially-available displays, you could roll your own similar solution. Linux and Windows 8 are adding multi-touch features that work with these kinds of displays. Basically, what SmithsonMartin sells is an integrated solution with their own software.
But that itself is a potentially-fruitful avenue. We’ll see if they can connect with a market on this, and if anyone else gets in the same game. (I can tell you, I’d be tempted to stick a computer underneath that display and build something all-in-one.
More information:
http://www.smithsonmartin.com/kontrol-surface-ks-1974/
And yes, the obligatory promo video:
Question by yush a: I use ableton live 6.o I wish I had a hardware version of the software with knobs and buttons. is there one?
I am basically looking for a hardware device with knobs and buttons which basically substitutes me pressing buttons on the computer screen. for example if i turn one knob to the full on the hardware the corresponding knob on the ableton interface for eg ( send A) becomes full … this can thus help me in building up effects and quick kills since a mouse and screen is not the best way to dj.
Best answer:
Answer by sylsft
I think you may be looking for something like this:
http://faderfox.de/
The best price (in North America) for these are on Ableton’s hardward and bundles page:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/shop/bundles
What do you think? Answer below!
German boutique controller maker Faderfox was one of the first to build custom controllers for Ableton Live and Traktor. But amidst bigger-name offerings, the Faderfox devices still hold up. While other, more sprawling controllers struggle to squeeze into a booth, the Faderfox devices are ultra-compact, though still with enough room for your fingers. They also offer uniquely high-end controls and case, and sophisticated control options.
The latest, designed for Traktor – though it could easily be adapted to other DJ and VJ tools – is the DJ-friendly DS3. It really assumes a digital DJing workflow, focusing on triggering samples, loops, hotcues, and effects. (And, nicely enough, could be well-suited to DJs who want to go beyond just pressing play and mixing. We know you’re out there.)
Creator Mathias shares some of the features:
The only disadvantage I can think of, really, is that you have to toggle between the four decks – a tradeoff of the compact design. Of course, you could always buy more than one.
Here’s a look at the front panel, close up:
The Faderfox runs €250, including VAT (210 without). Unlike early models’ MIDI DIN and 9V battery, the units now simply connect – and receive power – via USB.
DS3 Product Page @ faderfox.de
First revealed last month, PreenFM is an open source hardware synth. As the name implies, it’s an FM synth, with some very serious specs: up to six-operator FM synthesis with some nine algorithms, up to 4-voice polyphony (depending on algorithm), glide, selectable LFOs, modulation matrix, and preset banks with SysEx support. It’s all usable via a display and MIDI support.
It’s also fully open source hardware; whereas early efforts often had commercial restrictions attached, PreenFM is free for use under the GPLv3 and Creative Commons. And it’s got a unique platform under the hood: the open source LeafLabs 32-bit development platform gives this some serious horsepower. It’s very much in contrast to the ultra-inexpensive 8-bit brain of our own MeeBlip synth; think of the MeeBlip as an exercise in what you can do with a little two-stroke engine versus the V8 muscle in this. (The creator says the MeeBlip helped inspire his creation – yes, synths are multiplying!)
You may have glimpsed the PreenFM making the rounds online, but I got creator Xavier Hosxe to tell us more of the gory details and share some sounds.
CDM: So this is all based on the Leaf platform?
Xavier: Yes it’s built around a LeafLab board.
I coded a first version on the Maple [development board]; then when they announced their “Maple Mini,” I realized it was going to be very easy to plug it into a PCB.
I’m not directly connected to [LeafLabs]; I participated in the forum and learnt many things from the team.
They are very friendly and helpful.
What was it like working with the Leaf?
The LeafLabs boards uses an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller.
It’s a 32-bit chip runing at 72Mhz that can do 32-bit multiplication in 1 clock cycle, has 128Kb of flash [memory] and 20Kb of RAM. That seems very few but it’s not, PreenFM software uses 92Kb for the moment.
LeafLabs provide a Linux/gcc toolchain that allows to develop in your IDE of choice… Eclipse in my case, which is very confortable.
They also provide a strong bootloader and some libraries that worked perferfeclty for my needs : Usart (Midi), I2C (EEPROM), LiquidCrystal (LCD).
What will you get in the PreenFM kit?
All you need to build yourself a complete synth: PCB, screws, resistors, ICs, audio/midi jack, box, 20×4 LCD, encoders, knobs, buttons… even an USB cable [for power].
You’ll also get a Maple Mini board with PreenFM soft preloaded. The Maple Mini is easily updatable, and you can experiment lots of different things with it.
PreenFM C++ source code is available on GitHub. It’s easy to read and modifiable. If you want to see your name to welcome you on the boot screen, go ahead 
To build the kit, you only need a soldering iron and some solder.
There will be 2 differences with the photos you can see on the site: the final PCB will be blue (i should receive them next week), and the enclosure feet will be black plastic feet and not IKEA furniture ones you currently see.
Xavier also sends along some welcome news:
Here is a sound I can get with my soon-to-be-released StepSequencer feature in PreenFM.
This is a single voice of a simple 3-oscillator voice. 1 very slow LFO + 2 * step sequencer routed to the modulation indices.
Here’s a sound sample:
Question by Gregory: Where can i buy hardware and software to make beats or instrumentals for hip hop songs?
Can you tell me any stores to get Synthesizers or Something of that sort?
Appreciate the help!
Best answer:
Answer by Ben
I would be able to answer this question better if I knew where you lived. But have you tried just searching the internet? Try using eBay, or even going to a Music Retailers website and log in to their online store. Its a simple, easy and effortless way to buy anything, including synthesizers, keyboards and even computer programs that are used for music creation (i.e. Logic Studio Pro).
Just some thoughts, hope this helped.
Your friend,
Ben
Give your answer to this question below!