The Musician's Gig Room Chat V1 - Songwriting and Sound Design for all! - Creationism Corner

Hey guys. I was cleaning out my house and I found my old keyboard. Yamaha PSR-170, and old 61 key keyboard. Still works perfectly. I stopped learning how to play piano years and years ago, when I was still in grade school. I've been wanting to jump back in and learn again for fun, but I don't know where to start. A while back a piano instructor told me to not learn on my own, because I may develop bad habits. This makes sense, but I took that advice with a grain of salt. The dude was trying to sell me lessons, so obviously he would tell me that lessons are mandatory. How true is this? If this is true, I would like to take lessons, but for the time being I am not in a great position to do that just yet. What would be some good resources to help me learn piano, either entirely on my own or in the mean time until I can afford an instructor?

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;47893359]Hey guys. I was cleaning out my house and I found my old keyboard. Yamaha PSR-170, and old 61 key keyboard. Still works perfectly. I stopped learning how to play piano years and years ago, when I was still in grade school. I've been wanting to jump back in and learn again for fun, but I don't know where to start. A while back a piano instructor told me to not learn on my own, because I may develop bad habits. This makes sense, but I took that advice with a grain of salt. The dude was trying to sell me lessons, so obviously he would tell me that lessons are mandatory. How true is this? If this is true, I would like to take lessons, but for the time being I am not in a great position to do that just yet. What would be some good resources to help me learn piano, either entirely on my own or in the mean time until I can afford an instructor?[/QUOTE] there are bad habits to get into, but dont let that dissuade you from teaching yourself stuff, youre unlikely to do more harm than good

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;47893359]Hey guys. I was cleaning out my house and I found my old keyboard. Yamaha PSR-170, and old 61 key keyboard. Still works perfectly. I stopped learning how to play piano years and years ago, when I was still in grade school. I've been wanting to jump back in and learn again for fun, but I don't know where to start. A while back a piano instructor told me to not learn on my own, because I may develop bad habits. This makes sense, but I took that advice with a grain of salt. The dude was trying to sell me lessons, so obviously he would tell me that lessons are mandatory. How true is this? If this is true, I would like to take lessons, but for the time being I am not in a great position to do that just yet. What would be some good resources to help me learn piano, either entirely on my own or in the mean time until I can afford an instructor?[/QUOTE] I'm a pianist, I know theory kinda, but I don't play classical music or jazz music. Yeah you do develop "bad" habits if you don't take lessons. But really, music is so subjective, I personally make a lot of mistakes and I don't have my "finger" setting down, and that makes me a bad pianist, but in the end just play what YOU want to play and listen, because its all about lsitening and being able to hear what is happening. tl:dr just do your own music and focus on what you like when it comes to music, and if somebody tells you that you're doing something wrong then take it into account but don't worry unless you want to play perfect classical music if that makes any sense im really bad at explaining things

Not to mention if you're working with a DAW the pressure for live performance isn't as high at all. You can just re record until you get it right, and MIDI stuff in general is easy to fix. What MrJazzy is saying is that the medium you're likely to work with eases the requirements of technique and allows you to make music how you want and how you like it, instead of through the rigors of theory and rules.

Hey guys, Im not very musical anymore, but Im just stopping in to ask a quesion. Why is there a serious lack of pipe organ in electronic music? I found some covers on youtube, but they could be done better, either that or the organ didnt have dat wonderful rumbly bass. IMO many songs could be improved with some deep throaty BWOOOOAAAAHHHHH pipes.

[QUOTE=Birdman101;47896051]Hey guys, Im not very musical anymore, but Im just stopping in to ask a quesion. Why is there a serious lack of pipe organ in electronic music? I found some covers on youtube, but they could be done better, either that or the organ didnt have dat wonderful rumbly bass. IMO many songs could be improved with some deep throaty BWOOOOAAAAHHHHH pipes.[/QUOTE] My biggest problem so far is finding vsts that don't suck. I can never get a sound that doesn't seem cheap or like a stock sound. It's really obvious on organs and guitars for me

[QUOTE=paindoc;47893816]Not to mention if you're working with a DAW the pressure for live performance isn't as high at all. You can just re record until you get it right, and MIDI stuff in general is easy to fix. What MrJazzy is saying is that the medium you're likely to work with eases the requirements of technique and allows you to make music how you want and how you like it, instead of through the rigors of theory and rules.[/QUOTE] That's the thing. I'm not currently interested in making music, I'm more interested in playing music (if that makes sense.) I would rather much learn how to play a piano well than compose music well. Maybe that part of my brain will wake up once I learn more about music theory and piano playing and all that but for now I just want to be able to play pretty music.

[QUOTE=Birdman101;47896051]Hey guys, Im not very musical anymore, but Im just stopping in to ask a quesion. Why is there a serious lack of pipe organ in electronic music? I found some covers on youtube, but they could be done better, either that or the organ didnt have dat wonderful rumbly bass. IMO many songs could be improved with some deep throaty BWOOOOAAAAHHHHH pipes.[/QUOTE] as paindoc said, VSTs are a bitch also harpischords are way better so people use them instead

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;47896987]That's the thing. I'm not currently interested in making music, I'm more interested in playing music (if that makes sense.) I would rather much learn how to play a piano well than compose music well. Maybe that part of my brain will wake up once I learn more about music theory and piano playing and all that but for now I just want to be able to play pretty music.[/QUOTE] Fair enough. If you do have a slight interest in doing that someday, I say start fiddling around with a DAW now just for the hell of it so you can build both talents at the same time. I've gotten decent with my DAW but I really want a keyboard so I can start learning chords and melodies and basic theory since I can't just keep making drum and bass lines ad infinitum. Novation Launchkeys are on sale on Amazon right now for $100, normally $160. I am sooooo close to buying one at that price, no reason to get a 25key when you can get one that cheap. Keep in mind the Launchkey has 16 v sensitive drumpads that work as sample launchers, 9 faders, 8 knobs, and ties in seamlessly with most DAW's. Good build quality too. If one of you buys the last sale priced one before I can I will be wounded.

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;47883866]Here's an idea for a tune: [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/hmmmmmmm/s-FgPmv[/url] (sorry about no embedding, it's a private link) I want to make a song with vocals and I'm trying to figure out if I could do it on this one and what I would have to change to make it work well. I'm thinking about taking the end and making it the intro instead, but I don't know.[/QUOTE] i'm not so sure about taking the end and making it an intro. ambient intros work great to build a kind of suspense, and it might not really make any sense to have it structured like that. the beginning feels like, with vocals, it could have some really cool caribou-esque stuff going on though. i like it. maybe the melody past 1:47 gets a little repetitive though. perhaps think of a way to change it up? dunno, but it should be really cool to see how this sounds with vocals. [QUOTE=paindoc;47882794] [video]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/tropical-house-ocarina-thingy[/video] Also ignore last two bars forgot to modify record setting in ableton and had my extra drum loops that I have saved for later out at the end :v[/QUOTE] i think instead of trying to add more instruments it might be an idea to give more power to the ones that are already there. perhaps try and bring out those chords in some way, and then after that add a bassline and some pads and i think it will sound great. [QUOTE=KmartSqrl;47875382]Woop! Sam Binga played a tune of mine on rinse today :D[/QUOTE] thats fantastic!! a friend of mine got a play from om unit a couple months ago. those kinds of producers seem super open to new music. i know i only post here once a year or so, so this will probably be it for a while. but here is something at 180bpm i made for fun. really tried to capture an early jungle rave-y essence. [video]https://soundcloud.com/partyhat/35368a[/video]

[QUOTE=Birdman101;47896051]Hey guys, Im not very musical anymore, but Im just stopping in to ask a quesion. Why is there a serious lack of pipe organ in electronic music? I found some covers on youtube, but they could be done better, either that or the organ didnt have dat wonderful rumbly bass. IMO many songs could be improved with some deep throaty BWOOOOAAAAHHHHH pipes.[/QUOTE] Some artists in the early 90's fooled around a bit with synthesizers that sounded vaguely like organs, though they still don't have a very powerful sound. [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYhiJJLG2pU[/url] 1:30 [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydfJUlXeMV8[/url] 1:00 [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVv40_9NSo[/url] 0:45 Not sure if that kind of stuff is what you're looking for.

[QUOTE=Birdman101;47896051]Hey guys, Im not very musical anymore, but Im just stopping in to ask a quesion. Why is there a serious lack of pipe organ in electronic music? I found some covers on youtube, but they could be done better, either that or the organ didnt have dat wonderful rumbly bass. IMO many songs could be improved with some deep throaty BWOOOOAAAAHHHHH pipes.[/QUOTE] because this guy exists [video=youtube;jLzgFkouSmc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLzgFkouSmc[/video]

[QUOTE=paindoc;47896067]My biggest problem so far is finding vsts that don't suck. I can never get a sound that doesn't seem cheap or like a stock sound. It's really obvious on organs and guitars for me[/QUOTE] vintage organs by native instruments. Also VSTs aren't sample libraries and vsts aren't the only type of plugin (vst, vst3, rtaa aax etc.) Kontakt is a plug. It uses can utilize the VST container. It can host sample libraries.

[QUOTE=redBadger;47902995]vintage organs by native instruments. Also VSTs aren't sample libraries and vsts aren't the only type of plugin (vst, vst3, rtaa aax etc.) Kontakt is a plug. It uses can utilize the VST container. It can host sample libraries.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I need to work on my usage of samples and my abilities at sampling. Being an aspiring nu disco and french house producer who can't sample worth a damn is a problem haha My plan later this week is to play with samples and go through that sample pack I linked and sort it to good and bad stuff, and use one of the snares to get that reverb-gate 808 snare effect seen in synthwave. Also need to finish my little tropical house thingy and actually master the house track I made and add some variety there. Should get easier if I do end up buying a Launchkey 49.

[QUOTE=Unreliable;47902861]because this guy exists [video=youtube;jLzgFkouSmc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLzgFkouSmc[/video][/QUOTE] Haaaaah, not this fucking guy... [sp2]easily one of the top 10 biggest fuckboys in the world - gotta be[/sp2]

[QUOTE=MilkBagz;47903165]Haaaaah, not this fucking guy... [sp2]easily one of the top 10 biggest fuckboys in the world - gotta be[/sp2][/QUOTE] I procrastinated practicing piano today by watching a few videos of this guy. His interviews are ridiculous. He talks forever and he's just psycho

I cant tell if that video is satire or not please tell me its satire

did some more tweaking on my wannabe 80's synth sound. Keeping it clear for now since I want to use it for Daft Punk Tron soundtrack sounding shit, but I can add a filter ot make it more grainy and even more 80's sounding if I like. [url]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/80s-synth-test/s-CfjIr[/url] Borrowed chords from arpeggio of nightcall test of various effects coming in. Listed in order. Let me know if any should be adjusted sligthly but I think it sounds nice c: [url]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/80s-synth-test-effect-demo/s-Nm6fi[/url] [QUOTE]Adding audio effects used for 80's synth every half bar. Utility for volume cut, Chorus, Saturator, Compressor, Reverb, EQ-eight for low and slight high cut.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=paindoc;47903491]did some more tweaking on my wannabe 80's synth sound. Keeping it clear for now since I want to use it for Daft Punk Tron soundtrack sounding shit, but I can add a filter ot make it more grainy and even more 80's sounding if I like. [video]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/80s-synth-test/s-CfjIr[/video] Borrowed chords from arpeggio of nightcall[/QUOTE] Ill review yours if u review mine ;3

[QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;47903545]Ill review yours if u review mine ;3[/QUOTE] I was just sorta showing off the effects and not asking for review but if we're talking about your breakcore jam then okay I can say things about it. I've commented on quite a few peoples stuff without really trying to get feedback in return and don't expect any huge stuff on my synth shit lol YOUR BREAKCORE BOOTY JAM IS NICE. IT IS VARIED AND STAYS TRUE TO BREAKCORE WHICH IS LOUD AND DRUMMY. I THINK YOUR SNARE OR OTHER DRUMS COULD HAVE MORE BASS MAYBE RUN IT THROUGH A COMPRESSOR, OR KEEP THE DRUM AND SNARE CENTER AND PAN THE REST OF THE SOUNDS WAY OUT THAT MIGHT WORK IF THE MIXING GUIDE IVE BEEN READING IS TO BE BELIEVED. IS NICE JAMS. MY ONLY EXPOSURE TO BREAKCORE IS LAPFOX TRAX SO SORRY

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;47876659]Which DAW are you using? Widening from what I undertand is basically splitting the sound up into 2 (or more) tracks and having them panned (ex 1 left 1 right) and then making them play at very slightly different timings, somebody correct me if I'm wrong. [editline]4th June 2015[/editline] I really dig this one, don't really have anything to add except that it's great. [media]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/night-drive[/media] Here's one I made a while ago, but I really don't feel like the stuff I make is interesting enough. This one might be especially boring cause it's so long, but I don't really know that much about mixing and electronic stuff in general and have for the most part just played and made acoustic music, so I'd really appreciate any tips.[/QUOTE] I missed having you around the section man, good to see you back. You're on the right track, but I think you need to add some more high end stuff to it - everything seems to be sitting around mid to low end for the first part and its nice and chill but there needs to be some contrast there. The second part fixes that and it's great. [QUOTE=paindoc;47882794]Sounds like a great idea. Maybe emphasize the details in such a way its adaptable to other DAW's, maybe by going over what type of wave and effects to use instead of the EXACT way to do it in your DAW? [editline]edited[/editline] Okay, that was really good. I [I]really[/I] like the synths, all of them. The slow intro was super neat, I liked how you sorta faded everything in. Gave the track a nice atmosphere- the name is [I]perfect[/I]. Has that 80's Synthwave vybe, if you ask me. Around 2:52 though the synths there seem a bit out of place though, too strong or stabby for that part of the song maybe? And I wouldn't worry about your mixing skills, they seem pretty good here. The change aroudn 4:20 was neat and not what I expected at all. This may be a comparison you hate based on your opinion of him, but your mixing of your background "dirty" drum/wub/synth whatever you want to call it was really well done and reminds me of Deadmau5's slower tracks and stuff. tl:dr I wish I could make this level of stuff I made another quick little thingy as a break from studying for math final. Took me about 45m but now I'm stuck. Not sure where to go with the melody or what other kind of instruments to add. I can't think of any instruments that I have that would be appropriate, tbh. Completely stymied. [video]https://soundcloud.com/nofuchsgiven/tropical-house-ocarina-thingy[/video] Also ignore last two bars forgot to modify record setting in ableton and had my extra drum loops that I have saved for later out at the end :v[/QUOTE] This is really cool - have you listened to much Caribou? Back when he was called Manitoba he did this track called Dundas, Ontario which is really similar in style to the first part of your song. If you want to take it further you should listen to it. Anyway, here's a cover i made this afternoon. I'm really happy with the way the acoustic guitar came out on it and I think its a pretty good recording all around [media]http://soundcloud.com/sportsball-demo-space/all-of-the-trees-will-clap-their-hands-sufjan-stevens[/media]

Just set up my shitty speakers so I can pretend to be a pro [sp2]my stuff will still suck anyway :v:[/sp2]

I have learned the secret of gated reverb and what a chorus plugin can do to a bass synth. It is glorious. Absolutely glorious. [editline]8th June 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=killerteacup;47904183]I missed having you around the section man, good to see you back. You're on the right track, but I think you need to add some more high end stuff to it - everything seems to be sitting around mid to low end for the first part and its nice and chill but there needs to be some contrast there. The second part fixes that and it's great. This is really cool - have you listened to much Caribou? Back when he was called Manitoba he did this track called Dundas, Ontario which is really similar in style to the first part of your song. If you want to take it further you should listen to it. Anyway, here's a cover i made this afternoon. I'm really happy with the way the acoustic guitar came out on it and I think its a pretty good recording all around [media]http://soundcloud.com/sportsball-demo-space/all-of-the-trees-will-clap-their-hands-sufjan-stevens[/media][/QUOTE] That was a good thing to point out. I'm going to keep that in mind, and that track led me to think of C418 again, and so I'll be giving his stuff a look and using some of that as well. Vocoders are weird

[QUOTE=Unreliable;47903272]I procrastinated practicing piano today by watching a few videos of this guy. His interviews are ridiculous. He talks forever and he's just psycho[/QUOTE] He's quite the virtuoso though, too bad he suffers from megalomania. I honestly wouldn't care what he looks like or how is character is if he'd also do stuff other than doing virtuoso stuff. Fine he can do Chopin with just his feet, I don't feel like it actually contributes to the organ as a whole. It kinda seems like an amazing talent that ended up with the wrong person.

[QUOTE=killerteacup;47904183]I missed having you around the section man, good to see you back. You're on the right track, but I think you need to add some more high end stuff to it - everything seems to be sitting around mid to low end for the first part and its nice and chill but there needs to be some contrast there. The second part fixes that and it's great. This is really cool - have you listened to much Caribou? Back when he was called Manitoba he did this track called Dundas, Ontario which is really similar in style to the first part of your song. If you want to take it further you should listen to it. Anyway, here's a cover i made this afternoon. I'm really happy with the way the acoustic guitar came out on it and I think its a pretty good recording all around [media]http://soundcloud.com/sportsball-demo-space/all-of-the-trees-will-clap-their-hands-sufjan-stevens[/media][/QUOTE] dang i love how smooth this feels, the balance between guitar and vocals is quite nice very simple yet very effective heres my second track ever that i just recently completed, wanted to make use of a sax vst i got, also wanted to make everything either from stock/free vst's or free samples: [media]https://soundcloud.com/colteh-1/saxophone-chill[/media]

Buy this book: [url]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8890548401/[/url] [img]http://www.contempostore.com/images/stories/ct9810_home.jpg[/img] All of you. Immediately. It's amazing. It's structured with alternating chapters of synthesis theory and then practical application of that theory in Max/MSP. A lot of the theory stuff was review for me, but there was some good stuff I picked up that I hadn't known before and you'll definitely learn something if you've never gotten very deep with the whole synthesis thing. [editline]8th June 2015[/editline] Also, Max/MSP is one of the coolest things ever.

Put a launchkey 49 on hold at a guitarcenter near me since Amazon is out of stock and guitarcenter had the sale price as well. Should be picking it up Wednesday after my last final and then moving into my aunts house, hopefully will be making musiks and learning theory by Thursday evening :D

[QUOTE=Number-41;47905668]He's quite the virtuoso though, too bad he suffers from megalomania. I honestly wouldn't care what he looks like or how is character is if he'd also do stuff other than doing virtuoso stuff. Fine he can do Chopin with just his feet, I don't feel like it actually contributes to the organ as a whole. It kinda seems like an amazing talent that ended up with the wrong person.[/QUOTE] I give him major props too for being able to have two hands that play across four keyboards, often at the same time. As well as flicking all the buttons to create different sounds whilst in a song, and using his feet all the time, too. However he's so sporadic with flowing playing that it sounds disjointed. I can't listen to him because it doesn't sound very good. He's quite the virtuoso to handle the instrument, but yeah that's all he does. There was one interview I watched and it was hilarious. He was like, "Man knows that with a piano you press the key, and depending on how hard you press the key, if you press it lightly, you get a soft sound, if you press it hard, you get an abrupt sound, the keyboard will respond. My first experience with an organ was in the blah Church of blah and it was incredible. Whereas my entire life I had played the piano up until that point, sitting behind the organ was a spectacular feeling. I started by pressing the key and expecting it to behave in the same way as a piano. It didn't, it was a continuous sound. It revolutionized me; I started wanting to play organ. The only downside was that I would have to haul the thing with me to play it, which was uneconomical." Right now I'm studying concise writing for my english course and he is the opposite. Whatever, does anyone have any good sight reading books they recommend for piano? I read I should get a bartok book and the bach two part inventions. Anyone play classical and have some they preferred? Any jazz ones people recommend? Thanks

I like Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, there's some easy ones and some really difficult ones in it (usually the fugue is much harder than the prelude). They're also quite fun to play and they help the independence of your hands. Chopin also has some fun preludes (not as many though). They're all freely available at imslp.org As for jazz there's not really such a thing as a sight reading book as you either have standards or you improvise over them, there's the Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine for jazz theory though. I've always hated playing "jazz etudes" (pre-written jazz stuff) with a passion and I only got improved technique from it, something that classical provides as well. Learn jazz by listening and emulating records, it's the only way to learn jazz by yourself, the other way is playing in a band. Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, "easy" pieces: BWV 846 BWV 847 (start slowly) BWV 850 (slowly, second part is a bit more difficult) Intermediate/Hard/"Holy shit Bach I only got so much brain halves/fingers": BWV 881 the rest :v: There's also some doable Eric Satie (Gymnopedies, Gnossiennes). I find nearly all Beethoven really hard unless you slow it down a ton, didn't try much of him though. There's the moonlight sonata, obviously. These are all from my personal experience so there's probably tons of others out there, I usually don't really study them in one go. If I get to a part I cannot technically achieve I'll just try it for a while and give up. A month later I try again and usually it's improved somehow and I might be able to tackle it, I like to imagine it's your brain making new neuronal connections during the time you're not playing. I do that with every classical piece, thus I barely finished any of them but it's fun to play and you can always switch to a different piece to work on if you get tired of it. Currently I'm attempting Schubert's [URL="http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/6/64/IMSLP82674-PMLP20830-schubert_fantasie_d940_edandre.pdf"]Fantasie in F Minor[/URL] (D940) arranged for 2 hands (originally a piano duet), the first part is really fun and not that hard. Then all hell breaks loose. I suggest putting a discography of your preferred (deceased) composer on shuffle and just discover songs that seem nice and are achievable in terms of technique.

Redoing Adagio in D Minor is one of my goals for my keyboard since despite being simple it seems like good repetitive practice :v: