Musicians' thread.

copacetic said:
Yeah, loops are the other issue, of course. I am totally resistant to using loops of any sort, at all, but the bugger of it is that I am simply not too adept at making cool drum beats. It is so frustrating, I have this tremendous urge to make music, but seem to lack the technical skills/creativity. Ugh!

*edit*

That being said, I've has some success, but it seemed more like a lucky stumble than a planned effort at the time.
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Well you gotta practice - it's not going to just magically happen - you need to practice programming beats, practice your instrument, practice practice practice! aaaarghh!!
 
Ixa said:
What genres are you all into?
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Continuously changing but I'd say I'm prone to hip-hop with some rock, dance, classical...but now a days I find myself making (don't know if it's a specific genre) but music orchestrated to games, tv shows, maybe something I read
 
nihilist said:
That's the amp I'm probably going to buy next year, I'm quite impressed with the sound I've heard people getting out of it, nice vids on Youtube.

I own a Cort KX-OTIC-FA elec guitar, nice sound, long sustain and with the one tone switch pulled up you get a nice sorta strat hollow-y kinda sound.

I'm useless at guitar but trying to get back into learning, sucks doing it on your own and not being able to afford lessons.
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Let me state my opinion about roland amps - they're well made, but they have no real character and sound rather bland .. rather go for a low watt tube amp from laney or fender.. or even vox
take a look at the laney cub range, fender champ, etc.
 
assagai said:
Let me state my opinion about roland amps - they're well made, but they have no real character and sound rather bland .. rather go for a low watt tube amp from laney or fender.. or even vox
take a look at the laney cub range, fender champ, etc.
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Got a link to a local online store? I mostly only know Soundz.co.za to be of good standing and don't see 'em there. jamming
 
nihilist said:
Got a link to a local online store? I mostly only know Soundz.co.za to be of good standing and don't see 'em there. jamming
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hard to get prices locally onine - but check out the amps on youtube and manufactuer sites - if you want prices I can get 'em - I'm not a reseller or anything but I know where to find stuff.
 
assagai said:
hard to get prices locally onine - but check out the amps on youtube and manufactuer sites - if you want prices I can get 'em - I'm not a reseller or anything but I know where to find stuff.
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Ta, my budget is only about R2.5k but I"ll hav ea looksee, it will prob only be around April next year, so plenty of time to research, thanks for the tip!
 
nihilist said:
Ta, my budget is only about R2.5k but I"ll hav ea looksee, it will prob only be around April next year, so plenty of time to research, thanks for the tip!
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cool, also checkout gumtree and junkmail.. lotsa decent 2nd hand amps at good prices these days.
 
assagai said:
cool, also checkout gumtree and junkmail.. lotsa decent 2nd hand amps at good prices these days.
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Been burnt too often buying second hand, I only do that from people who know their hardware or from friends. Unless it's going very cheap :) I'd rather pay more and get some form of a warranty. But I'll have a look.
 
nihilist said:
Been burnt too often buying second hand, I only do that from people who know their hardware or from friends. Unless it's going very cheap :) I'd rather pay more and get some form of a warranty. But I'll have a look.
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I've seen some real bargains lately.. if it's a usa, japanese or british made amp you're good - wouldn't buy any 2nd hand new chinese vox for example.
 
I am a fan of amp emulation. I know it's not going to sound anywhere as lush and creamy as the real thing but I feel that in the context of a mix, not many people are going to notice anything untoward. The sheer variety of sound you can get, makes up for the lack in quality imho.
 
copacetic said:
I am a fan of amp emulation. I know it's not going to sound anywhere as lush and creamy as the real thing but I feel that in the context of a mix, not many people are going to notice anything untoward. The sheer variety of sound you can get, makes up for the lack in quality imho.
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Now there's a whole 'nother can o' worms.. emulation is an art-form unto itself.. there are lots of tricks and secrets to getting it to sound good. My amp sim channel strip is enough to make a grown man (self included) weep.

what amp sim software do you use copa?
 
Ixa said:
Dig you're work very cool bro.
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Thanks.

On the talking of using loops as to why it's done, but when you watch commercials must of the music are just loops. I remember some years back a popular producer at the time made a track for a singer using nothing but GarageBand loops without changing the way they even sound, it was quite controversial since you have someone who probably charges $50K for a song and you could've gotten the same song from someone just sitting infront of a computer.

Sidenote: When I started producing (err 2003), I started with eJay which all my songs where just loops (except for the odd one out), but I can say that I took from eJay the knowledge on how to put a song together
 
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Well you only have to hear the quality of Guitar Rig with well crafted patches to rule out any "emulation is silly" debates, sure it's not the real thing but I've heard some stellar results from it, even softsynths driven through it are stunning. I'm not a purist in any way, I love the concept of plugging whatever into whatever and getting cool new sounds.

The great thing about technology today is that Joe Average can have a quality studio only dreamed of by people a few decades ago in their bedroom.
 
assagai said:
Now there's a whole 'nother can o' worms.. emulation is an art-form unto itself.. there are lots of tricks and secrets to getting it to sound good. My amp sim channel strip is enough to make a grown man (self included) weep.

what amp sim software do you use copa?
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None at the moment, on account of having sold my guitar some time ago, but I have tried out the two main contenders, Amplitube and Guitar Rig. I like Guitar Rig, to be honest. I've also had a Boss GT-8, which I also sold, which I used in conjunction with this:

Harmonic Converger.

Did a stellar job of (magically) dealing with odd-harmonics and ridding the amp sims of digital fizz. I'd be quite interested how it might work with emulation software.
 
I use loops, but not for main parts, I'll often use a raw drum loop as a filler, faded into the background to add a bit of 'space' to a track, it's very subtle, I also usually add FX and cut it up to 'hide' it. I never use loops of actual isntruments or pre-recorded melodies. Not because I think it's wrong, many do it skillfully and create art of their own, it's just not in my genre, so to speak.
 
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