Music Production

daveman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2010
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On the way to the Dark Tower.
Synthaholic, we're derailing the Members' Photos thread something awful.

I give you a lot of grief over politics -- and you return it -- but we do have something in common: We're both keyboardists. Well, I used to be, at any rate, but I'd like to get into writing and recording again. I don't know how much of your living you make off playing music, but I'm thinking you do make money at it, so that's cool (barbs about the Tiki Room notwithstanding -- and I'm not prying for personal details).

Before I joined the Air Force and sold all my gear, I had:

Roland RD-300S digital piano
Roland Jupiter-8 analog synth
Korg CX-3 organ
Roland SH-101 monophonic analog synth (in red!)
Roland D-10 digital synth
Roland S-10 sampler (with all the sample discs!)
Roland TR-808 drum machine
Roland MSQ-700 hardware sequencer
Peavey 12-channel mixer, CS 800 stereo power amp, and 15" Black Widow speaker cabinets
Invisible keyboard stands

I didn't use the drum machine or sequencer for performing with the band. We'd alter the songs we were playing on the fly too often to be chained to a sequence. We played classic and Southern rock, so I didn't really have to cover any parts I couldn't play with two hands.

I'd like to start recording again, but I can't justify the cost of that much hardware, or the room it'd take, so I want to go completely digital. I've been researching some DAWs, and downloaded DarkWind Studio for my laptop, which isn't very powerful, so I don't know how well it'll run DW. I picked up a Casio keyboard for $15 at a yard sale last year. It sounds awful, but I'll just be using it as a MIDI controller.

You mentioned the Korg app you run on your iPad. What other hardware and software do you use, if I may ask?
 
Yeah Synthaholic knows his stuff. We had a good discussion in a Keith Emerson thread I started a few weeks ago. I'm not a keyboardist but I've played piano my whole life. It's funny, if there is some common ground outside of politics, we find that we really aren't binary beings.
 
Yeah Synthaholic knows his stuff. We had a good discussion in a Keith Emerson thread I started a few weeks ago. I'm not a keyboardist but I've played piano my whole life. It's funny, if there is some common ground outside of politics, we find that we really aren't binary beings.
Well said, Mike.

Do you read music? I never learned; just played by ear, and guitar tab, if I had the sheet music.
 
Yeah Synthaholic knows his stuff. We had a good discussion in a Keith Emerson thread I started a few weeks ago. I'm not a keyboardist but I've played piano my whole life. It's funny, if there is some common ground outside of politics, we find that we really aren't binary beings.
Well said, Mike.

Do you read music? I never learned; just played by ear, and guitar tab, if I had the sheet music.
Yes, but I prefer to play by ear. It's more fun. I started teaching and I am teaching the kids to play by ear first and then bring them into the reading.
 
Yeah Synthaholic knows his stuff. We had a good discussion in a Keith Emerson thread I started a few weeks ago. I'm not a keyboardist but I've played piano my whole life. It's funny, if there is some common ground outside of politics, we find that we really aren't binary beings.
Well said, Mike.

Do you read music? I never learned; just played by ear, and guitar tab, if I had the sheet music.
Yes, but I prefer to play by ear. It's more fun. I started teaching and I am teaching the kids to play by ear first and then bring them into the reading.
That's cool.
 
Can I put in a plug for a website dedicated completely to original recordings and collaborations of Musicians all over the world?

It's a fee site but they really do appreciate donations.

"www.wikiloops.com"
 
Search for free vst plugins sites, many of those synths and Rolland bassline and drum machines have free downloads, many good fx unit plugins too. THEY are compatible with all of todays digital music making programs like
Acid Pro, Magix Music Maker, Fruity loops etc.
Someone has a blog on these, I never visited this link, it would not load for me, it just poped up in search while trying to find a program I used to use (Cubase) to recommend here.
The 200 Best Free VST Plugins Ever | LANDR Blog
 
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Search for free vst plugins sites, many of those synths and Rolland bassline and drum machines have free downloads, many good fx unit plugins too. THEY are compatible with all of todays digital music making programs like
Acid Pro, Magix Music Maker, Fruity loops etc.
Someone has a blog on these, I never visited this link, it would not load for me, it just poped up in search while trying to find a program I used to use (Cubase) to recommend here.
The 200 Best Free VST Plugins Ever | LANDR Blog
Awesome. I've found other plugin collections, but not this one. Thanks!
 
I was noodling around bending the words to me and mrs. Jones yesterday....was kind of fun.Not just for ear training but timing, rhythm ...I dig( :cool: )James Brown and all kinds of stuff like that.... TV show themes are fun to figure out too like the Munsters, Bonanza or whatever. Heavy metal happy birthday in E major is pretty good.... all the ways of string muting, where to put my left thumb when I'm moving up and down the frets.... always practicing everything. 3 note per string legatos., string skipping, economy picking....
 
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