[Music Production] Favorite gear?

[djDarkX]

So, this is to all the music artists out there.  What is your favorite gear for making music?  This can be anything from the sequencer that you use, VST/RTAS/DXI plugins, sampler libraries, etc.  How do you get into the feeling of what you're about to create?  Do you create on the fly, write out the music beforehand or do a mix of both?  Do you have a specialty in remixing, original sequences, covers, r(re)arrangements, remasters, 1:1 format conversions, etc.?  Share with your fellow artists and see what they have to say!  Perhaps it'll enlighten everyone a bit more.

So, I use three main sequencers: FL Studio, SONAR X2 and OpenMPT (very niche, but I grew up using this)

The one I use the most, however, is FL Studio for it's ease of use, audio engine (doesn't take over the whole of the Windows Audio Engine and mutes other programs) and it's effects mixer and bundled plugins (which some are REALLY good).  SONAR is for those times when I need to make extensive use of controllers since FL Studio has a habit of negating most of them or not using them properly.  OpenMPT is for when I want to start something from scratch and want to challenge myself.  It has VST support and single sample support in case I need it.  FL Studio, for the most part, gets the job done with a clean project format and a pretty small CPU and RAM footprint so that the samplers can use that for themselves.  Also seems to work very well with what I use, in terms of VST's.

For VSTs, I've found that I have an affinity for orchestral stuff, but also for electric guitars, acoustic drums and some synth.  I've found these to be rather delightful:

• IK Multimedia - Miroslav Philharmonik (not as articulated as other libraries, but it has it's appeal and can do some pretty neat stuff with the STRETCH engine it comes with)
• Native Instruments - Session Strings Pro (talk about control over strings made easy)
• ProjectSAM - Orchestral Essentials (I really only use the percussion from this as everything else is kinda muddy for me)
• ProjectSAM - Orchestral Brass Classic (when I can get it to behave, it's REALLY good for brass phrases and sections)
• EW/QL Silver/Gold Orchestra (Old, but it has patches that help me with various pieces.  PLAY Edition just has more mic positions, but the same samples)
• Garritan Personal Orchestra (I use this sparingly, but the Full Organ helps me a TON with certain pieces, as do the orchestral snares)
• Native Instruments - Battery 3 (I never updated, but this works for me still.  Some pretty good orchestral stuff as well as timpani rolls and crescendos)
• Impact Soundworks - Shreddage I/II (now THESE are my favorite electric guitar libraries)
• TheoK Yamaha Bass (this is pretty damn good and it's free)
• Toontrack - EZ Drummer (a VERY awesome library with kick ass expansions)

Other ones to mention are Synful Orchestra, EW/QL RA/Symphonic Choirs/Colossus (now GOLIATH), Vir2 Elite Orchestral Percussion/Virtual Drumline, Garritan Jazz, Native Instruments Abbey Road Modern Drums and Akai Advanced Orchestral Strings Vol 1.  I have others, but they hardly ever get used for anything or are too niche to mention.  I'm running all libraries out of a 2TB 7200RPM hard drive and it works pretty damn well for sample streaming (DFD).

What about you?  What do you recommend for others to use/try for their music?

 

[Blodeuyn]

I'm with you for FL Studio. I use FL Studio 11 (With Audacity to finalize looping). It's just.. so easy to use once you understand it's UI. It was a little daunting at first, but after I figured it out, it makes things easy-breezy.

As for Plugins, I use EastWest Quantum Leap, (Freaking amazing) for Orchestral, and some of FL's partnered plugins for synths. East West is so clean and beautiful, expensive though.. It's definitely not something for a beginner to use. It's not difficult to figure out, but requires a decent knowledge of Musical theory and some money. 

 

[hian]

Nice topic.

I too use FLstudio,mostly because it's very easy to use, is great for sampling, and because of how easy it's to program drum/beat patterns in it. It's my go to MIDI sequencer, and production tool in general.

For more ambitious projects I use Cubase though.

I use audacity for detail work on samples, as a part of the pre-production process I have before loading stuff into FL or Cubase, simply because I find it easier to work with, and because it doesn't strain my hardware that much.

Lately, I'm forced to work on a ****ty 1.6 Ghz single core laptop, so saving processor power is a real big deal.

(before anyone asks me how I do that - I make one element at a time, export it in wave, load it back in as a sample, and then start working on the next element. Rinse and repeat)

As for commercial VSTs, I too work with Miroslav Philharmonik. It's pretty much the best VST for orchestra instruments that sound good and is easy on the processor.

Spectrasonics - Trilogy Bass is another favorite of mine. It's by far the best bass plugin I've come across, and is essential if you like Jazz, or jazzy music.

XLN Audio - Addictive Drums also deserves a mention.

I also really like Ogun and sytrus which comes with FLstudio.

As for free VSTs :

All DSK plugins are great.

ARANAMI 1 and 2, and KURAU are great for some real tacky Japanese synth. If you want to get that authentic 80' and 90's Japanese anime and game music sound, these are absolute necessities.

Piano One is another favorite of mine, because it's by far the best free piano plugin and if you tweek the sound a it using some of the native plugins in FLstudio you can get a sound like no other, for a really low cost, both for your wallet and your CPU.

Finally, Itchy Synths is a keeper. This package of VSTs satisfy all needs for people who wish to make songs with elements common in most modern electronic music, whether we're talking modern pop, drum'n'bass, or dubstep.

Apart from that, I keep a really large sound-library with samples and sound-fonts.

Taiko drums are a personal favorite, ethnic drums and sounds, and Japanese Strings.

I also have an Eagle electric guitar, and a MIDI keyboard for recording purposes.

As for what music I produce - absolutely everything. I don't think there is a single genre I haven't tried to work with at some point. I work almost exclusively with original pieces though.

I rarely write out anything beforehand. I either just start with a tune i my head, or a tuned I hummed into a recorder at a moment of inspiration. When I'm not doing that, I'm shadow-tracking.

The one I keep coming back to is Jazz and Hip Hop. Other regulars are drum'n'bass, video-gamey piano pieces, and general soundtrack-ish music.

Naturally, as of late, I'm mostly busy with the soundtrack for the game I'm making.

If I had to pick one method of production that I think has worked for me the most in terms of becoming better at what I do, and a method I think is necessary for anyone who aspires to become good at music production, it's shadow-tracking.

Shadow-tracking is a technique used in the industry, which means picking out a track you like, and essentially doing a rewrite of it - that is to say, keep many of the same elements, tweak the original melody, and create a new track that while being very similar to the piece you picked, is also very different.

This is smart because it develops your ability to listen and deconstruct pieces, to separate out defining features of various genres, and to construct original pieces that fit thematically into a genre or feel.

It's also a good way to develop problem-solving skills and learning how to use your tools.

When you start to become good at producing high-quality pieces through shadow-tracking, you'll have a much easier time making your own completely original, well-composed work, because the basics that you base your productions on are derived from knowledge gained by analyzing and adopting the techniques of other producers who're probably light-years ahead of you in terms of knowledge and experience.

Two producers anyone should shadow-track in my opinion, are Uematsu Nobuo, and Kanno Yoko.

Uematsu Nobuo because his work is fairly simple in terms of composition, but extremely varied in terms of style, and extremely well-written in terms of melodic choice.

Kanno Yoko is great because, while similar to Uematsu in many respects, she has even more depth, has much more complex compositions, and is much truer to the genres she explores, meaning that her sound is much more authentic(if you heard a jazzy track of Uematsu, you'd never mistake it for actual jazz, while Kanno's Jazz is actually Jazz in every sense of the word).

I guess that's all I have to say for now.

Again, really great topic.

 

[Jonnie91]

Wow, my library is quite difference to yours, a few similarities but quite a few diferences: 

My DAW of choice is Sonar X3, which I recently upgraded too, I have got say I really prefer it over Reaper, but I do miss Reaper in some respects  

For VST's my favourite ones are as follows: 

Garritan Personal Orchestra: Certainly requires a lot more work to make it sound the way I want it to, but if you know what to do, you can make it sound pretty decent. Plus I love the piano

Alchemy:  As I write alot of ambient tracks I really do love Alchemy, I own the full version as well so I can have some of the custom libraries which aren't available direct from Camel Audio, but I love it!

Kontakt:  Yeah I have to be loving the Kontakt, some amazing stuff in there

Shavanni Vocal Library: A ghostly and etheral female soloist which can evoke so many different feelings. 

Soundiron's Percussion Ensemble Library, it is basically what I always use!

I also own a lot of Soundiron's other smaller libraries, and a few other bits ad bobs as well  

With regards to composing, I normally write ideas as I go, composing on the fly. I take an idea or a thought and just work with that, If i am writing for a my own pieces or I have a story that I've been told for the track, the track develops like a Story. I may not have the latested smexy samples but I don't do too bad a job! It's worked for me so far

 

[djDarkX]

It's great to see you all's input!  I forgot to mention that I use Adobe Audition 3 for looping/encoding to other formats and Kontakt as my sampler for the various libraries.  I almost never use the included standalone VST's for said libraries.  I just got my hands on Session Horns from NI and getting VSL: Complete (GIGA version) later today.  A friend of mine gives me stuff he doesn't use anymore or stuff he can snag for free due to his studio getting that stuff for cheap.
 

Blodeuyn, I assume you're using the PLAY Edition of EWQL?  I'm using an old version (both Silver & Gold) which has only close (Silver) and stage (Gold) rendered samples.  Although, even in the close mic setting, it's actually just the stage, but cut off to sound like it's close.  I found a more beautiful sound from other libraries such as Session Strings for....well strings, GPO or Miroslav for Woodwinds, Miro for brass, piano and harp and various other things.  EWQL Gold/Silver offer me a nice orchestral percussion (solo and ensemble snares mostly) that others can't get me without building a small section of them from scratch.  That's not to say I hate EWQL, but it's not currently my first choice and manipulation of the samples I have is not exactly an easy task.

Jonnie, I might have a look into that percussion library you mentioned.  I'll ask my friend if he has it if I can find some samples to listen to.  Thanks for the info and even the smallest samplers and libraries can build you a sizable collection to work with.  Glad you don't let it hold you back.

hian, oh man, having to work with a 1.6Ghz single core must be a pain.  Last time I worked with a processor like that, I was still just using soundfonts solely. lol

It's great to hear your process for working on music and I'm glad you could share your insight and plugins as well.  So, anyone else wanna share their insights, their methods and/or libraries?

 

[Blodeuyn]

Haha, I'm using an older copy of Gold. I plan on buying their big Pro pack 2 soon, so I can expand my library.

 

[Jonnie91]

Jonnie, I might have a look into that percussion library you mentioned.  I'll ask my friend if he has it if I can find some samples to listen to.  Thanks for the info and even the smallest samplers and libraries can build you a sizable collection to work with.  Glad you don't let it hold you back.

Here you go!  

 

[hian]

Well, at least I'm running windows xp, so it really works more or less like a vista or later Windows on a 2gig processor.

The problem only really matters in the sense that I can only run one vst at the time, and that some features load slowly. I'm way past the point where I actually need several vsts to run simultaneously in order to figure out where I'm going with a piece, so while making a piece track by track, instrument by instrument, is a pain in the ass in terms of time wasted, it doesn't impede the quality of the composition.

It does limit the quality of the vsts I can run though. I'm looking forward to having my main computer back up and running so I can start pulling out some of my heavy-duty vsts again.

 

[ThatMaestroGuy]

Ah, how interesting it is to see what everyone uses!

I've been using a version of FL Studio since 2006. I've upgraded through the years. I'm currently using FL Studio 2010. As far as VSTs go, I only use Kontakt 5. I've been wanting to upgrade to Komplete or a version of East-West, but that will happen later. I also use Finale and have upgraded through the years, as well. Currently using Finale 2011.

I've been making music for just about as long as I can remember. I never had a formal education with any form of composition until college. I think it shows. Until then, I just did what I thought sounded good. There was a time when I would hop onto FL Studio or Finale, throw in some random instruments/samples, and make stuff from there, but again, it definitely showed. I went back to just jamming and/or humming stuff and haven't gone back.

One of my most important tools, now, is my smartphone. With a voice recorder readily available to me, I can be sure that whenever a motif pops into mind (which is almost constantly), I won't lose it...a past horror for me.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I'm fairly low tech. I do not have a lot of money so most of what I use is free. I do use Finale, which I bought on student discount ages ago and since then get the upgrade every few years for the relatively low price of about $99 (when they have their sale). The Garritan VSTs are definitely nice while writing in Finale but I rarely use them in finished products. I do not even want to begin to think of how using Kontakt or East West would go over for me. They sound amazing but I guess I do not know enough about these libraries to make an educated opinion of how useful they would be for me. Do they work like normal VSTs? I'm very much into Finale's interface. I click the staff, there is a note, it makes a noise. Awesome. Add all my markings. Cool. 

I export my midi from Finale and open it up in LMMS which is a Linux Freeware that has a lot of similarities to FL Studio. I've never used FL Studio so I'm unsure how they truly compare but you can do a lot in LMMS like apply SF2s, VSTs, edit notes, use midi controllers (which I don't have the faintest clue), add beats, effects, ect. That whole deal. I like it! I'm still learning a ton about it but I learn my programs but clicking things and seeing what it does.

As for my fonts. I mostly am using various SF2s I found on sf2midi.com, DSK (I can use their whole library in SF2 after making a $25 donation), and Sontiana. 

I use Audacity to polish things off.

My gear doesn't make the most epic, orchestral, human sounding music but I think that kind of music would be a bit too intense for the cute chubby sprites in RPG Maker. My music ends up a bit Nintendo DS sounding and for the context I'm working in I like it!

As far as my process I'm very organic and unstructured. I rarely write from the beginning of the song, if that makes any sense. I'll jump around the piece and close off the loose ends when I get there. I can usually sit down, open up, and just start writing. I rarely get writer's block but I do get caught up doing other things. A lot of times I become possessed by the song I'm writing. Can't do anything but think about it. I'll replay the measures I'm writing and conduct them to myself like a mad woman.

I started classically training when I was 12 but I can assure I've always been interested in music. I had quite the collection of toy instruments. I remember I was 5 and had a toy xylophone that had an entire octave. It was Christmas time and I would sit there singing carols to myself and find the notes on this toy and play them back. That year I got one of those light up keyboards. Best. Christmas. Ever.

I don't have a music education. Have a degree in horticulture. Never took a theory class. My eyes can go pretty wide when people start dropping some intense music lingo, actually. It's strange. Music is about hearing. But, I'm a visual leaner. Rather then dropping some jargon, if you doodle it on a staff first to show me, that's when it clicks with me.

 

[moon]

Reason 4 and a generic 49 key USB MIDI controller to make writing a little easier. 

I am a dinosaur.

Oh and I have an old battered piano downstairs that I bought off ebay for £20 (yep, twenty, and it wasn't even super-terribly out of tune) a few years ago, I write stuff on that sometimes too and then take the idea to the PC later.  Self taught at playing so almost everything I ever do write when I make music (which is rarely) ends up being somehow related to what I can do with my hands irl anyway (and ends up sounding samey so I end up scrapping it).
 

 

[djDarkX]

Ms Littlefish, I can completely see where you're coming from.  Personally, I think that's GREAT!  Music is both audible and visual (in a sense), but if that's how you make music work for you, then you're doing it right.  Also, even with limited stuff, you can make some kick ass music.  I have some old works that I found were pretty good at the time.  Now that I have some new toys, I made excellent use of them.  Now, Kontakt is actually a sampler rather than a library, which means it plays sampler libraries like EastWest (older versions), Garritan (again, older versions), Session Strings, CinePerc/Brass/Strings/etc., and various others.  Another example of a sampler would be SampleTank, the free ARIA Player, sforzando, sfz and others like them.  You use them to load sampler libraries into and then play back the samples corresponding to each MIDI Channel with notes.  Also, those samplers are VSTs that can be loaded up, have various MIDI channels assigned to the various instrument patches that are loaded into them and so on and so on.

As for sf2midi, I remember that site WAY back in like...2004?  Wow, has it really been that long?  I used to submit stuff there as "djdarkx" and some of it can still be found there.  Some of it.  Soundfonts are a great way to get introduced to how samplers work.  It's how I started before going to samplers, but before that, I was doing module music, which is even more retro.  Think MIDI with single samples on monophonic channels, but you can have up to 64 channels (128 using the Impulse Tracker format) to work with, unlike the more limited 16 channels with MIDI, but MIDI is polyphonic, so it's easier to organize your music.

moon, hey now.  I have an m-audio Radium49 for testing notes, audio and various other things.  I never really got to try Reason, but I hear it's good, however not what I need at the moment.  It's great that you are self-taught.  That can be really tough, but glad it worked out for you.

I personally don't compose my own pieces because I'm not very good at it, even though I was a pretty kick ass violinist in junior high and high school and I could easily bust out a tune, but I admire those who can do what I can not. lol

 

[Ms Littlefish]

As for sf2midi, I remember that site WAY back in like...2004?  Wow, has it really been that long?  I used to submit stuff there as "djdarkx" and some of it can still be found there.  Some of it.  Soundfonts are a great way to get introduced to how samplers work.  It's how I started before going to samplers, but before that, I was doing module music, which is even more retro.  Think MIDI with single samples on monophonic channels, but you can have up to 64 channels (128 using the Impulse Tracker format) to work with, unlike the more limited 16 channels with MIDI, but MIDI is polyphonic, so it's easier to organize your music.

A lot of the sounds on sf2midi are still pretty solid but you really do have to go look for them. If someone is just starting out using fonts (like I was) then it really is a great resource. Since using DSK and Sontiana I use less of the fonts I got there but a few of the things I've found there are still the best I have. I have a few samples actually. Kontakt has a few free things and I checked it out when I was trying to figure out what that was all about. I can somewhat see how it works but I think my computer is a weenie and my LMMS crashes when I load more than a few presets. I think I need a new rig and maybe even FL Studio if I want to really get into it. Which, I do. I just don't want to bite the bullet until I'm positive I can fully utilize it. The thing I'm mostly struggling with is getting the same level of dynamic and expression variation I get in Finale's click, click, click interface. My perfect program would sound like East West or Kontakt but I could hand enter all the notes and markings like in Finale. Come on technology, make it happen.

 

[moon]

moon, hey now.  I have an m-audio Radium49 for testing notes, audio and various other things.  I never really got to try Reason, but I hear it's good, however not what I need at the moment.  It's great that you are self-taught.  That can be really tough, but glad it worked out for you.

I personally don't compose my own pieces because I'm not very good at it, even though I was a pretty kick ass violinist in junior high and high school and I could easily bust out a tune, but I admire those who can do what I can not. lol

Haha, nobody in the RM community uses Reason, there are probably logical reasons (ie, no native VST support) ._.

Thanks, but just because I'm self-taught doesn't mean I'm necessarily any good :V - what I'll tend to do when writing is expend all my "creative energy" during the idea generation/improvisation stage and then get bored and not wanna make a proper song. So lately I've taken to just recording my improvisations and then listening back to them with the eventual aim of taking sections and elaborating them into proper songs. Although sometimes when I'm feeling lazy I'll just live play a section into a track because it's quicker than figuring it all out with the pen tool etc (provided the section isn't impossibly tricky to get right live). 

These days when I play the piano I mostly just make stuff up on the spot rather than learn and play existing songs (although I do know a few bits and pieces)  - I really learned so that I could write stuff rather than play existing stuff, that helped a lot with writing things (aside from the falling-into-same-y-ness problem that comes with habit and muscle memory). Piano/keyboard is certainly good for learning if you do wanna write because you do both the chord/harmony and melody sections simultaneously which essentially gives you the bones of a song if you wanna compose something. I found that once you're really familiar with how chords function within a key you can pretty much just make stuff up ad infinitum, sorta ._.

At times it's actually kinda restricting to the sense of creativity once you realize there are only so many places a tune can logically/intuitively go without breaking into atonality or dissonance - but obviously it depends on what you're going for in the first place.

 

[TheBrogrammer]

I currently use Apple's Logic Pro X with a USB midi keyboard.  It's not too much, but it gets the job done.  I also use an Apogee JAM for my guitar recordings.  Occasionally, if I need a real acoustic guitar, I pull out the ol' six string, and record using a Blue Yeti Pro. 

The electric guitars I use:

Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster

Epiphone Les Paul Jr.  with Lindy Fralin boutique P90 (I think.  Got the guitar used, and it sounds similar.)

 

[djDarkX]

Thanks to my friend, I was able to get my hands on some other stuff.  He just gave me some Cinesample stuff beyond brass (Strings Core, Brass Pro, Perc Core/Pro), Albion (he got some of that for free) and some old Roland stuff he had laying around.  Even gave me some free libraries he had laying around..but they are aren't my style.  Stuff that uses loops and stuff is just not my kinda thing.  Still, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

moon, I get what you're saying.  Still, being self-taught, at least, helps you in many various ways.  Good on ya!

Brogrammer, I think that's really awesome.  Being able to play a guitar is not easy for a guy like me that grew up learning the violin, but I'll learn it eventually.  Also, great tools you're using, especially for recording live performances of an instrument.

 

[Mouser]

Without a doubt this.

I've been using it for about ten years now and it just keeps getting better and better

 

[Quigon]

FL Studio mostly, sometimes I'll switch over to Sonar but FL gets me by pretty easy. I've been using that for years so I'm pretty familiar with it, Sonar, not so much. Getting to grips with it though. I'll usually touch up/make adjustments to tracks in Audacity after mixing them down too. That was the process I always used in school - though we used ProTools - but we'd always export into Audacity afterwards (usually just to bring the volumes down mind you).

As for VSTs...man. I used EWQL for a good few years but very recently have I made the switch to Albion 1 & Loegria - they far, far, far outshine EW in my opinion. Though there aren't as many patches as compared to EW, the sheer quality and manipulability of them are just fantastic. And sound. They sound pretty damn great. I haven't touched an EW instrument other than the Various Metals patch since buying them.

Another one I use a whole bunch now is Omnisphere - now THAT is a synth. I keep finding new things almost every day with it. It's almost frickin' overkill when it comes to just how much you can manipulate the sounds from it, and the default samples are pretty fantastic on their own. I used Alchemy for that sort of stuff beforehand, but again upgraded, and haven't looked back.

Piano for me was Alicia's Keys for a while, but when I went on my big upgrade I switched to Imperfect Samples' Fazioli Ebony Grand. Very nice mic options and sound there.

And then there're just lots of other random ones I have kicking about. You can never really go wrong with having a ton of VSTs in your arsenal. One of my all time favourites is 8dio's Bazantar - it's a very unique sounding bassy instrument that I use in most of my compositions now.

 

[djDarkX]

Nice of you to join us here Quigon.  Great to hear your setup.  I actually just got, recently, Alicia's Keys, 8Dio Adagio Violins and Albion I-III.  I actually like CineStrings as well as Session Strings Pro since they give some pretty awesome legato phrasing and very easy to do as well.  Plus they sound better than EWQL Symphonic Orchestra.  I have some SampleTank stuff as well, but a lot of it is teh suck, unless you use the bass guitars and synths/pads/leads.  Only ST stuff that's good is Miroslav Philharmonik's Strings, Brass and Woodwinds.  The percussion is alright, albeit a bit lacking in quality and the choirs sound fake, but I know they aren't.  Mind you, Solo Violin with STRETCH is great.  Examples:

https://soundcloud.com/djdarkx/rpg-maker-xp-castle-1-v2

https://soundcloud.com/division_heaven/fairy-forest (I actually worked on this, but didn't put it on my SoundCloud for reasons.  Also, start listening at 1:42 to hear the legato phrases)

Although, the legato is a bit too sharp on the treble on the tail ends in the Fairy Forest piece, but I fixed that in XP's Castle 1.  It's due to the way the harmonics were played in that piece.  Still, it's pretty good regardless.  Also, I'll ask my friend if he has that Fazioli piano available to give to me.  If not, I'll stick with Alicia's Keys until he has one. lol

 

[nio kasgami]

well i don't use typical software for make music but for do some music sheet for my violon I use notegflight for produce my  sheet after i printed him for play on my violon~