Oct 012014
 

Paying full price is for Suckers.

Ouch, that’s harsh, isn’t it? But it’s true. When it comes to music production software and hardware, just about everything software (and some hardware) goes on sale 2-3 times a year.

There are a few products that never go on sale, but those products are a minority. A small one, at that. The perpetual sale nature of the software industry makes me question what the real value of any of this is.

It used to be that gear would go on sale once or twice a year. Now, every month there’s a huge list of companies making desperate offers to get you to buy their stuff. So, if there’s always a sale on, is there really a best time of the year to shop? Yes, there still is.

When? Around Black Friday, right after US Thanksgiving. (Check before, just in case.) As an example, I bought Native Instruments’ Komplete 9 Ultimate, which usually goes for $1100, for $575 last Thanksgiving. And I bought a few other things at very steep discounts (like SynthMaster), because I am what? Cheap! (Well, cheap but impulsive when I see a really good deal for good software.)

Komplete 9 was on sale one more time after that, and that was this past summer, but the deal wasn’t as good as it was last Thanksgiving. Same for Synthmaster. It’s been on sale, but not as cheap as it was then.

Black Friday is a great time to gear up a new studio, but sometimes companies have once-a-year deals that are outside of that time, so it pays to keep an eye on things year round.

I have a few places I check on a semi-regular basis:

  • On the front page of KVR Audio (or just follow them on Twitter), check the What’s New feed, and click on Deals.
  • Or go to Rekkerd.org’s Deals page.
  • Also, look at Rekkerd’s “Deals Archive.” That’s amazingly useful for bargain hunters like us, because companies tend to repeat the same offers at fixed intervals. (Some are regular like clockwork!)

If something has just come off of a deal, then you’re going to have to wait a while for it to come on deal again. (Unless it’s a Waves Audio plugin. I swear, they have everything on sale all the time, or so it seems. In fact, Waves has sales every weekend.)

You can also get some crazy deals at plugin resellers. The two I use the most are:

Both are totally legit, but you may have to wait a day or two to get your license codes. Plugin Discounts tends to have bigger savings, but Plugin Boutique will give you cash back in the form of a credit, which you can apply to your next purchase. Shop around!

As an example: iZotope makes StutterEdit, which is a great glitch plugin. It retails for $249. It just came off of a sale at $99 on the iZotope website, but I found it on Plugin Discounts for $88.

$88 for a $249 plugin? Yeah, I can do that.

When you do decide to start buying plugins, please go slowly. Don’t go broke buying tons of them. Buy smartly. And when you see a synth or plugin you like, make a note of it, and wait for it to come on sale. Most will, eventually.

A Few Closing Thoughts

First, when you go to pick out a DAW, make sure of a few things: does it use VSTs, or does it have its own plugin format? (Reason and ProTools use their own formats for plugins.) If you want to go cheap, stick with DAWs that use VST for now. It’s not an ideal solution, but it offers the biggest variety and the most potential cheapness.

You can hook up a VST to Reason through a VST host application, but it’s one of those things that’s kind of a kludge, and I don’t know that it’s worth the trouble. Rewire Reason into your main DAW instead.

Most VST makers will let you sell your plugins to other people. (License transfers.) Reason does not let users transfer Rack Extension licenses. You can transfer the Reason license, but not the RE license. If that’s a deal-breaker for you, keep it in mind. Read those EULAs! Rack Extensions are pretty cool from a tech point of view, and they make Reason really useful, but it’s a walled garden.

Some DAWs, like Studio One Artist edition, won’t allow the use of external plugins. Whoops! Gotta buy a more expensive version there! Studio One is a good DAW, but read the fine print. Same goes for the Studio One Vocaloid Edition. It only lets you use the Piapro Studio plugin. The rest are all Studio One only. If you don’t mind that, Studio One is an excellent starter DAW you can usually get for around $80-$90, and the full version is around $200-$300.

If you want to use Nerve and Serum in your music, you better make sure they’ll run in your DAW first! Read the developer’s website, and check for compatibility! Some plugins just don’t work with some DAWs, and you won’t know until you pay and suffer.

When it comes to copy protection, there are a few different ways companies do it– the worst in my opinion are the USB dongles, because they ruin your ability to go portable. How can I hook up gear if I have a dongle in every USB port? iLok and eLicenser are the more egregious ones. I can’t run Cubase without a dongle, so I tend to run Ableton more often. Native Instruments and Ableton both have very good copy protection, in that it’s not aggressively annoying.

It’s sad, but I tend to avoid perfectly good software if it uses iLok or eLicenser. I hate being shunted off into that kind of copy protection, especially when I’m a paying customer. (Even if I am cheap.)

This leads me to my final advice: learn how to program! I mentioned it briefly in part two, but making your own gear in Reaktor, Max For Live, Bidule, or C++ is a great way to save a ton of cash. It’s also a great way to learn more about audio and how those sounds are made.

Stay cheap, do your homework, and don’t forget to make some kickass music!

The Cheap Guide to Making Music, Part 2: Free/Cheap Synths, Effects, Sounds!

 Education, Music  Comments Off on The Cheap Guide to Making Music, Part 2: Free/Cheap Synths, Effects, Sounds!
Sep 252014
 

We have our DAW and maybe some gear. One perfectly valid strategy is to simply use the included plugins in your DAW of choice. If you’re using Reaper, then it has all you need to learn with for now. Master that stuff, and come back here when you’re bored with it. Whenever that is.

If you want some external synths and effects, please go easy! It’s really tempting to get a bunch of synths, thinking, “I AM POWERFUL! SEE MY SYNTH ARMY AND WEEP!”

But the only one doing the weeping will be you. Because you won’t know which freakin’ synth to use. You may even forget which ones you have.

Get one plug-in or synth at a time, learn it, know it in and out, then it’s okay to get the next one, if you need it.

Some of the best artists limit their choices to free up their creativity. “I’m only going to paint with blue.” “I’m only going to draw dudes bowling.” “I’m only going to write angry songs about my ex.” In your case, how about, “I’m only going to use one synth?” Try to stick to that for at least a month.

Here are a few good starter synths, and they’re all free:

Get a Few Free Effects

What goes for synths goes double for effects. Go easy on the effects, because there are even more effects out there than synths. How many reverbs is enough? One, maybe two for now. Same goes for compressors, limiters, gates, and EQ. If what you’re trying to learn isn’t in the effect you’re using, then by all means, keep looking, but know when to stop and go back to making music.

So, here are some good sources for free plugin effects:

  • GVST has a ton of free effects plugins. (They have synths, too.) Their effects plugins are great for learning the basics, because they don’t fill up your screen with a lot of crap. They don’t necessarily sound the best, but they’ll do the job for now.
  • The KVR Developer Challenge is where devs go all out, make free plugins, and fight for prizes. It’s a great way to look for something new/free/cool.
  • Also, check out KVR’s list of the most popular plugins, and check out the Free category.
  • Also check out their Free News category, for the latest on free plugins.
  • Xfer Records has a page full of free effects to play with.
  • Limiter No. 6 is awesome, too. Download here.
  • George Yohng’s W1 Limiter is a nice Waves L1-style limiter for free.
  • Tokyo Dawn Records has some really good free effects, and some you can buy.
  • Voxengo has a nice selection offree effects plugins.
  • Audio Damage’s Rough Rider is a great free creative compressor. It adds a lot of squash, dirt, and crunch to sounds. It’s really good on percussion sounds you don’t like.
  • Luftikus is an awesome free equalizer that’s similar to the Maag EQ (download). It even has an “Air Band,” which will make everything sound like it was made at 11.
  • The Klanghelm IVGI Saturation and Distortion plugin adds some warmth and grit.
  • Sound on Sound has a list of their favorite free plugins, too.
  • Drummic’a from Sennheiser, available only from their German Site, is an incredible drum library. It comes with the free version of the Kontakt player. Grab a buddy who can sprechen Deutsch, and go at it. You’ll need to register with the site, activate it by email, then use the code for activating the sounds. It comes as a Kontakt library, but it’s awesome. And it’s free! We like free! (And it’s by Sennheiser, who make great mics!)

I’ll add more as I find them. There’s a staggering number of good free plugins out there.

Or, if you own Native Instruments’ Reaktor, Max For Live, or Plogue’s Bidule, you can make your own Synths and plugins, and save a ton of money. (Minus the cost of the programming environment, of course!)

Samples, Patches, and Instruments

This is a short section, because it links to some massive content. (Pun intended.)

This Reddit thread that contains an insane amount of drum samples and Massive patches should tide you over for a while. It’s useful more for the drum samples than the Massive patches, because we’re cheap here.

Here’s another Reddit thread on readers’ favorite free VST instruments.

Pay a Little, Get a Lot: Computer Music and DTM.

I recommend Computer Music magazine, specifically it’s 200th issue, because it comes with some great stuff, like the full edition of Cakewalk’s Rapture synth. Get the electronic version of the magazine through iTunes or Google Play, set up your username/password, and go download a bunch of free plugins. (If you use Google Play, when you go to download, tell them you got the magazine off Zinio. It works that way. There’s no drop-down for Google.)

One note about Rapture. Yes, it’s the full synth, but read the license carefully: it says no commercial use on the synth. So… yeah. Use it as a practice synth, then go buy the real thing, I guess.

A few of the included plugins are full versions, but most of these are “CM” versions of commercial plugins, which means that they’re functional, but kind of stripped down in a few places, because it’s hard to make a living off of free, and they really want you to go out any buy the full version.

It’s a great way to play with an unlimited demos. SynthMaster CM is essentially a “lite” version of SynthMaster you can play with as long as you want. (SynthMaster is one of my favorites, but not free. It goes on sale once or twice a year, though!)

It’s also a good place to get some free samples, because each issue comes with free samples. Buy a few issues, and you could build up a seriously crazy sample library.

Computer Music (CM) is also great for reviews. They’ll tell you if something sucks, so you’ll save money. (So will the posters at Gearslutz. In fact, they’ll tell you a lot of things suck. If they all say something is good, then it’s probably godly good.)

CM also has a ton of tutorials that come with each issue. Not to sound like a shill, but for a few bucks a month, it’s a great deal.

If you don’t care about Rapture, then just get the latest issue of CM, and you can still get some sweet gear for “free.” Well, minus what you paid for it. I think it’s like $5 an issue, or $40 a year. Your money, your call.

If you’re into the Japanese music scene, can speak the language, and can spare the money, try to hunt down DTM magazine. They also have a lot of tutorials, reviews, and free plugins. But it’s paper only, each issue is around 1500 yen, and that doesn’t even include the shipping, which can get ridiculous. (And I did say it’s in Japanese!) Cheap-ish if you live in Japan or near a Japanese bookstore, though!

Spend $130 to Never Buy Patches Again!

Now that we’re spending a little money, I’ll recommend one other thing I know, and that’s Syntorial. It will save you a stupid amount of money on patches, because you will learn how to make your own damn patches. (As you should do, anyway!)

It’s a program that teaches you how to use a synth, one knob at a time. Then it teaches you how to use your ears to figure out how sounds are constructed. It’s brilliant.

You watch a short video, then do exercises, watch more videos, do more exercises. You can quit whenever you want, but it gets addicting.

In my next (and last) post on this, I’ll give you my “How to buy plugins like a cheap badass” advice.

The Cheap Guide to Making Music, Part 1: Get a DAW!

 Education, Music  Comments Off on The Cheap Guide to Making Music, Part 1: Get a DAW!
Sep 222014
 

To make music these days, you need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation.) There are dozens of different programs that will do the trick, and most of them have horrifyingly high price tags. So to save yourself from the ultimate beginner misake, which is, “Oh my god, I bought this DAW, it cost $700, and I hate it more than doing my taxes,” let’s look at this rationally.

Getting a DAW from my point of view is a process where you’re going to first learn how to use a DAW, and then go shopping for the DAW you’ll be using for the next few years.

How do you learn how to use a DAW without a DAW? Easy. Get a starter DAW. Use it to learn what the basics of music production, then you can shop for a DAW intelligently.

There’s no better starter DAW than Reaper. (Or any DAW that comes bundled for free with software you buy, I guess, but I’m going to assume you’re not buying anything, because this is for Cheap People.)

So why Reaper?

Because Reaper has an extremely generous demo. You get a 60-day full working demo. After that, if you keep using it, you should pay the $60 for the amateur license. (Because nobody likes leeches.)

Download the 32-bit version for now.

Why 32-bit? Because you can run all the plugins that way. Not all plugins are available in 64-bit versions yet, and some older plugins will never be available in 64-bit, due to their age, or because the developer doesn’t want to re-code them. You’ll only need to go 64-bit when you start making monstrously huge tracks. Until then, 32-bit is fine, and yes, 32-bit Reaper will run in your 64-bit OS.

Seriously, Reaper will even run on OS X versions 10.4-10.5 on PPC macs. It’s amazingly flexible.

Now go learn the basics of Reaper. Try Tutorials for Reaper’s YouTube Channel for starters. Or just do a search on YouTube. (This is the cheap guide, after all.) If you happen to have a subscription to Ask Video/MacProVideo.com, they have good tutorials on Reaper, and a ton of other stuff, but it costs money, and this is the Cheap Guide.

You can also read the fine manual.

What About Hardware?

Ah, you need a keyboard, monitors, and a USB audio interface, right? Well, maybe.

Since you’re just starting out, and maybe you’re just seeing if it’s interesting to you, I’d say hold off for a bit. This is a hobby that can get really expensive, fast.

A new crappy MIDI keyboard, runs $100. (Good ones can go over $1,000.) A USB audio interface runs $150 for a cheap one, and a cheap pair of monitor speakers starts at $100, and $100 monitors really suck. Really, really suck.

If you have to get anything, then I’d say it’s okay to a MIDI keyboard, but hold off on the other stuff, unless you need to record live instruments… in which case, why are you going cheap???? Read some other guide.

Cheap MIDI keyboards are all the same, with sloppy action, few controls, and a general cheapness that means they won’t last long. M-Audio makes a good generic crappy MIDI keyboard. If it’s like my old M-Audio keyboard, it’ll mysteriously die after a year or two. Not even my pencil could save it.

For a USB interface, I like my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. It’s a stupid-cheap USB audio interface. It’s not the sexiest or fastest, but it gets the job done for me. I use it with some KRK-6 monitors I got on sale. They’re not great, but they’re good enough. But even those cost around $350 on sale.

At any rate, we’re not aiming to release a record right off the bat, so it’s okay if your gear is on the OEM janky side for now. Improve it as your budget allows.

My Two Iron Rules of Music Production

Before you go shopping, keep these two rules in mind. They will save you a lot of cash, and a lot of headaches down the road.

Rule One: If you can, demo the hell out of everything before you buy it. If you can’t demo it, make sure there’s a good return policy. (At least a month.) If anything feels off or uncomfortable, don’t buy it/return it. That slight discomfort in the keybed you feel? That isn’t ever going away.

Rule Two: Ignore the hype and look at the product carefully. Every single product out there has a slick marketing video with professionally made sample tracks alongside it. Don’t get suckered in. That guy making sweet music with the cool box of lights or whatever random VST? Yeah, he’s a pro. He’s got years of experience, and he probably spent at least a few weeks working with the product in question, and knows it way, way better than you do. Take the hype and dial it down a notch.

I’m not saying some of this stuff isn’t awesome– some of it is! But it’s like a great pair of size 9 yellow shoes. If you’re a size 9, and like yellow, then hot dog! This is for you! But not all of us are size 9, like yellow, or even need another pair of shoes.

So do your research and buy gear carefully, or just do it later, when you have a better idea of what you’re doing. (I recommend the latter, but I understand the former.)

Next, we’ll start looking at free synths and effects plugins! Yay, finally!

Miku 3.0 Bundle

 Japan, Japanese Language, Music, Technology  Comments Off on Miku 3.0 Bundle
Sep 192013
 

Crypton Future Media, who makes the popular Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, announced an English version earlier this year, and also announced a bundle of the English version with new versions of the older voice banks for an upgrade price for those who own previous versions.

Since I own the older voice banks, I was intrigued. I haven’t given up on my grammar music project yet, even if it is on the shelf for now.

The deal is that if you owned and registered both previous editions, you could get the bundle for ~$150 US.

The bundle comes with a special edition of PreSonus’ Studio One DAW, so it gets a new user in the door of using a DAW. It also comes with Crypton’s new VST, Piapro Studio, that will handle its Vocaloid voice banks inside of any DAW that can use VSTs.

The only downside to Piapro Studio is that for now it only handles Crypton’s voice banks, and that’s minor. You could always create a track with Miku or any other Crypton voice bank, then output it in VSQX format to the Yamaha editor, then change the voice to the voice bank you need to use, and export it out as a stem.

I wanted to get the Yamaha Vocaloid VST plugin for Cubase, but this makes things easier, and saves me another $100 or so. It also comes with some extra VST plugins.

All in all, it’s a great deal, and for beginners, it’s great starter package.

Getting It…

There’s a catch of sorts. You have to have a Japanese address to get the upgrade bundle at this price.

To be fair, they have a US distributor, and that’s where a this restriction comes from. But the US distributor isn’t selling the bundle at this time. I don’t know when they’re going to sell it. Right now, the cost of the English bank from the US company is as much as the cost of the whole bundle from Crypton.

After some talking with customer support, I got myself a Japanese address at Tenso, who will gladly ship it for me. I set up an account with them, and voila! I have an address in Japan now.

There is another caveat: I won’t get support from the US distributor. I’ll have to get support from Japan. I am totally okay with that, because the Japanese customer support has been great.

Now I just have to wait for the software to be released on the 26th or so, and I’ll get it a few days later. Can’t wait.

Digital Sound Design Class

 Music, Technology  Comments Off on Digital Sound Design Class
Feb 272013
 

Well, the intro to digital sound design class on Coursera is over. That was an interesting class, and I learned a lot. I’m looking forward to the next class I’m going to take on Coursera, Intro to Music Production, taught by one of the faculty at Berklee. It will be interesting to see what’s the same, and what’s different. I wonder if they will cover anything related to Reason, my DAW of choice. I don’t really use Cubase as much as I should, but it’s because I’m not invested in VSTs.

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