Beginning Laptop Musician

[mt1228]

Hey whats going on. Im just kinda getting into a lot of the electronic music/laptop music. I was wondering if any artists have any tips on anything at all. I have some software already but not a whole lot of stuff. Just Ableton Live and Orion Pro (kinda sucks). Any suggestions for more software. I am looking for something with good drum sampling. Cool, anything would be appreciated. Also, im in highschool and we have a school band/musician day where any bands or acts can perform at the local college on a sweet stage and stuff. I wanted to do something different so I thought maybe an electronic performance would be cool. thanks.

[dafo]

Congrats on your foray into computer music! I'd recommend Reason (www.propellerheads.se). The 3.0 upgrade (due March 10) is going to seriously broaden the program's live applications. It's pretty simple to get started, but the potential for discovery is endless--I've been programming with Reason for three years, and I still regularly stumble across amazing sounds.

As for rhythm programming, the Reason library has decent drum sounds, but through some creative layering, I've been able to put together a library of thick, textured samples. The drum machine (ReDrum) has a step sequencer for laying down simpler rhythms, though I prefer the advanced sampler (NN-XT) for fine-grain manipulation.

Check out the General Forum on the Propellerheads page. You can register for an account without buying the software, and there are a good many folk who can answer any other questions you might have.

Best,
Darrell

[mt1228]

Thanks a lot for that recomendation. Im gonna check out Reason today. I probably wont be able to purchase it for a month or so but maybe they have a demo or something on the site.

Any other suggestions about playing live in general. What kind of equipment will I need besides my comp and stuff I already have?

[krismoon]

i second the suggestion for Reason. It's really a great program with serious potential. i use it all the time. the new update looks great, but i'm sure it's going to tank my computer...

[tekdaddy]

I like the Redrum on Reason because you can import your own drum sounds. I used to work at a music store as the keyboard guy and i would take keyboards and drum machines home and put the sounds into my computer and then import them into Reason and make my own drum loops...You can't go wrong with a 24 bit rack mount drum machine, Alesis makes a great one and alot of times you can rent it for a day etc...This is the simple version but it's not hard...