Anyone know good forums for dance music producers?

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dogfighter

dogfighter

Irish Prick
May 21, 2007
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Many years ago I used to DJ, but I quit during college because buying records was just too expensive. I now have disposable income, plus all of my old gear (turntables, mixers, monitors). I also have a professional keyboard from when I used to play piano. Even if I couldn't use it with my computer, I could sell it to finance this hobby if I had to.

I'd like to get back into music, and would really like to take a crack at creating my own tracks. I know the software is tough to learn, but I'm willing to put in the time and effort. I'm into drum & bass, jungle, dubstep, as well as the more "mainstream" trance stuff (remixes and whatnot).

Does anyone know of any good forums and/or resources for newbies like me who need advice on what software to start with and what gear to initially purchase? I've got a short list of what I think I'll need to get started, but I don't want to spend 6 months learning Cubase if the entire electronic music community is producing their tracks with Reason or some other software.

Will happily post boobs for every good response :) :love-smiley-085:
 


Okay,I can not speak for electronic music (I make black music beats,remixes) but I've been using reason for some years now and I still love it. But actually it's not that import which software you are using. Once you get the hang of producing music it's not that hard to get used to all kinds of software and/or hardware. The basics aren't that different once you know how everything is working.

From what I know, many producers of different genres use different software so from my experience you can't say that cubase is better for this and reason is better for that.

You have LOTS of possibilities with all of these programs but they all have their pros/cons.

Let me know if you have any questions and I might be able to answer them. I've been doing music since 2002.
 
I kinda felt like that might be the case as software goes. My only frame of reference is graphics and layouts software. InDesign and Quark do the same thing, just a question of which you learn on and which you prefer.

Still looking for forums or discussion groups, though. I have some questions now, but I guarantee I'll have a lot more once I actually install some software and I'm staring at a screen full of knobs that mean nothing to me.

Speaking of knobs, here's those boobs I promised :D

 
Thanks :D

I recommend you try a demo of any software that "looks good" to you. When your first questions occur, google it. That's how I came across the best
forums...

I'll give you a hand via ICQ or something but not until tuesday since I'm kinda busy 'til then.
 
hey man do a youtube search usually u can find snippets /tutorials of stuff and then find people who make info products on production

thats a good start
 
Thanks gerMAN. I'm thinking I'll have to go Apple so that I can choose between Logic and Cubase. Plus I understand you can slave Reason and Ableton Live to Logic and Cubase. Wanted to avoid buying a new machine, but we do what we must :) I honestly don't think my current desktop, new as it is, has enough balls to do all this stuff. Plus I'd need a new soundcard regardless.

Thanks for the forum link, MentalyDisturbd.

Boobs for all!
 
Cheers man, I'm in the same boat. I've been listening to the music for over a decade, but AM has now given me enough money to start dj'ing and producing. This forum is actually one of the biggest forums on the interwebs, and has a shitton of info on producing, and electonic music in general:

tranceaddict Forums - powered by vBulletin
 
why dont you try starting out with GARAGEBAND?

wait...before you start flaming garageband as a "Newbie music application" ..... It's quite fun and easy to learn. I was up and running in like 2 weeks of really playing with it (I create some hiphop, dn'b and break beats as a hobby)

This site has alot of great tutorials on how to get started. You can even pipe your garageband file into APPLE LOGIC if you wanted for even more further tweaking.

When I use garageband, I dont just drop in loops, I actually go in and chop up a loop in like a number of parts and rearrange that so it becomes an entirely 'new' loops or drum pattern.

I always felt that it didnt matter what application you used to make your beats, there are however alot of 'haters' thinking that the only way to make beats is with the most expensive software, equipment etc etc.

whatever.... if you have a pen, a paper cup and a rubberband for equipment, if you create a hot beat, then its hot, who give a shit what equipment/software you used?

I duno..thats just my opinion.


As for people who thing garageband is 'newbie' ...haha take a look at this...
YouTube - LOVE IN THIS CLUB EXPOSED!! GARAGEBAND
 
eyekon1 said:
why dont you try starting out with GARAGEBAND?
whatever.... if you have a pen, a paper cup and a rubberband for equipment, if you create a hot beat, then its hot, who give a shit what equipment/software you used?
Click to expand...

Totally agree on this one! People always had the best ideas when they had to improvise. It's not always good to have all possibilities.

What you will see when visiting these forums is that there's a lot of tech talk going on. Never forget what you were actually going to do: music.
 
I'd have to go with ETN (used to be ETS Global), but they are on IRC.

The best two forums for trance socializing, especially where to learn shit from is believe it or not.. DI.fm and TranceAddict.com (both have been around for a LONG time).

I have a pair of Technics SL-1200M3D decks, and even though I stink at mixing, due to no time for practice, I learned A LOT on those two forums and the IRC channel. Records aren't as expensive as many people think, just don't buy the imports from expensive spots like Virgin Megastore.

The interwebs has lots of really great shops that many times bundle the shipping costs of UK/DE/NL to the US with the actual price and it comes out to less than buying it locally. But I'm a fan of supporting local shops, so when I used to buy them, I'd buy majority online and buy the expensive ones locally.

Also.. being that you have DJ experience, and trance or house or whatever you're getting into may be different from stuff you used to spin, but PLEASE do NOT go the CD turntables route, even if it's so much easier. There's a lot of cool shit you can do with mp3's and laptops too nowadays that you may not have had available years ago, still better than CD shit.
 
Fuck CD tables I'm a DJ not a jukebox. Technics SL1200 MKII's all the way and my Vestax PMC-05 Pro mixer. I was paying around $10/piece for vinyl back when I spun, but that's a lot for a broke college student. I spun drum & bass so most of the stuff I bought came from local shops here in Jersey or Satellite records in NYC. I agree with supporting the local scene.
 
dogfighter said:
Fuck CD tables I'm a DJ not a jukebox. Technics SL1200 MKII's all the way and my Vestax PMC-05 Pro mixer. I was paying around $10/piece for vinyl back when I spun, but that's a lot for a broke college student. I spun drum & bass so most of the stuff I bought came from local shops here in Jersey or Satellite records in NYC. I agree with supporting the local scene.
Click to expand...


would you ever switch to mp3's? Serato gives you that vinyl feel, with mp3 capabilities. It beats lugging around 50lbs of wax to every gig :P
 
Definitely check out Final Scratch for DJing - might give ya the best of both worlds.

If money isn't an issue, go Mac. If you don't fancy spending a few grand on software stick with PCs.

If ya need any PC software PM me - I mostly use Cubase, Reason & Live (shame Logic went mac only) got some great VSTis too. I esp recommend V-Station (a virtual K-station) and Steinberg's Warp (an amp modeller - great for turning synth lines into distorted guitars!).

Some good forums there, if you are into remixing keep an eye out for remixedup.com (coming soon-ish) and keep us posted on what ya do - would love to hear some of ya stuff!
 
Hey Dogfighter, interesting thread. About me, I started DJing Jungle/Drum n Bass in 1992, I was spinning at Raves, Clubs, had radio show we did for almost 10 years on a local university radio station. Anyways, I got a little burnt out on DJing, I didnt take it to the next level I should have (tournig etc) and I took a break for a couple years to get my real-life career on track.

Recently Ive been getting back into the game as well, here are my 2 bits.

Vinyl vs CD/MP3 djing. Listen, I used vinyl pretty much exclusively, back in the day thats all we had. The problem though, is the DJ heirarchy. The top guys get the top tunes months even YEARS before the track will hit a store. Thats how they keep themselves at the top is by aligning themselves with the top producers / record companies they are sponsered by or promoting. Its pretty sick / cut throat.
You can go online and the local record shops and buy all the records that come out in the genre you spin and still, the tracks will be played out. Go see a top DJ who's touring and guaranteed hes gonna drop some tracks you havent heard. This is especially problematic with DnB.
You really need to get the promo / dubplate support to break it as a club/party DJ and set yourself apart, or at least on par with any of the pro DJs you may aspire to be like. Without you're going to have to stick to mixing in your bedroom or for friends pretty much, which is also fine if thats what you like.

However, with the new DVD/MP3 decks that have come out in the last little bit you can gain a huge advantage. You'll see some top DJs saying to stick with vinyl, but thats because they are scared, they have an advantage if 'everyone else' stays with vinyl, they get their tracks first. Not so with DVD/MP3.
You can spin your own tracks, stuff that no one will have heard. You can find music online, and there is tons of it, even the dubplate/promo stuff that you would never be able to get on vinyl, if you know where to look.
I think the DVD/MP3 decks interface is pretty good now as far as 'feel' goes for queing / scratching etc.

Not to mention hauling a box of records SUCKS. If you want to play 2 hours you need 2 fucking milk crates of records. You know how heavy that is? Its fun the first couple times, but after the 100th you will fucking hate it, especially when you see the headliner walk in with 2 DVDs of music and totally blow your set up.
Another problem with vinyl, drunks bumping your table, drunks coming up and grabbing the fucking needle arm on the deck that was playing, Ive had it/seen it all.

Trust me man, DVD/MP3 is the way to go. Screw vinyl nostalgia.

As far as producing and getting the best sound check out Reason, there are lots of tutorials on youtube for reason, stuff like side-chain compression, making dubstep wobbly basslines etc that you can find.

Then, when you take it on the road, record your Reason song as seperate tracks or bits, and drop it all into Ableton Live and use Live to DJ with the DVD/MP3 deck(s) and now you're talking about taking DJing as a performance to the next level. This is what a lot of guys are doing right now, HipHop, Dubstep, DnB, Electro Clash etc.. Watch some vids of Justice, or whoever, no one is using vinyl :) its laptop.

Latest Mashup - bootleg stuff --> www.gybo.co.uk
 
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