New to producing

[Measax]

I started out about 6-8 months ago with live and now have incorporated it with logic. I like rewiring live into logic. Im sure the same is possible with cubase. My roommate uses reason through live. I don't like reason because I hate looking at it (just personal taste) but he seems to get down fairly well. I feel the more stuff you have the more ideas can pop out (some would disagree) but it takes time to learn it all. Figure out one synth and you should be good. ADSR, oscillators, the very tricky fm, filters, etc. That will help your production the a lot. I would download some free pluggins for both and play around some. Read the forms, and go over the manuels. Learn quick keys! and have some fun....

Personally, I like using live like a sampler and for time stretching it does a fair job plus it is very quick for that. If you have a loop and want to sync it up you are good. As an added bonus both cubase and live will sequence and clock hardware so down the road if you add something to your studio (as I did) it won't be hard to streamline it into your production.

I would suggest reading some magazines on production because they have lots of handy tips in them. You just have to know how to apply it to what you are trying to do...oh, and don't get stuck in loops. I had trouble with that for a while but now I like to get some sounds together and start building a track...

Lives sampler (impulse) is fun to. Really go for building little drum kits of your own...so I would suggest investing time into building up a sample collection. Make your own, get them from friends, and surf the web. Its really nice to write drums in midi and most soft samplers let you tweak the sample within it as does impulse so take care to read up on how this process works...in a 3 months if you put your time in you should be rocking some good stuff out...good luck and don't let your turntables get dusty.

[MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE]

You may or may not get this, but i actually think CUBASE is easier to use, once you get used to! I havnt rally used LIVE, but i can soughta see its potential.

"Why buy software when you dont know what your going to use it for...." - I dont know, i know my sound, from a DJ point of view. I just wanted the tools to refine that into some music of my own, in lamens terms.... I wanted to make music with it....

"Sound Card" - My sound card is the pits, getting a decent external one ASAP

"Loop Syndrome" - Thanks for that, i see what your saying about messing about with 8 bars, and trying to build a track from that.

It just doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Drums are easy (ish) to get my head round,, but the feel of a track is created by manipulation of synths, an art i am yet to master.

So what Sound Card would you guys recommend, bearing in mind im still bankrupt from buying the software......

[MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE]

MarcAshken.. of "Breakup" fame on fear of flying....

That tune is hot man.....

[steevio]

personally, i'd try an take cubase back and get a copy of reason. I cant see a reason why u'd need both ableton and cubase as they both do pretty much the same thing and ableton is alot easier to use. Saying that though, starting out, I'd just use reason, youi'll learn about everythin u need to know about in there and it can be easily translated intoo the hardware world if you wanna venture there in the future.

I'm sorry but that is terrible advice. Why would you ever want to trade in cubase, keep ableton and then get reason, that's like taking two steps backward. Cubase is not that hard to use and it sounds a million times cleaner than reason or ableton. If he's really serious about wanting to produce and learn then he should take on something with a little more guts than reason or ableton (both of which are very limited in comparison to cubase).

[steevio]

personally, i'd try an take cubase back and get a copy of reason. I cant see a reason why u'd need both ableton and cubase as they both do pretty much the same thing and ableton is alot easier to use. Saying that though, starting out, I'd just use reason, youi'll learn about everythin u need to know about in there and it can be easily translated intoo the hardware world if you wanna venture there in the future.

I'm sorry but that is terrible advice. Why would you ever want to trade in cubase, keep ableton and then get reason, that's like taking two steps backward. Cubase is not that hard to use and it sounds a million times cleaner than reason or ableton. If he's really serious about wanting to produce and learn then he should take on something with a little more guts than reason or ableton (both of which are very limited in comparison to cubase).

i agree, cubase is way better than ableton.
but saying that. i use both ableton and cubase for different reasons.
i know alot of people these days start off on ableton, but they are missing out on the midi aspects of cubase.
although reason gets bad press from some people, i know a producer who's doing very well on the minimal scene, who uses nothing else.
so i suppose i agree and disagree with all of you brothers.
i just think people dont take enough time to learn what these programs are capable of, and look for instant results, but marc ashken's right, you dont want to block your creativity. i'm sitting on the fence.
find what works best for you, try out demo versions, and dont listen to what we all say.

[MarcAshken]

cheers man, glad you like it.

[mattdubois]

use live for sample/loop manipulation and for its efx and for operator if you bought that as well, and rewire it into cubase or export whatever you do in live and then import those files into cubase and do all final mixing, editing, arranging, etc in cubase, and once you finish something, bounce it down and take that file into something else for further refinement (wavelab or similar)

both good programs, lots of potential....

[astley]

To decide on a decent soundcard what I would do is:

check out some types of external soundcards and check the soundonsound http://www.sospubs.co.uk reviews on them...

Focusrite or a M-Audio soundcard?

After that I would check out monitors and measure the room for standing waves etc