I just don't even know where to start!

wahit · Joined: Sep 28, 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Portugal

Hi!
This is my first post and I just don't know where to start.

I'm a total noobie in electronic music. I've been playing bass for a couple of years now, and I'm exploding with ideas that I need to get on track. But I lack the 'know how'. So, I'm going to ask all the stuff at once - or most of the questions at least - and hope that someone could help me!

As I said, I am a bassist and I play some other instruments as well. I am primarely a acid jazz/funk guy, in and out with alternative and experimental music, but on the last months I started playing around with some virtual synths and stuff, and I was blown away!

-

The thing is... I want to play and record some drum beats/synths sound, and play bass over them, but I would like to do most of this in real time. I mean, imagine that you are on a gig and you start make some synth intros, and then you lay down a drum beat and loop it, and then you return to some synths and lay down a recorded sound of anything, and then pick the bass and play, and after return to the begining. I don't know If I am making myself clear............ I don't really want the same thing, but I think I can give the example of Squarepusher, where he controls the synth/beats and plays the bass.

But I want to do all this digitally. I have my normal bass equipment (Warwick bass, GK amps, several effects, etc) and a Apple MacBook (black) and a Apple iMac (both Intel). And...... this is it! Regarding to software I've been using Reason, Arturia ARP2600 and Arturia Yamaha CS-80.

I know I need to buy a mixing desk, a midi controler and some other stuff, and this is where I lost myself. The market if filled up with a lot of stuff, but I don't know which hardware is best for what I want. In this begining I must warn that I can't spend that much money

> For the drum programming I've caught my eye on KORG's PADKONTROL (http://www.thomann.de/gb/korg_padkontrol.htm). Does this worths the money? What can you say to me about this midi controller?

> For the mixing desk I have absolutely no idea!!! The thing is, i want to play live simultaneously on the Arturia Yamaha CS-80, on the Arturia ARP2600, my bass guitar and make some drum beats. How can I do this?! The idea is to intro with synth, start out drumming something and loop it, make some more synth sounds and loop some too, and play the bass. I'm a total noob....

> I also need a external audio card, since the MacBook's one can't really handle the situation. Or should I buy a midi interface or something?

> What else do I need? And please remind that I'm on a budget.........

I'm sorry for this lack of information, and huge amount of questions, but I really need to see them answered. I have so many ideas in my head and I just don't know how to "put them to music"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A enormous thank you for reading this, and... for helping me!

Cheers!

seraph · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 11:29 pm Post subject:

Hi wahit
welcome to electro-music.com
lately we have received lots and lots of similar requests for help. I suggest you read some of those topics in order to "know where to start"
enjoy Very Happy

phasercs101 · Joined: Nov 11, 2006 Posts: 29 Location: Atlanta, GA

I would recommend not using a physical mixer...I would use a Digital Audio Workstation as a virtual mixer in you Mac (Assuming you have enough ram and cpu). If all you need is an input for your bass then the audio input to you mac should work okay. If you need more live input M-audio makes some good cheap interfaces (and free stripped down version of Ableton Live). Ableton Live is a great DAW for you. download the demo and watch the videos www.ableton.com to see if you like it.

kkissinger