We are the music makers - producers?

When did you join the waiting list?

The surprising thing for me is how fast a workflow it's turning out to be now that I'm getting comfortable with it. The "modular" nature of song arrangement in particular has been really enjoyable and inspiring after years of committing everything to audio for multitrack recording in my larger setup.

5th July 2018.

I have a cheap Casio keyboard I found on the street - I thought I'd be able to use an aux cable out of the headphone jack and into my audio interface (with a 1/4 inch adapter) and then record directly into Logic Pro, but that doesn't seem to work.
The keyboard works, the headphone jack works, and the audio midi interface works (i.e. with a piezo mic), so what am I missing?

Also, what's a good source for cheap, quality cables? I'm hoping there's an El Dorado site out there that ticks all the budget & quality boxes...

If your cable is a single jack to jack and not splitting into two, the interface is likely treating it as a balanced connection and so your L&R channels are being summed and cancelled out leaving either no signal or a bad-sounding one.

I’ve found Visiosound being sold through eBay to be good quality for pre-made, moulded cables, or Lynx for buying bare cable to build your own.

Oooooh, interesting, I've got a l/r splitter somewhere - I'll keep experimenting. And thanks for the recommendation!

I'm just restarting my journey with getting my laptop to recognise my mixer after being forced to upgrade to Ventura. I've really been putting it of as I just can't deal with any more technical trickery right now but I really want to get back into making mixes, with a longer term goal of learning Ableton Live.

I'm guessing it's something to do with drivers? The mixer is an Allen & Heath Xone PX5 and the laptop is a wobbly 2017 MacBook Pro.

Any help would be very gratefully received.

Finished my first track on the M8 Tracker using the built-in synth engines. Bit rough, but I'm pretty happy with it considering this was a totally new experience.

https://on.soundcloud.com/3jwPK

That is nice, I like that tribal style. Could do with a nice acid squelch at times.

Thanks for giving it a listen

This might've actually come from here, I can't remember as it was ages ago when I added it to my Watch list. Behind the scenes of viral songs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1m-KgEpoow

Anyone on here taught themselves how to play piano/keyboard?

My wife has just acquired a piano and I fancy having a crack at learning. Was wondering if anybody has any online tutorial recommendations or books that they have found useful. I don't think she has the patience to teach me 🙂

damn that’s good, and also a bit depressing

That Vox channel has some other interesting data analysis reporting. There's one on the preferred pitch of singers that was pretty neat.

Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJT2h5uGAC0

Not relevant to the piano side of things, but I found Melodics very useful in getting up to speed with the mechanics of getting your fingers moving around properly. Also great at getting you to practice everyday. Though it only works off MIDI, which I'm guessing won't work for you.

On the more piano-focused side of things, I used FlowKey for a bit. But with it only having options for pause the music at each note, play at 50% speed or play at 75% I found each jump pretty jarring. So I rarely use it. Does work with acoustic pianos though (via your devices mic)

Very much depends on what you're looking to learn, maybe pick up a book for the style you're looking for? Hal Leonard have some decent books (and some online books which I've found easier to use, though you might find the opposite if you're looking for something to pop on a piano's music stand).

And of course the predictable, boring and probably best answer, go get lessons from a teacher.

Thanks for the info, very useful.

thnx, hadn’t seen this before. The motion design is a bit heavy handed sometimes but the series is v good, I liked the deconstructing rap one too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWveXdj6oZU

Ta. Will watch.

So I make music which I've been lucky enough for a few pals to pick up and make films with. The producer of the last film we made just asked me if I had a reel, and ladies and gentlemen, I do not. But I want one.

Does anyone have any resources / etiquettes for how to make a reel for film production? Presumably its better to use footage from the films themselves if possible to get the full effect of them?

as someone who now watches other peoples showreels (for sound design more than music), select the choice bits of each project so that it scrolls through a nice range quickly. using the actual footage it was cut to etc is good of course. if you have something you really rate and didn't end up being used, try to cut some stock footage to it or get a filmmaker friend to help with that. doesn't matter if something in the reel was never professionally used or released.

Amazing. Thank you. That all seems sensible. Is there an ideal length for a showreel? Presumably under five minutes is better?

3 mins is usually plenty of time to demonstrate what's possible, but i guess it depends what you're pitching for. the projects I work on tend to be sub-2min so I'm not looking at things that gradually progress in a really cinematic way

Second track on the M8 tracker. I'm losing steam on this one though, may just put a pin in it for now.

https://on.soundcloud.com/MKtBA

I'm planning on selling my MK1 plinky if anyone on here is interested, barely used, eurorack or standalone, see loopop review below
https://youtu.be/Xh2w6RWPo28

That looks like fun, I assume that is several hundred pounds worth?