Originally posted by Storm But I wanted to add to that. It's not just the software that many haven't used......many haven't even made music before and I'm serious about this. There seems to be a misconception that I can now make music because the software makes it possible.
This is a
great point to make. I was trying to help a new MPC owner by explaining the basic approach to replacing one drum loops sounds with your own; while I haven't used an MPC, I assumed the
approach would be transferable in some way.
He just reposted the question elsewhere. From his tone, I got the impression he felt there was a 'Rip off Dre's sound' button somewhere that I was just not telling him about.
Before being shown how to use FL about 18 months ago, I'd never even though I
could write music. Initially, I couldn't even identify some elements as individual sound let alone describe structural elements of a song, but trying to recreate what I was hearing made me actually start to
listen...
Reason
inspired me more than FL, so I moved to it pretty quickly and spent 8 months just making drum loops. That my loops sucked so much made me start reading up on drumming, getting an idea for the
physicality of it, since you don't
have that in software. This wasn't enough, so I started taking drumming lessons. I suck but I'm understanding how it all fits together so completely differently from how I was even 6 months ago.
Some friends and I have also started taking joint hand drumming classes. Do you know how much fun can be had from 7-8 people banging away on djembes, bongos and congas for an hour?
I know they have their supporters but I don't like the Reason synths, neither of them have ever
grabbed me in the way that the ReDrum, DrRex and NNXT units grabbed me. So when I first heard z3ta+, I really started thinking about sequencers, since here was something capable of generating some amazing sounds that I
neeeeeeeded to use. I played around with Cubase SX on some friends' setups before settling on Nuendo 2 when it launched...for me, being able to share info with people is an
important part of this process, mostly because it just makes my life simpler
so I wanted to be able to trade tips and ideas easily, and the similarity between the interfaces helps with this.
I guess what I'm trying to do is show how I chose the tools I'm using and how they reflected my discovering what elements appealed to me in music. And also to illustrate why I really do think that it's not what you use, it's simply
you that is important.
And seriously, demos rock. Even if you have a nice workflow, check out the occasional new software release. Everything does
something differently and it never hurts to have new input.
Thanks for raising that point, Storm, it vocalised something that's been sitting in the back of my head for a few weeks now.