# Notes - check Chuck - music programming language - Ideas of setup - for session view Launchpad (Quneo) should be enough - for arrangement view keyboard and/or pads - checkout launchpad95 script - Arturia - seems to make pretty cool devices fairly priced. Most have VC/Gate output. - Books - The Secrets of Dance Music Production - Making Music - 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers - Links - - Magazines - Future Music - Computer Music - Audio Interfaces - **Behringer UMC204HD** - Novation Audiohub 2x4 - 4xRCA outputs, 3x USB hub, - Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (2G) - ESI UDJ6 - songs to sample - Et si tu n'existais pas (Joe Dassin) - Black Betty (Tom Jones) ## What do you need - DAW, for example Ableton Live - MIDI Keyboard - Studio Headphones or Studio Monitors - Audio Interface, for example Focusrite (optional) - Microphone for instruments and/or voice (optional) - dynamic microphones used for live gigs, loud sounds, low sensitivity, they don't require power source - condenser microphones commonly used in studios, they require power source (48v) - phantom power through XLR cables - Other intruments, for example a Synth (optional) ## Controllers Controllers don't play sounds they only send sound information, usually through MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), to a device that generates the sounds and an audio interface can play those sounds. Instruments can play sounds, therefore they can have some or all of the devices: MIDI Controller, Synthesizer, Sequencer, Audio Interface, they are an "Appliance". They do need to be paired with a PC. ### Pads and Knobs There are 2 types of knobs, endless rotary encodes and fixed-position or control knobs. **Encoders** are used to increment or decrement values. Jog wheels are a kind of encoders. **Control knobs** or **Pots** (short for Potentiometers) are used to set absolute values, they can have center detent. - Quneo - Arturia BeatStep - - controller and step sequencer - 16 pads (2x8) and 16 encoders (2x8) - 16-step analog sequencer - connectivity: USB, MIDI, CV/Gate - price: 100 E - Pro version: ~250 E - Akai LPD8 (Laptop Pad Controller) - 8 pads and 8 Q-Link knobs (they look like Control Knobs) - price: 50 E - Akai APC mini (Ableton Performance Controller) - Akai APC40 (Ableton Performance Controller) - Midi Fighter Twister - 4x4 clickable encoders - Center Detent function so it can be used like a potentiometer with middle LED indicator - price: 280 E - Novation Launchpad & LaunchControl ### Keyboards - **Arturia KeyStep** - keyboard controller and polyphonic step sequencer - each sequence can have 64 steps, each step can have up to 8 notes - can be connected to Novation Circuit - connectivity: USB, MIDI, CV/Gate - price: 120 E - Arturia MiniLab Mk II - comes with Analog Lab Lite, Ableton Live Lite, UVI Grand Piano Model D - 25 slim keys, 8 RGB pads (x2 banks) and 16 encoders (2 clickable), Pitch Bend and Modulation touch strips - keys and pads and encoders, but no step sequencer like with Beat- or KeyStep - price: 100 E - Akai APC Key 25 (Ableton Performance Controller with Keyboard) - Akai MPK mini (Music Performance Keyboard and Pads) - Novation LaunchKey (mini) ## Instruments ### Synthesizers - **Novation Circuit** - Hybrid Synth-Drum Machine, Sequencer, Controller - allows sample uploading - 4 tracks - Korg Minilogue ### Drum Machines Drum machine is used to create drum patterns outside of your DAW sequencer. As a side note, if your drum machine supports sample upload, most don't, than it can basically become any instrument you want, it gets closer to a sampler. - **Novation Circuit** - Hybrid Synth-Drum Machine, Sequencer, Controller - allows sample uploading - 4 drum tracks - price: 290 E - Arturia Spark LE - price: 200 E - Elektron Analog Rytm - Elektron Digitakt - can sequence up to 8 external synths - allows sample uploading - Korg Volca Beats - entry level - can be connected to other Volca synths - real analog sound, but not fully analogue (hybrid) - only one drum kit, it can be modified in many ways - single audio output `*` works only with computer ### Samplers Capable of creating long phrases or whole tracks (as opposed to a drum machine which is capable of creating drum patterns or short phrases). NI Maschine MK3 is an example of a notorious modern (as of 2018) sampler (or Groovebox), usually used as a drum machine. It only works connected to a computer. - Korg Volka Sample - Novation Circuit - Elektron Octatrack ## Software ### To Check - Mixbus - EnergyXT - Qtractor - Tracktion 5 - Mulab Free - Ohm Studio - PreSonus ### DAWs #### Ableton Live #### Reaper - unlimited evaluation #### LMMS [Linux MultiMedia Studio](https://lmms.io) #### ### Plugins #### Free - Synth1 - Virtual Analog Synthesizer - TAL Plugins (Togu Audio Line) - TAL NoiseMaker - W1 Limiter - simulation of L1 limiter by Waves - Rough Rider - aggressive compressor - Magical 8bit Plug - Alchemy Player - iSpinner - LoudMax #### Popular - Serum - Synth1 ### DJ #### VirtualDJ Use quneo's vertical slider to control LPF of the filter knob: ```vdj var "$shift" ? nothing : param_multiply 0.5 & param_greater 47% ? deck left eq_low 50% : deck left eq_low ``` #### Serato DJ See `serato.md` file. ## Music Theory ### Freq Guide - 20-50Hz Sub-bass - you feel this range rather than hear it - 50-250Hz Bass - here is usually the bass boost in most apps and appliances - 250-800Hz Muddy - between bass and mid-range - 800-6000Hz Mid - human ear is very sensitive to it - 4kHz mark - the most sensitive - very small adjustments here have a big impact - 6000-8000Hz Treble - control the brightness of the track - the magic frequency - 50-8000Hz is the most important part of the track - 8000-20000Hz Ultra-High Treble - high hats, the hiss - here you get the harshness - older people can't really hear this ### Tonality and Atonality Tonal music has a clear tonal center, the "goal note". It's called tonic or the key of the melody. Usually the first and the last note of a melody. It's the first note of the scale used to create the melody. Atonal music has no clear tonic pitch or goal note. When we say that a song has a single tonal center or tonic, we also are saying that it is in a single key. It is made from a set of notes that have the tonic pitch as the first note. This set of tones can be arranged in stepwise order as a scale. DO RE MI FA SOL LA SI DO is a scale. As example **C MAJOR** scale means the tonic note is C and the mode is **major**. ### Harmonic Function The most important chord in the key is called the tonic harmony and the tonic pitch is the lowest note of that chord. A chord is multiple notes played together. **Harmony** is succession of chords to create a sense of harmony or a story, chords progress to control the creation and resolution of tension. Harmonic function is what the chords "do". - Tonic = Stable chord (at the beginning and end of the song) - Predominant = Connecting chord, a chord that prepares the Dominant - Dominant = Unstable chord (throughout the song and as the second to last chord) ### Notation Chromatic scale: 12 notes, at half step distance. Middle C = 262 Hz C4 is called the middle C. A 7 notes scale has 8 notes, the 8th is same as the 1s up an octave. The interval between the 1st note of a scale and the 5th note is called the **perfect fifth**. RMS = Root Mean Square #### Major Key - all the white keys in a scale on a piano #### Minor Key - most used in european music, especially dance music - T, S, T, T, S, T, T - T = tone, S = semitone ### Measure and Meter Signature Measure = Bar ### Sound Quality - jitter simulation experiment - bluetooth quality ### Online Resources - ## Music Production A song has generally sounds in 4 categories: 1. Drums 2. Bass 3. Chords 4. Melodies ### Recording For recording using a microphone you will need microphone (duh), microphone stand, XLR cable, audio interface and a computer with a recording software (DAW or Audacity) ### How to Create Chords - take a note (for example a tonic to get the tonic harmony) - major chord - copy the note 4 positions up - copy one more time 3 positions up - minor chord - copy the note first 3 and than 4 positions up - create a chord progression by copying the chord up on every note of the key - when creating a loop start with the tonic chord - and finish with the 4th or 5th chord - use any from 1 to 6 in between ### How to Sound musical Without knowing (too much) musical theory. #### Stay in Key - mark all the notes from a scale in the pianoroll and fold it to see only those notes - copy the notes on all octaves - move the scale notes off grid so you only see them not hear - draw your melody, you'll be in key #### Chord Progessions - open a chord progression and disable it - draw on top of it, you'll be in key and it will probably already sound good - move octaves down and draw your bass line - use just the base note for the bass line #### Harmony - find a piece of song you like - convert it to harmony, it will somewhat resemble the original song - edit the result until you like it - use the scale plugin to change the key - add drums or bass line #### Use MIDI Effects in Abelton Live - Scale Plugin - use C minor for example - change the note and you will be in that key, for example chose F and you'll have F minor - combine it with Chord plugin - Chord Plugin (Chord Sets) ### How to use Samplers - a sample is a piece of audio of any length between, let's say, half a second and a full song - it is usually a something like a drum hit, snare or kick for example - sampling tipically means to get some audio clips into a sampler, and trigger them using MIDI - you can buy sample packs, cut some pieces from entire songs and use them as samples, or you can create your own samples - for example in Ableton drag the Sampler instrument onto a MIDI track and an audio clip onto the sampler. Use your keyboard to trigger the sample at different pitches ### How to use Synthesisers - **Serum** is a very popular and famous synth - for example to create a bass sound, you start with a squared wave from an oscilator - so you need and Oscilator - filter out the high frequencies using a filter, since the bass has only low frequnecies - so you need a Filter - use an envelope to setup the attack and hold, decay and sustain and release when a key is pressed - so you need and Envelope - attack = the time it takes for the sound to reach it's maximum volume or the fade in time - hold = TBD - decay = the time it takes to get from the maximum volume to the sustain volume - sustain = the main volume of the sound (in dB) when the key is hold - release = the time it takes for the sound to fade out when key is released ### Mixing and Mastering - mixing means to balance out all the elements of your final track - balance levels - balance ferquencies using equalisers - take out what clashes - control the dynamic range using compression - use reverb to make it sound "somewhere" (in a room or in a hall) - mastering means polishing your final track - comes after mixing - import back the exported track as audio and polish it further ## Music Genres ### Kizomba #### Sounds and Instruments - Ableton Live - Muted & Bell Unpitched