Need some synthesizer & software advice

Hydro2Oxide

Hydro2Oxide

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Hey guys, I might be barking up the wrong tree as I don't know how common it is for people to own synthesizers but I'm looking for some advice. Been working on game making and the biggest road block I've had is the sound component. I'm looking for a decent keyboard and software to help with that.

I'm currently looking at this for the keyboard:
http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Oxyge...cal-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1303799817&sr=1-1

Not sure if I need the 49 key one, or if the 25 one would do.

Also, I have no idea what to do for software. Reason is pretty damn expensive, was hoping for a free or cheap option. Any help anyone could offer would be much appreciated.
 
I have no idea for keyboards but for software I can't recommend enough fruity loops. It is about $100 but it will get the job done and it can do professional quality work (once you get good at it).
 
I use FL Studio and its ok. Its easy to get into. If you want something even easier Abelton Live is nice. Most people I know use Cubase, however, but since I started with FL Studio I don't want to take the time to learn the interface. Like fragalot says it gets the job done and it supports most plugins and vsts.

As for a synth, what do you want it for? You can easily get by without one if you're not doing live shows. Your keyboard can work in a pinch but really if you use FL studio you'll be using the piano roll most of the timing adding in your notes manually and tweaking the length and velocity and all that stuff. A feature I sometimes use is the record where you play your pattern and then play the notes you want and it will record them onto your pattern, but this is only as accurate as you are, and you'll probably be repositioning those notes in better time with the beat anyway. For this you can get by with a keyboard, no need for an external synth.

Also, if you are planning on doing live, you'll want a soundcard that supports ASIO drivers since ASIO4ALL is a crap shoot as to whether or not it will work. This allows effects to be applied live to your voice or music with a very low latency, like 5ms or less so near instant. If you're not doing live, then you can just process everything the normal way which will take some time depending on how complicated your song is.

And hey, if you use FL Studio, you know theres at least 2 people now that can help you out!
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']I use FL Studio and its ok. Its easy to get into. If you want something even easier Abelton Live is nice. Most people I know use Cubase, however, but since I started with FL Studio I don't want to take the time to learn the interface. Like fragalot says it gets the job done and it supports most plugins and vsts.[/QUOTE]

Now that you mention it, what is the learning curve for this kind of software?

[quote name='crystalklear64']As for a synth, what do you want it for? You can easily get by without one if you're not doing live shows. Your keyboard can work in a pinch but really if you use FL studio you'll be using the piano roll most of the timing adding in your notes manually and tweaking the length and velocity and all that stuff. A feature I sometimes use is the record where you play your pattern and then play the notes you want and it will record them onto your pattern, but this is only as accurate as you are, and you'll probably be repositioning those notes in better time with the beat anyway. For this you can get by with a keyboard, no need for an external synth.[/QUOTE]

Call me a sap but I'm in it 90% for the physical aspect of it. I find it hard to play driving games without a wheel, flight games without a stick and I know I'll feel the same without a keyboard. I have the disposable income so I don't mind throwing down 100-150 for a decent keyboard.

I do not, however, intend to do anything live.

[quote name='crystalklear64']And hey, if you use FL Studio, you know theres at least 2 people now that can help you out![/QUOTE]

Much appreciated, both of you.
 
[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']Now that you mention it, what is the learning curve for this kind of software?



Call me a sap but I'm in it 90% for the physical aspect of it. I find it hard to play driving games without a wheel, flight games without a stick and I know I'll feel the same without a keyboard. I have the disposable income so I don't mind throwing down 100-150 for a decent keyboard.

I do not, however, intend to do anything live.



Much appreciated, both of you.[/QUOTE]
Well one option is to get a full-sized keyboard (as in piano) with a midi output. Then you can just plug that into your computer. You might have to do some configuring since it won't be specifically designed to do that like a little 24 key would be, it'd probably have its own software and such. Then you'll have yourself a piano you can play on its own as well as a full size input device. Of course then you'd have to get a controller or adapter. A usb to midi adapter runs around 25$. Get something with weighted keys imo.

As for ease of use, I'll put up a video or screenshots or something in a bit. You can get into it quick and maybe you'll see why I think a keyboard isn't required.
 
FL Studio is pretty measy to learn, it's just that you have to have a bit of talent to make stuff sound good. As long as you know keyboard shortcuts, you can be making basic songs in less than an hour. As a plus, with FL, your computer keyboard can be used as a rudimentary keyboard.
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']Also this guy does great tutorials http://www.youtube.com/user/ste1438[/QUOTE]

Funny you should mention, I grabbed the tutorial and sat down with the first video in that series. It seems pretty simple to grasp, but there's still a lot to it. I'm not an incredibly musically inclined person though, so I feel I've got a lot to learn. I don't intend on making anything that stands so strongly alone though, just quarterway decent game music.
 
[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']Funny you should mention, I grabbed the tutorial and sat down with the first video in that series. It seems pretty simple to grasp, but there's still a lot to it. I'm not an incredibly musically inclined person though, so I feel I've got a lot to learn. I don't intend on making anything that stands so strongly alone though, just quarterway decent game music.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, FL Studio is easy to learn but hard to master. You don't need a lot of music talent (since it's just game music and nothing super professional) and practice makes perfect. You just need to play around with it and you will learn what sounds/doesn't sound good.
 
something thats good to know that won't be immediately obvious to you is that you can map pretty much any tweakable/switchable option to an automated formula. this is quite flexible but requires creativity on your part.

for example, to do a standard frequency envelope, apply a freq. env effect to your sound, then you can map the frequency control knob to an automation thingy and have it move as you like.
 
I've been using Cakewalk Sonar for about 10 years. That said, I still don't understand everything it has to offer, but once I had the basics down, it was easy to record. I remember the first time I used it, I was recording and playing back within 20 minutes. However, it's all the little details that takes extra time: buses, fx, mixing, etc. I believe there are demos you can download to try for free for Sonar.

As far as keyboards go, I think getting one is a good idea. These days, I tend to "score" more than I play. That said, the music loses a little bit of the edge since there isn't a human playing it. With a keyboard, I feel there is more of a groove when recording. Yes, I can get away with using my computer keyboard (which I tried for a long time), but it just doesn't cut it. This is especially true when I just want to play around with some new softsynths with a keyboard before I do any scoring. I used to use an Alesis QS6 keyboard and now I use a much smaller M-Audio Oxygen 8 v2.

MIDI, while still alive in the software form, is dying slowly via a physical form: in short, it has bandwidth issues. These days, I find that a lot of MIDI capable devices come with USB. Once the USB is plugged into the PC, the software drivers will include MIDI drivers. Signal is sent via USB and transformed into MIDI on the PC.
 
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