kim_otcjComputer Music magazine puts some interesting things on their cover disks. I quite often use the Dominator synth, just because it’s so intuitive and I don’t have to study it to figure things out (because I’m lazy like that).
In fact, a pretty large chunk of my VST folder comes from the 99 plugins special they put out last year.
kim_otcjI definitely agree with the bit about turning Windows system sounds off.
I usually record things fairly low, so I stay well below 0dBFS and avoid any distortion. So it happened to me several times where I was listening to very quiet music with the amp cranked up — and then the Windows stop sound came along and just about blew the crap out of my speakers (not to mention my ears).
So yeah, turn that stuff off.
kim_otcjI quite often recommend Podium free to people.
I don’t know too many other DAWs that let you have unlimited tracks and unlimited busses in the free/trial version.
kim_otcjJust a thought (because I really don’t know anything specifically about your particular setup).
When I installed my USB keyboard, I had to choose which USB port I wanted it installed to. I always have to use the same one, and I got a warning message that said I wouldn’t be able to use other midi keyboards on that port.
Maybe it’s something like that messing you up.
kim_otcjI admire that you would go sample the drums yourself. Do you go all-out and get floor and carpet, under snare, and do a second, distance mic on them?
Heh, no nothing like that (although, now I’ve got a laptop, I’m tempted). It just happened that I turned up for band practice 45 minutes early one day, and the kit was already set up. So I borrowed some sticks (because I don’t actually play drums), set up my portable recorder about a metre off the front of the kit and went for it.
I got plenty of room noise that way, including the air conditioner and the buzz from the PA. The kit itself was a rental kit, so it was pretty beat up and had plenty of rattles and squeaks. But I actually like how rough and ready the samples are. It sounds like someone just set up an overhead and said, “Yeah, whatever, that’s good enough.”
The drums in commercial sample collections sound really good. They’re all close-miced, and are bright and shiny and pristine. But that sometimes means they don’t sit well in a project — especially if the other parts aren’t recorded with thousands of dollars worth of mics in an acoustically treated studio. So I’m glad to have at least one kit that goes in the other direction.
Also, I was wondering, unless you own an actual drum shop, you would be limited in access to the $3k and $4k sets, right?
Ooooh. There’s a shop near me that specializes in drums and percussion. I’d love to get in there for a couple of hours, after closing time. 😀
I’ve met a couple of drummers who had really top notch gear, and the difference between that and typical Pearl Export kit (with the blanket in the kick drum and the Sabian cymbals with the cracks in) was phenomenal.
kim_otcjkim_otcjI want to add that I love my .WAV-clip-playing SuperDrumFX. It is nothing that modern but the drum sample sets I’ve build sound so spot on. I have John Bonham’s drumset there, hands down!
This past year or so I’ve been sampling drums myself (because I like to use all-original content on my recordings). For my first attempt, I tried sampling the hire kit at my local rehearsal studio. The room was a little noisy, and the kit rattled a bit, but in context, it doesn’t sound bad at all. I made it available for other people to use here (you’ll need 7-zip to unpack it):
http://www.filefreak.com/files/812386_wbiyj/Kotcj_Kit.7z
I did try SuperDrumFX a couple of times, but for my drum sample player I prefer SoftDrum LTD:
kim_otcjCongrats!
And don’t be discouraged when you see users on forums post all the incredible equipment they supposedly own, and the $800 mic, and the super 20-core, 3 terabyte laptop they just bought.
Oh well, hey, I’ve got an absolute ton of stuff. It tends to accumulate when you’ve been doing the whole music thing for a while. That includes some gear that’s high-end, and some gear that’s not.
In my experience, gear is the same as DAWs. You can spend a lot of money on the big brand-name, flavour-of-the-minute stuff, but you don’t have to. If you’re careful and do your homework, you can get off-brand gear that’s every bit as good as the popular stuff that everýone’s drooling over for a lot less money. My local pawn shop is my favourite place to go at the moment. The pawn shop dude usually has something interesting (including the computer I’m typing this message on). People are always chasing after the latest and greatest, selling stuff that’s perfectly good while they chase their dreams.
It’s all out there, waiting to be snapped up. You just have to save your pennies, bide your time, and keep your eye out for a bargain. You have learn how to look past brand names and price tags, and spot underlying quality. I’ll tell you something, I’ve played gigs with the very cheapest Fender Bullet Strat you can buy. I’d do it again too. Some of the one’s they’ve built over the past two or three years are good instruments.
kim_otcjI recognise a few of the instruments the Telenator mentions and they’re all worth checking out. For VST effects, have a look at these two packages:
Antress Modern Plugins: http://antress.blogspot.com/
Melda Free Plugin Bundle: http://www.meldaproduction.com/freevstplugins/Melda
I also keep an eye on KVR to see what’s available: http://www.kvraudio.com/
kim_otcj@CDLMonline wrote:
I am reallly delighted that there are even people coming from an expensive software like cubase to podium and even say that podium is really much better for them…
Because I am someone with very low budget… First I was thinking about buying one day cuebase for a very expensive price…
The reality of it (at least, for someone like me and the kind of music I compose) is that the DAW itself doesn’t have a lot of baring on the quality of my output. The quality comes from my AD converters, my preamps, my microphones, and all the other stuff I put into the front end of my recording setup.
Of course, quality also comes from the VST instruments and effects. The more expensive DAWs try and sell themselves on all the plugins they include. But commercial plugins often try and justify the price by cramming as many features in as possible. Personally, I find that really annoying. I much prefer simple, no-nonsense plugins that do one thing, and do it well. Many free plugins fit that description. I’ve built up my own collection of VSTs already, so I really don’t care about what comes bundled with the DAW.
So really, I’m mostly judging a DAW on the workflow issues. It’s a shame that Podium misses out on some of the more esoteric features, like time stretching. That bothered me at first, until I looked back and realized I’ve only used time stretching twice in the last 100 or so songs I’ve recorded. Maybe it would bother me more if I used a lot of loops. But then, over the years, I’ve discovered that working with loops is a lot of hassle, and it’s quicker and better to just play or program stuff using midi and VST instruments.
So, yeah. Some of the kool kidz might not want to be seen using anything that doesn’t have a big price-tag or a fashionable brand-name on it. But I see absolutely no reason why you couldn’t create good and well-recorded music with something like Podium.
kim_otcjYes. It was pretty much the same story for me.
I’d already ruled out Sony Acid and Cubase, and it came down to a choice between Reaper and Podium. Well, Reaper looks pretty impressive on the surface — it certainly has more features than Podium — but in the end, when it came to actually using the programs, Podium won hands down. It won it on UI and workflow alone.
kim_otcjI am not an expert with computers, but it sounds to me like something went wrong with the setup.
To get VSTs working, go to Preferences -> plug-ins from the menu at the top, and make sure “VST plugins scan folder” is pointing to your VST folder. Then you have to scan them. You do that by going to the main project page and where it says “Devices – I/O, Busses, Plugins” pull down the menu and choose “rebuild and load plugin database”.
To make sure the sound is working properly, you go back to the top menu and choose setup -> MIDI/Audio Interfaces and make sure Podium is properly set up to use your soundcard or interface.
kim_otcjIt sounds good. Of course, I’d like to hear it with real guitar… but that’s just because I’m a guitar player. 😉 I’m an old dude, and it still amazes me how you can do pretty much anything with a bit of software like Podium and some plugins, and potentially make it sound just as good as a commercial release.
kim_otcjkim_otcjJust this last month I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. I would like to use the 64 bit version of Podium, but I just haven’t found that many 64 bit plugins yet. So I’m sticking with 32 bit for the moment.