Hacker News Reader

Comment by RileyKyeden | Hacker News Reader

I do electronic music. The rise of platforms like Bandcamp and Patreon, and the abundance of high quality free/inexpensive tools and guides is raising the bar for quality in independent music, and making it easier for more people to get paid in whatever niches they prefer (vs. going for a mass audience).

View on HN

"The rise of platforms like Bandcamp and Patreon, and the abundance of high quality free/inexpensive tools and guides is raising the bar for quality in independent music"

No easy solution here, what is the ^Bandcamp of concert venues^? [0] Is there a venue problem of, "Where do you play?"

[0] I know the solution is a political one due to land usage, sound restrictions and venue size.

I wwould love to get started, I've been looking for a new hobby and thought that is perfect. How should I start? :)

Reaper: http://www.reaper.fm/ (good tutorials: http://reaperblog.net/)

Good synths: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/firebird-by-tone2-audiosoft...

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1-by-ichiro-toda

Good all-purpose instrument: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/orion-sound-module-by-sampl...

Good orchestral instruments: http://vis.versilstudios.net/vsco-community.html

A helpful article I wrote with links and basic advice for new musicians: https://blog.rileyreverb.com/how-to-be-a-musician-58511c4e18...

You're describing the DAW and plugins, but wouldn't you need a midi keyboard, a groovebox or a drum computer, to actually make those beats?

https://www.thomann.de/gb/roland_tr_8.htm

Nope. I have a MIDI keyboard, but it doesn't work half the time, so I rarely bother with it. You can do everything inside the DAW with the MIDI roll or notation editor.

I'd recommend selecting a DAW and learning it. Really learn it. We have countless great tools in music production available - it mostly comes down to how well you can handle them.

Personally, I love and recommend Ableton Live which features an easy to use interface, workflow, lots of options for experimentation and extensions, great and large community as well. Good choice for beginners and experts alike. Plus, with Ableton Push you have the option to get an excellent hardware controller that is tailored to your DAW, but it isn't something you'd need from the start.

Alternatively, you almost can't beat Logic on price considering its features and performance. I'd say it is more complex, but that's subjective.

Both Logic and Live (Suite version) offer a complete solution, including high quality instruments, synths and effects.

Hardware is optional, but a simple midi keyboard for less than a 100 bucks will help a lot.

I plan to switch to Ableton once I earn enough from music to pay for it, but that's because it's made for the kind of music I do. Everyone I know uses it, so it's easy to find advice and tutorials.

For now, Reaper and a few free VSTs will do. I find myself bumping up against the fact that Reaper was made for live music and its devs are understandably keeping the focus there, even though they do good work on the MIDI roll. They always nail down a few irritants in each release.

You'll go further and have an easier time if the community around your tools makes the same kind of music. Choosing tools mostly comes down to what you want to do. If you want to do electronic, Ableton is a good bet.

While I'm positive you know that, don't make the mistake of limiting Ableton to electronic music - it has obvious strengths in that department, but there's really no limit to the genre and style of what can be done with DAWs like Live, Logic and Co.

By the way, if Ableton remains too expensive for your taste, there's always Bitwig, which isn't quite as mature and has a much smaller, but growing community, yet it's very similar to Ableton's approach to music production.

I'll be sure to demo both when I get to the point where I can afford a switch.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com