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Starter DJ. (advice)

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  • 26-02-2012 2:56pm
    #1
    LittleMc95
    Registered Users Posts: 111 ✭✭


    Hi,

    Ok so I've been interested in electronic, drum and base, dubstep, dance music for a while now and now I'm interested in creating my own.

    I need advice on where to start.
    What sort of software (free or paid I don't mind) would be suitable for a beginner?
    And would I need any equipment(decks etc) for the mo?

    Any advice appreciated, and I you have links to any good tutorials I would be happy to have a look.

    Thanks.


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    #2
    Omega28
    Registered Users Posts: 1,325 ✭✭✭Omega28


    LittleMc95 wrote: »
    Hi,

    Ok so I've been interested in electronic, drum and base, dubstep, dance music for a while now and now I'm interested in creating my own.

    I need advice on where to start.
    What sort of software (free or paid I don't mind) would be suitable for a beginner?
    And would I need any equipment(decks etc) for the mo?

    Any advice appreciated, and I you have links to any good tutorials I would be happy to have a look.

    Thanks.

    For producing your own music you could download a demo copy of Ableton off their site or you could try Fruity Loops, Ableton has everything you need for starting off(samples etc)

    For Dj'ing there are a number of ways you can get into this, digital, cd or vinyl.

    for tutorials watch ellaskins on youtube


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    #3
    Executive Steve
    Registered Users Posts: 3,373 ✭✭✭Executive Steve


    Give Reaper a go, it's a really good piece of software, but a non-commercial license is only like 50 dollars, and the demo version is 100% uncrippled, meaning you have full access to all the features and save and export stuff.

    You'll also need a basic audio editing program - Audacity is free and does the job grand.

    Reaper tutorials are here : http://tutorialsforreaper.com/category/tutorials/

    For DnB / Dubstep production I recommend you start sampling stuff - go find your sister's CD collection, get any five random cd's that you've never listened to before (bonus points if you'd actively hate the music on them) and methodically go through them looking for quiet bits in the middle of tunes and at the beginning and the end. Film soundtracks, anything with strings, all brilliant sources. Rip the songs, load them up into Audacity and chop out anything that you reckon you could use, keep the snippets of sound and chuck away all the rest. Make a sample folder and keep adding to it, stuff like that will make you sound unique and not like the thousands of people using commercial sample cd's, it's also good practice for getting to grips with the basics of using audio editors etc. Once you've got a few basic chord and string sounds experiment with reversing them, looping them, pitching them up and down and generally mucking about with them so they sound different.

    The golden rule of DnB and Dubstep is that if you can't figure out how it was made it was probably sampled.


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    #4
    Executive Steve
    Registered Users Posts: 3,373 ✭✭✭Executive Steve


    DJ-ing is a slightly different kettle of fish, a laptop, a soundcard and a cheap (less that 150 euro) midi controller is generally more than enough. Most MIDI controllers will come bundled with some basic versions of DJ software to use them with.


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    #5
    LittleMc95
    Registered Users Posts: 111 ✭✭LittleMc95


    Executive Steve wrote: »
    DJ-ing is a slightly different kettle of fish, a laptop, a soundcard and a cheap (less that 150 euro) midi controller is generally more than enough. Most MIDI controllers will come bundled with some basic versions of DJ software to use them with.

    yeah i have a good pc, is a sound card really necessary? and as for the midi controller, what would be a good cheap one?


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    #6
    LittleMc95
    Registered Users Posts: 111 ✭✭LittleMc95


    Also i have fl studio, got it off a friend, have you any experience with it?


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    #7
    flyswatter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,625 ✭✭✭flyswatter


    LittleMc95 wrote: »
    Also i have fl studio, got it off a friend, have you any experience with it?

    It's a great program, I use it for nearly all the stuff I do. It's perfect for the type of music you want to create. Easy to use once you get to grips with it. If you need any help with it, feel free to send me a PM.

    As regards the DJing, a midi controller isn't essential for it. You can just use the mouse to control everything. You can decide if you want to get one later on. It's really for hands on control like assigning functions to the buttons and knobs on it.

    The external soundcard will give you a dedicated high quality sound interface, preferable to the output jacks on a laptop say and useful for outputting the sound into speakers/monitors. However, even this isn't totally necessary for the time being. There are jacks you can get to serve this purpose.

    Virtual DJ is probably the best free DJing application available. Then there is the likes of Traktor, Serato etc.


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