ATTN: Musicians

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I've got a bit of an idea that I want to work with. The genre is pop music, so, the main thing I'm asking is how best to go about doing synth. I have a shitty Yamaha keyboard, but I want to figure out how to make a convincing pop music sound on the cheap. What sort of equipment and/or software should I be working with?

[Raz Tech]

fruityloops should essentially be all you need.  I used to dick around with it a lot, it's pretty good.  Of course it's pretty expensive, and there's certainly nowhere you could get it for free or something depending on how lax your morals are.
http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/i_index.php

[Eater of Clowns]

fruityloops should essentially be all you need.  I used to dick around with it a lot, it's pretty good.  Of course it's pretty expensive, and there's certainly nowhere you could get it for free or something depending on how lax your morals are.
http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/i_index.php

[Nephew Twiddleton]

fruityloops should essentially be all you need.  I used to dick around with it a lot, it's pretty good.  Of course it's pretty expensive, and there's certainly nowhere you could get it for free or something depending on how lax your morals are.
http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/i_index.php

What sort of interface would I need?

[LMNO]

1.  What's your OS?

2.  What do you consider "pop"?

3.  What is "synth"?




Most pop music is made with samplers, sequencers, and MIDI.  If you want to be Top 40 genuine, you'll need some $$$ to buy the sounds.  If you want "lo-fi", there are a lot of workarounds.  Odd as it might sound, what you really need is a vision, and a killer hook.

Listen (again) to "Fancy" by Iggy Izelia.  It's a beat, a shitty keyboard line, and a killer hook.  Literally anyone could rap some bullshit on top of that and it would be cool.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

1.  What's your OS?

2.  What do you consider "pop"?

3.  What is "synth"?




Most pop music is made with samplers, sequencers, and MIDI.  If you want to be Top 40 genuine, you'll need some $$$ to buy the sounds.  If you want "lo-fi", there are a lot of workarounds.  Odd as it might sound, what you really need is a vision, and a killer hook.

Listen (again) to "Fancy" by Iggy Izelia.  It's a beat, a shitty keyboard line, and a killer hook.  Literally anyone could rap some bullshit on top of that and it would be cool.

1) Vista

2) Hard to nail down, but my idea is a bit of a spoof thing, probably the shit that you'd hear on Kiss 108 (does that even still exist? I honestly don't know)

3) Mostly Top 40, I reckon. I suppose what I am looking for is a wide range of sounds that would fit into what would pass as mainstream music. My mockery is lyrical, and it relies on a fairly authentic sound, instrumentally.

I'm looking more towards the concept rather than making a high quality recording. I'm a heavy metal biology student. So, I have the vision and the hook, I just need to make it happen. I'm fine with lo-fi. Also, I need to work a bit at keys, but I have a rudimentary knowledge of that. I just need to know how to get a couple of interesting sounds, and how to make those sounds happen.

[LMNO]

I highly suggest you work with someone who knows pop music intimately.  Think about Weird Al.  He mocks, but he's DEEP into the music that he's making fun of.  It's incredibly hard to make a parody song of a genre you don't really know deeply nor respect.  But if you're doing a one-off, make it short, like under a minute.  Most parody songs wear off pretty quickly.

For your purposes, GarageBand or Audacity should do, if you have a keyboard that spits out sound.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I highly suggest you work with someone who knows pop music intimately.  Think about Weird Al.  He mocks, but he's DEEP into the music that he's making fun of.  It's incredibly hard to make a parody song of a genre you don't really know deeply nor respect.  But if you're doing a one-off, make it short, like under a minute.  Most parody songs wear off pretty quickly.

For your purposes, GarageBand or Audacity should do, if you have a keyboard that spits out sound.

I'm willing to delve into the genre. It's not that I don't respect it on a musical level (it's catchy for a reason), it's spoof on the subject matter. Look at it this way, I'm thinking of making, for lack of a better term, a theme album with this critique in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQMDSw3Aqo

With a bit of a twist. Weird Al is probably a decent comparison, but not quite accurate.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Oh, I have Audacity, btw. It's really more how to get the synth sounds. I know nothing about MIDI. This is more of a set up question, hardware and software wise.

[LMNO]

"Get" the sounds?  Not sure what you're asking.  If you have a modular synth, you need a crash course in additive synth waveforms.  If you have a digital synth, you need to find out where to buy new sound modules.  If you have a sampler synth, you need to figure our how to record and manipulate samples.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

"Get" the sounds?  Not sure what you're asking.  If you have a modular synth, you need a crash course in additive synth waveforms.  If you have a digital synth, you need to find out where to buy new sound modules.  If you have a sampler synth, you need to figure our how to record and manipulate samples.

I have a nothing. I have a few guitars, a non functional bass guitar and a shitty Yamaha. And Hammerhead.

Ok... Ah, let me see if I can say what I'm saying.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Ok, how do I get a keyboard to sound like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQMDSw3Aqo

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxJf_yhRX2g

or this (especially this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkT-aMgZvQI

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

I dunno. It really is just a hardware/software thing. I'm not looking for a hey, this is the setting you want. I'm more about, I want to find those sounds on my own, I just need to know what I need to start looking. I need a map and a compass.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

That first one wasn't supposed to be a repeat of Marilyn Manson, but rather Ke$ha's Tik Tok.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Put another way, I have a fairly good idea how to tease the sounds I want out of a guitar. I need a particular guitar (acoustic or electric, certain kind of pickups, certain guage of string), particular effects (phaser, tremolo, flanger, etc...), particular amps (actually to be honest, never been much of a concern of mine, but I understand it to a degree). What kind of keyboard based computer interface (guitar) and what kind of software (effects) should I get started with?

[rong]

just do it already [\url]

if memory serves, fruity loops will let you use your computer keyboard as a, well, keyboard