Music production - Software & Hardware

[pcstru]

I'm trying to teach myself Guitar & also some music theory and competency in reading both tab and staff. I've pretty much stuck to books and video's so far but have now started to play around with Musescore as a way to work with tab and staff other than just passively reading them. I then think a small keyboard would be the thing to have for "data entry" and possibly even something that might do guitar to midi, which probably means an ADC that can handle pick-ups and microphones that would defeat a standard soundcard. All of which have left me feeling like I'm standing at the top of a slippery slope; a possibly very expensive slippery slope. So my question for those who do this stuff as a hobby or even professionally : what are your must have pieces of software/hardware that have particularly helped you enjoy your playing and make progress and why?

[Davit2005]

I used to use GarageBand for learning Piano but now jus relying on YouTube and books.

[Snoochieboochies]

I one of the ones who cheated and just went by guitar tab.

 

What i would recommend is to get a drum practice pad and learn some of the basics on drum beats with a metronome. I still can't read the notes on musical score, but i can pick up the tempo and where the notes are meant to land on a bar just by looking at the notation and just rely on the tab for the rest.

 

I have a USB audio interface to run my guitar through my laptop and all of my guitar FX are now on my PC/Laptop.

 

I also play Rocksmith 2014, which is great fun but i find it hard to commit songs to memory from using Rocksmith. It also reduces the amount of time i play guitar creatively and playing my own stuff, so i guess it's a question of what you want to get out of learning/playing guitar.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Snoochieboochies

[pcstru]

I one of the ones who cheated and just went by guitar tab.

 

What i would recommend is to get a drum practice pad and learn some of the basics on drum beats with a metronome. I still can't read the notes on musical score, but i can pick up the tempo and where the notes are meant to land on a bar just by looking at the notation and just rely on the tab for the rest.

Any recommendations (hardware/where to start)? Drums isn't something I'd considered but it makes a lot of sense. Having confidence with rhythm and timing mitigates the odd bum note (so won't save me!).

I have a USB audio interface to run my guitar through my laptop and all of my guitar FX are now on my PC/Laptop.

Is latency is not an issue? Any paticular FX that are must haves? I did buy a Line6 pocket pod last year - mostly as a headphone amp, but I don't use it much.

I also play Rocksmith 2014, which is great fun but i find it hard to commit songs to memory from using Rocksmith. It also reduces the amount of time i play guitar creatively and playing my own stuff, so i guess it's a question of what you want to get out of learning/playing guitar.

Thanks. Never heard of that but it looks very interesting.

 

My goal is just to be able to amuse myself for a few hours with a guitar; I can make up tunes in my head and I'd like to be able to hear them in my head and be able to translate that to playing them and writing them down.

 

I do have a bet on with some friends that I will complete Grade 1 - Rock School by the end of the year or forfit £100 to the charity of their choice. I'm finding that very very very dull going.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Guitar Pro is a fantastic bit of kit.

 

Plays back in midi, tabs and notation. Great for learning songs as you can slow it down till you get the fingering right the speed it right up again. you can also have the full score for a full band playing and see what each instrument is doing at any time, plus you can silence parts so you can play that bit along with the rest of the track.

 

For the input method, a decent usb midi keyboard is all you really need.

[jinnantonnixx]

I use a BOSS BR-80 standalone recorder. It's a great practice tool as you can record your own multitracks and play along with them.

I hate recording directly to a computer, but that's just me.

 

Here's a song I wrote for Christmas.

I recorded bass (using the guitar-to-bass simulator), acoustic and electric guitars on the BR-80 using the presets (no amps involved), exported them to Ardour for mixing. A friend added keyboards and did the vocals.

Warning contains (a bit) of swearing.

Edited April 6, 2017 by jinnantonnixx

[Snoochieboochies]

Any recommendations (hardware/where to start)? Drums isn't something I'd considered but it makes a lot of sense. Having confidence with rhythm and timing mitigates the odd bum note (so won't save me!).

 

Is latency is not an issue? Any paticular FX that are must haves? I did buy a Line6 pocket pod last year - mostly as a headphone amp, but I don't use it much.

 

Thanks. Never heard of that but it looks very interesting.

 

My goal is just to be able to amuse myself for a few hours with a guitar; I can make up tunes in my head and I'd like to be able to hear them in my head and be able to translate that to playing them and writing them down.

 

I do have a bet on with some friends that I will complete Grade 1 - Rock School by the end of the year or forfit £100 to the charity of their choice. I'm finding that very very very dull going.

I was learning drums online via Drumeo and it was something that just happened naturally after that. There's probably similar exercises that can be done on guitar that focus on timing rather than notes. The drumming exercises were four bars that you had to play in increments of 5 BPM from 60-100 BPM for 2 minutes each before moving on to the next exerscise.

 

On my PC/ Laptop i use an Alpha Lexicon which is a simple Guitar/Mic interface. It's simple and it does the job so i'm happy with it. I use Guitar Rig 5 for GFX which is awesome. I use it for both Bass and Guitar playing. I have a number of GFX multi pedal boards but i don't use them these days as it's too much clutter leaving them lying around.

 

I don't think latency is an issue these days. Most modern computers are fast enough to keep up with the audio input.

 

Rocksmith is defiantly fun to play and it's easy to spend a couple of hours a night playing it, but it is lacking in other areas. It's more of a paint by numbers form of guitar playing so it's important not to rely on Rocksmith as a sole learning tool.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Snoochieboochies

[jinnantonnixx]

My goal is just to be able to amuse myself for a few hours with a guitar; I can make up tunes in my head and I'd like to be able to hear them in my head and be able to translate that to playing them and writing them down.

 

You'll need to understand the relationship between chords, notes and keys - harmonisation theory. When I'm doodling with a song, I always have a circle of fifths chart nearby.

http://ezstrummer.com/SS2/Navigating-The-Circle-of-Fifths.pdf

[pcstru]

Circle of fiths was/is amazingly revelatory. It's somehow easier to grasp on the guitar than piano because of the way chord shapes hold as they move around the neck (or vary in a predictable CAGED way).

 

I did a little spreadsheet where I can select a key and chord/scale type which then highlights all the notes on the frets. It isn't very pretty but the process of building it was very helpful in advancing my understanding of the theory. Any other non software/hardware ideas much appreciated!

[jinnantonnixx]

Another revelatory concept is 'chordal tones' (or 'chordal notes'). This is where a note in a solo (or a vocal note) emphasises the underlying chord - most effective when playing over a chord change. Dave Gilmour is a master of this, as is Carol Kaye (v. famous session musician).

It makes the difference between a rambling solo/tune and a solo/tune with purpose.

[Glyder]

Small midi keyboards depend on your budget - Akai LPK25 is a decent little one for not a lot of money. MAudio keystation 32 is also decent. A sequencer is a nice place to start so you can record and arrange things. It allows you to layer up different parts and accompany yourself much in the same way as a loop pedal, but you can see what you've recorded and edit out any bum notes.

 

Having a properly set up guitar is a must - what instrument are you using? When I first started playing - upgrading my instrument made the most difference to my playing.

 

Best,

Glyder

[pcstru]

Having a properly set up guitar is a must - what instrument are you using? When I first started playing - upgrading my instrument made the most difference to my playing.

I treated myself to a Les Paul for my 50th birthday and it is almost entirely responsible for my renewed enthusiasm to actually pick up a guitar and play it. There is a luthier quite local and at some point that and my acoustic (a Dean thing) will visit. I fear he will ask things like "what style do you like to play" etc and I'll just have to mutter incomprehensible barely ignorant nonsense!

[jinnantonnixx]

I recently found this software for phones. Chordbot. It's fantastic, well worth the £3.75 for the Android version. The trial version is fully featured but you cannot save or export anything.

 

Chordbot - A songwriting tool / electronic backup band for Android & iOS

 

In a nutshell, it's a song composition tool.

 

It's worth working through all the features, such as sections, instrument mixers, etc. Furthermore, it has some excellent drum patterns and can be used as a standalone drum machine. All the pads, chords, arpegios, basslines and drum patterns can be exported as MIDI files too, so your masterpiece can be exported to a sequencer for further work if you like.

 

Anyway, it's really grown on me and I think it's well worth a look.

Edited May 22, 2017 by jinnantonnixx