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Hi, I tried looking around to see if anything answered my question, but nothing did explicitly so hopefully starting a new thread isn't a bad thing.

I've been mixing for a while, with a beginner's set up (mac and a vestax spin controller) and I'm looking to upgrade that set up and get into the production side of things as I'm tired of just remixing other people's stuff. I was thinking of getting a set of decks and a mixer so that I could use serato for the mixing and, as there's this connectivity project between serato and ableton, I thought ableton would be a decent choice for production.

But I have no idea. is there any software outfit that you would recommend for producing and mixing mainly dubstep and hip hop originals and remixes? Am I totally missing the point in some way? Also, is the free production software you can get worth the effort or is it best to go with one of the paid ones?

Any advice is appreciated.

Okay, first point I guess is that you seem to be referring to a DJ set up and a production set up in the same sense (correct me if I am wrong). Disregard the decks and DJ-ing stuff, if you are looking at production, you need to look at it as production, the two are different things.

Ableton is as good a place to start as any, it is fairly popular. Bear in mind Ableton is a sequencer, it will have on board instruments but you will need to buy additional synths/effects etc eventually (someone help me out on this as I'm not sure exactly what Ableton is bundled with), this is the same with most sequencers, though the on board kit can be used of course. The link between Serato and Ableton is not specifically linked to production incidentally.

Fruity (or FL Studio) is also a popular choice around these parts. Personally I use Cubase. Reason is an 'all in one' solution, with a whole studio in one package. It has it's drawbacks, but to learn on it has everything you need.

You will need a PC/laptop powerful enough to run whatever software you choose. The more RAM the better (very important for running multiple applications). You will need an audio interface, a MIDI controller and some monitor speakers (you can use headphones, but monitors are prtty much essential for mixdowns).

There are other things you will need to consider, obtaining samples for instance (enough free packs around though), everyone has their own way for working though, some people like MIDI, some like audio etc. I prefer my beats in audio.

Finally, and I am sounding like a scratched record here, you need to do some study bro. Check out the production bible at the top of the forum, and google any terminology you don't understand (there will be a lot).

Your question was really vague mate so I hope the above is what you were after.

i think ableton is what you are looking for. based on what you said it can be used for production and djing. you can do arrangements and remixes in the arrangement view and then play djs sets with the session view. and definitely read the whole production bible and the whole mixing bible. youve got your work cut out.

thanks for the advice.
I am aware that djing and production are quite separate things of course, I was asking for advice on getting more serious about both really, that's all.
I have a recent macbook pro, which is generally powerful enough to run what I want, I upgraded the RAM for this purpose. But being on a mac, it seems that my options for production are ableton, logic, reason, cubase and that's about it. Is that the case?
Your comment about reason being an all in one package that might be good to start off with was helpful, is there anything to really differentiate between the others? I really don't mind doing the research, I'd just like to get an idea of what software I should start looking at in detail. The production bible seems very useful, but you need to know what outfit you're going to invest in first, and it doesn't seem to help with making that choice.
Hope that's a bit less vague, sorry if I'm still not getting the point.

safetravels wrote:Hi, I tried looking around to see if anything answered my question, but nothing did explicitly so hopefully starting a new thread isn't a bad thing.

I've been mixing for a while, with a beginner's set up (mac and a vestax spin controller) and I'm looking to upgrade that set up and get into the production side of things as I'm tired of just remixing other people's stuff. I was thinking of getting a set of decks and a mixer so that I could use serato for the mixing and, as there's this connectivity project between serato and ableton, I thought ableton would be a decent choice for production.

But I have no idea. is there any software outfit that you would recommend for producing and mixing mainly dubstep and hip hop originals and remixes? Am I totally missing the point in some way? Also, is the free production software you can get worth the effort or is it best to go with one of the paid ones?

Any advice is appreciated.

If youve got a mac go for logic

BananaBomber wrote:

safetravels wrote:Hi, I tried looking around to see if anything answered my question, but nothing did explicitly so hopefully starting a new thread isn't a bad thing.

I've been mixing for a while, with a beginner's set up (mac and a vestax spin controller) and I'm looking to upgrade that set up and get into the production side of things as I'm tired of just remixing other people's stuff. I was thinking of getting a set of decks and a mixer so that I could use serato for the mixing and, as there's this connectivity project between serato and ableton, I thought ableton would be a decent choice for production.

But I have no idea. is there any software outfit that you would recommend for producing and mixing mainly dubstep and hip hop originals and remixes? Am I totally missing the point in some way? Also, is the free production software you can get worth the effort or is it best to go with one of the paid ones?

Any advice is appreciated.

If youve got a mac go for logic

Def go for logic on the mac.

yeee logggiiicccc

I WANT LOGIC.

upstateface wrote:

BananaBomber wrote:
If youve got a mac go for logic

Def go for logic on the mac.

ok, cool, but why? I'm fairly sure it's one of the more expensive options, can you tell me what it offers over other programs?

I'd get Ableton if i were you. If you come from a DJ background, then even if you can't get to grips with production it will at least add a bit of spice to your DJ sets and you won't have wasted £400 on a DAW you won't get any use from. The native instruments in Ableton like Operator are pretty powerful once you get to grips with them, but the best thing to do is buy a synth like Massive, FM8, Albino etc and learn it inside out, until the point where you can make any sound you want from it.

if you've already got a mac, start in garageband. seriously. log off DSF and get to work! Tell anyone who makes fun of you for using garageband to fuck off. they're losers

if you decide to go with logic, GB projects will open easily in logic.

logic express is only like $199 i think? definitely not that expensive. the full featured version is only $500 (used to be a full grand. things have changed).

if you're affiliated w/ a school/uni/etc, it's extremely cheap. $150 in the states.

ableton's an excellent choice as well, the full featured, boxed version includes a bunch of synths. the download doesn't.

Sharmaji wrote:if you've already got a mac, start in garageband. seriously. log off DSF and get to work! Tell anyone who makes fun of you for using garageband to fuck off. they're losers

if you decide to go with logic, GB projects will open easily in logic.

logic express is only like $199 i think? definitely not that expensive. the full featured version is only $500 (used to be a full grand. things have changed).

if you're affiliated w/ a school/uni/etc, it's extremely cheap. $150 in the states.

ableton's an excellent choice as well, the full featured, boxed version includes a bunch of synths. the download doesn't.

thanks, that's exactly what I did last night, I was surprised by the capabilities garageband has, I think I'll try to master that first and then probably either move on to logic or ableton. and I checked, with an educational discount, the full version logic is £120 over here which is ridiculously cheap in comparison to any of the other DAWs, almost a quarter of the usual price. that said, I also realised that you can get 14 or 30 day trials for most software, so I presume that once I know the basics of what production is about and what all the terms mean then it'll be worth checking out all of those. thanks guys for pointing me in a helpful direction.

I've never used logic but since I got ableton with all the extra synths i've not needed many if any third party vsts. The effects are really good although some may disagree and operator is sooooooo powerful. And the drum racks are amazing for percussion. Plus it is known to be the standard for live performance so if you want to dj and produce it's got it all.

Sharmaji wrote:if you've already got a mac, start in garageband. seriously. log off DSF and get to work! Tell anyone who makes fun of you for using garageband to fuck off. they're losers

if you decide to go with logic, GB projects will open easily in logic.

logic express is only like $199 i think? definitely not that expensive. the full featured version is only $500 (used to be a full grand. things have changed).

if you're affiliated w/ a school/uni/etc, it's extremely cheap. $150 in the states.

ableton's an excellent choice as well, the full featured, boxed version includes a bunch of synths. the download doesn't.

damn right ive messed about in garageband at work and minus multitrack recording in it i love it

If you want a 'music production center'...
Hackintosh your windows (Make a Mac partition on your hard drive where you can use OSX)
Install just LOGIC and your VST's/samples etc

That way you can have a lightweight environment for producing without unnecessary distractions

(Or just get FL / Reason / Cubase on Windows, it's pretty much just a production shell.)

YDOL wrote:If you want a 'music production center'...
Hackintosh your windows (Make a Mac partition on your hard drive where you can use OSX)
Install just LOGIC and your VST's/samples etc

That way you can have a lightweight environment for producing without unnecessary distractions

(Or just get FL / Reason / Cubase on Windows, it's pretty much just a production shell.)

Use msconfig to make it so on startup, nothing loads cept FL, not even explorer...

Windows is a dirty word, but when I had to have it around, thats what I did.

Thank god for WINE... so glad those days are behind me.

Basic A wrote:
Use msconfig to make it so on startup, nothing loads cept FL, not even explorer...

Windows is a dirty word, but when I had to have it around, thats what I did.

Thank god for WINE... so glad those days are behind me.

Speaking of wine are there any decent native UNIX music production suites? That would be amazing.

YDOL wrote:

Basic A wrote:
Use msconfig to make it so on startup, nothing loads cept FL, not even explorer...

Windows is a dirty word, but when I had to have it around, thats what I did.

Thank god for WINE... so glad those days are behind me.

Speaking of wine are there any decent native UNIX music production suites? That would be amazing.

JACK, but I consider it a soundcard driver... LMMS and Ardour are wank though, dont let em lie too you... JACK, is, fucking, amazing though, and Id be lost in the cold without that thing... Totally changed the way I mix.

http://www.renoise.com/download/renoise/

tracker anyone?

if you don't find this pic scary, try it out, you can work sooo fucking quickly



and it now has sidechain compression ya bastards

just because you bought a mac doesnt mean you have to go logic.
try whatever suits you man.
trials are available !!!!