Creating electronic music

[Chicken Chaser]

Been inspired really by this video which seems rather popular at the moment....

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=video&...

Now I have a musical background - keyboards/guitar from an early age so I'm not new to music, but I am new to production and sampling.

Never really experimented much with midi kit (even though I have a keyboard which supports it) but really interested in seeing what the Ableton kit can do.

That makes it look pretty easy (I know he has full control over that Launchpad but I guess that comes with time) but it must be incredibly time consuming to rip all of those samples into Ableton

Anyone have any experience with Ableton/Launchpad? Can mp3's be split so that each channel is effectively mapped into the system separately? Is buying this kit a case of running before you can walk or does this open pathways to much more hands on creation rather than using a mouse all of the time?

[RemainAllHoof]

Quick research seems to suggest you connect each sample to a button then just whack the button when you want it to come in. The concept isn't new - if you want to muck about with it, you can do this with Dance Ejay's "Live Jam" mode which allows you to allocate samples to keys on the PC keyboard.

I was writing an Android app to do it, actually, but got bored. It's fine for DJs I suppose but if you're a musician, you'll probably find it quite restrictive and end up creating your own samples, then before you know it, producing a "proper" track.

Edited by RemainAllHoof on Thursday 4th August 21:07

[Chicken Chaser]

Well despite being keen on "real" music, I also love electronica and so the opportunity to try and create remixes/create tracks using something which I can physically use like an instrument got me thinking. The thing that put me off before was the hours of tedium which would destroy the creativity somewhat to create something on the hop.

[RemainAllHoof]

I know what you mean - the fun bit is creating the hooks, messing about with different sounds, creating the samples. The boring bit is bolting it all together.

[Chicken Chaser]

Looks like to get connected, I'll need the software, the launchpad, some kind of midi interface to hook the iMac up with and the keyboard connected to it. I think I have Midi-USB connection so might see if that will work.

Ive just downloaded the software trial so gonna fire it up and see what its all about.....

[RemainAllHoof]

That pad thing is just USB.

[RemainAllHoof]

That's odd. Someone posted a detailed and interesting reply and now it's gone.

[Chicken Chaser]

Yeah, but I was surprised at how much a launchpad was. Very affordable.

I've just realised that its the sample packs which are ££££ and there's loads of them! Tried hooking up my keyboard as a Midi interface but something wasnt right. It would send the test signal to the keyboard but not the other way.