Always seeing Oscillator dials in Virtual Machines I think it’s important to understand just what Oscillation is. This video gives you the big picture. Also I started another track, so I am bouncing between them when I can find the time. I’ll try to have some progress posted within the week.
Learning Music
Putting Samples in Caustic 2
Hey all. So my ventures into chopping and sampling have been thus far… Sub par at best. But I figured it would be worth showing everyone a trick I learned from the Caustic forums that enables you to step sequence samples you may have or may have chopped.
Utilizing PCMsynth I have provided a 6 step tutorial below
1) Open a new PCMsynth. Long click the “Sample” button
2) Select the sample you want to use. Here I Selected a Kick drum
3) Long press the root key button, then press the keyboard key you want to use.
– If this is your only sample match it to the root note of the sample and you are done
– If this is one of multiple samples you want to insert, choose a root key and continue following the tutorial (C4 is a good key to start with)
4) Long press Lowkey and match it to the root key
5) Long press Highkey and match it to the root key
– The sample will now be stuck to the root key and not work with any other
6) Short press sample and turn the dial to select the next sample
– Follow the tutorial again for however many samples you would like to insert, just utilize another root key
In other news I have figured out how to sample my Casio and as I mentioned before it has some interesting percussion samples. I think while I am figuring out this chopping nonsense I am going to take some very LowFi .wav samples for people to have fun with. Who knows maybe there will be a PCMsynth preset with them.
There are also some fun sounds so I will most likely sample some of those over time as well.
Format Changes?
The more I research Midi controllers, PC DAW’s etc. the more I feel like I need to change the format of this blog. While waiting for my Midi converter to show up so I can start doing those online piano lessons, I have concluded that I have come to a bit of a road block regarding android music production.
Therefore I am beginning to realize that my blog should probably be less Android focused and more “Learning Music Production on the Cheap”
I have all sorts of articles I could start writing about pertaining to powerful free Virtual Instruments, links on how to use powerful, yet inexpensive PC/MAC DAWs like Reaper. I also believe that by doing this I could reach out to a larger audience.
We will see what happens, but I expect to start doing mixed articles on Inexpensive Android and PC production shortly.
For everyone following my blog and people that are just visiting, feel free to comment on what you think about me doing this. Thanks y’all.
Scratch that. Frank Malm from Musical Android made some very good points in the nice comment that he left. Expect this to remain an Android Based Production Blog.
Making it Easier
As time has progressed over the past three weeks I have come to realize that even regarding basic hip hop production, it is very difficult to produce anything without some sort of musical training. So while I continue to experiment and post stuff on here I will also be learning to play piano (pretty sure I mentioned that earlier).
Since I don’t really know what I am doing I have decided that teaching myself out of a book or off of youtube might be a little difficult. So after a little research I found an interesting computer product called “Piano Marvel.”
Piano Marvel is an online music teaching program set up with a subscription fee and requiring a Midi enabled keyboard controller. From what I have read online it is a fairly viable way to learn the basics. The Midi component allows the program to track errors you are making and provide you with dependable feedback. It costs about $12 or $15 a month and allows you to take unlimited lessons while subscribed. I have the link to the website below as well as a nice review I found on it. Have a look, I’m going to at least try out the free demo month to see how it works.
The following link is the review website. Note it also includes how it stacks up to other computer based music learning programs.
http://piano-lesson-software-review.toptenreviews.com/piano-marvel-review.html
The Android Music Project 