The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

[brandystarbrite]

( talking about this track, but that's not the changed one. https://soundcloud.com/user586365033/acidtranceexport )

The melodies are nice.

And all these changes give the song a different atmosphere.

Glad you noticed that. I noticed it in this track especially.

Note: Sometimes changing the bass melody/bass sound, or adding or removing notes from the bass melody
or changing settings, for a pad sound etc. or removing/adding a few notes in a trance melody, can make
the trance track, have a different mood or feel to it.

I have so many options, it reminded me of a vid of Musicbear on chords.
He said he was gonna give us millions, and he did.

Yeah. His tuts are cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOKj6-ZpzMM
If anybody has seen this tutorial, and who know why he uses a limiter ?

I'll check out the vid in a while.
From which part, does he use a Limiter?

[Gps]

at 14 min for example, he looses me there, with the limiter and the compressor. ( and the vu meter still in the red)

[musikbear]

Yeah. His tuts are cool.

Thanks :)

who know why he uses a limiter ?

He is using both in order to 'upmh' the kick 'up'
He does not say anything, so it is hard to follow his actions, but you can hear how the kick sounds more 'condensed'
A compressor kind of find a 'output area' and then lift or lower the elements that has been added to the chain.
He allow the percussion to clip and then he uses a limiter on Master.
That is, in most cases, not going to work without some 'costs'.
You will often hear 'side-chain'ish' influence on one or several of the other instruments. He tries to dampen this, by using an EQ.
He lover the frequency that he feels interfere most.
In the end, it is all about what he likes, not so much of what YOU should like / do. Compressing percussion is always about preference.

[Gps]

Thank you, now I get it.

I do not think I like his way, but after seeing a lot of vids of people making edm in a DAW it almost feels like everybody uses limiters and compressors.

The part what surprised me most, how much he is in the red. ( vu meter ) I think you should try to fix that at least a bit before you add a limiter and or compressor. But maybe that's just me?

@ Brandy, I am not hearing a nice melody, I am hearing a failed trance attempt
But you are right, yesterday After your reply I listened again to the track ( sequential ) and I have to admit its not that bad.

And I love although still not really trance my latest attempt at music.

I might have to meditate before I start making music.
Concentrate on the progress I have made , and not on the failing part.

Arrogance, two much self confidence or just impatient about my progress, too critical ?
You would prob laugh, if you knew how frustrated I can get over the fact I am not yet making hits.

[Gps]

It was time for some hip hop.

I had already made an instrumental version of Ice Cube, Gangster rap made me do it, but Dre - Still Dre was something I wanted to try for a while too.

Found a fruity loops tutorial, and that solved my main problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CL6n0FJZpk
The piano, clearly there is reverb and or delay but there seems to be something more going on.

I think the guy with fruity loops nailed it.

Its a chord 8 times 4 times 4 times, but....

The top two notes of the chords are moved ( use 1/192 for this in lmms)
Move middle note less then the top note. Fiddle a bit around until you sound like Dre.
I am using 4 front piano vst (I can confirm this one works on Linux and Windows)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtqRiRWQa8

So now I am working on a hip hop mix
Track will start with Gangster rap made me do it, and then go into Still Dre. Maybe some more? Open to suggestions on that.

The Dre part still needs a bit of work. I need to listen to the track,
My first impression of the drums in the fruity loops vid, are nope, close but nope.
I almost can't go wrong on the drums. I have a drum pack, it should be Dre and Eminem percussion.
I also want to look ( listen) at the keys that guy uses. He seems to be in the mayor scale. ( Does he know ? )

A first short attempt, how does my track sound together with the original suggests, I (he) is not in the right key.
When I play my gangster rap made me do it together with the original it is clearly in the right key, and exact the same bpm.
This answers the questions if the original was made on a computer
For 2 days now a smile on my face because of lmms.

Now if only I could get Cube, Dre and Snoop to rap to my covers....
Or maybe even better ? Me writing the music for their next hit ? Its fun to dream

[Gps]

I did it again. I thought it would be fun to have rappers delight in my hip hop mix.

Why do I often picks things that are damn hard to cover ?

Looked for online help, and already found three tutorials who all are a bit different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Edwards

His bass line from Chic hit "Good Times" has become one of the most copied pieces of music in history, and had a huge influence on musicians of many genres when released and was the inspiration for "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen.

The Chic song "Good Times" was credited on Sugarhill Gang's "Rappers Delight" in 1979 ("based on the music from the song 'Good Times' N. Rogers / B. Edwards" is on the vinyl label) – the first rap song to become a mainstream hit. The following twenty-odd years has seen it sampled by artists of diverse genres, from Rap to Punk and Techno to Pop. Duran Duran bassist John Taylor often played the song in homage during his solo performances, and cited Edwards as his primary influence.

On September 19, 2005, Edwards was honored posthumously for his outstanding achievement as a producer, when he was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York.

The rests are what makes it hard.
If this pdf is right, the bassline on rappers delight is not 100% the same as the one from good times.
http://joshfossgreen.com/wp-content/upl ... ss-tab.pdf

[Gps]

While trying to get that damn bassline of jam on it into lmms, I tried it at first with just the mouse clicking notes.
That failed horrible so I hooked up my midi controller and failed again wtf ?

Then I realized what the problem was. This is a bassline played by a human, and its a funky bassline.
So setting snap to 1/16 is not gonna work, so I tried 1/192 :O

I am shocked that my sense for rhythm seems to be much better then 1/16.

Because I cant play I usual leave the quantization at default, but for life played basslines that's not gonna work.

I have prob this same issue with the rappers delight bassline, although I cant play that one..
The quantization needs to be very small, when you do funky basslines.
I was trying it with 1/32 and could not get it right, it kept sounding different.
Now I am starting to see why, I need 1/64 and smaller to get funky.

Used the bpm tool and that gave me 57 beats per minute.
so 114 mpm is what the bpm is.

http://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm

[Gps]

Looking for the perfect beat to quote another electro classic, I studied what I had played, in the piano roll, while trying to play along with original.

Either my timing is not as good as I was telling you guys, or the bpm was set to low.

So Changed it from 114 to 116. Played this together with the original, and 116 must be the right bpm.

I will now again play along with the original. If I play by hand it always needs some correction ( note length to name one ) but with the wrong bpm setting this becomes an almost impossible task.
I tried to get it on the grid and killed all the funk. This makes 100% sense to me though.

About jam on it and the question, if its hip hop.
its Electro funk, and is considered as one of the first hip hop tracks.

More Electro funk.
Africa bambatta and the soulsonic force - Looking for the perfect beat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa8hdzQ4aok

Man Parish any one ? Boogie Down Bronx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0L_AVc1OjE

[Gps]

I just made my first start for an acid track.

Only 4 notes, all C, 1 2 3 4. 140 bpm

Two automation tracks, one the Frequncy filter of synth1 and the other the resonance filter.

bbe track with the lmms kick 1 2 3 4 and hats not on 1 but mostly on 2 3 4. and two snare hits.

Instant acid

[Gps]

Rappers delight bass line is for now done, although I might attempt to make it a tad more funky. I can totally live with what I have now.

While listening to good times, that bassline seems to be a bit more funky then the rappers delight one.
A piece of sheet music suggest that the chic bass player played the last notes connected, the suger hill gang bass player did not.

Happy I did not agree with a fruity loop vid on this bass line, it was to short. Its 4 bars not 2.

My ears still can use training, but made good progress on both basslines.
Jam on it - bass line, another wtf moment for me.

When I listen to the real one I hear 4 the same notes, and then a change.
A bass player vid confirmed this.

When I did this in lmms, my ears said nope. That's not the same.
I still almost cant believe what I ended up with after two days of trying, but my ears tell me this time I am close.
I start with the 4 notes that sounding the same lol.

C4 D4# C4 A3# second bar G3 G3G3 G3 A3 (all sharp) :O


Changed the delay on the Stil Dre Part, from 1.4 to 1.6.
This seems to give the right effect, like I hear in the original too.

Like it goes out of tune when the chord changes. ( which it actual does because of the delay )
If I turn up the delay further it gets annoying.

How close I come to Dre, with free software puts a big smile on my face. Thank you lmms guys.

I hope to upload my hip hop mix next week. For now 4 covers, and in the middle my own hip hop beat.


Should we set up a contest just for fun ?

Cover Dre - Still Dre ? in lmms off course, no sampling.