Suggestions for Making Beats/Synth Music

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My son wants to get into making beats and maybe do some basic music with synth sounds and record vocals. I have several PCs with audio interfaces and mics. I have a roland FP10.
I’m thinking about getting a midi controller for the synth/drum stuff. Looks like Arturia has some 49 key controllers that have drum pads built in. And the Analog Lab Pro seems nice. I’m guessing Komplete is the biggest competitor? Probably with the A49? But it doesn’t have the drum pads.
Will Ableton Live lite work well for the DAW or should I get something different? I used to use cakewalk back in 2000 and I’ve messed with Studio One recently, but the vocoder for Arturia doesn’t seem compatible with Studio One. Any suggestions?

I love watching Christian Henson talking about and showing off VSTs. He has inspired me to try out some strings and brass and inspired me to keep exploring. He seems incredibly knowledgeable and has great taste. Whichever midi controller I get, I would like to use with with strings and brass as well.

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Father of the year :smiley:
Ableton is a solid choice me thinks

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yeah ableton is as good a daw as any, the FP10 has midi capabilities tho! but if you want the pads im an arturia user, i LOVE my keylab, it’s great i had the minilab and it did wonders for me too so yes on arturia.

however, you could just use the FP10 as a midi controller and that would also be enough, you just play the drums on the keys, its ultimately the same thing anyway.

i would recommend setting up the roland as a midi keyboard before buying anything see if your son even gets into it and if it looks like you’re all in the right track for an upgrade then go for a controller like that

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Most of my music includes beat making and synths.

I’d agree with the comments that the controller isn’t super important in the first stages.

For drum pads I find the ones on keyboard controllers a bit crap and “flappy” and not nearly as good as keys.
I believe many pro beat-makers prefer drum pads, but that they use the dedicated high-end ones that are built for purpose.

For DAW I use Logic which is great but I used to use Ableton which is also great from memory, very nice aesthetic to it, and unique creative tools.
But all DAWs offer something special, and maybe your Son could try demo versions first to get a feel for them.

Either way, I’d definitely recommend supplementing any DAW with Reason for using the Reason Rack (very compatible with most DAWs) the instruments and effects are brilliant.
I don’t use “Reason plus” as it is subscription nonsense and I hate that, but the standalone Reason is great.
But Reason is also a DAW, I just use the Rack part of it. When I used to use it as a DAW it was pretty decent, so you could get two-for-one there…

Other than that I’d recommend he try as many free instrument, sample and FX plugins as possible to develop a taste before buying too many products and beat libraries.
I still use a mix of free and paid things.

Much of what you can pay for in terms of beat making is creatable from scratch with synths and samplers anyway, and that’s lots of fun!

For vocals I get the impression you’ll have that covered with your existing set ups? But if not I don’t think there’s a topic for vocal mics yet so might be a good discussion.

I also assume you’ll have monitoring covered as well?
But for what it’s worth, for headphones I would definitely recommend a pair of DT770s or similar. My pair is 15 years old and I’ve only had to replace the velvet ear muffs and top padding!

I’m guessing you are already warning him about excessive loud monitoring, but if he’s new to it I’d keep an extra close eye on that, as beats and synths music is especially tempting to monitor ultra-LOUD. I got away with very mild tinnitus before I disciplined myself, and was very lucky considering!

Anyway I hope that helps!

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When picking a “family friendly” DAW pay attention to the learning curve. For example, Cubase is powerful but takes a PhD to understand (and it crashes, a lot). Ableton Live is solid and has extensive youtube tutorials. If your on a budget, check out Mixcraft; It’s basically Logic for PC.

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I think the selfish part of me wants the MKII so I can use the wheels on the left side for volume/velocity? control for instruments like strings and brass. And being able to change instruments from the keyboard would be really nice instead of having to go to the PC every time I want to change the sound.

Thanks to everyone for all the great info so far!

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well… the thing is the PC is always gonna be involved since that’s where the VSTs are running and where all the recording happens… so unless you’re recording on tape… you’re gonna be staring at the screen regardless… that being said tho! i support the arturia keylab essentials, i have the 88 and i love it, and the 49 is more than enough, i only got the 88 because i upgraded from an maudio keystation 49 and have been playing classical piano quite a lot so i needed the 88 keys but if it wasnt for that, i wouldve been fine with the 61, actually… if you only need the modwheel, an maudio keystation could do it for you, there’s 49, 61 and 88 version, they dont really have much just one fader, mod wheel and pitch bend, and a transport control but that can be enough depending on what you’re doing. it really comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish,

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Just chiming in here as well. I’ve spent a fair bit of time teaching music and music production. Also to children. And I can only echo what’s already been said here. The important thing is to start, the personal preferences of your kid and their style will become more clear once they’ve started. If they stick with it it’s certainly a plus if they can stay in the same ecosystem.

Ableton Live is a solid choice for a daw, so would Studio One, Reason, Reaper or FL studio be. I see most kids go for FL Studio or Ableton though, and there is a lot of online support for those. Arturia keylab or similar is a very solid controller. Both leave a lot of options open. I personally would not reach for Ableton Lite, and instead go one tier higher, at least. which provides more flexibility and a good deal of stock sounds to work with.

I know a lot of people like to go for some kind of “comprehensive” sounds package like Komplete, or equivalent options from UVI or Arturia. I don’t think that’s a great idea and in my experience often more overwhelming than helpful. But of course that always depends on the person and their style. I think a LOT can be done with free or very affordable plugins and sample libraries alla piano book, decent sampler, etc.

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in there as well :wink:
Also, I second that you are dad of the year for supporting your kids desire to explore their creativity!

Cheers

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Ableton 12 for sure (can also do video) and get him an NI Maschine controller for making beats…for the keys I myself usually just use an MPK mini plus (which also has pads), despite having numerous 88/61 key keyboards (Fantom 08, Korg Triton Extreme, Yamaha MO6, Kurzweil K2000, Modal Cobalt, Korg Opsix, Novation K-Station, etc.)…I also have an Arturia Keystep that I like for the on-board sequencing and arps. If you are in the USA, get them from Sweetwater to take advantage of the free 2 year no questions asked warranty (if the price is the same as elsewhere).

DAW - Ableton 12, Cockos Reaper, Magix Sequoia (Mastering)

WAV/AIFF editor - Magix Sound Forge, Steinberg Wavelab, Adobe Audition

Soft Synths - NI Kontakt, Decent Sampler (free), Audiomodern Soundbox (free), Soundpaint (free), Glen Stegner Minimoog (free) (Memorymoon website), Plogue Sforzando, UVI Falcon, Arturia Pigments, Xfer Records Serum, Softube, Bx Knifonium, NI Massive X, Dexed (free), Nils’ K1 (free), Synapse Audio Dune 3, Spire, U-he Diva (and everything else U-he makes), Clay and Kelsy (Kontakt), Cherry Audio, Togu Audio Line, XILS lab, Wavesequencer Hyperion and Theia, SoundDust (Kontakt), Vital, Sonic Academy/Slate Digital ANA2, Lennar Digital Sylenth, Kilohearts Phase Plant; get as many preset banks as possible from Vicious Antelope, Venus Theory (He has lots of free stuff too for Decent Sampler), Triple Spiral Audio, and LFO store…Install the Pulse Downloader app and check out the store on there (sometimes cheaper for Vicious Antelope banks and you get 5% cash back credit on everything; plus you will discover a bunch of good small developers…mostly Kontakt) (Goldbaby, Ergo Kukke, Synth Magic, Kompose, Have Audio, etc.)

Trap/Drill 808 romplers and soft synth presets - Angelicvibes

Lo-fi romplers - Quiet Music and Arturia Lo-fi

Old School 90’s Hardware Romplers/Keyboards - Roland JV1010, Roland XV2020, Kurzweil 1000px expander/1200 Pro, Yamaha MU128, Yamaha SY77, Kurzweil K2000/K2500, EMU Proteus series modules, Alesis QSR, Roland U-220, Roland M-GS64 Sound Expansion, Roland SoundCanvas series…get a line mixer and a 5 or 6-way midi splitter…get him into the old school workflow also…he can learn alot from layering these overlooked romplers (future classics) that you can pick up on the cheap.

Drum Samples - Goldbaby and Samples from Mars (they have sales where you get everything they make…also synth libraries for around $59 US several times a year…SFM is one of my favorite developers at any price; and they give you the libraries in every possible format…Maschine, MPC, Kontakt, Battery, .wav, Apple Logic Pro sampler, etc.)

Controller - Akai MPK mini plus (mini keys…you may not like it if you have stubby fingers; I have alien-sized hands lol, I find it perfect), Arturia Keystep 37 key, avoid NI Komplete Kontrol controllers (not a fan)…plus the Komplete Kontrol software now supports Akai and Arturia controllers.

Beats - NI Maschine, Audiomodern Playbeat, Akai MPC software

Wavetables - Ocean Swift Synthesis (also check out their Porphyra Hybrid Kontakt 8 collab with Sonora Cinematic)

Go check out Pianobook for a bunch of free Kontakt, Decent Sampler, SFZ Libraries.

Kontakt Libraries - Wrongtools, Sonora Cinematic, SoundDust, PulseSetter Sounds, Clay and Kelsy, Insanity Samples, Fracture Sounds, AVA Music Group, Battersea Audio, Sampletraxx (cinematic), Bela D, Tempest Audio, Teletone, Westwood Instruments, Tronsonic, Straight Ahead Samples, Rigid Audio, Performance Samples, Audiofier, Bunker Samples, SRM (Studio Richter-Mahr), Synth Magic, Embertone, Soundethers, iamlamprey, Sick Noise Instruments, Slate + Ash, Keepforest (cinematic), Auddict (cinematic), Castle Instruments, Crocus Soundware, Kirk Hunter Studios…too many to name LOL…

Mastering - Izotope Ozone

Headphones - IDK about the Beyerdynamics DT770s…Had several pairs, they all died in one ear…had to re-solder (fortunately I know how) new cables…Love the sound, but don’t step on the cables on them…my main headphones are open backs (not for tracking) Sennheiser 58x Jubilee and HD599s…

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