@Jack_Batty, it sounds like you have the gear already, and drums aren’t that hard to work with. Most people don’t have easy access to them, so there are plenty of solutions that have been developed. Depending on what you want to do, you can find drum MIDI files that you just drop into either Ableton or Cakewalk.
Real drums are difficult to mic and produce well, anyway. Plus, they’re really loud for an acoustic instrument. Unless you’ve got access to a really good drummer who refuses to help you program the drum machine or you’re a band the performs in a jam fashion, you’re better off with the drum machine.
But I don’t know Ableton or Cakewalk from shinola (my DAW is Ardour, and my sample based software drum machine is Hydrogen). Find a drum machine that works with whatever DAW you end up being comfortable with and go.
ETA: If someone really doesn’t want to figure out how to use a DAW/interface/mics/etc and they do generally perform their music live, I’d suggest a stereo hand held recorder. I’ve used a couple of different TASCAM models to record practices for review over the years. I’m always impressed by the stereo recordings they produce. If I bothered to stereo mic the drums in the 3-4 channels on my current one, they’d be demo worthy with a little massaging.
Since this sort of thing was being discussed, I will throw out there that some years ago there was a demo/prototype of a program/plugin to “humanize” a metronomic-sounding drum pattern by adjusting the timing and velocity of each note:
Of course, if you have some way of drumming a pattern into a drum machine, or you program it yourself, it is possible to do better. It is an example of the type of model-based algorithm that has been popular in recent years, in any case.
The computer isn’t writing the novel. The writer is. Here, let me ask you this. Can you play your compositions on an instrument? Any instrument?
Yes, I can. And in fact, I have.
The computer isn’t composing my music. I am. I’m using the computer to do the notation.
I’ve tried to avoid personal insults, but I’m happy to join if that’s the route you want to take.
This is OOZING with insult. To the point where I considered reporting it for threadshitting. You don’t think we’re real composers, fine. Move on. Nobody cares. It seems like hardly anybody agrees with you (see the other thread).
Your calling a lot of well-established musicians and composers not real musicians. As a quick example, Laurie Spiegel. Your viewpoint is not consistent with the scholarly view on music.
You seem confused. I’m not issuing edicts. I’m stating an opinion you don’t like. Deal with it.
And that is entirely right. Eno doesn’t consider himself a musician, and for good reason. He’s not.
A difference of opinion isn’t threadshitting. I’m entirely on topic and saying I don’t agree. I believe that’s allowed here. Or does everyone have to agree with you?
Is it on topic to come into a thread and start insulting people by calling them not real musicians? I don’t see that as any different than coming into a thread on TV Show X and say “Show X is awful, it isn’t a real TV show. Nobody should watch it, and you’re not real tv watchers for enjoying it”, when people are trying to discuss the show and what they enjoy about it. I tell you what, I’ll report it and we’ll let a mod decide.
If you are actually playing all of the notes in your music, then you are obviously a musician. But it does not sound that way, nor does it sound like you are only using computers for notation and sound generation. I head massive amounts of quantization, for example. Perhaps you just do a really good impression of computer-generated music. In which case, I apologize.
I’ve said that I don’t consider computer generated music to be real music. I never said nobody should listen to it, or enjoy it. And I never said you weren’t a real musician. I don’t particularly think your music is all that good, nor do I think it would pass muster professionally. That opinion is based on decades of professional experience. But, it is only my opinion, and I’m fully aware that other might not agree.
Honestly, with your attitude, I really don’t care at all what you think about my music. I’m all for constructive criticism, but I think if you look back at your posts, then you will find that they are anything but. They are dismissive, condescending, and arrogant.
Out of curiosity, and to establish your credentials if we are to accept you as an expert in musicianship and composition, what has been your most successful song?
I was recently hired to do an orchestral soundtrack for a video game (not AAA, but high level indie, lets say A to AA). I guess there are people that just don’t agree with you.
Surely music has, perhaps even at its essence, a lot of mathematical and other structure. What is wrong with investigating that? There is no guarantee one will arrive at beautiful music by investigating a bunch of formal or algorithmic procedures, but who is to say one will not arrive at something interesting? Nor does it imply that the person doing so does not have any “feel” for music or improvisation or other technical skill. One person I met was classically trained, encountered computer programming, and at some point had the not-necessarily-even-original idea, “Hey, maybe it is possible to sonicify what a computer algorithm does and turn it into music.” Cf. Serialism
IMO if you know what you are doing, the computer becomes just another musical instrument, and one that demands a level of virtuosity no less than for traditional musical instruments to get good results out of.
[Moderating]
@Disinfectus, it’s perfectly fine to not like a particular work of art, or a particular method of creating art. But to come into a thread about people creating music and to declare that they’re not actually creating music is awfully close to threadshitting. I’m sure some folks in this thread have posted samples of what they’ve created-- If you’ve listened to any of it and don’t like it, you’re free to say so, but don’t just bash everyone as “not really composers”.
I’m not going to give away any details that reveal my personal identity, but my most successful song would be the one that was nominated for a Grammy award in 1992 (sadly, we didn’t win). I’ve written music for the Cousteau Society, Honda, Samsung, Roland, Toshiba, PCH Sportswear, HKS Racing, Oakley Sunglasses, and many, many others. I’ve been an on-call studio musician for over a dozen, well established recording studios in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. I’m also a graduate of the Musician’s Institute and studied under a number of famous musicians including Greg Mathieson, Ralph Humphrey, Joe Porcaro and many others. Other than that, I really don’t know anything at all.
Thanks. I’ll take you at your word. I understand the desire to stay anonymous. It certainly sounds like you have a lot of experience.
1 - I’d like to officially remove my entry in this fine thread because I basically completely misunderstood what this thread was all about.
And …
B - That was pretty much the most impressive, “in your face,” I’ve seen on these boards.
Well, you state them like edicts, so I think I can be forgiven for being confused.
He’s put out an awful lot of records with music on them for someone who’s not a musician. Oh well. I guess that’s just like, eh, your opinion, man.
It’s his opinion.
And yet he still persists in making music, or at least musical works of art.