Experimental Electronic Music and Mixcraft

SymmetryofIllusion · Post by **SymmetryofIllusion** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:55 pm

Hello. Nice to make your acquaintance, you seem like friendly people here. I have been using the demo of Mixcraft 5, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me with my dilemma.

I have a particular passion for experimental electronic music, and would love to incorporate such qualities into my own music - especially the weird, techy synth sounds and styles.. IÃ”Ã‡Ã–ve sampled demos of several (and what I are purported to be, and forgive me if I am wrong, entry level) programs - Magix Music Maker 16, FL Studio 9, and then Mixcraft. FL seemed quite obviously more complex.

A general online consensus (from what IÃ”Ã‡Ã–ve seen) seems to be that programs like Cubase, Logic, and Reason are the preferred DAWs, albeit more expensive (hence my refusal to sample them as of yet).

Of what I did demo, FL Studio seemed possibly more able than the others to do what I am looking for, however I find its interface incredibly confusing. There doesnÃ”Ã‡Ã–t appear to be much order, itÃ”Ã‡Ã–s just - all there, all at once...ItÃ”Ã‡Ã–s rather counter-intuitive to me. This person at BandAmp put it well here: http://forum.bandamp.com/The_Pit/6903.html#id6941

I've read about REAPER - nothing but great things (especially for the price!); however it seems like this is less suited to electronic music, and the kind of fine-tuning I would need to do and not have a headache.

Then of course IÃ”Ã‡Ã–ve seen the open source stuff - It seems great, however, the top candidate for Windows, though, seems to be LMMS (apparently modeled after, what do ya know, FruityLoops).

Oi, IÃ”Ã‡Ã–ve gotten myself into a predicament. I only can afford between $100-$200. IÃ”Ã‡Ã–m trying to find something that is well designed for electronic music, is affordable, and isnÃ”Ã‡Ã¿t a headache to use. IÃ”Ã‡Ã–d love to edit the socks off of sounds, and really tweak and make my music quite unique - The experimental process is very important.

How would Mixcraft handle this sort of thing? ItÃ”Ã‡Ã–s so easy to use, but it doesnÃ”Ã‡Ã–t seem as apt at the really, really fine details that IÃ”Ã‡Ã–m looking for (at least thus far in my experience - IÃ”Ã‡Ã–m still such a novice, forgive my ignorance). Could I link up Mixcraft with a program like LMMS, and other various internet tidbits (or does LMMS lack said features too).

If not Mixcraft, then what do you suggest?

Thanks so much for reading, sorry if it was long!

fredfish · Post by **fredfish** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:36 am

More complex doesent always mean better. Mixcraft is an extremly versatile and powerful piece of kit.

I would be very surprised if you cant achieve what you want using a combination of mixcrafts built in tool and instruments along with 3rd party .vsti instruments (probably samplers in your case).

I cant pretend that I am particularly into the type of music that you describe, I did a bit of a search on the net for "experimental electronic music" and came up with a couple of examples. Listening to them I think that your biggest issue it the method that you use to get your sounds into Mixcraft in the first place, that issue will be there whatever software you use.

Remember that all of the software packages that you mention (even those costing hundreds of pounds) are just ways of storing and then manipulating the sounds that YOU create. Mixcraft may do things in different ways to some of the software you mention, but I think you would be hard pressed to find something that you can do in the other packages that you cant do in Mixcraft.

In particluar I think the way that Mixcraft works with external instruments (.vsti) is extremly good. The looping facilities are great as well.

Mattox · Post by **Mattox** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:08 am

Hey mate,

I'm a fellow electronic based musician; in all truth you can do everything you need in Mixcraft. I do find that it takes a little longer to do things in Mixcraft than in FL Studio but as with everything, the more you use it the faster you'll become.

I really like where Mixcraft is going, the developers are friendly and listen to suggestions. The VST instrument support is top notch, you can create layered presets which allows you to build some monster synths.

Yes there are some features that would make music production faster and easier (drum maps, step sequencer, improved midi) but with the pace of development we may see some of that stuff next major update.

Download the demo and have a play around. If you want examples of tracks I've made with Mixcraft http://www.soundcloud.com/khaos-disorder

But if you find that Mixcraft isn't for you I suggest checking out Synapse Orion, its much like Reason, but allows you to use VST's.

Matt

R0ckerb0y · Post by **R0ckerb0y** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:37 am

I've come to the point where I'd like a little more editing capability over the individual tracks (reversing part of a wav file for instance) and from what I've read, Sony Sound Forge and Mixcraft would be a good pairing of tools. (It just costs a bunch of money for sound forge).

Btw, fredfish, are you the same guy from the Amiga shareware collection days??

wretched_aaron · Post by **wretched_aaron** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:44 pm

Yes! Sound Forge... I'm saving up for that.
Mixcraft and Sound Forge will become good friends on my computer. :-]

Reason will be joining them someday soon.

OzRob · Post by **OzRob** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:54 pm

Another voice here to say you can do electronic experimental music in Mixcraft. I do it myself. Particularly cinematic style stuff.

fredfish · Post by **fredfish** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:08 am

R0ckerb0y wrote:I've come to the point where I'd like a little more editing capability over the individual tracks (reversing part of a wav file for instance) and from what I've read, Sony Sound Forge and Mixcraft would be a good pairing of tools. (It just costs a bunch of money for sound forge).

Btw, fredfish, are you the same guy from the Amiga shareware collection days??

R0ckerb0y

You are the only other person I have come across that remembers Fred Fish. No I am not Fred (who sadly died of a heart attack in 2007). But that is where I took my name from! My real name is John. I have a great fondness for my amiga days (I still have an amiga 4000) and started using the name about 10 years ago as it is a name people appear to remember.

R0ckerb0y · Post by **R0ckerb0y** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:38 am

fredfish wrote:
R0ckerb0y wrote:I've come to the point where I'd like a little more editing capability over the individual tracks (reversing part of a wav file for instance) and from what I've read, Sony Sound Forge and Mixcraft would be a good pairing of tools. (It just costs a bunch of money for sound forge).

Btw, fredfish, are you the same guy from the Amiga shareware collection days??
R0ckerb0y

You are the only other person I have come across that remembers Fred Fish. No I am not Fred (who sadly died of a heart attack in 2007). But that is where I took my name from! My real name is John. I have a great fondness for my amiga days (I still have an amiga 4000) and started using the name about 10 years ago as it is a name people appear to remember.

I spent a few years in the 90s as president of our local Amiga users group! (I still have my A1200). I even flew to St. Louis in '97 to meet Petro Tschenko when Gateway bought Amiga. Curse them.

Best System/OS ever built. R.I.P. Fred Fish