The Thummer from Thumtronics, I came across this new piece of kit via a post on Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog and I was quite impressed by it. The Thummer has lots of buttons in a new styled layout combined with the abilities to manipulate the sounds it creates via it’s internal synthesizer.

Whether this will take off I’m not sure but but according to Thumtronics they say that it is easier to learn than most instruments due to the layout of the buttons. The layout enables all chords to have the same pattern (shape) of notes and not differing shapes such as on the piano (which have various patterns of black and white note patterns depending on what key you play) or on the guitar with different finger shapes for the different chords.

They also say it is more expressive (than current synthesizers) as the design allows you to hold it in your hands and control the sound via some joysticks where your thumbs are located. It has pressure sensitive buttons and you can also change the make up of the sound it creates via motion sensors. (Wow!) - Check out the vids below to see this in action.

I like the look of this, which is why I wanted to bring it to your attention. I would absolutely love one of these, especially if it had MIDI capabilities (I can’t find anything on the site about this) so it could be hooked up to any piece of software such as VSTis. It’s also a very visual instrument too, due to the motion sensors and so I think it will work well for live bands as the audience can see the sound being manipulated.

Enjoy the videos and check out the The Thummer site for more info and some more videos.

Over the next few days Rhythm Creation is going to go way back down to basics by writing some beginners guides. There are loads of people out there that want to start creating and producing their own music and need a little help to get started. I was a music beginner once too and these beginners guides are hopefully going to grow into a huge guide that I would have loved to of had to hand when I first started.

I am an electronic musician and so you may find at times throughout this guide that it is more aimed at musicians who are looking to producing electronic based music, I shall cover all genres and styles of producing as best as I can. You may also find at times that you may disagree with me as some of the things that I will talk about will be my opinion only and there may well be other methods and different ways of doing things, if you do disagree with me write it in the comments of the post and I shall bring your ideas and thoughts up from the comments and into the main articles.

All beginners articles can be found in the Beginners Section under the heading “Beginners Guide To Music Production”.

Part 1 - Equipment.
To start producing your own tracks the first thing your going to need to think about is the equipment your going to need. Each musician is going to have a different set of equipment that they use, obviously a guitar player is going to have his guitar, amplifier and cables for example (which are not on this list). But this equipment list below is what I think is a minimum for anyone wanting to start to record and write music at home, no matter what instrument you play or genre of music you are going to be creating. You may find that you already own some of these items (for example the computer as you must be using one to read this) and you may be surprised at how small the list actually is to get started.

Hardware and Software
Music can be produced using both hardware and software. At one time music was produced solely using hardware but due to advancements in computer speeds, all music production tasks can now be achieved using software. Hardware is still used a lot in music production (Music producers love their mixing desks, hardware effects units and especially their hardware synthesizers) but as computer software can now compete extremely well with hardware and because you are new to music production I would suggest you stick mainly with software for the moment. You will find that at a later stage you can advance to using both software and hardware together and because most software is actually based on their hardware counterparts there will be no need to relearn anything you have learnt, should you want to go the hardware route at a later date.

Even though we are going to go the software route you are still going to need some hardware equipment to run the software as well as be able to record both instrument and note information (MIDI Data - We will go into this later) into the software enviroment.

Computer
This is obvious, but yes your going to need a computer and obviously you are using one to read this, but is your computer going to be fast enough to run any music software your going to be using.

Basically the faster the computer you have the better experience you are going to have producing your music. Music software can take up a lot of system resources due to it’s complexity and whilst it may be written on the software box or web site that the recommended requirements are low, you may find that once you start using the software and have lots of different channels all playing together that the computer just isn’t going to cope with it. A fast processor and lots of RAM are needed to allow your computer to cope better.

You are also going to need lots of hard drive space as music files and recordings can take up lots of gigabytes. Hard drives are cheap these days so this shouldn’t be the problem it once was. You will also want a DVD/CD writer so you can hand out CDs of you produced tracks and also back up your work.

If you need to buy a new computer you may want to build the computer yourself (It’s not as hard as you think). I did this myself for mine and you will find there are some benefits to doing this as you can choose the components yourself to create a better computer that’s specifically designed with music in mind. For example you can find cooling systems without fans, quieter cases, quieter hard drives and graphics cards without cooling fans on. All aimed at reducing the sound that the computer makes in your audio enviroment.

Soundcard
The most important component of your computer if you’re a musician. The main thing to watch out for is going to be latency which needs to be as low as possible. A high latency will make your computer unusable for recording music, as everything you record or play in will be behind everything else in your track. ASIO Support (Audio Stream Input/Output) is a must if you are going to be using Windows and a nice amount of audio inputs (with low noise). Read reviews of soundcards in magazines and on other review type web sites to make sure the soundcard you choose to buy is going to be the right one for you.

You may find you can use your current soundcard and if you do have latency issues you may find you can solve your latency issues by searching the web for better drivers. The KX Project drivers for example works with EMU10K1 and EMU10K2-based sound cards such as the Soundblaster Live and virtually eliminates latency issues.

Monitors/Speakers
If you are serious about music production you should spend a good amount of money on some near-field studio monitors as your tracks will benefit a great deal in sound quality and should sound great no matter where they are played. Near-field monitors are different to normal speakers/stereo systems as they are designed to show you exactly what your music really sounds like without affecting the sound in anyway. They are also designed to be listened to with you closer to them than conventional listening speakers. Active monitors will already have a power amplifier, passive monitors need an external power amp.

If you can’t afford a decent set of monitors or don’t want to invest just yet, you can still use a decent normal speaker and amp or stereo system setup. But make sure you turn off any enhancements that the stereo or amplifier creates usually called something like Bass Enhancement or Rock/Jazz/Dance settings and turn any EQ (possibly called Bass and Treble) to their central positions. With a standard pair of speakers you are going to need to do a lot of listening on different systems such as car stereos, headphones, friend’s systems etc to get better mixes that sound good where ever they are played.

Never use those small computer speakers, it won’t be worth the time trying to get your tracks sounding right and use a good cable to connect the soundcard to the system/amplifier.

MIDI Controller
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a data system that is used between different instruments (and your computer) to send note and time information. No audio recording (sound) is contained within MIDI, it is only computer bits and bytes (digital data). A MIDI controller is typically a musical keyboard with other various controls such as faders and pads that are used to play notes into your tracks. If you are only going to be recording traditional instruments with microphones such as guitars and drums then you may not need one, but they aren’t expensive and owning one will open many new avenues for your music. If you are going to be producing electronic based music then a MIDI controller is an essential piece of kit.

There are tons of different MIDI controllers available on the market today, some with musical keyboard layouts, some with pads and faders, there are even guitars and drum kits which act as MIDI controllers. But I’m specifically talking about a keyboard layout one with at least 2 octaves of keys and one that also has some faders on to control certain sound aspects as you play. Always make sure the keys have touch sensitivity and aftertouch, these features change the sound played depending on how hard the note is being pressed (These are typically a standard feature, but check to make sure if your buying a cheaper or older second hand one).

You are also going to need a MIDI cable if one doesn’t come with your MIDI controller to connect your MIDI controller to your soundcard (The input may be called a joystick input on your soundcard).

Microphone(s)
If you plan on recording full drum kits then you are going to need quite a few microphones to get a studio produced sound. If you are going to be using drum samples then you shouldn’t need to have as many, in fact you may get by with only having one. Even if you are producing synthesizer and sample based only music, I can’t stress enough how you should still have a good basic microphone to hand for recording your own samples.

There are many good microphones on the market, but for the beginner music producer I would advise getting a Shure SM57 (A bright sounding vocal and instrument microphone) or a Shure SM58 (Go for this one if you are doing lots of vocals). You can’t go wrong with these microphones, they are classics, built to last, can take very loud sounds and don’t need an external power source. They are also very well priced and will give you very good quality sound for your money.

Part 1 Conclusion
This list is to help people get started, obviously there is loads more kit a musician could own, but hopefully this has given you an insight into the basic equipment needed for you to start producing your own tracks. This list will change slightly for each person, but once you have all the equipment above you shouldn’t need much more apart from the software and any instruments you might play to get started.

Beginners Guide To Music Production - Part 2 - Choosing Your Software

Written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

Found this great little video made by a company called Animusic. It’s animated and shows some great video-music synchronization work.

Animusic has got loads of other videos using different instruments and settings available on their DVDs but this one seems to be one of the more popular ones. I’m not sure whether this sort of thing could be made for real, that truly would be amazing.

I found the video on The Internet Archive where there are also some download links if you love it so much you want to keep it. Enjoy!


Original Video on The Internet Archive

Searching through some videos on YouTube and I came across some videos of some very talented Glass Harp players that I wanted to share.

Here is a selection of my favourite ones I came across.

It must take a while to set up and tune these everytime, but the end result is a very nice sound. I wonder how often the glasses crack whilst being played. enjoy!


Original YouTube Posting by MetricSuperstar.


Original YouTube Posting by adamrcath.


Original YouTube Posting by cooterwillis.


Original YouTube Posting by BSICollision.

If you find any more great glass harp videos post the urls to them in the comments section of this post.

Great little video showing the talented musician SaReGaMa playing a Kalimba Solo from his track Air. The Kalimba is an instrument I don’t see often and this video shows off the instrument very well.

If you are interested in hearing more music from SaReGaMa you can visit his personal site.

You can also find his album Inward Journey available now on both eMusic and also Napster.


Original YouTube Video

VSTi instruments (also known as Softsynths or Virtual Instruments) are plugins which are run by a VSTi host. A VSTi host which usually comes in the form of a sequencer and some of the most popular VSTi hosts are Cubase, Ableton Live, FruityLoops Studio and Cakewalk Sonar. The VSTi instruments add a new instrument to the VSTi hosts which allows for more and different sounds to be produced. If you can't get your head round it then the best way to look at it is to imagine the VSTi host acts like an operating system such as Windows which runs programs which are the VSTi instruments.

VSTi instruments come in different forms but are usually in the form of a softsynth, a synthesizer made in software as opposed to the classic way of making a synth in hardware. Some softsynths can be just as good if not better than their similar hardware versions as softsynths allow for unlimited saving space for presets and sounds as well as the ability to run multiple instances of a single synth allowing two sounds to be played simultaneously.

To allow for ultimate control over a softsynth it is best to use a MIDI controller which allows the softsynth to be used with a hardware interface. This allows for ultimate control of both playing and adjusting the sounds. Settings can be controlled on the screen using a standard mouse easily enough but playing the notes you want will be a bit more tricky.

The great thing about VSTi instruments is that they are cheaper than hardware and you won't have to find more room to store them in the place you use for music making. You don't need any extra cables, plugs or stands. The downsides are that they can take up a lot of system resources on your computer so lots of ram and a good processor are needed, especially if you plan on running multiple VSTi instruments at the same time.

VSTis designed for Windows come in the the form of a .DLL file and for the MAC a .VST file. This file needs to be placed or installed into your VSTis plugin directory or into an appropriately named folder within that directory. Your VSTis plugin directory can usually be set in the preferences of your VSTi host which will then be able to be located and load it up into its own channel ready to be sequenced.

If you don't currently own a VSTi host then I would suggest trying a small piece of software called Savihost created by Hermann Seib. This free software enables you to basically run a VSTi in a standalone state. Whilst this is not the most ideal way to run a VSTi host compared to a sequencer, it does allow you the chance to try out VSTi's before investing in a sequencer or to run them in standalone mode without loading up a full sequencer . To use Savihost just rename the Savihost.exe to the name of the .DLL file of the VSTi Instrument you want to use which should be located in the same directory as the Savihost.exe file.

Download Savihost


If you want to try out a brilliant and free (yes free) VSTi Instrument then you can't go wrong with The Claw from ReFx. You can download The Claw for the ReFX links below.

Download Claw For Windows
Download Claw For Mac
Download Claw Manual

You should hopefully now be well on your way that you can start using VSTis in your music, there are some great ones available and it opens up new doors to lots of new sounds.

Tutorial written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation