Beginner Needs Advice - Industrial-esque music

[Laibach]

Hi there,

 

I'm interested in making music in both a heavy industrial vein, similar to Laibach, Swans, etc. as well as more ambient/cultish stuff like Coil, Current Ninety Three, etc. I'm not sure where to begin or what kind of equipment would be best. I know that I want to use all electronic/computer equipment - no traditional stuff. Any advice is appreciated.

[Harp Heaven]

Lets see, first you need a sampler. I posted a question a few days ago. The topic is called "Buying my first sampler". Samplers are good for tweaking sounds, and performing real-time.

 

I believe industrial music is pretty much sample based, so a good investment would be Acid Pro. Go to http://www.sonicfoundry.com . Its a sequencer type program that lets you do a lot of really cool stuff that neither Cakewalk nor Cubase can do. My friend has it and is very pleased with it.

 

The next thing you should look for are sample CD`s. These are available in lots of different types.

 

Go to: http://www.samplearena.com

 

They are advertising an Industrial Toolkit sampler CD. Should get you going for a while.

 

For synth sounds I would go for a virtual analog, as you most likely won`t need things like pianos, organs, as these can be found in samples. Clavia Nordlead and Roland JP-8000 are both very good, but I honestly don`t know what qualities you are after.

 

(If I`m wrong, please correct me, since I by no means am an expert, I`m just retelling from what people I know, use, and what common sense would imply.)

[Shiver]

hi Laibach,

...if you're new to this, hardware samplers can be difficult. With things like Halion or EXS24, learning how sampling and synthesis works can be alot easier and alot more fun.

If i was building a workstation to do industrial, i'd probably go this route:

1) good computer with tons of hard-drive space

2) ACID 3/Sonar -either one, probably Sonar.

3) Cubase or Logic - this way you can export stuff out of ACID or Sonar in it's timestretched form and re-build the song with your new loops in Cubase or Logic. Then you can start working MIDI magic.

4) Halion (Cubase) or EXS24 (Logic)

5) Sample CD's - Start with something that has alot of good quality drums/drum loops. Percussion is the basis for most innovative industrial.

6) Analog synth- Clavia Nord, Novation, Access, Waldorf, any of these are bad-ass IMO. Harp Heaven is right, you're not likely going to need all the run-of-the-mill sounds...you just need noises that you can tweek, ...anything else can be found in Halion (pianos, guitars, etc.) and they're better than anything in any keyboard because the samples are so large.

That should keep you rolling for a while. Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers,

Shiver