Classical Pianist Seeking The 21st Century Experience, so many options, so little time Options

[Ananda77]

Dear Friends
Please excuse my absolute ignorance of your world. I have suddenly woken up from the 19th century bubble of Chopin, conservatoires and Steinway pianos. I have now decided to invest 6-9 months of sabbatical on '21st century learning'. Electronic music; Final Cut to learn video editing; Dreamweaver and Photoshop to learn web design.

My budget for the music component is around 1000 pounds ( about 1500 us). I have a new iMac.
Here are some wishes of what to do and what to buy, slightly over budget:
Akai controller keyboard MPK 88 (600 pounds new , 900 us, obviously can buy cheaper used one.)
Motu Interface microlite. (88 pounds 130 us)
Software: Tracktion 3 (165 pounds, 225 us). Possibly Absynth 5. (375 pounds 560us)
I could try a music course in London such as Audio and sound engineering course, to dip my toe in the water. They do a day course for around £100 (about 150 us)

I want to achieve three things: 1) simply to get myself started in electronic music, so not scared away by the technology, but relaxing into / engaging in the process.
2) see if I can create big bands of interesting ambient sound. Im guessing with this wish its better I buy a midi controller that has lots of keys like a piano? Or can I get away with a smaller controller and spend more on software? I have a clavinova Yamaha which is nicely touch sensitive, but I guess I need a midi controller.
3) I want to explore audio/visual interface, to make sophisticated, creative music videos for youtube. I see this as being a new creative outlet for me when/if I can get to that stage of feeling comfortable with the technology. These might be of classical piano or of electronic music, I'm interested in the dovetailing of sound and image.
Any pointers in the general direction much appreciated! Thanks a lotl

Ce message a été modifié par Ananda77 - ven. 3 déc. 2010, 22:46.

[houstonmusic]

opinions vary. here's my two cents, as an accomplished pianist and electronic film and theater composer.

use two controllers. hook up your clavinova AND a small controller with knobs, sliders, and pads. keys from the clav, tweak from the knobs, etc.

decent monitors matter.

think about Propellerhead's "Reason" as an all in one solution for sounds and sequencing. it's a powerful, well established platform that is super robust and easy to learn. well supported on the web by users and third party developers. sounds great.

you'll experience some aesthetic knots.
to massage them i advise:
1. focus on the SOUND, not the harmony.
2. make a crappy piece EVERY DAY. some of them will be good. you'll notice what's important to you faster.

let us hear some of your work...!
good luck.

[jnoel4]

opinions vary. here's my two cents, as an accomplished pianist and electronic film and theater composer.

use two controllers. hook up your clavinova AND a small controller with knobs, sliders, and pads. keys from the clav, tweak from the knobs, etc.

decent monitors matter.

think about Propellerhead's "Reason" as an all in one solution for sounds and sequencing. it's a powerful, well established platform that is super robust and easy to learn. well supported on the web by users and third party developers. sounds great.

you'll experience some aesthetic knots.
to massage them i advise:
1. focus on the SOUND, not the harmony.
2. make a crappy piece EVERY DAY. some of them will be good. you'll notice what's important to you faster.

Very enlightening reply, applies to aspiring recording guitarist such as myself as well. Not meaning to add any confusion but since iMac is the platform, suggest you look into Apple's Logic Studio program which has incredible value for the cost involved.

let us hear some of your work...!
good luck.

[whispersandstare...]

A previous poster suggested that you might want to explore using Logic (an powerful industry standard, but highly complex DAW not for the beginner, generally speaking). Although Logic is worth exploring at some point, without sounding too petulant, I believe this would be more like suggesting that you jump into a Bugati after getting your drivers license rather than a reasonably priced Ford.* At any rate, my two pence are as follows:

-- Buy yourself a decent keyboard/midi controller (at least 61 keys with weighted or semi-weighted keys). This is the tool you're most familiar with--you should have a good one.

-- You have an iMac; use the tools that came with it. The easiest way to learn to record and work with music digitally, including MIDI (without exception, I believe) is to use Garageband. Garageband s already installed on your mac. Not only does this save you money, its incredibly intuitive interface makes it easy to learn and use. It also comes with a decent basic library of sounds, and is actually quite a powerful application for what it does. I've written many tracks with it with good results. Some people use Garageband as a "scratch pad" to jot down their ideas, then use Logic to hone, flesh them out, and perfect them.

Hope this helps.

* When you're ready for Logic (also an Apple product; the two are meant to work together), it works seamlessly with Garageband. After mastering the basics in Garageband, Logic will open up your Garageband projects, and keep all of your settings intact.