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Ask HN: Do you create music? Let's hear it!

89 points by kyro ↗ HN
I've noticed that many of the hackers I've spoken to create their own music. I myself dabble in digital music, hip hop beats and what not, and know that others in this community do as well. I thought it'd be interesting to see the musical productions of hackers here. Maybe we'll see some patterns, who knows. So if you're a musician, pro or amateur, let's hear it.

Also, please specify what software you use, if any, in creating your music, for recording/mixing/mastering/etc.

I'll start with myself - http://www.virb.com/kyro - nothing terribly impressive. I have gotten much better since, I will tell you! I use Logic Pro 8 mainly now, but have also used Reason 4. Notes are entered in using a MIDI keyboard.

124 comments

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dkersten
I mess about with Reason 4 and a MIDI keyboard, but I'm pretty bad at it and have nothing worth sharing ;-)

My little brother is pretty good at it though and has just started studying sound engineering.

tlrobinson
Me too. I built a x0xb0x (http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/ - it's a pretty impressive project, Ladyada does great stuff) a few years ago and play around with it occasionally, but I've realized I'm much better at enjoying other people's music than creating my own.
aaronblohowiak
the 303 has quite possibly the worst interface in the history of the galaxy (imnsho)
tlrobinson
I wasn't sure if it was 303 or the x0xb0x, but I agree (they're slightly different, I think. I haven't used a real 303)
dkersten
Regardless, I'd love a x0xb0x :-P One day, one day...
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trafficlight
I use FL Studio myself. http://thesixtyone.com/abledanger

I've also recorded some vocals using Adobe Audition and the USB Rock Band microphone. Not too shabby.

kyro
Great stuff. That's the kind of stuff I'd love to be able to make. I just really haven't gotten a hang of things that well yet. How long have you been doing this for? Do you have any resources that helped you along the way, other than just trial and error?
trafficlight
I started the first part of 2008. I don't have any musical training other than playing saxophone for a year in the 6th grade.

It's all been trial and error for me. Youtube has actually been very helpful in learning FL Studio. There are a lot of great howto videos out there. I also try to imitate parts of songs I really like. A drum loop, a melody, or a particular effect.

I also think one of the biggest factors is thesixtyone.com itself. The people on there are so helpful and encouraging you can't help but make better music.

JMiao
thanks. i've noticed a greater number of artists using thesixtyone to test/iterate on demos...one is even financing his entire canadian tour from tips on t61 (bankai).

i suspect basic track analytics on t61 would create a lot of value for artists -- this is why we're hiring.

http://www.thesixtyone.com/static/jobs/

trafficlight
I'm glad to hear about the analytics.

Funny you brought up the Bankai tour. I'm planning on driving to Vancouver myself to see it.

A little background on the tour. Bankai is an electronic artist from Australia. He puts out some awesome music. A bunch of people from the t61 group Electro Freaks live in or around the Vancouver area and they decided to put together a series of shows featuring Bankai and other t61 artists. Bankai is crowdsourcing his trip to Canada. So far he has raised $1450.

Check out his progress here: http://www.bankai.fm/vancouver/

[dead] willdayble
Hi, I am Bankai.

It's not that T61 tips are 'funding' it as such (it's actually simply mp3 sales/tips I've already made on there that I'm putting towards it), as much as T61 is the place where everyone involved with helping fund the tour has come from.

To be specific, it's actually the core of the 'Electro Freaks' T61 group (http://www.thesixtyone.com/group/Electro+Freaks/

) who are helping to fund the tour.

Point being, T61 is excellent with it's artist --> fanbase direct connectivity and thus full to the brim with awesome.

Thanks Jmiao :)

[dead] willdayble
oh, and fuck yes analytics. People have spoken about scraping T61 to try hack together our own, we want it that much. :)
nihilocrat
edit : I just logged in and noticed that I can upload a song a day on top of my limit, so some of my criticism is invalid. Thanks for the change, and for the advice!

I posted some songs to thesixtyone (http://www.thesixtyone.com/#/nihilocrat/) and wasn't happy with the experience. I'm guessing it's my own fault for sucking, but I do have to fault the site for having a "winner take all" attitude towards artists.

You're in a bad situation if the public doesn't like the tracks you post when you post them. You're practically invisible if you don't get lots of votes immediately, appealing specifically to thesixtyone's community tastes. I don't mean to whine, but I don't see hardly any downtempo/triphop with lots of bumps and thus there's not much encouragement for someone producing such tracks to post on thesixtyone.

To the victors, the spoils, but it's even more humiliating when you're unnoticed and forever stuck at Level 1. thesixtyone is definitely a listener's site (duh) because it doesn't encourage you to post partial songs you are working on and practically no one gives you technical criticism, merely things like "I like it when the song gets heavier in the middle". No one seems to be iterating on their tracks but instead submit only complete ones. Please excuse me if my anecdotal observations here don't match up with any metrics you've put together, maybe I have tunnel vision because I listen almost exclusively to the "dance" and "electronica" portions of the site.

About the Level 1 ghetto, is it meant to encourage us to just start over again with completely new tracks or is that just a side effect?

Even with these reservations, I think thesixtyone is a great music site with a great community.

trafficlight
First of all, I just gave your tracks a listen. I think they are fantastic.

Second, t61 changed the song upload rules a few weeks ago. You can upload one new song a day regardless of your level.

I think the best way to increase your listener and heart count is to be as engaged as possible.

- Create a listener account.

- Join a group. The Electro Freaks would appreciate what you are offering http://www.thesixtyone.com/group/Electro+Freaks/

- Add constructive comments on lots of songs.

prateekdayal
I am a hacker and an amateur musician myself. Two years back when I realised that there is no service where you can upload audio and receive community help from the same platform (the only option then was to share your mp3 link on a php BB music forum and the experience sucked), I started http://www.muziboo.com - a social platform for sharing and discussing music. This is a place where other musicians can collaborate with your or offer technical help. Even though, my musical aspirations have taken a back seat because coding for Muziboo itself takes a lot of time, I have a learnt a lot through the community. The best part is the kind of collaborations that happen across georgraphies and genres. Am sure you will appreciate it.

Would love to get your feedback on the site. Please use the contact form (link in footer).

PS: I love t61 as a listener .. esp the fact that music keeps playing no matter what you do .. great interaction design there!

lux
Gotta say, thesixtyone.com is my new favourite site! And that's speaking both as a listener and an artist. I've bought 3 albums in the past week from t61 artists.

I'm going to get everyone I can hooked on it! :)

lucifer
Thanks++ for the 61 link! Great stuff (and your's was pretty good too).
lsternlicht
Trafficlight, this is some really good stuff you got going. Keep it up! Especially Topography of the Sun
aaronblohowiak
I like the production value, but I think it's past time we put 'Amen Brother' out to pasture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
simplify
I disagree. I believe its discovery and wide use turns it into a respectable genre. Its use shouldn't be looked down upon any more than the use of the blues progression.
gdp
Neat thread, I'm keen to see what comes out of it.

I've since moved away, but I was in a band called Dynamo Go back in New Zealand. We released an album for free in April this year:

http://www.dynamo-go.com/

Drums were tracked in a pro studio using protools, then the rest of the album was recorded using Ardour and UbuntuStudio with LADSPA plugins. The final master was done by somebody else using some other software.

We had done a couple of EPs and had been pretty unimpressed by the immense financial risks we had to take in order to get a distributor on board - having gone down that path previously and having had to work exceptionally hard just to recoup our investment, we released the full album for free, based on the fact that it involved zero upfront investment and lots more people would hear it. It worked out pretty well. It still gets half a dozen downloads a week, last time I checked my webserver stats.

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mattdennewitz
http://myspace.com/motion

two of us, both in chicago. npr says we "reinvent phil spectors wall of sound as a 50 foot tall electric fence." software-wise, we use ableton live for loop control.

will be headlining our label showacse @ midpoint music fest (cincinnati, oh) on sept. 27, then pop montreal (montreal, quebec, canada) on oct. 3, if anyone wants to swing in and geek out!

kyro
Awesome. I've tried getting into Live before, but the interface was a bit too different for my tastes. Everyone I speak to says great things about it though, and how it handles sampling/audio really well. I should give it another go.

Congrats on the shows!

mattdennewitz
thanks!

live makes loop construction and synchronized playback as easy as clicking a mouse. its just plain amazing. everything from there on is icing on the icing on the cake.

eswat
I mostly just mess around with Korg DS-10 for the Nintendo DS. I'm very much an amateur so it takes me a long time to create anything listenable with it...
pie
I've been a musician for about 12 years. Lost focus recently; too busy concentrating on programming projects, and much of the work is remarkably similar.

Mostly I've used Cubase for sequencing and audio (although I've used Pro Tools, Sonar, and Logic too). Kontakt and the now-defunct Gigasampler for sampling. I mostly use samples, but a few synth engines are great, like the Albino series and some sample-based hybrids like Atmosphere. Waves collection for most DSP. I could go on and on here.

After all that, there's nothing recent to show off. Time to haul out some of the old equipment.

ABrandt
I too have noticed a rather obvious connection between hacking and music. Perhaps it has something to do with the parts of the brain that both require (I'm no neuroscientist though).

As for me, playing music was a big part of my life growing up but I simply couldn't muster the discipline to keep practicing. My love for music is still strong though and my ultimate goal is to help those more disciplined than I succeed. And here's the shameless plug...

My project is currently a very minimum viable product (hopefully) to replace record companies. If you're interested, check out http://beatnex.com

JakeIsAVirus
I'm a CS student, a hobby programmer/very-amateur quasi-hacker, and a musician. I'm the lead singer and guitarist of a band called Martyr Your Muses. We are really just getting started, and our myspace page is still pretty ugly, but you can listen to some of the music at http://www.myspace.com/martyryourmuses
JakeIsAVirus
Oh, and for writing the music, I utilize Cubase (I think I am using LE right now) for sequencing, I will use one of the few synths I have as a midi controller, and Kontakt or Reason for samples. These things get me by for writing.
sgrytoyr
Wow, that is really, really good. Excellent vocals and interesting tunes.
JakeIsAVirus
Thank you very much! We work really hard at it. I grew up listing to punk and it's variants. So there is a lot of influence from that area, but I love the sounds I find in different types of music, from ragtime to swing to blues, classic rock, indie, cabaret, folk, Celtic, and so on.
jtnak
I use LMMS a little bit. Not much.
dfranke
I'm a n00b at it. I'm classically trained, most of what I listen to is Renaissance or Baroque, but I try to write in relatively modern style, mostly for a solo tenor vocalist with piano accompaniment. However, I've yet to compose anything that I like enough to publish. I use Rosegarden and a Yamaha PSR-S500.
hotdog003
I'm tinkering with a melody myself, but it's not much yet. You can see what I have so far with this lilypond source:

\header { title="Untitled" meter="Slow and dreamfully" } \relative c'' { \clef treble \time 4/4 \key f \major bes,8. f'16 r8 c'8-> ~ c2 d,8. a'16 r8 e'8->( ~ e4 c4) bes,8. f'16 r8 c'8-> ~ c2 g,8. d'16 r8 a'8->( ~ a4 f4) }

surgesg
I'm actually a composer who got interested in coding as a way to realize my music. Using Pure Data and Max/MSP, along with a bit of SuperCollider.

http://www.gregsurges.com

bbgm
Haven't written anything meaningful in a while, but you can find some of my material on Soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/dnm/sets/all-music-1

Recently switched to Ableton Live after many years of Cubase. Make extensive use of Reaktor, Kontakt, and the Kore2 software these days.

PhilChristensen
I go back and forth between writing electronic music and performing intensely improvisational rock music. I've got a lot of my personal music on my main site at http://www.philchristensenmusic.com -- for this kind of stuff, I use ProTools as my main interface, running Ableton Live and Reason as ReWire slaves, as well as using a large number of Native Instruments plugins, particularly Guitar Rig and Absynth.

With my band seaflux, we've been spending a lot more time on social network promotion, and so although we've got a lot of linked content on our main site at http://seaflux.com , much of our material is available on our profiles on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/seaflux/27070655285), ReverbNation (http://www.reverbnation.com/seaflux), and of course of tons of videos on YouTube (http://youtube.com/seafluxmusic). Due to the improvisational nature of this band, our best recordings so far are live shows, which end up getting recorded just with a stereo mic setup.