dmmh wrote:what are all the different techniques commonly used?
Where do you commonly start: with making a bass or with making the main lead and working around it and why? What is the basis for your song?
Why a separate drum computer when I can also make bass sounds with a software synth?
Why all the different kind of synthesizers? Wtf is the difference between a FM modulated synth and the other types?
lets see:
your first question is kinda abstract, so dont really know what to say there.
second question: in about 99% of the music, and i mean all the music, its the melody thats the basis of the song. why? because it carries the actual musical information you want to pass. its the bare minimum, so to say.
the melody varies a lot from genre to genre, it can be extremely complicated in the works of paganini, charlie parker and indian classical music, and quite simple in the songs of australian aborigines, pygmy peoples in africa, and popmusic, to almost nonexistent in genres like hiphop and minimal, where it goes down to its rhythmic component mostly.
of course there that 1% of music, harmony based, like all kinds of ambient/atmospheric for example.
as for where to start, well, depends on you. some people look for the melody first, harmony later, others pick good sounding harmony and try to get a melody by variations and improvisation. you just start with whatever comes first to you. and since music is an art, at least partially these days, theres no real rules of how to do it. just go ahead and get creative. with time and practice, you will eventually find your legs.
heres an example. smoke a joint (or dont). go to
http://images.google.com. type mountains.
heres a random image -
http://nhop.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/mountains.jpg. now, if someone asks you, what soundtrack you would add to that image? try to hear it in your mind. dont force it, just pick the thought, you know, like when watching air bubbles go from the bottom to the top in water? just follow it, let it grow. when its strong enough, start your software/pick your instrument/whatever, try to give it a form and sound. pure zen, isnt it? also remember, thats only an example. you are free to do whatever you want.
on to your third question - why separate drum computer etc.
well, different genres in music have different stuff that describes them, like meta information you know, makes them all different. for example, the drum n bass beats and sounds, the techno beats and sounds, the fender strat/tele blues, the jackson/esp/ibanez metal, the old-trumpet sounding cool jazz of miles, the lo-fi sound of early cypress hill, and so on. lots of examples really.
so, as you can see from examples, one of the factors defining a genre is the sound of the music. like early cypress is a lot vinyl-based, early techno is tb909 and such based, nirvana is guitar based and so on.
thats why many people, and with reason, still use vinyls, old drum machines and samplers, old guitars and whatever. its just what gives the style its sound. and of course, methods of the actual producing of the music revolve around the tools used.
question N4 - why all the synthesizers? well, because musicians like new toys :) new ways of expressing themselves, and of course that goes way beyond synths alone. as for the difference, well, everything in a synthesizer starts with a sound wave - sine, square, triangle and so on. from there its all different ways to modify/distort/modulate/whatever the wave. and different kinds of synths use different ways to do that.
as for software, and for what you want to do, i really really really recommend reason. its fun, also its fun to learn, its easy to use, it sounds great, actually the best software synth available to the masses, its VERY versatile, it sounds great, it sounds great, and i almost forgot - its fun.
most importantly, it really gives you very fast and reliable way to transfer your idea to the real world. and thats very important, because the biggest loss of data so to say happens exactly in this process :)
propellerheads.se, the guys doing it, actually did only 2 softwares - rebirth, and reason (well and few other programs supporting them). both of them were a little revolutions in audio software.
also if you want to save yourself lots of pain and time, stay away from cubase/vst platform. they have always been crap.
i hope you find my post informative.
p.s. - a note: in general, the more limited your tools are, the more energy will go to the music itself. like, look what paganini has done with a simple violin. heres an example of rebirth i mentioned earlier - its 2 drum machines and 2 mono bass synths, still this demo song is an excellent example of how limited tools doesnt limit the actual music -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5w5jEVeUuA
