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

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.

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/

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.

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.

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!

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

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/

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.

http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/

I did the music for this demo http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=102

And a few other songs...they run a gamut of styles http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=97 http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=93 http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=84 http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=76 http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=61 http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=72 http://fulcrum.antisoc.net/filemanager/active?fid=69

Hardware - Presonus Firepod, Sterling Audio ST55 condenser mic, MXL 604 small condenser mic, ART MPA Gold Preamp

Software - Logic Express (for larger projects), Garageband (Simple and Easy)

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!

Congrats on the shows!

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.

http://tindeck.com/listen/cqcc http://tindeck.com/listen/vqjv

I'm looking for a vocalist to collaborate with, if anyone out there is interested.

http://www.myspace.com/themetaboogie

All recordings played on a Yamaha P-120; piped directly from piano line out to onboard line in on an old P4. Recorded with Audacity on Gentoo Linux, in which minor touchups (normalization, etc.) are done. Final export is MP3 format, and these are published on my blog.

Next pieces due for recording and publishing will be Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique, first and third movements (the second is already published). I take requests, so if anyone had anything they'd like to hear, let me know.

    /dev/hda > /dev/audio

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.

Acid Pro ZynAddSubFX Loads of VST plugins Lexicon PCM81 BSS BLU-160 (this is an installed sound processor that I cajole into doing bizarre and unintended things) Some AKG mics Wurlitzer epiano Ensoniq SQ-80 MicroKORG A couple other keyboards

Here are some old tracks from when I used to use myspace: http://myspace.com/n2a

Here is my most recent short instrumental piece: http://www.tshaddox.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/the-point... . Here are two full-blown songs with lyrics, they are both light-hearted and sort of geeky: http://www.tshaddox.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/falling-f... and http://www.tshaddox.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/science.m... . All of my compositions are be found here (along with the ability to stream the MP3's): http://www.tshaddox.com/?cat=10

I use Reason 4 exclusively. Never had the time to figure out any other piece of sotware. Now that ReCord works flawlessly with Reason, I won't need to.

I'm at http://thesixtyone.com/johnnybroadway or http://www.johnnybroadway.com/

- GarageBand for recording through a Tascam US-122 (keep looking at higher end ones, but keep putting the purchase off... :) - Guitars mostly direct input w/ GB's built-in amps. My stage amp is a Fender Blues Jr. + jamman looper and a few other pedals... - Vocals through an Apex 460 condenser mic - Drums mostly electronic or sampled, with a V-drum lite for playing

I've also got a bunch of random stuff I can break out as needed, shakers, tambourine, ukelele, banjo, harmonica, etc. I also got a little nanokey keyboard recently and wanna get the nanokontrol next since I bought Ableton suite recently to play with more electronic sounds.

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

I use mainly pro tools and reason to power my drums. Most instruments other than drum samples and synth I record myself.

http://www.atmospherecontrolmusic.com/free/bsol_a-merry-hear...

This one was improvised with another keyboard player:

http://www.atmospherecontrolmusic.com/free/flow_part-one.mp3

I mostly use Tracktion for recording software, though this first track was recorded in multiple takes at several studios, and the latter was initially recorded on ProTools.

http://www.gregsurges.com

I have zero music education, and I can't play an actual physical instrument. When I was a kid, I hated most music and complained that rock/rap/etc all sounded the same. I only really enjoyed classical music or music from videogames, both of which were entirely instrumental. I can't understand lyrics in songs 80% of the time. I am tone deaf (probably not medically) and had to learn scales because I couldn't tell that what I was making was horribly out of key until other people told me.

I get really annoyed if the stuff I make isn't mixed/mastered to sound vaguely professional, and get quite a bit of enjoyment adding and tweaking effects on synthesizers. When I listen to music, I can't help imagining how they created the sounds they did (usually when synthesizers are involved).

I'm a Sonar user but I'm still trying to figure the dang software out. I bought the full Cakewalk suite, I am an amateur keyboardist, and I can improvise melodies and such, it's just the software that is so complicated it destroys my ability to be creative.

But I'll get it one day. I've setup my rack behind my development desk, so whenever I need a break from coding I'm playing with the system. It's just a matter of time.

Sorry about the weak lyrics...placeholder.

http://www.moorefilms.com/heyman.htm

I guess it's not a very hackery style of music to play. But when it comes to our web stuff we're very cutting edge.

And this is a rough mix of an old punk rock tune I wrote years ago but recorded for the first time earlier this year (live guitar and vocals, live tracked electronic drums, and synthesized bass, recorded in REAPER): http://obsceneart.com/examples/better.mp3

I've been trying to figure out how to mix punk rock and chiptunes, but haven't actually made a solid attempt at it yet (though a C64 is playing bass on that second track; the later versions have live bass playing, and I liked it better, but they're inaccessible at the moment, on a machine that isn't exactly working).

Old school tape recorder

We record in a studio which uses Logic Pro.

http://maryrosecookmusic.com

Here's a song with no lyrics (I haven't quite mastered the writing lyrics bit yet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8kEoN0tJZ0

http://www.jamesbritt.com/chinese-forehead/

There are some links on there to some mp3s. I keep meaning to stick more stuff up on archive.org.

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.

Actually, I reckon Redpoint – friends of mine – do an even better job of wringing un-Reason sounds out of Reason. They're even more in debt to Boards of Canada than I am, though. Of my stuff, "Symbolic" was written while I was listening to a hell of a lot of Ulrich Schnauss and quite a bit of 70s/80s Wire; there was going to be a cover of Wire's "Map Ref" on there for a while which really hammered that home...

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

http://files.dangrover.com/siliconvalleylament-sofar.mp4

I just thought it would be funny to write a song about Silicon Valley in a cheesy broadwayish/Sondheimish style. Might finish it if I get around to it.

The song was improvised on keyboard and recorded, then I used a speech synthesizer for the vocals, as I hate the sound of my own voice.

http://www.rivodrei.de/

The first album was recorded and mixed in Logic. The second album was recorded with Logic but the engineer who is currently mixing it switched to ProTools. The music itself is all handmade by us, the musicians.

I quit a well paid job in IT to do this full-time a few years back when we got signed. I guess the experience was much like being an entrepreneur.

Most of the stuff is from over a decade ago.

Interestingly(?) I wrote all the software I made the music with:

http://www.sonicspot.com/aliendiskosystems/aliendiskosystems...

http://www.sonicspot.com/xrazor/xrazor.html

Oh, and tools: earlier stuff was with Reason, later stuff with Logic; mostly just playing around on a little Oxygen synth.

Cakewalk Express on a ten-year-old SoundBlaster Live! MP3 5.1+.

We're pretty successful in my home country of New Zealand. We've won awards and had a gold record. We're now based in Portland, OR and getting a little bit happening there.

We use Pro-tools mostly, with some Logic for it's bank of sounds and I made the video on that homepage with Toonboom, Photoshop and Motion.

My brother (Co-Creator of Simple Songwriter) is a more serious musician that uses Cubase and Ableton Live from memory. http://www.thetransients.net

\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) }

You can find it at www.lukewilliamsmusic.com

We used Pro Tools and 3 mics (sm57, sm58 and a condensor which I've forgotten the name of) to do the whole thing.

Our "music video" -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehsQhMbvqdA

I use Pro Tools with an MBox

http://www.eugenegrant.us

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.

Normally commenters on the interwebs tend to be flaming, annoying and very derogatory, but it seems that in this thread (not sure if it's HN specific) people actually listen to other people's music and give good feedback. Impressed!

You might like to try "I'll be back later", it features some, uh, catchy.. vocals from a friend.

There's also 56 other releases there, maybe more hacker in spirit than technical prowess though ;)

Garageband.

http://davepeck.org/battles-of-yore/

Fruity Loops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBUq2QHXiyE

this is some of my music on it as well. http://twiturm.com/profile/blackcortez

Using cubase, a midi keyboard and VST's. It's mainly down-tempo with electronic and hip hop.

FL, Audacity and that's it.

Trust me, you don't want to hear anything I'll be playing for quite a while :-)

We recorded with Cubase.