I create cinematic outdoors videos, think sweeping drone shots through clouds mountains, hiking, van life ect. I always end up paying £350+ a year for stock library sounds such as:
Slow drones
Cinematic lowfi
Booms and cinematic effects and glitches
I was looking around on YT and found a video on the Digitone 1 and 2. And thought… why don’t i try and make my own music and effects, I have a background in basic music as a bassist.
So my questions are thus:
*** Is it possible to make short 30 seconds tracks and drones that fade out? (I do not want acid, techno stuff)**
*** Can the DT1 or 2 make 1 hit sound effects, like deep cinematic impacts? boomm… rolling thuds, or glitch fx, etc.**
*** Would I be more advised to buy dt1 or 2?**
*** How easy is it for a beginner and what do i need to get the audio out as a WAV or Aiff so I can drop in davincy for my edits.**
I realise that’s a lot of questions, so thank you in advance. I see the digitone 1 is half the price of 2 if you shop around.
Thank you and merry xmas.
If I do buy 1 I will be looking for a good training course.
It would be a lot easier to accomplish on a sampler device - while you can create such tones, the cinematic impact stuff, braams - zooms, need quiete a bit of layering. (Yes possible, but a lot easier to do in Abelton Live lite you can get for free.) Mostly you dont need more than 8 layers for these types of sounds.
That’s software (ableton live) and light is the cheap version. MPC has a full software suite in a box, basically. It’s synth, sampler, recorder, multitracker etc. It’s more up your alley, if you want what you described in the original post.
The MPC live 2 has speakers, it is powered by a rechargable battery, and has a touch screen and drum pads. It looks like a big rectangle box.
Or medium sized rectangle box, perhaps. Not as slick as the elektron click clack stuff, but super space age high tech blade runner none the less.
Its software, you would need some vst if you get the light version, if you pick vital as plugin , there are a lot of youtube videos that explain cinema sound design. (with vital and a DAW) which one doesnt matter actually, pick the one, that is most affordable to you.
I went into CEX in Leeds to ask a few questions on a few Grooveboxs they had in, they kept trying to push me towards buying a maschine mk3 2nd hand for £300. Thought I would ask here first.
I think it all boils down to this question: How much time do you have at hand? If you do this for fun and don’t mind the learning curve: Absolutely, yes! I suggest getting a second hand Digitone 1 because they are really cheap for what they offer. You can connect them to your computer via USB and record everything in your DAW.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy solution, this is not the one to get.
Many people like maschine, it’s a very specific workflow from what I understand. I couldn’t tell you much about it, but it’s biggest competitor is probably the MPC, in that price range.
Ableton (previously mentioned) has a large mobile unit called push 3 standalone, but it’s very expensive. I think that’s probably a step (or 3) above what you would want to pay right now.
Wanted something to get my teeth into and break out of my creative stint. Being able to create your own music and effects as well as video is where I want to go. Here is an example,
1.31 the sort of effects and audio I want to create more of
Sounds like you might just want a laptop. Video isn’t really an integrated feature of these type of groovebox devices. You can work with a hardware groovebox and transfer the sound to a computer for sync and editing, but if you want it all in one package you’ll need to go laptop studio.
There are things called “video synthesizers” but it’s a niche device and isn’t really in the vein of what you’re talking about using it for.
Ah sorry might of explained that well. I usually bring in audio fx for a feel. I then film and edit around that, I wont be bringing any video into anything. Sorry for the misunderstanding. at 1.31 those drones and impacts, light keys ect is what I meant.
Yes, for that type of soundscape as well as those recorded sounds and efx, you need a sampler or a device capable of sampling. You have to think about samples in the same way you think about recording video, except it’s audio. However, you can get prepared audio like what they use in theatre and film, and then use those audio clips in your composition if it’s sold as royalty free.
I think you need an MPC or a similar device, like the maschine. Or ableton on a laptop, if you prefer a laptop with a controller unit to play notes and trigger sounds.
I love digitone but I don’t know that for a beginner workflow, and looking for realistic sounds that it’s the right fit. I think it would be great if you want to score your videos like a film, but you’ll still be looking for those recorded sounds and they would need to be added outside of your digitone workflow so it’s less consolidated.
A synthesizer is primarily a tool of music, or ambience, whereas a sampler can play the role of any sound you feed into it. The reason I recommended the MPC is because it’s capable of both synthesis, and sampling so if you need to bridge the gap, the tools exist all within the same unit.
