Against the law to not use synths

I get so happy everytime I hear music with real organic instruments on the radio.
Eventually people will appreciate it again growing up with metronome kicks and pinball game blipping sounds.
 
So stay on it, it will be all modern sounding soon....one can hope....
 

Each to their own... I've been listening to synthesiser music since the BBC Radiophonic Workshop did the incidental music for Doctor Who back in the 1960's...
 
That doesn't mean I don't appreciate music played on classical instruments.
 
But... Whatever... Bash the guys who like to use them... I'll get over it LOL 

I don't really think I insulted anyone. I could have, but didn't. I did say "crazy sounds" but that only insults the sounds.......People have thin skins these days.
 
If you say we all use organic instruments, why the multitude of things(including tutorial videos that could have used any style) seemingly geared to electronica?
 
MY gripe is really more against the videos, and lack of clear clean steps on working with loops. I am getting it slowly, thanks to you guys and the videos, but I am WAY more right brained. Too many years as a technician.....

But there are plenty of vids. Dragging and dropping, importing, manipulating loops are all basic functions in Sonar. There are plenty of vids showing those basic functions. Ergo... plenty of vids describing how to work with loops. And those X1 Advanced vids I recommended show more advanced ways of manipulating and triggering/recording those loops. The Intrument vids I recommended shows how to use some of the samplers to trigger and manipulate loops. The vid series I did not mention is the SWA X2/X3 Complete series that shows you how to do almost every durned thing you need to know about working with Sonar.
 
So yeah... it is a little insulting because I study these materials day in and day out. People have gone to great lengths to create and provide these materials. Perhaps it's because I'm just sore right now but really it's not that hard to find this stuff or ask things without hyperbole and innuendo.
 
BTW the VERY first thing I did after installing Sonar before even really reading the manual was create a loop based song using the included content so I could get used to working in the Track View. I had never done anything like that in my life and I had it put together in a couple casual days. Easy peasy. A few weeks later I had written and recorded my first "full band" arrangement using drum synths and recording my guit and bass into Sonar. I had only studied the manual a little bit.
 
Now after years of studying almost daily I am using it semi-professionally BUT still consider myself a novice.
 
Sonar is a complex program (as are all DAWs) but the resources are out there (more so than many other programs) and it's really not that hard to get simple stuff done like drag/drop looping and recording.
 
Seriously... press B (opens the Browser), look for and audition loops (this is covered in the Reference Guide tutorials), drag them into the track view. Arrange and mix.
 
Simple.
 
If you have any questions come here and ask them or do a google search with Cakewalk Sonar in the search terms. You'll find manual entries or threads here or even online videos.
 
Stay calm. Put your head down and learn the program like every other mufugga here has. You'll be fine.

I am calm. You seem to be a lot more upset than I am. Every time I get stuck, I go to a video or a manual, and very seldom do I find my answer on my own.  So I ask here and get the answer. I never said I didn't or wouldn't ask questions, and to say I dismissed your advice out of hand is not correct. I have read manuals all my life, and I just don't "get" this one.
 
I don't recall any video telling me to setup my amp sim and vocal effects because my singer/guitarist needs to have the effects on to perform better. I had to jump around 3 or 4 videos before I stopped screwing that up. 
 
So far, my process is
1. get a rhythm guitar track from John put to a click
2. make drum loop for song at correct bpm
3. re-record rhythm guitar with drum loop
4. add bass(me playing)
5. record vocal(John)
6. record lead guitar(John)
7. edit and add spices
8. ready for mixdown
9. Not there yet.

Oh, here's another gotcha I ran into:
I used EZD2 instead of AD2 and had to call Cakewalk to find out why I couldn't drag out the loop... EZ, but not until I called CW for help..
and no triggers etc....at least not yet. We're making basic classic rock and rock ballad type music with a little blues for me.....
 
Ps I have watched most of those vids and also own Groove 3's Sonar Explained and Platinum Advanced...I'm on my 3rd time thru Explained and I'm starting to get it. So I guess, if anything, I'm just dense when it comes to this stuff. Break a computer and I can handle it. 

I have been studying and working with Sonar pretty much daily for almost four years. It is a complex program and I am just recently getting fully comfortable with it.
 
That is why I said stay calm, ask questions and keep looking at the material. People pay big money to learn this stuff at colleges/universities and for good reason. Making full digital productions is hard and complicated.
 
Stick to it and it will get easier. The first couple years for me were a bowel binding stressfest and some days I still want to huck all this junk out the window but it's bloody worth it.
 
Doing this stuff in an analog studio? Now THAT would be a freaking nightmare.

See there, you've given me hope! I have less than 6 months at this(this time around). I wasted another  months trying to decide whether to use GB, multi-track, or Sonar, and Sonar won as I had a Dos version of cakewalk and a few upgrades over the years.  I started to learn midi then, but got away from it, as the lack of any significant kbd chops kept me limited.....and work got in the way of really learning the program over the years. I am glad I stayed in the upgrade path, as I am only paying $30/month for Platinum!

Loving the adoption of 'Organic' here, remember it means derived from living matter. Well sounds derived from living matter, would either be derived from me, or from living matter in the instrument itself. I suppose my reeds were living once, or but not my metal flutes or guitar strings. Resonators don't make the sound, the exciters do, so mahogany bodies shouldn't really count.
 
So for music to be called organic, surely it means derived from a living performance, no matter what that is on. And the same for an organic instrument. A synth can be mechanic or organic in that case.

dubdisciple

charlyg
 
If you say we all use organic instruments, why the multitude of things(including tutorial videos that could have used any style) seemingly geared to electronica?
 
MY gripe is really more against the videos, and lack of clear clean steps on working with loops. I am getting it slowly, thanks to you guys and the videos, but I am WAY more right brained. Too many years as a technician.....

the tutorial video just released by sonar ISW geared towards acoustic drums.  the drum replacement ,module is geared towards acoustic drums.  The reason you see a lot more tutorial vids geared towards electronic styles is because odds a re good a long time guitar player is oing to be more confused about how to program a synth for a genre that did no exist ten years ago than  it is that he will be about how to record his own guitar.  if you notice, most of the tutorial videos are not about music or audio engineering basics or even how t owor ka DAW in general.  they are mostly geared to unique aspects within Sonar.

The above is the way I would have answered the OP. I was thinking how easy it is to record audio. It doesn't matter what one uses from a smart phone to pocket digital recorders. A DAW makes it even simpler. MIDI on the other hand is not something most people know about. It can be learned but it'll take a little work. 

charlyg
It sounds good to say we just got the drum replacer, and this new acoustic drum video. However, in digging a little deeper, one is about recording live drums, and one is about making a drum part out of transients. Drum Loops? not so much. 
 
Is it really about midi, or about KISS? have rhythm track. make drum loop in EZD2, drag into Sonar. Someone could have mentioned, just because I watched the AD2 video, it doesn't mean EZD2 works the same way. Can you say Groove clip?

I not understanding what you are trying to convey. This is a peer to peer forum. If you have a specific question we will do our best to answer. If its something else its unlikely we can help you.  

Kamikaze
So for music to be called organic, surely it means derived from a living performance, no matter what that is on. And the same for an organic instrument. A synth can be mechanic or organic in that case.

That is a pretty good distinction. There is a difference between a human performance on a cybernetic/digital instrument and a performing robot. Most of us have more or less accepted the drum machine as a way of making music, without being too upset that it replaces a human performer with a computer program. A perforated strip of paper or metal disk was being used to control elaborate music boxes that made their music by mechanically thumping drums or bells or controlling a piano for well over 200 years.
 
But the organic appellation begs the question of what it means to have a human performance. Although player piano rolls could be cut from a live performance on a keyboard, and thus the early copyright cases involving recording rights actually hinged on that recording medium, those control devices and modern equivalents like MIDI files could also be fashioned one note at a time over an indefinite period. Surely such a file created by deliberately editing events by a human artist is more organic than a drum machine. Even assembling a loop collection, like a collage in visual art, represents a collection of artistic choices that closely resembles a performance. Does it make a difference if a DJ triggers samples in real time or a loop composer does the same thing over a week? Is one a performance and the other not? And if a human being "programs" a drum machine, do the choices he makes in the settings available to him render the robot's performance "organic?"

charlyg
All I'm saying is, with all of it's flexibility, comes a bit of confusion for some, not bad, not good, just is..
 
I tried to watch the University videos, but the guy's voice drives me crazy. He over accents every other word. NOw I remember why I bought the Groove 3 vids, I can handle the voice. I would rather listen to let's go ahead at every step(not that Groove 3 does that) then the up and down thingy. Not a big deal, but if I'm trying to learn, I don't need a voice that brings stress!

Funny I watched too much of Eli's videos, and for my ear, he sounds like Kermit's big brother. Years ago the SWA vids were done by a Scot with to my ear, a neutral sounding (Nice Edinburgh I guess) accent, but Americans were protesting about it. Now Karl Rose (FastbikerBoy on here) does them, and he's about as English as English can sound. I also find some of the Sonar guys accents a bit strong for my ears. BUt this is always going to be the case, depends where you bare from, and we are from everywhere, so how can they win.
 
As an English teacher I often here American criticisms of the British being hard to understand and a perception the American is universally easy for everyone. The amrican teacher next door to me (twice a week) from Missouri is teaching 8 years olds, and sometime I can't get the word he is saying over and over.  

BobF
To me is not the instrument and synth choice as much as the overall composition.

 
Absolutely.