Actually… I know two drummers who started out with chopsticks and kitchen pots…
And don’t you remember how it was to be 14 years old? One month all into this, then all into that,
before you realise that THIS is actually what you want… well… untill that OTHER thing came along…
Ofcourse our lucky girl already IS composing, which means she had her fair share of programming
music, but if my parents ‘supported’ me by buying me whatever it is I was into back in the day, I’d have
a big heap of stuff I’d never touch again… But my parents never supported my musical aspirations, at least
not until I started gigging and they realised I actually sold my soul to music.
There’s no jealousy here… it was my DAD who bought me Renoise, can you imagine?!
But money doesn’t buy passion.
It’s just that, when I thrashed my laptop during touring, I spend my last cash on a new one…
Then the Great Skale Wars began… I was losing it, because I was depending on an unstable
freeware FT2-Clone, due to financial issues…
Legends told of software capable of all that is audible and Prophecies foretold the coming of
my dad’s wallet, containing a creditcard. During the Great Moment of Need, it was him that
bought Renoise and saved a young composer’s life, turning the tides of the Skale Wars to the
benefit of the boomerang.
Now set out on a journey to recover his soul, the young composer, armed to the teeth with HEX,
travels the vast soundscapes of Core and tells his fellow midiwarriors to stop their cynism and
questions about his age.
I’m 22 and have a few months’ worth of experience using trackers in general, and about 6 years of using a number of piano roll-based composition programs, as well as tablature and standard sheet music…
And there’s no way in hell I can envision a 14 year-old having the patience or technical knowledge to be able to use Renoise well… or to even want to learn how to use it, really.
Let’s face it, to a newbie, Renoise is absolutely daunting to look at. Same goes for the vast majority of composition programs.
Fruityloops, Garageband, or EnergyXT would all be better options, IMO. (Or if she’s on Windows, the program Orion Platinum is also fantastic)
Don’t know… I started out with trackers when I was 12 and back then comparing to nowadays, I think the trackers - gui wise - were far more complicated. But I still managed it to come around with the stuff.
Assuming (which is very far fetched now) if I would just start at this age with renoise and no backround, I would come around better with the program.
However, let her try - if it’s not working; leave it.
I started 19 years ago with computer music. My first contact with sequencing was using a Sound Blaster 1.0, which used Adlib for FM synth. The program used was Voyetra’s Sequencer Plus, you still can download it here: http://support.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/340.asp
My first try was to record “Another one bites the dust” and also “Billie Jean”, introducing the notes with the keyboard (it was MS-DOS, mouse where rarely supported) and had no midi keyboard.
I also think that the easiest way to record music is with a pianoroll type secuencer and with a sound module that sounds by itself. Start sampling around or ripping samples is a more advanced path to follow afterwards. Also I always thought that trackers were easier to use for programmers and computer-literate people, but less intuitive for laymen.
I don’t get why pianoroll is more simple to use. I remember grasping the tracker concept well under a minute. While I struggled using pianoroll for few years. Pianoroll is not a good invention, just like the piano keyboard itself is not really a good invention. Trackers ARE simple.
I started music with the DMC3 on C64, I had no documentation whatsoever and no one I could have asked about it. I was 14 and I stuck with it.
Anyhow, regarding piano-roll software : Magix Musicmaker has become pretty okay in the latest versions, there is VST-Support, a Pianoroll, Drummatrix … and it comes with a shitload of samples. It’s kinda like Fruity Loops some years ago.
Started on the Amiga but can’t remembr which tracker it was but I got the concept without much trouble.
Just loaded a .mod and it was then quite simple to see how it was made and start plonking away on the keyboard. Not very well sounding I’ll admit that
I prefer the pianoroll 100% of the time. Being able to physically SEE the placement of notes on a piano keyboard is infinitely more inspirational to me than simply seeing the note name and octave.
When it comes down to it, I honestly can’t even write melodies from within Renoise. I either use tablature or a program with a piano roll to write a melody, and then have to move it into Renoise.
Show her the very basics. Let her practice for a few weeks and then when and if she needs more instruction you can give her some more.
I don’t even user pattern commands for christs sake. Sample offset? What’s that? I haven’t use that stuff since the Amiga days. You are talking to a guy who still painsfully pixel edits photos. Ok so I am a little old school…
Seriously, looking at renoise in its entirety to any new user is daunting. Just give her a few important bits and she will be fine.
