Hi everybody, first of all, I'm not from the U.S so please ignore the spelling errors. My name is David, I'm from Mexico and I just accquired Caustic last week and I'm so in love with it. My main target for caustic is using it for beats and loops while I play guitar (my main instrument) but I was blown away with all the stuff you can do with it (Except Bassline, so lost with that one, idk how to use for my musical purposes) and made a tune only with Caustic. In the future I'll try to mixing my songs with beats and effects and post them here.
Im very interested to hear other users with similar background as mine, my background is more leaned to alternative rock, hardcore, minimalism, slow electronic and post-rock, so after listening some tunes from this board perhaps this tune will bore out of your minds, still, I'd like to know what you think about it. I just use 2 subsynth,1 pcmsynth and beatbox.
Thanks!
Hi Rusted81 and welcome,
we are international here so no there is need to apologize ever. I also think you will find that the Caustic forum is probably more open to different styles of music then just about any place else. I like your composition and the sounds/beats you've made. I look forward to the many more you will make with Caustic. You will fit in here just fine!
Welcome to the group! When you get your hands on Caustic 3 (coming soon) you will be able to record your guitar and voice stright into the app, so you can mix it all together on your phone or tablet..... I'm looking forward to hearing your songs with guitar mixed in.
You're starting good, keep it going...
Hola David, bienvenido.
Very cool track, indeed very chilled out.
The bassline is more suited for electronic "bass" sounds but it's still possible to use it as an accompanying bass sound for more realistic stuff (that was the intended goal of the original hardware machine) by turning down the cutoff and resonance and using it only in the low octaves.
If you're looking for instruments to play along to, have a look at the beatbox presets section up top here. User Skarabee has sampled a lot of his own drum kits and made lots of different beatbox presets from them, there's brushed kits rock, etc... very good quality.
Also, know that the PCMSynth can load SoundFont files. These were very popular among musicians a few years ago so there are lots of real instruments in that format (horns, wind, strings, etc). Just Google search for the instrument you're looking for + "sf2" or"soundfont" and you're likely to find one.
Anyway, that's IF you're looking for other instruments, what you posted here sounds fine to me. See you around.
The bassline is a recreation of the Roland TB303, a monophonic bass synth that found fame in the 90's as the signature sound of acid house and a lot of techno/trance tunes.
You can achieve some amazing sounds with it, works best with automation recorded on the filters. It's actually pretty flexible with a broad range of sounds but I can understand how it would appear to someone unfamiliar with the source instrument.
It also works well as a lead and bass sound.
Oops, Rej beat me to it!
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Thank you for all your kind replies!
jblann1, now I'm definitely looking forward to C3! o_o That would be amazing indeed and super helpful for a lot of people experimenting new sounds!
Rej, you deserve an award for this stuff, seriously I'm having so much fun with my Nexus 7.Sadly my work productivity is in risk... :/
Great advice and explanations for all of you, now I understand a little bit more about the bassline, I understand I need to experiment more with the app but at first overwhelmed me when I couldn't find the sound I was looking for. Time to tap the screen once again
Oh BTW, idk if is normal some a major heating when I'm using the app in my device. Like I said, I have a Nexus 7. Thanks in advance
D.
nice track...soft and gentle.
Welcome David!
Nice track, so quiet;, I love the beat. I'm guitarist too. Did you play guitar over this track? Sounds like a good backing track for improvisation.
Nexus 7? I've got the 1st gen one and the only time I notice it getting warm is when it's charging. Mine is in a leather case/stand which can't really help either.
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Caustic's not exactly easy on the processor so it's possible it can get a bit warm. Nothing to worry about, laptops used to get so hot they could would your skin...
Hi Rusted81,
I agree with the rest - your composition is great! It's really a moving track. You've got great emotive sense.
I also agree with others that this is a remarkably welcoming international community that is interested in people making music with Caustic, regardless of genre or anything else.
In other words, to use an expression from my childhood, "Them's good folks."
Hi Rusted81, welcome to this extraordinary community. That’s a nice track you made there and I can imagine you having great fun improvising on guitar along with it. It seems we have quite similar musical background you and I. I bought Caustic for the same reason as you but I haven’t included real guitar in any my tracks (yet), I’m still amazed with what you can do with Caustic only.
Despite the rather simple interface of the Bassline-synth it’s very expressive. Before Caustic3 this was the only machine that could bend notes (glide) and it was the only one with real a real pulse-waveform. You can get some really nice lead guitar sounds out of it. If you want examples of this you can check out some of my tracks on SoundCloud, I recommend listening to ‘SubsynthJam02’, ‘Aluminium’ and ‘Caustic Warrior’ for guitar emulations. Most of my caustic files can be downloaded from the ‘Show and tell’ area here at the community but ‘Caustic Warrior’ doesn’t work anymore.
I’m looking forward to hear more of your Caustic creations
@Rusted81, this tune uses the Bassline quite a lot: https://soundcloud.com/james-muir/slinky in a techno kind of setting...you may recognise the style of sound(s)
The lead sound is the modular synth but the actual bass line is the Bassline synth, I've then layered another 3 Basslines over the course of the tune, in this case they're leads to try and compliment the modular sound.
I'm not claiming it to be a brilliant demonstration by any means (it isn't) but...it does give you a feel for what it can sound like with some effects and automation.
I see it as a very electronic, techno orientated sound, but as Rej says you can use it for almost anything
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
...and lovely tune, btw. Nice crisp beats and chilled keys
The music that the people here make with Caustic is incredibly wide ranging and I'd say that straight dance/techno/trance is actually the minority, there are a few people (thinking Nishit on this one) that make post-rock/ambient music of great beauty
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Hi Rusted81, welcome to the group and well done on your first track! I tend to use the Bassline for a mix of things. Here's an example track where its used for lots of different things (3xbasslines in this one):
http://soundcloud.com/graham-panter/kilomix2
Skarabee: You are right, it was one of the main ideas with this track to improv in the meantime of the play, Im waiting for my mixer in 1 more week so perhaps I could do a different version. Is a Portable Studio Tascam DP008, is a small unit but I tested with Caustic and fits great for my purposes. Right now Im doing a track along caustic and playing it at the same time with my Jaguar, let's see what happens with the recorder.
Pan65 that´s... really impressive, a whole music styles in just one page. The work in Aluminum got real good and also Ishtar. As you say the bassline looks quite simple but I just need to get more in depth with it. Thanks!
James, very diverse demonstration of sounds you have there. And this:
"I see it as a very electronic, techno orientated sound, but as Rej says you can use it for almost anything"
I can imagine for more experimented users is easy but right now I´m having some issues to find a likeable sund for me hehe (Or maybe just need to find the right preset)
bojeroo, thanks for you comment! Very smooth and layered track. Learning plenty for all of you.
Thanks for your feedback everybody!
Best,
R.
I tend to start from the 'Low Growl', 'Classic Growl' and more recently 'Reese' presets, I almost always add some delay and record some automation to the cut off and resonant filters...
And as Pan states the glide and accent functions in the pattern editor gives you another set of tools to shape the sound.
To me the best sounds are often around tweaking the cut off filter, start with it to the left and record patterns moving the cut off filter to vertical and back down again. You'll hopefully a point where it begins to 'bark'...
The two waveforms get you very different results too - the square can get you some lovely warm sounds...
I've included two examples of Bassline/303 abuse that highlight different aspects...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFvhxRcfER8 - this shows it being used as a high lead and very low bass, and it's quite an elastic and ethereal sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Hx4y41pIY - this shows it in much agressive way, again as bass and lead but a much harsher sound.
Then again, you may simply find that it just doesn't do it for you as an instrument and that's cool too
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Wonderful work, very nice relaxing chillout :)
James, that bass in the background is with the bassline? Sounds pretty neat, very atmospheric. What I was trying to do is something a-la Mogwai in the song "superheroes of BMX" which is one of my favorite bands. I love how this guys use the synths give their songs a very deep feeling. I'll take in consideration your advice. I was experimenting with the filters and I found lowering the cutoffs are the best sounds for me, also the octaves and Hardfloor, yep, I definitely hear the sound in there but is to "dancey" for me. (Don't like to move my body very much)
johan, glad you like it, thanks!