MOTUNATION (formerly UnicorNation) is an independent community for discussing Digital Performer and other MOTU audio software and hardware. It is not affiliated with MOTU.
Forum rules
Discussions about composing, arranging, orchestration, songwriting, theory and the art of creating music in all forms from orchestral film scores to pop/rock.
Some (or one) of you theory-heads could cook up a glossary that'd serve both as a conceptual introduction to the nature of the forum's discussions, as well as a known quantity to which numb-skulls such as that monkey man could be referred in the event they're not speaking the same language as the rest of us, er, you.
Mac Mini Server i7 2.66 GHs/16 GB RAM / OSX 10.14 / DP 9.52
Tascam DM-24, MOTU Track 16, all Spectrasonics' stuff,
Vienna Instruments SUPER PACKAGE, Waves Mercury, slaved iMac and Mac Minis running VEP 7, etc.
--------------------------- "In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth." ― Richard Feynman
Nah. Seriously. Yeah, it sounds like a good idea.
But what kind of glossary do you have in mind, like a basic music theory terminology thing? Or more like an intro sticky?
Mac Mini Server i7 2.66 GHs/16 GB RAM / OSX 10.14 / DP 9.52
Tascam DM-24, MOTU Track 16, all Spectrasonics' stuff,
Vienna Instruments SUPER PACKAGE, Waves Mercury, slaved iMac and Mac Minis running VEP 7, etc.
--------------------------- "In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth." ― Richard Feynman
Dang, I knew I should've eaten more fibre.
Blame the banana wine; it's lethal, at least to the stomach.
FMiguelez wrote:.
Nah. Seriously. Yeah, it sounds like a good idea.
But what kind of glossary do you have in mind, like a basic music theory terminology thing? Or more like an intro sticky?
Both, but most importantly a quick-reference chart explaining the staves, meter (including how, say, an 8th note relates to ticks at 480ppq in DP) and possibly... hang on, I've absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.
See? We sure do need a glossary of terms or the like, IMHO.
Wow! When you start thinking about it, that might be a HUUUUGE topic to try and cover here. Perhaps some recommendations of books might be more efficient. Is there a website out there that covers this stuff that we could post a link to?
MLC was right that this stuff is much better taught one-on-one than in a text, and I'm not sure anyone has the time to post a treatise on fundamentals of music theory here (at least I don't). (Imagine a sticky explaining the basics of MIDI and digital audio recording at the top of the DP Forum... )
My guess would be that if an explanation isn't clear to someone here, they will need to ask for clarification in a reply, just like in the other forums. I'm pretty sure that if someone is asking the question, they'll probably do all right with 95% of the answers they get.
$.02 worth
Mac Pro (Late 2013) (3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5, 32 GB RAM) OS 10.13.6
MacBook Pro (2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 gigs RAM); OSX10.11.6; DP 10.13; Unisyn 2.1.1; Stylus RMX; MOTU MIDI Express XT; MOTU 828x; Kurzweil PC3 with Kore 64; Roland XV-5050, D-50; Alesis QS7; Yamaha S90ES, TX-216; Hammond XK-3
npatton wrote:My guess would be that if an explanation isn't clear to someone here, they will need to ask for clarification in a reply, just like in the other forums. I'm pretty sure that if someone is asking the question, they'll probably do all right with 95% of the answers they get.
I agree, npatton.
I was thinking about the countless others who'll be reading these threads.
Just a quick-reference glossary of terms would certainly be helpful to some.
You'll also find a great resource for instrumentation and orchestration. It won't substitute actual study and practice, but it will give you just about everything else you need to know on a basic level.
BTW, if you are really serious about learning theory and you cannot rattle off the key signatures for every major and minor key (with the sharps and flats in the correct order) that is a great place to start. MEMORIZE THEM!
You might want to memorize the circle of 5ths first (that has nothing to do with whisky...)
MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Why reinvent the wheel? Dolmetsch Online is already a great online resource.
Excellent! Just what I was thinking of. Everything (and more) is there.
Thanks, MLC!
Cool! I'm glad SOMEONE got something out of it. I've PDF'ed the instrumentation (range) page for fast reference when orchestrating. But the site is really quite extensive. There are a few more good ones online. Google is your friend. The only one I would warn against is Wikipedia as the contributions can be made by anyone. In general, it is a pretty good resource, but I wouldn't take everything in there at face value.