Getting Riffworks tomorrow!!

[aboyes]

Hi All,

First Post

I'm really excited as I'm gettin my hands on Riffworks tomorrow with a Line6 Guitar Port.

I've downloaded the PDF manual and have been having a good read through. It sounds amazing and the instant Drummer sold this package for me it's such a great idea.

I do have a few questions I can't get my head around though and it's regarding riffs.

For instance I have an idea for a verse that has a bassline, a rhythm guitar and lead guitar, I'll pick a drum beat and record all the parts. Would these be 3 seperate riffs? Or would all 3 layers be one riff that can be dragged into the song bar??

I can't quite vision how it's all pieced together!! lol!

Anyway any guidance would be much appricated

Thanks,
Adam

[gatorjj]

New guy buys the beer!
Welcome Adam! You'll have a ball with RiffWorks.

Each riff can have up to 24 layers (PC depending!), so what you would do is record a layer for rhythm, a layer for lead, and a layer for bass in one riff.

You may have another riff that you record for the chorus in the same way. Then you can drag your riffs to the song bar and make a song out of them.

In this simple example let's say your song is verse-chorus-verse-verse-chorus, you'd just drag the appropriate riffs into the songbar in the order you want and away you go! That's very basic but you can very quickly build an entire song that way!

A picture is worth a thousand words though: (click here to see it bigger)


Good luck!

J.J.

[scott]

Hi Adam, and welcome to the RiffWorks forum!

You've pretty much got it sussed. A 'riff' is made up of 'layers'. A layer is one instrument/vocal. The drummer doesn't take up a layer, it plays in the background but can be switched on and off.
You set the tempo and length (no of bars) of your riff and record with the drummer playing.
Imagine a song being made up of an intro, verse1, verse2, chorus, verse3 etc. Each of these sections can be one riff. You drag each riff to the songline and jigsaw them together in any order you like. The good bit is that often verses and choruses have the same riff so you don't need to record verses 2 and 3 separately, you just copy the verse 1 again.
You'll soon get the hang of it - guaranteed!!

[aboyes]

Hey thanks guys!! That kinda clears things up for me....

I think I've found a friendly forum for once!!

I gotta admit that this piece of software sounds superb. Initally I didn't even know about it if I was to be honest and had my heart set on garageband on the mac. But my system was way too slow to record anything on it so looked at other options and I'm glad I did!!

I just got my self a Pentum 4 2.8gig, with 512 RAM and an 7200RPM 80gig Harddrive so am hoping this system will cope ok with recording my axe and making a song at long last?!

oooh I'm all excited about this!

[gatorjj]

You should be okay with that setup, though you might want more RAM at some point. You'll run into some chopping if you record a ton of layers, add a ton of effects and have a ton of riffs etc. but you'll be okay for now!

[aboyes]

Yeah I though that might be the case!! I'll get it up to at least 1gig when I get paid next!!

I think I'll be doing at least 2/3 guitar layers with drums per riff to baulk out the sound. That should be ok...I hope, we'll see.

Another question but this time about drums.

I realise there are straight beats and a few fills but what about stoppy/starty drum pattterns with gaps and pauses? Thats the best I can explain it. lol

[gatorjj]

Just my guess based on my experience but you should be mostly okay with that PC config.

On the drums it would depend on the Instant Drummer itself, some have different beats (intro's, endings, verses, multiple fills & choruses). If you get creative you can create that kind of pattern with say a 2 bar riff that has an outro drum and another 2 bar riff with an intro drum (get a stoppy in the middle). Or a 1 bar drumless riff in the middle of two others with drums. Some folks (like me!) love the drummers, some seek more control than you can get with them. You can use REX files as well if you want, to add even more versatility.

Maybe some of the others can chime in on these, or you might look through the Instant Drummer forum for more info or opinions.

[Wedgebill]

Hi adam, welcome mate.........phew at long last another bloke from this side of the pond to prop me and scotty up. You have to watch all these goddam yanks, they expect us to supply the beer all the time and then they take the piss !! :rolleyes:

Don't worry tho mate, Uncle bill is here and I come from a long line of piss-taking experts so we can join forces and fight back...............HaHa

Few more words of advice,

Watch out for Mickey he expects MMMMmmmm.......Beer all the time !!!

Scotty wears hot pants and sings falsetto !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't up the Gator or he'll set Keelin on ya



Seriously mate, your life is about to change, this is the best piece of music software in the galaxy, the finest bunch of people and musicians in the world and when you get the hang of it, which won't take you long (even I can make noises with it and I'm one of the oldest old farts in captivity) and start posting etc and get onto rifflink, you'll think you're in heaven already.

I look forward to hearing your stuff mate,

Uncle Bill.

[bluesydude]

I'm one of the oldest old farts in captivity...
Uncle Bill.

Bill, thought you might enjoy this post http://www.sonomawireworks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=866&p=1

[aboyes]

Just my guess based on my experience but you should be mostly okay with that PC config.

On the drums it would depend on the Instant Drummer itself, some have different beats (intro's, endings, verses, multiple fills & choruses). If you get creative you can create that kind of pattern with say a 2 bar riff that has an outro drum and another 2 bar riff with an intro drum (get a stoppy in the middle). Or a 1 bar drumless riff in the middle of two others with drums. Some folks (like me!) love the drummers, some seek more control than you can get with them. You can use REX files as well if you want, to add even more versatility.

Maybe some of the others can chime in on these, or you might look through the Instant Drummer forum for more info or opinions.

Cheers dude - Sounds like the sort of thing I'll need to do. The stoppy starty drums I was thinking of is the bridge section of First Date by Blink 182.

This may be a bit off topic and I'll happily post this in the Drum section but what are REX files??

[aboyes]

Hi adam, welcome mate.........phew at long last another bloke from this side of the pond to prop me and scotty up. You have to watch all these goddam yanks, they expect us to supply the beer all the time and then they take the piss !! :rolleyes:

Don't worry tho mate, Uncle bill is here and I come from a long line of piss-taking experts so we can join forces and fight back...............HaHa

Few more words of advice,

Watch out for Mickey he expects MMMMmmmm.......Beer all the time !!!

Scotty wears hot pants and sings falsetto !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't up the Gator or he'll set Keelin on ya



Seriously mate, your life is about to change, this is the best piece of music software in the galaxy, the finest bunch of people and musicians in the world and when you get the hang of it, which won't take you long (even I can make noises with it and I'm one of the oldest old farts in captivity) and start posting etc and get onto rifflink, you'll think you're in heaven already.

I look forward to hearing your stuff mate,

Uncle Bill.

Hello Uncle Bill

Not many people from the UK on here then?

I'm really looking forward to playing around with it. I left my band last year and haven't found one since so I have all these ideas floating around for guitar riffs and songs and been really frustated not being able to piece them together etc.. So hopefully I can finally try everything out!!!

How many people use the Guitarport with Riffworks?? Is this the best thing to use? What else is recommended?

There's quite a lot of stuff to get my head around at the moment but I'm sure I'll get it once I have the actual software

Cheers,
Adam

[aboyes]

Well I've got my Line6 Guitarport with Riffworks sat right in front of me but I'm in work for another 4 hours!!

Which is really annoying!!

Anyway theres no manual for set up??

Is the guitarport easy to install or is there anything I need to watch for? Somethimes these things can be a right pain to get going!!

Same goes for Riffworks, is it a painless experience?

Cheers,
Adam (Currently going insane with excitement)

[camaro24gold]

Well I'll be :O ......Strat is 57 (hmmmm how suspicious....a '57 Strat).......bluesydude 51....I had a feelin' Mickey was a crusty ol' 40something. I knew Shred and Gator were still kids LOL. Hey bluesydude....I be turning 52 in May (18 in heart)

[camaro24gold]

aboyes....welcome to the forum.......hell, I can't play but it is a fun place to hang out and a great bunch of people.

BTW....you will want that RAM up to at least a gig

[aboyes]

aboyes....welcome to the forum.......hell, I can't play but it is a fun place to hang out and a great bunch of people.

BTW....you will want that RAM up to at least a gig

Cool surely 512 will suffice to get me going? Or am I going to be tearing my hair out at the performance?

Just noticed I have riffworks version 1 on my disk. I assume I install this and upgrade to version 2 via this website?

Also is it easy to register to get the Free Instant Drummer sessions on here?