I make BipTunia’s music in the DAW called Reaper, using a number of VSTs synths and samplers, all free, some of which I make myself.
I play the VSTs using an inexpensive MIDI keyboard, and on the last 10 albums or so, some MIDI pad SMCs (pic of one attached, with tape over the controls I never use, they are for controlling the DAW live, I don’t play live anymore, so use my mouse).
The samples I use are never hip-hop style (using 8 or 16 bar loops of an existing song), they are always things I recorded myself, like one-hit notes of various bells, chimes, birds, and VSTs I have that are not microtonal, to use in the microtonal VST sampler I made.
Here are the VSTs I make and share with the world free: https://biptunia.com/?page_id=2070
Software synths are MUCH better too. Hardware synths take a lot more time to get a good sound, I use presets on a bunch of older VSTs and make music that doesn’t sound like anything else.
I do not own any hardware synths. I consider them a waste of money in the current year, and they are limited. If you want to twist knobs and make noises, get hardware synths. If you want to make music, use software.
When you think about it, a piano has one preset. Electric guitars have a few. Synth VSTs usually have 32, but some have up to 128. And I have over 400 free VSTs. I use presets on a bunch of older VSTs and make music that doesn’t sound like anything else.
After recording notes, I do a lot of moving notes around with the mouse, flipping things, adjusting, quantizing, transposing, editing, etc, until the sound is just what I want.
About 1/5 of the music I make in BipTunia is microtonal, the rest is not. You can listen free to all 110 albums I’ve put out since 2017, here;
Here’s a post I did on why I use Reaper as my DAW. I’ve tried a few different DAWs, and Reaper works best for me. https://biptunia.com/?p=5385
I mix the music myself, and master it myself, and release for sale on BandCamp, and to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc, via @DistroKid
I’m very prolific, and the music is very unlike most other music. If I had to fit into a group of other music, I’d include Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Captain Beefheart, The Residents, Kraftwerk, Frank Zappa, Sonic Youth, and Sun Ra.
I used to play in a rock band called Bomb, that was signed to Warner Brothers and toured the US 6 times and Europe once,
Music here: https://biptunia.com/?p=9443
Video of Bomb live at a reunion show we did, 6 years after breaking up;
3 pix of me singing and playing bass with Bomb below.
Bomb was a favorite of Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic from Nirvana, Krist talks about it in this interview:
I do not use AI for music and never would. I would get no satisfaction from that. I do use it for album cover art sometimes (when I’m not using my real #astrophotography) and last two albums I got suggestions for “BipTunia style song titles” and Grok NAILED it, so I used a few. When I use AI for cover art, I always mention that on the page for the album on my website.
BipTunia is VERY different from Bomb. But BipTunia’s music honors the idea of doing it yourself while not caring what anyone thinks, making great music that you wish existed, not chasing any trend…. the same ideas that drove Bomb.
