The world of music production software can be scary and overwhelming at first. You know you want to start producing your own music, making your own beats, recording, etc. But you have no idea where to begin! This was exactly the problem I had when starting out, and I took the advice of the wrong group of people (the “gurus”) and paid way more than a beginner should pay for music production software. This is an industry that depends on always having new people coming through the woodwork, so I feel it’s my responsibility to help get you started.
First, you need to think about what kind of music you want to produce, as some programs seem to be better for different genres of music. If you are into trance, techno, or other “electronica” types of music I suggest starting with a program called FL Studio, short for FruityLoops. This program is good for this kind of music, but in my opinion is not that beginner friendly, and a little overpriced for a beginner. Expect to drop upwards of $80 to start out in the world of music production software. Also, there is a steep learning curve with this and similar software, so I would move on unless you have significant knowledge of math and sound.
Alot of the people I help get started want to start making “hip hop beats”. They don’t need a thousand dollar fancy program, they just want to get their feet wet. Fortunately, I came across the PERFECT program for people who are new to music production. It’s called Sonic Producer and it’s actually built on browser-based software.
This means that you don’t have to install some clunky program to your harddrive. Do not think that because its browser-based that it’s lacking in quality, because it’s actually the opposite. Sonic Producer comes fully loaded witih FREE music production lessons, a 16 track sequencer, and a sound library that is impressive all by itself. See, after spending hundreds of dollars on software too complicated for me, I turned to Sonic Producer. It’s simplicity, sleekness, and low price are what drew me in. I paid less than thirty bucks in all for one of the sickest music production suites I’ve ever used.
But, maybe you’re not a beginner you say! You DO have audio and math knowledge and are willing to brave the steep learning curve! Well there is hope. While I would recommend Sonic Producer for even intermediate users, some people just want something different. This is why I recommend Reason or Cubase to these people. These programs are top of the line, but it will cost you. From what I remember these programs are a few hundred dollars. But don’t let that steer you away, you’re paying for quality.
As you can see, in the world of digital music production, there’s a little something for everyone. Whether you’re just starting out, kind of know what you’re doing, or you’re the master, there’s a way to get you going. Welcome to the wonderful world of music production!
By: John Paul Jones
Archive for October, 2009
Music production software: Top three programs
October 31st, 2009Turn your Home Pc Into a Complete Recording Studio
October 28th, 2009Want to turn your home PC into a complete Recording studio to record, edit, and play back digital audio files, this article, describes how and what you need do it.
Do you possess a multimedia PC with a sound card and speaker? All you require is an inexpensive recording and editing software to your PC, with this you can produce high-quality, effective voice and music recordings. The basic prerequisite to get a level of recording are a PC, Quiet recording space, Microphone, Speakers and headphones, recording software.
Our aim is to record a clear, close voice track, so we need a Quiet recording space, which means keeping noise and the sound of the room out of the reach till the finished recording meets all our needs. Professional’s records in closet specially designed to keep noises out and make their voice sound good.
To get your voice or recordings into the computer, you need a microphone. Don’t relay on the dull one that you got with your computer. Choose high-quality, inexpensive Microphone that sounds far better. Microphones are available from music or audio equipment suppliers. There are microphones for the basic voice work. Choose the microphone that best suits for female voice and male voice.
Choosing of computer speakers tends to be given importance because it impacts on getting quality output of recording. Computer speakers are adequate for recording, editing, and finishing basic recordings, but empower some decent powered speakers to get better quality output.
The net result you get in recording apparently depends on the Recording software that is being used. Choose recording software equipped with all editing features such as with best bit rate, creating special effects adding music and/or sound effects and the software should present your recordings in the formats you desire. The music software that best suits for professionals as well as beginners are FlexiMusic’s FlexiMusic Wave Editor, a software for recording and editing.
Part 1: Getting Started
Fasten up your equipment by plugging your microphone into your sound card’s microphone. Be careful in this, since there are three plugs there, choose the one that Is written as “Mic”. Now launch the software that controls the sound card’s recording source (for this you can use the “Recording source” command in FlexiMusic Wave Editor). Then select your recording source (Mic) and adjust its volume at 100%.
Start your recording program (say FlexiMusic Wave Editor), choose stereo, bit rates of 16 bits, 44kHz of sampling rate and at CD-quality. Start the recording command. Adjust the volume so that Digital level meters shows 3/4th volume, if it exceeds it will sound horribly distorted.
To improve the sound of your recordings, get closer to the mic. The farther away you are from it, the more you pick up the room noise around you. Get closer and your voice is closer. Advantage of getting closer to microphone may bring out the lower frequencies in your voice and can make you sound more powerful. Obviously, locate your recording area away from noisy equipment. Some precautionary things that are to be taken care are, put a little distance between the mic and the noise source. Avoid salty foods immediately before your recording session. Have some water nearby and apply a little lip balm. These will keep your mouth and lips lubricated. When you’re ready to record, speak clearly and slowly. You can always tense up your recording while editing. If an error occurs go back to the nearest sentence start and continue on again.
Part 2: Editing the recordings
“As haste makes waste”, don’t fix everything in one take. Record as many times as needed and assemble the best parts into the final recording. Calculate whether the recording done has everything that you desired. If not, don’t pamper, go back and re-record the bits you need, listen again, and repeat the process until you obtain the desired. You see a two-dimensional representation of the words as sound waveforms. You can hear the words as you play them. Cut, copy, paste is all the techniques you apply when editing sound.
Early to begin editing, make sure to turn off the mic, disconnect the headphones, and switch off speakers. Delete the unnecessary things that interrupt the output of the recording. Eliminate the junk and move further improving your performance. Never give up to until you get the best result of recording. Do carry out as many takes as needed, find the best takes out of it and build your final version from them.
Make sure of any changes you have done during editing. Analyze, if you can make it better. Check whether the volume is consistent? Are there any noises, background sounds, or other unwanted junk parts that which can be eliminated or reduce?
After editing the voice, to make it efficient better you can add music or sound effects to enhance the final version. You add the back ground effect using the same software FlexiMusic Wave Editor, open the music file in audio software, select, and copy it to the clipboard. If needed trim the music to match the length of your voice recording, then, place the cursor at the start of your voice recording, and select Edit > Paste Mix. Make sure that you can hear your voice recording clearly with the music playing in the background.
Now make the best use of your audio software’s to maximize the recording’s volume. Next, choose a format in which you want your recordings to be such as, Mp3, WMA, Snd, Raw, and Au. Select the recording which is in the waveform and save the file to the audio format of your choice. Using mp3 or WMA files is useful to save space on your hard drive while retaining reasonably good quality and for transmitting your work over the Internet.
Finally you have done! You can play back the file in FlexiMusic Wave Editor, or with any audio program, such as Windows Media Player or Winamp, and transliterate the recording.
By: Heera
The Top Seven Programs For Recording
October 26th, 2009Do you want to create your own computer based home music recording studio? If so then you’ll need a quality program for recording and mixing music. You will be using one of the following seven programs a lot so you will definitely want to make a wise decision and choose the software that best fits your computer, your audio interface, and your needs.
First of all I want to focus on those with Mac computers (and yes whether you have a Mac or a PC will play a huge part in your decision of which music recording software to buy.)
If you own a Mac and do not yet have an audio interface then a Digidesign Pro Tools set up is probably what you’ll opt for. You can get an audio interface of varying sizes (from as few as 2 inputs to many more) and prices. If you plan on just recording yourself then you’ll probably want to get a one of the fewer input systems (an MBox.) If you plan on recording a full band then of course you’ll want to get a high input (and higher price) option.
For the full-on “professional” version of ProTools you’ll spend about $15,000. If that’s in your price range and a truly professional studio is what you are interested in building, then this may be the right choice for you but it’s really not necessary for most. You can get a great sound without that big setup.
If you own an MOTU audio interface already then you may want to get MOTU’s Digital Performer which is Mac only software and of course works very well with their audio interfaces. You’ll likely have a very stable system if you choose this option.
If you do not yet own an audio interface you may wish to consider buying an MOTU audio interface and Digital Performer (they do not come together like with Pro Tools, you’ll have to buy Digital Performer separately.) This is alternative to buying the limited version of Pro Tools that comes with their cheaper audio interfaces.
Another option for Mac users is Apple’s Logic. It’s designed to work with Mac computers and is a very strong program for working with audio as well as for working with MIDI. You will need to either already have an audio interface or buy one to work with it.
How about for PC users? Well first of all, Digital Performer and Logic are off the table as they are Mac only programs. But what about Pro Tools? It does work with PCs but it does not yet work with Windows Vista. Also it generally works better with Macs. If you’re on a PC I’d recommend going in a different direction.
Just as with the Mac there are a couple of music production programs that are PC only. These include Cakewalk’s SONAR which is a great choice if you are into working with MIDI (it also does great with audio as well) and Sony’s Acid. Acid is for creating loop based music such as Rap/Hip-Hop and techno. It’s not really suited to other styles of music so you should only consider it if you are into creating loop based music.
There are also programs which work great on PC & Mac: Steinberg’s Nuendo and Cubase. Nuendo is Steinberg’s high end system and it currently costs $1800 in stores. It’s great for those who want to work with surround sound and those who work on music with video (it has a video component.) It’s a very high quality piece of software but you should make note that it isn’t particularly suited for working with MIDI, if you are big MIDI lover then you should probably get Cubase instead. Cubase is actually about three times less expensive than Nuendo, so that’s good news for you!
I believe each of these seven programs are available for free in demo form so that you can try them out without buying them. This is probably a good idea because each program has it’s own peculiar quirks and you’ll want to choose the program that “fits” you.
But please be aware that it’s normal for there to be a bit of a learning curve with software such as this. So don’t give up right away. You may even want to read the manual!
By: Johnny Moon
