I am hoping that some people here can lend me a hand and at least point me in the right path so that I can begin.
I have been interested in experimenting with some music creation, mostly ambient music (drones,etc) but might also try some other styles. Part of the reason that I have time and time again just abandoned this is that every time I take a glimpse into the world of computer music, I find myself absolutely and totally overwhelmed, both by the amount of software out there as well as their apparent complexity.
Quite simply: I am utterly lost and I don't know where to begin. Everyone seems to suggest a different package: cubase, lf studio, reason, etc,etc, but none can point me to where I really should be starting.
Even if it is a few links to very general and basic tutorials that cover how to get your feet wet in this field would be priceless help for me at this stage.
So far what I am getting from the searching I have done so far is that I need to get a cheap midi controller to begin with and some software like cubase plus VSTs. Aside from that sentence, there's not much more I have to go on. I am literally a blank slate in this.
So if you have any personal tips on how to begin, or links to very basic tutorials, etc and recommendations about software (and hardware), please do share it.
Note that I am tryign to stay away from stuff like Acid, at least solely, because I am more interested in creating the music than using loops (not sure if I am explaning that correctly)
thank you very much in advance for your help!
Where to begin: a call for help.
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 16 May, 2005
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- KVRAF
- 7316 posts since 7 Mar, 2003
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- KVRAF
- 7879 posts since 16 Apr, 2003 from -on the outside looking in
Well, there is a lot that can (and will) be said here. I should ask if you currently make music with hardware?
Now is a great time to get into computer music, because, quite simply, it is so cheap. I have only ever bought one piece of software: FL Studio, the producer version (don't buy a cheaper version as it doesn't have some key features, as the site explains). But I have literally hundreds of free, quality synthesizers and hundreds of free, quality FX.
My advice to you at this point is to download the demo of FL studio: you can render waves, but not save projects. Of course eveyone prefers a different host, so download the demos of Energy XT, Tracktion and Orion. All of those hosts cost <than 150.
One you have done that, spend some time here listening and downloading all the freeware synths and fx vst's you want. It will be a fun experiment, and in a month or two you'll start to get the hang of it and have a better idea where you would really like to invest. There is simply too much lo-cost/no-cost software out there to justify spending anything upfront, unless you are a professional with specific needs. Explore!
To that end, just to get started, I would d/l FL Studio and play with the synths it includes.
Also, download
Synth1
Asynth
Rez
GodKiller,
the Kjaerhaus Audio classic FX.
Those are simple, solid and sound good. You can run them in any vst host. They are files that you d/l and put in a specific plug-in folder which FL will look in and scan for new synths. Then they will load up in a channel and be ready to play!
Fl also has a nice manual/getting started tutorial. Sorry to be such an apologist
but FL was the first thing I tried and it stuck: it's what I know best, but by no means the only option.
In short (sorry!) try before you buy!
Now is a great time to get into computer music, because, quite simply, it is so cheap. I have only ever bought one piece of software: FL Studio, the producer version (don't buy a cheaper version as it doesn't have some key features, as the site explains). But I have literally hundreds of free, quality synthesizers and hundreds of free, quality FX.
My advice to you at this point is to download the demo of FL studio: you can render waves, but not save projects. Of course eveyone prefers a different host, so download the demos of Energy XT, Tracktion and Orion. All of those hosts cost <than 150.
One you have done that, spend some time here listening and downloading all the freeware synths and fx vst's you want. It will be a fun experiment, and in a month or two you'll start to get the hang of it and have a better idea where you would really like to invest. There is simply too much lo-cost/no-cost software out there to justify spending anything upfront, unless you are a professional with specific needs. Explore!
To that end, just to get started, I would d/l FL Studio and play with the synths it includes.
Also, download
Synth1
Asynth
Rez
GodKiller,
the Kjaerhaus Audio classic FX.
Those are simple, solid and sound good. You can run them in any vst host. They are files that you d/l and put in a specific plug-in folder which FL will look in and scan for new synths. Then they will load up in a channel and be ready to play!
Fl also has a nice manual/getting started tutorial. Sorry to be such an apologist
but FL was the first thing I tried and it stuck: it's what I know best, but by no means the only option.In short (sorry!) try before you buy!
..what goes around comes around..
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 7 posts since 16 May, 2005
Ouroboros:
Nope, currently I do not make music with hardware. Aside from Taiko (Japanese drumming), there is no non-purely-rythmical stuff which I have taken on (except for a very very distant thing in my past where I studied piano and saxophone, but that is so long ago as to not matter). So a noob in more than one sense
but so far these links and info will help
thank you very much (and Acolmiztli as well)
as far as a midi controller to begin with, do you have tips as to what I should look for?
Nope, currently I do not make music with hardware. Aside from Taiko (Japanese drumming), there is no non-purely-rythmical stuff which I have taken on (except for a very very distant thing in my past where I studied piano and saxophone, but that is so long ago as to not matter). So a noob in more than one sense
but so far these links and info will help
thank you very much (and Acolmiztli as well)as far as a midi controller to begin with, do you have tips as to what I should look for?
(changed name from salamand3r)
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- KVRian
- 1244 posts since 21 Nov, 2003 from San Francisco
You could put triggers on your taiko drums.salamand3r wrote: as far as a midi controller to begin with, do you have tips as to what I should look for?
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- KVRAF
- 2686 posts since 5 Feb, 2004 from Nevada City, California
i like my Korg MikroKontrol - but it is short - 3 octaves..
i also really like my Firewire Audiophile sound from M-Audio - it's cheap and small.. gtreat latency, but it only has one stereo in and one stereo out..
i also really like my Firewire Audiophile sound from M-Audio - it's cheap and small.. gtreat latency, but it only has one stereo in and one stereo out..
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- KVRAF
- 7879 posts since 16 Apr, 2003 from -on the outside looking in
hmm. it depends. I actually am without one right now, so I should probably let people with more expertise give an answer. There are discussions about which keyboard all the time. Generally they come in 25, 49, 61 and full keyboards. Some people like portability and might only play with one hand. Others want a whole keyboard to play as a piano, and still more folks want knobs to tweak - when set up properly, the knobs on your controller are mapped to parameters in the synths. As a sidenote, one of the small but convenient features of FL is that you can use your computer qwerty keyboard to play your synths until you have a controller. This is possible in most hosts, but requires a seperate program(vst) running.
Perhaps this is too basic, but if this helps here is a basic overview:
your "host" is the main program that coordinates the soundfiles and the sounds that the synths are generating. It takes the midi data from a controller, or midi data that you program (using a graphical interface) and sends that data to the synthesizer which tells it what note to play, how long, how loud, etc. So you might play a little riff on your keyboard, and the host passes the data along to a bass synthesizer. the synthesizer takes the data and makes a bass sound out of it.
Concurrently, you might have a drumloop, even a Taiko loop (
) that you have recorded previously. The host will play that along with your bassline, keeping them in time.
Furthermore, hosts route the sound signal to a mixer, in which you can insert effects, like reverb or chorus, effects which can also respond to midi data.
Finally, the host can render all this sound, sythesized, looped, etc into one wave file; your finished song.
As a side note, for this to happen in timely fashion; for you to be able to play the bass along with the drumloop, your computer must take the midi data and process it in milliseconds. Generally speaking, the advantage of good soundcards is that they do not introduce any latency that throws off timing, and they have lots of noise free inputs so that you can, say plug a mike in and sing along to your drums, all while recording live!
That's why I wouldn't worry too much about a fancy soundcard until you feel like you know what you want. Even onboard sound will be fine for this initial exploration.
The quick and easy signal flow is;
Midi data --> Host -->synthesizer, where it becomes-->sound-->mixer where fx modify it-->final sound.
Sorry if that is waay to dumbed-down but when I started a few years ago, I didn't know any of that, and it took me an embarassingly long time to figure it out because I had never used hardware before, either.
Perhaps this is too basic, but if this helps here is a basic overview:
your "host" is the main program that coordinates the soundfiles and the sounds that the synths are generating. It takes the midi data from a controller, or midi data that you program (using a graphical interface) and sends that data to the synthesizer which tells it what note to play, how long, how loud, etc. So you might play a little riff on your keyboard, and the host passes the data along to a bass synthesizer. the synthesizer takes the data and makes a bass sound out of it.
Concurrently, you might have a drumloop, even a Taiko loop (
) that you have recorded previously. The host will play that along with your bassline, keeping them in time.Furthermore, hosts route the sound signal to a mixer, in which you can insert effects, like reverb or chorus, effects which can also respond to midi data.
Finally, the host can render all this sound, sythesized, looped, etc into one wave file; your finished song.
As a side note, for this to happen in timely fashion; for you to be able to play the bass along with the drumloop, your computer must take the midi data and process it in milliseconds. Generally speaking, the advantage of good soundcards is that they do not introduce any latency that throws off timing, and they have lots of noise free inputs so that you can, say plug a mike in and sing along to your drums, all while recording live!
That's why I wouldn't worry too much about a fancy soundcard until you feel like you know what you want. Even onboard sound will be fine for this initial exploration.
The quick and easy signal flow is;
Midi data --> Host -->synthesizer, where it becomes-->sound-->mixer where fx modify it-->final sound.
Sorry if that is waay to dumbed-down
but when I started a few years ago, I didn't know any of that, and it took me an embarassingly long time to figure it out because I had never used hardware before, either...what goes around comes around..
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fateamenabletochange fateamenabletochange https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=8029 - KVRAF
- 3062 posts since 13 Jul, 2003 from outer rim
My first steps were reading Computer Magazine,cheap Roland 49 key midi controller into crappy Audigy card,downloading lots of demos,and checking out forums like this.Read around widely,do google searches.If I had done this later step more assiduously,I wouldn't now be stuck with this sound card.
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- KVRAF
- 3441 posts since 15 Mar, 2003
You don't need a keyboard to get started.
FL studio allows you to use your computer keyboard as a music keyboard.
There is also free software that will allow you to use your computer keyboard with other hosts if you decide on somethig other than FL. Trollo is one of them.
You can get started with just the cost of a host like FL studio or Tracktion or energyXT or many others and then decide where to go from there.
Use whatever soundcard is in your computer. You don't need anything else. In the future you can buy a better one if you feel the need.
Don't let the gearheads make you feel like you need all sorts of gear to get started.
FL studio allows you to use your computer keyboard as a music keyboard.
There is also free software that will allow you to use your computer keyboard with other hosts if you decide on somethig other than FL. Trollo is one of them.
You can get started with just the cost of a host like FL studio or Tracktion or energyXT or many others and then decide where to go from there.
Use whatever soundcard is in your computer. You don't need anything else. In the future you can buy a better one if you feel the need.
Don't let the gearheads make you feel like you need all sorts of gear to get started.
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- KVRist
- 35 posts since 10 Mar, 2003
if you want to do proper audio recording and playback you'd want to have at least a better soundcard than a soundblaster or the built-in soundcard on your motherboard.
For about $150 you should be able to pick up something decent, like an EMU1212 or Audiophile2496.
As mentioned there's basically three things you need to get started: soundcard (for handling the audio and midi streams going to and from your computer), midi keyboard (for inputting midi, obviously), sequencer/host software (for actually making/recording sounds). You can then expand this setup when neccesary. Start simple, because there will be much to learn. Don't download 100 plugins and pieces of audio software at once. Choose one or two that you like and learn those well.
And have patience!
For about $150 you should be able to pick up something decent, like an EMU1212 or Audiophile2496.
As mentioned there's basically three things you need to get started: soundcard (for handling the audio and midi streams going to and from your computer), midi keyboard (for inputting midi, obviously
), sequencer/host software (for actually making/recording sounds). You can then expand this setup when neccesary. Start simple, because there will be much to learn. Don't download 100 plugins and pieces of audio software at once. Choose one or two that you like and learn those well. And have patience!
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 7 posts since 16 May, 2005
Thanks for all the responses people!
o'malley: Hey I have been considering recording some stuff at the dojo and seeing what I can make with it
ford442: thanks I'll look into those.
ouroboros: No that was not too dumbed-down, that's exactly the kind of informartion I need. As I mentioned, for me to be more of a noob with this I would have to be asking 'how do you turn on a computer?'.
fateamenabletochange: Already trying out most of those steps, building a bookmark folder of websites to check regularly, etc. Going to look into some of those magazines soon as well as see what else is out there.
PT: thanks that's pretty much what I am planning on doing at the moment, mostly because I will be a bit squeezed financially for the next couple of months, but want to get started on this now.
King of Snake: thanks for the recommendations, I will look into those, and this time I am definitelly approaching with more patience than the last time I turned and ran out like the building was on fire.
Thanks all once again!
o'malley: Hey I have been considering recording some stuff at the dojo and seeing what I can make with it
ford442: thanks I'll look into those.
ouroboros: No that was not too dumbed-down, that's exactly the kind of informartion I need. As I mentioned, for me to be more of a noob with this I would have to be asking 'how do you turn on a computer?'.
fateamenabletochange: Already trying out most of those steps, building a bookmark folder of websites to check regularly, etc. Going to look into some of those magazines soon as well as see what else is out there.
PT: thanks
that's pretty much what I am planning on doing at the moment, mostly because I will be a bit squeezed financially for the next couple of months, but want to get started on this now. King of Snake: thanks for the recommendations, I will look into those, and this time I am definitelly approaching with more patience than the last time I turned and ran out like the building was on fire.
Thanks all once again!
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deleted deleted https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1
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- KVRAF
- 5851 posts since 9 Jul, 2002 from Helsinki
The new Tracktion User Guide explains many basic things, and presents a very intuitive way of making music with computers.
The Project Studio Handbook is a collection of categorized links to good articles that can also help.
Generally it's best to start easy, with a simple setup and learn the basics. The possibilities of modern applications can (and are) overwhelming, acquiring too much software is very counter-productive.
The Project Studio Handbook is a collection of categorized links to good articles that can also help.
Generally it's best to start easy, with a simple setup and learn the basics. The possibilities of modern applications can (and are) overwhelming, acquiring too much software is very counter-productive.
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- KVRist
- 339 posts since 16 Aug, 2004
I'd avoid to spend too much money initially tbh, presuming that at this point you don't know exactly what kind of music you will be producing and what you're gonna need for it.
I started with fruity loops 3 on a cyrix processor and onboard sound, and as i couldn't tell the difference with better equipped setups it didn't bother me at all. i even think it's a good thing to start with a limited setup: it forces you to learn the basics thoroughly first...
Good luck! And don't give up too soon...
I started with fruity loops 3 on a cyrix processor and onboard sound, and as i couldn't tell the difference with better equipped setups it didn't bother me at all. i even think it's a good thing to start with a limited setup: it forces you to learn the basics thoroughly first...
Good luck! And don't give up too soon...
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- KVRAF
- 1811 posts since 18 Jan, 2005 from Lost in the blinding whiteness of the tundra
I'd agree with Panda's advice - avoid spending much money at first, possibly avoid spending any at all until you really know what you want.
A lot of people who do ambient things use Audiomulch (and some plugins), which is available freely (well, fully functional beta) at http://www.audiomulch.com
It's easy to use and fun.
EnergyXT is also cool and cheap, although learning it might take a bit of patience and willingness to tinker if you're new to software.
Buzz might also be fun (and is free) although the tracker interface doesn't suit everyone. I can't remember where it's current website is, though. Playing around with Buzz, Audiomulch, an earlier version of Fruityloops, and a few free bassline synths (for learning the basics of subtractive synthesis) was how I got however much clue I currently have.
I'd lay off buying a midi controller until you've decided whether your method of working needs one.
A lot of people who do ambient things use Audiomulch (and some plugins), which is available freely (well, fully functional beta) at http://www.audiomulch.com
It's easy to use and fun.
EnergyXT is also cool and cheap, although learning it might take a bit of patience and willingness to tinker if you're new to software.
Buzz might also be fun (and is free) although the tracker interface doesn't suit everyone. I can't remember where it's current website is, though. Playing around with Buzz, Audiomulch, an earlier version of Fruityloops, and a few free bassline synths (for learning the basics of subtractive synthesis) was how I got however much clue I currently have.
I'd lay off buying a midi controller until you've decided whether your method of working needs one.