Wanting to start producing music :) Need some help please.

[Nahcal]

Hi everyone.
I am very new to these forums and I really want to start producing my own music because I think it will be really fun and a different way to express myself musically. I do a lot of classical music and want to start going into modern/electro music.

I have been researching a tiny bit and know probably minimal things about music production. I have found a DAW called Podium Free, I haven't downloaded it but from what I have read it looks it be a great starting DAW for free.

I have heard you need samples and a lot of other essential stuff. What would that stuff be and where would I get it? How would I use these samples and what do they do? Do I have to spend money on equipment like MIDI keyboards, mixers or anything else? What else do I need?
Sorry that I am so clueless. I researched music production and I got bamboozled by people telling me to buy keyboards, microphones, expensive DAWs and a lot of other stuff.

Thanks to everyone that answers me I am really looking forward to making music and sharing it with the people on this forum! if I missed anything feel free to tell me, I need the information!!

[dsan@mail.com]

Welcome to the forum Nahcal

I hope you find your stay here educational and fun!

I have never used Podium; however, having been at KVR a while now I can say it is well received by those that do use it.

Try it out. Since it is free you can't go wrong. If you don't like it, de-install it.

Actually, try out every thing. This should be your first rule. Always demo. Just because one person says it is great and you should get it doesn't mean it's for you. Always demo.

Rule 2.... spare yourself the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome in case you are unfamiliar).

Newbies have a tendancy to want to buy everything right away. I can say from experience, the "toys" are great to have, but do yourself a favor and go slow.

When you buy something (and this is a never ending saga) take the time to learn it to its fullest. Often, when you are wanting to buy something new, you probably already have the toy, erm tool, and don't realize it if you haven't taken the time to learn what you do have.

Rule 3...Take the time to read this forum and others, like VI.control forum and Gearsltuz for example. There is a wealth of information to be had if you take the time to read. There are a lot of great people in these forums and they are willing to help.

Much has already been written about the exact same questions you have asked by the new people that came before you (including me ). I'll bet some of them will stop by and give you some pointers too. In the meantime, just read the different forums here to pick up some ideas. You will be surprised what you will learn

Oh, yes, you will have to spend money - but only when you want to if you want to. If you are already producing then my guess is you already have what's needed to start. Get a DAW, like the Podium, and start recording. Then you will have samples.

If Podium comes with plug-ins, use them and learn them. Then you can take the samples or your classical recordings and mangle them to creat the electronica you want to produce.

Which brings me to Rule 4..... DO NOT expect to know everything overnight. Not gonna happen! Put in the time. If you want to learn something you have to invest the time and practise, practise, practise. It's a lifelong learning session

Ok....time for some other to give their set of rules.

BTW- rules can be fun to follow

Good luck!

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[ImNotDedYet]

For samples, go through all these and pick the ones you like. http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/tech/ ... tis-217833. You can use samples as parts of your song, pick apart the sample and just use single drum hits, play the samples as different notes, etc. Lots you can do with samples.

You don't need a midi keyboard/controller, although they do help quite a bit IMO. For starters, just do everything in your DAW and get comfortable with making music. You DEFINITELY don't need a mixer. You need good headphones and monitor speakers will help, but those will also require an audio interface. To start out, all you need is a computer, DAW and someway to play back the music that's fairly high quality. You can grow your system from there.

[arkmabat]

I'd recommend Temper, Mulab, or Tracktion to begin with. Not Podium.

[Synchanter]

DAW software + soft-synth/sampler + MIDI keyboard + reference monitors would be a good starting base.
If you record audio tracks into your DAW, you might need audio interface and mikes.
There is no hardware mixer needed, DAW software has mixing functions.
Then after you are a bit more experienced you might want more software for sound improvement(optional) such as effects, EQ, compression and limiter.

For MIDI keyboard, no need for knobs and sliders yet, or drumpad, just a decent keyboard to start with.
For DAW, there are some cheap ones to start out with, get a reasonably well-known one so you can get good technical support.
For Sampler, I believe NI Kontakt is the industry standard.

The community is very helpful and gives good advice.
I got some good advice that it is valuable to spend money on tutorials from Groove3.com at the start.
Hope this helps. I'm learning myself, have fun!

Synchanter

[Mivo]

As someone who bought too much when he started out, I think if I had to start over, I'd get the following things only (and then force myself to not buy anything for the next six months):

- An Audio interface: I consider this essential, and you'll really need it no matter what you do in the long run. The two best choices, in my opinion, for a low price are: Steinberg UR22 or Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Side by side, the UR22 is the better option because it has MIDI IN/OUT. I went with the 2i2, thinking I'd never need MIDI I/O, and well, then I looked into hardware synthesizers ...

- A DAW: This is where most people over-buy and pick up multiple programs. I did, too. If you want to do "everything", including recording of audio, and you also want a very vibrant community, and you do not want to spend much money, then I would suggest Reaper. The "demo" version is completely unrestricted, and it won't expire after 60 days. It also only costs $60 (or $70?) when you do buy it. Then I'd download some of the recommended free plugins listed here: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=52382 There is really no downside to getting familiar with Reaper, since you don't have to spend any money upfront and have no crippled features at all. Learning curve is steep, since it doesn't look so great out of the box. If you want to spend money, the best investment would be the Reaper 4 Explained video series at Groove3.com. It's around $30 to download. (I also use Renoise, but a tracker interface may not click with you -- you can always check it out, though. I really like Mulab, too, and I bought the FL Studio Producer edition during a Christmas sale, which is a rather complete package. But start with Reaper, really. No costs for now. I'd not bother with crippled demos.)

- Headphones: Many different options here. I went with the Audio Technica ATH_M50, which I feel strike a great compromise between quality and price.

- A MIDI keyboard: Again, lots of choices. It's the least essential part. I have several, but prefer using the Axiom Air 32 Mini, because it takes up so little space on the desk. But I only use it to punch in notes, not to actually play. If you want to play, I'd suggest something with 61 or even 88 keys, though that makes it more costly.

And that's it. Only get a microphone if you will actually use it, and then it depends on what you want to record and where you want to record it. Don't buy too much stuff. It only gets more confusing.

[Nahcal]

Hi everyone!!
Thanks for all the help!! Much appreciated! I have some questions and stuff for you all but I got a spam alert and I sent it to a Mod and he is fixing it. I will send it when I get it back all fixed up!

[Nahcal]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Ahhh! Heaps of responses, I am so happy you guys helped me! Amazing advice and some mighty fine rules I am sure to follow!

As someone who bought too much when he started out, I think if I had to start over, I'd get the following things only (and then force myself to not buy anything for the next six months):

- An Audio interface: I consider this essential, and you'll really need it no matter what you do in the long run. The two best choices, in my opinion, for a low price are: Steinberg UR22 or Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Side by side, the UR22 is the better option because it has MIDI IN/OUT. I went with the 2i2, thinking I'd never need MIDI I/O, and well, then I looked into hardware synthesizers ...

- A DAW: This is where most people over-buy and pick up multiple programs. I did, too. If you want to do "everything", including recording of audio, and you also want a very vibrant community, and you do not want to spend much money, then I would suggest Reaper. The "demo" version is completely unrestricted, and it won't expire after 60 days. It also only costs $60 (or $70?) when you do buy it. Then I'd download some of the recommended free plugins listed here: <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=52382</span (http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=52382%3C/span)> There is really no downside to getting familiar with Reaper, since you don't have to spend any money upfront and have no crippled features at all. Learning curve is steep, since it doesn't look so great out of the box. If you want to spend money, the best would be the Reaper 4 Explained video series at Groove3.com. It's around $30 to download. (I also use Renoise, but a tracker interface may not click with you -- you can always check it out, though. I really like Mulab, too, and I bought the FL Studio Producer edition during a Christmas sale, which is a rather complete package. But start with Reaper, really. No costs for now. I'd not bother with crippled demos.)

- Headphones: Many different options here. I went with the Audio Technica ATH_M50, which I feel strike a great compromise between quality and price.

- A MIDI keyboard: Again, lots of choices. It's the least essential part. I have several, but prefer using the Axiom Air 32 Mini, because it takes up so little space on the desk. But I only use it to punch in notes, not to actually play. If you want to play, I'd suggest something with 61 or even 88 keys, though that makes it more costly.

And that's it. Only get a microphone if you will actually use it, and then it depends on what you want to record and where you want to record it. Don't buy too much stuff. It only gets more confusing.

Thanks Mivo! As someone that tends to go over board, I was thinking the exact same as you a few days ago! "I wanna get the best stuff so I can make the best music ever!" Is what I was thinking but glad you straightened my mind I don't think I will be buying anything in the near future cos I just wanna make some simple tracks and get to know everything. Thanks for the suggestions though, I will definitely keep them in mind!

With the DAW I did see a review on Reaper and it was like 9.7 or something so I was thinking about that one. I thought you had to buy it but thanks to you I know it is partially free! I will probably try Podium as well just to keep my choices open.

Is there a friend system on here? If so it would be awesome to add you and talk about some other things and even share some music later. Would be cool to get someone's experienced opinions on things!
Thanks again

DAW software + soft-synth/sampler + MIDI keyboard + reference monitors would be a good starting base.
If you record audio tracks into your DAW, you might need audio interface and mikes.
There is no hardware mixer needed, DAW software has mixing functions.
Then after you are a bit more experienced you might want more software for sound improvement(optional) such as effects, EQ, compression and limiter.

For MIDI keyboard, no need for knobs and sliders yet, or drumpad, just a decent keyboard to start with.
For DAW, there are some cheap ones to start out with, get a reasonably well-known one so you can get good technical support.
For Sampler, I believe NI Kontakt is the industry standard.

The community is very helpful and gives good advice.
I got some good advice that it is valuable to spend money on tutorials from Groove3.com at the start.
Hope this helps. I'm learning myself, have fun!

Synchanter

Thanks for the help Synchanter!
All the equipment, software and other advice was much appreciated. As mentioned in the reply to Mivo, I don't think I am going to spend money on equipment till I feel comfortable. Just messing around a bit now I have heard that Groove3.com has very good tutorials. I might look into buying them later

For DAW I am looking at Free Reaper and Podium Free. I have heard great things about both as they aren't very content restrictive and also free. Your opinion?
I don't really know what a sampler is but I will take a look into the NI Kontakt.
Thanks again and if you are open to adding me as a friend I will be very appreciative.

I'd recommend Temper, Mulab, or Tracktion to begin with. Not Podium.

Thanks for those suggestions! I will be definitely looking into different DAWs. What do you think of Reaper Free?
Thanks again and that friend thing is open!

For samples, go through all these and pick the ones you like. <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/tech/ ... 7833</span (http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/tech/free-music-samples-download-loops-hits-and-multis-217833%3C/span)>. You can use samples as parts of your song, pick apart the sample and just use single drum hits, play the samples as different notes, etc. Lots you can do with samples.

You don't need a midi keyboard/controller, although they do help quite a bit IMO. For starters, just do everything in your DAW and get comfortable with making music. You DEFINITELY don't need a mixer. You need good headphones and monitor speakers will help, but those will also require an audio interface. To start out, all you need is a computer, DAW and someway to play back the music that's fairly high quality. You can grow your system from there.

Thanks ImNotDedYet!!
Thanks for those sample suggestions! Not sure what a sample is but you did say some things I can do with them. I will look into that aswell.

For external equipment I think I am going to hold off for the moment. Don't wanna over do it. For the headphones etc. would simple IPhone headphones suffice?

Thanks again! The friend offer is also open!!

Welcome to the forum Nahcal

I hope you find your stay here educational and fun!

I have never used Podium; however, having been at KVR a while now I can say it is well received by those that do use it.

Try it out. Since it is free you can't go wrong. If you don't like it, de-install it.

Actually, try out every thing. This should be your first rule. Always demo. Just because one person says it is great and you should get it doesn't mean it's for you. Always demo.

Rule 2.... spare yourself the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome in case you are unfamiliar).

Newbies have a tendancy to want to buy everything right away. I can say from experience, the "toys" are great to have, but do yourself a favor and go slow.

When you buy something (and this is a never ending saga) take the time to learn it to its fullest. Often, when you are wanting to buy something new, you probably already have the toy, erm tool, and don't realize it if you haven't taken the time to learn what you do have.

Rule 3...Take the time to read this forum and others, like VI.control forum and Gearsltuz for example. There is a wealth of information to be had if you take the time to read. There are a lot of great people in these forums and they are willing to help.

Much has already been written about the exact same questions you have asked by the new people that came before you (including me ). I'll bet some of them will stop by and give you some pointers too. In the meantime, just read the different forums here to pick up some ideas. You will be surprised what you will learn

Oh, yes, you will have to spend money - but only when you want to if you want to. If you are already producing then my guess is you already have what's needed to start. Get a DAW, like the Podium, and start recording. Then you will have samples.

If Podium comes with plug-ins, use them and learn them. Then you can take the samples or your classical recordings and mangle them to creat the electronica you want to produce.

Which brings me to Rule 4..... DO NOT expect to know everything overnight. Not gonna happen! Put in the time. If you want to learn something you have to invest the time and practise, practise, practise. It's a lifelong learning session

Ok....time for some other to give their set of rules.

BTW- rules can be fun to follow

Good luck!

Happy Musiking!
dsan

WOW! Can't thank you enough dsan
I will be following your rules 100%!! For the DAW I got Reaper Free as a suggestion. I will also try some of the others suggested by Arkmabat! Also Podium Free.

I will be sure to stay away from the bad GAS (pun intended) as I have struggled with it in the past.
Researching isn't my strong point but music is the one thing in my life I could never give up, so I will be putting my heart and soul into all of it!
Just like most things in the world, spending money is inevitable so I guess I will suck it up and just do it. In the future though when I am comfortable and somewhat experienced and researched.

Thanks again for all the tips! I am so hyped to start this! If you have any music I would love to hear what you have made. You seem to be very experienced in music and it would be cool to hear what you have. If you wanna add me on a friend list thing that would be awesome aswell!
THANKYOU!!

[treebeard]

Hey there,

Thought it might be worth mentioning that if your coming from a classical background you may or may not find that clicking all your notes into the computer with a mouse fairly, well, boring i suppose! Or maybe not boring but its pretty hard to create a "live jam" type feel when your mousing it all in.

Im not classically trained but can play a few chords on a piano and for me having other ways to interface with the software aside from a mouse or qwerty is pretty essential to making the process more engaging. These are good times as far as midi keyboards and controllers are concerned so you can get hold of stuff pretty cheap second hand or new.

[arkmabat]

Reaper is technically not free and not easy for a beginner to use.

[Synchanter]

Maybe you can think of it in 3 stages.

Stage 1: Liftoff
Trial a DAW (free), load a free soft synth like Synth1 (free), get a MIDI keyboard (under$200), play your first notes and presto, you have officially started!

Stage 2: Learn about music creation and arrangement
Choose DAW, choose soft synths/samplers, learn sound design (my 1st 15 sounds in my sig hehe), learn how to make arrangements in DAW, learn how to share music by Soundcloud.

Stage 3: Learn about mixing and mastering
Get monitor speakers so tracks can be heard well so its clear what adjustments are needed.
Learn to mix the levels of tracks well.
EQ is to get rid of glaring flaws in the tracks like too much of one frequency like a treble buzz.
Compressor is to modify tracks that are glaringly more dynamic in volume (vary from loudest to softest) than others (drums and vocals usually). This harmonizes the whole arrangement together (what is called "gluing" the track together).
Maybe add some effects to flavor certain tracks or to the master mix as a whole, usually reverb.
Finally, it is common but not always, to use a limiter to do some final touchup of the track. This part is controversial, people can't agree on which limiter is best and how much the track should be limited then boosted (The loudness war, google it).

There, a quick overview. Stage 3 is more about music production and is not so urgent. I'm currently fascinated by it so I can polish the turds I created in Stage 2 to a beautiful diamond-like sheen.

[Mivo]

Reaper is technically not free and not easy for a beginner to use.

The evaluation period is 60 days, and it doesn't expire or get crippled after. Presumably, most people drop the little amount of cash it costs by then.

As for easy, I think in the end no DAW is easy, and all of them require learning. It's only the first few hours that may be slightly easier with program X compared to program Y. I had thought that FL Studio would be the most intuitive, and in some ways it was (I still believe that its workflow "should" be the most compatible with me because I like the unrestricted canvas approach), but I make more noise with Renoise, which is the least accessible DAW for me as it's a tracker. I also tried recording (acoustic instrument and an electric one) in various programs, and Reaper did it better and easier than the others.

The two keys to Reaper are: a) reading the very excellent manual (not all DAWs have that), and b) watching KennyG's fantastic "Reaper 4 Explained" video series at Groov3.com. This costs either $15 for the pass or around $30 for the download. It was the first time I spent money on an educational video course, and it was so worth it.

The advantage of Reaper is, I feel, that it will grow with you. You can do almost anything with it and shape it into what you want it to be. It has few limitations and it is extremely efficient in terms of resources. Yesterday, I toyed a bit with the demo of Serum, and promptly managed to trigger a CPU overload warning in Renoise. Reaper, meanwhile, had no issues whatsoever, and it seems it can always handle just a few more soft synth tracks than other DAWs. It does look uninspiring out of the box, no doubt, and there is a learning curve. But still, it's a worthwhile investment of time, and with no financial risk or limitations.

If you have multiple DAWs, there's a good chance to constantly bounce around between them, and that really cuts into productivity and slows down learning (or rather, broadens it, at the expensive of speed). I use all of mine (sometimes that causes frustration, sometimes it helps me learn), but in retrospect I would have been better off if I had only picked one. Since I like to record real instrument, Reaper would have been the ideal choice for me. If I only did electronic music and were strictly "in the box", I'd probably pick FL Studio (due to the lifetime updates it is also the cheapest in the very long run).

[DJ Warmonger]

DAW is a matter of personal preference. You don't need any specific DAW to play around with synths and plugins, however, each hosts them just as well. the difference becomes visible only once you want to use samples in a creative way, but that's not obligatory for beginners.

What is obligatory, however, is MIDI keyboard so you can actually play something within resonable time, and headphones / monitors so you cna hear it. One of them is enough for start - your first productions will be so bad that sound output makes a little difference

[ImNotDedYet]

iPhone ear buds will work but they won't translate to other systems AT ALL. You'll find yourself frustrated listening in your car, on a stereo, at your friends house, and likely no one listening to it is going to like it because you're not going to be able to properly EQ/hear things.

I'd recommend getting a decent pair of headphones if you're not going to get monitors at this point. Audio Technical ATH-M50 and Sony MDR-7506 are pretty popular at the lower price end of headphones for production. I have both and don't use either other than to do a spot check on mixes. ATH-M50's are too low frequency heave and muddy for me and the Sony's are a bit too bright. I actually use the Sony's for DJing.

The truth of the matter is, everyone wants to get in and do this as cheaply as possible, and there's a lot of money wasted on things that are unnecessary whether you're a new producer or a seasoned veteran producer. But one area you really NEED is to be able to hear properly what you're doing, and if headphones are your only option at this point...ear buds are not a good option.

And keep the volume down on any headphones you use. You can do damage to your ears with too much higher volume headphone use.

[Fernando Carvalho]

Hi. Maybe you could start with hardware before going into the daw world.
If I were you I would wait for the new korg electribe and use that as your first learning tool. Good thing is that when you have learnt it and want to take the next step, the projects that you made with the electribe can be transfered to ableton. I recomend this becouse sometimes I think that the daw/plugin world can be too much at first, a groovebox concept can be better as learning tool, and it will give you more focus and less setup headache.

You could take the ipad way if you have one too, but it can be confusing too, too many apps/choices.