Creating Music On Your Computer

Greenbean

What I want to know is, what exactly would you need to create music on your computer - not studio quality, but what are you going to need to make a decent bedroom record, or even something that might be worth trialling at the local nightclub or with some friends. Of course there are simple packages out there that let you make music very easy, but they're just limited things - where people are drawing from a library of pre-packaged sounds already setup and running (de jay series of programs etc).

Instead, what programs would you need to create your own tune from scratch, create the sounds, change the pitch without changing the speed, mangle the sounds. What programs do you need to do this stuff in real-time. What programs are the best for sequencings (easily let you loop sounds, and change them in real-time - have drum machines running at the same time). Ie whats the best setup, from the ground up, with no limitations, lets you do the most, gives you the best set of tools.

Is there a well known standard set of programs, and a fairly clear cut path through the world of home-made computer music, like say 3d art (3dmax or maya & photoshop is all you need), or is it all very up in the air, and everyone finds different routes to the destination?

Gordon

protools
Go to downloads.com and search for pro tools free or protools free.

Excellent program - 8 tracks audio - 16 or more MIDI. You can tune, delay etc

Let me know, pm me if you want

Greenbean

Cheers Gordon!

Cake Fiend

If you're serious about it, check out:

Reason
Cubase VST
Wavelab

3 essential computer-music apps imo. Reason is a single package including a mixer, synth, drum machine, sampler and more. Reason 2 is on the way soon. Cubase VST is a MIDI sequencer with virtual instrument capabilities. Wavelab is an audio editing and mastering program. You'd also want to get a MIDI keyboard, and possibly a set of drum pads.

You can do a lot of the things the above programs do with cheaper software, but imo they're the cream of the crop. Also, check out Computer Music magazine (Future publishing I think) - some helpful reviews of software and hardware in it, along with tutorials for the most popular tools.

_CreeD_

The major players (That I know of) are -

Sequencers:
Cubase
Logic
Reason
Sonar (used to be Cakewalk)

Wave Editors:
Cool Edit
Soundforge
Wavelab

Samplers
GigaStudio
Hallion
Vsampler


Personally I prefer

Sequencer - Sonar 2.0 (Cakewalk 11 basically)
Wave Editor - Soundforge 5.0
Sampler - VSampler

Everything else I have plugs into Sonar.
There are 2 real formats for plugins, VST (Cubase) and DirectX, You can get a VST-DX adapter so if you use a DX compatible host with one of these you can use just about any major plugin out there. Sonar 2.0 also has ReWire support (For linking to Reason/Rebirth etc. ). Dx has the advantage of also being supported inside may other applications, eg. Soundforge can use the same Audio plugins I have loaded for Sonar (reverb/compression etc.), Handy...
You can get quite a few DX 'Soft Synths' - instead of using samples they create virtual and configurable synth modules. The sound is generally amazing, a hell of a lot better than using samples/soundfonts.

Sonar 2.0 also supports 'Acid' format loops (ie. Wavs with encoded Loop and beat information for wasy playback at dif. tempos without beat or pitch distortion).

Sonar's cheaper than Cubase, has won top awards in just about every publication that ever reviewed it, has more plugin options (With the adapter...) and according to folks I know who have extensively used both is more user friendly/stable and powerful than Cubase. I'm not trying to get into a pissing war with Steinberg folks, these are just the reasons I chose it myself.
One very nice feature they added to the latest Cubase though is the ability to link instances of Cubase across multiple PCs. It'll be added to the other major players soon enough but for now they're ahead of the game on that front.


Anyway -

Plugins I recommend (any you folks can recommend too would be great) -

VST-DX adapter:
Fxpansion VSTDX

DXi (synths):
Pentagon
Triangle II
Dr008 (Drum machine).
Virtual Sound Canvas
Tassman
OmniSynth

Samplers:
If want to sequence Samples as if they were Midi instruments (ie. play them easily from the keyboard as an instrument rather than dragging/dropping in the track views) then you need a sampler.
Vsampler (handiness)
GigaStudio 96 (resource hog but amazing quality and features)

Mastering:
EQ/Reverb - Izotope Ozone
Compression - BlueLine Compressor


Websites:

Equipment/Software - www.dolphinmusic.co.uk
Articles/Reviews - www.computermusic.co.uk , www.emusician.com. (Both have paper publications worth getting too)
DX Plugins - www.directxfiles.com
VST Plugins - www.kvr-vst.com

mike65

Start buying Computer Music magazine, its what keeps me going!
The next issue is out this week.

Mike.

Lawnkiller

i use stuff like modplug tracker for sample based music. very simple tool and u get some good results from a little playing around with it. it now supports some basic vst and dx plugins.

u can also create some great samples or instruments using any of the synth modellers out there - i use orangator for the crack, comes with lots of nice 808 and 909 samples that u can play around with.

rebirth is another app worth lookin at for those 303 bits or basic drum machine noises, etc.

thats my €0.02 worth anyway.

(these aren't the best apps but they do work, well most of the time anyway.... )

potlatch

Get buzz at www.buzzmachines.com - it's 100% free, it's a sequencer, sampler, tracker, soft synth and drum machine and very easy to get into.

The beauty is that it's very efficient resource-wise and people are always making new machines for it. I know someone who swears by it and makes some great stuff on it [ check out the mp3 on www.compactrisc.net ].

Greenbean

Cheers guys - good info.

Greenbean

To come back to this topic again, keyboards - I don't have one. How much can I expect to spend for a cheap but decent one - ie no mahogany finish and glazing , how many keys should I go for, will the midi/joystick port of the back of a sound card be good enough? Cheers in advance.

Gordon

It depends on what you want to do with it really. If you want to play massive Chopin like parts then you will need a 4/5 octave type thing, if you want to play samples (which is what I think you want) then you need a max-2 octave small keyboard. it'd be nice to have a pitch bend slider too.

More info is needed on what music you want to make but you can pick up a small 2 octave keyboard for little (sorry don't have prices now).

As for ports, I'm a USB Mac man myself so can't help you there! MIDI keyboard is prolly best but other posters will no doubt tell you more...

_CreeD_

It sounds like all you want is a pure midi controller (ie. no onboard sounds). Adding to Gordon's post some other key things to look for are Velocity and Aftertouch.
Just about any half decent keyboard these days will have Velocity control (ie. It can sense how hard you press the keys and transmit that data to your sequencer), but not all have aftertouch (The ability to alter the sound by pressing harder/lighter after the initial key press) - but then you may not need it for the style of music you plan to do. You can manually input and edit both of these values in just about every sequencer out there, the keyboard just makes it more natural (Even if you don't know how to actually play one properly).

A very neat little 2 octave Kbd is the Midiman Oxygen8. It has an integrated MIDI interface so you just need to connect it to a USB port, but what sets it apart from others in its price range is the addition of 8 control knobs (Blank, but you should be able to assign these to functions within your sequencer/synth, handier than you might think). No aftertouch though.
Otherwise have a look at www.dolphinmusic.co.uk, they have a a very good selection and decent pricing (You might get it a few quid cheaper elsewhere, but not much and their service has always been excellent).

Using a game controller as the midi interface shouldn't be a problem. When you're writing on your PC the real timing/latency issues you run into will be down to the computer's processing power and the quality/performance of your soundcard.

mike65

I use an Evolution MK261 midi controller keyboard which has
touch sensitve keys over 5 octaves, don't bother with anything
with fewer keys or without velocity-sensitive keys as they just won't be very playable and wont trigger velocity sensitive sounds properly, which many sound modules have for example.

Mike.