How to start in electronic music?

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:07 pm

My background is in acoustic music - jazz, big band, wind orchestra, that kind of thing. I'm interested in making electronic music though. I've played around with the DS-10 emulator on the Nintendo DS and had some fun doing that, but I thought I could do better on a pc.

I'd be grateful for suggestions on cheap/free software I could use to get started. Thanks in advance.

Pantheon · Post by **Pantheon** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:00 pm

Heres a high quality sequencer:

Reaper - (http://www.reaper.fm)

My brother had a look at this and seems to like it. I also had a look and it has some very interesting features. It has VST/VSTi support for plugins and also allows you to program your own inside of the sequencer.
It has almost all of the features of a expensive sequencer.
Its free 30 days, but costs $60 to buy, but thats realy cheap for a sequencer this good.

Other people like to use sequencers such as:
Fruity Loops - (Loads of features and started as a tool for bedroom producers)
(http://flstudio.image-line.com)

Cubase - (very high quality, for profesional use. Can be slightly fidily)
(http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/mu ... oduct.html)

Ableton Live - (Great program, its what I use. Editing in this program feels very natural. High Quality) (http://www.ableton.com)

Others are:
Sonar, Logic, Sony Acid, ...

I have also heard good things about Psycle, its free and has some unique features. I havent used it so I cant say much more than you should have a look at it.
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/psycle)

A free wave editor/recorder:
Audacity - (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)

Audacity is very well known and used alot. It has some very excelent features but from my use it can be slightly user-unfriendly at times. For a more powerfull editor you should look at Sony Soundforge.

I wont beat around the bush, good software that suits your needs can make all the difference to the music your create. You realy need to look threw whats out there and find one that suits your needs. Almost all the major music programs can be found on the darker corners of the web. It could be an idea to try some of them out until you find one that you realy like, and then pay for that one.

As for Virtual Instruments, Effects and samples:

Great ones can be found for free on the web just google for what your looking for and you can be sure to find something that will please you. So first and formost try and find a good sequencer.

Phasen · Post by **Phasen** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:33 pm

ableton is the best but pricy.

audacity is free but does virtually nothing.

Numerator · Post by **Numerator** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:46 pm

Phasen wrote: audacity is free but does virtually nothing.

but it's still good purely for arranging

sc6000 · Post by **sc6000** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:00 am

Here's a few freebies that hold there own:

Jeskola Buzz (Pretty much a DAW style composition tool). The learning curve is a little high, but some great stuff can come out of this in the right hands:
http://www.buzzmachines.com/

VST instruments & efx
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php
http://illformed.org/plugins/glitch/
http://www.home.no/gunnare/
http://www.tweakbench.com/

And of course there's some decent free vst's & whatnot to be had on the Computer Music DVD's.

Hope that helps get you started

dono · Post by **dono** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:02 am

Logic Pro 9. And I repeat, Logic Pro 9.

Cupz · Post by **Cupz** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:13 am

I use everything i can get my hands on.

I'll say you this, don't buy software untill youu're making money with it.

dono · Post by **dono** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:01 pm

Cupz wrote:I use everything i can get my hands on.

I'll say you this, don't buy software untill youu're making money with it.

False. Buy Logic Pro.

TEARZ · Post by **TEARZ** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:58 pm

no way, don't buy jack until you've gotten your hands dirty with trial versions. you need to find a program that jives with your own personal thinking and music making. that's key in my opinion, because if it doesn't you're spending alot of time doing things against your own grain and that's not good for anyone.

depending on how you learn, i would say the best thing is to find somebody in your city that makes electronic music, hit them up and see if they can show you some stuff...or if you can sit around and watch how they work. it will go MILES to help you understand the current crop of software programs, which if you're totally unfamiliar, can be very frustrating.

i've heard of jeskola buzz...i know for a fact you can make sweet shit with this program alone, as nurthice uses it: http://profile.myspace.com/nurthice

dono · Post by **dono** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:11 pm

I will teach anyone who wants to know how to use Logic Pro, lol. No seriously.

turquoise70 · Post by **turquoise70** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:15 pm

Use whatever you want, and do it however you want. Unless you madly desire popularity and fame, in which case, i have no advice because i don't know anything about actively pursuing those things.

Chuck Beckles · Post by **Chuck Beckles** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:42 am

I'm going to start learning to use a DAW soon, and I'm thinking of limiting myself to the most basic VSTs at first, get the hang of using sequencers, synths, etc, writing tracks, and slowly adding things from there. Just going to be playing with that stuff for a while.

I've been recommended Cubase and Fruity Loops quite a bit. And yeah, just download something first.

Free plugins here.
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/2842-mosca ... gins-list/

isawdrones · Post by **isawdrones** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:55 am

Chuck Beckles wrote:I'm going to start learning to use a DAW soon, and I'm thinking of limiting myself to the most basic VSTs at first, get the hang of using sequencers, synths, etc, writing tracks, and slowly adding things from there. Just going to be playing with that stuff for a while.

I've been recommended Cubase and Fruity Loops quite a bit. And yeah, just download something first.

Free plugins here.
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/2842-mosca ... gins-list/

yeah thats a good idea. Programs these days are overloaded with cool shit which can distract from basic music making and programming which is the most important fundamental thing. Just because your learning doesn't mean you cant make good music.

BrandNewRetro · Post by **BrandNewRetro** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:56 pm

isawdrones wrote:
Chuck Beckles wrote:I'm going to start learning to use a DAW soon, and I'm thinking of limiting myself to the most basic VSTs at first, get the hang of using sequencers, synths, etc, writing tracks, and slowly adding things from there. Just going to be playing with that stuff for a while.

I've been recommended Cubase and Fruity Loops quite a bit. And yeah, just download something first.

Free plugins here.
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/2842-mosca ... gins-list/
yeah thats a good idea. Programs these days are overloaded with cool shit which can distract from basic music making and programming which is the most important fundamental thing. Just because your learning doesn't mean you cant make good music.

I've been finding this using Ableton, it's brilliant software but there's that many distractions that I start toying with things I wouldn't have thought of doing before, thus distracting me away from the core of it all.

isawdrones · Post by **isawdrones** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:44 am

BrandNewRetro wrote:
isawdrones wrote:
Chuck Beckles wrote:I'm going to start learning to use a DAW soon, and I'm thinking of limiting myself to the most basic VSTs at first, get the hang of using sequencers, synths, etc, writing tracks, and slowly adding things from there. Just going to be playing with that stuff for a while.

I've been recommended Cubase and Fruity Loops quite a bit. And yeah, just download something first.

Free plugins here.
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/2842-mosca ... gins-list/
yeah thats a good idea. Programs these days are overloaded with cool shit which can distract from basic music making and programming which is the most important fundamental thing. Just because your learning doesn't mean you cant make good music.
I've been finding this using Ableton, it's brilliant software but there's that many distractions that I start toying with things I wouldn't have thought of doing before, thus distracting me away from the core of it all.

Haha, totally! I'm in the same position. Its like "ok, go for a reverb" then I scroll over to the FX list "o, wait, i wonder what ReDux would sound like". Too many options. Makes me want to buy another MPC and start sequencing with that again.

I remember when I had a poly 800 I would just get something going on the onboard sequencer, then record the output to audacity, slow it down, pitch it up, delay whatever. Nice, simple things!! I miss those humble beginnings. Chuck I would just ignore the masses, including us. Do your own thang, trials are a good idea.

CoBoC · Post by **CoBoC** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:17 pm

Reason 4 and GoldWave have been treating me well.

And by the way... don't pirate software.
(winkity wink)

the letter p · Post by **the letter p** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:21 pm

"C'est fini la comédie"

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:18 pm

Oops, sorry for the delay in thanking everyone for their help. I really know jack shit about this so I think I will start on the free software route first and get some simple stuff going.

Thank you everyone!

Phasen · Post by **Phasen** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:53 pm

the free sample of ableton is always a good place to go. once i got that i was HOOKED

thepenguin114 · Post by **thepenguin114** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:28 am

I personally recommend FL Studio. Excellent VST support as well.