# What's the best way to make music on my own?



## Impasse (Aug 20, 2010)

I've got a lot of free time and really want to make music on my own. I've recorded some stuff in Audacity (for example this rather ambient two-minute guitar jam [youtube]) but I'm no good at recording, and would like to be able to make music more with software than real instruments.

Money is a huge concern. I have none of it. I'm just a high-schooler with a couple rather low-end computers and a few guitars, and I'm too wrapped up with stuff outside of school (evening classes at the city University, instrumental lessons, etc) to have a job. My birthday was about a week ago and I've yet to receive anything so I could ask my parents for a decent MIDI controller, I guess.

So, my assets are:
-A guitar and a bass
-A piano
-Performing ability with said instruments
-A couple alright computers
-$7 Logitech microphone from Wal-Mart
-$10 Samsung earphones from Wal-Mart (they are surprisingly high in fidelity)
-Potentially I could get a MIDI controller, I don't know how they vary in quality

What can I do with this to get started on producing full tracks on a computer? I know my way around a keyboard instrument, I have a fundamental understanding of timbre/ADSR/etc, and certainly know enough about music theory to write music. To start with, I'm interested in sort of ambient techno, but would like to start writing more complicated things later once I get the hang of the software.

It's also worth noting that while I have no qualms against software piracy, there is no Windows OS I've tried that will install correctly on my desktop computer, and my laptop is painfully slow even running Google Chrome. I think the desktop issue may have to do with my awkward partitioning but for the time being I'm using Ubuntu 10. WINE confuses me but I haven't messed around with it much.


----------



## Cam (Aug 20, 2010)

First off I would suggest downloading the demo version of FL9 

It works very efficiently... the only kick in the nuts is that you cannot save or load your work, but you can still export as mp3 or WAV

Also while using certain channels they silince every couple of minutes

But if you can work with it alot, learn what the buttons do, etc etc, you can end up making reallly really good demos with it

Whatever you do do NOT record your voice with a logitech microphone... thats just recipe for disaster

a decent 25 key MIDI controller will be worth the money down the road


----------



## Impasse (Aug 20, 2010)

Impasse said:


> I have no qualms against music piracy


 
herp derp I meant software piracy. Not that I have any problem with music piracy either but that's another discussion.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I'll see if I can get FLS9 running under WINE, demo or otherwise.


----------



## Ffzzynxnynxxyninx (Aug 20, 2010)

I second the FruityLoops idea. It's great "beginner" software, and I put that in quotes because it still has really good capabilities. 

In all honesty, if you want to be able to make quality recordings, you will need to come up with SOME money. Hardware isn't cheap, unfortunately =/

edit: You could also download Audacity. It's free recording software. I'm not sure of it's full potential cause I've never used it to record, but you could play around with it. It's very basic, all it really is is a sequencer/recorder.


----------



## Impasse (Aug 20, 2010)

Pianowolfy said:


> edit: You could also download Audacity. It's free recording software. I'm not sure of it's full potential cause I've never used it to record, but you could play around with it. It's very basic, all it really is is a sequencer/recorder.


 
Yes, Audacity is what I've been using for my minimal recordings, but I wasn't aware that it's a sequencer as well as a recorder. In the past I've manually generated notes one by one with the 'Generate -> Tone', but that's the most sequencing I thought could be done with Audacity. Where's the sequencer? I can't find it.


----------



## Fenrir Lupus (Sep 2, 2010)

I'd get a mic upgrade if I were you...

Also...  hmm...  you already have a piano...

if you can find a 1960's or earlier hammond organ on craigslist (has to be a tonewheel organ, the transistor organs sound like crap) or a wurlitzer electrostatic reed organ, you could get some interesting tones...

Woah wait a minute, same state...  and I know quite a few local musicians...

Maybe i'll try to be less obvious...  i've been suggesting hammond organs to everyone since I got mine.


----------

