Music Making Blog — Computer Music Making | Make music like you’re playing a game!

To start making music and make your first good song, you need firstly to choose an instruments to use. It’s not the standard music instruments like drums, guitar, flute, etc. It’s a special instruments – software to compose, to synthesize, to mix tracks and apply effects. 

The first thing you need to choose is your main sequencer. Practically, sequencers now is just like virtual studios – they combines instruments to write music, to synthesize musical instruments, and to combine it with audio track such like vocals, live guitars. 

For the future: In successful music making, it’s good to use something recorded live. For example, you can listen demo of my track We Can’t Die Tomorrow and you’ll see that I’ve used my recorded voice. The voice track (“Turn on the light, we can’t die tomorrow … “) was recorded on the very-very cheap microphone with the cost of only $20 and then was effected by vocoder, compressor and some another things. You can do it even better, be sure!

If you are beginner in music at all and don’t have any musical education, the good one to start is Sony Acid Pro. I even recommend you to use the version 4.0, the most stable and light version in the Acid Pro line. It wasn’t Sony, the full name is Sonicfoundry Acid Pro 4.0. This program is a greatest loop-based music making studio. It means that it’s mainly focused to manipulate with loops – a special pieces of sound that can be looped. Sonicfoundry Acid Pro 4.0 was my first electronic music platform and the main platform for first 1.5 years of musicmaking. In Acid, you can create a simple tracks with only combination of some loops, but also you can create a super-professional tracks. I know the man who is a very-successful electronic musician, and he is using this software to make a really great tracks and then publish it tracks on top labels. So you have to try Acid! Do some google searches to find supreme manual of this software.

Some notes about another sequencers, mainly Propellerheads Reason and Steinberg Cubase SX you’ll see in the next posts from me, not longer as in the next post.

In the august on this blog will be released a great series of screencasts and cool manuals to use Acid Pro and another sequencers! Don’t miss it, subscribe to RSS.

Some people talking me that electronic music isn’t a music and electronic musicians isn’t musicians. Usually I tryed to bet them, to prove that we also a musicians. But It’s a permanent disput. Every time there will be people, who doesnt think that electronic music is very serious, just like classical or jazz. But who are this squabblers? They are a cool jazzists? Or maybe a great singers? Or a musical producers? They are nobody. Cause every musicial producers, every great pop singer, even great jazzists and rockers can say: ELECTRONIC MUSIC IS SERIOUS!

Yes it is! They all know - producer knows that electronic music are popular and profitable, great pop singer knows that electronic music things helps him to make a greater sound, all jazzists respects acid jazz, all rockers love cool synth or scratch sound. Electronic music is a great novation of the 20th century and 21th will be the dawn of electronic musicians, who will be genius like Bethoven, Mozart, and other! May be it will be you? Just imagine! In 22th century, in “Electronic Music Encyclopedia” - John The Better (input your name here) - The Greatest electronic musician of the beginning of 21th century, ancestor of the new epoch!

Sounds inspiring?

Creating music isn’t a really hard process. It’s a pleasant, well-emotional and a nice activity, when you can take many positive emotions. To start making your own masterpieces, you need:

1. Decide a style of your future composition. It will be acid jazz? Or electro house? May be it will be a piano compositon? Ambient? Any another?

2. Ask your friend, who have a musical educational about what is tempo, octave,  what is 4/4 and what is measure. Practically, I  can’t explain it to you. I need to gesticulate, but this is only a blog! =))

3. Turn on your dictaphone and sing your track on it. Yes, like this “la-la-la, laaa-laaaa”, nothing more! It will be your crib and a big help not to forget your own cool song!

4. Download and install some music program. For beginners, i recommend Acid Pro. Or you can use a program “Propellerheads Reason”. It’s one of my main instruments to work. Soon I’ll record some screencast how to make your first music composition with this programs! You can also use a software like Cakewalk Pro Audio, or Cakewalk Sonar. Don’t even think to use software like eJay or some another monkey music making software!

4. Use the drum loops and some sound effects - make main arrangement.

5. Try to make your melody on it. If it can’t be done (And usually It can’t be done) forgot your dictaphone record :) and draw another melody. In a hour of try and error you’ll see a something like music.

6. Make a copies of your great melody on a while track, add a copies in another musical instrument, for example bass, lead synth.

7. To make a progressive sound, add some effects and use automates on it.

Maybe it’s very hard. Hm, but it’s a game! Making music is a game! Look on this like that, and you’ll get a fantastic results! Be optimistic!

Soon I’ll post here some screencasts to show you that the music creation is not very hard and very-very pleasant.  Be happy!

From the childhood I was a music guy. Every time I gave a torture to my parents playing on my big russian bassinet like i have a xylophone. Once upon a time :) my grandfather presented me a small soviet union pioneer drum. It was a most important day in my life, but also it was the worst day of my parents and my elder sister life. :) I drummed this thing every day. I was a 3 or 4 years old child, but i’ve decided — I must be a drummer!

This is a first post in this upcoming blog. This blog is all about making music. If you like music and feel a some creative thing in you, this blog is for you :). I’ll told you about how to start self-education in making music, how to bar a possible errors, how to grow faster, how to publish, promote your music, and many-many-many another things.

Right away, sorry about my english. It isn’t my native language and it’s very hard to learn it perfectly without the speaking practice. So, help me find a grammar and punctuation errors, guys. :) Thanks!