Making beautiful music by myself

spookymuffin

Hello all, mainly looking for the musicians of the forum on this one.

I'm looking to do some writing and recording of songs and what not on my PC, and I'm looking to get some software to make this easy and fun. I've heard of a few different programs, like Garageband, but I have no experience with anything. I need something that will provide drums (I have no drum set), and let me mix things together, then output it to an mp3 file or something. A separate drum program would be ok, I know there are a lot out there. Anyone have any knowledge to share?

Seaborn111

Cakewalk is a pretty standard windows based mixing program, as is logic pro.

but my sound advice, if i could ever offer something so sound?

look into a mac.

Mac minis are inexpensive, and powerful. Apple is very much so musically inclined, and you will notice this in their hardware.

Treeloot

Seaborn111 wrote: »

Cakewalk is a pretty standard windows based mixing program, as is logic pro.

but my sound advice, if i could ever offer something so sound?

look into a mac.

Mac minis are inexpensive, and powerful. Apple is very much so musically inclined, and you will notice this in their hardware.

This is the most ridiculous case of "buy a Mac" advice I've ever seen. You don't need to spend $500 on a Mac if you're just interested playing around and creating a few tunes. Even if you're serious about music, you can use Windows and get by fine. I like Macs (I'm using one right now), but this kind of Mac snobbery really pisses me off.

To the OP, check out FL Studio. It has a reputation for being good for hip hop beats, but you can use it for just about any type of music. You can get a demo here: http://www.tucows.com/preview/209204

Martin

See if you can get Reason. It's expensive to buy new, which I've done, but if you're looking to get into software music-ing, I'll assume you either have the cash or an alternative to paying.

Reason doesn't record real audio. In other words, you can't plug your mic into your computer and record into Reason. It's just a sequencer and sampler (think a nice keyboard that you can record on, except with infinitely more effects, sounds, loops and whatever you want). I can't really say enough good things about this program.

If you want to record live audio, check out a program called Live. Very friendly, works great chained with Reason.

Daemonion

Do you want to mix and match pre-recorded sounds, or do you have instruments you want to record?

Or both, maybe?

What instruments do you play, if any? Any particular style of music?

Unknown

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Mullitt The Wise

Audacity is great for a free recording program.
Look in to FL Studio for making beats. I think those two combined should give you what you're looking for.

Rotting Meat

You're looking to record your own guitar (or voice?) and then add in electronic drums? Cubase might be up your alley.

TaGuelle

An MBOX that comes with Pro-Tools is amazing for recording purposes. Pro Tools is great for mixing and if you splurge it comes with a lot of additions.

Reason is a great program and can probably be found on a bit torrent website.

Fruityloops is great but the plug-ins are where it shines.

The thing about all these programs is they're not simple by any means to learn how to use and manipulate. You might end up getting really frustrated in the process but work through it.

spookymuffin

Mostly, I want to use software to make drum beats, then plug in my guitar/bass/vocals/whatever else into it and do some multi-track recording. Something that I can import mp3 files into and out of would be a given as well.

EggyToast

You should give a general price guideline, as well. Some of the software recommended to you costs quite a large amount of money (full Cubase costs $800, Sonar $500, etc.). Of course, if you're just getting started, you probably want to start with the Lite versions, which are cheaper and more straightforward. If you just want to make some drum beats and record yourself, you'd probably be fine with FL Studio on Windows, which you can get a basic version of for $150.

NexusSix

TaGuelle wrote: »

Fruityloops is great but the plug-ins are where it shines.

It's been about 5 years since I played around with it, but I recommend FLS full version as well as its plug-ins. The full version and a few soft synths would give you plenty to work with. Not sure what kind of synths are available now, but I used to spend hours tweaking DreamStation loops--killer analogue synth simulator, that.

Gihgehls

Fifthing FL Studio. I've owned and used this software for 8 years and it just gets better and better. Free upgrades for life, great plug-in support, etc. The audio recording bits are a little janky, but this program really has it all. I used Reason for a bit but I hated every second of it. It just seemed to fight me every step of the way. If you're looking for some more freeform music making, I also highly recommend Ableton Live. It is designed around the live performance, but don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't compose or sequence on it. It has great controls for automating (animating) changes you make to various settings. I use Live for controlling my mastering plugins for example.

Homeless

If you're dirt poor (like me), you can use Hydrogen for drum tracks and then Audacity will do fine for recording stuff. For MIDI instruments and stuff though, it seems like FL Studio or GarageBand are the ways to go. If you want to go old school, you could use MilkyTacker, but it takes some getting used to, and you have to find good samples yourself.

tastydonuts

I haven't used it myself, but back in college somebody I knew made some particularly nice beats off it. Your mileage will vary, naturally. But consider that another endorsement of it.

http://www.flstudio.com/ is the actual site for it, didn't see anybody else link their main page.

KurnDerak

If you have around $350, and are currently a college student, I would highly recommend http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MBox2Edu/

It comes with plenty of add-ons, including Reason and BFD lite (drum program).

Mullitt The Wise

KurnDerak wrote: »

If you have around $350, and are currently a college student, I would highly recommend http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MBox2Edu/

It comes with plenty of add-ons, including Reason and BFD lite (drum program).

And all ProTools systems come with Xpand!, which is their midi synth thing. It's got some pretty cool sounds.