Sep 20 2011
Making Music In A Home Studio
Back in the 1970’s making and producing music at home was a very difficult challenge. You needed to have 8 track recording equipment, microphones, noise gates, mixing desks as well as your instruments. It was a very costly affair and only the privileged could enjoy doing it. In modern times though, things have changed dramatically. All you need to make and produce music at home now is a decent home computer and your chosen instruments. In fact, while you may like to make use of a guitar, you will find that you can create good drum, keyboard and bass sounds all using your PC. “How?”, I hear you ask.
In the last twenty years or so, music sequencers have launched to the forefront of not just professional recording studios, but home studios too. A sequencer is a piece of software which will allow you to arrange a large number of samples (recorded sounds) over a specified music time scale. This means you can create complex drum beats and patterns with ease along with amazing melodies for the piano. Sequencers generally also support being controlled by a normal keyboard. This is done using midi sequencing, something that has been around and used widely by the music industry for the past twenty years.
You may remember the huge change in music production styles which came in the 1980’s. This was all down to samples and sequencing. The same technique is now used as the de facto standard in music production today but because the equipment used has been refined so much, it is getting harder and harder to tell whether a person is playing an instrument in a band or if it is a computer being used.
The other great benefit of using a computer as your home recording studio is the cost. Most of us have a computer at home these days, which means that all you need is the recording and sequencing software to get started. The software usually emulates all of the hardware you would traditionally need saving you a fortune. If you haven’t ever used a music production application I recommend that you download a trial of Cool Edit Pro and also a trial for Fruity Loops today. Once you get to grips with them, you will never look back.