Hello and welcome to my first blog! I have been tying to think where to start and after much thought I just went with the logical conclusion of starting with the very first steps.
The typical scenario is you want to enter the music industry, you are into DJing and you want to start making music like David Guetta! Well there are a few basic steps you need to take first. Although making music is a lot more accessible than it used to be, there is an incredible amount of skill needed to be able to produce a finished track to a quality standard.
There is also a lot of software and hardware on the market and in order to use it takes a lot of time and knowledge. Ultimately, I think the best way to learn is to get a mentor but when you don’t have one; things can get lonely and frustrating reading all those instruction manuals! That is why I thought I would start writing this blog, the idea being, to try and explain the basics of how to get started and cover some basic production skills.
First things first – a computer
There are three things you need to think about at this stage:
Do I choose a Windows based PC
Do I choose a Mac
Do I choose a laptop
The decision about which one to choose depends on a few other things:
How professional do you want your set up to be?
How much money you want to spend?
How much are you going to be on the move?
Do you want to integrate your music with other producers?
Do you already own a PC and want to upgrade?
There are many more questions to be answered and I will try and cover the answer to these later but in the meantime the main decision behind choosing PC or Mac is the DAW.
A digital audio workstation (also called a sequencer) is software that enables you to record, edit and playback audio. It also enables you to make multitrack recordings via ADC (analogue to digital converter) or DAC (digital to analogue converter). What this basically means is you can plug various pieces of electronic equipment into your computer to make music via a special sound card.
Many people are divided on choosing PC or Mac. My personal feeling is that the winner in this camp has to be a Mac. This is based purely on the fact that they are very stable and it is now industry standard in most recording studios so it speaks for itself. The reason for this is not just the computer itself but Logic Pro which is an incredibly powerful DAW but is only available for Mac, check out a preview here:
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/logicpro/#overview
Although my feeling is that a Mac is now industry standard and the option to choose if you want a purely professional machine, I don’t want to get too much into a discussion on Macs. The reason for this is i don’t have the experience and although It is industry standard it has not stopped me and hundreds of other artists using a PC running Steinberg Cubase, or any other DAW, check out a preview of Cubase here:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/musicproduction/cubase4_product.html
Of course there are more DAWs on the market so you are not just confined to using the above, the above are just my preferences. Some are easier to use than others and Cakewalk is a good entry level package, check out the list below:
Ableton Live
Adobe Audition
Cakewalk Sonar
Cubase
Digital Performer
FL Studio
GarageBand
Logic Pro
Nuendo
Orion
Pro Tools
REAPER
Reason
Samplitude
Sony ACID
Tracktion
The one thing you will notice if you have clicked on the LogicPro and Cubase links above is how similar the screenshots look. The basic principles of using most DAWs are the same.
So, in answer to the question – do I choose PC or Mac? It really depends on, how professional you want to be and which DAW you want to use as you can’t buy LogicPro for PC. If you already have a PC then it makes sense to start by using or upgrading it as your first step to making music.
On my next blog I will go into detail on buying a Windows based PC for making music. In the meantime feel free to give me some feedback on my first blog!
The typical scenario is you want to enter the music industry, you are into DJing and you want to start making music like David Guetta! Well there are a few basic steps you need to take first. Although making music is a lot more accessible than it used to be, there is an incredible amount of skill needed to be able to produce a finished track to a quality standard.
There is also a lot of software and hardware on the market and in order to use it takes a lot of time and knowledge. Ultimately, I think the best way to learn is to get a mentor but when you don’t have one; things can get lonely and frustrating reading all those instruction manuals! That is why I thought I would start writing this blog, the idea being, to try and explain the basics of how to get started and cover some basic production skills.
First things first – a computer
There are three things you need to think about at this stage:
Do I choose a Windows based PC
Do I choose a Mac
Do I choose a laptop
The decision about which one to choose depends on a few other things:
How professional do you want your set up to be?
How much money you want to spend?
How much are you going to be on the move?
Do you want to integrate your music with other producers?
Do you already own a PC and want to upgrade?
There are many more questions to be answered and I will try and cover the answer to these later but in the meantime the main decision behind choosing PC or Mac is the DAW.
A digital audio workstation (also called a sequencer) is software that enables you to record, edit and playback audio. It also enables you to make multitrack recordings via ADC (analogue to digital converter) or DAC (digital to analogue converter). What this basically means is you can plug various pieces of electronic equipment into your computer to make music via a special sound card.
Many people are divided on choosing PC or Mac. My personal feeling is that the winner in this camp has to be a Mac. This is based purely on the fact that they are very stable and it is now industry standard in most recording studios so it speaks for itself. The reason for this is not just the computer itself but Logic Pro which is an incredibly powerful DAW but is only available for Mac, check out a preview here:
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/logicpro/#overview
Although my feeling is that a Mac is now industry standard and the option to choose if you want a purely professional machine, I don’t want to get too much into a discussion on Macs. The reason for this is i don’t have the experience and although It is industry standard it has not stopped me and hundreds of other artists using a PC running Steinberg Cubase, or any other DAW, check out a preview of Cubase here:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/musicproduction/cubase4_product.html
Of course there are more DAWs on the market so you are not just confined to using the above, the above are just my preferences. Some are easier to use than others and Cakewalk is a good entry level package, check out the list below:
Ableton Live
Adobe Audition
Cakewalk Sonar
Cubase
Digital Performer
FL Studio
GarageBand
Logic Pro
Nuendo
Orion
Pro Tools
REAPER
Reason
Samplitude
Sony ACID
Tracktion
The one thing you will notice if you have clicked on the LogicPro and Cubase links above is how similar the screenshots look. The basic principles of using most DAWs are the same.
So, in answer to the question – do I choose PC or Mac? It really depends on, how professional you want to be and which DAW you want to use as you can’t buy LogicPro for PC. If you already have a PC then it makes sense to start by using or upgrading it as your first step to making music.
On my next blog I will go into detail on buying a Windows based PC for making music. In the meantime feel free to give me some feedback on my first blog!
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