Create Your Own Music!

Title: Create Your Own Music!
By: Ronak R.
Date: August, 27, 2008.



I don’t recall a single person who has not been influenced by music in his life. And I don’t think it’s an outcome of my not so good memory at remembering names. Heh. We all like listening to some or the other kind of music. And for those who want to take music as a career, the only option that appears in front of them is singing. But, not everyone is equally good at that, you know. Not even me.

But do you know that those minor flaws don’t matter a lot when you know music is your life, your inspiration, your arsenal. You can make your own music, your own songs, without being much into music or having any music background. Have you ever sung or thought of a drone that you never listened before, the one that you instantaneously created out of a whim? You can make your own music and develop a nice hobby without having to spend a huge budget on the tools or learning the music. How?

There are plenty of software synthesizers that have emerged in the past few years. Some have produced ground-breaking results, and change the way people look at music. Some of the most acclaimed software production suites are Reason® from Propellerhead® & FL Studio® from Image-Line® to name a few. There are also suites designed especially for mixing / remixing, e.g. Virtual DJ® or Tractor®.

To start off with, I’d recommend you to download FLStudio demo version from FLStudio.com. It’s free and comes with all the functionalities, except the ability to save the projects in its ‘.flp’ format. Don’t panic, you can upgrade it later once you gain confidence on it. Reason offers much more functionalities, but getting a copy of it, even a demo, would be tiresome job. So, trust me, you better start with FL.

Most of these production suites follow a similar pattern when it comes to composing. The entire song structure is broken into parts and subparts, which can be arranged, sequenced and mastered separately. E.g. in FL, a song is played in play list, which is made up of different patterns, which contains portions of the songs. Each pattern will have a collection of samples / instruments / effects and the song structure. And finally, when everything is arranged together, the song plays smoothly like a harmony. I love FL for many reasons, like it is more user-friendly, it offers life-time updates, comes with tutorials and an extensive guide for using it, and ability to create your own synthesizers.

In case you’re looking for recording your own songs, or dubbing over a karaoke with your own voice, Audacity® is the best bet! It is free, open-source software. You can record & edit your vocals or instrumental recordings without any restrictions. All you’ll need is a PC and a cheap microphone to start off with. The ones I’ve been using for past few years were costing hardly above 300. No need to spend too much in the beginning, right?

Okay, so, now all you need to start of this new hobby is a PC, a mic (in case you want to record), and a tiny bunch of amazing software as per your requirements. That’s it?

Ummmmm, well, yea, you’ll also need to spend some time in a weekend to do all this, I guess. ;)

Best of luck.



© Ronak R. / RokZRooM
® Registered product/brand names by respective brands.