Making Music on your Computer - an Easy Quick Start Guide

When I started venturing into the world of music production, I found that the main obstacle was finding out what to use to achieve the sounds I wanted to make. The vocabulary of computer music is vast, and can be quite intimidating when taking your first steps. From here on in, I'll describe the tools you'll need to create your songs, point out why and when you would need them, and make some suggestions on reputable examples of each. If you come across a word that you've never seen before, check the glossary at the bottom of the lens for an explanation, or if you don't find the answer there, leave a message in the guest book, and I'll do my best to help you out.

The easiest way to get a sound out of your computer is to open an audio file. If you've ever played music in a music player such as iTunes or Windows Media Player, you have most likely made use of audio files before. They come in many file types, most commonly .MP3 and .WAV, the latter being preferable when making songs, because it is the highest quality. Your DAW will have a function allowing you to insert audio clips on a selected track and at a specific time in the song. Just look for some kind of import function, browse for the audio file you want to insert, and pop him in. You could happily make an entire song by arranging audio clips appropriately in your DAW's sequencer (many people do just that).

There are many ways to access audio files. You can download clips from the internet, or rip them from CDs (be careful with copyright infringement here, but as long as you aren't profiting from your music, you should be safe using clips, or 'samples' from other songs). Of course, you could record your own sounds. Let's talk about recording.

Recording yourself or a friend playing an instrument live is great for adding a more 'human' vibe to your songs; using virtual instruments alone can often result in an overly structured, robotic sound. There are two main ways to record live music; using a microphone, and via a direct sound cable input. The primary obstacle that haunts both approaches is sound quality, but there are steps you can take to counter this issue.

Nice and simple. Buy a microphone, plug it in, and sing/strum/toot your way to a musical masterpiece. Your DAW will allow you to record directly into your song, and might even have a 'take' function, where you loop the section you want to record, and keep recording the section until you get it right. A well-known and very reliable external program for recording and manipulating audio files is the legendary Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. After recording your sound, Audacity allows you to crop the audio, amplify it, and pretty much anything else, before exporting it as a useful file type like .WAV, ready to be used in a song.

The issue of sound quality, unfortunately, boils down to cost. The high-end, high-quality microphones cost proportionately more, so the model you go for really depends on the quality of sound you're looking for.

Certain musical instruments have an audio cable socket, to which you can connect a cable routed to the microphone input of your computer or an audio interface. Electric guitars, bass guitars, and electric keyboards are amongst the numerous examples. Purely acoustic instruments, including our own vocal chords, don't have these sockets, and so must be recorded with microphones.

Direct input recording is preferable in some ways to microphone recording because it negates the effect of microphone quality, and no character is lost from the sound as it travels through the air to a microphone. One downside is that you don't get the (often desirable) reverberation effects associated with hearing an instrument in an actual venue, but this can actually be emulated remarkably accurately using VST plug-ins, discussed later.

The process of using an audio cable for recording is straightforward; plug the cable into your instrument, the other end into the microphone input on your computer, and record just as you would with a microphone. You may need to ensure your computer is 'listening' to the right microphone input - set this up in the computer's audio settings window.

While the sound quality resulting from this type of recording is satisfactory for casual song-writers, it lacks the definition required for professional productions, owing to the limitations of the computer's sound card. An alternative is to plug the musical instrument into an audio interface, and then connect the interface (usually via a USB cable) to the computer. Audio interfaces are designed specifically for this purpose, and therefore suffer very little loss of sound quality. They can be pricey, but if, like me, you need only to record one instrument at a time, a basic single-input model will work fine.

One of the most important tools in your computer music-making arsenal is the VST plug-in. This little piece of software 'plugs in' to your DAW, and can act as a self contained instrument, effect generator to modify the sound of an existing instrument or VST instrument line in your song, or provide some other useful function. There are thousands of VST plug-ins available, providing limitless possibilities across all genres, and they vary from completely free, to costing hundreds of pounds.

VST plug-ins are generally downloaded from websites, as opposed to being bought from shops. Some require installation via an install wizard, while others simply require you to copy the files to a location recognised as the designated VST folder by your DAW (you might need to point out this folder to your DAW in its options or preferences window before it is able to locate the VSTs). From there, you can go into your DAW and let them revolutionise your sound! The DAW's help file will have instructions on how to add VST instrument lines and apply VST effects to existing tracks.

The two most common VST plug-ins are instruments, and effects. Here's a brief description of each:

VST instruments (VSTi) - These plug-ins are software-based instruments that can be played like a real instrument if you have a MIDI keyboard, or be made to play a musical phrase that you write beforehand. Once inserted as a track in your DAW, you can then enter a 'MIDI editor' and determine the pitch and rhythm that the instrument will follow when your song is played.

VST instruments can take the form of drum machines that produce electronic or acoustic drum sounds, synthesisers (synths) that generate bass and lead sounds that no acoustic instrument can produce, real-life instrument emulators that mimic (to a range of standards!) the sound of real instruments, and various hybrid instruments.

Some VST instruments have simple, one-button interfaces, while others present a staggering array of dials and sliders, the manipulation of which is genuinely seen as an art form in its own right. They all come with a useful help file, however, and there's no better way to learn than to just get in there and have a play!

VST effects - Unlike VST instruments, VST effects do not generate sounds themselves. Instead, they modify sounds that are already in place. For example, a reverb VST effect plug-in can be applied to a guitar line to emulate the sound of a guitarist playing in a huge concert hall, or a distortion effect could be applied to a synth line to give it a more punchy, aggressive character. To an extent that varies with genre, getting to grips with VST effect plug-ins can turn a well thought-out but bland, and ultimately, forgettable song into something that listeners will just keep coming back to.

The application of VST effects to instrument lines is very similar to the process of adding a VST instrument line, but performed on an existing track. As far as I'm aware, the number of effects you're able to apply to an instrument is limited only by your computer's ability to process the sound, so don't be scared to stack up several effects to get the right vibe.

So there we have it. A basic tour of what's needed to produce your first song right here on your computer. You can find specific instructions on each of the stages described above in the obvious places like help files, and user manuals. Otherwise, there are plenty of books dedicated to the subject, aimed at all levels of experience. I've given some suggestions below.

I hope this has been helpful, or provided some inspiration to get your creative juices out in musical form. Feel free to leave questions in the guest book. I'm no expert on the really complicated stuff, but when it comes to the basics, I should be able to help.

Thanks for reading!