Making Music

Hi guys,

I would quite like to attempt to learn how to create or make music, as a beginner I wanted to know what programs are available that people could recommend?

It's something I'd like to learn in the evenings when I'll be in bed on my laptop.

Put the laptop somewhere safe, make a row of different sized pots and start banging them with sticks.

Smilecythe, your replies are not only lightning quick to my topics, they are also truely insightful!

http://typedrummer.com/4n84c7

Seriously though, if you're looking for FOSS stuff, check out the list of stuff available in Ubuntu Studio (a lot of it is cross-platform).

FOSS Examples:

DJ Software: http://mixxx.org/
MIDI Synthesizer: http://ardour.org/ or http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
Record and Edit Sounds: http://web.audacityteam.org/


Popular proprietary software examples:
Ableton Live: https://www.ableton.com/en/live/new-in-9/
Serato Scratch Live: http://serato.com/scratchlive
Sony Acid: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/acidsoftware
Fruity Loops: http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/

There is a huge disparity to be aware of when it comes to hardware input, but we can leave that conversation for after you start playing around with the software for a bit.

Music is a language. It has to be learned through hard work and motivation. Apply to a music school: You will receive full knowledge covering theory, history of music, composition lessons, rythm and singing lessons, you will play on the piano (side instrument) and other instrument (main) and after a couple of years of playing with local orchestra in different concert halls, after dozens of exams you will get closer to "how to create or make music". You might join the choir of this particular music school but remember that this will mean traveling with team and singing all over your country ( I personally never could sing - thats why I would recommend having the group of other musicians to play with instead, if you know what I mean)

During your work in the music school I suggest you buing an electric piano (good if it has midi sockets). Let the music you hear in the music school and the one you will become sesitive to around due to your knowledge be your inspiration for composition sessions

PS: Ask Halogene aboutr his piano improvisations.

In all seriousness x2, I've been using Fruity loops, audacity and various inconvenient plugins for my stuff. I have no knowledge of music theory and am horrible with recognizing/remembering notes. If you're interested in electronic music, applying to a music school in my opinion is a bit overkill unless you're super serious about it. Youtube is a more cheaper and time conservative solution for learning and due to that I also recommend picking the tools that have most tutorials/coverage in Youtube, Vimeo etc..

As far as melodies go, pay special attention to scales, melodies without scales are to my knowledge mostly only present in horror themed art and are by nature a little inconsistent or just straight out sound off. I continuously use this site for scale reference: http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/

Beats and rhythms are just a matter of practice and close observation of other artists' work, you really don't need to go to any school for that.

Music is a language. It has to be learned through hard work and motivation...

Speaking of which, I regret being kicked out of the Mappers University in Mappington, Mapsachusetts.

I was using Jeskola Buzz back in the days.

To clear things up,

I'm more wanting to make atmospheric, chill or soundtrack music.

So I don't know if there are more specific programs geared towards those genre's?

I just make music because it's relaxing. You don't need to understand the theory or synthesis or even an instrument, just download a software tgat seems to suite you. I've used anything from music tracker to professional DAWs and it just dependa on my mode and what genre I want to make.

My advice is to just google DAW/tracker, find one that somehow feels right (might be coolness-factor, ease of use or simply you like the GUI theme). Theory and understanding of mixing and synthesis is useful, but you'll pick that up by doing (even if you won't have a formal understanding ofc, if that's your goal then buy a book or take a class).

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As for software good for atmospheric chill music, you might want to check out Sunvox. It have a easy to use synth great for ambient and string-like sounds, but the UI might be a bit difficult. It's a DAW and a synth, so if the DAW part doesn't work out you can route midi notes into sunvox then route sunvox output into a DAW of your choice. (Very easily done with jackd, i assume there are similar audio routing software for win/mac).

unfa has got a bunch of tutorials on YouTube, concerning LMMS - a FoSS "music making program"

Logic Pro, definitely Logic Pro

Anybody got any recommended music theory tutorial or learning resource?

I've followed a blog series on the subject that takes a rather technical approuch and watched Variens tutorials on Yotuve, but to be honest it hasn't clicked at all because when I sit down and try apply it to my song writing I can't remember the scales steps nor what intervals makes up which chords etc. etc.

I wished I was that kid who played flute and piano back in elementary school now lol, feels like this stuff would be much easier to approuch then.

If you are looking free, try LMMS. I made a song to test my music skill. You can look at it to see how powerful LMMS is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRMPIAgIXr8 (WARNING: not that good)