making music for cheap
 

im going to have some free time in the near future and i was wondering if anyone knew of any music making software. not really dj stuff like mixmeister but more for creating like electronic music or something. im in school so i dont have much money or time to spend, so some advanced pricey program wouldn't really help...something for beginners would be good. it would for the most part just be me screwing around on my laptop at night...so any suggestions? if i could download it for free through a website or torrent that would be good...but im willing to spend a little bit of cash if its the only way...

there's also the possibility i may borrow my friends recording stuff and just use that, so anyone know any good software for that? i heard cakewalk is good and that is what my friend used to use so im leaning towards that...

thanks for the help!

torrents reason

fruity loops

and

adobe audition

Yeah, Fruity Loops is great to begin with. Quite intuitive and easy to get into. If you keep on writing things you'll probably end up finding it "cheap" sounding, but it's awesome to begin with, understand concepts, etc. I used it for a year and a half myself and it helped me a lot.
You can use Ableton Live too, it's really better sounding, but it seems a bit more complicated to me (though it's definitely accessible - it's what I use now). But the sound is really really better. Reason is a bit too complicated to begin perhaps, plus you can't use VSTs... but it's cool.

So yeah, I'd recommend Fruity Loops in a first time, then Ableton Live later... but none of these softwares are TERRIBLY difficult to get into anyway

Just make sure you don't begin with Max/MSP. You'd probably want to kill yourself

if you got a mac I would say go for garageband, its already installed. if you know how to use multiple cassatte recorder this is the way to go, plus it evolves with the user in a nice way. it eats dsp, can work around time or loop based, and so on.
one of the easiest and best gratis music blablabla programs available

I'd be interested to get into max/msp / pure data / supercollider / processing, but just looking at the screenshots, not to mention the tutorials, makes my head spin. Ain't got a time, ain't got the nerves.

One of these days I'll just plug my shit music gear into the laptop and record em riffs.

this is scientific research and not music.
but it looks kinda cool in a (VERY) nerdy way

Well Autechre sounds like awesome music to me so I guess Max/MSP is not all that scientific ahaha. But I can see your point

autechre are...something else :)
there not that many bands who are likeable when it comes to that direction, imo.
autechre manage to mix in something strangely lively, even human. they come from the scientific side, on the research for some "feelings". at least thats my POV of the band autechre. BoC for example have chosen the way more direct way. I dont know exactly why I compared them, but somehow they blend each other in some moments, I think.
dont know how to describe it better, but I think you already get what I mean.

btw you havent told me how you destroyed that website...tell me...please, hahaha

ahah yeah don't worry i get what you mean!
(what website have i destroyed?!?)

the deep blue

some tuts http://audio.tutsplus.com/
my vote goes for Ableton Live, in 2th place Reason. On a Mac i recommend Garageband just for basic recording, if you need more Apple Logic Express.
i can't stand FL Studio, but that's just me. Just shitty techno "producers" comes to mind.

Ikonika uses Fruity. She's not a shitty techno producer. If I think about it, I'm sure I can name 50 others who use Fruity effectively and intelligently. Obviously, if you use it poorly, it's going to sound just like everything else programmed on it... Really, using only one program for your entire musical output in general may not be a good idea, but at the same time, there's an infinite number of ways to manipulate sound, so who knows? Ultimately, unimaginative people make unimiganitive music; I wouldn't blame Fruity for "shitty techno producers"; I'd blame shitty techno producers for producing shitty techno.

Because Fruity is just a tool, just like anything else. If you use it the same way as everyone else -- just sequencing parts together -- then, yes, it will sound like everyone else. That's why I reccomend using Adobe Audition or something else, if you have actual music talent. Use Fruity Loops as a drum programmer or something, then overdub real keys, real bass, etc. Put some human elements into it, don't just sequence parts together.

Me, personally, I've used everything -- literally everything -- in search of interesting sounds. But for my stuff personally, in the past 10 years, I've consistently used Hammerhead, for simple as hell drum programming and Adobe Audition (or Cool Edit Pro) to overdub parts in. I also LOVE ReBirth (also see Rubber Ducky which is exactly the same), which does a lot of acid stuff. I tend to use extremely simple, aged tools (I like Sound Recorder too! And Goldwave!) in my recordings, but I manipulate them in ways where people who comment on it ask me what the fuck I did. But that's me -- I like simple, easy, cheap things. For my movies, I use MSPaint and VirtualDub. I'm just attracted to simple programs. I can still do anything I want with that stuff though, there's just no fancy button to press to do it for you. I would rather manipulate microseconds of sound than use a "glitch" program or something, for example. But ... that's me.

...So, really, I'd say the best way to make music is to use your imagination. Just experiment. I wouldn't reccomend any one program. I wouldn't use any programs, as more than just a means to an end.

THe best thing about Fruity is all the vst's. The fact that I can literally PLAY a moog on my computer, right now, and it sounds JUST LIKE A MOOG -- I mean, there's no difference whatsoever -- that can't be underestimated. Any program that doesn't let you use VST's seems a bit silly to me.

i use reason for the bulk of my work and rewire to digital performer when i want to do surround mixes. live i only use occasionally on gigs.

Ikonika does not use Fruity anymore, actually. She uses Logic now. Ramadanman uses Fruity Loops, and while he's great and has got great reviews everywhere, it still sounds Fruity Loops-ish.

Indeed, Fruity Loops is a tool and its VSTs are great - I loved that SimSynth thingy -, they are easy to get into, to understand etc. The problem comes from its effects, which sounds too cheap and dated if you really want to do something that sounds a bit better. It's good if you want to use it as a simple drum machine or something, but once you want to actually write something entirely with it, you're quickly limited. Well, not that quickly, but eventually you're more limited than with other softwares. Sure, you could add some more VSTs, but why not just using another software... Also, it's a bitch if you want to do some transitions - and I played a live set using Fruity Loops, so I thought a bit about this beforehand -; you gotta use two occurences of Fruity, etc. While Ableton Live for instance allows you to do perfect transitions, has great effects, uses VSTs, and is not that hard to use.

I stand by my words: if you want to write something exclusively with your software, not just use if for the drums or adding some elements in the background of a song, Fruity Loops is good to begin with, but you'll end up feeling limited. It's not a surprise why so few "professional" artists use it - while a lot, like Ikonika - and numerous other dubstep producers - began writing tracks on it.

What the hell was that? Oh boy haha.


Anyway threadstarter just download a cracked version of adobe audition, get a £5 computer microphone and put the microphone to your amp. Easy. And for drums, yeah, just use fruityloops (try and see what you can do without drums though! There's too much music with drumming in it for no particular reason).

That video is for one of the best songs ever. Listen to that cowbell!

I'd really say, Adobe Audition or Cool Edit Pro is by far the best program ever. "Adobe" anything is usually something you can trust. But damn I've gotten mileage out of that fucking program.. been using it since they invented it probably! I bet I've recorded 5,000 songs in that. Cakewalk and Goldwave and all that stuff is nice, but nothing beats the simplicity of Audition.

I like this thread very much. I am going to go find that Adobe Audition program.