Producing music.
Producing music is a fun thing to do, according to research over 80% of the world's population has thought about learning how to play an instrument at some point in their live. Not only is it enjoyable to make, it is also the glamour and glitter that attracts us as people. Who doesn't want to be a superstar, become a multi-millionaire and buy 17 houses? Unfortunately only a fairly small percentage of the people pursuing this dream will actually make it that far in the music business. That being said, it's stopping no one from trying and it shouldn't! It's like a lottery and SOMEONE has to win it right? Plus if you got good ideas or make a piece of music that really "rocks" you might beat the majority of he competition and have a better chance of hitting that jackpot than all those others.
It's embedded in our DNA, strive for the best, believe in yourself, etc etc.
But what if it all fails?
Then at least you had fun doing it, that's the beauty of it. Making music is just very enjoyable to do, music is emotion, it's stress relieving and will help you get your mind of off anything. It's not for nothing shrinks use music to aid in their treatments, music can calm you down, pump you up, let you experience feelings of joy, happiness, love, compassion, sorrow etc etc.
Win win situation:
At the department of music-creators there are no losers, like i said, you either enjoy doing it or enjoy doing it and hit an additional jackpot.
If you are thinking about joining this group of hobbyists i would certainly advise you to go ahead and do it,... it's for you that i created this article!
To give you an idea of the stuff you need to create ( professional ) music with i'll make a brief summary,
- A computer
- An audio-interface
- Monitor / DJ speakers
- Instrument of choice and a midi-keyboard for general purposes
As you can see, a fairly small list. Let's discuss the PC first,
Desktop or laptop?
Virtually all home studio music producers are working with computers as their recording-device, Basically it's done with a piece of software (one single program) called a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). In order to run a DAW on your computer it needs to be stable and fast, as a minimum i would suggest 2.4 Mhz pentium-4 or higher, 512 Megabyte ram memory and 20 Gigabyte free space on your hard-drive. Most computers made nowadays are more than capable for use in a home studio set-up. In fact it can easily be done with a laptop too.
Audio-interface:
An audio-interface is a device that let's you plug-in your instrument(s) and / or any other equipment into your computer. Kinda like a bigger version of the sound-cards that are build into computers. The amount of ins and outs depend on the type of audio-interface you choose of course, from 2 ins / 2 outs to 40 ins and 40 outs. Usually 6 ins and 2 or 4 outs are sufficient for home producers.
Monitor / Dj speakers:
Monitor speakers are speakers designed to give a clear and honest response. No frequencies will be altered by these speakers, in contrary to average hi-fi speakers which often boost low frequencies for a deep(er) bass sound. Monitor or DJ speakers as they are called sometimes are an important part of a good set-up that often get's neglected by musicians.
Instrument of choice:
This is personal of course
Midi-keyboard:
In addition to your personal instrument you might need a midi-keyboard. A midi-keyboard can function as a multi-instrument, it triggers midi-notes inside your DAW which in turn trigger notes of a chosen instrument inside your DAW. This way you can control and play any sound in your pc.
Whether you want to do this for a hobby, in a band or professionally, Those are the pieces of equipment your gonna need for a basic set-up.
How to place the set-up.
Positioning the equipment is important. To make good judgements when mixing down you should place one speaker to your left and one speaker to your right both with the high-tone speakers ( tweeters ) on ear-height. Position your computer screen in between them so you can edit your music productions on screen while you are sitting in the so called "sweet spot".
This way you are able to make the best judgements regarding balance (panning), volume and frequencies.
If you really want to do it professionally,... Place the set-up in a room with soft carpet on the floor and / or walls to avoid hollowness and high frequencies reflecting from hard surfaces.
Mario Hessing is a producer @ M.E.D.S. studio's and has been producing and mixing music since the late 1980's For more information on producing music for the music industry, visit his website, www.howtocreate-music.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mario_Hessing
No comments:
Post a Comment