How To Produce Music In Your Home Studio Part 1 |
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Jul 29 2022, 03:36 AM
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In the sincere hope that google allows people to find these longer articles that I’ve been doing here on GMC, I’m hoping to keep doing them and hopefully get some folks in the tent here
 I really do miss the days when we would have hundreds of posts each day in the forum. I honestly hope we can return to our glory days in full or at least in part. To wit, lets’ talk about producing music in a home studio. DON”T DAW ME LIKE THAT The basic element, in terms of software, is the D.A.W. (Digital Audio Workstation). This is software that will allow you to record, mix and master, multi-track audio. A stereo audio app is not going to be enough. You really need one that can support higher track counts. Most modern daws will support huge track counts and are only limited by the computer or tablet that you are running them on. For starters, try to get a FREE or free to try daw such as REAPER. Reaper is a great DAW and is used by pros and amateurs alike. It comes with a variety of powerful tools that will get you started in recording and mixing music. Also, it can be expanded through add on plugins and libraries to allow it to be a very powerful system indeed. You can download a copy of Reaper at https://www.reaper.fm/download.php Some folks use Reaper as their primary DAW and never need another one. However, there are plenty of other options. You may have heard of PRO TOOLS. It was the industry standard for pro studios and even home studios for a time. However, it has lost momentum in recent years in the home studio world because of it’s cost and hardware requirements. You can run Pro Tools without it’s proprietary hardware, but to get the most out of it, you may need to spend quite a bit of money on proprietary hardware and a service agreement. The company behind Pro Tools, (Avid) was a pioneer in Audio and Video post production. They are still a huge brand for people who do large format mixing for movies. The software allows for sub-frame accuracy which is important in doing movie work. The video editor, called AVID, is still a popular tool for video editors. You can get a free trial of Pro Tools to see if it’s right for you. If you like it, the starter version is $99 per year on subscription. https://www.avid.com/pro-tools If you are a Macintosh person, you may want to look at the free DAW that is built in to every Mac. It’s called GARAGE BAND. It’s a very full featured DAW that includes a huge variety of sounds in it’s sound library, and an enormous collection of Midi files in it’s Midi library and has features unique to only Garage Band such as a virtual drummer that can react to your playing style. It’s quite simply, the most bang for the buck considering it’s free and contains far more in terms of plugins, virtual instruments, audio loops, midi, etc. than pretty much any DAW you can get or even try for free. If you like it, you might want to buy a copy of LOGIC X. Logic is a hugely powerful DAW that contains a massive library of sounds/midi/plugins/virtual instruments/project templates/track templates/mastering templates/etc. There is no free trial and it runs $200 but even at that price its’ the best value I’ve ever encountered. To get even close to what it offers would costs hundreds if not thousands more. Both Garage Banda and Logic X are Mac only so you can’t run them on Windows. It’s one of the reasons to buy a Mac. In Part 2 we will look at hardware. Here is a link to PART 2! https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=63186 Here is a link to part 3 about studio monitors. https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=63223 This video was helpful in building this article. This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Aug 30 2022, 01:57 AM |
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Aug 16 2022, 02:53 PM
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What used to be Cakewalk SONAR is now completely free and has full VST support, customisable interface and a great array of inbuilt plug-ins and instruments!!
It can be found HERE. I'll admit to being a bit biased towards it as I've been using it since I started recording digitally! 
-------------------- I'd rather have a full Bottle in front of me than a full Frontal Lobotomy!!
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Aug 16 2022, 03:31 PM
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QUOTE (Sensible Jones @ Aug 16 2022, 06:53 AM)  What used to be Cakewalk SONAR is now completely free and has full VST support, customisable interface and a great array of inbuilt plug-ins and instruments!! It can be found HERE. I'll admit to being a bit biased towards it as I've been using it since I started recording digitally! Sonar is great! I work with several engineers and producers that use it. It's been around like 30 years so it's not the flavor of the month but it's definitely one of the most full featured daws there is. I'm a Mac guy now and since I got an Apollo interface, I'm using the UAd daw - 'Luna'. *It's free if you have a UA interface. -------------------- - Ken Lasaine
https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/foolin-the-clouds https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/surfin-at-the-country-hop Soundcloud assorted ... https://soundcloud.com/klasaine3 New record ... http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kenlasaine Solo Guitar ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...5iIdO2tpgtj25Ke Stuff I'm on ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...b-dhb-4B0KgRY-d |
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Aug 18 2022, 09:07 PM
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I personally love Luna but I also employ a really old school method of recording which Luna is geared towards.
It's definitely not the daw for folks that work primarily with samples, VIs, loops and produce dance music. -------------------- - Ken Lasaine
https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/foolin-the-clouds https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/surfin-at-the-country-hop Soundcloud assorted ... https://soundcloud.com/klasaine3 New record ... http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kenlasaine Solo Guitar ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...5iIdO2tpgtj25Ke Stuff I'm on ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...b-dhb-4B0KgRY-d |
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