How to make music...

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I want to do my own music, but I don't know how. Can someone tell me how to do it?

First, you need sound. You need a microphone or some already-made sound for that. Next, you'll likely need an Audio editing program. I suggest Audacity, I've used it quite a lot for audio editing.

It depends largely on what kind of music you want to make. If you're talking rock or anything else using mostly real instruments the list will be long and expensive. If, however you want to create something electronic in nature, you could do quite nicely with this:

1: Reasonably fast computer, preferably with at least 1GB RAM.
2: Some kind of keyboard with MIDI and USB capabilities, which would enable you to play software instruments on said computer. You can get these real cheap, 100-200$.
3: Audio interface(external soundcard). The audio-in port on your computers soundcard SUCKS, so unless you're sure that you will never, ever, need to record something you'll need one of these. Behringer makes some really cheap ones, Presonus or Lexicon has the good but expensive models. Well, actually, i use a 90$ Behringer box and while it's far from perfect it records my voice and guitar with reasonable accuracy.
4: Microphone. The Shure SM57 is nicely priced (100-150$) and can record pretty much anything.
5: Software. Expensive, but you're nothing without it. I use Mackie's Tracktion, it is extremely easy to use while still offering a lot of advanced functions and comes with a bunch of virtual instruments. 300$.
6: Good speakers. No point in getting a lot of fancy gear if you can't hear what you're doing.

I've probably forgotten something, and this is obviously just a basic home studio, how to actually write a song is a completely different matter and takes a lot of time and effort. Oh, and on the off chance that you're a Mac user there's a neat little preinstalled program called GarageBand which is a lot of fun.

Anyway, i hope this has at least pointed you in some kind of direction. Making music is both time-consuming and at times expensive, but also very satisfying and fun.

Reaper is really good free recording software,and there thirty bajillion excellent free plugins.

http://reaper.fm/

I agree with Pingu for that good outline,but I think you can easily be making good sound/music with far less money than that list suggests(with all respect to Pingu):

a reasonably good computer
a soundsource(voice,instrument,other),and some ideas
a soundcard with "audio in" connections
a microphone and/or a connector from your sound source to the soundcard
recording software,plus optional "plugins"(modular effects software,to be used within the recording software)
speakers and/or headphones

Aspire to owning and using good tools,but know that ingenuity can often compensate for lack of budget.

learn an instrument.


wrting music is a lot easier if you know how to play an instrument where you can generate chords and a structure like piano or guitar...though that isn't necessary.

you play music already or want to learn?

You live in Australia, right? If you're planning on picking up an instrument, I would suggest a Maton guitar. They're made exclusively in Australia and they get an awesome sound for a decent price.

I mostly agree with methinks, my post was more of a ideal beginners studio, you could get away a lot cheaper(I recorded my first song on a cell phone). Audio quality is absolutely secondary to skill, inspiration and talent, although high quality gear will make the realization of ideas easier.

Never heard of reaper before, seems pretty good.

True, though this tends to be moreso with accoustic instruments; when it comes to electronic or even having the right kinds of distortion and effects on a guitar its going to matter a lot in terms of what kind of character they can get out of their sounds (the even harder part with electronic being "How do I make this sound that I've got in my head right now?" which literally can't be solved without the right things).

Those who play an instrument will feel natural and easy to compose a song at the same style they like to play, but if you don't really play an instrument you will probably compose something strange, but very original, that would not sound like good music at a first listen, so, it is very important that you record the sounds, and that you listen to them at the following days. Very probably most of what you will do will be trash, but probably some will be material for further development.

Well, what I wanted to say was: record what you do, and them listen to it many times, this will be an interesting experience and it will be interesting to notice how some sounds will get the face of songs after beeing listened several times.

I think you should make up songs in your head then go from there.

You have a point Techstep. While an electronic musician is very dependent on his/her is equipment and would propably sound like crap with a cheap casio keyboard Mstislav Rostropovich(generally considered the world's greatest living cellist) could probably do wonders with a crappy plywood cello while a beginner(like myself) would still sound pretty bad with a Stradivarius.
That's not to say to that you could make brilliant dance music with no talent and a fat wallet, but budget and having the right gear becomes much more of an issue.

What type of music do you want to create? Do you play an instrument or have any musical knowledge so far?

The most fun way would be to get an instrument like a guitar or keyboard (you could try and pick one up cheap from a pawnbrokers or ebay) and then learn some music theory (either from a book or you could look online - there is plenty of free resources). It will probably take a while before you will be able to think of anything decent; it comes with practice listening and writing. Music theory will help you to critically listen and write and will help not only generate ideas but also help you to understand how to write down an recreate any ideas you have already had.

I don't own an instrument, as they cost too much. I can't get one either. I also use nanna's PC, and it has nothing good on it. That is, space and ROM things. I know nothing about music though, as I'm not big on it. I just wanted to make a techno version of a song from a video game, that's all.

I can't, mum would never let me.

All this guys above know more about this topic than me, and I am learning a lot with theirs writtings, but most of what they say can wait for sometime.
If you have a microphone and sound box connected to your pc , you can start making some sound; you first record your sounds and them listen to it, than keep it in your pc for some time, it will probably be interesting to listen to it at the future.
But, there are some softwears that will help you a lot to make sounds, I believe some of them are free, although, without a keyboard, the task won't be easy. Anyway, it is very interesting to start soon recording your voice and other sounds, and I think this is the beggining.

What's a sound box?