Best Programs for Music Making

[ButaneSkies]

Hey, I'm a 14 year old male and I aspire to be a Brony Musician. I'd like to go into Electronic Classical mostly, and a lot of lyrical stuff. Any advice/names of programs and such you can provide for me? I'd really appreciate it!

[the4thImpulse]

First off this should not be in the music submission section of the forum.

Second, read this


And thrid I suggest you get a demo copy of fl studio and watch a bunch of youtube tutorials.

[XiF]

MIXCRAFT WOOT!!!

Or you could use FL Studio like everyone else.

[Spirit]

there are not DAWs that are any better than the others, its all about personal taste and how you find each programs workflow,
Personally, i Use Ableton Live 8 and Reason 5
some other names i can say are Fruity Loops Studio, Renoise, Logic (although you can only get this on mac), Pro Tools and Cubase
To start with, i would say download the demos of either Reason, Ableton or Fl as these are some of the best "starter" programs, not saying you shouldnt use cubase or something but they are very complicated programs to use
As for advice, i would say start building a sample library, search google for bass drum samples, snare samples, etc
read and watch tutorials online.
save everything you do, you never know when that awesome synth patch you made might be useful, or when a you need a drum pattern etc etc, for every song i make i have about 3 scrapped projects, but some element of them has gone into the song i make
THINGS TO AVOID DOING
LOOP MONGING: this is when you make a quick awesome loop and you keep listening to it over and over again, you get to a stage where you stop thinking "what can i do with this" because your brain has go used to hearing it as a loop
DOWNLOADING LOADS OF PLUGINS
youll end up playing with them for 5 minutes then forgetting about them, instead have about 3-4 plugins that you know like the back of your hand
DONT GET DISCOURAGED
No nice way to say this, but the first thing you make probably wont be a masterpiece, dont let this get to you, you learned a lot from making it, also you're gonna have days where you just cant seem to do anything, dont force music, because it doesn't work like that
Good luck and im hoping to hear something amazing soon

[switchflipper]

If you're a Mac user, Logic Pro is the way to go. I'm good with Garageband, the basic (and free) version of Logic, but Logic is more professional. IDK about PC, FL Studio is the most commonly used.

[soup2504]

FL Studio is a good place to start. Start on Ableton, and you'll probably want to die.

[the4thImpulse]

FL Studio is a good place to start. Start on Ableton, and you'll probably want to die.

It took me 9 months just to get comfortable with ableton, FL I was making decent stuff in one month. I comletely agree with soup2504.

If you're a Mac user, Logic Pro is the way to go. I'm good with Garageband, the basic (and free) version of Logic, but Logic is more professional. IDK about PC, FL Studio is the most commonly used.

This is also a great place to start if your a Mac user!

[silverblaze]

I, personally, could never figure out FL studio. The programs I am the most comfortable with are 'tracker' programs, such as Milky Tracker(does not support VSTs), or Madtracker(does support VSTs).

but as said before, it's all about personal taste. No program is better than any other, it's all in what YOU can do with it.

Check around for the program that suits you, and you'll be on your way to making kick ass music in no time.

Good luck! can't wait to hear what you come up with. :b

[Spirit]

>come back to read thread and make some more points
>people hating on Ableton
Why guys, i love this program
I could never get my head around FL studio too well, the only bad thing i can say about Ableton is that its automation is a bit crap

[prettiestPony]

Man, really? I wish I'd started on Ableton, it felt about 20 times more intuitive to me than FL Studio or Reason did. Make that 40 times more than Reason. Friggin' Reason...

[SoaringFlight]

When it comes to DAW's, download demos of the most common ones (FL, Ableton mostly, you can give others a shot as well), read their manuals, watch their tutorials and then just experiment in them.

After that just pick the one you like the most and find the easiest for you to create in - in the end it doesn't matter which one you use, all of those do the same thing.

[soup2504]

>come back to read thread and make some more points
>people hating on Ableton
Why guys, i love this program
I could never get my head around FL studio too well, the only bad thing i can say about Ableton is that its automation is a bit crap

Naw, it's not hating on Abelton, it's just saying that it's not a good place to start if you have no experience in music whatsoever. I find Abelton much harder than FL, though. I guess it just boils down to the user.

[the4thImpulse]

>come back to read thread and make some more points
>people hating on Ableton
Why guys, i love this program
I could never get my head around FL studio too well, the only bad thing i can say about Ableton is that its automation is a bit crap

Naw, it's not hating on Abelton, it's just saying that it's not a good place to start if you have no experience in music whatsoever. I find Abelton much harder than FL, though. I guess it just boils down to the user.

I'm certinly not hating Ableton because I use and love it, but from my experience first hand helping new people Ableton is scary and intimidating where as FL is much easier to get a simple beat laid out.

[senntenial]

I think whatever you start out with is going to be fine if you're bright, which I'm sure all us musician types are. Abelton is quite a bit more expensive, though. I absolutely love FLS, and have been using it for years. One complaint I have heard from it, though, is that it breaks under the weight of some larger VSTs, like LASS. But FLS is literally the best purchase I have ever made in my lifetime. What it really comes down to are the VSTs and samples you have imo.

[Sonic Breakbeat]

MIXCRAFT WOOT!!!

Or you could use FL Studio like everyone else.

YEAH!!



Something about Mixcraft just feels right. It's so easy to layout songs, especially compared to other DAWs like Cubase and Ableton (that I've tried).

Besides, it makes no difference when you have VSTis that you can use with any other DAW - though with Mixcraft you need a decent EQing and Compression VST and you're set.

EDIT: Oh, and Mixcraft is EXTREMELY cheap for its ability. It's easy to learn but tough to master.

[ButaneSkies]

You guys are the best friends a guy can ask for <3