How to Produce Music at Home

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

With new technology, it is becoming more and more popular to make music at home. You can easily start producing without spending a fortune.

Things You Will Need

1. Computer: Since you are viewing this website, I don't think a computer is a requirement you should be too worried about. However, your computer should be fairly up-to-date. It should have at least 512 MB of RAM and a processor speed of 2.0 GHz or more. RAM is very important; the more RAM the better.
2. Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): This is just a computer software program that allows you to produce and sample sounds then sequence them. Don't feel intimidated...This is very easy to do. I use many different DAWs, but I recommend using FL Studio for beginners. If you get more into it, I recommend using Reason as well. A demo of FL Studio is available for download, and it can do EVERYTHING the full version can do except save your work....or....You can buy a synthesizer for $3000 that does everything....you might want to stick to the computer and DAW.
3. Sounds: You will definitely want a huge library of audio samples. VSTs are like virtual synthesizers. There are many different VSTs that produce all kinds of sounds. Google "free VSTs" and you will find many free VSTs; the better ones cost money. Soundfonts are files that contain different sound samples of instruments. You can find thousands of free soundfonts online. You can access thousands of free soundfonts at sf2midi.com but you have to sign up first (it's free) The only thing about that website is that they limit your download speed since you're a free user. Otherwise they have a great library of soundfonts. Propellorheads Reason uses its own proprietary "Refills" for sounds. There are hundreds of these available; each refill holds MANY different sounds.
4. External Hard Drive: As your collection of sound samples, soundfonts, VSTs, Reason Refills, etc. grows, you will need more memory to accommodate it. I bought a 750 gb hard drive for this reason and it's nearly full. If you want to buy one, I recommend buying one off of eBay; this will save you a lot.
5. Midi Controller: This is basically a keyboard (like a piano) that you use to control the note inputs in your DAW.
6. Audio Interface: This is basically a bridge between your midi controller and your computer. You could spend hundreds of dollars on an mbox, or you could spend $10 for a midi-usb adapter on eBay...go with the adapter. The only real advantage of the mbox is that there is a slot where you can add a microphone that runs on fantom power.
7. Microphone: A microphone is not necessary, but if you want to add vocals to your beats you will want one. Don't buy an expensive microphone. Buy a usb microphone, like the Samson CO1U. That's what I bought and it works beautifully. If you don't buy a usb microphone, then you will need to find an expensive way to connect your microphone to your computer.
8. Headphones: If you buy a microphone, then you will need headphones with which to listen to your beats while recording your vocals; if you play your beats out load while recording, you will get feedback.

Tips

• Search YouTube for videos on how to make beats. Try searching for "FL Studio."
• You can sell your beats. There are many websites dedicated to selling beats. Here are a few:
• Thebeattrader.com
• Givemebeats.com
• Beatswagger.com
• Buythatbeat.com

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Produce Music at Home. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.