I was this close to buying a book called Rhythm Programming at the local book fair this afternoon, but my guts told me to hold off the purchase. After reading the reviews in Amazon.com, I’m glad I did. After all, it was printed in 2002, and I’m sure a lot has changed since then.
So here I am back on the Net, doing a small research on how to set up a PC recording studio at home so I could achieve that lifelong dream of composing my own songs. The few sites listed below should be good enough for a beginner like me:
Digital Trends’ Setup a Recording Studio on Your Computer (archived): This article tells you exactly what kind of hardware and software you need to have in order to set up your PC for recording music. This is perfect for me since I plan on playing a few instruments myself instead of relying too much on synths that are built into the computer. I especially like their software recommendations which are almost always focused on the freeware.
How to Configure a Recording Studio Rig (archived): Oh, this one is excellent. It shows you the different recommended setups you can do depending on your budget and computer hardware needs (PC/Mac). Very detailed. My rig will probably be no more complicated than this:
DrawMusic’s How to Write Music (archived): This is actually the site of a music composition software called ChordSong, a very bare-bones version if you’d like to dabble with one, but without the hefty cost. The tutorial is good enough that it may even allow you to compose your very first song within hours. It’s not so flexible when it comes to the beats, but it does its job alright. Here’s what I got after playing with it a bit for 10-15 mins (guess what song it is).
How to Write a Love Song: You can never go wrong with a love song. A guy named William Brooks converted his book into electronic form and shared them out for free in Scribd. I haven’t read it yet, but I will. “It doesn’t matter if you are brand new to songwriting or hammering out your 100th tune, there is something for everyone in this book. You will be walked step-by-step through the process of writing your first love song. It’s just as if I was sitting next to you and just hanging out and showing you what to do next. ” Ooooh….
More Google Book Search results for my reference and future reading.
Check out my other posts: « “Secure your domain name” scams: been there, done that / Keyword Academy, where are you and what’s going on? »
I would like to start composing music on my computer using a MIDI keyboard controller, a sound card and a composing program (such as Anvil Studio). However, I’m unsure of what sound card to use for high-quality, realistic sounds (I’m composing mostly film-style orchestral music).