Over the next few days Rhythm Creation is going to go way back down to basics by writing some beginners guides. There are loads of people out there that want to start creating and producing their own music and need a little help to get started. I was a music beginner once too and these beginners guides are hopefully going to grow into a huge guide that I would have loved to of had to hand when I first started.

I am an electronic musician and so you may find at times throughout this guide that it is more aimed at musicians who are looking to producing electronic based music, I shall cover all genres and styles of producing as best as I can. You may also find at times that you may disagree with me as some of the things that I will talk about will be my opinion only and there may well be other methods and different ways of doing things, if you do disagree with me write it in the comments of the post and I shall bring your ideas and thoughts up from the comments and into the main articles.

All beginners articles can be found in the Beginners Section under the heading “Beginners Guide To Music Production”.

Part 1 - Equipment.
To start producing your own tracks the first thing your going to need to think about is the equipment your going to need. Each musician is going to have a different set of equipment that they use, obviously a guitar player is going to have his guitar, amplifier and cables for example (which are not on this list). But this equipment list below is what I think is a minimum for anyone wanting to start to record and write music at home, no matter what instrument you play or genre of music you are going to be creating. You may find that you already own some of these items (for example the computer as you must be using one to read this) and you may be surprised at how small the list actually is to get started.

Hardware and Software
Music can be produced using both hardware and software. At one time music was produced solely using hardware but due to advancements in computer speeds, all music production tasks can now be achieved using software. Hardware is still used a lot in music production (Music producers love their mixing desks, hardware effects units and especially their hardware synthesizers) but as computer software can now compete extremely well with hardware and because you are new to music production I would suggest you stick mainly with software for the moment. You will find that at a later stage you can advance to using both software and hardware together and because most software is actually based on their hardware counterparts there will be no need to relearn anything you have learnt, should you want to go the hardware route at a later date.

Even though we are going to go the software route you are still going to need some hardware equipment to run the software as well as be able to record both instrument and note information (MIDI Data - We will go into this later) into the software enviroment.

Computer
This is obvious, but yes your going to need a computer and obviously you are using one to read this, but is your computer going to be fast enough to run any music software your going to be using.

Basically the faster the computer you have the better experience you are going to have producing your music. Music software can take up a lot of system resources due to it’s complexity and whilst it may be written on the software box or web site that the recommended requirements are low, you may find that once you start using the software and have lots of different channels all playing together that the computer just isn’t going to cope with it. A fast processor and lots of RAM are needed to allow your computer to cope better.

You are also going to need lots of hard drive space as music files and recordings can take up lots of gigabytes. Hard drives are cheap these days so this shouldn’t be the problem it once was. You will also want a DVD/CD writer so you can hand out CDs of you produced tracks and also back up your work.

If you need to buy a new computer you may want to build the computer yourself (It’s not as hard as you think). I did this myself for mine and you will find there are some benefits to doing this as you can choose the components yourself to create a better computer that’s specifically designed with music in mind. For example you can find cooling systems without fans, quieter cases, quieter hard drives and graphics cards without cooling fans on. All aimed at reducing the sound that the computer makes in your audio enviroment.

Soundcard
The most important component of your computer if you’re a musician. The main thing to watch out for is going to be latency which needs to be as low as possible. A high latency will make your computer unusable for recording music, as everything you record or play in will be behind everything else in your track. ASIO Support (Audio Stream Input/Output) is a must if you are going to be using Windows and a nice amount of audio inputs (with low noise). Read reviews of soundcards in magazines and on other review type web sites to make sure the soundcard you choose to buy is going to be the right one for you.

You may find you can use your current soundcard and if you do have latency issues you may find you can solve your latency issues by searching the web for better drivers. The KX Project drivers for example works with EMU10K1 and EMU10K2-based sound cards such as the Soundblaster Live and virtually eliminates latency issues.

Monitors/Speakers
If you are serious about music production you should spend a good amount of money on some near-field studio monitors as your tracks will benefit a great deal in sound quality and should sound great no matter where they are played. Near-field monitors are different to normal speakers/stereo systems as they are designed to show you exactly what your music really sounds like without affecting the sound in anyway. They are also designed to be listened to with you closer to them than conventional listening speakers. Active monitors will already have a power amplifier, passive monitors need an external power amp.

If you can’t afford a decent set of monitors or don’t want to invest just yet, you can still use a decent normal speaker and amp or stereo system setup. But make sure you turn off any enhancements that the stereo or amplifier creates usually called something like Bass Enhancement or Rock/Jazz/Dance settings and turn any EQ (possibly called Bass and Treble) to their central positions. With a standard pair of speakers you are going to need to do a lot of listening on different systems such as car stereos, headphones, friend’s systems etc to get better mixes that sound good where ever they are played.

Never use those small computer speakers, it won’t be worth the time trying to get your tracks sounding right and use a good cable to connect the soundcard to the system/amplifier.

MIDI Controller
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a data system that is used between different instruments (and your computer) to send note and time information. No audio recording (sound) is contained within MIDI, it is only computer bits and bytes (digital data). A MIDI controller is typically a musical keyboard with other various controls such as faders and pads that are used to play notes into your tracks. If you are only going to be recording traditional instruments with microphones such as guitars and drums then you may not need one, but they aren’t expensive and owning one will open many new avenues for your music. If you are going to be producing electronic based music then a MIDI controller is an essential piece of kit.

There are tons of different MIDI controllers available on the market today, some with musical keyboard layouts, some with pads and faders, there are even guitars and drum kits which act as MIDI controllers. But I’m specifically talking about a keyboard layout one with at least 2 octaves of keys and one that also has some faders on to control certain sound aspects as you play. Always make sure the keys have touch sensitivity and aftertouch, these features change the sound played depending on how hard the note is being pressed (These are typically a standard feature, but check to make sure if your buying a cheaper or older second hand one).

You are also going to need a MIDI cable if one doesn’t come with your MIDI controller to connect your MIDI controller to your soundcard (The input may be called a joystick input on your soundcard).

Microphone(s)
If you plan on recording full drum kits then you are going to need quite a few microphones to get a studio produced sound. If you are going to be using drum samples then you shouldn’t need to have as many, in fact you may get by with only having one. Even if you are producing synthesizer and sample based only music, I can’t stress enough how you should still have a good basic microphone to hand for recording your own samples.

There are many good microphones on the market, but for the beginner music producer I would advise getting a Shure SM57 (A bright sounding vocal and instrument microphone) or a Shure SM58 (Go for this one if you are doing lots of vocals). You can’t go wrong with these microphones, they are classics, built to last, can take very loud sounds and don’t need an external power source. They are also very well priced and will give you very good quality sound for your money.

Part 1 Conclusion
This list is to help people get started, obviously there is loads more kit a musician could own, but hopefully this has given you an insight into the basic equipment needed for you to start producing your own tracks. This list will change slightly for each person, but once you have all the equipment above you shouldn’t need much more apart from the software and any instruments you might play to get started.

Beginners Guide To Music Production - Part 2 - Choosing Your Software

Written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

In part 1 I talked about the basic equipment you will need to get started producing your own music and in part 2 I am going to talk about the next important decision your going to need to make which is choosing your software. This is a very important decision and one that as a beginner you should spend a good amount of time thinking about before rushing into any purchases.

I shall mention some software packages in this section but I must point out that every musician is different and whilst some musicians will swear by a piece of software as an essential piece of kit, others will find it to be completely wrong in every way for what they require out of their software. The trick here is to try out demos for each piece of software you come across before buying and research well to make sure it is the right piece of software for the music you want to create. Ask other musicians who create a similar style of music what they use, read the many reviews on the net and try not to be sucked in by any adverts from the software companies (that piece of software might not be the perfect solution that they want you to believe). Also check to make sure that there are not any free alternatives that may be sufficient for what you require.

So what I’m going to do in this section of our beginners guide is to point out the different types of software available, talk about some of the features and give a few examples of software packages for each type. I am not going to choose the software for you or suggest a piece of software as required for your music, that is your job. The best piece of advise I can give you when choosing your software is to choose a package which you think you will enjoy using. If you find that making music becomes a bit of a chore and not fun you will end up either giving up completely or your music and inspiration for the creative process of writing music will suffer.

The Different Types of Software
These following categories are how I would categorize the different types of recording software available today. Some software could be classed in two of these categories, have features like that of other categories or be classed into a subcategory of that category, but these are the top level categories.

Pre-Recorded Loop Based Mixing Software
This sort of software is the most basic type of music software available and so are great for beginners and those not looking for anything too difficult to start with. They are very cheap to buy but are also very limited. They basically work by using pre-created loops and samples usually supplied by the same company in the software or as add-on packs. You can then use mix together these samples and loops to create a track. They are great for young people or those who have no experience with music but if you want to create your own sounds or plan on recording instruments and vocals, this category of software is not for you. This is what I would call music gaming software (yes, some of them are available for Playstation).

Examples of this type of software: eJay

Sample/Synth/Loop Based Sequencers
Software in this category is the real fun stuff, these have nice easy to use sequencers and are more geared towards creating your own sounds using the software synthesizers included in the software (These synthesizers can make a wide variety of good quality sounds and most can easily compete with the hardware synths in sound quality). They also are very sound sample based with extremely good sample manipulation abilities and loads of great effects that can be placed on your sounds. You will need to collect or make your own samples, import them into the software where you’ll be able to use a MIDI controller to play, edit and create some great sounding pieces of music within them.

Some have the facilities to use VST plugins and instruments (Extra effects and virtual instruments) and can also be hooked up to other sequencer software (See below) using a technology called ReWire to create a full blown recording studio environment. This is the category you should look at very closely if it is dance/electronica or sample based music that you will be creating. If your looking to recording instruments only, you may want to skip this category completely. They have a wide range of users as they can be very good for beginners to music production as well as more than capable for producing professional tracks.

Check each piece of software in this category as they can vary a lot. Reason for example emulates a hardware environment extremely well with some amazing instruments, FruityLoops is more loop/sample based but with VSTi support can be expanded in many different ways, where as Ableton Live has been designed with Live Performance in mind and includes multi-track recording.

Choose carefully from this category and try before you buy to make sure that it is right for you. Check to make sure that any included synths can make the sounds you want to produce by listening to examples, synth presets on any demos or other peoples music you know has been created with that software. I must point out that you will find that if you are going to choose to buy software from this category that you may also need to use a piece of Audio File Recording and Editing Software (See below). This is so you can record your own samples as well as clean up or edit any samples you may get from other place such as from sample web sites.

Examples of this type of software: Reason, FruityLoops, Ableton Live

Recording/Instrument Sequencers with Plugin/Extendable Features
This is the category you should be looking at if your music is going to be more recording based. They have great recording facilities and emulate a professional recording studio in a software environment. They can also be extended to allow plugins such as VST plugins and intruments, these are effects and instruments (synthesizers, drum machines etc) that can be added on. There are loads of these available from a wide range of different companies.

These sequencers can usually allow the software from the previous category (Sample/Synth/Loop Based Sequencers) to be integrated into them via the use of a Technology called ReWire (A kind of virtual cable between the different software packages) allowing you to get the best of both worlds. They all offer MIDI support too and with the VST Instruments can achieve the same as the sample/synth/loop based sequencers can, but the enviroments could be considered to be less fun and user friendly. Plus you may have to fork out extra money for the plug ins to get the sound you want.

These pieces of software can range drastically in price and features, so make sure you get the right version as you will sometimes find there are cheaper “Lite Versions” and more expensive “Ultimate Versions”. Think about whether you really need the extra features of the more advanced versions, you may not need them now but in the future may require them so investigate all versions of any piece of software fully.

Examples of this type of software: Cubase, Sonar, Logic

Recording Sequencers with Hardware Interface Options Software in this category is very similar to the category above in that they emulate a professional recording studio but they also have the options to have specially designed hardware interfaces very similar to a classic mixing desk. These link into the software directly creating a very hands on approach. If you go into professional recording studios today this is the system that you will see set up.

The hardware options can be very expensive in this category and so if you are a beginner I would not advise that you go for this type of software/hardware.

Examples of this type of software: Pro Tools

Audio Recording Software
Software in this category is usually seen as an addition to the above categories, as they are used to record and edit samples or individual channels of sound by editing the waveform. They come with effects and processing that can be applied to the sound (although usually not in real-time like the software sequencers above). They can also be used to apply effects and processing to your tracks as a whole when you have completed the track and exported it from other software. (Mastering)

Some software in this category can be used similar to a multi-track recorder, but cannot do nearly as much as a proper sequencer. If you are just looking for something to record a couple of tracks for example just some vocals and a guitar, you may find that a piece of software from this category is all your looking for. I’ve not advised a specific piece of software in this guide but I have to here. Please give Audacity a go as it is Free and is a very capable piece of software and may be perfect for your needs if your exploring this type of software.

Examples of this type of software: Audacity, Audition, Wavelab

Part 2 Conclusion
Hopefully this part of the guide has given you a insight into the different types of music production software available. As I said before make sure you explore all the different alternatives in each category and pick the software that matches what you require. Software is an important choice and a choice you will have to live with, so give it the time it deserves.

Beginners Guide To Music Production - Part 3 - Setting Up Your Studio

Written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

In part 1 I talked about the equipment you will be needing to start music production and in part 2 I talked about the software needed. In this section we are going to bring together both our equipment and room together to set up our working area up for good all round performance. There are two main aims here:

1. Get great sound quality from our equipment and work area.
2. Create a great working area which is comfortable and productive.

In this part of our beginners series I don’t want to get too technical, I more want to point out common mistakes that beginners will make with setting up your equipment and room. You shouldn’t have to spend any money with the tips I’m going to give here, just some hard work moving some of your stuff around and getting your area to an “advisable” way to have it, allowing you to make much better use of the tools you have available.

Your Room
For a home music production studio you are more than likely looking to transform an existing room or area such as a bedroom or study into your personal studio. Whilst this is not an ideal solution for a studio, we have to make best with the area that we have got. If you are lucky enough to have a choice of rooms available to set-up in then your first thing to do is choose which one your going to use. Here are a few things you should think about when choosing a room:

• Your Neighbours - If your studio is going to placed where your neighbours can hear you then you will end up annoying them or not being able to work with much volume. The further away from any neighbours the better for both of you. When making your tracks the neighbours are going to hear the same track being played over and over as you change things and this will drive them crazy.
• Unwanted Noise - The room should have no or as little unwanted noise as possible especially if you are going to be recording using microphone. Unwanted noise could be for example traffic, neighbours, pets, heating, air conditioning etc. Remove the unwanted noise or choose a room away from this noise.
• The Shape and Size of The Room - Your room should ideally not be square as square rooms will have certain frequencies which will resonate more than rectangular rooms have. With very small rooms the sound will bounce more around the room, so maybe choose the bigger room if you have the choice.

If you are going for a more recording based setup you might want to think about having a completely separate recording room to your equipment/mixing room if this is possible. This means that your microphones will be away from any noise created for example by the computer or if you play music as a band, the musician and instrument being recorded can be away from the rest of you. This is not a requirement and is not suitable for everyone and you may also need to buy extension cables and thread them through your wall, so you can plug in your microphones in quickly and easily without wires going all through your house.

The Sound Of Your Room
The sound of your room needs to be good for recording and mixing too, basically we want to be hearing the sound of your music directly from the speakers, and not the sound the has bounced off the walls of the room. If you have ever removed all items from a room when decorating you will know how the room changes in sound. The less furnishings that are in the room the more reverberation can be heard. Some people like some sort of room reverberation on their recordings but most of the time you won’t want any at all. Reverberation can be added later on in your mix via the software (or hardware), this gives us more control over the final sound. Some reverberation in the room is fine, we just don’t want too much.

You can test what the room sounds like by clapping your hands. If you can hear the resonance just after you clap, you may want to add some more soft furnishings such as curtains, rugs or cushions which will all help to soak up these reverberations (dampen the sound).

Reverberations tend to happen more with sounds with higher frequencies, the problem you will have with lower frequencies is vibration from objects around your room. To solve this once all your equipment is set up, turn it on and turn it up very loud. Set up your MIDI controller to control a very low bassy sound or anything else that is capable of creating a big bass sound such as a bass guitar. Now go up each of the notes from the lowest you can hear and listen for objects that vibrate around the room. You need to locate these objects and remove them completely from the room or if you can’t do that then you need to stop them from vibrating somehow. These vibrations are adding unwanted noise to the sound of your room.

Speaker Locations
Your speakers need to be placed well for you to get the most out of them. They want to be facing towards you at ear level with some distance between the left and right speakers and some distance between you and the speakers creating a triangle shape. It may specify optimum distances in the manual that came with your speakers or monitors and you should use these specified distances. If not I would go for something like 1.5 metres apart from each other and 1 metre away from you, use your ears and set them up what you feel comfortable with.

The speakers should not be placed in corners of the room as this will accentuate the bass and there should be as little surfaces and objects between you and the speakers as possible as reflections (called early reflections) will bounce from the speaker on these surfaces to your ear.

The Rest Of Your Equipment
Your equipment needs to be set-up to give you a comfortable and productive environment. Everything needs to be within easy reach, you want to place your MIDI controller somewhere so you can still see your screen and play at the same time. Getting up and going across the room to play your music in is not what you want to be doing.

If your computer or equipment makes any noise from fans, make sure you put it as far from recording microphones as possible. If you have a uni-directional microphone (a microphone that picks up what is in front of it and not much from behind it) make sure that you place the computer behind it so that it will not be picked up as much. Placing your computer on the floor may also reduce the noise recorded too.

Other Stuff To Do In Your New Studio

• Keep Your Studio Tidy - A room which is tidy will not only make you feel better, it will make your music better because you will enjoy being in your room and you will also be able to find things when you need them.
• Reduce Hum - Other electrical items can create hum in your equipment and cables such as microphone or guitar cable. So remove these from the room. Dimmer light switches are particularly bad for this.
• Remove phones and distractions - Especially if your going to be recording a lot. You might be coming to the end of the your greatest take ever when suddenly someone rings you.
• Get a Comfortable Chair - One that doesn’t squeak :-), If you are comfortable you will spend more quality time on your music and your music will benefit from it.

Part 3 Conclusion
Hopefully this section of our beginners guide has given you a bit of an insight into creating a room for recording and mixing your music. This isn’t everything you can do to improve the sound of your room, this is just the basics that don’t cost much. Obviously there is loads more acoustic treatment which can be done but this costs money and can be unnecessary for a beginner. Following the examples set out in this part of the guide will eliminate any common beginners mistakes when setting up your room and equipment and give you a good start to work from. The benefits will be heard in your music especially in the mix down, your music will sound better on a wider variety of players as you won’t be compensating for problems in the room so much and will hear the music from the speakers and not from the room.

Written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

Sine, Square, Triangle and Sawtooth are the basic waveforms (a graphical representation of a sound) used in most popular synthesizers. Most oscillators (The part of a synthesizer which generates the basic waveform) can produce all four of these basic waveforms. All are very different sounding and have their own characteristics which can greatly affect the mood of the sound synthesized.

I believe that by learning what each of these basic waveforms sounds and looks like can be a great way for anyone starting out using synthesizers to be able to start learning to hear a synthesized sound and then go on to reproduce that sound on their own.

Below are images of these four basic waveforms as well as audio examples for each.

Sine Wave
The wave that most of use will visually imagine when we hear the word wave. Can be great for producing very low bass sounds that sound smooth.



Download a mp3 of this waveform.

Square
As the name suggest the waveform looks square and this creates a unique sound compared to the other four waveforms.



Download a mp3 of this waveform.

Triangle
A triangle wave is a very basic waveform where the pattern rises and then falls by the same gradient creating a triangle shape.



Download a mp3 of this waveform.

Sawtooth
The dirtiest sounding of the four basic waves, it is named sawtooth because it looks like the teeth of a saw. You can also get a reverse sawtooth waveform where the slow gradient and steep fall are swapped around.



Download a mp3 of this waveform.

Hopefully this article has allowed you to see and hear the basic waveforms so you can begin to identify them when you hear sounds that have been created using these waveforms as a starting point.

All images of the waveforms are made using Audacity Article written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation

Yes you did read the title correctly! Propellerhead Software, the creators of the fabulous Reason music creation software have decided to release their educational package called Teaching Music with Reason for free download under a creative commons license.

The package includes 21 complete lessons in PDF format as well as some example songs. Unfortunately it hasn’t been upgraded to cover Reason version 3 or version 4, but most of the stuff is still relevant and should be good reading for anyone who hasn’t upgraded to the newer versions.

Visit The Propellerhead Software Site and download Teaching Music with Reason.

I used to make a lot of hard house music and one of the most common sounds in hard house and similar types of hard dance music is the hoover sound. Even though it is used a lot (sometimes too much) some people have trouble recreating this sound themselves and end up using samples. The original sound was made on the Roland Juno Synthesizer and I’ve even heard of people buying that synth just to create this type of sound and spending hundreds of their hard earned cash in the process. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a basic hoover without a Juno. If your not sure what a hoover synth is then play the sound below.

Click Here To Listen To The Final Hoover Sound

I made that hoover style sound above as an example for this tutorial using the Malstrom and the NN-XT sampler in Reason within a few minutes and I’m going to show you how to get that style of synth sound so you can make all the hoovers you require without a Juno and also so I don’t have to hear a hoover sample that I’ve heard hundreds of times before next time I listen to some new hard house/dance tracks.

The following tutorial is done in Reason but you should be able to reproduce this sound using any synthesizer or softsynth which is good at making some sort of nice fat lead sound.

Creating the Starting Sound
First we need to create a fat lead type sound, I shall leave you to choose one yourself here as most synthesizers should be able to create sounds which are good enough. I used the Malstrom in Reason, I chose the preset in the soundbank called EBM Lead and just turned off Filter A. Here is that sound, so you can get an idea of the sort of sound that you need to start off with.

Click Here To Download The Starting Sound

As you can see it’s nothing special, it is in fact just 2 x Sawtooth like waves with one of them an octave lower than the other. There is nothing special about this sound and you can find samples of this sort of sound all over the internet for free. Experiment with different sorts of lead synth sounds as your starting point for the hoover, but to get a real fat hoover you need something that sounds quite fat to begin with. You want to aim for lots of high and low frequencies in there as it will make the hoover sound fatter and more Juno sounding.

Making The Hoover
This is the bit which most people who try to make hoover sounds and fail don’t know about. We need to use a sampler such as the NN-XT in Reason which allows you to use a mod envelope (ADSR) to control the pitch of the sound. I’m sure that there are many other samplers that can do this too.

For this you need to first export the sound from your synthesizer and save it as a sample to reload into your sampler. You want to create a very long sample or create a loop in the sampler so you can hold the sample down for a long time without it ending.

Once you’ve loaded the sample into you’re sampler, you need to make the mod envelope affect the pitch of the sample. For the example I set the mod env to pitch setting to +600cents (about the 2-O-Clock position) on the NN-XT. I increased the attack on the mod envelope to about midway up and the decay just that bit higher than the attack. The sustain, release and hold were set to none.

I also made the sound play three notes at one time to give it more substance, these were C3, C4 and C5 on the MIDI keyboard and placed a notch filter on the sample with the frequency set about half way. Now we have the basic hoover sound, you can now go and add some effects on if you want to make it sound even better.

See it isn’t that hard to create a hoover once you know how it’s done. Hopefully this has shown you that you can create Hoover type sounds very easily and quickly within Reason. You don’t need a Roland Juno or other fancy kit to create one. You can also achieve this with most synthesizers and a sampler with the mod envelope to pitch ability. Experiment with the hoover sounds too by starting with different starting synths, there are loads that can be made. If you use Reason there are some great ones that can be made with the Subtractor and Malstrom as a starting point.

Tutorial written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.