What you need (hardware and software)

Hardware

Obviously you need a computer, a PC. Not that you wouldn't be able to use a Mac or whatever, but I am not in a position to say anything clever about anything else than a PC, so let's stick to that ;)

Would any PC do? If you have a fairly recent machine running Windows 2000, XP or Vista, with some Gbytes spare space on your harddisk and a decent chunk of RAM (memory), you are in business.

Well, then there is the sound card. A sound card is a device that your computer has to make you hear sounds over your computer's speakers (audio support). Some motherboards have sound capabilities built into them, but these only offer basic audio support which is often not sufficient for those seeking to produce music. Nevertheless, I advice to work with what you have at your disposal and not invest in anything new until you reach the point where you start tearing your hair out ;) I have made music on various machines and never really gave the audio part much thought. For my purposes it was usually enough. Only recently I went after something better to give me a better music and composing experience.

If you are going to invest in a new computer anyway and you want to go into the music production business, then it is a good idea to get one with a good, dedicated sound card, which will really improve the quality of the sound the computer can produce. The store where you buy your computer will certainly be able to help you, just be sure to mention 'i want to compose music with it and need a good sound card for that!'

"But find a place where the people actually know what they are talking about. I've come across too many stores where the person helping you highlights the color of the thing when I ask what the difference is between one machine and the other. If it happens to you, you run away. Can we agree on that?"

Oh yeah, you need some good speakers as well...and headphones. I prefer to use the latter. I often want to hear my music loud. And when I say loud I mean loud! ;) I am not doctor and won't talk about what is healthy and what is not.

Software

Apart from the operating system (95, 98, NT, Me, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 2003) - which already runs on your computer - you need a program called Fruity Loops (also referred to as FL Studio).

Fruity Loops is a so-called sequencer program that you can use to create and manager computer generated music. If you want to read more about sequencers in general, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_sequencer.

Now, there are many sequencer programs on the market. I do admit, I only used one of them sofar (FL Studio), so I am not going to entertain you with the pros and cons of every sequencer available. I will simply tell you here to get FL Studio and to get it now using this link! http://flstudio.image-line.com/documents/download.html

Note that this is a trial version. It is fully functional, but it does not let you save your projects. However, you can export them (let's say to MP3 format). This is a bit annoying of course, but understandable from a commercial perspective. And if you happen to fall in love with the program, you can get your very own copy for only US$ 99,-. And this is no money considering the fact how much I already saved on drinking less (heineken) beer during the hours I compose.

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Category: Getting Started