Making music on your
computer
(Amended from old site archive and updated
as article was a bit out of date!)
I've always enjoyed
making music on my Amiga. Now that I have a PC
with a large hard drive and Amiga emulation,
this may not have
become easier creatively, but there is a lot less hassle.
Sampling in 16-bit and large CD-Quality recording of
instruments direct to memory
or HD is a reality. Of course, none of these methods (with
the exception of 6.) will be any replacement for a lack
of talent (believe me, I know!)
but with perseverance even the lamest can write a classic
or three. So, regardless of your machine, here are the
main ways of making music
on your computer.
1. Sequencing
Notes are stored as a time based sequence, usually on
a computer but then, original musical notation is
basically sequencing. Sequencers
allow music to be created in your own time or real time
making it easier for novice musicians to create music.
Sequencers tend to be used
on Midi-based instruments although there are certain
types (Trackers) which operate on sampled sounds or
waveforms. An example is the
classic Steinberg Pro 24 for the Atari ST which I've
heard some bands still use today. Apparently Queen used
Atari ST's on their recordings!
Another I believe is Bars and Pipes but I've never really
used these.
2,Trackers
These are a different type of sequencers which
operate on multiple time-based lists of notes, samples
and effects running together. The
Amiga had four channels (sometimes 8) so four
lists were used. On the PC, the best tracker
that I've seen has 256 channels, which is fine for
music. Unlike sequencing, the tracker does not usually
use Midi. Instead, it plays samples of instruments at
varying rates and amplitudes to
achieve the desired notes, volumes and effects. Some
examples of ProTracker (an Amiga
favourite) .MOD files can be found in the
download section. As this can use samples, it is very
handy for recording live music mixed with sequenced drums.
As I have a PC now I
would recommend the excellent ModPlug Tracker as it can
create anything from MIDI files to PT, S3M, FT2 and IT
modules as well as load
and convert from other formats eg. (Octa)MED, MIDI, I
think TFX also. Standard PC WAV files can be imported
even if you are writing
Amiga ProTracker MOD files.
3.Specialist
software
Includes popular recent releases like E-Jay
and MusicX along with others. These allow you to create
tunes by connecting pre set patterns
together. These can be original pieces but often is
impossible to really take the credit for creating the
music. Most allow you to add
and record your own samples which turns the software into
a quite groovy digital multitrack recorder/mixer! I use
them for this.
4.The Direct
Approach
This is just plugging your instruments directly into your
sound card via the microphone or line inputs. These
tracks are then either mixed
together using software or by just playing the previous
recording in another package and recording directly over
the top. The downside is
that no volume changes or effects can really be added
once the recordings are mixed. But it is darn quick to
get a result and is very good for
jamming/testing ideas. Although the specialist software
above have samplers which can do this and allow you to
mix later. See below.
5.Mixture of the
above
As it says, you just use whichever of first three
methods to create samples that can be directly mixed
together as in 4. This is how I created
the sound files sanity.mp3 and wheeldemo.mp3 in the
download section. The drums were created using ModPlug
Tracker and the riffs were
recorded using the basic MS Sound Recorder and added to
the module. The vocals were dubbed and mixed to a sample
of the module
using a coverdisk version on Dance Ejay 2 (!). And those
are the results!
6.Novelty
software
There are a number of novelty applications such as Algomusic
for the Amiga. This creates 'random' pieces of
music from a set of pre-learnt
'rules'. The results are obvious as an Algomusic
tune but the music is credible. You can't really say that
you created the music yourself
though. Another package took a bitmap image and converted
it into a tune (!). These usually sounded awful but
occasionally, you were lucky.
I suppose that if you drew the picture then you could
claim the credit for the music! Anyhow, I'd stick to the
above options if you're serious.
ROB
NEWS
Added links to all MOD files in the site
srchives to the Download Section
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