Composing Your Own Music

Do you want to use your PC or Mac to compose and author your own music quickly and easily? In this blog entry I will lay out for you the tools and instructions you will need to get started in music composition with or without an instrument.

Tool number 1:
An audio recording device. This can be a digital camera, a microphone or a plug from an instrument into your PC.

Recommendation: A microphone


Examples of this without an instrument: Record yourself tapping your hands on a table or any other platform to make different effects.

Tool number 2:
Audio development or manipulation software. This software is what you use to manipulate your audio recordings so they may sound different then they originally did. You can clean up the quality, distort the sound, combine it with other sounds and so forth.

Recommendation: Sony Sound Forge


Examples of this: Take the clip of yourself tapping your hands on a table or other platform and modify the pitch to sound like bongo drums.

Tool number 3:
Audio production software. This software is what you use to put the final composition together, from remixing existing music or layering together audio samples to create your own music or to add depth to existing compositions you will need this for the final production.

Recommendation: Cakewalk Sonar

Examples of this: Take several different clips of remixed tapping hands and layer them together to create a musical composition.

Music Video Production

Want to produce your own music videos for free on the PC or Mac? Here is a quick rundown of the tools you will need and instructions on how to get started producing and directing your own music videos immediately. The first thing you might want to purchase if you don't already own one is a digital video camera. You can buy them online from anywhere between $50 and $1000. I recommend the SVP-400 as a good starter camera for video production, having HD quality and running in the $100 price range.

The next thing you will need is some video editing software. There are many different suites to choose from, each one having there own positive and negative attributes. If you own a Windows PC you will have had a copy of Windows Movie Maker installed when you purchased the computer. This is a very basic video editing program with many disadvantages to more professional software packages, however it does get the job done if you are a beginner. You can find it in your start menu. There are many video editing and production software packages to choose from, fortunately through many websites online you can utilize a free trial period in selecting a video editing suite that is right for you. Here is a brief list of some of those video editing programs along with links to download trial copies as well as my personal experiences with them.

Mpeg Video Wizard
This software is very well priced and very stable. The trial also lasts a very long time and is not handicapped in anyway. Definitely my choice for the beginner, it makes alot of significant improvements over the competition, allows for unlimited layering, and has a very fast compilation speed.

Sony Vegas
Definitely the most professional out of the bunch. Quick to compile videos, alot better then previous versions of the same software.

Corel VideoStudio Pro
A fairly decent program if you are interested in using alot of old 80s-style video effects and easy to find fairly cheaply at some places.

Top User-Created YouTube Music Videos

For this week are:
The Decemberists - The Mariners Revenge Song


Clinic - 2/4