Hello,
I am a game programmer, and am experienced in programming and graphics design. However, my weak point is definitely music production. To me, it is a whole world with which I am unfamiliar – the terminology, jargon, everything. Needless to say, I’m here to hopefully gain a few insights to get me started. I play the piano, so I am music competent, but I don’t know my way around music software, and all of the knobs and buttons spamming the screen can be a little overwhelming. Please forgive my noobishness.
Firstly, I need to pick a DAW. I tried FL Studio, and made a few basic songs, but I’m not sure if it’s the right program for me. I’m looking for a program in which I can synthesize realistic sounding music without hardware. I want to be able to write and figure out the sequence of notes on the piano, and then apply different realistic sounding instruments to the series of notes. By realistic, I mean non-midi sounding. I read something about “running” midis “though” sound libraries or sample libraries, but I’m not sure what that means or how to go about doing it. Is FL Studio capable of doing that?
Secondly, I had a few terminology questions. If I understand correctly, a sequencer simply allows you to map out your music in terms of a sequence of notes. A synthesizer allows you to create infinite different sounds by changing frequencies, and waves, etc, correct? What then is a mixer and sampler? Where do they fit into the big picture?
Say I write a simple song on the piano, and I want to digitize it, add some bass and some percussion, and make it somewhat realistic sounding. What would be a good DAW for this? From what I understand, Reaper does not have a sequencer, which would make it difficult to map out the song I wrote in terms of notes, am I right?
Any tips and advice are welcome. Thanks,
RPGillespie
