Diodes Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 I am a music teacher, teaching private lessons in guitar, piano, and a few other instruments. For a long time, I have been thinking about teaching computer music, either incorporating that in to my lessons with instruments, teaching it as an "instrument" in its own right, or giving workshops. But I don't know what kind of setup would be best for this. Basically, I am looking for suggestions for software and equipment for teaching multi-track recording and sequencing. Here are some more detailed criteria: - I have a Macbook but I don't know what platforms my students may have, so something that would work on both PC and Mac would be ideal. - Free is ideal, so that my students can try it out and play with it on their own before making a big investment. However, considering that many of my beginner guitar and piano students are willing to spend $100-200 on a new guitar or keyboard before getting a feel for it, if the entire cost of the setup is fairly low, I guess that would work too. (And obv there are some things that can't be free, like a microphone.) - I'm looking for software that does sequencing and multi-track recording, and free (or cheap) sample packs. I'd probably tell students to buy a cheap $20 microphone from Best Buy (or get our store to stock some) because the specific mic isn't really important. Audacity would be great if only you could load samples and use it as a sequencer. I'm also open to suggestions for other kinds of equipment or software if you think it would be useful in this situation. - My students range from children to teenagers, though I would probably have an age cut-off for who can sign up for this, maybe around 10. Everything needs to be very simple/basic, not just so that they can understand how to use it, but so that they can set it up at home (with parents' help, but parents may not be computer/music equipment savvy). - In case it wasn't clear from the other points, simplicity is more important than having a lot of functions or sounding professional. I just want to get the kids to be able to put together some basic beats, record themselves playing their instrument, and teach them some simple effects like reverb, delay, filters, etc. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Are you really going to teach electronic, computer music to younger children? Nevertheless, you can't go wrong with Fruity Loops Studio, but I'm pretty sure thats not PC/Mac, just PC. Be sure to do something on sample quality and the differences between Soundfonts, VSTs, Generators, WAV samples and so on. Be sure to show them how a piano roll and sequencer work and how you can get them to do more than just create loops to more complicated forms of music. Thats all I can think of right now. Edit: Synthesizers are a good place for advanced users. You can find a lot of those for free online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 You can probably find something useful in zircon's guide to free music apps. Not everything is free free, but... well, details in the post. Not having tried it, I'm not sure I should recommend Reaper (see above link), but it looks good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulinEther Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 http://reaper.fm Considering your price range and your need for multiplatform software... I have to recommend Reaper. I have used it on Windows and Linux, works great. Haven't tested it on Mac OSX, though, but I'm pretty sure it works well there too. You can download it and use it for 30 days, and then after that you "have" to purchase a license to keep using it (though, considering that it's only $50 for a noncommercial/education license, I think it's fair). Plus, it comes with decent plugins/effects out of the box that satisfy more of your criteria. Is it simple? Well.. it's not hard to pick up. While it has a simplistic presentation like Garageband, the menus and contextual right-click menus present you with a lot more options/features than Garageband has to offer. Considering you're going to be doing simple stuff anyway, just ignore all those features and it should be a smooth experience. And as far as sample packs go, Rozovian already pointed out to you a pretty good resource that I've used myself. I recommend searching for free samples/VSTi/soundfonts (darkesword's got a good list of decent soundfonts at http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/ but be warned that the "sfz" soundfont VSTi by rgc does have some issues... like randomly making very loud noises instead of playing back the samples in the soundfont, lol) and either linking your students to the various places they're hosted or burning a compilation CD with Reaper + the different instruments/samples and giving them to your students. Parenthetic fail on my part, there. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 The problem with REAPER is that it has basically no built-in synths or samples. Garageband has tons. It's way easier to start with a program that has a pallette of material to choose from. I believe people can learn music production best if they start with building blocks (premade loops or even melodic parts) and then move on to editing those and finally, creating their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Yeah, GB is great for newbs. Unfortunately it's mac only. Most ppl wouldn't buy a mac just to try their hand at computer music. You should probably put together a package on cd or dvd with all they need and hand that out instead of having them pick stuff from various sites on the net. Aside from the daw, that would probably be a few effects, some soundfonts or other samples + sample/soundfont player, some synths... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Mokram Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Yeah Rozo is right, a simple and effective way to start would be to prepare a basic free sample kit to distribute to your students. Then create some basic exercises, like making a drum loop to get a feel for rythmic pattern, and record some simple guitar riff or piano phrase, to include them on top. I used to teach beatmaking years ago, it was way more complicated, since free solutions weren't as plentiful as nowdays. 1-You got some simple free sequencer: Mulab, which has the advantage to be Win & Mac compatible. Limited to 6tracks & 16bits processing, but that's more than enough. 2-To use it properly, you'll need Asio drivers, but you can bypass that with Asio4All. 3-Next, for free wave editor, Audacity is a nice choice, Win & Mac compatible too. It has an easy learning curve, can help record instruments and cut/fade precisely, apply basic reverb-delay fxs. It can even load VST with a simple plugin. Useful for basic mixing/mastering purpose too. As for free samples, there isn't a lot of solution that are both Mac & Win compatible. Try this. Hope it can help you set some things in motion. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I wouldn't put together a CD or DVD; it'll be out of date not that long after you do it. Besides, if anyone can't figure out how to find, say, Reaper on the web and install it, they don't have the brain cells to do anything complicated with music software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinewav Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I disagree. Asking kids to download the stuff themselves is a great way to guarantee that everyone won't be on the same page for the first few days of class (days that they could be using to grasp the fundamentals of sequencing, etc). Sure if you distribute a CD the software will eventually become obsolete, but the point of the class is to learn how to make computer music, not how to find and install things on the internet. And besides, as you said, if they're smart enough to understand how to make music on the computer, by the end of the class I'm sure they'll be smart enough to figure how to do something as simple as a software update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 so, are you the singer in Flickerfall? if you are, awesome. you're a fantastic singer, as i've told vinnie a few times. love your music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diodes Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 Thanks for all the suggestions! This was all very helpful. I think a starter kit CD is a really good idea. Also thanks zircon for the article about free music apps. I will have to spend some time trying out some software then, and see what kind of starter kit I can put together. To prophet: yes, I am the other (non-Palpable) member of Flickerfall! Thanks for the kind words. We're actually going to have our first EP out at the end of July; we'll have to post to the forums again when it's officially released. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinewav Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Kind of unrelated to the rest of the thread, but prophet's mentioning of flickerfall caused me to finally give in and check you guys out. Just wanted to say that I really like your music, and he's right: you do have a really great voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 i know - it's rare to find a female vocalist who actually has some talent and training without sounding all hooty (this coming from a guy with a degree in music ed ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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