MAKING MUSIC FROM HOME

Setting up a Home Studio

This is a brief guide to the process of home studio music production when working from home as a freelance music producer or just as a hobby in your free time.

There are three main stages to setting up your own home studio:

a.) Choosing your equipment and/or learning to use that which you already have.

b.) Applying the technology at your disposal to its maximum advantage, no matter how ‘amateurish’ you may think your home studio set-up is at first.

c.) Understanding the music business itself, both its pitfalls and potential opportunities.

Music technology and equipment 

It is no longer essential that you have a ‘Midi-System’, but it can help. This refers to computer technology that enables you to store sounds on a keyboard or sound module, or on several ‘midi-devices’, for the purpose of using these sounds/instruments to write music on your computer in a home studio.  The point is you can have a larger range of instruments or samples of other instruments/sounds than just the basic rhythm-section, bass, guitar, piano, etc or whatever.  Once you have the basic rhythm tracks stored on the computer’s hard drive you can then record it onto a digital format or even an old four-track tape recorder to play any live parts of the music on top. Of course you don’t have to use live instruments at all if you prefer to lay down all the tracks within the software, using sounds on your sound modules.

Making The Music

Making the music depends largely on what type of music you choose to make. Many people working in their own home studio find they are able to compose/engineer music of all different styles, because the technology they use enables them to experiment much more than if they were a musician who plays just one or more instruments. In fact, it has to be said it is not essential to be able to play any instrument at all when working on a computer in a home studio, although it is still a definite advantage to have some musical knowledge.

The Making of The Best Beats

“It is not wise to rely too heavily upon sampled material, unless you are making music which is just rhythm based (i.e. Without any chords or harmonious structure), but it is still advisable to write a basic drum-pattern of your own around which to build the rest of the track, as this will help to hold it together”

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Beats & Bars

Remember – Any rhythm needs a structure of Bars (or ‘Measures’ as they are also called). The beat must be divided into bars. This will ensure that all the other instruments will follow the basic structure of the song/track as laid down by the number of bars in the music. With most beat making software you can change the speed/tempo of the music without changing the number of beats to a bar, or the number of bars in the music.  There are many other features with music software/hardware used in a modern home studio that make it possible to do things that would take a lot longer to do in a more conventional ‘analogue’ home studio. The best beat making software computer programs can enable you to use a wide variety of instruments, samples and other effects that would not be possible in a conventional home studio.

Know the Music Business

Once you are making and producing beats to a standard you like (never under-estimate your own abilities to produce great sounds, even if you are new to making beats), then you are ready to promote your beats to others in the music business. To succeed in this you need to know how the music industry really works.  Take a look at our page on how to Promote Your Beats for more of an idea on how to get started doing this.