Top 5 Tools for Creating Virtual Music: Beginner’s Guide

Since you’re reading this in 2014 or later, you are undoubtedly in a much better position to create music on your own than I was when I started. Even when I started recording in 2001, it was already well into the digital age. But computers weren’t as powerful and the tools needed weren’t as accessible as they are today.

So if you’re just starting out making music on the computer, you’re in great shape because it’s never been easier. But if you’re not sure how to get started, here’s a list of the top 5 things you’ll need first.

1. Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

This is by far the most important piece of software needed for creating music. This is the mothership in your arsenal through which every other tool runs. Basically, it’s your main interface used for digital recording, editing, mixing, and mastering. There are tons of options out there and honestly which one you pick shouldn’t make too much of a difference at first. Some of the most popular ones are Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic, and Ableton Live. To get a general idea of what’s out there, MusicRadar has a nice list of the 16 best DAWs.

I personally use REAPER and would recommend it due the 60 day free trial. And it’s the full version you get for 60 days with all the features and no restrictions. It’s also one of the least expensive DAWs out there at only $60.

A typical view of the Reaper interface

There is a steep learning curve if you’re a complete beginner. Luckily there are some more newb-friendly DAWs out there like Apple’s GarageBand and Mixcraft by Acoustica. These two programs come with tons of loops as well so you can get started arranging them and mixing them without even having to record or dive into MIDI quite yet.

2. Speakers/Headphones

This should be obvious but for the love of Kobol, do NOT try to make music with only laptop speakers. They produce audio quality equivalent to a tin can. Probably worse actually.

So listen, you’re just starting out. This is a beginner’s toolkit. Don’t go buying $500 headphones or studio monitors just yet. You’re just learning the ropes right now so all you need is something decent. I still simply use Bose computer speakers for general listening and Sony MDR-V6 headphones for mixing. Both of which go for just under $100. But there are plenty of options out there. Read reviews and just get something within your budget for now.

Sony MDR-V6 headphones

And just try to remember: headphones are a tool for listening, not a fashion accessory.

3. Plug-ins

Once you’ve got your DAW, you might notice that it can’t really do much yet. Why not? Because you have no plug-ins.

Plug-ins can be virtual instruments, samplers, synths, effects, or anything really that “plugs” into your DAW and helps you create music.

So think about what type of music you want to create and do a search for the instruments you’ll need. Whether you need a drum machine, a piano, or an entire string orchestra, you can find them. What you’re looking for specifically are plug-ins in the VST and VSTi format. At first you’ll probably try and find free versions and you might have some success. A decent source for free virtual instruments is DSK Music. Just remember that you’re dealing with free instruments and beggars can’t be choosers. The sound quality might not be great and the samples might sound very artificial but at least it’s something to start with.

If you ARE willing to spend some money, then the real fun begins. There are some amazing sample libraries and synths out there but beware, they can be extremely expensive.

A good inexpensive, starter virtual instrument is SampleTank. It’s one of the first ones I bought and it definitely gives you a ton of sounds for the price.

SampleTank 2.5

There’s also Native Instruments’ Kontakt, one of the most popular samplers out there and an industry standard. They have tons of different collections and options but you should start with their free demo.

Kontakt 5 Interface

Though these plug-ins can be expensive, if you’re patient you can get them on sale. I’ve found a great site here that lists all the current promotions and sales.

4. MIDI Controller

When you’re creating virtual music, you become well acquainted with MIDI. If you’re not even sure what MIDI is yet, don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough. Think of it as a form of digital music notation that a computer can read. You can input this notation with just a mouse if you want or you can use a MIDI controller.

Alesis QX25, 25 key MIDI controller

Of all the things you need starting out, it’s odd to find an actual musical instrument this far down the list. But basically, it’s possible to create music on the computer without ever picking up an instrument. Probably not recommended though. And honestly, it’s debatable whether a MIDI controller really is an instrument because it makes no sound on its own. They way they work is by hooking up with your computer (via USB these days) and simply controlling whatever virtual instrument you have selected. So the sound is coming through your computer, not the keyboard at all.

MIDI keyboards come in all sorts of varieties. I have the Alesis QX25 as seen above and also an M-Audio Keystation 61ES. This way I have a lightweight and portable 25-key controller along with a larger 61-key controller which just stays put in my studio.

5. Music Theory

Maybe you didn’t expect to see this listed. But it’s true.

You could spend thousands of dollars on software, gear, samplers, etc. But it would all be useless if you don’t know how to actually create music. Understanding how rhythm, melody, harmony, texture and structure all fit together is the key to creating music with substance.

The circle of 5ths

Now I’m not saying you need to be able to write a symphony. You DO need to know how to spell out chords, how to make sense of rhythm, and understand how chord progressions work. It sounds like a lot but honestly, it’s not too hard to grasp the basics and once you get into it, you’ll constantly be analyzing the music you hear and learning new things every day. There are definitely websites out there you can learn from but I really recommend some sort of formal education. I’m a bit biased since I teach guitar lessons for a living. But if you’re learning an instrument anyway, taking lessons will help you kill two birds with one stone. You can learn the instrument and theory at the same time. Just talk to your teacher about how to get started.

Just understand that music theory will help form what you hear in your head into real actual music.

And that makes it just another important tool in your toolkit.

Creating Virtual Music – Week 5

As the class comes to an end, our mix is complete- or at least as complete as we had time to make it.

The mixing process can take hours but since we were limited to 60 minutes, we had to do the best we could. The song might not seem “complete” but I still think it turned out great for the amount of time we had. I had a lot of fun teaching the class and I hope the students learned a bit about music production.

Here’s a look at our final project:

If you compare it to last week’s picture, it doesn’t look all that different. And it’s not. The plan wasn’t to add any more musical material but to mix the music we already had recorded.

It’s a bit hard to summarize the mixing process in a blog post but we discussed the important aspects of mixing in class: volume, panning, EQ, compression, reverb/delay, and other FX. We really didn’t do a whole lot as far as EQ or FX go, but we tried to get good levels on our tracks and pan things a bit. If we had more time, it would have been fun to play around with more FX but we were short on time already.

I love how enthusiastic the class was and I think we got good input from everyone. Hopefully I’ll be running the class again sometime within a couple months. In the meantime, I’ve given all the students in the class the project files so they can create their own remixes. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing them.

Creating Virtual Music – Week 4

With only two sessions left we really needed to pick up the pace and get this track finished. The most important thing at this point was to add a B section so the track would have some variety and not be too repetitive. Here’s a look at our project:

There are only seven tracks and I’d be surprised if we add any more. But as it stands right now I think we have two nicely contrasting sections, the first in A minor with a repetitive arpeggio sequence. The new B section we put in E minor with a synth pad providing the chords. For our bass line I used a quick little trick of copying the kick drum rhythm and simply pasting it into our bass track on the root notes. It provides a very simple bass line that you know will match your drum beat:

We wanted to have a little guitar in our song too so we loaded up POD Farm and added a little subtle palm muting riff to back up the rhythm. Nothing too distracting since we wanted this song to, overall, have an electronic sound. Other than that, there’s just a little melody on top using the Peach NES synth (which I love):

And there we have the vast majority of the music done for our track. The last session is tonight and it will be heavily focused on mixing and making any other finishing touches. So check back our final mixdown next week.

Creating Virtual Music – Week 3

The big goal this week was to add the drum track and start arranging things a bit. Here’s a look at the project so far:

And a closer look at the instruments we’re using. For the synth lead and bass parts we’re using some presets from MASSIVE:

After a discussion about different types of drums, we played around with a couple plug-ins: EZ Drummer and then Battery. EZ Drummer is great for a realistic drum sound and the fact that it comes with tons of pre-made loops is very helpful for beginners. But since we had decided earlier on a more electronic drum sound, we ended up using Battery.

After spending a couple minutes picking the right kit, we started to create our beat. We could have just used a loop but I generally think it’s better to notate your own drums if you can.

No one in the class was a drummer and almost no one had ever created a drum beat before. So we went over the basics of how a typical drum beat goes. There’s the relationship between the kick, snare, and hi-hat or cymbals and then the conventional ways to arrange them. A very basic default drum beat might put the kick on beats 1 and 3, the snare on 3 and 4, and then constant 8th notes on the hi-hat. This is a good starting point to experiment with and deviate from. Here’s a look at the drum beat we came up with:

So basically we’ve got four on the floor (kick on every downbeat), snare on beats 2 and 4, the hi-hat doing a little gallop rhythm, and a distorted synth sound on beat one. Nothing too fancy but definitely interesting enough to get us started. You can also see that we adjusted the velocity a little bit to bring the volume of the hi-hat down and so that every other kick was a little quieter.

That was about it. We did talk a little bit about FX but didn’t apply any yet. As we get closer to a final mix, those will become much more important. Tonight is week 4 and I’m planning on going over how to record guitar and bass. And hopefully we can come up with a new musical section to add.

Creating Virtual Music – Week 2

Introducing… CAPTAIN ALFRED AFRONZO

He’s the main character of our hypothetical game we’re creating music for. He’s brutal, selfish, and a bit of a failure. He also has an afro.

The game is a sci-fi first person shooter with RPG elements. It’s influenced by games like Tank Simulator, Starhawk, and Metroid.

After coming up with the idea for the game, we got started on the music. We figured we would make an upbeat, techno rock, battle theme. First we needed to find our motif which we could start with. We came up with a little A minor arpeggio riff, which then moves to G, and then repeats a few more times. We played this with a synth piano sound which we later doubled to a synth bass as well.

You can listen to what we have so far:

Next week we should make some more progress by adding a drum track and melody.

Creating Virtual Music – Week 1

Last week I began teaching a new 5-week course over at the Music Academy of Chelmsford called “Creating Virtual Music”

The class is about, you guessed it, creating music on the computer. It’s for anyone age 12 and up who knows their way around a computer, has a little musical experience, and wants to create music.

The first class was last Monday and it was all about the basics: What is a DAW? What are these plug-in things? VST-what? How do I work this MIDI stuff? But we had some fun creating a little drum track using the chaos method of just inputting random notes on the MIDI grid and seeing how it sounds. It didn’t turn out as bad as you’d think.

Tonight is week 2 and I’m planning on starting a video game track with the class. We’re going to collaborate as a group to create something for a hypothetical video game and hopefully the students will learn a little bit about the process.

I’m planning on blogging about each week of the class and will probably post the music we make on my Soundcloud so you can hear it as it evolves over the next four weeks.

Stay tuned.