2021. 5. 4. 07:24ㆍ카테고리 없음
Although OS X might have a reputation as the platform of choice for digital music production, there are hundreds of great music programs for PC that offer similar or better features than their Mac counterparts.
From industry standards like Ableton Live and FL Studio to free music production software like Audacity, read on to learn about the five best music programs for PC for music recording, mixing and production.
Do you want to learn how to produce electronic music on your PC? Learn the basics of music production, from choosing great synths and samples to mixing your tracks for the perfect sound in The Practical Way: Learn Electronic Music Production.
This guide will help you find the best DAW for you to make EDM, electronic music or any other genre of music. There is a lot of different DAW’s to produce with these days, We have seen a lot of other EDM news websites try and review the best music production software with failed attempts so we have rounded up the top 5 best DAW’s for our. If you're interested in breaking out from the confines of notated music, you may wish to explore the world of electronic music. If so, check out freesound.org. You'll find a lot of interesting sounds to process. Lastly, some music software come as mac only, while others both — it’s more likely software and gear are mac-only as opposed to windows-only — something to think about. MacWorld’s article loves the MacBook Pro for music making. This will not be enough RAM or storage for most people making music with their Mac. All the other MacBook Air models have 4GB of RAM (good), with 128GB or 256GB of flash storage. If you don’t have a lot of music libraries you could get away with 128GB. Make better music. Before he was deadmau5, all Joel wanted for Christmas was old toasters to take apart. Now, in his MasterClass, watch him take his music apart. Probably a computer (MAC or PC), soundcard/audio interface, DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, that is the music making program where you make the music, such as Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Cubase, etc etc), good quality studio monitor speakers, and most likely bunch of software synths aka VSTi’s (or maybe even some hardware synths).
Ableton Live
Known as a DAW, or digital audio workstation, Ableton Live is one of the top music production platforms available today. Popular among DJs and producers for studio recordings and live work, Ableton Live is a powerful and versatile application.
Ableton Live is available for both PC and Mac, and the PC version offers the same set of functions as the Mac edition. Some of Live’s coolest features include audio to MIDI conversion and an excellent MIDI editing interface for digital music producers.
With a wide variety of built-in synths, sounds and samples, Ableton Live is a great composition toolkit for digital producers. It’s also supported by a huge variety of third-party synths and plugins to give producers a huge level of sound control.
Designed as both a production studio and a live performance instrument, Ableton Live is compatible with the Ableton Push MIDI control pad. This compatibility and live performance design has made it a favorite of today’s most popular DJs.
Although its high price tag (Ableton Live starts at $449) means it’s best suited to the professional producer, Live’s simple user interface and massive range of sounds are two of its biggest appeals for beginner digital music producers.
Would you like to learn how to use Ableton Live to produce your own tracks? Learn how to produce your own house, trance and techno anthems using Ableton Live in our Introduction to Electronic Music Production with Ableton course.
FL Studio
Formerly known as ‘Fruity Loops’ and regarded as a beginner application, FL Studio has since evolved into one of the most powerful and user-friendly DAWs available at the moment.
FL Studio comes in several varieties, ranging from a stripped-down entry-level app to the full Signature Bundle. Users can upgrade easily to more powerful editions of the software, making it a great choice for beginners interested in music production.
Despite its beginner-friendly price structure and user-friendly interface, FL Studio’s massive range of features has made it a favorite of well-known producers like Avicii, Deadmau5, BT and Afrojack.
With a unique workflow that makes it easy to turn your musical ideas into a reality quickly, FL Studio is perfect for jotting down basic beats and melodies before they become complete tracks.
It’s also one of the most widely used DAWs, with an audience almost as big as that of Ableton Live. This makes third-party plugins and sample packs plentiful and easy to install.
Are you ready to start producing music on your PC with FL Studio? Learn the basics of creating your own tracks using FL Studio, from sampling to creating beats, with The Basics of FL Studio and Dance Music Production.
Cubase
Developed by audio software and hardware giant Steinberg, Cubase is one of the most popular electronic music production workstations for PC. Launched in 1989 for the Atari ST computer, it’s also one of the oldest DAW brands on the market.
Although Cubase is popular with amateur music producers, it’s most widely used in the studio. Priced at £488 and built for powerful hardware, Cubase helped pioneer a variety of features that are now standard in other digital audio workstations.
Used by well-known producers like Justice, Kraftwerk, Pendulum, and more, Cubase is widely used in the electronic dance music community. It’s also popular in the film composition world, used by well-known composers such as Hans Zimmer.
With its hefty price tag and powerful hardware requirements, Cubase might not be the most accessible music program for PC. However, it’s undoubtedly one of the top music production programs for those with the budget – and hardware – to run it.
Do you want to learn how to produce electronic music like a true professional? The Professional Way: Learn Electronic Music Production will teach you the basics of producing your own tracks using DAW software like Cubase.
Reason
Developed by Propellerhead, Reason is a popular music production application that gives users a huge amount of functionality right out of the box. With a simple UI and tons of plugins, it’s a great digital audio workstation for beginners and experts alike.
One of Reason’s biggest selling points is its Rack Extensions – unique effects, sounds and instruments that can be ‘plugged in’ to the standard Reason interface to expand its range as a musical workstation.
Arguably Reason’s biggest benefit over its competitors is its interface. Designed as a self-contained application that does everything on its own, Reason feels more like an old-fashioned mixing board and effects rack than many other DAWs.
Reason is available for PC and Mac, with few functional differences between the two applications. Priced from £349, Reason isn’t as affordable as some of the other DAW programs on our list, but it’s still a great choice for any serious music producer.
Would you like to make Reason your digital audio workstation of choice? Read our blog post on electronic music production to learn the basics of working with a DAW application like Reason to create your own tracks.
Best Program For Making Slideshows
Audacity
Applications like Reason and Ableton Live offer massive power, but at a price. With Ableton Live starting from $449 and Reason priced from £349 upwards, neither are particularly accessible for beginner music producers.
Audacity is a free music recording and production application for Windows. What it lacks in power it makes up for in its simple user interface, wide variety of functions and its excellent price point: zero dollars.
Unlike the digital audio workstations above, Audacity is far more of an audio editing app than a full production workstation. Nevertheless, it does have some production capabilities and can be used to produce basic tracks, remixes and mash-ups.
Do you want to learn the basics of music production on a limited budget? Learn how to produce your own tracks, remixes, remasters and mash-ups using Audacity in our Audacity Crash Course.
“Best” is a relative term. It just is. What’s best for me, may not be the best for you and what’s best for us may not be the best for another person. It all depends on what we need a laptop for.
Yes – music production – I know, but under what circumstances? Do you need a center for your home studio?
Do you need it for a live DJ set? Do you need it for a quick portable studio?
Do you work with samples or do you record more?
Do you prefer a PC/Windows environment or a Mac/OSX one?
That’s a lot of questions and a lot of things to consider, but I’ll break it down and simplify as much as possible.
Buying a laptop is similar to buying an audio interface, so you should approach it the same.
What you buy is what you have, with little room for improvement. You have brands, they have their product lines/series and each series has its models.
To help narrow your search I will offer a “general public opinion” list of brands and what to consider, but ultimately you will have to check the model spec sheets and pick which suits you best.
Alright, so what specs do I need to consider? Glad you asked! Let’s make a list:
1. Mac or PC / OSX or Windows?
The big one! There are so may Mac vs PC debates going on with price and stability. Let me clarify it for you. Yes – the Mac is more reliable and more stable. However, a Windows PC can be just as stable if you know how to tame it. A possible place to look could be at a 13.3 ultrabook which would suit your music making needs. Think of it as a pet. If it’s misbehaving, you can pay for obedience school or you can train it yourself.
Bottom line:If you’re not computer savvy and need stability then go for a Mac. It is known that the MAC is more stable than Windows but still has fewer possibilities for upgrading. Also, take into account whether you already have a dedicated PC or laptop for audio production, as work transfer between a PC and a Mac can get troublesome.
2. How much CPU power do you need?
Choose carefully, since you won’t be able to upgrade this. If you run a lot of VSTs, plug-ins and even multiple applications simultaneously, you will need a lot. Go for at least an i5. Otherwise, you’ll be satisfied with anything that’s available today.
3. What about RAM?
Unlike the CPU, you can often upgrade RAM. As for how much you need, most recommend 8GB. If you use a lot of sample libraries, then you need a lot – at least the 8GB, but 16GB will have you covered. If you don’t, you can get by with only 4GB.
4. SSD or regular HDD?
Since you can attach an external hard disk via USB this may not be so important. Still, take it into consideration, since you may need that extra USB port for something else. Everyone recommends an SSD because it has faster writing speeds, which is great for recording multiple simultaneous tracks or lots of file transfers.
An SSD will offer less space than a regular HDD though. Keep that in mind if you’re going to store all your media files on this laptop since the bigger space SSDs can get really expensive.
5. Does screen size matter?
If you’ll be doing a lot of production work, arranging, playing with tracks and plug-ins, then you will need the space for it. Go no less than 15″ if you’re using the laptop for actual production work (17″ would be much better, but pricier).
However, if you need a laptop just to transfer files and hook up your gear (like if you’re recording on location or doing some DJing with material you sorted out at home) then it’s better to go smaller for portability. 13″ will be enough, or you can even go for those ultra-portable 11.6″ models.
6. I need a long battery life, right?
This is another case of live vs. home circumstances. If you’re taking the laptop out, then you need more battery life. If it’s your studio center at home, then you’ll keep it plugged in often and it’s not so important.
7. Does it fit in the bag?
Laptops are made to fit in a bag, but you may want extremely portable ones if you carry them around often, along with a lot of other gear. If it’s just for transferring work from home to location and vice-versa, then you’ll have an easier time with a smaller model.
8. Other suggestions for live conditions
Fl Studio
There are two added features you should look at if you’re going to take your music production laptop out often – a matte screen and a backlit keyboard. Screen glare will become a real issue with sunlight or lighting and a matte screen will fix this. Likewise, at night or in unlit conditions you won’t see your keyboard at all, so a backlight helps. Just keep that in mind.
9. Last, but not least: PORTS!
You need USB ports to hook up your gear. You will want to have at least one USB 3.0 port and hopefully, there will be one or two more available. Of course, lack of ports is easily fixed with a USB hub.
Some put emphasis on having a FireWire port too, but with the new speed of USBs it’s becoming less of a thing. Just make sure you can plug in your audio interface and any gear you use.
Now for the long-awaited list of brands (with pictures)! Since you can find a ton of information on each, I’ll keep it simple and straight to the point.
Also see: Best Laptops For Music Production – Windows vs MAC
Best Mac Software Programs
UPDATE: In 2017, Apple announces the new iMac Pro, the most powerful Mac ever released, with huge computing power, which is likely to become the best choiceof pro musicians and producers in the years to come.