A Free Ride

The availability of cheaper and cheaper home computers with high specification has sparked a revolution in music production. No longer is it necessary to have access to expensive recording studios and the budget of a major record label to begin making music. We can all have a go at making music on a computer and stand a chance of becoming the next Streets or Daniel Beddingfield or if you like the next Dr Dre or Neptunes.

Your computer

In this section we will show you how it is possible to learn how to make music for free with just a pc and access to an Internet connection. For the purpose of this project we are assuming that you have a pc with some spare memory capacity and at least a 500 MHz processor, using windows 98 or above.

File sharing

Ok let's start with a word about file sharing programmes and illegal downloading of software. Ever since Napster, the first and still the most popular file-sharing network were shut down in 2000; the Internet has seen more and more file sharing software available. File-sharing programs allow users connected to a network, using the same program (sometimes!!!!) to swap file from one computer to another. If you want to learn more about file sharing and the software available (even for Mac user) then take a look at Zeropaid (http://www.zeropaid.com) or howstuffworks (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/
filesharing.htm

Is file sharing legal?

The reason that I mention file sharing is that some aspects of it are illegal. For example if you download any kind of copyright material, including music, films, software and images. You could just get a file-sharing program and download almost any piece of music software for free …….BUT IT'S ILLEGAL.

A warning

That's not to say that you can't use your file sharing program to download copy right free samples, sounds, drum loops and beats and there are lots of these available along with legal files of all kind. One last word of warning about file sharing, it can leave you open to viruses, no not like the ones that they tell you about at school but computer viruses. So its always a good idea to use some protection in this case a anti virus program like Norton (http://norton.com) or McAfee (http://uk.mcafee.com/?CID=5833) you can also get free online virus checks without downloading software at sysmatics (http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym) or pcpitstop (http://www.pcpitstop.com), programs like AVG Anti-Virus that offer a free version of there software (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php).

Mp3 Dj'ing

You will probably know by now that some of the best music producer s around at the moment started out as DJ's, well you don't need an expensive pair of turntables, a mixer and loads of records to start learning to mix tracks. Some of you might have used ejay or similar programs to mix mp3 files on a computer, but ejay costs money and we're not going to spend any. First your going to need to get your CD's onto your computer, the software used to do this is called a Ripper . With a Ripper like FreeRIP Mp3 (http://www.mgshareware.com/frmmain.shtml) you can convert you favourite track into Mp3 or WAV files used for making music on a computer. For those that want to create original scratches using WAV files take a look at AnalogX Scratch 1.05 (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/scratch.htm)

If your interesting in mixing tracks and making CD's for your mates then you will need an Mp3 mixer and player like Deck v1.05 (http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Decks) I put this program in for anyone with a computer running Windows 98 For those of you using Windows 98 and above try Deejaysystems (http://www.deejaysystem.com) or Traktor DJ Player (http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?traktormixer_us)

For the really adventurous amongst you with a bit of technical knowledge or a pc that already has two soundcard s take a look at DJ Helper 2.5 it uses two WINAMP (http://www.winamp.com/
player), definitely one for the more determined.

This free BPM counter might come in handy. (http://www.pyramidedata.dk/autobpm.html)

Starting from scratch

For this project we are going to download free software and copyright free material. The first thing you are going to need is some music software like ACIDEXPress (http://mediasoftware
.sonypictures.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=906) a free version of the popular program or Super Duper Loop Express. You can read more about this download here (http://mediasoftware
.sonypictures.com/news/ShowRelease.asp?ReleaseID=358&CatID)

Download Super Duper Loop Express here (http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/download/step1.asp?catid=1)

Both these downloads are by Sonic Foundry a company well know for professional music software.

Beats & Samples

This is where you really get to use your imagination, you can find all kinds of free loops and sample on the net but you have to search. To get you started you can get free ACID loops from (http://www.freeloops.co.uk) and (http://www.samplenet.co.uk). Last of all here are a few downloads to get you going. Now its all up to you and remember that the Internet in full of websites dedicate to people like you that want to make music so if you get stuck do a search or look at some of the forums on the sites they are usually full of great tips and trips.

We will also be posting more downloads from the Beats Diversity workshops in April so book mark this page and GOOD LUCK.