Homemade Music – Why It’s Getting Less Expensive & Easier
Although people have made music at home for along time, the advancements in music technology over the years have made it easier and easier to go it alone in the music creation process. This article will take a look through the progress that music technology has made over the years.
The Early Days of Musical Computers
Although computers have been able to make sounds for many years, at first they were not considered a serious way of making music. However, by the late 70’s and early 80’s, a number of musicians and composers began using a new generation of musical computers such as the Fairlight CMI and the Synclavier. Although this was a huge leap forward in terms of musical technology, it still remained elusive to the average person, as these early musical computers were extremely expensive and so were mainly owned by very rich musicians, producers and recording studios.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface
When MIDI emerged in 1983 as the new technology in music creation, it was a fantastic tool that made electronic music much easier to make. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and is basically an electronic language that enables various electronic musical devices to talk to each other. This means you can use one keyboard to play sounds on another keyboard.
Another great use for MIDI came in the form of sequencing. With a MIDI sequencer, patterns of music, or indeed even whole pieces of music, could be programmed and played back, with the sequencer using MIDI to tell the synthesizers what notes to play. Think of it as being like an electronic version of a conductor and an orchestra.
Making Music on the PC
Once the 1990’s were well under way, the PC was becoming the overall computer standard. The great thing was, they were starting to be used for music as well. With better and better MIDI sequencing software available for PC, along with ever more spectacular synthesizers available, PC music creation was becoming very much a standard approach, especially for musicians who like to compose on their own rather than with a band. Once these music programs also began to include audio recording as well as the MIDI sequencing, computer music creation had started to become a real option even for people who couldn’t afford very expensive gear.
Software Synthesizers
Recently, the newest and most creatively versatile addition to music has been the invention of software synthesizers. These are software programs that create sounds in the same kind of ways as hardware synthesizers. The great thing about them though, is that you are not restricted by what hardware you can fit in your room. All the sounds are created using software, so it really expands the possibilities.
At first, these software synthesizers were mostly individual instruments, to be played by a connected MIDI keyboard. Some of them did have sequencing capabilities, such as the Rebirth software from Propellerheads, but this was still limited to just a few sounds at a time; then came VST soft synth plug-ins for sequencer programs such as Cubase VST, which enabled the use of the soft synths within the music creation software.
These days, with full-blown soft synth based music creation software such as Reason, software synthesizers are combined along with a sequencer, virtual samplers, virtual effects, and a virtual mixing desk, to create the ultimate software-based music studio all inside your computer. This means that with just one piece of software (plus a MIDI keyboard to play notes) it’s now possible to create spectacular pieces of music without any other equipment at all.
About the Author
If you want to listen to some amazing modern homemade electronic music, check out Laughing at the Sky
Alternatively, if you want something interesting to read, go to The Information Zone
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