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Everything you need to know about getting the most, musically from your PC.
Visitors to this website will be competent computer users no doubt familiar with downloading, storing and playing music files. The creation of small, portable (and cheap) mass storage devices such as i-pods and mp3 players has revolutionized the way we manage and listen to our music and it’s hard to imagine someone who hasn’t at least heard of buying music on-line from sites such as i-tunes.
What may be less well universally understood are the fantastic possibilities home computers present to the amateur musician and that’s what this article sets out to address. Here’s a simple straight forward overview of what’s out there.
There are three main areas where both computer hardware and software are developing at supersonic speed to benefit amateur musicians. Let’s take a look at each in turn:
Education
If you are looking to take up a musical instrument there are an ever increasing range of adult orientated instructional CD-ROMS now on the market which can compliment (or sometimes dispense with) the traditional music teacher. The CD’s are often packed with exciting interactive features for fun and learning. A product I recently reviewed for learning to play the piano allowed you to watch an on-screen keyboard to see exactly what the pianist was playing. The tempo could be lowered to follow the pianist in slow motion, pause and step through the piece note-by-note while learning the music from the on-screen display.
Similar products are available for almost every kind of musical instrument (I actually found one for learning the Didgeridoo!!). There is also a wide choice of interactive software geared to teaching music theory. A simple click on your mouse presents you with hundreds of musical definitions, hundreds of classical clips with matching scores and almost every musical concept and idea graphically explained.
Composition
Again, in the field of composition the power of computers have provided for quite breathtaking advancements which are available to just about anybody. Software capable of bringing your songs to life and creating print-professional sheet music can be purchased for as little as £40 while professional software even allowing you to write music to video can be picked up for under £500. Using virtual keyboards on-screen or an electronic keyboard attached (more on that later) to play music you can watch the score automatically appear along side. Notes on the score can then be dragged up or down to change pitch or duration. You can hear your composition played by almost any musical instrument imaginable or unimaginable using the latest synth' technology then, save it as an mp3 file and e-mail it to the other band members.
Recording
Computers have taken the recording of live music to a new dimension and now programs capable of creating and burning professional quality CD’s are available to anybody from under £600 to, in one exceptional case which I’ll get to later, just £20.
Unlike the two previous categories which involve nothing more complicated than inserting a disc, recording musical instruments on your home computer is more of a challenge. However, you don’t need to be a computer nerd either and the fun to be had makes it a ‘no brainer’!
Firstly, if you play a non-electrical musical instrument you are going to need a microphone. There are two main  types, a dynamic microphone which is basically designed for amplification and is exactly what Tom Jones would use on stage and then there is a condenser microphone which is designed specifically to record sounds. Condenser microphones range in price from around £100 to £1500 for a professional studio model and the rule of thumb is you should buy the best one you can afford as the quality of your recording is only as good as the quality of your microphone.
Next you will need a cable to connect your microphone to your computer. As a condenser microphone requires a power supply you may need what’s called a ‘phantom’ cable. This cable allows the microphone to draw power from the computer and will set you back no more than £15. If you play an electrical instrument then you just run an ordinary ½ inch jack lead from the output socket of your instrument (possibly the headphone socket on some keyboards) to your computer.
We’re not quite home yet. Now we need to be able to plug our microphone cable or jack lead into the computer. To do this we need an ‘interface’. Absolutely nothing to be afraid of here but you do have some choices. An ‘interface’ can be as simple as a short cable with a ½ inch socket for the jack lead or a microphone cable socket (or both) leading to a USB plug which goes into the USB sockets on your computer. In this instance you will be depending on the sound card in your computer and your ordinary computer speakers to hear your instrument played through the computer and to play back what you record.
As a standard computer sound card isn’t really designed for quality recording you can either upgrade it which is beyond the scope of this article or you can buy a more comprehensive interface that will not only provide for a vastly more professional sound but will also give you inputs for all the leads and cables you have and also provide you with output sockets for headphones and or speakers. Cost around £140.
Finally you need the software installed on your computer that will actually allow you to record what you play, modify that sound in an infinite number of ways and then play it back to you. The software will also allow you to burn your recordings to CD. The easiest way to describe this software and what it does is to ask you to visualise a portable multitrack recording studio as it appears in the shop window of your local music store. You’ve seen the many slides and knobs which allow you to control the volume of each track you record independently. There are buttons for adding effects to each track and there are always some buttons like you used to see on old cassette tape players, ‘Play’, ‘Stop’ and ‘Record’ buttons (Transport keys). That will give you a good idea of what you can expect to see on your desk top when you’ve loaded the program. Once you’ve got the hang of recording your instrument you can make several tracks (for different parts) and then mix them altogether adding special effects such as ‘reverb’ or ‘chorus’.
Now for something a little bit special. REAPER is a powerful Windows application for multitrack recording and editing of audio providing a flexible but easy to use interface that is suitable for amateurs and professionals alike. It is free (and very safe) to download and use from the internet as 'unexpiring shareware'. Unbelievably it is less than 3MB! You are invited to trial it for thirty days and if you like it you are asked to pay the creators £20. If you continue to use the software after 30 days without paying it will remain 100% functional in every respect. You will simply be reminded of the fact that you haven't paid at start-up. For this reason it's also often referred to as 'Trustware'.
This is serious kit that compares favorably with all of the commercial software at the top end of the price scale. It’s an absolute must for anyone interested in recording live music. http://www.reaper.fm
You’ll have the new album finished in no time!
Michael Taylor
(Click on the images to jump to the Buyer's Guide)
July 2007 |
