How to create a studio with zero budget ($0.00)

[Chris Alpiar]

Hi guys and gals

 

I have been asked recently by two separate members in private messages how they can get their scores realized into audio with zero budget. One person was asking about creating good sounding audio from "Musescore notation program" and another without any notation software, just looking for the cheapest setup possible.

 

So I want to ask you all to contribute to this thread. Please include any ideas at all (that are LEGAL) to acquire and work on music with no budget whatsoever. I know we have had a few threads on freeware sample libraries that Simon and other folks have posted, lets talk about all freeware possibilities, used hardware possibilities, etc.

 

IMO Any composer setup must include the following:

- computer (recommended 64 bit OS, at least 8 gigs ram, at least 2 internal hard drives, but what can people scrape by with and still record)

- DAW (I use full versions of DP, Cubase and Pro Tools, but what are options for folks? I know we had a thread with a freeware DAW at one point. What about the really cheap versions of DAWs? I know Simon uses the lower level Cubase, how is that working for you mate?)

- notation software (many DAWs have some form of notation in them but generally arent as good as sibelius or finale. What are options in notation programs? What are the pluses and minuses involved with going cheap or free?)

- Sample libs (this obviously makes HUGE difference between sounding pretty real and totally fake. I am pretty snooty about it and I dont really have good suggestions for shoestring budget samples. But I remember something else Simon posted not too long ago with a free sample library, Simon you're the man!)

- convolution reverb and other effects/processing (I cant leave my Alti-verb at home, but I know there are freeware solutions, Ray has sent me links several places with freeware plugins that are pretty snazzy)

- MIDI controller/keyboard

- sound card

- speakers (and speaker amps if they are passive speakers)

 

what else? Lets make this the go to thread for zero budget studio ideas. Thanks folks! I know there have been lots of threads with pieces of this, so lets just put it all in one place, please any links, pics, ideas, etc

Current options are:

DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

http://studioone.presonus.com/free/   (this version does not support 3rd party vst)

http://www.reaper.fm/about.php   (relatively inexpensive)

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/cubase_elements_6.html  (entry level)

http://www.apple.com/logicpro/top-features/  (for mac users)

Sample Players:

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-5-...    (some 3rd party libraries will time out)

http://www.uvisoundsource.com/uvi-workstation/article_info.php/arti...

http://www.cakewalk.com/Download/sfz.aspx

Software Synths:

http://www.camelaudio.com/AlchemyPlayer.php 

http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebralette

Sample Libraries:

http://www.embertone.com/freebies/intstrings-lite.php   (kontakt vsti)

http://freemusicsoftware.org/category/free-vst/exotic-instruments (vsti)

http://www.pettinhouse.com/html/download.html  (kontakt vsti)

http://rekkerd.org/freebies-for-native-instruments-kontakt/

http://www.hollowsun.com/HS2/freepacks/kontakt.htm

http://www.sampleoddity.com/peculiarpercussion/

http://audiogeneticslab.com/instruments/free/magnus-chord-organ

http://sonimusicae.free.fr/diato-en.html

http://www.embertone.com/freebies/jugfree.php#1[/url]

http://indiginus.com/freedownloads.html

http://indiginus.com/solidstatehome.html

http://samples.wavesfactory.com/?cat=47

http://www.asinusadlyram.com/pocketBlakus/

Audio File Editors:

http://www.wavosaur.com/

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

http://www.music-editor.net/index.html

FX vst:

http://www.voxengo.com/group/free-vst-plugins/

http://antress.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.vstplanet.com/index.htm

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/

[Simon Godden]

Yes Chris, it's true.  I was able to compose quite proficiently on the cheapest (and oldest) version of Cubase.  When I changed computers however, I purchased the then cheapest version of Cubase 5 (essential), and couldn't get to grips with it, so when a special offer came along for me to upgrade to Cubase Artist 6, I went for it, and was sadly unable to use it (and my new EWQLSO package) because of my health.  Now that I am on the mend (and prescribed copious amounts of morphine), I'm finding Artist a great package (although I'm only on the preliminary curve at the moment), and I'm slowly beginning to create more music with Artist and Play.  So watch this space.

[Simon Godden]

The only problem with Reaper is that it doesn't have a score writing facility, which is how I work.

David Prouty said:

I'm glad its working well for you. You made a good choice this should future proof the time you have spent learning. I figure it will eventually kill off many other DAWs, except for Ableton. Off course you will have diehards that wont switch but its user driven development is making it so competitive and a couple more years of break neck pace and it wont be hard to see who is winning the DAW wars. If you look at what upgrades happen in a months time it looks like what most DAWs only manage to change in 2 years time! Sound on Sound magazine hasnt bothered covering new DAWs for something like 9 years except for adding coverage of Reaper 6 months ago, so that's saying something. Plus you can use it free with zero features eliminated as long as you like.

Caj Ilotuuli said:

Thanks David !  I have used REAPER for some time now ( my first experience of a DAW ) and for me it is fantastic what I can do with different sound I´ve recorded . Caj Ilotuuli.

David Prouty said:

REAPER digital audio workstation - This is as close to free in the Pro Category as you will be able to find.

This software is pure gold. My prediction is that it will replace Pro Tools and many other daw's as the preferred professional recording solution in the near future. I can hear many of you saying to yourselves that's a bold statement and I will believe it when I see it. Here is my reasoning,

1. Sound on Sound has decided to run a monthly segment on Reaper because of it's growing popularity.
2. It cost's nothing to start using. You can use it as long as you like without purchasing it and all functionallity exists in the free version. Uncrippled, Unexpiring shareware. When you decide to make money using it then you are asked to purchase the software.
3. The updates happen at a breakneck pace every week or so and they look like what most commercial updates only manage to do in a year.
4. Reaper has a scripting engine that allows you to easily string together your own commands allowing you to attach as many action's as you like to a button. This is a great function for taking the tedious labor out of studio recording and unique to this software.

5. reaper has an engine inbuilt for designing your own plugins. Need a compressor of your own design build it right in Reaper.

6. Route any audio to anything. The routing engine in reaper is powerfull you can virtually send any channel or track anywhere you like.

7. There is a 64bit version and it has a unique plugin handling system so that all of your old 32bit vst plugin's will still work fine on your choice of platform. Windows 7 64bit anyone! Native VST plug-in bridging and firewalling allows you to run REAPER x64 with nearly seamless integration of Win32 plug-ins. Or, on any Windows system, firewall VST plug-ins in their own process space to maximize RAM utilization and protect against plug-in crashes bringing down the whole project. A firewalled Win32 VST plug-in can be configured to use up to 3GB of RAM all for itself, without sharing memory space with REAPER or any other plug-in, on any Windows system.
 8. Comprehensive Midi, with inline editing or sophisticated midi specific midi editor window. Scritable actions for most midi commands.
 9. Time-stretching and pitch-shifting, Zplane Elastique 2 algorithms for its pitch-shifting and time-stretching. 10. Mac or Pc.
11. A huge amount of inbuilt plugin's.
12. One of the best user forum's I have ever seen with a large support community.
13. Auto-tune style pitch correcting built in.

14. Reaper has NINJAM.  NINJAM is a program to allow people to make real music together via the Internet. Every participant can hear every other participant. Each user can also tweak their personal mix to his or her liking. NINJAM is cross-platform, with clients available for Mac OS X and Windows.

 15. Inline Video, comprehensive smpte time-code support.


The list go's on and it would take me along time to describe all the advantages to this software. Mark my words this is the future it is here now and you can download at no cost here.

[David Prouty]

XT Software has announced that energyXT 2.6 Core (a cut-down version of energyXT) will be available as a free download for a limited time (regular price is 29EUR).

The “Core” edition of energyXT including saving and loading of projects as well as most of the advanced feature found in the full version. You even get a discount if you decide to upgrade to the full version to get hundreds of free loops, unlimited tracks and all available features.

energyXT 2.6 Core is available for free download

Grab it while you can here. http://www.energy-xt.com/index.php?id=0201

[Calle Edlund]

Hey everyone.

I create all my songs in a freeware called Open MPT using Audacity and Foobar (which also are free) for miscellaneous stuff outside of Open MPT. You can use VST plugins in Open MPT if you want. VST instruments I'm not so sure. I also heard about another similar program called Buzz which I haven't tested but there you could use VST instruments and VST plugins all for free.

With this program you can compose in the old tracking formats .xm .it .mod and .s3m.

And also about samples. I have right now a sample library of 466 samples including drums, leads, basses, effects and more all taken from other songs that I've gotten for free either from jazz2online.com or modarchive.org.

Cheers

[David Prouty]

Open MPT is a great program so I'm glad somebody had the sense to mention it. Open MPT makes me feel somewhat nostalgic for the good old days and my Commodore Amiga.

Carl Edlund said:

Hey everyone.

I create all my songs in a freeware called Open MPT using Audacity and Foobar (which also are free) for miscellaneous stuff outside of Open MPT. You can use VST plugins in Open MPT if you want. VST instruments I'm not so sure. I also heard about another similar program called Buzz which I haven't tested but there you could use VST instruments and VST plugins all for free.

With this program you can compose in the old tracking formats .xm .it .mod and .s3m.

And also about samples. I have right now a sample library of 466 samples including drums, leads, basses, effects and more all taken from other songs that I've gotten for free either from jazz2online.com or modarchive.org.

Cheers

[Simon Godden]

Does it have notation capabilities?  Not especially for printing, but for composition work.

Carl Edlund said:

Hey everyone.

I create all my songs in a freeware called Open MPT using Audacity and Foobar (which also are free) for miscellaneous stuff outside of Open MPT. You can use VST plugins in Open MPT if you want. VST instruments I'm not so sure. I also heard about another similar program called Buzz which I haven't tested but there you could use VST instruments and VST plugins all for free.

With this program you can compose in the old tracking formats .xm .it .mod and .s3m.

And also about samples. I have right now a sample library of 466 samples including drums, leads, basses, effects and more all taken from other songs that I've gotten for free either from jazz2online.com or modarchive.org.

Cheers

[Calle Edlund]

Uhmm...if you mean like sheet music then no. You can check my video here to see how it looks.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI_E6nq0mvQ&feature=related

Simon Godden said:

Does it have notation capabilities?  Not especially for printing, but for composition work.

Carl Edlund said:

Hey everyone.

I create all my songs in a freeware called Open MPT using Audacity and Foobar (which also are free) for miscellaneous stuff outside of Open MPT. You can use VST plugins in Open MPT if you want. VST instruments I'm not so sure. I also heard about another similar program called Buzz which I haven't tested but there you could use VST instruments and VST plugins all for free.

With this program you can compose in the old tracking formats .xm .it .mod and .s3m.

And also about samples. I have right now a sample library of 466 samples including drums, leads, basses, effects and more all taken from other songs that I've gotten for free either from jazz2online.com or modarchive.org.

Cheers

[Karol Orzeł]

Really like the song btw. It has this "old days" feeling.

[Calle Edlund]

Yes it is!

David Prouty said:

Open MPT is a great program so I'm glad somebody had the sense to mention it. Open MPT makes me feel somewhat nostalgic for the good old days and my Commodore Amiga.

Carl Edlund said:

Hey everyone.

I create all my songs in a freeware called Open MPT using Audacity and Foobar (which also are free) for miscellaneous stuff outside of Open MPT. You can use VST plugins in Open MPT if you want. VST instruments I'm not so sure. I also heard about another similar program called Buzz which I haven't tested but there you could use VST instruments and VST plugins all for free.

With this program you can compose in the old tracking formats .xm .it .mod and .s3m.

And also about samples. I have right now a sample library of 466 samples including drums, leads, basses, effects and more all taken from other songs that I've gotten for free either from jazz2online.com or modarchive.org.

Cheers

[Chris Alpiar]

Cool video Carl! Fun tune and I dug the Bach cadences lol. But I am also glad to see that its not a program I would bother to download. While it is cool and powerful in its own way, it also seems pretty severely limiting for much more than this style of music, kind of sega video game dance tune. You definitely seemed to have maxed it out tho ;-)

[Calle Edlund]

Oh no it can do much more. Listen to my song 'Dark city' and you'll hear. I guess it's not the optimal program for making such music but it can do more than chippy game tunes.

[Calle Edlund]

Yeah I was heavily influenced by some 'old days' tunes when making it.

Karol Orzeł said:

Really like the song btw. It has this "old days" feeling.