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/

[David Prouty]

Nice one on that video. Reminds of Purple Motion's stuff from the old Tracker scene.

Carl Edlund said:

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

[David Prouty]

This program isn't limited to chip type music, It depends entirely on what kinds of samples you feed it. If you ever get stuck in a rut and need some inspiration, it cant hurt to go outside of what you normally use. There are things that trackers do that can not be done in your average software. Consider it a secret weapon.

Chris Alpiar said:

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 ;-)

[Chris Alpiar]

Yea Im sure it can be a fun experiment. I havent found myself stuck or with time to really mess around with anything outside of the 3 DAWs I keep up to date (DP, Pro Tools and Cubase) and the 3 notation progs (Finale, Sibelius and Notion) and the samples and sample server platforms and the plugins that are part of my studio. I'll keep it in mind if I ever get time to spend though! But my observations still seem accurate that it lends itself more to electronic oriented music, sort of general MIDI (since Carl mentioned being unsure of being able to use VST instruments) or basebone, non-modern programmed samples (im guessing you can load .wav file samples and then trigger them, but not a library using kontakt 5 or Vienna Ensemble or PLAY?)

[David Prouty]

Yeah I here you. DAW up-keep could bury anyone under a mountain of updates and trouble shooting let alone even starting to make music. Open MPT does however except VST VSTI and the old DirectX plugin formats. One area where trackers excel is in the timing and swing department. Lets say you have 6 tracks that you want to shorten and lengthen at the same time on the fly while still staying locked to your beat, they can do this kind of manipulation. A whole different thing then elastic time. Another interesting thing is manipulating lengths of notes in whole phrase's on different tracks and speeds while keeping everything in sync. These are useful functions for someone looking to expand their musical creativeness. It does however make one feel as if their making music in a spread sheet.

Chris Alpiar said:

Yea Im sure it can be a fun experiment. I havent found myself stuck or with time to really mess around with anything outside of the 3 DAWs I keep up to date (DP, Pro Tools and Cubase) and the 3 notation progs (Finale, Sibelius and Notion) and the samples and sample server platforms and the plugins that are part of my studio. I'll keep it in mind if I ever get time to spend though! But my observations still seem accurate that it lends itself more to electronic oriented music, sort of general MIDI (since Carl mentioned being unsure of being able to use VST instruments) or basebone, non-modern programmed samples (im guessing you can load .wav file samples and then trigger them, but not a library using kontakt 5 or Vienna Ensemble or PLAY?)

[Calle Edlund]

Then there is another tracker called Buzz where you can use VSTinstruments. It's free as well and got a little community around it that's constantly coming with new updates, or so I think, haven't really checked it out just heard about it.

Chris Alpiar said:

Yea Im sure it can be a fun experiment. I havent found myself stuck or with time to really mess around with anything outside of the 3 DAWs I keep up to date (DP, Pro Tools and Cubase) and the 3 notation progs (Finale, Sibelius and Notion) and the samples and sample server platforms and the plugins that are part of my studio. I'll keep it in mind if I ever get time to spend though! But my observations still seem accurate that it lends itself more to electronic oriented music, sort of general MIDI (since Carl mentioned being unsure of being able to use VST instruments) or basebone, non-modern programmed samples (im guessing you can load .wav file samples and then trigger them, but not a library using kontakt 5 or Vienna Ensemble or PLAY?)

[Simon Godden]

Chris, you mention 'Notion'.  Are you talking about Notion 2 or Notion 3?  Because it seems the general consensus is that Notion 2 was good, and Notion 3 isn't.  I have Notion 3, and I don't think much of it.  I'd be interested to know what you think.

Chris Alpiar said:

Yea Im sure it can be a fun experiment. I havent found myself stuck or with time to really mess around with anything outside of the 3 DAWs I keep up to date (DP, Pro Tools and Cubase) and the 3 notation progs (Finale, Sibelius and Notion) and the samples and sample server platforms and the plugins that are part of my studio. I'll keep it in mind if I ever get time to spend though! But my observations still seem accurate that it lends itself more to electronic oriented music, sort of general MIDI (since Carl mentioned being unsure of being able to use VST instruments) or basebone, non-modern programmed samples (im guessing you can load .wav file samples and then trigger them, but not a library using kontakt 5 or Vienna Ensemble or PLAY?)

[Chris Alpiar]

Not much of it, Its the one thing on my list i use the least. It has some great things but its like "fast track notation for musicians" as opposed to in depth professional use. I only work in notation programs when Im making parts so I dont know about its usefulness to compose with it. This is all great info here tho, as this thread IS about doing it for free, so its to be expected these tools will need extra elbow grease to make them do what you need. Thanks everyone for posting!

[Calle Edlund]

Haha actually I named it after and got most of the samples from one of Purple Motion's songs. But his song is like a thousand times better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qFQBcsUOWc

David Prouty said:

Nice one on that video. Reminds of Purple Motion's stuff from the old Tracker scene.

Carl Edlund said:

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

[Sukhpal Darshan]

veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy informativeeeeeeeeeeeeee disscussion !!!!!!!!!!!!! amazing !!!!! God bless the people who r distributing a lot of knowledge to all......... great !!!!!!!!!! :)

[Chris Alpiar]

Yes listen to your uncle Ray! Anyone caught linking to pirated crap will potentially have their account and email banned from Composers Forum. We take this really seriously here

[Chris Alpiar]

Here is a new freebie! Pretty cool little tube-erizer plugin that is free from Sound Toys, click here to get it

https://www.soundtoys.com/sxsw2012/&rc=304-6307-717

[Chris Alpiar]

Hmm I dont get any spam, and I have had their Devil Loc for a while, its quite excellent for freebies