Create your own Basic Music Recording Studio

First you need a MIDI input device

and there are 2 kinds of it

(btw, MIDI is a protocol which sends musical data like, which key was pressed and for how long or with how much velocity and stuffs like that between other MIDI devices or a computer, from the recorded MIDI data it’s possible to re-generate the song and create sheet music of our compositions using software like Notation Player, so in a sense a MIDI file is the source code of our music )

A) Software based MIDI keyboard  ( and it’s free )

software based midi input is easy for recording quick, long hold notes like violin, flute, or to create basic drum patterns (drum patterns can be also created inside a software), so in software method, first we install a virtual device/driver (like MIDIYoke) for midi transfer, then we use a small software piano (like Vanilin Keyboard or VMPK)  to send MIDI input to our DAW’s for recording

B) Hardware MIDI instrument like a Digital Piano/Keyboard

any keyboard/piano with USB MIDI connectivity will do (there’s a MIDI port to USB converter cable available for keyboards without USB port but has MIDI output, but I am not sure of it, I own a basic CASIO CTK 4000 which has USB MIDI )

if u already have a MIDI keyboard, you can skip the next paragraph

CASIO has lot’s of beginner keyboards with USB MIDI connectivity, like CTK 2100 (No touch response keys ) CTK 3000, CTK 4000 (With touch response) (NOTE: CASIO keys can become noisy/loose within few weeks of playing fast songs) Yamaha Models with USB MIDI is little costlier than CASIO like Yamaha PSR 423 ( should be having better quality keys, cause I haven’t found any complaints said in the  e-world, ( if budget is not a problem go for a higher end Keyboards or Synthesizers, as it should last long )

Next comes audio recording software’s

Here’s a list of some good free Digital Audio Workstations (DAW’s)

Details on these software and lot more, check this link

1 ) Sony ACID Xpress 7 ( Free Registration required )

2 ) LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio )

3 ) Reaper ( Not free, but can use full version for as long as you want for small personal works if you are into commercial music production, you have to buy a license )

4 ) F L Studio (Not free, but only disabled feature in demo is saving of project, it still can record, process and render into mp3 or wav

5 ) Synthfont ( Good for quick midi recording playback with Soundfonts or VSTi plugins )

6 ) Pianoteq ( Demo version can be used for quick 2 track MIDI recoding )
(I use it all the time, cause it loads fast :) )

( from above list I prefer Reaper and LMMS )

Now comes the fun part VSTi plugins or Virtual Software Technology Instrument

This is a plug-in/add-on format developed by Steinberg for it’s Cubase DAW, now it’s supported in most of the DAW’s including the free one’s said above (except SONY ? ) With this we can add a new instrument, with different tweaks into the DAW’s and get our recorded MIDI data (or do a Live record ) play with the sound/instrument of our choice and render mp3/wav with that sound, with VSTi plugin we can add drums, guitars, saxophones (virtually any instruments), add synthesizer effects and lot more to our project

(btw, live MIDI recording from the keyboard to DAW’s is the default process, but I prefer recording MIDI data of my piano composition  (first track) in pianoteq and then import it to a DAW, for adding more tracks,  if the project doesn’t contains piano sound, then I record all tracks live into the DAW

VSTi’s  and DAW’s are a vast world to get lost (that’s why I created this site to put every information under one roof ),

finally, DAW’s, VSTi’s, Soundfonts,  getting different virtual  instruments to our tracks etc. is, well, ‘WORK’ and it won’t provide the feel like hitting freely and recording a real guitar or bowing  a violin or playing a grand piano, but creating/recording a song with lots of tracks with virtual instruments is a rewarding job and will make us a better musician by letting us know more about different instruments/techniques and acts as a strong foundation to become a composer/music director  ;)

So these are the steps at a glance

1 ) Record MIDI data from our keyboard/piano (or a virtual MIDI keyboard) either directly into a DAW or as a MIDI for later processing

2)  Process it through any Digital Audio Workstation, add more tracks with different virtual instruments (VSTi)

3) Add Synthesizer effects if needed

4) Render our composition into Mp3 or wav files

and thus be a happy composer all from the comfort of our simple home studio :)

 

Note: This blog post is a rough draft, will add links and more explanations later :)