Composing Digital Music For Dummies

Russell Dean Vines

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780470170953
• eBook ISBN: 9781118068359
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Yes, you can turn those great melodies and smokin' grooves in your head into stunning digital music! And you don't have to be a musical genius or a computer geek to do it! Composing Digital Music For Dummies shows you everything you need to know to compose great tunes using the hottest digital tools.

This friendly, plain-English guide explains all of the digital music basics, including how to work with the latest hardware and software, use templates from the companion CD-ROM to make a quick start, build your first tune, and save it in different formats. You'll also find out how to add instruments to your score, set tempos and keys, create chord symbols and show fretboards, add lyrics to your tune, and much more. Discover how to:

• Write and arrange digital music
• Determine what — if any — equipment you need
• Create your own ringtones and mp3s
• Compose with a MIDI controller, or a mouse
• Work with notation software
• Use keyboard shortcuts
• Publish your creations on the Internet
• Build your own tune from scratch
• Extract parts from your score for each instrument

The companion CD-Rom also includes a demo of Sebelius 5, the most popular music notation software, as well as audio files for all music examples in the book. With this step-by-step guide and your computer, you'll have everything you need to start writing, arranging, and publishing your own digital music — immediately!

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Chapter 1

Introducing Digital Music

In This Chapter

Joining the revolution in digital music

Gearing up: What you need and what you’ll want

Composing your own music

In the early 1980s, a computer program was developed that caused a major shift in the music universe. The way people listen to music changed dramatically. (If you want the history behind this shift, check out the sidebar “A brief history of digital music” in this chapter.) The ways of making and selling music altered almost overnight, and the record companies are still struggling to catch up. Small, independent music composers and producers are creating new sounds and new beats. And the Web is altering forever how people acquire music.

To make the best music, you still need a good ear. Some musical education doesn’t hurt, although you don’t really need much — some basic knowledge of how the notes are written is all you need to get you started (check out Chapter 3 for more on that). But even that is changing — an ever-growing number of producers don’t use scores or produce written music: They arrange beats and digital audio, and combine MIDI tracks (see “What Is Digital Music Anyway?” for more on MIDI) with vocalists into a unique sound and rhythm. You don’t have to read music or have music theory training to make music today. You can make your own pro-quality sounds using the tools from any computer or music store.

In this chapter, I give you an overview of what digital music is, what kind of equipment you need to create it, and how you can get started creating your own music today.

A brief history of digital music

In 1983, the musical earth shifted, and the seismic shockwave is still being felt today. No, it wasn’t the release of Madonna’s first album (although that did happen in 1983). It was the creation of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). MIDI was released into the wild, and the musical Tower of Babel fell.

MIDI meant that different electronic music machines, which in the past could only speak their own language, could now all talk to each other and share information. MIDI meant that people could build electronic musical gear in their garage that would work with any computer.

The shift was the end result of multiple technological advancements that were shaking the culture, all of which combined to create digital music. These technological advancements included:

The invention of the transistor, which made small, portable electronic devices possible

The invention of the personal computer

The development of the Internet, originally begun as ARPANET, the U.S. Department of Defense’s first information-sharing network

All these elements, along with cultural shifts in the United States, made the digital music revolution almost inevitable.

What Is Digital Music Anyway?

Because digital music doesn’t necessarily sound “digital” (that is, all computery and technoid), you probably don’t know how much of the music you hear every day has some connection to the digital revolution. In fact, almost every piece of music you hear has been “digitized” in some way:

When you buy CDs or download MP3s, you’re purchasing music that was encoded digitally, whether the music is of a string quartet or a techno-pop band.

If you’re watching TV or a movie, you’re listening to a musical score that has at least some digital elements and was produced using digital music software and hardware.

Most recording studios use digital hardware and software to record the musicians and singers, and use digital mix-down tools and plug-ins to finish the tracks.

More and more commercial pop and R&B producers are using prepackaged beats (collections of ready-made rhythm section tracks) and then overdubbing them with a live singer or instrumentalists.

A music student who uses Sibelius or Finale to create a score and then print the parts out for their school orchestra is using digital music creation tools.

Auto-Tune

You don’t even need to have a sense of pitch to sing! Auto-Tune is an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies (www.antarestech.com). It’s used to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances and to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes made by the vocalist. Auto-Tune is used as a software plug-in with popular digital audio workstations, such as Pro Tools. (For more on digital audio workstations, or DAWs, check out Chapter 6.)

And the list goes on and on.

And all this digital music is possible because of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), an industry-standard computer program that enables electronic musical instruments (such as synthesizers, computers, and other equipment) to communicate, control, and synchronize with each other. The term MIDI refers to both the type of cables and plugs used to connect the computers and instruments, and to the language those computers and instruments use to talk to each other. Almost every electronic musical instrument on the market today has MIDI connectors and can, therefore, be used with other MIDI instruments and with your computer’s MIDI interface.

A piece of MIDI music can be transferred back and forth between different music-composing software programs made by different vendors and still work, because it’s MIDI-compliant. The MIDI language conveys information and instructions, both from the computer to the instrument and from the instrument to the computer. For example, if you tell your computer that you want your MIDI keyboard to play a note, the computer sends a MIDI message telling the keyboard which note to play. When you tell your computer that you want the keyboard to stop playing that note, the computer sends another message that stops the note from playing. MIDI files contain all the MIDI messages and timing information that are needed to play a song.

Knowing What Equipment to Get

You don’t need much stuff to start composing digital music. But needs and wants are two very different things. In this section, I fill you in on the most basic of equipment you need to get started, and then let you know about some other cool things you’ll probably want. I’ll let you and your credit card work that out.

What you need

Even though you may have wanted to use me as your excuse for running out and buying a whole ton of new equipment ...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part l : So You Want to Compose Digital Music
• Chapter 1: Introducing Digital Music
• Chapter 2: The Digital Music Revolution
• Chapter 3: Music Notation Basics
• Part II : Gearing Up
• Chapter 4: Digital Composing Hardware
• Chapter 5: Getting Cool Gear
• Chapter 6: The World of Music Software
• Part III : The Basics: Building Your First Tune
• Chapter 7: Instant Music: Using the Templates
• Chapter 8: To Live and Burn in L.A.: Output 101
• Chapter 9: Sharing the Love: Internet Publishing
• Part IV : Getting Fancy: Building Your Tune from Scratch
• Chapter 10: What’s the Score? Creating Your Score Paper
• Chapter 11: No-Frills Notes: Basic Note Entry
• Chapter 12: Composing with Your Instrument
• Chapter 13: Keep the Beat: Adding the Drum Part
• Part V : Beyond the Basics: Advanced Composing Tips and Tricks
• Chapter 14: Spice Is Nice: Marking Up Your Score
• Chapter 15: You’re a Real Composer Now
• Chapter 16: Fine-Tuning the Mix: Playback Options
• Part VI : The Part of Tens
• Chapter 17: Ten Digital Music Terms You Should Know
• Chapter 18: Ten (Or So) Composers You Should Know
• Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) Sibelius Tips and Tricks
• Part VII : Appendixes
• Appendix A: Common Instrument Ranges
• Appendix B: About the CD
• : Wiley Publishing, Inc., End-User License Agreement
• : Further Reading