Starting Music Production - Which Software to Choose?

When it comes to music production, software which you can use can be very difficult to pick especially if you'r a beginner in this field. But, as in real life, some tips from experienced users can be combined with your own experimentation and then you can stick to whatever software you find attractive to work with. As with me, i always look for efficiency and ability of the software to easily allow me transpose ideas and create music without too much technical complications. I like it as simple as possible. There is an question which every music composer / producer should ask himself at the beginning of the music career: am I in this for the love of the technology or the love for the music? I think technology and software is here only to help as more easily transpose ideas to music. And who can be sure that Mozzart of Bethowen would not use Ableton, Cubase or similar programs if they were alive these days? Hm, these are questions to think of.


Let's see what music software we have today which can help us in the beginning of music production. We should note a term DAW (Digital audio workstation), that is in the wider sense electronic tool for creating and editing audio. In the term of the software DAW is commonly identified as music sequencer, so programs like Cubase, Nuendo, Ableton, FL Studio, Logic etc. are all different forms of software DAW. Another thing to remember are plugins which can be imported and used as addons inside DAW, and these includes virtual instruments, synthesizers, effects like compressors, EQ, reverb, delay, flanger, phaser and similar. There is slight difference in quality of plugins considering their programming background and we will speak in this blog about working with various types of plugins. It's good to remember although that there is no proven difference in result quality when using different DAW, so they are mostly chosen around preference of every individual user. For me, when recording various instruments Cubase/Nuendo is easiest and most efficient to work with, but when working on arrangements and sequencing FL Studio may seem more appropriate and efficient to me. Ableton Live is great for preparing and performing live sets of music which are consisted of different music pieces/loops. This is all individual and what it counts is final result, which is great or not so great music.

Working on a track in FL Studio 10

Ableton Live 9 / Ableton is great software for doing Live Sessions as you can see in the picture, but also making arrangement and engage in complete music creation

So, for the DAW, from my experience I would recommend this:
- If you are recording more instruments at once, especially if you have a music band, for me the easiest DAW to work with is Cubase/Nuendo.
- If you are individual composer and producer and want to efficiently work on your tracks I would recommend FL Studio, which can greatly offer you an easiest way to transpose your ideas to music, especially because of great and easy to work with Piano Roll, which is more simple and elegant then in other DAW software programs.
- If you want to prepare and perform live sets of your music, use Ableton Live. Ableton is probably the most sophisticated software for performing live and complete music producton but also most advanced in the termas of skills. It takes more time to master and learn, but is definitely worth experimenting with.

Plugins

There are countless great plugins which you can use in the music production. They can be inserted inside DAW software to help you along creation and production, but they can also work standalone without DAW as a host program. All plugins are different in terms of purpose and result quality so I will recommend here which ones are best for general use up to date.

Native Instruments Kontakt / One of the best plugins today, it can host a number of inseted libraries as you can see in the picture. On the left there are different libraries which all have different pressets. This is the plugin with most realistic virtual sounds which can be heard from the computer. There are libraries like packs of orchestral instruments, classic pianos, movie strings, and there is also great Factory Library which gives great variety of pressets for composing all types of music. It can also work as a standalone withou DAW program as a host.

Nexus is great VST plugin for using in production of mostly electronic music genres. 

Miroslav Philharmonik is great for those movie soundtrack comsposers, it has a plently of orchestral samples, including Violinas, Brasses, Choirs, Orchestral percussions and various elements.

Minimoog Arturia is VST emulation of classic Minimoog Synth, and it is a really good one, one of the greatest synth emulations, so i would recommend this plugin to all interested in serious beautiful electronic sounds.

These are some plugins that I instantly recommend but there is also a plently of other great ones. Remember that all these plugins need a correct EQ-ing and compression to nicely suit in the mixes when producing music. We will speak about these things in the next posts in this blog.