AGDG Newfriend Music Maker's guide

 [Terminology check]

track = a "part" of a song (you know how songs have a bass, a guitar, strings, vocals, and whatnot? Each of those are tracks. Mix them together, and you get a song! Sometimes, this term is interchangeable with the term "song" itself, but that's actually sorta wrong. Most of the time, a song can be a track, but a track alone can't be a song.)

mixing = just another way of saying "putting together tracks"

VST = Virtual Studio Technology (for starters like us, it's basically a catchall term for "instrument packs". It means A LOT more than that obviously, but it can be used as simple as "Hey, what kinda flute VST are you using?", "Oh man, I'm just using some sample packs from Native Instruments' new release, Up your Bassoon", etc.)

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation (the real meat of any amateur music maker. All your mixing, tinkering, practicing, general methods will all be done here. In this guide, we'll be using a cracked copy of Cubase 5. So far, it's the most user-friendly DAW I've used, with the least compromise. In the future, you are very much welcome to change your DAW to one that tailors to your needs and methods.)

Inserts = (also synonymous for "effects". Again, this is a catchall term for things that you put in songs to make it sound different, like a low-pass filter sweep, tremolo, reverb, whatever. It's mainly called "effects", though insert is the proper term for use in digital music makers.)

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Alright, listen up. You wanna stay an idea guy forever, or you want to get a leg up and at least try in something?
I don't know if they have direct guides like this for arts, program, and whatnot, but I'll try my best. Let me get one thing straight first, I'm just as new as you guys are at this. I'm probably going to have mistakes in this guide, but I'm sure a far more experienced audiobro will help fix any errors here.
This guide is just to prove that someone like me, who had no formal music training beyond mandatory grade school curricula, and cannot play a single instrument, got through to finally convert braintunes into a digital score sheet. You guys can probably achieve way more than I possibly can.

-----------------------IMPORTANT ASS MESSAGE THAT YOU REALLY SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO------------------------------
This guide will describe MY own workflow. After this tutorial, and experimenting a little bit on your own, you might have this feeling that you can figure out a much better routine than mine. There is a pretty high chance that you are right. DO NOT force yourself to conform to my workflow if something doesn't feel right. Uninstall the things you installed for this guide and try something else afterwards. Dive into a lot more methods, using many more types of DAWs, of many purposes, tailoring to many needs. There is a reason why nobody can decide on a "best" DAW. It's because there isn't a "best" DAW, and neither is there a "best" method for making music. You ought to try and formulate your own modus operandi. There is seriously no reason for you not to, unless you are comfortable with my OCD inducing workflow that requires precise timing with everything.

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[Requirement check]
OS: I've been using this setup in Windows 7 x64 Home Premium, and got it to work in Windows XP SP3. This guide cannot be executed in Mac or Linux, unless you use a virtualization software or something. Doesn't mean that there isn't a DAW for either of those OS, though. If you managed to install all the shit and in this guide run it stable in Windows 8, please let me know.

Graphic card: Not important

CPU: maybe Core2Duo or above, since it can really use up a lot of processing power when you have a lot of inserts

Monitor: Not important, as far as I'm concerned

Sound card: Sorta important, but not sure by how much. I'm using a laptop, so I can't really comment much on this department. It would be helpful if a /mu/tant can provide some insight on this.

Peripherals: What's important here is a mic, and of slightly lesser importance, headphone/speakers. Look up /g/ for some recommendations on headphones/speakers within your budget. For a mic, in case you don't already own a good one, or your laptop came with shitty ones, I recommend this guide for starters:
http://voiceacting.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=guides&thread=20499&page=1
I myself got a Samson CO1U, and it's pretty damn good for its price. Maybe there are others that are just as good, but for even cheaper? If you're feeling adventurous, go ahead and experiment. If you want to stay safe, then... go with the same mic as me, I guess. From my own experience, it also doubles as a pretty good mic to be used for gaming. Plug-n-play, no software bullshit. But it can get pretty stagnant with everybody using the same mic.

Brain: Need to know at least grade-school knowledge about notes and shit. 1 notes, 1/2 notes, 1/4 notes, whatever. Not strictly important, because it's so damn easy to just learn this in a few minutes through google.

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First things first, the shit you will need. I don't exactly remember where I torrented the stuff, but remember; you're using pirated software. I don't care where your morals stand on this. You could be like me and make all my dumb compositions to be royalty-free, you could just close this guide right now, you could even make money with whatever shitty music you're making. Hell, you can even buy the stuff that's available in this guide through the developers themselves. Anyway, I digress. This is just a disclaimer. Now THIS is the download link.
https://mega.co.nz/#!RdBHHKzC!XuKyVwIm_dGaRu80Fkp3g0tigTYX9aouzDErNwK04cY
The password is : "justlikemakemusic" (without quotes)

The keygen provided in the link might alert most antivirus softwares, but it's definitely a false positive. Keygens are always labelled as virus, because the corporates love to exert 'muh DMCA' down the throats of all antivirus devs.

The link itself contains 2 necessary software that I personally started out with. You're going to need much more than this for more advanced music, but we gotta start small. You can install the Cubase .iso by mounting it on virtual drive, while you can install the Melodyne by using keygen. MAKE SURE TO READ THE .NFO. That's like piracy 101.

Two other important softwares that you're going to need are Audacity, and Musescore. I didn't include them in the file, because you can always download the latest version for free.

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[PROCEDURE]

Most of you guys know what Audacity is for already, but I'll just explain. Using Audacity, we will be recording the .wav of your desired sound piece, whether it's through an instrument, or through your own humming. It's better to cut it so the "soundwaves" fit perfectly so that it starts RIGHT at the zero mark. This is important, so you can have an easier time editing it in Musescore.

Melodyne is a damn good software for audio-to-MIDI because it's simply too easy to use. We'll be using this to to convert the .wav file into a score sheet format.

Musescore will be used to actually note down the music properly using step-time MIDI transcription, since even though Melodyne is good, audio-to-MIDI is never 100% perfect. Remember that getting the pitch right is not as significant as getting the length of the notes right. You're going to spend a lot of time here to get it to the right length, especially if it's your first time brute-forcing through. The biggest issue with Melodyne is that 2 quickly repeating notes of the same pitch/frequency will usually be counted as a giant note (a simple lalalala, where each "la" is 0.25 seconds will instead combine into a single 1 second "laaaa" note). Make sure you learn how to manipulate the notes through copy paste and whatnot, to save a lot of time. Oh, and again, don't worry if your notes don't sound exactly like you pictured in your head. Note length is much more important.

Lastly, the final MIDI piece will be imported into Cubase. With a much less restricted environment, you can manipulate the notes however you please in the piano roll.

Using http://vocaroo.com/i/s0wmrhBzWTM3 as an example, refer to this pic for a full step-by-step pictorial: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ze84o4n9glvhwq/soyouwannamakegamusic.png

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[TITS and TRICKS]


- Obviously, music theory knowledge helps you A LOT. I'm not even joking, unless you have a lifetime's worth of experience listening to great composers, you're not going to manage to do a whole lot.  I don't know much of that, but to those of you dedicated or lucky enough to learn harmonics, cadence, and all that jazz, congrats. You have an outstanding advantage over those who don't. Don't stop contributing.
- I like to standardize my tracks at 120BPM for all my tracks, so I can edit notes easier. Each song will definitely have different BPM, but this is just a relative thing. I'm... not very good at explaining this. In any case, to do this, all I do is keep the time signature in all my Musescore transcriptions at 4/4, and NEVER CHANGE.
- Always, and I mean ALWAYS carry a method to record songs with you. It doesn't have to even be a good quality recording, but just to get the idea there. For example, this is a recording from my shitty Alcatel phone:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0CVKWjyVgvz
When I got home, I immediately recorded a proper .wav file of my humming, and made a sick trumpet lead:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s19CJKo8Qr2X
Just goes to show that just like any other AGDG projects, ideas are essential. Inspiration can strike out of fucking nowhere, and I'm sure many of you can attest to this.
- What I like to do is do download a crapton of MIDIs from vgmusic and just study interesting musical patterns. The thing about the newer Cubase is that you can simply import MIDIs, and it will automatically assign the appropriate instruments for each track in that particular MIDI file. Just try any MIDI of a song that you like, and import it in Cubase. Look at the beautiful string patterns, and learn from them. LEARN.
- I hope you guys are at least pretty good with the language of whatever you installed your DAW in. If you're going to learn how to use something by dicking around with the GUI at first, then you're going to have at least some good grasp over some possibly derivative words.
- To get more umph out of guitars and try to get as close as possible to metal-sounding instruments, you're going to need an amp simulator. I didn't save the installation file for my pirated one, but I use Peavey Revalver MkIII-V. Cubase has one built-in as well, you just have to look under the Effects. Oh, and you can attach this "amp" effect to ANY instrument. It's pretty damn fun.
- Over time, it's probably much better to invest in something like a MIDI keyboard, a more advanced DAW, some amazing VST packs, maybe even some piano lessons. Don't be afraid to try it, but make sure you don't get carried away either. You gotta decide yourself the fine line between doing this for fun, and considering to apply for a job doing vidya compositions.

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[SHAMELESS PLUGS] Want to add/correct something? Want to tell me how much of a useless human being I am compared to the huge and endless cosmos? You can send an email. It's right down there.

https://soundcloud.com/nisbahmumtaz/ or nisbahmumtaz@privacyrequired.com - The guy who made this dumb guide