im younger than 16 that wont be a problem. but its look insanely complex....is it as hard as it look?
Yeah, that too. And like Midian said before, it helps to have some background in the area of music and some previous experience with this type of software. But the internet's a vast place; newbies to the scene can get up to speed if they know where to look.
Yes. The eJay products are better for beginners, much simpler but obviously more limited. Still fun for messing about in though. The company kinda died so don't expect anything new to come from them. Edit: this is a nice, round post count for me to go to bed on.
I don't think I have the right background in music...but is there..I dunno...something simpler I can start with...preferably free
Take the time to learn at least one instrument in addition to the engineering side of things - it comes in handy when you need to be able to capture something in real time rather than tediously map it out using samples or midi key-mapping. Piano or guitar are the obvious choices for composing. Either knowing how to play drums or knowing a drummer also helps - sample drums, and even very well mapped out virtual drums are limiting. This is why I advocate recording real musicians and instruments - you are capturing in the moment feel - you can do what you want to the "tape" after its been recorded (add fx, cut it up, etc.) and you won't lose the feel. Recording hardware is becoming reasonable for the everyman too - almost like how the personal type writer revolutionized writing.
I can't really afford a guitar or piano...does that mean I'm screwed? Like will it make things 10 times more difficult? Because I don't have the funds for another instrument...all I know is how to play saxophone(3 years in school band) does that help?
Sax is good as any instrument - an understanding of music before hand is necessary for serious composing. You are not screwed - it is not more difficult to record music any one way so much as different ways allow for different outcomes. Recording real instruments is just as difficult as key mapping but for different reasons - however you have the added benefit of having 100% pure new music and tone to work from. Which samples and virtual instruments both lack (although virtual instruments are almost on par with real recordings at this point in time in terms allowing for feel - lacking only the tactile sound that some samples, and personal recordings have). All I am trying to say is if you end up digging deeper into the theory of composing & record engineering it is necessary to branch out past software and into the physical realm of sound which allows for much more personal expression. As for guitar or piano - if you are really interested save up and buy something beginner range to start learning on. For guitar you can get decent starter packs at 250-300$ - I'm not so sure about starter keyboards though.
I use synth to build things like horn and string arrangements - as well as for requisite background ambience and sometimes up front as an a separate instrument. It is true that they have their place in music - however if I have the option to record real horn/string section/instrument parts into the mix I would take it every time.
I'm not gonna lie, it is pretty complex. But like any program you start at the top and tinker with the basics: Adding an instrument or sample, setting volume, panning and tempo, plunking down notes on the piano roll and seeing how it sounds. Once you get that down you can start considering what it is you want to do with the notes, where you want the song to go, how you want it to sound, what effects you might want to apply (Reverb? Delay? Gates? Overdrive? etc.) and just start messing around. Read manuals, watch video tutorials (there are tons), and experiment, experiment, experiment. You'll pick up on things one at a time, bit by bit, and understand how everything works as you go and be able to incorporate it into your work. The more you learn, the better your sound will be. The eJay products (and similar kin, including Acid) are pretty limited -- they're mainly samplers with some features. It's a good prorgram just to mess around with, but I wouldn't consider them a good introduction to more professional apps like FLStudio because they rely entirely on samples, while sampling is only a very tiny part of FLStudio's overall capabilities. Having said that though, eJay, DJ Studio, Acid, and other such programs are great for just developing your sound. If you've never written music before and don't have the benefit of a conservatory education, these are great places to dip your toes in just to start playing with loops and individual instruments to purely explore your own musical creativity and learn how to construct music in a general sense.
Have any of yall used Renoise? I'm completely uneducated in the music making field but I've messed around with Renoise the most.
It is complex until you've started playing around - I love engineering it is like physically being able to touch and move sound in a virtual space. Mixing being the most important part (fades & pans in particular), and effects being the shades and colours to fill in the blanks. I also believe music theory, composition & arrangement, and audio engineering is 100% learnable by anyone* and you don't need to spend big money on conservatory or college education to learn how even the most complex music works. Of course it would help your credentials with the "powers" in the industry. Danny Elfman is a good example of someone without conservatory education - although he does have good people around him (especially Steve Bartek his usual orchestrator) which helps. *that has an interest in it and time to spend working at it.
Not forgetting the fact that music isn't restricted by rules anyway. There's no real right or wrong as shown by the multitude of different genres we have now. You can have a bunch of off-key notes and random time signature changes and it wouldn't make it wrong, just a different (maybe less popular) genre
