Heej!

I just made my first tutorial video. It is a test video, shot with a resolution of 1680 x 1048. I would love to hear feedback on it.

The video itself will show the basic set-up things needed to get Sonar 7 running. EWQL (East West Quantum Leap) is used as plug-in. I had some problems with that myself, so I hope this helps. Expect more video's to come!

If you want to keep up to date, you can join the mailing list (on the right)!

The video can be found here:
http://www.nwn-music.com/media/Daw 1.wmv

Enjoy, and all the best!

Erik

In order to compose music there are certain things that you need/come in handy. The only real mental requirement is a sincere motivation, but I will deal with that later.

Writing
The oldest way to "save" your music is to simply write it down on sheet music. For this, you will need a good pencil. The best is a pencil pen (the one where you can push the graphite out), since the tip will always be sharp (0,5 - 0,7 mm is best). You will also need staff paper, which you can buy, or print yourself (try www.blanksheetmusic.net ). Last but not least, you will have to able to read, and write, music on paper. If you have a tune in your head, you will need to know the scale, and the intervals between the notes together with the rhythm in order to write it down properly. As you might guess, it ain't easy (though it is possible with practice).
A positive aspect of writing music directly on paper is that you can always carry some with you. A negative aspect is the difficulty.

Instrument
Most people will need some audible feedback when composing. Not all human beings are born with an inner orchestra playing tunes inside the head. The piano is most classic choice, since it covers the range of all the instruments, and is fairly easy to play. Today, a keyboard is a great choice, because you will be able to hook it up to your computer and record the notes you play.
A guitar is another popular choice, since it covers also a lot of octaves, and a single guitar player can do both melody and harmony. Also, a guitar can do pitch slides (or glissando's), which brings in a whole new dimensions in music.
Other instruments will be great as well, just so you get to know how certain combinations of notes and rhythms sound. Of course, you can use a computer as your instrument as well.

Computer (Hardware)
Today, almost every new computer is powerful enough to create some sonic madness, or load an entire virtual orchestra. Especially the new dual and quad core processors, combined with 2GB or more of RAM and a fast hard drive will do wonders. There is, however, one more crucial aspect. The drivers. For high-quality software like Sonar and Cubase, you will need ASIO drivers. You can download such drivers for your onboard soundcard at www.asio4all.com, but you will still have a latency of around 40ms. This is noticeable when playing in real-time with a keyboard. Professional soundcards (starting at $70 or so) will have near zero latency drivers, plus some of them are rock solid. With Asio4All, you can experience audio glitches and drop-outs. To give you an idea of what is ideal to run a computer based orchestra, here are the specs of my new computer, bought for less than 500 Euro:

Intel Core2quad Q6600 (4 x 2.4 Ghz)
Kingston RAM 2 x 2 GB (4GB total)
Samsung Spinpoint HD 1TB (1000GB)
Asrock 4Core1333-FullHD (motherboard)
OCZ StealthXStream (500Watt)
Cooler Master Elite 340 (case)

Also included are some fans to keep this cool. I already have a soundcard, the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Cheap, but with damn solid drivers.

Computer (Software)
Alright, let's assume you got your hardware figured out. Now you need to decide what you want to run. There are lots of choices, so downloading and trying demo's is the way to go. First, you need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). The DAW is your sequencer, it holds all the information of what to feed to the samplers and synths. It is like your main Photoshop application without the plugins. Here is a list of available DAW's (will be updated):

Ultra High End:
- Pro Tools

High End
- Logic (Mac only, favored by many)
- Cubase (PC and Mac)
- Sonar (PC only, the DAW I use)

Middle End
- FL Studio

Low End
- Reaper

Or, if you like a more classical approach, there are programs that are working with the sheet music look and feel. There are two big brands here, Sibelius and Finale. Finale has products that range from free to expensive, Sibelius comes in one flavor only.

After you have selected your DAW of choice, you need plug-ins to create your sounds. The more high-end DAW's come with included bundles of plug-ins. So, if you for instance have the Sonar Producer Edition package, there are already all of your essential mixing and mastering plug-ins included. But to the best way to emulate an orchestra is by having a sample based orchestra plug-in. These plug-ins use library's full of recorded orchestra samples to give you the most realistic playback of your music possible. However, since each note, each velocity, and each articulations requires its own sample, those libraries can end up huge (>250GB). Here is a list of available virtual orchestra's:

High End
- Vienna Symphonic Orchestra
- East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Platinum / Gold
- Sonic Implants

Middle End
- Garritan Personal Orchestra
- Miroslaw Philharmonik
- East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Silver

Low End
- (will be added later)

Please be aware that the most expensive software will cost well above $1000.

Other Equipment
Now that you have your computer set up properly, it is time to look around for other gear that might speed up your work-flow.
First, the MIDI instruments. These instruments are most of the time keyboards with knobs and sliders, but there are also MIDI guitars, MIDI flutes, MIDI drums etc. In short, MIDI is nothing but information about the notes. It will tell you what pitch, how long, when to start, what velocity etc. So these MIDI instruments won't generate a sound of their own (some do though), but they will transfer the data of what you play to your computer. This is great, since drawing in notes with a mouse can be a pain in the ass. If you have no experience what so ever with instruments, I still recommend you to invest in a cheap MIDI keyboard (around $60). It will help you big time.

Besides MIDI devices, good speakers (or monitors) are crucial when you need to make a mixdown of your track. Computer speakers are manipulating the sound, and what you really want is the most real display of sound possible. No speaker can give that, but high end monitors come really close, and thus are perfect for mixing. A general rule is, that when your music sounds good on monitors, it will sound good on the widest range of audio devices. The price ranges from around $100 a pair to, well, $10.000 or so? I bought my KRK RP5 speakers for $300 each. You should visit your local music store for monitors, since it is crucial to hear them before you buy them. You will like some better than the other.

Conclusion
Alright, so now you know a little of what is on the market. Let's assume you start with nothing and can't play any instruments. I suggest you start by buying a computer with at least a dual core (but it doesn't have to be high-end) and 2GB RAM. Buy it together with a cheap soundcard like the Audiophile 2496. After that, it is time to invest in software. Reaper has a free trial, and there are more free demo's you can try. Of course, you could also download a totally free program, that's up to you. Right now, the sounds won't sound realistic, so play around with the included sounds to learn you way around the software, and make your first tunes. When you think it is time for the next step, I suggest you'd buy a low-end virtual orchestra. This won't break the bank so much, and with virtual orchestra's, the more you have, the better.
If you have any cash left, or just made new, invest in a MIDI controller (buy a MIDI keyboard if you don't play an instrument). One with knobs and sliders would be better than one without.
Only once you have bought all this and have your own little studio, I suggest investing in some decent monitors. There are of no need if you haven't got high quality samples. But once you do, they are crucial.

I hope this helped you in some way or the other. Of course, don't hesitate to ask questions. (This file will be updated with links and prices)

All the best!

Erik

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I think it is important to give you some insight in my plans. Right now, I have lots of ideas, but it will take a lot of time to evolve them from though to content.

You won't find a fully detailed guide to reading sheet music here, but you will find a link to a place where it is already described. With some subjects I might add a bit of my own thoughts, though I will try to avoid the things that are already on the web.

What you will find here are analyzes of music, either my own or not. These will be written with a lot of audio and video examples for support. Besides that, I will also try to give you more insight in the deeper aspects of composition (emotions etc.), and the techniques to create or record to sounds you want.

As stated before, my explanations will contain loads of audio and video examples, since that is something I found lacking in other tutorials. For some of us, especially newcomers, just sheet music won't cut it. Though also sheet music will be a part of the course, but with an attached midi file or something similar so you can open it in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, remember that term :) ).

I wish you all the best!

Erik

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Hi,

My name is Erik van Schaik, and I am an 18-year-old medicine student. I don't consider myself important enough to talk about me in third person.
I have a passion for music and (Eastern) philosophy. If you want to read some of things I'd like to think about, you can click on the word Universe in the header, it will take you there (or just go to nwn-music.com, since it is the main page).

About the music. I loved music my entire life, though in my childhood I didn't want to play an instrument. At the age of 14, my interest in music broadened. I got an urge to create music. At the age of 15 I bought my first instrument, a Yamaha DGX-200 keyboard, which I still use. Only last year I started to take actual lessons in piano, and today I got a mixture of piano and composition lessons from this wicked cool teacher in Groningen (where I live).

For me, music equals emotion. Of course, there is music you can dance to, sing to, etc., but the emotional music is what I consider the purest and most beautiful. Especially the music without real vocals, because I think that instrument alone are perfectly capable of evoking emotions.

I made a thread about the music I love earlier, here's a link .

And what about my musical accomplishments? I am still a beginner having trouble finishing pieces. Now you might wonder why I am writing this online resource. Well, I am not planning to finish this in a week, so as I learn, new chapters will be added. And online there isn't a proper tutorial on composition in my opinion. Plus writing all this down will also benefit me.

I hope you will find some use in this online resource.

Erik

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Eej,

A week or so ago I recorded (with my built-in camera :) ) me playing In Tune Soul by Justin (a.k.a Edgen). I have the original song (it's on the Winter Solitude album), and I watched a little video of him playing the "theme". I managed to get my own version from it, which is basically a simplified version of what Justin is playing on the vid himself. It was one of the first songs I could play on piano, so perfect for beginners.

I made some sheet music, which can be found here. The sheet music is very basic, just the notes. I haven't made any pedal notations either, but I like to play it with lots of pedal. To give you an example of how I play it, here's the video:

I will post more arrangements of songs that have no sheet music in the future. I am working on the song "Humanity" (www.edgen.com/music) now. Humanity is a way more advanced song, so should be fun for the better players amongst us.

All the best, and thanks for reading :).

Erik

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Heeja,

Denny Schneidemesser, a 22-year old genius from Germany just showed me this way-too-wicked track he made. It is located here: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/173680 (with a free download, which everyone should take advantage of! :) ).

Alright, I want to have lunch now, so I keep it short with this one (for now). This track is so awesome because it used the principle of question and answer. The violins give a short question (3 notes long), which is then replied to by the cello's. After a few of those questions the instruments wonderfully merge together to set up for an epic part, right in the middle of the song. After that things quiet down, and the songs ends with some epic chords played by a choir, strings, a harp, and some other instruments.

But it just sounds so epic, so rhythmic, especially due to the great percussion and staccato strings. Just give it a try, I will promise you it won't waste 3 minutes of your life!

All the best,

Erik

Yihaa!

After a few stressy days, I can finally announce that the music section is online! All made possible by the combined efforts of STK (www.randsco.com), Ingo (www.ivion.nl), and a little bit me.

Now I know you are wondering what you can expect here. Well, my original idea was to have a music / philosophy blog, but I found out that those two are hard to mix. So this sub-blog will deal only with music, whether basic composition, orchestration, or the more philosophical aspects. You won't find my rumbling and murmuring about happiness and the meaning of life over here :).

Ow, and of course the names. Why in **** name would you call a philosophical blog "Universe", and a music blog "Silence". Interesting question, with a not so interesting answer. I came up with these names because I wanted something a bit more original than "music" and "philosophy". And silence is needed for music, so I thought that would be appropriate. I thought universe would fit since we are all a part of it, we are all connected with it, we are it. We are the universe. I like to think about that :).

Well, that's enough for now, I hope you enjoy my new musical findings. To say it one more time, I will post things I learned about composition here, dismantle songs I like into midi and sheet music, talk about the tech stuff involved, etc.

Have a good day!
Erik