Best Music Laptop

Recording Music on a Laptop

How To Make Music On a Laptop

If you’re wondering how to make music on a laptop, there are a few things you should know.  Musicians alike can all agree, recording and making music on your laptop is a very powerful thing.

Whether you are going to be going over to another friends house or in your basement, you will need to have a few things figured out first.  A good thing about making music on your laptop is that you can be all the musical parts and not have to worry about the bass player or drummer not showing up!

Making music on your laptop is easy, but there are 3 things you’ll need to get started, besides a laptop.

Music Production Software

I’m going to assume you have a laptop already, but if you don’t you can read my music laptop guide to determine the best laptop for music production to suit your purposes .  Now you’re going to need a good music production software package that you can use to make music with.  You’re going to need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) What this is, is a program you use to make music, arrange, record and edit.  There are tons of great beats and recording studio software on the market, for a small fee.  Listed below are some great music making programs for your laptop.  Below these I have included a link to a free software.  But that might be limited for what you’re trying to do.  You can give it a try if you like.

Fruity Loops

Apple Logic Pro

Ableton Live

Reason Essentials

Acid Music Studio

Free Music Production Software

Here is a free music production software download.  This software is going to be able to let you record multi-track and tweak some effects.  But the software listed above will allow for way more music making tools.

MIDI Controller

Another great tool you can use is a MIDI Controller.  In short, a MIDI Controller looks like a keyboard and it can act like a keyboard.  MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface – this is music industry terminology that has been around for over 20 years.

With the use of your DAW, you can simulate different sounds and control certain parts of the DAW software.

As you start making your music on the laptop, you use the MIDI Controller to act as parts of an instrument.  Let’s start with making a beat.  You select the drum kit you want to use and push record, the lower part of the keyboard acts like the kick drum and as you go up the hi-hat and snare. Cool, hit loop and there’s your beat.  Now select a bass guitar sound and layer that onto a different track and hit record, play along with the beat, and there you go, the rhythm section is done!  You get the idea, you can look at different midi controllers here  :  MIDI Controllers

Monitors, headphones or studio monitors

You’re going to need someway to hear what you’re doing. And that is an important part of the music making process. Headphones or studio monitors are both great!

If you plan on recording vocals, you will need a pair of headphones. Reason why is, vocals need to be isolated from the other parts of the song to not interfere with mixing and adding effects. Headphones also may be needed if you plan to make music late at night!

Studio monitors are a great addition to your studio. To get the full blown sound of your song, you need to know how it sounds. When mixing the song, use the monitors. Headphones can sound a lot different than they do through normal speakers. Usually the bass is louder in headphones so they may not be in the monitor mix. To see some great Studio Monitors click here to see prices and read reviews.  [Note : we have only selected to show you those with a 4+ star rating]

Now start making music!

Whether you are a DJ or a folk musician looking to make music on your laptop, these tools will help you get the task done.  A laptop, a DAW, a MIDI Controller and some monitors and you’ll be making music.

Still unsure? Feel free to do some more research online.  There are plenty of communities that offer some good advice on recording and making music with a laptop.

This is my advice – get the tools you need as listed above.  Start messing around with the software and feel the instruments out.  The music will naturally happen.  The music making software listed above will help you craft your skill, no doubt.  I wish you all the very best of luck on your musical endeavor!

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