Music Production Tutorial One of the most asked questions that we get is how to create music using your personal computer. There are many ways you can go about achieving this, but the most common is to use a Digital Audio Workstation or (DAW). A DAW is software that records audio tracks and midi tracks. We will talk later about what the difference is between the two and explain how to use them. Some examples of these DAW’s are Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase, Logic, Nuendo, and many others. These pieces of software are priced between $350 to several thousand dollars. They always will need a piece of hardware called an interface. The interface is the physical gear that you connect to your computer so that you can have synthesizers, microphones, guitars and other musical instruments connected. The interface you use is priced from a few hundred dollars to the tens of thousands of dollars depending on your setup. If you are looking for a cheap way to get started we recommend using something like Pro Tools M powered as your software, and the MobilePre USB by M Audio. This will run at about $400. Once you have your computer connected to an Audio Interface and a DAW running, you will be able to create your own music. To start out you will need a synthesizer or Midi controller to use the midi option. What does Midi stand for? It stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. This means that your synthesizer or midi controller which is just a keyboard with no sounds inside of it, can talk to your computer and tell it which notes to play along with other important information. Your computer will then capture the information and play back sounds of whatever instrument you have preset through the interface. This is how you can have all kinds of sounds and instruments captured in your song. When recording audio tracks you will need to use a microphone, guitar, bass etc... And connect them to the back of your interface. Once you connect your instruments you can record vocals, guitar tracks and other sounds. You will need an XLR cable to connect your microphone, and a standard guitar cable to connect your guitar or bass. Now you know what tools you need to start making music and how to get started. This is a very simple tutorial to hopefully get you started. If you have any other questions feel free to contact us at support@keylay.com. Thank you and enjoy creating music. Sweetwater.com is a very useful online music store that focuses on instruments and audio gear. It is a great place to find the gear you’ll need.