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The Only 3 Things You Need To Make Electronic Music
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Jan 3, 2022
++ MUSIC THEORY CHEATSHEET ++ https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/theorycheatsheet/ ✏️ SHOW NOTES ✏️ Creating electronic music is pretty simple, and you only need 3 things to get started. In this video, I walk through what you need to get started making electronic music, as well as the first steps you should take to start improving as an electronic music artist. ⛓️ LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO ⛓️ 🔗 Music Theory Cheatsheet: https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/theorycheatsheet/ 🔗 Audio Gear Guide: https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/gear 🔗 iRig Keys I/O: https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/irigio ⌛TIME STAMPS:⌛ 0:00 - Intro 0:29 - Gear 6:01 - Music Theory Hacks 8:29 - Imitate
View Video Transcript
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So what exactly do you need to start making electronic music
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Well, in this video, I'm going to outline the only three things you really need to get started making music and also basically the next three steps you want to take to start recording and
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progressing in your music career. Hey, I'm Regan Ram with OrpheusAudioAcademy.com
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helping you make better music and grow your fan base online. And I started making electronic
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music almost 10 years ago, which is hard to believe. And I've learned a lot along the way
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And I'm going to share with you the only few things I had when I got started. And it's really
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the only three things that you need to get started making electronic music. So number one is a DAW
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which is a digital audio workstation. It's the software on a computer that you use to record
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and arrange your music. And the good thing is you can get one for free. You can just use GarageBand
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or a lot of the other DAWs have free versions that you can get started with if you are on a PC
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as GarageBand's only for Mac. So just find something for free. That's what I used when I got started
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I used Cubase Elements when I got started and eventually graduated to using Logic Pro
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I've used a couple other DAWs through the years as well, but I've eventually settled on Logic
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But you don't need to pay for a DAW in the beginning because probably a lot of the tools that comes with those, you know, the full versions of
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different DAWs are probably going to be over your head initially in the beginning anyway. So
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it's fine just starting with our free version and learning that before moving on to a pro DAW
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Now, second thing you need is a way to actually hear the music that you are recording. So you need
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a pair of headphones. So you definitely do not need speakers starting out. In fact, I'd highly
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advise against them because your speakers or your monitors are only as good as the room that you are
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listening back to your music in. And likely you don't have the budget if you're just getting
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started to build out a really high level acoustically treated room. And so your speaker
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isn't a bad room. You're still going to be hearing a lot of inaccurate things. You're probably going
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to have standing waves, which is where actually sound waves kind of cancel each other out
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And so you're just not gonna be getting an accurate picture of your music if you're listening through speakers
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in a bad room. So you can get started with just a basic pair of headphones like the Tascam THO2s
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And these are just a really great basic pair of headphones that you can use to get started with
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And they only cost like on Amazon and I have a link to that below And so you can get those and get started really quickly Now the final thing you need if you gonna be making electronic music is a MIDI keyboard of some kind
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And even this is a little bit optional because I don't know if all the other DAWs have this
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but I know Logic has this and I'm sure GarageBand has it as well, but the ability to just use your computer keyboard
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to type in notes. And of course, there's a lot of producers out there
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Deadmau5 comes to mind who actually just draws in everything. See, that's my life right now, because if I could just play it, I'd play it, but I can't, so I have to draw it
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They ask you how you are, and you just have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine. That's one way to make electronic music, but I highly recommend getting a MIDI controller if you're going to be making electronic music
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because that's going to make things a lot easier, even if you can't play an instrument, as I can't actually play an instrument
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but it's still a lot easier actually just having a keyboard in front of you and being able to
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input the notes that you want versus trying to draw them all in. So if you want just a really
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basic MIDI keyboard, you can get the AKM320 as this is a really great just smaller MIDI keyboard
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that you can use to get started. So you got just a little bit more of an octave range to work with
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when you're writing in melodies or chords or whatever. And that's really all you need to make
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electronic music, just those three things. Now that changes if you're wanting to add vocals
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if you're wanting to add vocals, your own vocals, or wanting to record other people to add vocals
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to your tracks, then you're also going to need an audio interface and a microphone. And so if you're
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wanting to pick up an audio interface, then recommend the Focusrite Scarlett Solo. This is a really
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great beginner audio interface and also comes with a lot of great bonus features, including free DAWs
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that you can use like Ableton and Pro Tools, free versions of those
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Again, I'll have a link to that in the description below. And then for a microphone
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I highly recommend getting a large diaphragm condenser microphone, as this is gonna be able to pick up
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a lot more detail of your voice or instruments, and it's a lot more sensitive
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so it's great for a studio environment. And so a great beginner condenser microphone
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you can pick up is the MXL770. That's actually the closest to what I'm using right here
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because this microphone is an MXL, but it's not actually in production anymore. So, and this has been a really great microphone for me
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and I've been using it since pretty much when I got started. That's a really great beginner microphone to pick up as well
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Now, what you also might want to do is picking up an iRig Keys I.O
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As it's a combination MIDI controller and also it has an audio interface built in
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So if you're maybe looking to just start making some tracks with no vocals but you planning on adding vocals the future then instead of picking up the Scarlett interface I would say just get the iRig keys interface as this will kind of set you up so that you can always add in vocals later
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but it also gives you more keys. It's a little bit more of an advanced MIDI controller. So instead
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of getting the separate MIDI controller, separate interface, you can get them with just one tool
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And that's a really great, really great tool as well. So maybe consider picking that up instead
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if you're planning on getting, adding vocals in the future. So if step one to starting making
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electronic music is having the necessary gear, what is step two? Well, you might hear a lot of
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people out there say, well, you have to learn music theory. You have to learn music theory. Actually, no, that's not true. You don't need to learn music theory to make electronic music or
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any kind of music, really. I don't know any music theory and a lot of other producers don't know
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music theory and yet they've been making music for a long time. This is because music theory
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really just describes what's already been written. Really, all you need is your ears and to be able
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to listen to what you're writing and say, hey, does that sound good or does that sound bad? So that said, there's also some like music theory hacks you might want to use to help you create
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music faster. Now, when I got started making electronic music, I didn't know about these hacks
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So I literally just had my MIDI keyboard out in front of me and I just hit random keys until I
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found, hey, this combination of keys sounds good together, and this doesn't sound good, and these
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sound good together. And that's kind of how I started to learn scales. I still don't really know
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scales, but that is a really painful way to learn. So instead, here are some music theory hacks to
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help you get started. So number one is you can use AutoChords.com. This is a really great free tool
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that will give you different chord combinations you can use. So you can see, okay, here are all
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the notes or all the chords in a particular key and that kind of helps you know what to work with
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when you're going to write music. Now I've also put together a music theory hacks cheat sheet that
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you can download below that also does this. It has all the notes in every scale and the different
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chords in each scale. So if you want that really quick cheat sheet with you so when you go to
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write your next song, then be sure to click in the description below to download that as well
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Another cool thing you can do is in your DAW, you can have up your pitch corrector tool or
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your transposer tool or something and have that select the key that you're working in
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and just turn that off so it's not affecting whatever track you have it on. And then that
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will show you all the notes in that scale so that you can see what you're working with when you're
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going to write music And you don have to wonder hey what notes can I play when I writing in my melody or my chords or whatever you working on And that it That really all the music theory you need to know to get started making music All right So that moves us on to the third step to getting started writing electronic music
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And that is stealing. Freeze! I'm hungry. What are you doing? I'm bored
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I don't have all... After all, as Picasso once said, good artists imitate, great artists steal
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Okay, obviously, don't go out there and plagiarize other people. But that said, there are a lot of elements in music that are not copyrighted, right
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So chords, drum progressions, different sounds, right? They can't be copyrighted. Or song, right
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Song structure, song arrangements. so start studying music that you like and what structure are they using how many instruments are
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there in each section how do they transition from one section to another what chords do they use what
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chord progressions are they using and just start breaking down songs that you like and you're going
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to learn a lot faster that way by trying to imitate than trying to just try and create a song from
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scratch so those are kind of my my tips for getting started with making electronic music so number one
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Get the necessary gear and all you really need is a DAW, a MIDI keyboard, and some headphones
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if that's all you're working with is just making electronic tracks starting out
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Then just learn some basic music theory hacks so that you don't get tripped up in trying
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to figure out what notes to play. Now, if you already know music theory, obviously you can skip this step because you already
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know all this stuff. And then finally, just start imitating songs that you like and enjoy and you'll start learning
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a lot faster that way. All right, and so then once you start producing tracks
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the next step is mixing and learning how to actually make your song
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creations commercial qualities. So if you want help with knowing the sequence to go through when mixing so that
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you can finish more songs faster, then be sure to grab my rapid song finishing checklist in the description below
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And this will walk you through step-by-step the process that you need to go
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through to in order to mix and master your track to know that it is finished and ready to be
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released. All right. If you found this video helpful, feel free to drop a like and subscribe
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if you don't want to miss out on any new videos I release on this channel. Otherwise, have an
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awesome day and let me know in the comments below, are you going to start making electronic music? And
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if so, when will you make your first song? All right. Have a great day and I'll see you in a future video
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