by Angus Macdonald

Created on: January 21, 2007   Last Updated: April 02, 2007

Electronic music is capable of producing and reproducing every sound imaginable. It can be extremely daunting to create with such a range of possibilities. Yet most electronic musicians fail to explore the full range of sounds at their disposal and as a result get bogged down by such burdens as genre. This need not be the case.

The Basics

First off, if you want to create electronic music you will need some equipment or some software. Top of the list will be a sequencer which you will use to control all your other devices and software. This will be your hub for creation, so you need to ensure that you chose something which is both easy to use and capable of controlling as many different devices as possible. These days software sequencers tend to be the norm, being much easier to use than their hardware counterparts. The most popular of these is Cubase, a powerful program which can use nearly every software format in modern production. Cubase is, however, relatively complicated for a beginner to get to grips with. Connectivity to external devices is complicated and the actual sequencing of notes and events within the structure of a track is rather irritating. Ableton Live is a piece of software which has very similar functionality to Cubase when it comes to production, but also has the added bonus of being designed to be used in a live environment. It's also much easier to use. Reason is designed for entry level electronic artists, and is a self contained program which has everything you will need to write music. It has a very straightforward sequencer, two built in synthesizers, 3 drum machine/samplers and a range of effects. Reason is a very good place to start but it can't be used to control other pieces of software or hardware. It can be controlled by other sequencers though, so as your studio expands around it, Reason can still be used rather than discarded.

Once you have your sequencer, you will need some instruments to sequence. Most sequencers come with built in sounds and synthesizers which are a good starting point, but they tend to be very limiting. The benefits of investing in good quality synthesizers and samplers is near infinite for the electronic musician. If you are using software you will need a good quality soundcard also. A good idea is to find a combined soundcard/synthesizer such as the Novation X-Station. This will give your computer based synths an excellent reproduction and can also serve as a standalone Novation synth. It also has a MIDI/USB

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