Hey all, my 13yo son is quite taken with electronic music of the skrillex variety. Well after many years of learning the drums he wants to start making his own electronic music.
The question is: Is there any readily available [preferably free] software that he can use to turn his ideas into sounds?
I have looked at a couple of hardware synths and they seem to cost $700+ and his budget is a bit tight so this is ruled out.
The software Audacity is free, and might be good to start with. I haven’t used it myself, but it seems to be pretty popular.
A midi synthesizer would probably also be needed, you can find them a lot cheaper than 700$, I think. Here is a link I found, about midi synthesizers: Link
Any music store could probably help you find an acceptable cheap syntesizer.
You have a number of options, ranging from free or cheap to very expensive, and a range of options in terms of musical development style.
I’ll throw some ideas to start with…
From a quick listen to some Skrillex music, he is into electronica, with an analogue feel. There are two software approaches to producing this sort of music - sequencers and trackers. Some other terminology - there are some standard formats for software instruments and effects - the most common and useful of these is the VST/VSTi format (or the Audio Unit on Macs). A VST is an effect, the software feeds a sound (from a mic, guitar or recorded loop) into it, and the VST outputs a modified sound (maybe a filter, or reverb, or distortion). You may use an envelope to dynamically modify the parameters of the VST as it processes the sound. A VSTi is a virtual instrument - MIDI data from a keyboard or MIDI loop is fed in, and a sound comes out (analogue synth, sampled piano, electronic bass line from a 303 etc). The famous Autotune effect is a VST. There are many, many free VST/VSTi’s available on the internet, and some are very high quality (but some are crap) - so by choosing a VST capable program, you can have access to all these effects and instruments.
Sequencers are the electronic equivalent of multitrack recorders, and combine MIDI/Audio loops (either recorded or imported) with instrument/effects racks. The entire song is then arranged as an assemblage of loops and live recording. I am guessing that this is how Skrillex works, using software such as Ableton Live, Tracktor, Maschine, Reaktor etc - these are expensive production/performance tools. There are free tools - Anvil Studio, PreSonus Studio One Free. In the cheap but really good category, I really like EnergyXT, and Cockos Reaper is popular, too.
Trackers are somewhat simpler - they are the sorts of tools used to program electronic game music back before computers could play recorded music or midi. Here, the music is entirely defined as notes, arranged in a fixed size grid. Along with the notes are control parameters for the synth that generate the sound. You can arrange the sections of the song to produce your performance. Modern trackers often allow audio loops and MIDI loops to be triggered as part of the performance, and can use VST effects and VSTi instruments. Free trackers include Psycle and Jeskola Buzz.
Visit KVR Audio - they maintain a searchable database of VST hosts (sequencers, trackers and editors) and VST effects/VSTi instruments - you will find what you want on the site. Also, look at getting a copy of Computer Music magazine - cheap, and the cover disk has a basic set of software to get you started, as well as some loops and stuff for your son to play with. And the articles may give him an idea of what he can/should be doing.
Si
What about FruityLoops? Is that still of any use? 
FL Studio is an option, but the cheap editions don’t have piano roll MIDI editing or recording. And it looks to get real expensive real fast.
Si
geez thanks guys, I will show my son this tonight and let you know how we go!
Thanks one and all.
Audacity, while free and useful, won’t be enough to do beat-oriented electronica. As mentioned, you will need a sequencer and some software instruments. The 80s and 90s have come and gone and there is no need whatsoever for hardware synths. At least not for a beginner.
However, some sort of hardware controller can be nice. For beginners, the Korg’s nano series is compact and affordable.
If you own a Mac, you can do surprisingly a lot with Garage Band. Grimes does all her music with it.
At $200, Logic Pro (also Mac only) is hardly free, but it’s a crazy, insane cheap for what you get. It’s far from easy to learn, but for $200 you get about $10,000 worth of excellent software instruments and plug-ins.
On Windows, for about the same price as Logic Pro, there is Cubase Elements, which comes with some good software instruments. (Again, maybe a bit pricey.)
A bit cheaper, around $70, there is Renoise. I have never used it, but it looks like a good software for what your son wants to do.
You’ll possibly need an audio interface. The built-in interfaces on many Windows computers suck to the point of being unusable for making music. There are a lot of choices, at every possible price point, but one possible option would be M-Audio products as they come bundled with Pro Tools. Pro Tools, for quite a while was to recording was Photoshop is to image editing, but its star has faded, and it has always been very poor at sequencing.
Other options:
Sonar X1 Essential at $70.
Acid Music Studio at $55.
If your son wants to use what popular electronica artists like Skrillex, Deadmau5 or Flying Lotus use, then Ableton Live it is. However, at $450 for the basic version, it’s definitely a bit steep! There is a basic version called “Live Intro” that sells for $100 that you might want to check out.
Apparently Skrillex himself uses Ableton for Mac. It runs a bit pricey (the cheapest suite is about 450 USD). So out of your range, but interesting to know if it ever becomes something serious for him.
You should be able to buy an early 90’s Modem from ebay and a blender for under $20. I’ve had success in sounding like Skrillex with these two items.
FWIW, the genre Skrillex is most associated with is called Dubstep, doing some searches on that may help point the way. A quick search of my own seemed to point to something called Dubturbo as a starting point–though it’s entirely possible I was mainly running into a bunch of spamvertisement blogs for it.
Since this is about music, let’s move it over to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
You forgot the Cast Iron Skillet and A Whoopie Cushion…
Make sure to feed him plenty of wa-wa-wa-waffles for breakfast.
I don’t know it’s availability outside the UK but COMPUTER MUSIC magazine has all the software you need on it’s cover dvd every month - for £5.
In a recent edition on dubstep, it gave specific tutorials on how to make skrillex type tracks.
MiM