Gallery
Video clips
Music
3D art

Conference hall
Software
Technology
Interests
Other

Useful...
Links
FAQ
Reviews

By now, we have published an old, but still up-to-date article on the simplest way of writing music by standard Windows accessories.

How do you think, what you need for it?

Personal music studio with many complicated devices? NO!

Electronic piano which costs about ten thousand bucks?   NO!

O.K., what should I have? - Will be your question. We think, you already have gotr everything you need for it: PC (if it is possible, not very rare - at least, Pentium MMX), tape recorder, feel of fantasy and a sense of humor. 

So, are you ready? Let's start.

• First of all, you will have to find music samples. Generally speaking, there are the following kinds of samples exist:
  • parts of existing songs/music
  • drums and percussion samples
  • bass samples
  • other instruments
  • sound effects
  • voice / vocal

  To make the music with good sound quality it is better to use hi-end samples (44100 Hz, 16bit, stereo). But in our examples we use samples with low quality because they are more fast in downloading.

  Where you can find samples? There are several ways:

  • The simplest way is to buy CDs with samples for some music software (Magix music maker etc.)
  • If you do not want to spend money, you can look for the samples on the WEB (for instance, in Altavista), but .wav-files are rather "heavy" - so finally you can spend more money for your Internet service searching and downloading such files.
  • You can also grab music samples from your CD using special software like "CD-works" or just with standard Windows Sound Recorder.

   

•  The second essential thing is that until you have not got enough experience, you should forget about specific music software like "Circle Elements" and other. All that you need is Windows Sound Recorder that you can easily find pressing Start button in your Windows 95/98/00 and choosing "Tools/Multimedia"

Let us start with the drums. Choose a file, for example like this, and open it in Sound Recorder. 

Attention: before you will work with the files from this tutorial, you should convert them to PCM format ("File/Save As" in Sound Recorder)

This sample will be your basis. You will not have to do anything with this file - just memorize some numbers: the file is of 11,45 seconds length and there are 8 beats in the file. You will need these numbers later.

Then you need to choose a file with the bass - like this and also open it in Sound Recorder. As you can see, there are two beats in this sample. Two beats should last (remember the numbers?) 11,45/4 = 2,86 seconds. By the way, if the bass sample would be longer or shorter, you can easily stretch it with software like WaveLab or SoundForge, but in our case everything is o.k.

So, you have the drum sample 8 beat long and bass sample 2 beat long. What to do next? It's easy: In the Sound Recorder's window (where the bass sample is located) click "edit/copy", and then click "edit/paste" 3 times. Now you have 8-beat bass sample. Save it.

Now we are ready to mix two samples. You will not believe your eyes when you will see how fast and simple is it. Choose "edit/copy" in the Sound Recorder with the bass sample, and then choose "edit/mix with the buffer" in the window with drum sample (before you should place the marker at the start of the sample). That's all!!! Now, if you did everything right, you should hear a loop like this.

Let's go further. Take two samples of trumpet - first and second. Now mix them with your previous mix of drum and buss, placing the marker where you think the beginning of the trumpet should be. If you understood everything, now you should have a file similar to this.

O.K. If you have learned the basics, you can vow begin to create your own music. If there is something that you have not understood yet - read this article again or ask us.

Wish your a great success,

Alex & Dmitri