Hello, hive mind.
I would like – largely for my own enjoyment – to play around with creating some electonic-y music.
What I’m looking for is software that will allow me to add sounds recorded elsewhere – probably on a phone to begin with, so low tech. Could be bits of instrumental, found sounds, spoken word etc.
I’d like to be able to:
take sounds and loop them so that they repeat.
easily drop bits in to specific parts
ideally distort the sounds in various ways
build up layers of sound
make different layers more/less prominent
Any recommendations for software that can do the above (and is simple enough for a novice to use)?
Thanks in advance.
I use Reaper which I think is brilliant and will certainly do the job but I believe Ableton is more atuned to electronic/loopy things. If you buy a keyboard or interface there’s usually a free copy in the box, in fact I did have a copy somewhere but I think I chucked it.
I like the look of Reaper. Not extortionate either. Did you find it relatively easy to get up to speed with it?
I’ve been using Reaper for years, and can recommend it. Yes, it’s reasonably easy to understand, and the joy of it is that it can be as simple or complex as you need. There are lots of features that I never use – importing video, producing surround sound, etc., but the features I do use are quite easy to grasp (although sometimes you do need to think “What button do I need to press to do *that*?”).
Also, the Cockos Reaper online forum is a goldmine – whatever problem you encounter, somebody usually has an answer.
It’s actually free though they like you to buy it if you like it. The free one if fully functioning. There’s lots of support available, a very good forum and of course you have pals at the end of a PM!
The thing with Reaper it’s cheap so you can buy any other things you might want such as soft instruments etc. Other options like Logic are much more expensive but have loads of stuff on board, though you may not actually want or need them.
If you want something really simple to play around with on your phone, you could do worse than try Loopify. It’s a very intuitive app that allows you to record through your mic, import music/recordings and also had a library of samples to add as well.
I think it enables to to do all the things you ask in the OP – I’m a novice and I can use it.
It’s no longer supported, but Yello had their own iPhone app, Yellofier, which has a fun visual interface and can turn any noise into music, a decent entry-level way into loops and drum patterns… Audacity isn’t designed to create music, but is free, and has enough features and flexibility to have basic fun with loops and effects
Audacity does everything you ask for here, and it’s free.
Does Audacity support midi? I hardly ever use it other than as an editor.
I don’t know. Probably not? It’s not amongst Lando’s requirements.
You can import and export MIDI files using Audacity just fine.
MIDI playback on a Mac or Linux platform won’t work unless you also have additional softsynth software to hand.
+1 for Reaper
There’s a channel on YouTube called Reapermania that has some excellent tutorials to get you started. I’m still learning it but it’s incredibly powerful. You can actually use it for free for a couple of months.
It doesn’t actually stop working after 3 months. I think it progressively takes longer to load or something fairly benign like that.
It progressively infects your hard drive with the Rickroll virus.
It’s shareware, so after 60 days a “nag screen” appears, but it still works.
Thank you all for your helpful responses – much appreciated!