6.4 - The DAW: Music Production Software-2

To-Do Date: Sat May 22 2021 06:59:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Digital Audio Workstations - how electronic music is made

 I can… 

    • Define specific music vocabulary 
    • Apply the knowledge of said vocabulary in order to compose a simple melody

Garage Band.jpg

 

Musicians, composers, movie sound engineers, and cover singers alike use various digital audio workstations (DAWs) to create content for their blogs, jobs, YouTube, and more. If it's not a live performance being recorded by an ensemble of musicians, there was likely some need for music production software to edit and arrange the recorded and pre-recorded music used for each project.

The composer chooses Loops or sometimes Samples (short outtakes from existing songs) that come in at different times to layer the music up to its final form.

Let's look at some programs the professionals use.

 

 

All of these applications offer some form of recording, editing, and pre-recorded loops to manipulate, but some - like GarageBand and Ableton - also have the option to use loops live, which play continuously until they are changed or removed.

Think of live loops as a form of DJing. Some major DJs actually use these programs.

Free

Paid

Check with your adults if this is something you're into

GarageBand (Apple only; Mac, iPad, and iPhone compatibility)

Audacity

Waveform Free

BandLab (web-based)

BandLab CakeWalk

Soundtrap (web-based)

Logic Pro (Apple only)

Ableton Live

PreSonus Studio One

Mixcraft (Windows only)

Image-Line FL Studio (formerly "FruityLoops")

And many more...

 

French DJ duo Daft Punk is a prime example: they use Ableton Live in many of their performances.

Listen to how they start with one loop, then continuously add and change layers to give the song more depth.