Hello fellow Plimates. Your friendly neighborhood punthe here for some much needed assistance. I have been a huge fan of digital music creation (techno, house, etc.) for some time now and I am now wanting to purchase music creation software. I don't want to spend too much and I prefer not to use shareware or private user-created software due to the lack of warranty and customer service.

I am hoping that there are others oot there that share my love for this style of music and can help me find and decide some software for this type of application.

So, bring on your suggestions, comments and personal experiences with this type of software. It will be greatly appreciated, eh!

EDIT: PC programs, please. You can add MAC programs if you like so that others will know, but I only have a PC at this point. Thanks!

BTW, thanks a bunch Apex for your suggestions of great bands to check oot. I have been searching and downloading uber amounts of techno for the past couple of days.

Don't call it 'techno' unless it's actually techno. At least you're not calling it 'electronica' :p

I'm going to ask my electronic music-making friends for some recommendations for you. I'll get back to you when they get back to me.

Garage band works... not sure if they have a PC version, tho...

Heh?
I almost put electronica as an example. lol
Thanks a bunch! I'll take all the help I can get, eh.

Noted and edited thread.

Here, go explore this.

Check out Finale

I've been playing with this for a couple of years on and off.

I have used FruityLoops 3 for years now. It was $100 when I bought it. I was using a demo version for about a month before. I'm not even that musically inclined, but I can play with it, and make sounds, songs, loops, and sample things for hours in it with just as much fun.

edit: I actually think the reason I got it in the first place was that Trent Reznor used it.

Sorry, All I have is five thick slabs of blue cheese.

DAMN IT!

Well, I'll take what I can get, eh.

I like Mixcraft.

It's the closest thing I've seen to Garageband for the PC. It even lets you use Garageband and Acid loops, and it comes with a nice starter pack of samples.

FruityLoops has my vote.

From A.

"Fruity Loops is an excellent place to start.
Ableton is where he eventually wants to be.
Thats what everyone is using now."

Still waiting for a reply from J. He's online a lot, so it shouldn't take too long.

From my friend J:

The programs I most enjoy using are Ableton Live www. ableton. com and Propellerhead's Reason (www. propellerheads. se) Demo's of both programs are available on those websites.

Ableton Live can manipulate samples, create rhythms, synthesize sounds, use VST's (virtual instruments and effects) and it can record audio and midi.

Reason can manipulate samples, create rhythms, synthesize sound, but cannot record audio or use VST's.

Reason is probably the best option for a beginner who wants to learn how to use real-world equipment because it works similarly to hardware. I use it to create sounds & loops.

Ableton Live is very flexible for creating and performing music; it was designed to allow artists to improvise with easily.

There are lots of other programs out there. The only one I don't recommend is Fruity Loops / FL Studio, but only because I don't personally like the program and I think it keeps beginners from using better software. Still, I know people that do amazing things with ait, so I can't talk too much s**t.

The really important thing isn't programs though. Tell your boy to look into USB MIDI devices--they allow you to control the software as though you were using an instrument. That's really important to get away from the whole computer box mouse clicking frustration problem.

Hope that helps! Lots of love!

PeAcE,
-J. Phoenix
(((( [-_-] ))))