I. Computers:

Professional multi-channel mixing, at least three laps to play. Celeron should be above 1.0G, and the sooner the better. It is best to choose a hard disk with 7200 rpm. Of course, just doing midi or simple two-channel mixing (voice plus accompaniment), a computer running at the second level can do it. It is best to choose the motherboard of intel chipset for music, so it is not easy for software and sound card to be incompatible. The bigger the memory, the better.

2. Sound card:

If you make pure music works and don't record human voices, ordinary multimedia sound cards can also cope like innovation. Modern software sound source technology can output music products through computer operation, which means that no matter what grade of sound card you use, you can make professional music products. Be happy! However, the sound card will still affect the monitoring effect.

If you want to record human voice, the multimedia sound card can't handle it. Fortunately, the price of professional sound cards has dropped again and again, and the cheapest Maya pro is only over 700. Of course, if you want to record more professional vocal effects, not only the sound card is better, but also the microphone and microphone amplifier can't be sloppy. Here's a proposal that will cost more money, but the effect is unambiguous:

1. sound card: Waveterminal 192X made in Korea, nearly 3,000 yuan. Recording and playback support up to 24bit/ 192kHz, which is highly compatible and can run almost all mainstream music software. Digital /midi daughter cards can be added to 200 yuan, and balancing line input is helpful to improve recording quality.

2. Microphone amplifier (microphone front): Why buy a microphone amplifier? Because the microphone of the low-priced sound card is magnified twice. If you want to record warm and transparent sound, you must buy an electron tube, preferably one with compression function. The low-priced candidate is about 23,700 yuan fat2 in Britain. The advantage of precompression is that you can sing with your mouth close to the microphone without worrying about the level overflow during recording. Modern music often uses this singing method. Believe it or not, the handsome girl who sang so hard almost swallowed the microphone.

3. Microphones: Microphones of different manufacturers and brands have their own characteristics. Here, I recommend a few people with good reputation: poor farmers can buy NT2( 1 000 yuan) from Beijing 797 Factory, rich farmers can buy NTK(5700 yuan) from Rhodes, and landlords can buy U87 (about 1 000 yuan).

Three. Others:

Other devices such as MIDI keyboards, monitor speakers or monitor headphones can be purchased according to their own conditions, so I won't go into details here.

Nowadays, the development of computer music software technology is changing with each passing day. Even the software recommended in the book published half a year ago should be seriously accepted. At present, the mainstream working mode of computer music is: main workstation software+effect plug-in+sound source plug-in+sound disk. Let's take a look at some of the most widely used music software:

I. Main workstation software:

1.CubeSX: an epoch-making music production platform produced by Steinberg, Germany, which perfectly integrates midi arrangement and multi-channel mixing, supports sound source and effect plug-ins in vst and dx formats, and can export professional finished music through computer operation (not limited by the quality of sound cards), making it the first choice for personal website construction.

2.Cakewalk Sonar v2.0: the latest product of Cakewalk, an old music software manufacturer. It has powerful midi arrangement and mixing function, supports dx format sound source and effect plug-in, and its function is greatly improved compared with Cakewalk series. However, it is much worse than CubeSX because it does not support the plug-in of sound source and effect equipment in vst format. Unless you have a soft spot for Cakewalk's products, CubeSX is recommended.

3. Reason 2.5: The powerful music production software platform produced by Propellerhead Company in Sweden, including electronic synthesizer, sampler, drum set, effect device and sequencer, is especially suitable for dance music production; It is not only equipped with Reason Factory Sound Bank CD, but also equipped with orchestral sound disc or master sound library CD for NN-XT advanced sampler.

4.Cakewalk pro v9.03: In a word, it is out of date. However, for many veterans who are used to cakewalk, it is very convenient to edit midi with it. You can use it to complete midi arrangement first, and then import the completed midi file into CubeSX for mixing.

5.Samplitute 7.02: Multi-channel mixing software with extremely powerful functions, but without midi editing function, suitable for music studios specializing in mixing.

6. Cool Edit 2.0: another multi-channel mixing software, because it does not support real-time effect processing, it is very troublesome to use and is not recommended. But because the operation is relatively simple, it is suitable for novices.

2. Effect plug-in: Beautifying the effects of human voice and music, such as equalization, compression, reverberation, etc., is a very important work, which is directly related to the success or failure of the work. However, the expensive cost of purchasing hardware effect plug-ins is beyond the reach of ordinary personal studios. Fortunately, software effect plug-ins are popular now, and their types and quality are no less than top hardware effects. Let's take a look at what effect plug-ins are necessary for a personal studio:

1.Waves native gold bundle V3.6: Waves products have always been aristocrats in plug-ins, and many famous sound engineers abroad specialize in using Waves products for post-production. This software worth $65,438+0,300 is the golden plug-in collection of WAVES Company, including: the audio track can control the EQ, compression and threshold of four frequency bands at the same time, And C4 WAVES' patents-4-band compressor, hiss and rattle eliminator, MAXXBASS subwoofer processor, META FLANGER stereo edge effect device, Q 10 ten-level parameter equalization, Renaissance pressure limiting, equalization and reverberation effect, S 1 stereo expansion effect, and SUPER TAP 6-level TAP delay personal studio need more than 20 effects.

2.TC native bundle V3.0: The products produced by TC company can be said to be "top-notch" in both hardware and software. This set of effect plug-ins includes reverberation, sound compression, equalization, limitation, filtering and other effects. Its reverberation is the best, and its effect can be compared with the hardware reverberation effect device of nearly 10 thousand yuan.

3. Ultrafunk Sonitus FX V3.0: Ultrafunk's famous effector package contains many necessary effectors, which are not only of excellent quality, but also occupy little system resources and are widely used.

4.Antares microphone modeler: A famous microphone simulation plug-in produced by Antares, which can simulate various famous brand microphones including U87. Blessed are friends who have no money to buy famous brand microphones.

3. Audio plug-in: You may have heard that the sound source software of Gigastudio, Gigasampler, Reality and other samplers is of extremely high quality, but the sound source software that works independently has a disadvantage: you have to use the internal mixing function in the sound source software to import midi into the audio file track by track, and then import it into the main workstation software for mixing and synthesis, which is a waste of time. Therefore, the plug-in audio source that can be flexibly called in the main workstation software is gradually replacing the traditional independent audio source software. See how comfortable it is to use the audio plug-in in CubeSX: midi can be converted into audio without splitting the audio track at all, and the arrangement and mixing are all done in the main workstation software. Even midi tracks and audio tracks can add the same effectors, which can easily make musical products with a good sense of integration of musical instruments and sounds.

At present, there are hundreds of professional audio plug-ins, and the sound quality is comparable to that of professional hardware audio sources. Here are some outstanding examples:

1. Audio plug-in similar to sampler, which can read sound formats, such as giga and soundfont:

Commonly used are Kontakt (newly upgraded version called Kompakt) produced by original instruments and Halon produced by Steinberg Company. In contrast, it is more convenient for Kontakt to call giga and soundfont timbres, and it can be used directly without conversion, while Halon can only be used if it is converted into its own timbre format, which will take up more hard disk space.

The sampler audio plug-in must be used with the tone disc. Giga format is the most widely used sound disc at present. Outstanding quality (partial conversion): simulator standard (comprehensive), Akai Phat Phunky (comprehensive), East-West Drum 2 (drum group), Nemesys. Vo 15 1g Grand (piano), PMI Grandioso Steinway D (piano), Sonic Implants Guitar & Bass (guitar and bass), Roland Garritans Orchestra (string), Roland Brass (brass tube), Akai Heart of Asia (folk music) and so on.

2.SampleTank xl Edition: The original price of the sampler plug-in produced by IK Multimedia is $500, including the top timbre exceeding 2.5GB, covering a wide range, from conventional timbre to synthetic timbre. There are more than twenty kinds of effectors.

3. plug soundbox: the professional audio plug-in of ultimate soundbank is very simple to use, but the sound quality is excellent, and it has been rated as 5 stars by KB magazine. It contains six CDs with various timbres of 3.56 GB * * *, namely: keyboard instrument, guitar bass, percussion instrument, hip-hop timbre group, synthetic timbre and GM timbre complete works.

4. Virtual guitarist (virtual guitarist, electric guitarist): a plug-in for guitar harmony and playing sound source, which can be used to make very realistic guitar sound.

BPM-Studio: Dual CD mode mixing software, which not only perfectly simulates the operation of disc playing and mixing, but also can add special effects. This is a good mixed simulation software. The fly in the ointment is that there is no real monitoring setting, and the mixing can only be controlled by faders without EQ simulation. (equipment simulation)

PCDJ: Similar to BPM-Studio, but the interface is much simpler. What I like very much is that PCDJ can be controlled by keyboard, including playing, CUE and fader control, and even+/-pitch can be used. It has a real feeling of playing a disc, and it is also a relatively good mixing simulation software. (equipment simulation)

FL Studio: a powerful audio production software. I have been using FL Studio 6, and other versions have been used, but I still think 6 is more perfect. You can use this software to make the baseline of rhythm, melody, soundtrack, electronic music, etc. Do whatever you can think of. It's really because it's so powerful that I don't know how to introduce it. You'll know when you use it. Do software, and it is specially designed for dance lovers and DJs. With this software, your dream of composing music can be easily realized.