Posted by FatButtLarry 04/23/2001

Beginners: Pentajock can help guide you to create music with your computer, but first, you need to have a few necessities to get started.

1. wave editor

2. samples

3. looping software

Here are some free/trial programs for this.

1.. Sndrec32, Goldwave (screenshot)

2.. readplease2002 (screenshot), Geek-GIrl

3.. FruityLoops, Acid, Ejay

A wave editor allows you to change the length, pitch, volume, left/right pan and echo of a sample. Sndrec32 is a simple wave recorder/editor that is built into Windows. Every operating system has a basic wave editor built in. Goldwave does all this and more with a nice job of converting samples that are not waves into wave format. This is important because all looping sofware works with wave samples as a standard media type.

Pentajock strongly encourages to make your own samples, however, there are many samples available that can get you started without all the hassle. ReadPlease2000 uses Microsoft's voice generator to create your own computerized voice. Geek-Girl offers a listing of free samples/loops from various web pages

Pentajock primarily uses FruityLoops for our looping software. FruityLoops started as a machine, and over time was manipulated into award winning sofware. The basics of it are simple, but it has hundreds of features that allow it to be used by both beginners and advanced users. Ejay is distributed by Voyetra™, a well respected name in multimedia applications. It simplifies music creation to a near "building block" difficulty. An advanced user will be able to create a full length track in about 5 minutes, but pre-made melodies and samples may cause a lack of personal expression. SonicFoundry's Acid is probably the most well know name in looping. The software allows direct wave editing within the looping software and hundreds of dynamic features. Some may find this very easy to use, although this is a very advanced looping program.

The following are some more technical aspects of music making: Operating System (OS), Computer Speed (Mhz), System Memory (RAM), Recording Preferences (Frequency).

OperatingSystem: Windows™ and MacOS™ are the operating systems of choice for music editing. However, Linux™ does have many clones of popular looping sofware. Visit this site for a more in-depth approach on the differences between operating systems.

Computer Speed: The slowest computer can be used as a tool for music creation, however, newer sofware is more and more processor/memory dependent.

• Pentajock recommends no slower than 900Mhz for music creating, however most of our tracks have been accomplished using a 500Mhz computer.

System Memory: Often refered to as RAM, your system memory will keep your hard drive from working when you are editing any large multimedia files, or multi-tasking between programs. You will have best results using 128 MB of RAM or more. See your software requirements on the box, or visit the respective web site.

• Pricewatch.com is famous for their "street prices" on system memory and other computer related hardware. Orders can be made via telephone or over the internet.

Recording Prefs: Many sound cards have a "line in". You can alter your wave editor's preferences so that any devices attached to the line in can be recorded instead of your microphone. This becomes useful when sampling sounds from devices that cannot be simulated by your computer.

Frequency: The human ear can recognize frequencies from about 20Hz-20Khz. Therefore, samples should be edited using at least 40Khz sampling rate. The standard is 44Khz (CD quality). more on frequency

• A good set of headphones seems to do the best job covering all frequencies for recording and editing purposes.