Your Free Open Source Music Studio

A perk as an instructor is to be able to review books related to the curriculum. A book I received recently, “Your Free Open Source Music Studio” by G.W. Childs is a book I wish I had several years ago.
When I made the switch from hardware to a software based recording set-up, it took a bit of research, time, money, trial and error to find proper resources. This book lists quality sources that are free or very low cost.

This the same author that wrote several other good audio books including “Creating Music and Sound for Games”; a text that is used by the Berklee music online program- http://www.berkleemusic.com/school/course/introduction-to-game-audio?tab=8777020&program=music%5fproduction . Both books are great!

These days a computer with the right software has all the capabilities of a professional recording studio.Check out the books. Try Amazon or Bookfinder.com for the best pricing.

So as not to steal it’s thunder, here are two resources not mentioned in the book. For FruityLoops lovers check out LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio) - http://lmms.sourceforge.net/ .

This software is free, works on Windows and Linux and work very similar to the FruityLoop music program.

Also try Acid Xpress - http://www.acidplanet.com/downloads/xpress/ . This is a streamline version of Sony’s Acid music program and it’s free. It allows you to combine loops to make your own music. Once a week on Acid Planet they provide music loops that you can download for free as well. Just click on the free downloads tab.

Enjoy.