This is a short guide taken from a talk/course I give on getting into electronic music production. It is essentially a guide on producing electronic music, using only freely, legally available tools and your computer (which you already have, right?). So basically, everything's free (including the guide). It's based on a curriculum I originally developed for young people who didn't have much money, but who DID have a passion for media and music making. The charity I wrote it for has long since folded (and no, this wasn't my fault ^_^). As a longterm musician who feels I guess…empowered by the ability to produce all the music I want without paying anything or needing anyone else's assistance - I wanted to pass on the ideas and knowledge here so that others could do the same (it might be easier than you think)… And, I've used this freeware setup (i.e a laptop using only this software) to create entire songs in COCKOS Reaper. So it works, if you do. Like most of my guides it's pretty short and is made up of bulletpointed lists, hyperlinks, and signposts to further reading. More killer, less filler. So, as I say, if you've never ever used a sequencer before, and making electronic music without paying ANY money upfront is your thing, this was made for YOU. Enjoy. -Jack

1. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
Zero Cost Electronica
Jack Oughton / Xij
˚,§’˚

2. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
I’m Not Making This Up
These days, if you've got a PC or a Mac, a little hard disk space and an
internet connection you've already got everything you need to produce
music. No, you don't need to buy any more hardware and you don't
need to spend any money on software. None at all!
So, getting started is simple. But, as any dedicated producer will tell you,
simple doesn't always equate to easy. After all, the best tools are wasted
on the inexperienced craftsman, right?
So, no, I can't help you become a production wizard with this guide, but
I can help you down that path, and honour my promise that you can
start without a single penny/cent’s outlay.
And who knows, maybe a fruitful career in the music industry awaits
you, a little later down the line?
Too Much Choice And Too Much
Information
But there's the all-pervasive software problem. Of all the masses of freely
available software, where to begin?
Well, take it from me, as a composer/producer since about 2006, I've
tried a lot of stuff, both on Windows and OSX. I've wasted many
hundreds of hours testing glitchy software, suffering crashes, hard drive
failures and pretty much all that bad stuff technology throws at you.
But I've also found some real diamonds in the rough too.
So, the purpose of this article is to cut through all the noise and give you
a list of things that have stood the test of time and just worked. I intend to
spare you many hours of frustration.
Let's see how we do.

3. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
Thus Simple: Good
And, obviously, with so many styles of music to produce, so many types
of plugins and so many individual ways of working - we're simplifying a
little here for the sake of your convenience (though it sure beats
information overload).
So, let the simplifications begin!
Introducing The DAWs
A 'DAW' (Digital Audio Workstation) is essentially the tool that you use
to take your musical ideas into musical reality. Everything from
recording, to synthesis, to sampling to eventually mixing and mastering,
is handled by your DAW.
Commercial DAWs start at around £30 and go all the way into the four
figure range. True, you aren't going to get £1000s worth of functionality
with a piece of freeware - but you don't necessarily need all of those
features if you are. In fact it might be better not to get stuck on detail and
face the all to prevalent overwhelm which can get in the way of your
actually making music...
COCKOS - Reaper Windows/OSX
First up is COCKOS' Reaper. Reaper comes up as #1 because in terms
of speed and flexibility, I've found nothing to beat it. REAPER isn't
actually free, but COCKOS as super cool guys have made the trial
effectively endless, and priced it quite reasonably for personal use. They
probably find that those who stick with it eventually buy, and for $60 it's
a steal. Try it and see.
MU.LAB - Windows/OSX
I don't have quite so much experience with MU.LAB, spending most of
my time in Reaper, but from what I've seen of it I don't know why it isn't
more popular. Unlike many other freeware DAWs the UI is
sophisticated and the featureset is quite extensive. Considering you pay
nothing, it's a sweet deal.

4. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
Ardour - OSX/Linux
Again, I don't have all that much experience with Ardour either, but it's
got a clean & intuitive interface, excellent plugin compatibility and
awesome functions, such as matrix style plugin patching. Again, sweet
deal for nothing...
The Plugin Suites
An audio plugin, as it's name may suggest, is a piece of software that
'plugs in' to your DAW, expanding your sonic possibilities. For our
intents and purposes they come in two main formats; VST, and AU
(OSX only).
Plugins can do pretty much anything, but simplifying again, we'll divide
them into 3 types…
Synthesisers: Generate (synthesise) a unique sound, which ranges
from obviously digital in nature, to more 'natural' sounding, and
everything in between!
Samplers: Are used like 'loaders/players' for existing sounds (often
banks made up of pre recorded sounds - 'samples', such as a drum kit, or
a brass instrument)
FX/Processing: Are used to take an existing sound and make it sound
different. An example of an FX is reverb, which creates the
psychoacoustic impression of space and can make things sound 'big'.
There are many hundreds, possibly thousands of these plugins available.
To save you time I've grouped them into 'suites', by developer….
Native Instruments - Komplete Players Windows/OSX
Native Instruments are one of the biggest players in the music
production industry. Their Komplete range is an amazing (and expensive)
set of plugins that pretty much covers the bases in synthesis and
sampling . But they also do a little free giveaway in the form of their
Komplete Players, which though just a fraction of the paid offering, are
still incredible.

5. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
u-He's free giveaways Windows/OSX
Triple Cheese, Zoyd, TyrellN6, Zebralette
u-HE are one of my favourite developers, and they make some seriously
incredible and versatile synths. All of their free synths are worth trying
out too, being just as quirky as powerful as their paid offerings (albeit
with a little less functionality)
Blue Cat's Freeware Plugins Pack Windows/OSX
A very non gimmicky and useful set of FX plugins from Blue Cat that
includes most of the studio essentials, equalisation, a flanger, spectral
analysis, and so on...
TAL - Effects Suite Windows/OSX
TAL's free FX are very handy, and include some more unusual offerings
- such as a bitcrusher and a tube saturator, both of which can make your
mixes much harder and edgy.
DSK - Synths Windows
DSK are beyond ridiculously generous in their (pretty awesome) free
plugin offerings. There's way too many to list here, but it runs from
traditional Indian instruments to synths that specialise in making spacey
pads. Shame there's no OSX offerings...
KResearch - Free Series Windows/OSX
KResearch's free series are a generous reverb and delay plugin, stripped
down and based on the incredible KR-Space, one of their commercial
offerings, which combines both reverb and delay.
Illformed - 'Old VST Plugins Pack' Windows
Which contains a bunch of plugins under the FSU category (I'll let you
guess what the acronym stands for) Glitch 1.3, Crusher, Stretch & TapeStop.
As of this date the plugins were no longer supported, but they still work,
and for adding carnage to your mixes, it's hard to beat them.
Soundhack - Freesound Bundle Windows/OSX
Soundhack (who teaches computer science) has some FX offerings that
are slightly more…esoteric than some of the other free FX you might

6. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
find. They're presented in that wonderful minimalist UI that you might
come to love and treasure. As to what they do exactly? It’s easier to try
them and find out.
Smartelectronix Windows/OSX
It's hard to categorise Smartelectronix, being a loose collective of
extremely talented and inventive audio programmers. You don't always
know what you are going to get from them, and it's not all free, but a lot
of the plugins here are worth checking out.
They vary in application from the relative straightforwardness of
Magnus’ Ambiance to the speaker blasting insanity of Bram's CrazyIvan.
These are 5 of my favourite Smartelectronix developers:
http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/
http://mda.smartelectronix.com/
http://bram.smartelectronix.com/
http://dmi.smartelectronix.com/hammer.html
Michael Norris - Soundmagic Spectral OSX
All I can say is that the plugins here, which involve spectral processing of
your sounds, can be used to create some of the weirdest, most far out
noises you can imagine. Limitless, undirected and demented sonic
possibilities.
The Single Plugins
These are same as the above 'bundles' but are individual plugins. Though
not grouped in any convenient collection, these ones were too good to
miss...
Applied Acoustics Systems – Swatches Windows/OSX
AAS are perhaps best known as masters of creating realistic (and far out)
sounding string synths. Think note for note reproductions of Eddie Van
Halen's lead guitar tone or crazy alien violins. Swatches is preset player
that lets you try out the best sounds from all of AAS's synths.

7. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
FXPansion - ORCA Windows/OSX
FXPansion's ORCA is a somewhat stripped down, yet pretty powerful
subtractive synth that was released as a showcase for new &
experimental audio technology. One worth collecting.
YMCK - Magical 8bit Plug Windows/OSX
This is, IMHO, the best plugin to create the 8bit/'chip tunes' sound in
the style of the Nintendo gameboy. I use it regularly and love it.
Sam - CHIP32 Windows/OSX
Sam's CHIP shows it's age a bit now, but is capable of creating similar
kinds of lo-fi sound to the 8 bit plug we mentioned above.
alphakanal - Automat OSX
Automat is a pretty straightforward and useful synth. It's workhorse
capable of all kinds of sounds, from spacious pads to punchy leads. It's a
pretty good 'all rounder'.
Linplug - Free Alpha 3 Windows/OSX
Linplug's Free Alpha is a stripped down version of the Alpha synth. It
also shows its age a little now, but is still capable of some cool noises,
especially with pads.
IK Multimedia - Sampletank FREE Windows/OSX
IK's Sampletank is the smallest of IK's sampler series. Packing 58 free
instruments and half a gig of samples, all sampled in the high quality IK
is known for, it's worth getting your hands on this one.
Camel Audio - Alchemy Player Windows/OSX
Camel Audio's Alchemy is an extremely versatile sampler/synth hybrid.
The full version is incredible, and the freeware 'player' still comes with
over 200 instruments and a gig of samples - I think this one's an essential!
Audio Samples
Here's some places you can find some free samples that are likely in the
Creative Commons or Public Domain.

8. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
This is important if you ever intend to release music and don't want to be
sued too much. :3
 http://www.freesound.org/
 http://sampleswap.org/
 http://www.looperman.com/
 http://free-loops.com/
 http://ibeat.org/
 http://ccmixter.org/view/media/samples/browse
 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sound_samples [this is a torrent]
 http://soundsource.servus.at/
Conclusion
This should be enough to get you started. Hopefully I've landed this
guide somewhere in that sweet spot between too little and too much
information. What do you think?
Contact me if I can be any help and happy music making!
-Jack

9. Zero Cost Electronica v1.0 // Jack Oughton
http://xijmusic.com// https://www.facebook.com/XijMusic //
2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @Xij
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~ Ludwig van Beethoven
About
Jack Oughton, AKA Xij AKA Koukouvaya is a freelance
writer/copywriter, composer/sound designer and digital
artist/photographer from South London who has serious problems
writing biographical information about himself in the third person.
Jack has written for the likes of The Guardian, The Independent and FHM,
and currently spends all day sculpting alien sounds using wavetable
synthesis.
Asides from using and writing about music technology, Jack also
arranges workshop series and one off clinics on music production for a
variety of different organisations. You can contact Jack for more
information
Cover Image Credit: altemark