Seeking software advice

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Koora the tigeress

New member
My eight year old brother has started expressing an interest in making music
he has been playing around with Incredibox over the past couple days and in my personal opinion i believe he has some talent
i would like to get him a program to encourage him to further develop his interest
something easy for such a young kid to understand, able to import and edit MIDI files while still capable of creating some quality music
i do have a keyboard and synthesia which i use to learn a few songs, but he has no interest in actual instruments
personally i am an illustrator and so i have absolutely no idea where to start (if he expressed an interest in art i would give him some pencils and paper and say "go nuts")

any advice would be greatly appreciated.
~ kind regards
 
FL-Studio
Although it's not the most appreciated DAW, it's good when getting started with music, you can handle the basics pretty fast, but still it's a tool many professionals use.
It's an often discussed topic which workstation to use, and some people don't like FL Studio.
I started using it ~5 years ago and also tried things like logic or ableton, but I still like and use FL Studio.
The thing is - you can find the basic midi controls and options in every DAW....you're actually using third party plugins and samples you import into the workstation, so it really is just a surface.
That's how I think about it, and I can really recommend you to use it caus I had a nice experience getting started with it and using it perpetually.
But that's just MY experience, as I said, there are many DAW's out there, lot of good stuff which is also worth to use.
Maybe take a look at the demos and get a first impression about what he can handle. I also think you should help him getting into the program itself cause of the age, never heard of someone who got into those interfaces being THAT young.
Hope I could help you :)
 
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reaper is a never ending fully featured free demo and a $60 non-commercial license (i.e. you do not use in the day-today action of a business) once you decide to commit to the license

then check out kvr audio for plugins to extend the possibilities
 
Honestly, for an 8-year old I'd recommend a free DAW that is a bit more simple to handle. Check the KVR database.
 
REAPER? FL studio? For an 8 year old? Not very easy to understand at all, so you'd have to do a lot of installing and spend a fairly long time showing him how to find his way about. Also you have the problem of having to learn music theory and trying to find notes which fit, which is a huge step up from incredibox where you only have about 20 loops all in the same key.

Try something like magix music maker or dance ejay, which aren't proper daws and can't do MIDI, but offer a much bigger range of loops than incredibox and also sequencing. Then maybe if he gets on OK with those you could consider moving up to a proper DAW, but small steps.
 
scrapheaper said:
dance ejay
Click to expand...
Pretty much what I did at that age. I agree, check out the eJay products as well, they've gone quite far and you can do a lot with them these days (especially for an 8-year old), at least the last time I checked I got that impression.
 
I think you misunderstand the work ethic of sub-continental Indian children (or any motivated child for that matter) with strong family support

I have offered an opinion based on what I know children are capable of at the gifted end of the spectrum as well as what motivated children are capable of, what are you basing your negative opinions on?
 
No offence meant, but being able to use incredibox does not necessarily indicate that said child is gifted: they may have a talent, but without further information I wouldn't say gifted as incredibox is a fairly basic applet and you can't really tell.
 
really - you are an experienced educator with over 30 years of teaching at all levels (kindergarten to university): talent is the result of working at developing a gift; gift is the innate ability or natural tendency to do well at something (these two terms form the crux of the nurture vs nature argument)
 
woah WOAH! lets not start an argument here
first of all bandcoach i don't exactly understand what you mean by "work ethic of sub-continental Indian children"
we are an australian family with indigenous and european lineage
and while im not calling my brother "gifted" i have seen what he can do with incredibox and i deem it pretty good.

when i was his age and expressing an interest in the arts the materials needed to develop that skill were simple pencils, paints, brushes and paper
but for my brother it is not that simple, he doesn't want any actual instruments and wants to start digitally straight off.
i just want to give him the means to develop and interest into a skill like i had.

im thinking of getting him an acoustic guitar and some lessons first off to learn the basics of music despite his insistence of not wanting an instrument.
and then if he is still interested installing ejay on to his laptop for christmas
 
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Koora the tigeress said:
woah WOAH! lets not start an argument here
first of all bandcoach i don't exactly understand what you mean by "work ethic of sub-continental Indian children"
we are an australian family with indigenous and european lineage
and while im not calling my brother "gifted" i have seen what he can do with incredibox and i deem it pretty good.

when i was his age and expressing an interest in the arts the materials needed to develop that skill were simple pencils, paints, brushes and paper
but for my brother it is not that simple, he doesn't want any actual instruments and wants to start digitally straight off.
i just want to give him the means to develop and interest into a skill like i had.

im thinking of getting him an acoustic guitar and some lessons first off to learn the basics of music despite his insistence of not wanting an instrument.
and then if he is still interested installing ejay on to his laptop for christmas
Click to expand...


Get him a cheap keyboard, teach him basic chords and scales. C major first of all.
Use youtube as much as possible, digital music production has been around for decades, Youtube started around 2005, those 9 years of material offer an invaluble learning resource.
Choosing a DAW, something free or free with a hardware purchase/ a lite version.
Reaper offers great value for money.

FL studio is good value for money, more importantly, it has a user-friendly simplicity making it easy to achieve some good results, in a relitively short time frame, it also has depth and complexed functionality for further on down the line, I would recomend FL studio.
 
Koora the tigeress said:
woah WOAH! lets not start an argument here
first of all bandcoach i don't exactly understand what you mean by "work ethic of sub-continental Indian children"
we are an australian family with indigenous and european lineage
and while im not calling my brother "gifted" i have seen what he can do with incredibox and i deem it pretty good.

when i was his age and expressing an interest in the arts the materials needed to develop that skill were simple pencils, paints, brushes and paper
but for my brother it is not that simple, he doesn't want any actual instruments and wants to start digitally straight off.
i just want to give him the means to develop and interest into a skill like i had.

im thinking of getting him an acoustic guitar and some lessons first off to learn the basics of music despite his insistence of not wanting an instrument.
and then if he is still interested installing ejay on to his laptop for christmas
Click to expand...

I apologise but a user name like "koora the tigress" immediately has me thinking India the country: my own contact is with Indian families living in Sydney: the work ethic is phenomenal and the family support/pressure to work is also quite pronounced......

whereabouts in Australia are you (it's big country so I will not presume to know exactly where you are.....)

I would still recommend a full-fledged daw like reaper or fl simply because that is the path he will eventually follow if he seriously pursues it

getting him lessons right now when he sees no value will be a waste of your money (trust me, I have had many private students whose parents wasted their money in this way no progress in 6 months in spite of me advising them that without engagement on their child's part nothing would happen) - allow him to get to the point where he see the value of lessons and then arrange them
 
bandcoach said:
I apologise but a user name like "koora the tigress" immediately has me thinking India the country: my own contact is with Indian families living in Sydney: the work ethic is phenomenal and the family support/pressure to work is also quite pronounced......

whereabouts in Australia are you (it's big country so I will not presume to know exactly where you are.....)
Click to expand...

i had no problem about you assuming i was of indian descent its just the way you typed it that seemed harsh
i made that username then i was 13 and i've just stuck with it
im on the mid-north coast near Barrington tops

but i do think jumping straight into a full DAW is a bit much, i would not give my 8 year old self a tablet and photoshop that would be too daunting
 
How about this: get both REAPER + the kvr audio plugins and dance ejay.

As they're free, it's not really much of an investment and decide for yourself what's too easy and too hard.
 
Yea I'd have to say any DAW could be as easy or hard as you want it to be all he really needs to know is how to hit record and play I'd get a "more advanced" DAW then he has something he can grow with I seriously have a 8th grade education and I started with dubturbo..in 2 days I was like OK it can't do this, this, and this time to find something else.
 
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