Best software for teaching home production?

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 5:29 pm

Part of my self-employment scheme is that I will be teaching private lessons through a well-established local lessons studio. They are letting me create 2 new classes - Home Studio Production, and Electronic Music. I am working with the local music store to have them offer a startup bundle for students who want to learn but have no gear yet. I'll be pushing Ableton Live for Electronic Music (of course!), but I am wondering about the Home Studio Production course.

My goal for Home Studio Production is to teach these kids how to use the computer they already have as their production hub for making demos, compositional scratch-pad, etc. These are guitar, bass, drums band kind of kids. I was initially thinking Ableton Live for this as well.

The guy at the music store put together a package based around ProTools M-Powered and the M-Audio MobilePre. I groaned when I saw the M-Audio gear, and I'm not a big fan of ProTools, but the price is much lower for their bundle than they would be able to do with Live, and the music store guy said he ProTools was easier for a beginner than Live, in his experience. Considering these kids are going to be centered around recording and arranging audio, not live performance, VSTi writing, or timestretching, I'm thinking maybe he's right. But I haven't tried ProTools in a few years.

I've heard lots of bad stuff on here about recent M-Audio gear, but not specifically much about the MobilePre. Anyone here used it? Anything better in the same price range?

Any thoughts?

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 5:44 pm

If they bought a Mac in the last couple years then they already have Garageband. So you might want to consider that as one of your options for at least a starting point.

laird · Post by **laird** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 5:45 pm

More people complain about Windows than Linux... doesn't mean we should all switch to Linux.

You know, for an entry-level package, coming from a big store, its hard to beat ProTools LE.
There's really no issue with "will this soundcard work?" or "why does it crash now that I installed XYZ VST?" and PT is still pretty ubiquitous.

My gut says "teach what you are familiar with and enjoy", but if the store is offering the space, they may want to push the products they get the best profit on.

For recording instruments, yes, Pro Tools is easier than Live.
I'd give my left arm to use Pro Tools in the studio I volunteer at teaching audio recording to teens-- that studio uses DP. UGH.

But, most of the kids I see don't come in with knowledge of instruments... they want to add LOOP1 to LOOP2 and build BEAT1... and for these kids I wish to hell we had Live, or even FruityLoops. DP sucks for that (especially for kids), and Pro Tools gets by OK.

I think you'll see both types, kids who can play a song from beginning to end, and the ones who can't and will want to build it from loops. A PT package is good for kid A, but kid B will thrive with Live.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:03 pm

Great, thanks for the comments!

I'm definitely not limiting my teaching to whatever bundle the store offers - I was thinking a lot of kids will have garageband too, so that will work. The bundle is for PC using kids that don't have anything, and are much more interested in recording themselves or their band than incorporating electronic elements.

The music studio I'll be teaching through is not owned by the music store, so I can push whatever I want, although they are giving me a good price on the bundle. I'll definitely be consulting with each student to recommend whatever will be best for their goals.

I'm thinking I'll be teaching the home production class more at first, since there are 400 students there already and I can advertise directly to them. I'm hoping to really have the electronic music take off though. There's next to no one else around here making beats, so my dream is to initiate a wave of production out of my town.

Once kids starting pasing around CDs of their work to their friends, I think it will take off!

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:07 pm

Depends on the kind of production. If you're teaching dance music production, there is little that beats FL Studio. It's cheap and the 16-step pattern helps noobs get the idea REALY fast. Then moving on to a multi-tracker is a natural progression, and for that I'd say Tracktion has one of the best user interfaces with how it shows signal coming in, and being processed out from left to right. Very logical.

gjm · Post by **gjm** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:21 pm

I have been thinking about doing a similar thing with the two schools that I teach guitar and drums at. One school is stacked with mac's so garage band is the obvious starting point. The other school is pc based. Apart from the software, what is the rest of your package shaping up to look like? Same package for both courses? Also, a ways back when I was struggling with getting into Live someboby reccomended recording software that started with R...? Damn, can't think of it, but it was pretty cheap.

gjm · Post by **gjm** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:29 pm

Reaper! $50 non comercial liscence. I'd be interested why you would overlook this as an option.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:35 pm

reaper is also an excellent choice...I'm just thinking about teaching noobs and what types of UI work best. I used to teach an electronic music class in Denver, and FL Studio was the quickest way to get started.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:08 pm

Ahh, I forgot about Reaper. I'll look into that! Price can't be beat. One advantage to ProTools is the included plugins. I will, of course, be teaching them about KVR and that there are plenty of good quality plugins for cheap or free, but it would be nice for them to have a good place to start already.

The guy at the music store also suggest FL Studio...again, price may win the day, but I like the flexiblity and versatility of Live (able to record in, live performance aspect, etc)

So, the home studio production package would be :
ProTools M-Powered, or possibly Reaper
M-Audio MobilePre (still looking around)
They have a selection of mics to pick one from
Cable for the mic
- $449

I would like to have them offer a separate package for electronic music production that would include :
Live or possibly FL Studio (or Reaper?)
Audio interface
MIDI controller (UC-33e? BCR-2000?)
- I'd like to keep it under $500

I'll probably have a few free lessons as part of the package too.
One thing I'll be teaching for home production is ways to get the most for the least money. For example, it is really hard to record a drumset and requires a lot of gear, but the guy setting up the package for me owns a small studio and we are going to work out rates where my students could come to his studio to record the drums, and then take the tracks back to the home studio for mixing and integrating into the rest of the arrangement that is recorded at home.

They have weekly seminars at the school, so I'm going to offer one in 3 weeks on Intro to Home Studio Production. I have a chart with the basic modules and signal flow, and I'll go through each module and what it does, etc. By modules I mean source > audio interface > computer > DAW > speakers > room.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:21 pm

The cheapest license to FL is $49. You should get that for EXTREME NOOBS who have no clue. Get them to understand beat, timing, mechanics. Then move on to $50 Reaper.

Tons of free VST to learn what not. I would seriously NOT offer any package that makes people invest in any one particular platform. We all know how sticky your first package can be, especially when you get comfortable. If you get them in Pro Tools, they'll be totally stuck in that world. I'd say teach techniques as cheaply as possible, and then let them decide on the best DAW for them.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:25 pm

Good point.
Teaching techniques, and not necessarily just a particular software, is the way to go. There's too many options to not go this route. It's not like the guitar teachers tell everyone they gotta go buy an Ibanez to take the class!

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:25 pm

plus with reaper kids could actually get a copy legally.

just a thought but did you think about contacting some companies like ableton, sonar....extc. and tell them you'll be teaching kids and your game plan and all.
they may work something out because you'll be influencing future consumers.
be cool if they gave you a bunch of Light serial numbers to give away to your students.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:28 pm

I think contacting companies is a great idea, but at this point I don't really know how much interest there will be to be able to tell the company how many we're talking about. But really, I shouldn't let that stop me....maybe I'll get the ball rolling now on that...

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:30 pm

Wow, yeah, Reaper is looking like a really good option!
One advantage for me would be that I could cheaply pick up a copy too, to learn on, unlike ProTools, etc.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:34 pm

ethios4 wrote:Wow, yeah, Reaper is looking like a really good option!
One advantage for me would be that I could cheaply pick up a copy too, to learn on, unlike ProTools, etc.

30 day trial, and then just a nag screen...you could learn it for free and then use the licenses of your students to teach it. Just saying that this is a viable no-cost option.