Why is this important to electronic music? Because the vast majority of music produced since the 1990’s was created inside of a DAW. Let’s explore the basic set up of a DAW using Bandlab.com. If you don’t have a bandlab user account they’re free to create and you can share your music with the world through their platform!
Bandlab.com is a powerful tool for music creation. This browser based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) works just like professional level programs like ProTools, Ableton, and Logic Pro X, but is more user friendly like the Garageband app. The best part about this program is it’s completely free and you can share your music with other Bandlab.com users.
That’s a lot to look at! Let’s break it down piece by piece.
This is your transport bar, it’s located at the top of the screen. There are many actions you can do here:
This is your track list, it’s located to the left of your window. Here you can see all of the tracks in your piece. You can also:
The arrange window shows you the different parts of your piece. Audio information is shown as waveforms. Time moves from left to right so the beginning of your piece is at the left hand side of the screen. The tracks are laid out on top of each other. Each box is a complete unit that you can drag left (backwards), right (forwards), up (track above), and/or down (track below).
You might notice that some of the boxes are shaded lighter than others. The lighter boxes show when a sample is being looped.
(You’ll need a bandlab account to access this material)