Take a look at what we have available here at DJB Studios.
Here's a picture of the environment in which we'll be recording. It's a plush place with comfortable seating and everything close and easily accessible. It is a home recording studio, so it's a simple and small setup, but highly effective for its relatively low-budget nature, and more than adequate for all your recording needs. We have a decent selection of instruments here for you to play and record with.
We have Adobe Audition CS6 at our disposal. Many are familiar with the free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) you can download online known as Audacity, and you can think of Audition as Audacity on steroids. It has very flexible multi-track and bussing capabilities, with a multitude of plug-ins available to enhance your music however you see fit.
This is Audacity. You can download this software for free online to use at home. Generally we use Audition because it has greater functionality, but if you're already familiar with Audacity, we do have it available. It may also be a good segue from something more simple more advanced audio production software.
We also have Sony Acid Pro 7.0. Typically we use it as a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file editor. This means you can input each individual note into Acid and have it play back for you, and you can choose what instrument to use for each track you input. You can manually click to input notes, but you can also use our electric keyboard to play notes into the software directly.
This is one of my personal favorites. Synthogy has created software that replicates some of the world's most notable grand pianos with supreme realism. It's as simple as playing on our electric piano or editing in Acid to record with any of three pianos available: the Bösendorfer 290 Imperial Grand, the Steinway D Concert Grand, and the Yamaha C7 Grand, each of which has their own unique, yet beautiful sound. With the ability to tweak the sound resonance, openness of the lid, pedal sounds, and so much more, this is one of the most flexible, yet realistic piano softwares around.
Now for all the other instruments! With the ARIA Player software, this can also be used in conjunction with ACID to manually edit the notes, or you can simply use the keyboard to record with a wide selection of instruments found in orchestras, including stringed instruments, percussion, and more. This is the go-to to supplement your recordings with additional orchestral instrumentation.
Now if you're looking for something on a smaller scale, but arguably just as powerful, Apple's GarageBand for iOS is my top pick for generating tracks for almost any genre. With realistic-sounding strings, percussion, and very flexible synthesizers, this is an excellent choice for your music-making needs.
On top of all our recording softwares, we also have Finale music notation software, so if you want to get all your music down on paper in the form of sheet music, we've got you covered there, too. Whether you want to write simple one or two part pieces or full orchestral scores, Finale is the most powerful music notation software around.