There I was, a 19-year-old in his college dorm room, frantically Googling “free music making software” on my terrible student laptop to attempt to create something like my electronic music hero Jon Hopkins. I’d heard of FL Studio, and had used MuseScore for my first attempts at general composition, but I had never heard of the term “DAW”, so my search problems were greatly exacerbated.
This part will be split into the following sections, based upon the type of music software:
The type of program you use will depend on a combination of your workflow preferences as well as your desired outcome—I can’t think of anyone who would prefer to write dubstep in a notation program designed for classically-oriented composers (although you could be the first).
If you’re making game music, you’re most likely looking for something that can export to WAV, OGG, or another uncompressed audio format (ie. the quality hasn’t been reduced to save space, like in an MP3 file). And, in the spirit of this guide, you’ll also be looking for something free.