Does the mainstream media bore you? Do you have talent that is going to waste because publishers don't recognize your brilliance? Dissenting voices are being more marginalized by the media everyday. There is a solution: do it yourself. DIY media has always been on the cutting edge.

"Many traditional media can look stale in comparison, and one of the first changes I think is noticeable in society is how swiftly online trends are transformed and remanufactured for the mainstream," says Barbelith publisher Tom Coates.

Matt Drudge turned the journalism industry upside down with The Drudge Report and Harry Knowles has turned his self-published e-zine Ain't It Cool News into one of the most vital entertainment sites on the Web. You can do it too.

A Quick and Dirty Guide to DIY Media: Music

You don't need expensive instruments, recording gear, and studio time to make high quality music. Thanks to digital technology, you can download music creation software and distribute your work without the help of a record label. If you've got a computer, chances are you've got all you need to create, record, and/or distribute music. And even if you don't have a computer, there's still an awful lot of work you can do on your own.

Making Music With Your Computer

MOD Tracking

Free professional music composing software is widely available online. One genre of programs, MOD Trackers, are designed for you to make music on your computer without needing external equipment. MOD Tracking programs allow you to use sound files on your computer (called samples) as instruments. These samples can be anything from a recording of a note played on a flute to a recording of your dog barking. Just type in notes and tell the program where to find the samples you want to use. The programs write files called MODs (short for module files) that bundle the notes you typed with the samples you used. Maz Sound Tools and the Shareware Music Machine have a wide variety of MOD trackers and other desktop music editing software.

These files can be played on popular music players like Win Amp or can be converted into MP3s. The Laziest Men on Mars used MOD Plug Tracker to create the music that accompanied the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" video that stormed the Internet. Trax In Space is an online community of musicians who use MOD trackers. You can share your own MODs and download other people's work for free at their site.

To use MOD trackers you need samples to work with. Maz Sound Tools has a one megabyte demo pack of 54 samples available for download. This is great to get started with, but eventually you'll want to make your own samples. There are three ways to do this: record them, copy them from CDs or from other MOD files, or create them with software-based synthesizers.

You can record samples with an assortment of different software. Goldwave is a cheap and popular sample recording/editing program for Windows and Sound Engine is a decent free one. Soundhack is a free sound editing and recording program for Macs. You can use one of these programs and the audio-in port on your soundcard or a computer microphone to capture and edit sounds to use with a tracking program.

Programs such as CDex can pull sounds directly from CDs and most MOD tracking programs have an option to copy samples directly from existing MOD files. Most MOD musicians will allow you to use their samples, but if you're ripping samples from CDs you'll almost certainly run into legal problems. If you edit the samples to the point that they are completely unrecognizable you'll probably be OK, but you have been warned.

You can create your own samples from scratch, alternatively, with a software-based synthesizer. I recommend Orangator and Stomper for Windows. They're both real-time synthesizers and can create professional sounding sounds. You can find more recording and synthesizer programs at Maz Sound Tools and the Shareware Music Machine.

Buzz is a freeware program for Windows that takes the idea of MOD Trackers and expands upon them. Buzz can serve as a tracker and as software-based synthesizer. Its simple interface and high functionality make it a nice all-in-one music-composing program.

Generative Music

Generative music is another interesting approach to desktop music: using mathematical algorithms to work with sound in real time. Brian Eno used a program called Koan to make an entire album called Generative Music 1. Although Koan will set you back about $200, there are plenty of other interesting pieces of generative music software. Fractmus and Musinum are two easy to use fractal music generators. They can create tiny (but low quality) sound files that can be played on almost any computer, output to an external synthesizer, or create notes to be used with a MOD tracker. Phil Thompson made a fractal music album called Organized Chaos with his own software.

Thinks.com has links to fractal music generators for many platforms and the Share Ware Music Machine has a generative music section.

DIY Recording

Want to make your music the old fashioned way? The Internet and your local library are excellent resources for learning how to build guitars, microphones, amps, and probably anything else you need. But most of the time it's cheaper and quicker to rummage through pawnshops and E-Bay to find what you need. Harmony Central has a great guide to used gear with reviews and average prices of a variety of equipment.

Spending time in a recording studio can be rewarding, but it's too expensive for many people. By using a computer you can do your recording yourself. In fact, the MOD tracking and sample recording software described in the MOD Tracking section of this guide can be used to record and mix music. Be warned, if you want to record your music on a computer you will need a lot of hard drive space. You might be better off investing in an 8-track recorder.

Publishing Your Music

Publishing your own CDs has become cheap and easy. Blank CDs cost about 50 cents each if you buy them in bulk and CD burners can be purchased for about $100 now.

If you want someone else to press your CDs for you, or if you're looking to publish an LP, Disc Makers specialize in small print runs.

Check out our Quick and Dirty Guide to DIY Media: Online Publishing for more information about distributing and promoting your music online. Here are a few specific services you may want to look into:

Audiogalaxy, available for Windows and Linux, is one of the best places to promote your music online. It is a very large music only file trading community and is very indy friendly. Unfortunately they're going to be charging for access to their network soon.

The End of Silence

With hard work and talent you can completely by-pass the corporate record world and find your own audience. This Quick and Dirty Guide to DIY Media has been an introduction to all the tools and resources available to musicians today.

The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.