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Step 1
Review all the functions you'll need in your recording studio. Even the most basic software, including Sound Forge and Audacity, offers cut and paste capacity where you can move one track or audio blip to another point in the sequence.
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Step 2
Choose software that lets you use a MIDI device. That means you can connect an electronic keyboard, a guitar or other instrument to your computer and record songs and audio samples directly using your recording software.
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Step 3
Control pitch or tempo. Some recording software also functions as a pitch correction and can gloss over off-key notes or imperfections in a vocalist's performance and eliminate the need for retakes.
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Step 4
Mix your recordings with a software system. High-end software, like Cubase, ProTools and Cakewalk, allow you to mix multiple tracks with your desktop workstation instead of relying on a separate mixer. Anything you can do with an analog mixer you can do with software, like bussing and adding sound effects, such as wah-wah and flanger.
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Step 5
Organize sound loops if you want to build a song from various tracks or pull loops or sound effects from a music library. Add samples or sound loops from a song or from effects software like Cakewalk or Sony Media and transfer them to your mixing program to get the sound you want.
