"my first music studio"

Want to try your hand at writing music on the computer, but no clue how to get started? I'll walk you through some of the basic concepts and discuss specific software and hardware tools you can use. My background comes from developing Temper, a music composition tool (but don't worry, this is the last you'll hear of it; this isn't an ad), so I'm interested in and broadly aware of the scene, although you can ask for detailed advice on particular items at the KVR forums, most notably on hosts, instruments and effects.