While standalone electronic musical instruments are enough to play electronic music, you will need a computer system if you want to produce electronic music.  A desktop or laptop works well for creating music. If you plan on producing music at a fixed location, you’ll probably want a desktop. If you want to produce music at different locations, such as wherever your band rehearses, you’ll probably want a laptop. Use the operating system you’re most comfortable with. However, you should use the most recent version of Windows or MacOS  that you can get access to. Your system should have a powerful enough CPU and enough memory to easily handle creating music with it. If you don’t know what to look for, a custom-built system designed for audio or video game usage should give you an idea of what kind of specifications to look for. You can make perfectly good electronic music with the sound chip that came with your computer and inexpensive speakers. However, if you can afford it, you should consider one or more of the following upgrades:  Sound card. Using a sound card designed for making electronic music is recommended if you plan to do a lot of external recording.  Studio monitors. These are not computer monitors, but rather loudspeakers designed for studio recording. (“Monitor” in this sense means that the speaker accurately reproduces the source audio with no or minimal distortion.) Lower-cost quality studio monitors include those made by M-Audio and KRK Systems, while higher-end monitors include those made by Focal, Genelec, and Mackie.  Studio-grade headphones. Listening through headphones instead of speakers lets you concentrate on individual parts of your song better, helping you track rhythms and sound levels. Studio headphone manufacturers include Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser. You’ll need the following software applications for making electronic music:  Digital audio workstation (DAW). The DAW is the actual music-making software that enables all your other software components work together to make music. Their interface usually simulates the mixer, track, and transport controls of analog music studios, as well as a waveform display of the recorded sound. Various DAWs include Ableton Live, Cakewalk Sonar, Cubase, FL Studio, Logic Pro (operates in MacOS only), Pro Tools, Reaper, and Reason. There are also freeware DAWs such as Ardour and Zynewave Podium.  Audio editor program. An audio editor program provides greater musical editing capability than that found in DAW software, including the ability to edit samples and to convert your composition to MP3 format. Sound Forge Audio Studio is an example of an inexpensive audio editor, while Audacity is one of many freeware versions available. Virtual Studio Technology (VST) synthesizers/instruments. These are software versions of the synthesizer components of the electronic musical instruments described in the previous section. You install them as plugins into your DAW. Many of these plugins can be found online for free by doing a search for “free soft synths” (free software synthesizers) or “free vsti,” or you can purchase VST synthesizers from providers such as Artvera, H.G. Fortune, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, or reFX. VST effects. These plugins provide musical effects such as reverberation, choral sound, delay, and others. They are available from many of the same providers as VST synthesizer plugins, in either paid or freeware versions. Samples. Samples are snatches of musical sounds, beats, and rhythms you can use to enhance your compositions. They are usually organized in packs specific to a given musical genre (such as blues, jazz, country, rap, or rock) and include both individual sounds and sound loops. Commercial sample packs usually offer their samples royalty-free; you buy the license to use them in your own compositions when you buy the sample pack. Some audio software companies include access to free samples online, and there are third-party sources of both free samples and samples you have to pay for. Although you can compose music on your computer with its keyboard as a “virtual piano keyboard” and your mouse, you’ll likely find it more natural to connect a MIDI controller to your system. As with standalone electronic musical instruments, a keyboard is the most commonly used MIDI controller, but you can use any of the other types of controllers described under “Electronic Musical Instrument Components” that your software supports.
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One-sentence summary -- Choose a computer system with enough power, and make sure you’re familiar with the system. Pair your computer with good sound equipment. Install good music-making software. Consider a MIDI controller.


Lay the salmon on a cutting board skin-down. Run your fingers over the meat to feel for any small, hard lumps. Grasp the ends of the bones with needle-nose pliers or tweezers and pull them out at an angle. Try to pull the bones out at the angle they are pointing. Pulling them straight up will tear the fish. Leave the salmon out so that it reaches room temperature. It’s best to do this as the grill heats. If you plan on marinating your salmon, this is also the perfect time to let the salmon rest meat-side down in the marinade. You could use a basic teriyaki marinade, for example, made with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and brown sugar.
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One-sentence summary -- Pull any pin bones out of the salmon. Let the salmon rest for 20 minutes.


If the air outside of your home is drier than the air inside, open all as many windows and doors as you can to help the air circulate. You should be able to feel whether the air is drier just by stepping outside, but if you’re not sure, you can purchase a humidity gauge from a hardware store. If it’s sunny outside, it’s probably less humid outside than it is in the home. However, you’ll likely need to shut the windows and doors at night, when humidity outside increases. Help your home dry faster by opening up damp closets and cabinets. This will allow the air to circulate more freely and will help lower the overall humidity in the home. Sometimes drawers will swell and will be difficult to remove. If this happens, don’t try to force them — just open the cabinet beneath the drawer. You need air to circulate through your crawl space in order to dry underneath your wood floors. If your crawl space is flooded, use pumps to remove all of the water. You may also want to place a fan in the crawlspace to circulate the air. If your ducts flooded, they’ll be full of dirt and silt which may contain contaminants which are dangerous if you breathe them in. Clean the ducts yourself or hire a professional for a duct cleaning before you turn on your central air unit again. You can use dehumidifiers and window air conditioners to reduce the humidity in the air, especially in closed-in areas. You can use a personal dehumidifier, but for severe flooding, you might have better results by renting commercial dehumidifiers, which remove 3-4 times more water than home models. For best results, close nearby windows and doors when you’re using a dehumidifier. Desiccants are materials which are used to absorb moisture. They’re especially useful when you place them in closets or other areas where air doesn’t circulate, and they can be purchased at hardware, grocery, or drug stores. Examples of desiccants include clay-based cat litter, calcium chloride pellets, and chemical dehumidifier packs used to dry boats.
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One-sentence summary --
Open the windows and doors if the humidity is lower outside. Open closets and cabinets and remove sliding drawers. Pump out the crawl space if you have one and it flooded. Avoid using the central air conditioning if your ducts were under water. Run dehumidifiers if the water has seeped into the wood. Use desiccants to remove moisture from closed-in areas.