MIDI composition software
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I use FL Studio with an M-Audio MIDI controller to make loops, then I pull the loops into ACID music studio to make the whole song. It's a great combination. FL studio definitely has a steep learning curve, but it can do amazing things and the price just can't be beat ($99 for the fruity loops edition, which is fantastic). I love to make dnb music and I'm not a musically trained person at all. I tend to do what sounds good to me and I love the stuff I've made with those two pieces of software.
scott_hackett wrote:
for the fruity loops edition
I used to have a friend that used that, but all he made was techno music (not that I'm against the genre, but my goals for this are game development). So, may question is, how does it work, does it sample different tracks of pre-existing music/beats/etcthat you overlay or it allow you a staff (yeah, I'm about to check the sites, but I prefer hearing it from the non-sales pitch perspective)? Not that I'm against it because, well frankly me and blank ledger lines can take forever and a day to get a new measure, so it may be great for me. I'm just wanna make sure I can do more than one genre with it. Thanks for the reply btw.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me?
I use the sequencer built into my piano :rolleyes:
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me?
I use the sequencer built into my piano :rolleyes:
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
Ryan Binns wrote:
I use the sequencer built into my piano
:rolleyes: Seriously though, my desk isn't big enough to lug a full sized keyboard on it, mixed with all the other stuff on it already, it would be a nightmare.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Ryan Binns wrote:
I use the sequencer built into my piano
:rolleyes: Seriously though, my desk isn't big enough to lug a full sized keyboard on it, mixed with all the other stuff on it already, it would be a nightmare.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
I'm not sure whether this would help, but I use a program called Mup[^] to write music. It's a command-line program that takes a text-file music description and converts to Postscript or MIDI. It's designed mainly for sheet music, so it's got no recording or other fancy features, so it's probably not very useful, but it's sheet-music generation quality is superb, and can do pretty much anything anyone would ever need to. However, if you're writing the music and just want to get a MIDI output so you can hear what you're writing, then it's pretty good.
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Hi. I use Midinotate composer[^], and I'm really pleased with it. It's simply great. You can see some of the works[^] I've made with this program, if you want to. The site is in spanish, nevertheless click in the link of "partituras" for seeing the music sheet, or in the MP3 link for... well, downloading the MP3 (the program does not convert MIDI to MP3 though, I used another program for that).
A polar bear is a bear whose coordinates has been changed in terms of sine and cosine. Personal Site
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I'm not sure whether this would help, but I use a program called Mup[^] to write music. It's a command-line program that takes a text-file music description and converts to Postscript or MIDI. It's designed mainly for sheet music, so it's got no recording or other fancy features, so it's probably not very useful, but it's sheet-music generation quality is superb, and can do pretty much anything anyone would ever need to. However, if you're writing the music and just want to get a MIDI output so you can hear what you're writing, then it's pretty good.
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
I'll look into it. Thanks.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Hi. I use Midinotate composer[^], and I'm really pleased with it. It's simply great. You can see some of the works[^] I've made with this program, if you want to. The site is in spanish, nevertheless click in the link of "partituras" for seeing the music sheet, or in the MP3 link for... well, downloading the MP3 (the program does not convert MIDI to MP3 though, I used another program for that).
A polar bear is a bear whose coordinates has been changed in terms of sine and cosine. Personal Site
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
I use Midinotate composer[^],
Thanks, I'll check it out.
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
You can see some of the works[^]
Good work. :)
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Sibelius is really nice. But it might be out of your price range. My sister-in-law bought it a few years back for about $300.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Techno Silliness
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Sibelius is really nice. But it might be out of your price range. My sister-in-law bought it a few years back for about $300.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Techno Silliness
Jim Crafton wrote:
My sister-in-law bought it a few years back for about $300.
If it didn't just buy a new monitor and it was good, I'd almost consider it. Being seeing as I did, I'd probably have to put that one on hold. Thanks for the info.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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scott_hackett wrote:
for the fruity loops edition
I used to have a friend that used that, but all he made was techno music (not that I'm against the genre, but my goals for this are game development). So, may question is, how does it work, does it sample different tracks of pre-existing music/beats/etcthat you overlay or it allow you a staff (yeah, I'm about to check the sites, but I prefer hearing it from the non-sales pitch perspective)? Not that I'm against it because, well frankly me and blank ledger lines can take forever and a day to get a new measure, so it may be great for me. I'm just wanna make sure I can do more than one genre with it. Thanks for the reply btw.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Have you tried GarageBand? It has a note editor in it that you can work with. And it has the tracks stuff as well. I've used it to write some tunes here (I'm almost embarrassed to provide a link, but what the hell - laugh all you want :)!) http://www.icompositions.com/artists/ddiego[^] It's mostly techno orientated. Some of the tunes are 100% based on existing loops I found, others are loops and midi tracks that I modified and edited signifigantly. I've got some stuff that is pretty orchestral that 100% note edited from scratch in GB. For example I used one the motifs from Hans Zimmer's "Batman Begins" score, orchestrated it, and then started to develop it a bit into a sort of techno-like "remix" version, stupid, but fun to play with. I did something similar with one of the themes from Bourne Identity.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Techno Silliness
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Sibelius is really nice. But it might be out of your price range. My sister-in-law bought it a few years back for about $300.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Techno Silliness
Jim Crafton wrote:
Sibelius is really nice. But it might be out of your price range. My sister-in-law bought it a few years back for about $300.
I'll second Sibelius. Very nice software. I'm surpised she got it for $300 though. Was that the academic pricing? Last time I looked, it was over AU$1k, which is still US$700-800. Maybe it's changed...
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
-
Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around.
Garritan Personal Orchestra[^] is the coolest orchestral sound library ever. I don't know if it's the type of thing you're looking for, and the price is steep, but it deserves a look if only to be amazed. My brother has it but it was a business expense for him - he's getting into the world of composing.
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
We've been doing some work for a British company, Optimusic which use a setup of disco lights and some high-tech photo resistors. Basically what the setup is is that you have (in the one I saw which is fairly standard) eight beams of light arranged in a circle (hanging of the ceiling) you then either have reflective pads on the floor or you hold battons, basically when the beam of light is broken it triggers off something in the synthesiser they wrote. It's really cool the stuff you can do with it, play music, conduct an orchestra, play games etc. At the moment it's aimed for special needs children but the company just getting back on their feet after some financial trouble (bad management, who's now been bought out). Their system was used on Tomorrows World several years ago and also on a memory game show hosted by Ant and Dec. Only downside is a basic system is ~£6,000.
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
We've been doing some work for a British company, Optimusic which use a setup of disco lights and some high-tech photo resistors. Basically what the setup is is that you have (in the one I saw which is fairly standard) eight beams of light arranged in a circle (hanging of the ceiling) you then either have reflective pads on the floor or you hold battons, basically when the beam of light is broken it triggers off something in the synthesiser they wrote. It's really cool the stuff you can do with it, play music, conduct an orchestra, play games etc. At the moment it's aimed for special needs children but the company just getting back on their feet after some financial trouble (bad management, who's now been bought out). Their system was used on Tomorrows World several years ago and also on a memory game show hosted by Ant and Dec. Only downside is a basic system is ~£6,000. [edit] I hear there's a pretty good synthesiser for Linux but can't remember it's name (it's open source). Think it's hosted on SF so might be worth looking from there.[/edit]
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Anyone know of any decent MIDI composition software besides Cakewalk that won't leave me broke? Back in the day I used to use Midisoft and enjoyed it, but it doesn't seem so mainstream anymore. I see Noteworthy is still around, but it still looks antiquated (not sure about its future) and it's feature set is a bit less than desirable. And while I'm on the subject, anyone know of a good MIDI wavetable synth (software based preferably) besides Yamaha's stuff (and please, for the love of God, don't recommend the MS one)? I'm using Midig (a cheapo one, but decent and free) currently, but I'm still fishing around. Barring that, seeing that I'm still old school, does anyone have any better/new means of making digital music they can share with me? Any recommendations will be appreciated. TIA Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
In my studio, I have Sonar, Pro Tools LE, Nuendo and Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). Although these days everybody tries to do everything, I keep this many around because each one shines in a particular area (PT is there via legacy, I still use the 001 hardware for some inputs). Although PT and Nuendo both do MIDI, nobody touches Cakewalk/Sonar's functionality. I use it for all MIDI stuff, and it's best of breed. Another reason to go with it is the VST plugins. As mentioned, things like Garritan Personal Orchestra sound incredibly real and are head & shoulders above the old wavetable synth stuff, and Sonar also ships with a number of synths. Don't buy the Producer version. It's got a bunch of loops and stuff that even I don't need. I'm running Sonar Studio (version 3 at that), and it rocks. You'll also be able to do full audio recording & mixing with it as well. They've also got stuff beyond the Studio version (Project5, Home Studio, etc.). Do yourself a favor and get the full Studio version (~$350). The pain in your wallet will heal quickly, but the joy of having killer tools will live on day after day. If you're diving back into the music scene, shoot me an email if you want to hook up via phone & kick this stuff around. Lots of cool new stuff out there since the old days.
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalStrategyConsulting.com
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MagicScore[^] beats everything else I've seen for the price range. Really nice UI, full range of notation capabilities, guitar chord entry feature, good text support, for $49.50.
This just may be the ticket, thanks. About the virtual orchestra, that's something I'll definately consider in a few months. Thanks for the reply.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Now if I was only good at making music. :-D
We've been doing some work for a British company, Optimusic which use a setup of disco lights and some high-tech photo resistors. Basically what the setup is is that you have (in the one I saw which is fairly standard) eight beams of light arranged in a circle (hanging of the ceiling) you then either have reflective pads on the floor or you hold battons, basically when the beam of light is broken it triggers off something in the synthesiser they wrote. It's really cool the stuff you can do with it, play music, conduct an orchestra, play games etc. At the moment it's aimed for special needs children but the company just getting back on their feet after some financial trouble (bad management, who's now been bought out). Their system was used on Tomorrows World several years ago and also on a memory game show hosted by Ant and Dec. Only downside is a basic system is ~£6,000.
Ed.Poore wrote:
Only downside is a basic system is ~£6,000.
Sounds cool, but yet that's a bit beyond my budget. :laugh:
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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In my studio, I have Sonar, Pro Tools LE, Nuendo and Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). Although these days everybody tries to do everything, I keep this many around because each one shines in a particular area (PT is there via legacy, I still use the 001 hardware for some inputs). Although PT and Nuendo both do MIDI, nobody touches Cakewalk/Sonar's functionality. I use it for all MIDI stuff, and it's best of breed. Another reason to go with it is the VST plugins. As mentioned, things like Garritan Personal Orchestra sound incredibly real and are head & shoulders above the old wavetable synth stuff, and Sonar also ships with a number of synths. Don't buy the Producer version. It's got a bunch of loops and stuff that even I don't need. I'm running Sonar Studio (version 3 at that), and it rocks. You'll also be able to do full audio recording & mixing with it as well. They've also got stuff beyond the Studio version (Project5, Home Studio, etc.). Do yourself a favor and get the full Studio version (~$350). The pain in your wallet will heal quickly, but the joy of having killer tools will live on day after day. If you're diving back into the music scene, shoot me an email if you want to hook up via phone & kick this stuff around. Lots of cool new stuff out there since the old days.
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalStrategyConsulting.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
If you're diving back into the music scene, shoot me an email if you want to hook up via phone & kick this stuff around. Lots of cool new stuff out there since the old days.
Seeing that I don't need it immediately, I think I may have to just wait and the pony up the real cash for it. I already have Audition, but it doesn't do MIDI all too well as I'm sure you know, and I ever got into buy software that just ships with a ton of loops (although this may be a good option for me, I just need more than techno). The only reason I know all this stuff is because I used to have a bunch of musicians for friends, personally my music education needs some work because I'd sit there for hours trying to write a score that one of my old friends would do something better in like matter of 10 minutes. :-D You win some you loose some. I'll send you an email btw.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Ed.Poore wrote:
Only downside is a basic system is ~£6,000.
Sounds cool, but yet that's a bit beyond my budget. :laugh:
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
It was very :cool:, possibilities were endless, Dad suggested they should have a miniture version you clip on a fish tank and as the fish break the beams it plays soothing music (or I suppose for people like CG if he had a fast snappy fish the speed of the break would play some heavy rock music the angrier the fish got :rolleyes:)