Is there a computer program...

Factual Questions
1

… that lets the average Joe with absolutely no musical ability compose/record songs?

I’m thinking a computer version of those electronic keyboards that were popular in the eighties, though with a bit more capabilities (ie. sounding like the intended instrument, not a poor synthesis).

2

yes if you give me your E-mail i can get you one or you can go to: http://www.ronimusic.com and look under sweet little piano 32!

3

If you check a generic download site, like Tucows or Download.com, you should find all sorts of things. I had one once that let you click on a clef and it would play the notes, and you could “drag” the notes up or down and change the tune.

4
      • Oh yea, I have Cakewalk Home Studio, which is now Home Studio 2002. It retailed for $129, but there was a simpler lower-featured version available priced cheaper. Cakewalk isn’t the only audio program software company, either.
  • Not only do you not have to know anything about music, you don’t even ever have to look at real music. Most retail-grade programs have a view named “piano roll”, which is a list of rectangular tracks that run off the screen to the right. For each track that you want to use, you choose a MIDI instrument from a drop-down list (such as a piano, flute or drum set), and then you drop notes onto the track with your mouse. The notes look like squares; move them up and down to change pitch, move them left and right to change when they are played, stretch them to extend their playing time. Press the “Play” button, and the computer starts at the left end and scrolls to the right, playing all the notes in all the tracks that you put down. (Cakewalk-HS includes an on-screen “software piano”, but I find just dragging notes around on the piano roll is easier) -And if you want to impress your friends, afterwards you can switch it to show the song as regular musical notation. - DougC
5

I use Music@Passport to input songs from sheet music note for note, and have been composing a few of my own as well. I use a mouse to point and click notes onto the staff because I don’t have the dexterity to play a keyboard. I also don’t have a functional microphone right now; if I did I could compose by just whistling into the mic. There’s also a function to use the top two rows of your keyboard to mimic a music keyboard. And this is the only program I’ve seen which is capable of 64[sup]th[/sup] notes but there may be others that I’m not aware of.

6

Re quality, bear in mind that the average PC sound cards’ MIDI synthesis is atrocious. The synthesis is done in hardware, so no MIDI-based music software is going to sound good if you’re using it with a cheap’n’cheerful sound card.

IIRC, you want to buy what’s called a ‘wavetable’ card for decent MIDI sound. These cards generate the sound from actual recordings of the instruments, which is probably what you want.

7

Please also bear in mind that the other night it took me three hours to compose a horrifically bad, three note, eight bar melody starring a synthesized pan flute using MacMod, which I then couldn’t save because it was only a demo version.

And to make it worse, the really cool, catchy song in my head that I so miserably failed to transcribe, is now confused beyond rescue with the ghastly three-note effort of the pan flute.

8
      • Really, the easiest way to input notes is to get a MIDI controller. This is an electronic keyboard, but it lacks most of the internal capabilities of a typical keyboard- you have to have it hooked up to a computer, because it won’t do anything on its own.
  • And you still don’t need to know how to play: the reason is that a MIDI program lets you record a few notes, rewind, and then record a few more notes after the first few. When it is “recording”, it will play any already existing notes, plus record any more you enter-- it doesn’t “wipe out” notes entered during previous recordings, like a regular tape player does. If you want any notes erased, you can/have to do that manually. ~ You can record every track of a whole song little by little, re-do any section as many times as you want, and the end result sounds just as if you had played it all in one attempt. - DougC