Recommend software for composing music to me.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am looking for some software to compose music. This is something that I have recently developed an interest in doing, so I am pretty much starting from the ground up.

The features that I am seeking would include (but not be limited) to the following:
[ul]
[li] Multiple track capability that would then play back as a continuous whole (similar to the way that something like Flash handles this).[/li][li]A decent library of sounds that I can arrange to my specifications (Guitar playing C note, A note flat sharp electronic sounds etc.)[/li][li]The ability to record voice in to a track.[/li][li]Flexible resulting end product (MIDI, WAV, MP3, Audio file and so on).[/li][/ul]
Bonus points if it can run in Linux. Extra, extra bonus points if it is astonishingly inexpensive.

Any thoughts?

2

Quite a few friends of mine make music on there PC’s. I personally do not know much about it, but two programs that stick out in my mind are Reason and Fruity Loops. Here are their websites, if you wanna check them out.

http://www.propellerheads.se/
http://www.fruityloops.com/

I hope I helped.

3

From a Mac user: GarageBand

4

Huh. I was going to start a thread like this tonight.

5

Definitely Garageband. It comes free with new Macs, is $49 if you’ve already got a Mac. (You could get a low-end used G4 for probably $400.) Actually, for $49 you get Garageband, iDVD, iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie. All which are great apps.

It comes with over 1,000 royalty-free loops, all categorized by key, mood, instrument, all sorts of things. (“Noodling guitar” key of C, for instance). Tons of these, and some third-party sources are offering free Garageband loops or selling them. Garageband has started a whole revolution of new musicmakers. It’s amazing.

I don’t have a strong music background (just some piano) and I made this piece after having Garageband for a few days. (It’s not much, but hey—I’m a newbie!) I have never used any music composition app before this, and yet I made my first finished piece after about half an hour of installing the app. It’s that easy to use. Imagine what you could do if you had, like, real musical ability. (Which I assume you do! :))

It plays back live. I lay down tracks and then add a new track as the other tracks are playing. It will record voice and you can plug in your guitar or keyboard and use the software instruments.

An additional $99 will get you Jam Pack, which has 2,000 more loops and a lot more software instruments. I don’t have JamPack yet, but word is that it is unbelievably awesome. Other loops will work with Garageband, and you can make your own loops (or covert other loops you find) for Garageband by using Apple’s free Loop utility.

There are a ton of Garageband communities cropping up, where you can hear samples of what Garageband can do. Check out MacIdol.com or iCompositions.com for starters.

It’s important to note that Garageband is not a professional level music app. It may be close for some but for pro-level, you need to pay a lot more. And it’s also version one. It’s pretty fabulous right now, but obviously it will be much better in its next incarnation.

Sorry if I’m sounding like an ad for Macs. I do have a PC (it’s faster than my Mac, as a matter of fact) but so far I haven’t found anything on the PC side that is as cheap, as easy to learn, and has as many loops. If someone knows of such an app, please point me to it as well. I would definitely use it when I’m on my PC.

6

I used to use Cakewalk to mix my friend’s band’s stuff for him, but we used recorded guitar and drum tracks. I never tried using a library of sounds, so I don’t know if it comes with one.

7

If you’re needing a finished printed score, then there’s a free basic version of the high-powered program Finale, called Finale Notepad. Should be able to import your MIDI files, etc.

8

Adobe’s new Audition is pretty slick and it comes with a large library of sounds. It allows looping, live recording, and midi, has a great effects section, and supports most audio formats. Not exactly cheap, though.

9

Everything above is good stuff, but I would have to recommend Cubase as an all-around solution. It’s about as good as you can get at a reasonable price.
You can download a trial version here.

If money’s no object, go ProTools. Steep learning curve, though. Still, it’s the industry standard for audio editing. Trial version with limited tracks (8 audio, 48 MIDI) available here.

Note Cubase is a little more complex than the earler mentioned suites, and ProTools is not for the faint of heart. Real world studio experience is immensely helpful in learning to use it.

KTM

10

Whoops - upon review of the thread it looks likw you’re not looking for studio solutions, but loop based solutions. Sorry, got ahead of myself. Still, check out the trials and play with them - much fun for the audio geek. :smiley:

For loop based editing, you can also check out Acid. Definitely the best loop based product in my experience, and remarkably user friendly. (for me anyway, YMMV)

Cheers

KTM

11

I have played with Acid Pro for a while. I don’t remember which version I have but that isn’t really important. It is fun to play with the loops and such; however, there is a problem making music that is not in 4/4 time. The music wants to always automatically pulse in 4 and I couldn’t figure out how to work off that much less change it. It is still a fun little tool to work with but I am not sure how much use I will ever get out of it. I did have fun trying to put some beats to a few simple songs I have recorded and imported through it’s mp3 function. I didn’t like how no matter what type of loop I did, it still ended up sounding like techno.