music making software

This forum is for discussing all aspects of film soundtracks.

Moderator: Moderator Team

stickmurder30
Member
Member
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 6:38 pm
Location: Quebec City, Canada
Contact:

music making software

Post by stickmurder30 »

since I wanna make my own soundtracks, I would like to know a good ( and free if possible ) software that i can use to play ( create ) guitare beats... any suggestions are welcome....

thanks
Epsilon
Forum Master
Forum Master
Posts: 3897
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2003 4:13 am
Location: Orange County, California
Contact:

Post by Epsilon »

Finale is the standard for music composition. That's what I use.
stickmurder30
Member
Member
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 6:38 pm
Location: Quebec City, Canada
Contact:

Post by stickmurder30 »

thanks epsilon, ill search for it.
Carnage7p
Forum Addict
Forum Addict
Posts: 950
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2003 3:26 am
Location: Holland, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Post by Carnage7p »

how much would software like that run me?
Epsilon
Forum Master
Forum Master
Posts: 3897
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2003 4:13 am
Location: Orange County, California
Contact:

Post by Epsilon »

I think it retails around $600, maybe $250 or so in stores. If you aren't going all out on music composing, then you really don't need that. Get PrintMusic, the baby brother of Finale. It pretty much is the same thing except minus the fancy cr** that nobody really uses. That is under $50 in most stores. I'm sure any local music shop will carry them. If that is still too much, you can get Notepad, which is the very basic in music notation, but runs around $20.

They are all listed here: www.codamusic.com
JJJSWIFT
Member
Member
Posts: 66
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2003 3:18 am
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Post by JJJSWIFT »

If you have a mac u should use Garage Band...that program rocks.
I3lade203
Forum Veteran
Forum Veteran
Posts: 2345
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:39 pm
Location: NY
Contact:

Post by I3lade203 »

Acid! Frutiy loops! I duno!
Sigs suck a**.
Rico
Member
Member
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 4:31 pm
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Contact:

Post by Rico »

Finale is good for composing using score-sheets and stuff. But it is NOT a program for making sounds (though it can do it, but not the best choise fro that). To get good results out of Finale (or other notation programs) You usually have to take the MIDI-files into another program for both getting the good sounds (from synths, virtual synths, sample libraries or whatever), and to tweak the music and mix/master the track(s)...

Unless You take Your score-sheets to the local orchestra/band and have them play Your music...

Cubase, Nuendo, Cubasis, Cakewalk, Logic, Protools and others are all sequencer and arranging software that can be useful to both compose, arrange and get the sounds from (and they can all be used together with Finale or other notation software). There used to be a free version of ProTools, and although limited, it is supposed to be quite powerful (never tried it myself).

And then there are the software studios; FLStudio (aka Fruity Loops), Project 5, Orion, Reason, Garageband and so on... Comes with a more complete set of sounds/virtual instruments, but might lack in the notation deprtement. They can all import and tweak MIDI files from notation software though...

Sample-loop based slice'n'dice programs like Acid, eJay Magix Music maker and all those can also be used of course, for delaing with samples and loops in a neat way...

Regards,
Rico
Scores for Your movie
[url]http://www.fredrikblom.com[/url]
Epsilon
Forum Master
Forum Master
Posts: 3897
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2003 4:13 am
Location: Orange County, California
Contact:

Post by Epsilon »

Yep. It also depends on how nice your midi hardware is. Finale works for me because I mainly do sheet music writing.
edinc90
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 124
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:18 pm
Location: Wyomissing, Pennsylvaina, USA
Contact:

Post by edinc90 »

As JJJSWIFT said, GarageBand rocks (only $50). If you need something more... uh, better, you can use a soundtrack app called (what else?) Soundtrack. Although it will put you back $200. But it does include over 4,000 loops and effects.
My website: www.edcarlson.tk
I3lade203
Forum Veteran
Forum Veteran
Posts: 2345
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:39 pm
Location: NY
Contact:

Post by I3lade203 »

Musics not really my thing.
Sigs suck a**.
Themovieman44
Forum Addict
Forum Addict
Posts: 921
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2004 4:07 pm
Location: Bartow, Florida
Contact:

Post by Themovieman44 »

I3lade203 wrote:Musics not really my thing.
.

No one cares you spamming commie!
"They're people who only want to be involved in filmmaking to get rich, get famous, or get laid. They know as much about filmmaking as George W. Bush knows about hand-to-hand combat"- Jim Jarmusch
I3lade203
Forum Veteran
Forum Veteran
Posts: 2345
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:39 pm
Location: NY
Contact:

Post by I3lade203 »

Alrighty.
Sigs suck a**.
User avatar
Caveman
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:26 pm
Location: Central England

Post by Caveman »

I personally don't have much time to do my music scoring in - so I use smartsound!

Any1 heard of/used it? - itz gr8. Not reeli my music but it's legal, it cuts to perfect lengths of track, u dnt have 2 record it, there's a huge choice of how a song'll sound and it sounds gr8 at the end of it! All this for about 3 mins per song!!

it saves me a lot of time,

just a thought...
User avatar
Magic-Man
Posting Freak
Posting Freak
Posts: 272
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:15 pm
Location: Hertfordshire, England

Post by Magic-Man »

Musics not really my thing.
Then may i ask, why are you on this part of the forum?
NaziSentry

Post by NaziSentry »

because he's a spammer and he always will be.
Matt
Webmaster
Webmaster
Posts: 627
Joined: Tue May 14, 2002 10:28 am
Location: Bristol, England
Contact:

Post by Matt »

We will be using eJay 360 Xtreme for the Hollow Point soundtrack. I got a demo in a packet of cereal. You can't get more low budget than that!
User avatar
Caveman
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:26 pm
Location: Central England

Post by Caveman »

If you have a mac u should use Garage Band...that program rocks.
May seem like a stupid question but... is there an way of running that on windows?
User avatar
chchaisson1
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 177
Joined: Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:18 am
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Contact:

Post by chchaisson1 »

No, GarageBand can't run on Windows.

With a midi keyboard, Garage Band is great for making film soundtracks. Go to http://www.icompositions.com for some samples.

I used to use eJay; it's a great program.
New site released!
Join the Forum!
http://www.boathouse-productions.com/
Kentertainment
Forum Addict
Forum Addict
Posts: 799
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2004 1:32 am
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Post by Kentertainment »

I have ACID, it's pretty good but usually I don't use it for my music. I use it for things like editing audio in my movies to make someone sound like they're on the radio, etc..
U.S.Amateurfilmaker
Forum Addict
Forum Addict
Posts: 923
Joined: Wed Jul 30, 2003 8:59 pm
Location: New Jersey, USA
Contact:

Post by U.S.Amateurfilmaker »

I use acid Pro 4, and have amassed a libarry of free lopps off the internet and sample cd's, but i don't really have the corerct loops to make an instrumental score. But with the right loops, acid is a great program.
CEO
Dimension 9 Studios
Durandal
Member
Member
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:43 pm
Location: UK, near Cambridge

Post by Durandal »

Personally I've always preferred Sibelius for my composition (another notation/composition program). Love it. Never really got on with Finale, although I did use a very old version.

I bought Sibelius 2, Education price, for about £250 I believe. Music Scholarship money well spent! :D

(I also use a Yamaha SW1000 card for my midi sounds - not the best, but much better than standard midi sound cards.)
I3lade203
Forum Veteran
Forum Veteran
Posts: 2345
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:39 pm
Location: NY
Contact:

Post by I3lade203 »

Magic-Man wrote:
Musics not really my thing.
Then may i ask, why are you on this part of the forum?
Mabye becuase this is a FILMMAKING forum, not a MUSIC forum.
Sigs suck a**.
tallman_house_pictures
Forum Addict
Forum Addict
Posts: 591
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 3:31 am
Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Post by tallman_house_pictures »

so you composers dont actully have a band play music? you just sit at the comp for a day clicking. thats pretty cool. shows where technology has brought us.
www.tallmanhousepictures.com
tallmanhousepictures@gmail.com
Rico
Member
Member
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 4:31 pm
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Contact:

Post by Rico »

To be honest - computers can only take it so far, at least when working with orchestral type of music. If You go for movies with a bit of budget You usually involve an orchestra at one stage or another. But for low/no budget projects it is hard to pay the musicians so computers will have to do a lot of the time.
Not to say that You can't use computers in bigger productions, it just isn't as common nowdays as it used to be in the middle of the 1980s (when it was hip to use synths for almost any score)...

Regards,
Rico
Scores for Your movie
[url]http://www.fredrikblom.com[/url]
Post Reply