Making Music

[Raidx]

Hey all, recently I've discovered that making music is something I wanna do (or atleast try out). I've been extremely appreciative of video game music for a few years now and being able to compose original tracks / make remixes would be fucking amazing. Does anyone have any experience in composing / remixing? If so, any good programs to recommend? I'm on a budget btw, so nothing too expensive. Would really appreciate some help :)

 

[Cresselia~~]

You can download the trial version of FL studio and try stuff out.
It doesn't hurt.

You can save, but the trial version won't open saves.

So you can export into mp3

 

[Clouds]

A program I used for a lot of my audio production during a couple of courses was LMMS, which is entirely free and functions similarly to FL Studio, with very few downsides. I've never remixed VGM but I'm sure that would be just as easy here as making an original track, which I spent most of my time doing for assignments. There are some other free programs out there for audio production but this is the one I've found to provide the most resources.

As for remixing itself, I recommend watching as many tutorials from other producers as possible, as well as tutorials about the program you decide to use. Experimenting around with different features in the program is also really beneficial. Let me know how this goes for you or if you have any other questions!

 

[OLD GREGG (im back baby)]

I've used Audacity in the past for recording and mixing. It is a freeware so if you don't like it no big deal.

 

[Raidx]

Thanks for the suggestions yall, much appreciate. I've been testing with LMMS and it seems good, I just need a MIDI keyboard to make things easier lol

 

[AM]

FL studio is the easiest to learn and easy to acquire especially for windows users. Audacity is okay for dealing with audio but in terms of composing you’re not going to get anything out of that. Its a good tool to play around with if you want to play around with some recording and dealing with audio files.

I used to make beats and used primarily logic but it isnt free and theres a bit of a learning curve that goes with most of the DAWs such as Reason, Pro Tools, etc.. Unless you throw in some big bucks the plugins sound quality wise are not good unless you learn enough to know what to adjust for parameters. FL fortunately has some decent start up plug ins where getting decent sounding synths isnt hard and the drum packs are easy to clean up.

I would start off with whatever program works for you a small midi device, can be a keyboard, mpc, whatever really, and decentish pair of headphones. Its affordable and you can fool around learn somethings before putting down any sort of investment into equipment. I can provide more advice later but thats kind of the basic basic to composing at least hardware wise.

 

[Lectrys]

If you need to see musical notes instead of just MIDI bars, I like Musescore when working with music in that way. It's free, and it's quite a bit more powerful than other free stuff like Finale Notepad (e.g. Musescore supports bizarre time signatures, many key signature changes in a piece, D.S. al Coda, individually setting volumes of notes, etc.).

 

[Magii]

9/16 is definitely bizarre, I can relate with musescore being a great tool for a man intro composing software. There are books on working with video game music and the like, so I’d encourage you to check out your local library.

 

[Hulavuta]

For someone who can play enough instruments to fill out a complete band besides drums, is MuseScore a good replacement for drums? Does it have a feature where you just say something like "4/4 beat with bass drum on 1, hihat on 3" etc. for x measures and it will just spit it out for you? Or do you have to go in and manually write out the score for it?

I'm really interested in recording "one man band" type stuff, but the lack of percussion is the biggest roadblock for me.

 

[Birkal]

For someone who can play enough instruments to fill out a complete band besides drums, is MuseScore a good replacement for drums? Does it have a feature where you just say something like "4/4 beat with bass drum on 1, hihat on 3" etc. for x measures and it will just spit it out for you? Or do you have to go in and manually write out the score for it?

I'm really interested in recording "one man band" type stuff, but the lack of percussion is the biggest roadblock for me.

Yes, in all music notation programs you can use drums. There is specific notation for it once selected as an instruments. I am sure there are guides for this online. Even stuff like Noteflight has this.

If you have a bit of cash, the AKAI MPK mkII Mini is amazing for what you’re looking to do. They’re like $100, but they can pump out a ton of content.

Hmu if you have more questions — good luck :)

 

[Lectrys]

For someone who can play enough instruments to fill out a complete band besides drums, is MuseScore a good replacement for drums? Does it have a feature where you just say something like "4/4 beat with bass drum on 1, hihat on 3" etc. for x measures and it will just spit it out for you? Or do you have to go in and manually write out the score for it?

I'm really interested in recording "one man band" type stuff, but the lack of percussion is the biggest roadblock for me.

You'll have to write out the score (and pick some good drum kit sounds in the Mixer). I think it supports the "repeat the previous measure" sign, though.

 

[Foggi]

use fl studio or ableton if you wanna make real electronic music, these are the two most used programs by big artists