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Create music and sound effects for mainline or user-made content.

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Nobun
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Post by Nobun »

Hi. I have a question about music composition.
I have to report that it is mainly a question I do to you becouse I don't know other places where it is possible to find people who make music compositions for pc not recording real instruments, but creating them virtually.

Yeah, this is not completely off-topic becouse I would like to contribute, in a future, with music. But now this is not the main issue.

My main problem is that usually I have some music in mind (mainly orchestral) - for example when I am walking - so I need a way to "play and hear" music trying to have the chance to hear immediately a realistic music while I am playing it (when I am at home, obliouvsly).

I don't have a powerful pc (it is a limited one, instead) nor I have a decent driver audio. So I am asking myself: is it possible to create good realistic music buying a powerful keyboard? I hope in a brief time to have some money to spend, but I'd like to avoid to do a bad use of money. Becouse if possible, it would be nice to "play and record"... also becouse I'd like to avoid to spend a lot of money trying to buy a powerful pc and powerful libraries.

I am here for listening your suggestions... and, if someone wants, to listen what kind of tools you use in order to create your own beautiful music ^^ (I mean, to make the idea a real music to hear).

Thank to anyone who would want to reply.

-------------------

PS OT - I'd like to write some considerations about music licensing. I have the feel that there are some misunderstandings around GPL license but the "legal" topic is closed. I could add also here what I'd like to say, but it would be off-topic and not so easy to reach in relation with "legal" discussion itself
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Dugucloud
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Post by Dugucloud »

It is sure that you can do it. Here are two kinds of software for you to compose:
MuseScore: http://musescore.org/ An open source software. Easy to use but no VST support.
Overture: http://sonicscores.com/index.html Shareware. Also easy to use with VST support.
Also other DAWs you may use if you can read piano rolls.

If you got a software with VST support, then download the plugin sfz at http://www.cakewalk.com/Download/sfz.aspx and Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra at http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/ . It is said that most wesnoth contributers use SSO.
Mi povas paroli Esperanton.
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Telaron
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Post by Telaron »

Nobun wrote:I have to report that it is mainly a question I do to you becouse I don't know other places where it is possible to find people who make music compositions for pc not recording real instruments, but creating them virtually.
Nobun have you seen this site? Here There is a 'Software and Hardware' as well as a 'Sound Library' thread depending on what you want. As far as I could tell you didn't specify if you were looking for a DAW or a sound library with actual instruments. (Although most DAW's do come with some okay samples to use.) If you are looking for samples (such as sf2 and the like) Tyler Johnson and West complied a site with free stuff on it. Here's the thread link: Free sf2 instruments
Check out the FOSS game Sumwars
Wish I had more time for composing music...
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Nobun
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Post by Nobun »

The main problem is that I don't know if a good keyboard can do the work (software like musescore can be nice to write staff from scratch but it is the very long way)... with "keyboard" I mean a sort of piano that can reproduce different kind of sounds, with its own "library" (I cannot explain better... perhaps I used a bad english name for it). I am afraid that even using free libraries I could be unable to do anything due to my outdated pc... this is also why I try to see if a good keyboard can do all the work (I mean... also able to create a good quality music file with a nice realistic music)

@dugucloud thank you for your hints... I will take a look also at them

@Telaron thank you too. I never see the first site, I will take a look. About the second link: yeah you are right. I remembered that there was a topic that discussed about free libraries, but 90% of links there were broken. It is a nice thing to see that someone is trying to keep an updated repository for free libraries.
PenguinMusic
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Post by PenguinMusic »

I'm going to bump this with a suggestion (almost a year later... sorry) -- in this situation you might try just composing to the best level that your hardware/software will allow and then asking someone else to take a look at your stuff and finishing the final orchestration and performance using better gear for you. That's not an uncommon thing to do (the composer-orchestrator arrangement happens all the time in film/TV/game music).

Look at the credits for any of the Batman movies that Hans Zimmer composed for -- he had a small army of people behind him orchestrating and fleshing out his compositions (mostly for the sake of time, I'm sure).
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West
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Post by West »

PenguinMusic wrote:I'm going to bump this with a suggestion (almost a year later... sorry) -- in this situation you might try just composing to the best level that your hardware/software will allow and then asking someone else to take a look at your stuff and finishing the final orchestration and performance using better gear for you. That's not an uncommon thing to do (the composer-orchestrator arrangement happens all the time in film/TV/game music).

Look at the credits for any of the Batman movies that Hans Zimmer composed for -- he had a small army of people behind him orchestrating and fleshing out his compositions (mostly for the sake of time, I'm sure).
No it's not uncommon, but TBH I find it highly unlikely that someone would offer to do that without getting paid. I'm pretty sure that HZ's "small army" at RCP are getting paid for what they do. Creating a high quality orchestration from a rough piece with crappy samples is probably harder work than composing a piece yourself. Simply because it's not your composition and you will have no idea what the composer wants everything to sound like without a lot of discussions and going back and forth. And that sounds like too much trouble for a non-paid gig if you know what I mean. Personally I would rather spend my time working on my own music than adapting someone else's.

As for the OP (better late than never, right?) there is no synth or "keyboard" in existance that will provide you with good enough quality to do virtual orchstrations like we're looking for here. You need a good computer and good software instruments and samples. Sorry but that's the simple fact. When it comes to mimicking real instruments, software outran its hardware counterparts more than a decade ago.
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