Regarding Creative Common Licence

[Heindal]

I recently found the great componist Alexandr Zhelanov on opengamesart, who is providing his music under a special creative common licence (Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) ) and I'd like to use his music for one of my projects. I'd say it is not possible to use music with creative common in wesnoth, but on the other hand the artist has agreed the free usage even for commercial projects!?

How would you handle this? Can I use the music provided by the artist?

I would also ask the componist for permission as well.

You can find the music here: http://opengameart.org/users/alexandr-zhelanov
Hope you will like it.

[Dugi]

Unfortunately, no. Creative Commons is not GPL-compatible, and therefore you cannot license it under GPL, and all content on the add-on server must be under GPL. You probably can redistribute it, but not using the add-ons server.

The only thing you can actually do is to ask the composer if he can license it also under GPL (for example like Ogre3D, that is licensed both under MIT and GPL). The only GPL music outside the scope of wesnoth I heard of is Severed Fifth.

[Pentarctagon]

A more wesnothy example - West has duel licensed his West's Chronicles I and II for CC and GPL, which is why they are allowed on the add-on server.

[Heindal]

Too bad. I've published my own pictures in both creative common licence and gpl, so I know the concept.

I still don't understand why the both licenceforms are incompatible - and even people on gamesart are talking about that topic. After all it is a "by" licence and any commercial game author can even use it even for commercial projects and has to mention the name of the author.

So commercial projects have a 'competetive edge' vs the free and open publishing?
Alas, I will not use the music provided by the composer.

Any suggestion what software to use to create own (free) music?
I've a keyboard and know how to wield it .

[West]

You will need a DAW and low latency drivers for your sound card. Can't be any more specific than that without knowing what OS you're on. Linux? OS X? Windows?

You will also need orchestral samples, some free ones are listed here.

[Gambit]

You can use them, it's just that we can't accept them on the add-on server right now.

[Heindal]

@West Thanks for the reply. I'm using Windows 7 on a Laptop :/ and my keyboard is rather old. So far I just used "music maker" and I have to admit that I've used "cakewalk" in early times. For cutting I use audacity, even though I never cut music with that.

@Gambit I know, but I wanted to use songs in existing addons to upgrade them.

[West]

@West Thanks for the reply. I'm using Windows 7 on a Laptop :/ and my keyboard is rather old.

Windows 7 is an excellent OS for working with audio, you have a whole plethora of tools at your disposal.

Working on a laptop is not a problem either as long as it's fairly powerful. Neither is your keyboard being old a real issue. If it has midi, you're good to go. You don't want to be using any of the built-in sounds anyway (if we're talking about that kind of keyboard). As long as it has keys and is playable, it will do fine.

So far I just used "music maker" and I have to admit that I've used "cakewalk" in early times. For cutting I use audacity, even though I never cut music with that.

With W7 you'll probably have more luck looking into more modern programs, as it's kind of hit and miss when it comes to running old stuff -- especially if you're on the x64 version.

I'll leave it at that for now. If you're honestly interested in setting up your lappy for music making, I'd be happy to provide some more specific tips.