If you don''t want to print the music, go with Modplug Tracker; it''s good and free (open source, actually)

PS. If someone knows a good and free sheet music program, please tell me!

Finale NotePad works fine for me. Although I haven''t tried to do anything longer than 2 pages, yet...

If you can read music, I love finale. They have a pro version (cost money) and a scaled down version that I believe is called finale notepad (free). Its also good if you have some music theory and knowledge of cords, but I assume you already have that if you are asking for music making software. The other thing about finale is that it makes MIDIs. You may want to get a better sound card that has more sounds so that finale can more accurately synthesize the sounds. Then output to .wav so that your gamers wont have to have more expensive hardware to get good sound.

If you can''t read music, fruity loops is pretty good.

quote:

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Original post by Clueless
What about Buzz? Buzz is free!

I read that there is ... NOTHING LIKE IT ON THE PLANET ... somewhere.

Buzz Machines

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I second the vote for buzz. It''s really bloody versatile, even though most people just make electronica/techno with it.

Hey Kivek,

I'm assuming that you're wanting to orchestrate music, rather than just mixing loops here. If I'm just ranting, ignore this post.

If money is no object, then you'd probably be wanting a setup [with some sort of actual physical keyboard hooked up] with Logic Audio as your sequencer, and Tascam\Nemesys GigaStudio as your playback device. Another sequencer is Cubase, but I wouldn't use that [nothing wrong with the program, I just don't like it so much myself]. Basically, these 3 tools are what are used by top-level music, film soundtrack and game music composers.

It does come with quite a hefty price-tag, so I guess it's not particularly worthwhile if you're not so interested in it as a hobby. A full software setup would cost around $5k, so I'm not so sure if it's in your defn of "free or not".

Basically though, you buy the actual 'instruments' [samples] that you want to use [again damn expensive], and then you can deal with these instruments transparently - so you don't just get either crap sounding exports from General MIDI, or dodgy sounds from some slightly smaller software synth. - the samples are almost indistinguishable from the actual real life instruments, but this comes at the cost of a library of samples filling up a 200gb hard drive easily.

All in all, IMO, GigaStudio and Logic Audio make the best possible combination for making good sounding music easily, but if it's worth it, I dunno.

//end rant

CJM

[edit : fixed some crap that didn't make sense.]

[edited by - CJM on April 26, 2004 3:45:50 AM]

"All in all, IMO, GigaStudio and Logic Audio make the best possible combination for making good sounding music easily, but if it''s worth it, I dunno."

If you''ve ever used GigaStudio, you''d know that it''s very difficult to use. Also, Pro Tools would be another one of the industry standards, not Logic.

I suggest FLStudio. I have been a die hard fan of it since I first started using it, and even having used Reason 2.5, Sonar 3, and Cubase SX 2, I still think it is by far the most intuitive and flexible.

ProTools LE is probably the best bet. an mBox is a great setup for something like this. stereo i/o, and now with all the bundled software that's included, you can make some cool stuff. Reason is OK at best. it's really good for getting ideas down, since you can jump around between the modules for drums, synths and samples without switching programs, but in the end, it just doesn't sound that good, especially the synths. you can get started with an mbox for 450, it'll give you 32 tracks in XP or OSX (24 in previous OS's). It all really boils down to what you mean by "make music". are you recording music from instruments, looping samples and clips, or are you thinking MIDI.

[edited blatant misspellings]
"CD quality" is an insult


[edited by - Salinger on April 27, 2004 3:10:31 PM]

If you have money to spend: Cubase, Kontakt, Absynth and tons of samples.

I vote for Buzz.. it is truly kick ass... and its free! It might be a daunting task to learn, but once you do... its like your best friend. I have put 7 years into it... and im still not bored, and i personally feel my music still gets better.