Greetings! I am an aspiring game programmer. For a class project, I'm creating a simple game using Gamemaker. This is for my introduction to game and simulation class. Later on, I hope to be making more advanced games and will be studying programming. For this project I went ahead and made my own graphics. (Beware the developer art!) I want to make my own sounds and background music as well. Basically, I know that the right-side of my brain is a little underdeveloped, but I want to understand a little more about the process of adding audio to my games. The questions I'm having are, should I go out and buy a keyboard and create my music that way or use software? The game I'm creating is a retro-style space themed game. The music can sound futuristic, so it doesn't have to be super-instrumental. Even though my game for this project is very simple, I will more than likely use the same audio setup for several games throughout my academic career. I am willing to spend a little time figuring out software if need be, but my project is due by the end of this term, so nothing super complex. Any advice for a cheap but easy to use audio set-up would be appreciated!

If you want something flexible and affordable, do yourself a huge favor and go buy FL Studio.

www.flstudio.com

It has everything you will need for your project, and there are tons of sites out there that have free VSTi's (virtual synthesizers) to download. It's a lot more affordable and intuitive than Reason, no matter what people are going to tell you. It is also a lot more flexible than Reason, which doesn't play well with most of the free software out there.

FL Studio has come a long way! I agree. However I also fine Reason to be quite good as well. Just depends on work flow and personal taste.

From my perspective, Reason, at least the version I tried long ago, was geared toward people transitioning from hardware to software as it emulates the rack setup.

I would say, start by exploring MIDI.

FLStudio might be a way to go, but you might also see if you can find an old copy of Noteworthy composer or another free MIDI editor. Try it out, play around.

I'm in a similar situation to you. I've been learning csound and pretty happy with it as for audio.

Quote: Original post by Mellyjean
The questions I'm having are, should I go out and buy a keyboard and create my music that way or use software?

It's worth noting that it's very common to use both together: the keyboard is what you physically play, but the software produces the noises as you play. The keyboard just sends note information to the computer rather than audio information. So if you get a cheap MIDI controller keyboard, it will be continue to be useful as you acquire more software instruments.

I find the piano MIDI controller greatly speeds up the process for me. I'm an advanced piano player- but I've noticed the same trend with novice piano players in my audio dept as well. It seems to flow much better than the "point and click" mouse method.

Depending on the quality and size of keyboard you want- the price can vary greatly. I've seen some very standard, decent boards for about $100. Something to consider.

Thanks,

Nathan

Hi,

It depends on your budget and what you want to achieve..

There are two sides to this.. the way you input the notes, and the sounds themselves. You have lots of options for free in both cases, and imho it is worth try these before shelling out any significant amount to see how far you want to go with it.

You can go a long way using trackers.. e.g. madtracker. Years ago a lot of people started this way. They are probably the cheapest option, and are fine to use from just your computer keyboard.. but can suffer from a difficult learning curve until you 'get' the interface). On the plus side, they tend to be free and once mastered can get you a very long way.

Generally though, computer musicians will use a midi keyboard of some kind and a sequencer/DAW to record the notes. In this case you probably need to buy both - although if you look around you can get a deal for a cheap midi keyboard bundled with enough software to get you started..


As for sound sources there are literally hundreds of free VST instruments and effects nowadays you can use in either trackers (some) or sequencers (most). And most DAW software will be bundled with something to make a noise too.


Which you decide on depends on what you want out of it.. if it could be a long term thing.. maybe better go straight to a keyboard + DAW, if you just want to mess with loops and sounds you could go for something free like a tracker.