I'm hoping to find a pack of musical notes. Piano, Drums, Guitar, etc. The game I'm trying to put together, I'd like to have certain actions play different instrumental notes depending on the actions, timing, and so on. So, I really just need a large library of instrumental sounds rather than explosions, background music, or the like. Any advice on where I could find anything, preferably royalty free? I'm just a hobbyist when it comes to this kind of thing, so I'd really prefer fewer sounds for free than a large library that costs me. Thanks for any and all help, Mythics [Edited by - Mythics on November 17, 2009 11:00:56 AM]

The University of Iowa has recorded samples of many instruments, which to my understanding are royalty free for any purpose. Check them out here.

Glad to know someone's referencing this website. Wonderful resource!

From the site:

"Please feel free to use these samples in your research or music projects without restriction. You may also cite as a reference, link to our page from another web page, or provide a link in a publication using the following URL:"

Try this link.

http://www.kiarchive.ru/pub/misc/sounds/

Site's disclaimer.

It was mentioned in this thread btw. You need tracking software like FastTracker or ModPlug to be able to use them though. You can play specific notes with ModPlug Tracker and convert to wave files too if you need to.

Well you could always go the MIDI route. Of course MIDI doesn't sound realistic.

I would recommend the software 'Guitar Pro 5' though. It's a program mainly used for tabbing out stringed instruments, though it does have an on-screen keyboard (musical kind) and if you shell out the $60 (well worth it IMO) for the full version you get the RSE (Realistic Sound Engine) Which basically replaces the corny MIDI sounds that comes standard with Guitar Pro 5 demo and GP4 and below, with 'realistic' versions. The program also allows you to export to a variety of different formats such as WAV, MIDI, MP3 etc.

So, if you were looking to get a certain note and have it sound real for your game....you could easily open GP5 w/RSE, tab that single note out on the fretboard (or use the keyboard tool if you're not familiar with where the notes are on the guitar) and export it to MP3.

Anyway here's a link to the GP5 site.

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

And heres a link to some details about the RSE complete with MIDI examples and their RSE versions.

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php?pg=product-sound-examples

Oh and by the way, the RSE covers keyboard/piano, guitar (electric and acoustic), and drums/percussion. I think it may cover a few other variations also like banjos and ukuleles but I'm not really sure. I generally use it for guitar, piano, and drum arrangements.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Oh yeah, and it's also allows you to choose things like clean or distorted guitar and all that. Plus it has the added benefit of allowing you to choose the note duration which a 'library of instrumental sounds' wouldn't. I mean...you could take a clip out of said library and cut it down to the proper length but then it's gonna sound half-assed, as the note wont strike, ring out, and fade away. Just my 2-cents. I know you were looking for something free. But this is somewhat cheap and if you play any instruments, like to work with MIDI, or just like composing in general its definitely a worthy buy.

If you want to play this kind of stuff, learnt the blues scales and popular riffs. You can get the chords easily enough from any guitar website - start from there. Listen to the base line, then just play around with the chord voicings!


[Edited by - jpetrie on December 15, 2009 11:55:30 PM]