I don't have any background or experience with music in general. Never played nor learned an instrument before and don't know much about audio other than that stereo is to have sound coming from different places, usually Left/ Right, while mono is to have all the sound coming from both sides, or through all audio devices or all audio only from one at the same time. Sorry if it seems silly, it's just a part of my life that I really never thought of delving into.

But as I get more into independent game development as my life hobby, and currently my only main goal - 

I'm married, father of two, never really worried and at the moment I really don't have to worry much about money

- the more I see that if I intent to follow this path alone, to do smaller, more concept like projects, I will have to be a one man team, learning and sharping different skill sets. So I ask you guys:

Where should I start? What software do you recommend(open source or only free would be nice)? Any place interesting to hang around to learn? Any good Articles?

 

Thank you in advance.

?????️?️???

8 hours ago, Somar said:

Where should I start?

If you want to be a musician for games, learn several musical instruments and post great music on YouTube and build a portfolio site. If you want to do audio engineering for games, get a technical audio-related degree, learn a LOT more than the difference between mono and stereo, and start networking. Join GANG (Gang Audio Network Guild). Volunteer to do audio on our Hobby Project Classifieds. Make mistakes, learn.

Look, I understand the importance of audio in general, both for engineering and for music, I am not underrating it. I really never had the opportunity, when I was younger, to learn, and never really got much interest into it. I am really fond of music and I hear it a lot, every day, the classics like Vivaldi, and even modern music(apart from pop). Audio is also one of the most important things when it comes to enjoying a play-through. But I don't really think I want to focus all my learning resources on it, I am also not looking into a technical degree or building a big music focused portfolio.

As I've stated before, I want to learn the basics, so I can have a base ground to finish my projects without having to use free audio or without doing something ugly and wrong.

I am not looking into professional, just amateur basic stuff to get me started.

1 hour ago, Somar said:

I am not looking into professional, just amateur basic stuff to get me started.

Moving to the audio forum.

On 7/2/2019 at 1:33 AM, Somar said:

- the more I see that if I intent to follow this path alone, to do smaller, more concept like projects, I will have to be a one man team, learning and sharping different skill sets. So I ask you guys:

Where should I start? What software do you recommend(open source or only free would be nice)? Any place interesting to hang around to learn? Any good Articles?

Let me challenge this - WHY? Why do you have to be a one man team? 

It's fine if you WANT to be a one man team but if you're doing everything else, then surely you can find a young(er) composer that would be willing to work for you. At cheap or even free with an exchange of services kind of deal. 

If you really want to learn because you just want to learn then what I would do is get some DAWs (tons of free demo versions out there) and begin to learn how to use them. Then get some sounds to use in the DAW (some DAWs come with bundled sounds and effects, so do some digging). 

From there, once you have a DAW and some sounds to use, begin making your own short songs. At first it could be just 10 seconds long and one voice. Then later it could be more voices and longer songs. If you feel like you're starting to get some traction then at this point I'd suggest learning some music theory. The reason why I suggest music theory after some experimentation with actual composition is because music theory (for some) can be dull. Very academic. But if you've already started playing around with short compositions and enjoyed it, then learning music theory can become an easier task. 

And music theory is just the labeling of items in music. Labeling the notes - the chords, the approaches and structure. Labeling the methods of performance and the rules. And all of the rules can be broken but it helps to know them, why they exist and how you can best break them. 

But if all of that doesn't appeal to you then I'd go back to my original suggestion. Just work with someone's else - be it someone you hired or music you license. Hope that helps. 

Thanks, that helps a lot.

3 hours ago, nsmadsen said:

It's fine if you WANT to be a one man team but if you're doing everything else, then surely you can find a young(er) composer that would be willing to work for you. At cheap or even free with an exchange of services kind of deal. 

I never really thought of looking for a younger composer that would be willing to work for me. I am pretty sure there would be many willing to do the work for the experience and fun of it. As my goal is really not earning money which I wouldn't decline I am not inclined to pay for the art and this has lots of repercussions, I - for example - can't expect to have someone always eager to work when they are not going to be paid. There is also going to be real like work and other life issues behind the schedule. I also wouldn't have the control I'd like over the style of the music and audio in general.

So I would say I'd prefer to be a one man team, as this is more of a hobby thing which I usually spend more than 10 hours a day. 

I've read a little about Music Theory, learned a bit or two about notes, and noticed that it wasn't really what I was looking for, although no less interesting. Digital Audio Theory was what I was looking for. I wanted to learn about Decibels, Hertz, Amplitude, Wavelength, etc... in my previous project every audio was completely different from each other. I've made the audio for the enemies using Audacity, and I didn't keep a look for a common Amplitude or etc... so there was a lot of code done just for rearranging audio, it was really a pain. Music Theory is also important as I intent on making my own music, nothing fancy, but I'd like to at least follow the rules of music and learn as I walk.

About the DAW, I am still searching for something unfortunately I've been stuck with a 16kbps connection for the past 10 days. I've downloaded FreePiano and had LMMS and other software like FamiTracker and Bosca Ceoil wich I love for its simplicity.

17 hours ago, Somar said:

I never really thought of looking for a younger composer that would be willing to work for me. I am pretty sure there would be many willing to do the work for the experience and fun of it

This is totally cool. Check it out - there's bound to be tons. One bit of clarification, just in case, is that I personally only advocate working for free on hobby projects. I don't like seeing young(er) composers and sound designers working for free on commercial projects simply because they're young and/or inexperienced. 

So my personal mantra is if no one gets paid - work for free. If someone gets paid, everyone should get paid. It's just my personal mantra but I'm throwing it out there as something for you to consider if you begin collaborating with other composers on your projects. Best of luck! 

30 minutes ago, nsmadsen said:

So my personal mantra is if no one gets paid - work for free. If someone gets paid, everyone should get paid. It's just my personal mantra but I'm throwing it out there as something for you to consider if you begin collaborating with other composers on your projects.

I see. I think the same way. I would never do such a thing and that is why I wouldn't like to hire someone. For now It's a hobby thing, that's why I like the control and I'd like to see something 100% made by me first, I also don't know if I would have the ability to transform this into something profitable. But if I would, I would 100% hire someone to do something really nice.

Cool, best of luck man! 

There are many types of audio that I know, so you need to go to the audio forum and ask them.

Telefon Zil Sesleri