Anybody composed music on the computer before?

[enwar3]

I realized I don't know nearly enough to get started anything anywhere.

So here are my questions for people who have composed music before (electronic music projects, like Amethystium, Enigma maybe)..

1. What are the steps? Do you play a melody for one voice first, then a separate melody for a second voice, then mix them all together in a computer later on?

2. Kind of related to 1, but what equipment do I need? Keyboard/synthesizer? Workstation? What are all of these terms?

All I want to do is have something to play around with when I'm bored. I'm not looking to start a new career, so I can't afford thousand-dollar software or really expensive hardware. I just need to know where to start and what with.

 

[ed21x]

Sony Acid Music Studios and Sony Soundforge are both really good. The best beginning is to at least have a midi keyboard that connects to your computer. from there, you can start recording tracks and looping them and from there you can use software to manipulate, add reverb, layer, etc... I love Amethystium :thumbsup: check out some works by Marco Torrence, Deep Forest, etc... all good melodic atmospheric trance music. It use to be that you need alot of good hardware, but now, a good soundcard can already go a long way.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: enwar3
1. What are the steps? Do you play a melody for one voice first, then a separate melody for a second voice, then mix them all together in a computer later on?

That's up to you. Everybody works differently.

2. Kind of related to 1, but what equipment do I need? Keyboard/synthesizer? Workstation? What are all of these terms?

At the least you need a multitrack sequencer. FL Studio or Project 5 are two of the best for the all electronic musician. Both come with a suite of software synths. You can pick up free drum samples from the web.

Adding a midi keyboard will make melodies easier, but both apps have piano roll editors.

So, there you are. $100-200 and you can get busy. There are free options like Reaper combined with other free apps like Rebirth and whatnot, but there's going to be more setup and configuration involved.

 

[enwar3]

Originally posted by: ed21x
Sony Acid Music Studios and Sony Soundforge are both really good. The best beginning is to at least have a keyboard that connects to your computer. from there, you can start recording tracks and looping them and from there you can use software to manipulate, add reverb, layer, etc... I love Amethystium :thumbsup: check out some works by Marco Torrence, Deep Forest, etc... all good melodic atmospheric trance music.

So 1. get keyboard, 2. get software.

What kind of keyboard should I look for online? I hear words like synthesizer and keyboard workstation thrown around, but I can't figure out what the difference between, say, a synthesizer and a keyboard is.

The guy from Amethystium says he uses an Korg O1/W synthesizer.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: ed21x
Sony Acid Music Studios and Sony Soundforge are both really good. The best beginning is to at least have a keyboard that connects to your computer. from there, you can start recording tracks and looping them and from there you can use software to manipulate, add reverb, layer, etc... I love Amethystium :thumbsup: check out some works by Marco Torrence, Deep Forest, etc... all good melodic atmospheric trance music.

So 1. get keyboard, 2. get software.

What kind of keyboard should I look for online? I hear words like synthesizer and keyboard workstation thrown around, but I can't figure out what the difference between, say, a synthesizer and a keyboard is.

The guy from Amethystium says he uses an Korg O1/W synthesizer.

A midi keyboard will allow you to trigger software synths on your computer along with other functions of the sequencer and even drum kits. It can also be used to generate sounds from hardware sound modules. But the keyboard makes no sounds of its own. A synthesizer keyboard can generate sounds on its own....the quality of which usually depends on the price of the keyboard or your own engineering prowess. Many have midi controllers built into them as well and they're much more expensive, heavier, and bigger. The problem, of course, is that they are limited to the sounds in their own sound bank which can be spotty in quality and in how they mesh with your style and the style of your songs. So people who go the hardware route tend to have either a rack of hardware sound modules or a few keyboards for different sounds on different songs.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'd check out USB MIDI controllers for what you're looking at doing.

 

[enwar3]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: ed21x
Sony Acid Music Studios and Sony Soundforge are both really good. The best beginning is to at least have a keyboard that connects to your computer. from there, you can start recording tracks and looping them and from there you can use software to manipulate, add reverb, layer, etc... I love Amethystium :thumbsup: check out some works by Marco Torrence, Deep Forest, etc... all good melodic atmospheric trance music.

So 1. get keyboard, 2. get software.

What kind of keyboard should I look for online? I hear words like synthesizer and keyboard workstation thrown around, but I can't figure out what the difference between, say, a synthesizer and a keyboard is.

The guy from Amethystium says he uses an Korg O1/W synthesizer.

A midi keyboard will allow you to trigger software synths on your computer along with other functions of the sequencer and even drum kits. It can also be used to generate sounds from hardware sound modules. But the keyboard makes no sounds of its own. A synthesizer keyboard can generate sounds on its own....the quality of which usually depends on the price of the keyboard or your own engineering prowess. Many have midi controllers built into them as well and they're much more expensive, heavier, and bigger. The problem, of course, is that they are limited to the sounds in their own sound bank which can be spotty in quality and in how they mesh with your style and the style of your songs. So people who go the hardware route tend to have either a rack of hardware sound modules or a few keyboards for different sounds on different songs.

So you're saying if I can't afford an expensive keyboard, don't get one?

If I wanted to be able to sequence drums to go with the music, would I be fine with FL or would I have to pick up a keyboard?

Thanks for your help so far btw.. this is really informative.

 

[enwar3]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
I'd check out USB MIDI controllers for what you're looking at doing.

When people say MIDI controllers, are the voices 90s MIDI quality? Because I used to use a MIDI piano roll sequencer and it didn't sound CLOSE to realistic. It could've been my soundcard though? Has MIDI gotten better?

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
I'd check out USB MIDI controllers for what you're looking at doing.

When people say MIDI controllers, are the voices 90s MIDI quality? Because I used to use a MIDI piano roll sequencer and it didn't sound CLOSE to realistic. It could've been my soundcard though? Has MIDI gotten better?

You're thinking of General MIDI which included a really crappy required base sound suite. Forget that. That's not MIDI. MIDI is just a signal. The MIDI keyboard JUST sends a signal. The signal is received by an instrument (sofwater, keyboard, sound module) which plays whatever note the MIDI signal said to play.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: ed21x
Sony Acid Music Studios and Sony Soundforge are both really good. The best beginning is to at least have a keyboard that connects to your computer. from there, you can start recording tracks and looping them and from there you can use software to manipulate, add reverb, layer, etc... I love Amethystium :thumbsup: check out some works by Marco Torrence, Deep Forest, etc... all good melodic atmospheric trance music.

So 1. get keyboard, 2. get software.

What kind of keyboard should I look for online? I hear words like synthesizer and keyboard workstation thrown around, but I can't figure out what the difference between, say, a synthesizer and a keyboard is.

The guy from Amethystium says he uses an Korg O1/W synthesizer.

A midi keyboard will allow you to trigger software synths on your computer along with other functions of the sequencer and even drum kits. It can also be used to generate sounds from hardware sound modules. But the keyboard makes no sounds of its own. A synthesizer keyboard can generate sounds on its own....the quality of which usually depends on the price of the keyboard or your own engineering prowess. Many have midi controllers built into them as well and they're much more expensive, heavier, and bigger. The problem, of course, is that they are limited to the sounds in their own sound bank which can be spotty in quality and in how they mesh with your style and the style of your songs. So people who go the hardware route tend to have either a rack of hardware sound modules or a few keyboards for different sounds on different songs.

So you're saying if I can't afford an expensive keyboard, don't get one?

If I wanted to be able to sequence drums to go with the music, would I be fine with FL or would I have to pick up a keyboard?

Thanks for your help so far btw.. this is really informative.

Uh, don't buy anything you can't afford period.

Even if you could afford it, you need to make sure any keyboard you buy has enough sounds in it's catalog that you like to make it worth the expense. Aside from any parameters it allows you to tweak, which may be a lot, you're stuck with what it has.

Any software with a step sequencer is going to be easy for creating drum beats. FL Studio's claim to fame has always been the predominance of the step sequencer in their program. You don't need a keyboard...even a MIDI keyboard. A MIDI keyboard would just help with free-styling the synthesizer sounds in your songs.

Go search youtube for fl studio and check out some of those videos and download the demo. If you don't like it then you'll know what to look for in a competing product.

 

[enwar3]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
I'd check out USB MIDI controllers for what you're looking at doing.

When people say MIDI controllers, are the voices 90s MIDI quality? Because I used to use a MIDI piano roll sequencer and it didn't sound CLOSE to realistic. It could've been my soundcard though? Has MIDI gotten better?

You're thinking of General MIDI which included a really crappy required base sound suite. Forget that. That's not MIDI. MIDI is just a signal. The MIDI keyboard JUST sends a signal. The signal is received by an instrument (sofwater, keyboard, sound module) which plays whatever note the MIDI signal said to play.

Ok, the more I read the more I started to realize that MIDI was just an interface. So what produces the actual synthesized sound? Software like FL? So then how realistic certain voices sound (synthesized flute, drums) depends on how good your software is, right?

I know this must be frustrating for you. I felt kind of stupid too, when I realized MIDI doesn't include actual sounds.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
I'd check out USB MIDI controllers for what you're looking at doing.

When people say MIDI controllers, are the voices 90s MIDI quality? Because I used to use a MIDI piano roll sequencer and it didn't sound CLOSE to realistic. It could've been my soundcard though? Has MIDI gotten better?

You're thinking of General MIDI which included a really crappy required base sound suite. Forget that. That's not MIDI. MIDI is just a signal. The MIDI keyboard JUST sends a signal. The signal is received by an instrument (sofwater, keyboard, sound module) which plays whatever note the MIDI signal said to play.

Ok, the more I read the more I started to realize that MIDI was just an interface. So what produces the actual synthesized sound? Software like FL? So then how realistic certain voices sound (synthesized flute, drums) depends on how good your software is, right?

I know this must be frustrating for you. I felt kind of stupid too, when I realized MIDI doesn't include actual sounds.

The SB Audigy supports SoundsFonts, which are pretty much exactly what they sound like.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: enwar3

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
I'd check out USB MIDI controllers for what you're looking at doing.

When people say MIDI controllers, are the voices 90s MIDI quality? Because I used to use a MIDI piano roll sequencer and it didn't sound CLOSE to realistic. It could've been my soundcard though? Has MIDI gotten better?

You're thinking of General MIDI which included a really crappy required base sound suite. Forget that. That's not MIDI. MIDI is just a signal. The MIDI keyboard JUST sends a signal. The signal is received by an instrument (sofwater, keyboard, sound module) which plays whatever note the MIDI signal said to play.

Ok, the more I read the more I started to realize that MIDI was just an interface. So what produces the actual synthesized sound? Software like FL? So then how realistic certain voices sound (synthesized flute, drums) depends on how good your software is, right?

I know this must be frustrating for you. I felt kind of stupid too, when I realized MIDI doesn't include actual sounds.

The sound is generated by whatever the midi keyboard sends a signal to. It could be software, it could be an synthesizer keyboard, it could be a sound module (essentially a synthesizer without keys) or a sampler (hardware or software). If it's anything hardware, though, you're going to need an audio interface to get the sound into the multi track sequencer.

FL Studio comes with a small suite of software synthesizers. You don't need a keyboard to make the sounds....you can edit the piano roll (like you were describing in your other thread where you pick the notes and it plays them). A keyboard just makes it a more intuitive and faster way to try sounds before adding them to the track or to record them to a track.

 

[hellokeith]

FL Studio and Adobe Audition should be about all the software you'd need for a long time.

If you are planning on recording live instruments, the baseline EMU USB products are great bang-for-the-buck. Pickup a Shure SM57 mic and go to town.

I had a great Yamaha keyboard (midi compliant of course) that I picked up on eBay for ~$200 and later sold for ~$200, did everything I needed it to do in FL Studio.

HydrogenAudio, HeadFi, and AVSForum are good resources for online discussion of audio science and audio gear.

 

[CptObvious]

I don't know about most people, but I don't feel very inspired to play/compose music on a computer. I would get a small keyboard or synth first, learn it, and then worry about recording/MIDI.

Maybe a MicroKorg or Alesis Micron would fit your needs.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: CptObvious
I don't know about most people, but I don't feel very inspired to play/compose music on a computer. I would get a small keyboard or synth first, learn it, and then worry about recording/MIDI.

Maybe a MicroKorg or Alesis Micron would fit your needs.

For me and a lot of guys, the power and ease of the computer interface, including being able to see everything on the screen all at once, is liberating. Not to mention many of us spend so much time on computers that they're really comfortable. Really you can't even come close to the things you can do on a computer being able to sample and record and compose and splice and sample terabytes of sounds with a couple mouse clicks.

 

[Kirby]

Yeah, I fool around in FL Studio a bit. But I think a cheap keyboard and midi controller would work out good for you. I'm thinking about getting one just to make what I'm doing now a bit faster.