Aether Musician Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Hey all, I know this might not be the exact right website to ask this, but I've lurked here a bit in the past, and know it has to do with music and video games. Anyway, I'm a composer (a music education major currently, but I've been composing for years), and I've been looking into doing some actual projects and commissions. My only problem is that I have no idea on the hardware I need. I can write music, but I want to orchestrate it digitally, and I don't know how. I have Finale 2012 (Recent upgrade from Finale Allegro, so I'm not 100% comfortable with it yet), and I know it comes with a sound library, but it's not the same quality as the music you usually see in indie video games or films. Doing lots of (mostly futile) research, it seems I need a soundboard for mixing? But considering I hardly know what mixing is, I want to ask for some advice on what programs and hardware I may need to get started properly, with some decent sounding music. tl;dr is basically I want to write music for indie games/films, and I don't know what programs or hardware I need. Also, in case this was missed, I AM a composer, and have been composing for a while. But a pencil and staff paper doesn't make music without the proper instrument! Thanks! ~~aem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 If you want to get started producing orchestral music from your computer you need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that can handle your samples. Finale can actually work, but it's not the best tool for that job (though for score writing it's one of the best). If you want to stick with it, though, then find some appropriate orchestral VSTi's online, or buy something like EWQL Orchestra, and try to learn how to connect the VSTi's to your different lines of your score. I can't be more specific because I'm actually a Sibelius user, not a Finale user. I would personally invest in another DAW, though, as using a scoring program as a DAW has it's limits. Many people here use Fruityloops, Cubase or Reaper as their primary DAW, and I suggest those for writing orchestral music. There's also Reason, but from my personal experience I wouldn't suggest it for orchestral music (their samples are ok, but it can't accept most of the better sample libraries out there). Best of luck, I hope that's enough to get started with. Also, you should spend some time meandering in the Tutorial section - that'll probably have more details on what you need and how to use these tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Check out the following panel video we did at MAGfest: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Musician Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 Check out the following panel video we did at MAGfest: Thanks for the link! Very informative and helpful! Unfortunately it's not very useful to me at this stage, as I don't even know how to get to that point. If I wasn't clear enough before, let me try again, haha! I'm a musician and composer. I've been in music pretty much all my life. But I'm limited to "real" music. I've written for bands, and I've conducted, etc... But that's it. I KNOW music, but I don't know computers. All I know how to do on computers is typing, simple music notation on Finale, and how to play Team Fortress 2. I know Gario is trying to help, but most of what you said doesn't compute. I don't know what a Digital Audio Workstation is, or what I need it for. I've kind of gathered that Finale isn't good for composition like this, but I don't understand why, as it's one of the best notation programs. So I'm sorry if this is a bad place to ask, but I really don't know where to go for a complete beginner like myself. I'm confident in my composition ability (As I've composed a lot), I just am completely clueless on the computer side of things. (And I did look at the tutorial section, but nothing there explained what I needed, and many of the tutorials were broken links...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 "I wanna be a taxi driver. I know every street in city x and its surroundings by heart, I know all the right routes to avoid getting stuck in traffic, I'm great with people, I'm attentive in traffic and know the traffic laws... But what do I do to drive? What are wheels?" I'm working on a guide that should help you get started. While it's geared towards remixing game music ocr-style, most of the guide is just about music in general: writing, production, all that stuff. It's a work in progress, but I think I'm only missing a chapter on recording before I go into finalizing it - so the parts you'll need to get started are all there. Here's the link. (I wouldn't mind feedback on it - is it helping, what parts are too complicated, did I miss something important, did you spot an error, etc.. It's preferred, but not required.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I am a teacher here: http://www.pinnaclecollege.edu/ We have probably one of the best game audio programs in the country. You will learn everything you need to know to create music and sound for games, film, and television. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickomoo Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 The best thing to do to pratice composing in a Daw is to do covers or remixes of songs that you know, that way you get familar with your equipment With regards to equipment you have a computer all you need is a DAW (digital audio workstation). If you own a mac, they should come with garageband right? if not there's a "freeware" windows equivalent called mixcraft. Mixcraft is literally plug and play, it's what I've been using, though to mix mp3s after 2 weeks you'll probably wanna buy it it's only $80 which is fairly cheap for DAWs, and honestly I don't know any free ones... er Fruity Loops and Reaper are rather cheap if I recall. The thing is of course when you get your feet wet and you're well grounded, you'll probably wanna move on to a better DAW, logic cubase, hell even pro tools if you're feeling confident. DAWs run Vsts or virtual instruments which are either synths (sounds very commonly found in modern/pop music) or sampled (actually recorded from an instrument that has a player). I'm bringing this up because you can actually buy libraries of virtual instruments, and a good DAW should be able to run ones outside of the program's initial library (mixcraft can, but fyi it can get laggy depending on your comp, more powerful DAWs have no problem usually). In addition to a DAW you'll probably want a midi keyboard/controler. If you're family has any electric pianos or keyboards they should plug up to your computer. If not, keyboards can be fairly cheap especially if you're just starting out. If you're really bold though you could just use a computer mouse and computer keyboard. It's best to look up some digital audio workstations and see which one looks good for you. In addition to those you might need some virtual instruments which there exist free ones but the really high quality ones are expensive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.