So I'm finding out that there's actually quite a few composers on this forum. More than I initially thought, anyway. So I wanted to know what everyone uses, mainly out of curiosity, but also to get some suggestions.

I use TabIt, because I started out on guitar and it was the first program I got. Sure, I can read standard notation, but I was really into guitar back then.  I still use it because of how much freedom it gives you. It lets you use the pitch bend and modulation whenever you want to, and however you want to. GuitarPro, for one, has a pitch bend and modulation feature, but TabIt lets you use them unrealistically, and I love that. It doesn't bind you to rules of rhythm or anything like that, it just lets you write and it's completely up to you to do it professionally. So if you don't know what you're doing, your song will sound like crap. For example, you could accidentally add a 1/4 of a beat into a measure (if you're an idiot ) and TabIt wouldn't correct you. I like that, because I can't even figure out how to change time signature mid-song in Sibelius.
Also, the other, more professional programs make you set everything up before hand. You choose your key, tempo, time signature, and instrument sets in the beginning, and it's a little difficult to add new instruments in or change time signatures and whatnot later on, so basically you have to know exactly what you're going to write BEFORE you write it. (Again, I'm saying this out of inexperience of Sibelius and GuitarPro, but that in itself gives TabIt another advantage: ridiculously easy of use. Especially for a person that started out on guitar.) Also, writing percussion parts in Sibelius and GuitarPro is an endurance trial through fire compared to doing in it TabIt.

But TabIt does have a few drawbacks. Much like in the way that TabIt will not make your song sound professional, YOU must do that yourself, TabIt also does nothing to make your song sound realistic. Again, that is something you must learn to do yourself. Both by using volume changes and mastering the art of bending to make things sound realistic, and taking into account the subtleties of real instruments, and also by getting a soundcard that has a good soundfont set. Right, TabIt has no RSE like GuitarPro does. It runs solely on the MIDI that you provide for it. This is the reason (pun) why I'm looking into other programs. Like Reason. My soundfont set is pretty decent, but it's not high-quality, and most people aren't able to look past the sound of the instruments in the song and listen to the writing itself unless they've also been in your situation. Also, even though you can make your song sound very professional in TabIt, the REAL professionals do not see TabIt as professional at all. I'm not going to get into a debate about this, but I can see why they think this, the major reason being TabIt is in tablature format, and has no standard notation format.

So I'm downloading Reason now, and I'm going to give that a try, because I've heard great things about it and what it can do for more modern-styled songs. What I may end up doing it writing in TabIt, exporting midi, and pumping it through Reason, but that all depends on how easy it is to write with Reason.

So, uh, what do you guys use?

I use TabIt, and love it pretty much for the same reasons arlen does. What I make in it usually isn't actual guitar or rock stuff, more orchestral, but I like how even though TabIt is designed for guitar stuff, I can do my kinda thing anyway.

I've got no need to look for any other tool, seeing as I have the tools required to take the simple MIDI output from TabIt and make it sound awesome. I've wrote a guide answering most of the questions I was asked about it.

Poll Expanded ~

+Sticky, seeing as this is a general intrest thread.

I started using Noteworthy Composer, which is better than most people think. If you can read standard notation anyway. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy and you can do almost anything you'd need to for a MIDI with it.

Now I use Finale, which does everything. Even if you can't read notation, you can just write in tabs, or a combination of both, or whatever. I'm actually teaching myself to read tabs this way: just write in notation, and then copy and paste it into tabs, and then I know what the notation would be if it were written in tabs. And you can do the pitch bends and modulation on instruments, like mentioned before. It also plays the music in a certain style, for example Rock. It will then play the song with all the

Heh, I was gonna add Anvil to the list, but I forgot if that's really what it was called.

Yeah, TabIt works for just about everything. I've used to it write orchestral, rock, experimental, metal, and even techno. <3 TabIt.

TabIt, and only TabIt. It's so intuitive, and there's a bunch you can do with it. I'd like to try other programs, but I probably wouldn't use any nearly as much.

As it turns out, Reason works really well as a counter-part to a program like TabIt. All you have to do is do ALL the writing you're prepared to do, and with all the detail you're prepared to put in, in TabIt. Then export the midi, and pump it through Reason with some sweet soundfonts, and even add some crazy effects, if you want. I even found the work-around to the "doesn't recognize bends" problem some people on TabIt have complained about. You just have to set the max bend to 24 for each instrument, and then everything's perfecto.

So I take it reason is a program for playing MIDIs through Soundfonts and allowing the use of VST effects?

I use SynthFont, which does pretty much that. SynthFont recognises modulation/bends perfectly =D

Well so does Reason, but there's a small amount of in-between-work you have to do, first, and I guess most people just expect it to be done automatically for them.

Here's a question for you composers: does there exist anywhere on the vast internet a distorted guitar sample that doesn't suck ass?

If you know how to use VST instruments, then the FL Slayer included with FruityLoops is actually pretty awesome.

You can pick a track in SynthFont and make it be played through a VSTi, so it's all good.

As for guitar soundfonts, I went through Hammersound's collection of guitar SFs once and didn't find anything particularly good =\

Yeah, I've been disappointed by hammersound as well. :x

I might as well just record the guitar parts myself, heh.

Finale does all of those things too, much easier I might add.

I had a distorted guitar soundfont once that was great. It was quite large though; it was a recording of a Jackson. But, sadly, I don't have it any more. I could have swore I got it off of hammersound, but I'm thinking now I didn't. They have a Jackson guitar soundfont there too, but it's not as good as the one I found.

Hmmm. This post seems quite inflammatory. As if you're saying "who needs computer programs, I write music on my real guitar."
So I guess I'll show you up.

Washburn W1-24 electric.

Worth about $400.

Some crappy squire acoustic.
You don't need a picture of that.
Worth about $80.

A Taylor Acoustic. Tilt your head.

My uncle sent it to me. He's a bit of a collector, the rich bastard. :O
He said he knew someone willing to pay $3000 for it. It sounds gorgeous. :cry:


And aside from those, I have ...

An SX 5-string, fretless bass.
An upright acoustic piano. (But who doesn't have a piano?)
And an old Casio keyboard, hehe.



but if that's not what you were implying, then you have my apologies.

You are a very lucky man arlen. If I didn't have to move from apartment to apartment, I could have been one HELL of a musician at this point... :'(

eh? My parents are divorced, and live 4 hours apart, and I've moved back and forth between TWO colleges. It didn't exactly stop me. :O

Yes, but when you live in APARTMENTS you can't play at a reasonable volume, or have nice things like pianos...

Arrow, that's no excuse. Get yourself a keyboard, USB guitar, and digital drum pad and you're set.

...USB Guitar? I had completely forgotten about digi drum pads though, that is going on my purchase list now.

Well, just something to plug your guitar input to USB, so that you can just play through computer speakers and not have to lug an amp around.

Ah, I see. Does it improve the sound quality? I have been running my guitar into my amp, then an audio dubbing cable (which for me is a swiss army knife, basically) out of the headphone jack and into the mic input. Will a USB input make the sound better or worse?

You run it into the amp, and THEN into your computer? Definitely go USB then. The whole point is to NOT have to lug an amp around. Plus there's software that can do anything an amp will (read thread title for clues on where to find said software).

Why USB ?_? I just use a standard guitar lead and a cheapo 25p converter to convert it to a standard mini plug on the other end. Then you can just put that in your mic / line-in and use software to add effects or distortion.

[edit] picture because I can

Makes sense.

Muchas gracias mi amigo, I'll look into that.

Double posted because I have no idea of what else to do...Where can I get stuff like Tab-it and Finale, REGISTERED, (as in, do you have one I could steal from you?) and quickly? I'll wait on it to download for a pretty long time if I HAVE to, but I would rather not...

 

Finale can easily be found if you look for a torrent. Although I got mine from Silverline. If you don't know how to read music, I'd stick with Tabit or something else though (Although you can just write everything in tabs on Finale if you wanted to.). Finale's pretty complicated for the casual user unfortunately. Or you might want to look into Sibelius, it's more user-friendly.

EDIT: What happened to the poll? *Adding poll.* Add any more you can think of if I've forgotten Silverline.

I use garage band which is not up there because i think your a bunch of retarded fucktards.

lol i do not really mean this, im just probly high off this pen cap, which has ink that i have been inhaling into my system.
Wow, this really enjoyable, even though I have short pains in my stomach.

Well, there's way too many to remember them all. lol, pen junkie.

I got this thing called Synthfont. My hatred for MIDI has officially melted...

Heh, I use synthfont.

You might want to find freeverb, a ree reverb VST effect and use that with synthfont.

Also, 2 awesome soundfonts I've uploaded HERE ~

Sometimes I use the Fluid soundfont in that link. I remember you gave it to me a while back. It's pretty good. I use that or the SoftSynth that comes with Finale, which is pretty good as well. That is, when I'm writing music for games. Otherwise I use Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Jazz & Big Band, and Virtual Drumline: 2.

Thank you so much guys...are there any realistic...ish sounding guitar fonts out there? I figured I could use tabit, export to a midi, then use a font on it. In addition to THAT, I'm gonna try and use midis for my games now, so would anyone know where to get a good SNES font? I got this one by a guy called Setzer, but it's mostly for stuff like FF and Chrono Trigger...

Check www.hammersound.net

Most of the stuff there is individual instrument fonts though, so unless you can load multiple soundfonts, it may not help out. There was one guitar there that sounded great, but I don't remember which it was.

Other than that, almost all of them suck. I have Garritan Jazz & Big Band, and it comes with an electric guitar, but it's jazz, so it's not very well suited for rock. But I'm going to try and find something to add distortion to it to see how it turns out.

Thanks man, but the page doesn't seem to load for me...

Try this http://hammersound.net/cgi-bin/soundlink.pl

That did it. And thanks for the links, fluid and Tabit kick so much ass...

You can make synthfont use samples from as many different soundfonts you like :3 sometimes when I record stuff I use different instruments from both SGM and Fluid.

Well, I can't figure that out...how does one go about using multiple ofnts at once? I could only select one in the settings...does it involve that Vienna thing? And even if it doesn't, where would I find the Vienna Sound Font Editor?

Thanks Silverline, I was wondering what that was for...

BTW, you may or may not care, but I think that that fluid soundfont was used for the Music in Mega Man X8...

How do I do the slides and stuff in tabit? I read through the help file, and then I experimented, but to no avail...

Slides are done by gradually bending the pitch of a single instrument down or up. Meh, I'll just tell you on MSN.

Revoted.

TabIt, Finale, Reason, Noteworthy Composer, and Anvil Studio.


Speaking of Finale, how do I create tracks that play DIFFERENT instruments? I can make as many tracks as needed, but for some reason they all stay the same instrument. When I change one, I change all of them. It doesn't make any sense.
I mean, maybe some people can just compose without hearing the piece, but that's just not how I roll, B.

It's midi right? Set the tracks to different channels, that should do it.

It doesn't. Setting track 2 to channel 2 changes track 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and every other track you have created, to channel 2.

Needs more HaloOfTheSun

I think I may know the answer :O

In the Setup Wizard, make sure the "Use a separate channel for each staff" box is checked.

Also, in the Instrument List (Go to Window, then find "Instrument List"), make sure all the tracks are set to different instruments, and no I'm not talking about MIDI instruments.

For example, if Flute and Oboe are set to Flute, then no matter what channel you set Flute to, the Oboe will be set to that too, and they'll both either have a Flute or Oboe sound. You have to click the drop box under "Instruments", and select New Instrument, if they are all in fact the set to the same.

Check the pictures to clear up the confusing way I explained it.

Oh my god. Why the hell does a notation program have a "Use a separate channel for each staff" option? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

edit: thx

Where do I get Finale, I'm trying to get all of the good programs. (And any others that are good and not named Tabit or Synthfont, I have those all ready.)

I went out and bought Finale because we get a discount here at Duquesne, and I was afraid that pirating it might screw me over in the end. Like, for example, it's probably against the school honor policy (which is very strong, here) since Finale is, like, endorsed by the school. And then there's the whole "what if I end up continuing to use it, and become the famous composer that stole finale?"

But for you, use torrents, search isohunt or mininova or whatever. Download them, burn the iso's to cd, and bam. (for the big ones)

Also, GOOGLE.

The only remotely plausible explanation I can come up with is for the Marching Percussion sounds. Typciall, percussion is on MIDI Channel 10, but in Finale, the Marching Percussion is on a different patch, and therefore not on channel 10. There are actually several channels, but I can't think of which they are.

Even still, it's very unnecessary.

And you're welcome.


If you aren't wanting to hand out 300-600 dollars for it, then get utorrent and look for it.

Otherwise, go to someplace like www.academicsuperstore.com , and apply for academic pricing. (About $300)

They're shipping Finale 2007 right now, but I would wait. It's a bit new, so there's going to be a few minor bugs.

EDIT: lol arlen posted right before me.

Google seems to be against me as of late, I have trouble finding anything of any worth...but okay, I'll do that. Thanks arlen.

Expanding my vote to  TabIt, Finale, Sibelius, Reason, Anvil, AND Garageband, because Garageband is pretty sick.



Oh and sure, Frootyloops is great for making music with neat sound effects and such, but if you're a real composer, and compose for real instruments (and not all synth instruments) then a program that uses standard notation is definitely the more professional and accepted format. Hell, these days, finale's .mus file is actually an accepted medium of music, along side mp3s and midis. And the reason for all of this is, to actually be a good composer, you have to take into account what instruments can and cannot do, and you have to make it so musicians can actually read and perform your piece the way you want it performed. And most musicians read standard notation.

Because come on. I'm not gonna be playing any of the symphonies I write myself. Conducting, maybe, but...

Yeah, I use TabIt and Finale most of the time, now.

I still haven't used anything but TabIt. My poor ol' 600MHz processor couldn't handle anything else.

I don't have all of those programs on MY computer. The music labs have a ton of software on them, though, and that's where I use Garageband and Sibelius.

Yeah, but do you know the range of a violin? The different sounds of a flute or bassoon? The different playing techniques of a string section?

Does Frootyloops?

Finale does, with the GPO add on (That Halo seems to be rather fond of).

That's all I'm saying.


Also, soundfonts are MIDI, you know. So, yeah, that's MIDI-based.

I've used FL before and I don't like it. It encourages the repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, loop, loop, loop, start over but with another repeating thing over the top, go again, go again, go again, etc type of music I really don't like. It even has a thing where it'll just slap in random notes for you.

My brother uses it and every time he sends me something he's made in it, all he wants to know about it how it sounds with fancy synths and electronic beeps and stuff. When I send him stuff I make, I want opinions on how it's composed.

FL is great for that type of music, sure. But it bores me. But when you think of "respected" music, you don't think THUD THUD THUD THUD LOOP LOOP~

[edit] what he said^

Yeah, sorry if I came off as a little rude, but it kinda burns me when people say "I'M A COMPOSER THAT ONLY USES FRUITY LOOPS! "

I still think your brother's stuff is excellent.

I would have to disagree with you there, considering experience I've had with some of these programs. Some, yes, but not most. You are correct that most are based on MIDI, but that doesn't mean they aren't soundfont compatible, or don't have the capacity to create MP3's.

Personally, I HATE Fruityloops.

I can't say you are someone who fits into the following category, of course, so don't get bent out of shape, but it seems most people who use Fruityloops have no idea what they're doing, which is a big reason it's frowned upon in the music community. It doesn't require you to be creative; only to select a lot of preset things and *poof* a "song" is created, which is why FL is not accepted very well in the music community, because you don't have to know anything to make a song; it does it for you. What's the point in that?

Now, that's not entirely true of everyone who uses it, of course. However, it's also more suited for techno, hip-hop, etc.

In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I would also have to say (and those that use TabIt, Finale, or Noteworthy Composer will surely agree with me here), that you can do much more with those programs than with Fruityloops, provided you're familiar with the program.

I don't like tabs, so I don't use TabIt, but I know several members here do, and they're very talented (arlen, Silverline in particular), and they seem to know they program very well, and they get very creative with it. Someone may have to correct me here, but yes, you have to record the mp3's yourself... and I'm not sure if it's soundfont compatible, but that's all just an extra step, so it's not that big of a deal.

I personally use Finale. People are always saying how complicated everything is, and it's too hard to use, and the list goes on and on of complaints, but it's not really that bad. It takes a bit to get used to because it's different than other standard notation programs, but it offers more possibilities than any other program out there, except maybe Sibelius, although I haven't used that so I'm not sure, just what I've heard. With Finale I can save songs as mp3 or a .wav or MIDI, but usually I just record the mp3 myself. I can also make complex rhythms that just aren't possible in other programs. Yes, that is true, everyone always argues this point, but it's true. I'm not aware of any program other than Sibelius that can notate quintuplets, septuplets, and other complex triplet forms. There's probably a way to do it in TabIt, but then it'd be to hard to read in tabs, so it'd be pointless.

As for Noteworthy Composer, well.. for someone who used it for a year, I know it has its faults, but I also know it's a pretty decent program. It gets a lot of crap, but if you know standard notation, then it's on the same level as TabIt. And it is soundfont compatible at least.

Myriad is supposedly pretty decent, and it seems to be gaining popularity slowly but surely, and Sibelius is growing in popularity as the alternative to Finale, yet it still barely offers as much, but still a good program.

Again, I'm not trying to say you're not good at what you do because you use Fruityloops, I'm just expressing that I completely disagree with that one statement, heh. Nearly any one of these programs can be great if you have enough know-how with them.


You better believe it lol. And the full version of GPO is even better. Finale also has the "Check range" feature.

I just export the tab as MIDI and run it through SynthFont, which is an excellent program despite the fact that it's nagware.

OR.

You can download MidiYoke, and set it up so your MIDI based composition software runs through another program like, say, Reason. Now I'm composing in TabIt with quality sounds from Reason.

And if I want to make an mp3 out of it, I just export the MIDI, import it into Reason, reconnect the tracks to the soundfont patches blahbalblah it's actually very easy and BAM I have an mp3 that sounds really cool.


There's a downside to this, though, and that's that Reason's stock soundfonts aren't really all that great, unless you're messing around with synths (in which case it's fantastic).

But there's tons of other ones out there to download and use.

Can you apply individual soundfonts with this? I would love that.

Of course!

The NN-XT sampler device lets you load soundfonts of any sort, individually, (i.e. per instrument) even the ones from your stock midi card found in your Window -> System32 folder. All you need to know is where to find it.

Like, you know, you make one NN-XT for your first guitar, one NN-XT for your drums, etc.... and each one lets you choose exactly what soundfont or whatever you want to call it to use.



edit: And then you can apply effects and crap like that, I guess. I haven't messed around with the effects too much, yet.

Alright. Free program?