Agreement.

Also: For the poorer of us, I don't know if it's been said, but if you've only been able to write in MIDI so far you should look into a free program called "Synthfont".

Posting to verify that I've done this B)

I tried SynthFont once. Wouldn't load any soundfonts, and was really slow and chuggy.

Oh yes, it is slow and chuggy.

But it's free.

However, I haven't had your problems with actually loading em up- it just takes a while with some of em. Why was that do you think?

(And what do you use instead, if anything? Roph gave me a cool program, but it doesn't like some of the things I do in tabit.)

I can't speak for arlen on tabit or anything, but Finale can load soundfonts itself.

I found my old external soundcard recently. It loads soundfonts at the hardware level instead of the software level, I guess, but yeah, I just use that now.

K, so my updated list is:


Pre-Production/Composition:
- TabIt or Finale, depending on what kind of music I'm writing.
- Sometimes I'll compose right in Pro Tools or Digital Performer, if I don't care about tempo.

Production:
- Digital Performer, or Pro Tools if I'm working with Audio and Video as well.
- Both of them use the same bad-ass instrument sets like Mach V-2, and Spectrasonic's crazy shit,
like Atmosphere, Stylus RMX, Trilogy (for bass), and Omnisphere is coming out soon, which is ridiculously cool.
- Then there's a bunch of other ones like Drumulator, and the Mini-moogs, and blahblahblah.
- I don't even use Reason as a standalone, anymore. It's really more like just another instrument plugin.

Post-Production:
- Peak LE, just because it normalizes shit really well.

I could never use paper and pen. I like to hear my ideas played back.

Mozart used a piano, lol.

Writing it all down on paper is fine if you're only working with one line, but like, when it comes to hearing complex drum patterns with bass lines, guitar rhythms and vocals all at once... or entire symphonies at once... 
I write much faster when I just program it all in and play it back. It's more of a convenience that I don't feel like giving up just because I can.

Music of old was never that complex, you know. Most classical music is simple, I V I IV V I, clean cut, no dissonance, really easy to listen to music.

Past classical music, though ... eh ...


Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that it's not impossible for most musicians to hear complex things in their heads, but when it comes to writing it down, I find it to be much faster to use a computer and play it back.


But I'm sure composers holding rehearsals of unfinished works, and make changes to them before releasing them isn't unheard of...

Exactly. Classical was all about rules, and if you broke the rules you weren't writing good music. Pieces were clear-cut, simple, melody w/ accompanyment, and ALWAYS ended with a cadence.

Then came Brahms with his Romantic music. People went ape-shit when he released his first symphony, people said it was a travesty to music. Romantic music comes along, and suddenly the rules are being broken more often, making the music more complicated.

Then comes Debussy with Impressionism, and chromatic/diatonic planing and all these new techniques, the music gets even more complicated.

Then comes Serialism and 12-tone, and all bets are off, lol.



I'm talking about pure Classical, here, not anything and everything before Schoenberg came around.


So, what's so difficult about cadences? There's only, like, 6 of them. PAC, IAC, Half, Plagal, Deceptive, Phrygian. Most classical pieces ended with ONE of these, and it was almost always the same one, the Perfect Authentic Cadence. About 3 times. V I! V I! over and over until you were tired of hearing V I and then the piece was over.

Modes didn't really come around until the 1900's. Sure, they were invented before that, but they were scarcely used. The only "modes" classical really used were major and harmonic minor. That 7th in minor HAD to be raised, or else you were breaking a rule. And Classical was all about rules that couldn't be broken. Nevermind Lydian and Mixolydian and god forbid anyone even mention Locrian, no, this was Classical music.

And I don't remember any big chords. Extended tertian harmony was mostly an invention of Modern/Impressionistic music. Baroque music stopped at 7th chords, and even then they were rarely used. They became commonplace in Classical, but it wasn't until the Romantic period that extended harmonies started coming around. But even then, it wasn't until Impressionism and Modernism came that extended harmonies and your B6sus9+5's were used.






Ugh, but this is getting out of hand. How the hell am I really supposed to answer the kinds of questions Manatee's asking me? Jeez.

This is all his fault.

I write big complex percussion ensemble pieces on paper most always before putting it in Finale. When you're experienced enough, it wouldn't be that difficult to write out ensemble music on paper, with a few parts here and there you may need to hear before you decide you like it.

Of course, when I get to parts that may be a bit dissonant I refer to the keyboard/piano like any respected composer would do before I end up wasting my time writing a bad section.

But then, writing for percussion isn't that big of a deal without hearing it played back. It's pretty easy to hear in your head how it would actually sound. The only real variables are overtones from metallic pitched percussion, types of mallets (which one can write for specifically, but still may not turn out the way you'd hoped), etc.

Are you really Omri Lahav? It's an honor to have you here!