Composers: What do you use?

Most of the other programs on that list, say for Reason, are based on MIDI, or don't have the freedom to create MP3 tracks that are incredibly complex and featuristic (one or two I have not heard of before, so spare me)

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.

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.

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

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 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?

haha no


But you can find it on isohunt.com


MIdiYoke is free, though. Just google it.

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.

Correction.
   Soundfonts are not MIDI. They are compressed soundbytes/wave files. They CAN be triggered with the use of MIDI ports, but they themselves are not MIDI. They are taken from actual sounds and recordings.

http://www.samplecraze.com/page.php?xPage=soundfonts.html

...
Perhaps I misunderstood you as far as 'real composing'.
In that case, by all means, I would use Finale for notating the music.
... I was just convinced this topic was about 'gaming' and 'digital music'. <--(of which, in THAT case, I would prefer Fruityloops)
My apoligies.

I suppose you're technically right, since general MIDI isn't commonly made with real instruments. It made by taking a perfect sound wave (a sine wave, I believe) and modulating it's qualities to produce a sound "kinda like the real thing." So, yeah, most soundfonts that you would pay for are taken from real recordings, but it's still played through *drumroll* MIDI.

Are you using soundfonts? If so, guess what, you're using MIDI.

That's what I meant.

Alright, I have Yoke installed. Where do I access that NN-XT thing?

I run out from tabit



Through a virtual MIDI cable into a synth I use:



MIDI Yoke would work the same, though I just use the virtual MIDI cable that that synth installs. This thing basically just takes the MIDI out from TabIt and plays it through the soundfont I've loaded on it. It has loads of other advanced options but I never use them. Pretty much all my mp3s come out of this thing. I only use synthfont if I want to use more than one soundfont for a song.

Also, you should be able to run it zypher. I played / recorded most of These in realtime when I was on a PIII 533Mhz. Though if I tried to use too many effects, it started to lag. Erghk.

I use 2 sounfonts, SGM and Fluid R3, both of which I have uploaded somewhere. I also have a ridiculously high quality 1.6GB (!) soundfont, which I'm afraid you have no hope of using ;-;. I've yet to use the whopper >_>

You can download the synth thing Here, though it's not free.

Well, first of all


Set TabIt's MIDI out to MidiYoke 1.
In reason, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced MIDI settings. Set Midi IN (Bus A) to MidiYoke 1.


Then in reason, somewhere in the empty space, right click and select NN-XT Advanced Sampler. Poof, it should appear. Name it according to the instrument that's on channel 1 in tabit. (the first track, unless it's a drumset)
Don't choose a sample yet.
At the very top of the rack, there should be a "MIDI in Device." This is where you set the channels to match those in TabIt.
Set channel 1 to the NN-XT sampler you just renamed.

Play TabIt.

Go back to reason and choose a sample by choosing "Init Patch." (Look in "All Instrument Patches.")


Also, if you want bends to work right (so few on TabIt forums could figure this one out) click the right-faceing arrow in the bottom left of the NN-XT sampler. It should expand.
Right click in the blue screen and select All Zones.
Just below the center of the blue screen, there's a place to adjust pitch bend (it says "pitch" hurr). Move it up to 24.


Yeah. lol.

Oh. I can't run Reason on this computer. Damn.

Every time I download Fluid R3 I can't use it because it says it's corrupted.

Nah, it's not that. I just don't have the specs for it.

600MHz processor
256 mb RAM
Like, maybe 500mb left on my hard drive

I agree with the fact that FruityLoops is not suited for real composers. In fact, there are major differences between "real" music and "electronic" music. For example you don't have to make the sound on various frequencies harder, because the song is too blurry and sounds get nearly lost. It's a completely different structure of making music.

@Halo: I understand if you don't like FL, but saying that making good music with FL is the same as saying making good music with Finale is easy. No music style to make is easy. Sure, you CAN make songs in each, but without putting effort into it and without a lot of practice, your songs will be mediocre in the best case. FL might rely more on synth, true, but that doesn't make it worse. It has tons of effects for precise tweaking of each sound and the newer versions even support putting notes not only at predefined places, but as good as anywhere on the playlist. Also you can use real sounds in FL without any problems.

But as I said, FL is most probably not meant for composers, but for hobby musicians, such as me, who think they can make a better Techno/Trance/Rap etc. song than the commercials. Funniest thing is, you actually CAN make better music than most of them with enough practice and effort. I could give you some Trance songs and some of mine and just delete the names. I think you couldn't tell the difference and would think the ones I made are not mine. ;)

All in all, electronic music is completely different from real music. I realised that just a few days ago when I was working on one of my songs. I seriously doubt, you have to often tweak the frequencies with an equalizer. I don't mean you don't use it, I mean you don't have to turn on a graphic analyzer for frequencies and kill a few of the frequenices from a sound so others don't get overtuned by its frequency spectrum. But I might be wrong, since I don't know how people compose, so tell me if I am. (^_^')

I've been using FL for over 3 years now (I haven't nearly touched for a year, BTW... -_- ), yet I STILL don't know all of its features and possibilities.

As far as it goes for me, it's composition first, worry about EQ when people are actually performing it, or it's being recorded, later.

Well, of course, you take into consideration dynamics (volume) when you write, and stuff like that, but really, mixing and tweaking equalizers usually comes after the song is written and recorded.


In our composition class, we're being taught NOT to rely on MIDI or computer playback when we write, because half the time, if you don't know what you're doing, what you write in finale isn't really how someone else is going to play it if they read your score. That's what I was talking about with the whole "range of the violin, tambre of the flute" thing. You have to know in your head what it will sound like, because the computer playback is not accurate to how it should really sound.

But that's a traditional composers point of view, I suppose.

So yeah, compositional elements first, audio elements second.

Ah, I see...
Well, FL is more for meant to make the final product. It's not for writing music like Finale, it's for producing it.

BR800 music station not really good but i dont make music alot, my bros do that i just mess around and make simple things

I use Cakewalk for notation, and then I run through SynthFont for the samples. I like it just fine.

I also use Tabit, along with Synthfont so it doesn't sound too[/i bad. I just started learning what I need to know yesterday and today, so I'm considered a NOOB at it, but I'm getting better, and fast. I've just been experimenting with instruments and such. Hopefully people will eventually like my style of writing!

I hope these italics make my post look cooler.

I hope you realize he just closed the italics tag incorrectly and originally only meant for the word "too" to be in italics.

Of course. That's why I'm teasing him about it.

:=