What do the composers here use to compose music for their games?

[m0ds]

SilverTrumpet actually uses her nose for maxmimum melodic effect.

[monkey0506]

Now that's not nice. She can't help it that she's fallen ill now can she?

Although her [virus-induced] man-voice is rather melodic.

[Sylvr]

SilverTrumpet actually uses her nose for maxmimum melodic effect.

Yes mods, don't make fun of the nasally ailing.         

[zabnat]

Surprised nobody seems to use Reason. Great suite!

I do. But the question was what do the composers here use to compose music for their games I don't consider myself as a composer since I don't have any musical talent what so ever and am tone deaf (that's why my games music was so awful).

[Nikolas]

A suggestion (also a reference to my earlier post)... Propellerhead's Reason 3, together with its various plugins, is very difficult to beat as a composition and production program if one is to use MIDI surfaces as input devices.

Depends on the style of music one does.

Generally cubase, Sonar, Logic, Pro tools are more oriented to orchestral music, and "film composers" (game composers as well), while Reason and Fruity loops is more oriented to loop based music, although I've heard amazing stuff from both programs.

Still I find Reason lacking greatly for my own personal needs and what I do.

I have to say that starting music can be rather... easier. I mean there are great tools out there, which with the click of a button you get ready made loops. Heck there are millions of FREE loops out there. I mean, putting 2 loops together could very well be music. So, yes, with the right tools you could do music, and I know plenty of people who don't actually know or read music, and yet write great music!

[InCreator]

FruityLoops Studio 6
and for hardware,

Roland Edirol PC-50 MIDI keyboard.
Enough to rock.

[Ishmael]

I use Reason, occasionally ReWired through Audition. And I'm not going anywhere from it. Just hoping to get a keyboard soon to speed up my composing.

For making Midi I use Guitar Pro, since I'm a guitar player mainly.

[InCreator]

I'd say that getting a keyboard rather slowed my music making down. Why? I'm too lazy to use it and trying something on MIDI keyboard and composing that something are two different things.

Yes, I wanted keyboard like hell. Before this, when trying out a melody (inventing it), I played it on pc keyboard, and this is - of course difficult and frustrating. And yes, MIDI keyboard makes melody tryout alot easier.
But hooking up the keyboard, playing, memorizing, re-entering everything with mouse to piano roll... well, it takes alot more time and kills inspiration.

Now, it takes super inspiration-filled day for me to plug the MIDI keyboard in at all. I must be in real creating rush to do that. Apart from these ultra rare days, it collects dust.

[zabnat]

But hooking up the keyboard, playing, memorizing, re-entering everything with mouse to piano roll... well, it takes alot more time and kills inspiration.

I thought the point was to play the melody directly to the software, so you don't need to enter anything with mouse to piano roll?

[radiowaves]

But hooking up the keyboard, playing, memorizing, re-entering everything with mouse to piano roll... well, it takes alot more time and kills inspiration.

Huh? What program do you use? usually there is a record button and you can edit the notes later manually.

[Bluesman]

A suggestion (also a reference to my earlier post)... Propellerhead's Reason 3, together with its various plugins, is very difficult to beat as a composition and production program if one is to use MIDI surfaces as input devices.

Depends on the style of music one does.

Generally cubase, Sonar, Logic, Pro tools are more oriented to orchestral music, and "film composers" (game composers as well), while Reason and Fruity loops is more oriented to loop based music, although I've heard amazing stuff from both programs.

Still I find Reason lacking greatly for my own personal needs and what I do.

Yep, oh granted, Reason and FruityLoops generally can't be used as standalone programs.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Yep, oh granted, Reason and FruityLoops generally can't be used as standalone programs.

Huh? Why would FL not be usable as "standalone" program? I don't quite get that part. Don't know about Reason, but FL can be used and comes with more than enough generators/filters/fx etc. to compose and program a complete song with good sounding instruments. Without plug-ins or anything.

[Ishmael]

The only things I've been using are Reason and my mouse and computer keyboard, unless I've needed second-exact timing in which case I've rewired it through Audition... I don't see what's not standalone in that.

[Bluesman]

Huh? Why would FL not be usable as "standalone" program? I don't quite get that part. Don't know about Reason, but FL can be used and comes with more than enough generators/filters/fx etc. to compose and program a complete song with good sounding instruments. Without plug-ins or anything.

Sure, to echo Nikolas, it depends on what kind of sound you're hoping to attain. Reason and FL are both great for simple loops, riffs and effects, etc (and obviously, Reason grows exponentially more powerful with extra ReFill patches), however, often, a program like Cubase is often necessary to enhance the composition process tenfold by enabling you to splice a file and put it back together again (a la Talk Talk's later, more ambient work), record instruments that are not keyboards or other such MIDI surfaces, and heck, even use a parametric EQ.

Allow me to rephrase, then... Reason and FruityLoops respectively are often not viable for complete score composition unless your will is to create tracks which conform to the programs' respective restrictions, or unless working with full recording suites is not to your liking.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Huh? Why would FL not be usable as "standalone" program? I don't quite get that part. Don't know about Reason, but FL can be used and comes with more than enough generators/filters/fx etc. to compose and program a complete song with good sounding instruments. Without plug-ins or anything.

Sure, to echo Nikolas, it depends on what kind of sound you're hoping to attain. Reason and FL are both great for simple loops, riffs and effects, etc (and obviously, Reason grows exponentially more powerful with extra ReFill patches), however, often, a program like Cubase is often necessary to enhance the composition process tenfold by enabling you to splice a file and put it back together again (a la Talk Talk's later, more ambient work), record instruments that are not keyboards or other such MIDI surfaces, and heck, even use a parametric EQ.

Allow me to rephrase, then... Reason and FruityLoops respectively are often not viable for complete score composition unless your will is to create tracks which conform to the programs' respective restrictions, or unless working with full recording suites is not to your liking.

Check newer versions then, or something (again, I can only speak for FL). It HAS instruments "that are not keyboards/MIDI" and it has EQs in all sizes and varieties.

And what do you mean with "splicing a file"? Slicing a recorded track? That's all possible.

[Nine Toes]

General music, game or non-game related, I use Cubase LE (I'm still in the process of learning how to use it, sort of), which came bundled with my Lexicon Alpha unit.

If I just want to slap together a simple midi, I use Power Tab Editor.  It is, for all intents and purposes, a tablature editor for guitar or bass.  But it has a feature that allows you to play a midi of the song you've tabbed out, so you can see how it sounds.  You can also change the sound of the instrument during playback to, say, a piano or koto etc, and then export the midi itself.  It does take a little bit of general music knowledge, such as notes, rests, rhythm slashes, etc.

[Bluesman]

Check newer versions then, or something (again, I can only speak for FL). It HAS instruments "that are not keyboards/MIDI" and it has EQs in all sizes and varieties.

And what do you mean with "splicing a file"? Slicing a recorded track? That's all possible.

Aha, cool, I shall... seems functionality's improved a lot since the last time I used FL. Thanks for the heads up!

[N.M.Music]

Oh, boy - this all sounds so complicated! I'd love to try out composing in MIDI but a lot of the programs mentioned above are so expensive and I'm a broke student (I don't suppose there are any free ones out there?) I'm really clueless about music software (women and technology, eh? )

I play solo piano and guitar which I record to MP3/Wav with a Samson C01U Studio Condenser mic. It's good for acoustic recording, but I feel rather archaic using only this method.  Then again, some people don't mind it - it creates a simple, raw sort of feel (think the About A Boy soundtrack) or in minor keys, a somewhat chilling effect. Sometimes less is more, right? 

I'd really like to hear anyone's opinion on this or if anyone else records this way...

[Nikolas]

Hi!

I would actually LOVE to record a real piano, for a change. But at that point, I would need something rather good in recording equipement which I don't have, and a decent piano. The other problem would be that the piano would need to be tuned perfectly for any recording, otherwise I wouldn't be able to mix it with any samples (which are recorded "perfectly" (with various errors in pitches and intonations though))

About your question:

I can suggest you try www.reaper.fm . It's shareware, which equals free for you a student. If you have a tiny bit of money with 99$ you can get 4.5 GB of orchestral samples from http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/ , which I can't say it's really expensive.

For free stuff you can head off to www.kvraudio.com, make sure you register, cause it's free and will not create problems with traffic, and pick up the various weird free stuff around.

Various other people have done some weird, and other more successful stuff.

http://www.cgempire.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2431 for free Kontakt2 (but also the wav files) of various weird stuff, and prepared piano, etc.
www.gregjazz.com, our Greg has done some excellent recordings and samples for various stuff.

The above links should keep you occupied and happy for many months (until you've searched everything that is). After that and when you surpass that, you might need to spend a little more, but nothing too fancy.

Hope it helps, and welcome again

Nikolas

[Gregjazz]

Sonar 7 PE just arrived in the mail.