A good music composition program?

[Night Shine 767]

Herro everypony!

 

I've been thinking about getting back into composing orchestral/symphonic music, but I've realized that a lot of the music that I used to make turned out kinda meh because the free program I used was not meant for anypony legitly publishing music.

 

Soooo, what kind of programs do y'all think I should use if I'm trying to make music moar seriously? A program that's intended for classical composers rather than electronic remixers/etc would be preferable but not necessary. Also, I'm willing to pay, but something below $100 would be awesome.

 

Thank you!

[Jokuc 8,173]

I don't know much about this, you should ask some professional brony musicians or something on youtube, though we have two good musicians here I can remember, @Coconeru and @PhonyBrony.

 

The only program I can remember at the moment is FL Studio, it is quite popular. Though I am sure there are better programs.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Jokuc

[Inkscape 113]

Garage Band is the best one I know of. I've used it for lots of recordings for classes and such. It's ether free or very cheap. Though I'm sure there are better programs out there, if you're going for something more on the professional end of things. 

[Naphthol 7]

i've heard good things about Sibelius for composing in the way that you're talking of.

 http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

 

what sorts of tools would you want a program to have?

 

are looking for somthing on the sound production side of things, to get nice sounds for your compositions?

or somthing to help you compose multilayered music more easily?

[PhonyBrony 275]

Herro everypony!

 

I've been thinking about getting back into composing orchestral/symphonic music, but I've realized that a lot of the music that I used to make turned out kinda meh because the free program I used was not meant for anypony legitly publishing music.

Night Shine shrugpony emoticon.png

 

Soooo, what kind of programs do y'all think I should use if I'm trying to make music moar seriously? A program that's intended for classical composers rather than electronic remixers/etc would be preferable but not necessary. Also, I'm willing to pay, but something below $100 would be awesome.

 

Thank you!

 

I use FL Studios to make music, but honestly, most programs are the same - just different GUIs. FL Studios has a demo which you can try for free to see if you like it. Most people get turned off by it because it has so many buttons on it, but most other programs won't be much simpler if at all.

 

Google "best DAW" (DAW means Digital Audio Workstation) to see what you find. I recomment FL Studios, as I said, but feel free to try out anything. If you want, I'll give you some personal tips ;P

 

good luck!

 

the Phony Brony

[DusK 1,264]

I heartily recommend FL Studio as well. Its piano roll is second to none in the industry, and that's something that's been crucial to me as a composer. The UI is easy to understand, there are more tutorials for it than any other DAW on the 'net, its automation features are extremely easy to work with even when dealing with 3rd-party VSTs, and the Signature Bundle comes with tons of great VSTs and features.

[Yourmomsponies 444]

Best all around one is Ableton live 8. But i doubt you have 550$ to spend on software. Get Garageband if your looking for something cheap.

[Swick (ded) 436]

FL Studio's pretty good, but what do I know, it's the only music-making program I've ever used.   I use the trial, there's no time limit, and it functions the same as the pro version(I think), but with a major downside: You can't load saved songs.

[dad george 105]

Fruityloops (FL studio) all the way. Or Ableton, that's pretty good too. Or so I've heard. Also, swick, full version comes with a lot more plugins and stuff. And I'm pretty sure you can open up stuff you've made earlier as well.

[K3WRO 79]

How about Reaper? You can get a full version for free but You need to register it for $60, and it's a fully capable DAW

 

FL Studio's quite popular, I use it myself and it's pretty powerful, but You might have to rely on 3rd party plugins if your composing orchestral music, maybe NI konakt or refx nexus? The demo for FL Studio is Legit too, there's no limitations except you can'[t open projects or download presets for synths.

 

If you have a mac OSX pc, then try getting Garageband, if your looking for something with more control, try Apple's Logic, basically "Garageband 2.0" or "Garageband pro"

[CloudFyre 848]

Herro everypony!

 

I've been thinking about getting back into composing orchestral/symphonic music, but I've realized that a lot of the music that I used to make turned out kinda meh because the free program I used was not meant for anypony legitly publishing music.

Night Shine shrugpony emoticon.png

 

Soooo, what kind of programs do y'all think I should use if I'm trying to make music moar seriously? A program that's intended for classical composers rather than electronic remixers/etc would be preferable but not necessary. Also, I'm willing to pay, but something below $100 would be awesome.

 

Thank you!

 

I hate to rain on your parade, but $100 isn't a lot of spending power in the music realm. Most high performance software (such as Cubase, Logic, Reason, etc.) will easily eat up six times that much.

 

However, my suggestion is this: FL Studio. It's what I use to compose music, and it's what a large number of well known artists use, for a number of good reasons.

 

On top of being highly versatile, it's relatively cheap: the full version of Cubase 6 can cost you around $500-600, while FL Studio's most expensive edition costs $300. Even better, FL Studio includes lifetime upgrades - so when FL Studio moves from version 10 to version 11, you won't pay a dime. The same goes for 11 to 12, 12 to 13, etc. Nobody else offers that.

 

And if you don't have $300 right now, that's fine as well. They have other, less expensive versions as well:

 

Express: $49 (DON'T GET THIS ONE. I AM MERELY LISTING IT AS SOMETHING THEY OFFER.)

Fruity Edition: $99

Producer Edition: $199

Signature Bundle: $299

 

I suggest getting the Producer Edition if you can't afford the Signature Bundle. It includes a great variety of high power synthesizers that can make some great sounds with relatively little effort. Should you wish to upgrade, it costs the difference + an extra $10 to upgrade from the previous edition to the newest one (so Producer is $199, and then an upgrade to to Signature upgrade is a total of $110.)

 

I don't suggest Express due to the lack of the "Piano Roll" feature, which is FL's fundamental visual interface for writing music. It's pretty useless without it.

 

In the end it's up to you, but if you get into this (as I did), you'll quickly find that it's worth spending money on the more expensive editions to get the better instruments. I started at Producer, and later upgraded to Signature. I'm very glad I did.

 

I hope this helps!

[Fresh Meat 115]

If you're on macOS you could always try garageband (which is free), or you could try apples Logic Pro & Ableton Live. I have all of them but I don't know what ones would be better; I have them literally on my laptop for no apparent reason, I should really use them... maybe. 

[Arkane 270]

I've been using FL Studio since I was grade 4. Highly Recommend it. I dabble with symphonic metal so I'm sure that I'm close to what your thinking.

I recommend FL Studio because its easy to use. Like REALLY easy to use. But I guess you could try something else. I'm sure there's some free DAWs out there. musicLab is one though I haven't really delved into it. Garageband is free but I think its only for the Mac.

As for VSTs, I would recommend a combination of Edirol HQ Orchestra and Miroslav Philarmonik Orchestra. But if you want it free, you could go for some soundfonts.

Here:
http://the-filmmusic-group.deviantart.com/journal/Free-HQ-Orchestra-Soundfonts-224143947

[Proctra Music 335]

Ableton is the best. My fav at least. Ease of use wide variety of amazing tutorials. Amazing stock synths, Audio affects.  It's worth the big moneys

[miygaiya 138]

Personally, I would prefer writing out the music in a sheet music program and having it played w/ actual recordings, but that maybe just be my symphonic-OCD preference. 

 

If you don't have access to a symphonic band, I'd suggest getting FL Studio, because you can get free/cheap VST plugins to give you lots of options and soundbanks.