[Thaeris]

Seeing some recent threads, I decided that such a one as this might make for a fun discussion. You might even learn something.  ;D

There's a score and more of recording and editing software out there, some you pay for, and some where... well, you don't. For most of us here, the latter is going to be our principal selection, and Audacity is probably our first choice.

There's also a LOT of composition software out there as well, much of it is for free. Just typing in "midi" into SourceForge will lead you to a substantial repository of recording, editing, and composition software - I really want to, if possible, try out a few of the programs posted there tonight...

http://sourceforge.net/search/?q=midi

I've always enjoyed music, though unfortunately keeping it as an active interest has always been a tad difficult for me. I'd like to think software might make learning or composing something a bit easier. That said, feel free to discuss anything and everything recording and composition-wise in the realm of software.

[Flipside]

Sounds like fun to me

My setup is Cakewalk with a pile of Virtual Synths, a mixture of free stuff and a few commercials like Kontakt and Omnisphere running on an E-MU 1212 audio card, which I consider a great piece of kit As I've said before, for those who don't have the funds for something like that or are just starting, I'd recommend the Audiophile 2496 card as an excellent starting point for using virtual synths.

My keyboard is an Axiom 61, which has key action as good as many Keyboards 5x the price, it's also available in smaller sizes for those with less space or budget.

I've been pretty limited in what I can produce lately, particularly for Diaspora for numerous reasons, mostly trying to find work, and a few problems with a small fire that damaged my old keyboard and amplifier setup. I'd really love the time and motivation to do more, chances are that once I am working I'll be more productive again, there's something about having less free time that make you more inclined to use it...

[swashmebuckle]

I've composed with Sibelius since finishing college--we had that and Finale in the comp studio, and I found Sibelius a lot easier to get into, though they're both pretty pricey and directed towards producing professional scores.  Logic Studio is my sequencer, no complaints there.  For samples, I've been using East/West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold with the close mic sample package pretty much exclusively for the FotG music, and I have plenty of complaints about the performance of their plugin, but they're in Beta for the next version of that which should hopefully address some of the issues.  I also use Audacity for conveniently making minor pencil edits to ogg files, but I can't seem to make it select areas smaller than 1 second, which sort of limits its use for me.

[Flipside]

You might also want to look at Symphobia for a good Kontakt orchestral package, there's some nice patches in there.

I've been thinking about swtching over to Logic to be honest, most of my work doesn't require much of what Cakewalk has to offer. I tend to compose by ear and edit in the Piano Strip, but I use a lot of plugins for mixing once I've rendered down each softsynth to an audio track, which is probably more along the lines of Logic.

[swashmebuckle]

Looks like Symphobia could save a lot of time for big scoring, but I'm super anal about instrumentation and exact articulations, so I don't know if I could handle using ensemble patches even if things ended up being pretty indistinguishable for the listener, heh.  I'm actually kinda tempted to get East/West's Hollywood Strings and Brass packages due to the limited section options for some instruments in EWQLSO (for instance, they have solo horn and 6 horns, but no horn pairs to match against solo trumpet/trombone, which is a pretty common balance), but I also don't really want to give that company any more money

I'm hoping to upgrade to Logic 9 soon.  It apparently has problems with EWQL, which has been what has kept me from upgrading my OS for the past year or so, but I've been happy with Logic 8 so far (Space Designer is especially nice as I have no interest in buying extra reverb hardware/software).

[Enigmatic Entity]

http://sourceforge.net/search/?q=midi

Thanks, I've been looking for something like those for ages now, I found one years back but could not find it again, at least not on Google. I should look on SF more often...

[Thaeris]

Well, I'm going to first look into AriaMaestrosa and VMPK . Given all the hits for "midi" in my search, there's got to be a massive score of neat software apart from these. Anyone else try these or know of some other good free ones?

[Thaeris]

I had some time to spare this morning, so I finally installed Aria Maestrosa. Neat program! Unfortunately, the truth is that the default (more like defail) Windows MIDI sounds are not all too good.  They're workable, but again, they're not too pleasant to listen to. This isn't '86 anymore, after all.

In any sense, are you stuck with the MIDI voices on your system, or is it possible to add new voice libraries? I'll remind everyone that I am a total and complete music noob.

[sigtau]

I had some time to spare this morning, so I finally installed Aria Maestrosa. Neat program! Unfortunately, the truth is that the default (more like defail) Windows MIDI sounds are not all too good.  They're workable, but again, they're not too pleasant to listen to. This isn't '86 anymore, after all.

In any sense, are you stuck with the MIDI voices on your system, or is it possible to add new voice libraries? I'll remind everyone that I am a total and complete music noob.

There's a program called Timidity++ (google it, I can't get a link at the moment) that will allow you to use SF2 files with VST plugin effects (such as reverb) as your MIDI voice.  Great for games that are essentially bound to MIDI.

[Thaeris]

I have the installer on my desktop, actually. I did figure that, barring any software you might pay for, this would be a possible solution to the issue at hand.

Thank you, thank you.