How to start?
If you want to create music but are as iliterate when it comes to musical instruments as me (save drums, but that does not help much I guess), have a look at some of the digital audio workstation programs around, or even better, their consumer oriented offsprings (much cheaper or maybe free).
These programms will let you record and arrange your own tracks. But they will also let you build tracks from sound loops, which are short records from someone else.
If you are looking at a free programm to edit and manipulate tracks, have a look at Audiocity.
Personally, I am using MAGIX Music Maker. Its the consumer version of their DAW and somewhat similar to the big names like Ableton Live (though I guess not coming close to its features). The program itself is cheap to get and pretty good, and especially intuitive for an absolute newbie to music making like me.
They also have an online store filled to the brim with sound loops. They are reasonably priced, though the cost adds up if you want to get them all.
The tool also has lots of instruments to create your own tracks without a keyboard (music instrument), just using mouse and keyboard (computer input device). Its certainly slower to record your track this way and I guess most professional musicians will cry out in agony at the thought of it, but with some time and dedication it actually does work.
Of course, as soon as you stop just using sound loops, you will need to digest a lot of musical theory anyway, even if you don't want to learn playing an instrument. Just placing some random tones at random places might sound interesting and experimental at times... most of the time it will just sound like crap!
Hello.
Do you own a keyboard instrument, or have the means to acquire one?
No, I don't have any, but I am interested on the piano.
@Gian-Reto: Ohhh Thanks a lot! I will check that one out! I'm desesperate for an user friendly digital audio workstation.
And about the Sound loops, those will come in handy!
Perhaps you mean Audacity, the GPL-licensed multi-track audio editor.If you are looking at a free programm to edit and manipulate tracks, have a look at Audiocity.
I understand.Hello.
Do you own a keyboard instrument, or have the means to acquire one?
No, I don't have any, but I am interested on the piano.
There is just an overwhelming amount of information and skill to be earned so that you can produce your own music. You need to have both theoretical and practical knowledge of music, and these take time and effort for you to gain.
Your experience will reflect in the quality of the music that you write.
First of all you need a foundation on music theory.
You can get this with piano and music theory lessons at a music school\conservatory (this is by far the best choice), or you can study by yourself with books (this book and this book are very good) and other resources like videos, seminars etc.
During your studies you will need to practice, so you need an instrument.
For composing, in particular, a keyboard instrument is interesting because it possesses a broad pitch range, so you can play the ranges of several other instruments only using that keyboard. Using the same keyboard you can play and write parts for different instruments.
The keyboard model that you'll buy depends mostly on your budget, on how easy it is for you to save for this investment. I have researched the specifications and either of the following would be interesting for you to get:
- Casio WK-245 ($ - The cheapest and probably best option since you're starting)
- Yamaha PSR S650 ($$$ - Costs considerably more but has many more features)
- Velocity-sensitive keys (the keyboard acts more like a real piano where strength controls loudness).
- A simple multitrack recording functionality for you to record different parts and experiment with counterpoint, instrumentation and simple compositions.
- USB MIDI OUT port, so that later on when you are ready to produce music you can connect the keyboard to a computer and use the keyboard as a controller device with your favourite music software.
- Accompaniment styles. These are preset "beats" of various genres that can inspire you to write for a certain genre. If you want to write a rock tune for the intro of your game, play some rock accompaniments and use them as reference.
- None of these come with a keyboard stand, so it's important that you buy one separately or in a bundle.
- Listen to soundtracks that you like, but not for recreation. Rather, analyze the track that you're listening to and identify the key(s), time signature(s), tempo(s) and the amount of different voices (instruments) being used. Try to identify when each section of that track begins and ends, what form it is.
- After practising the above you will be confident enough to reproduce a certain track. Create a new project on your favourite sequencer software and work out an exact MIDI mockup of that track (there's no need to use samples yet, plain onboard MIDI sounds are fine). This exercise is probably one of the most important that you can do to become more experient. After reproducing 5 different game tracks and having them sound totally faithful to the originals (at least in notation, since you'll be using low quality MIDI samples that will sound different) then you can try composing one from scratch.
1) ">original MegaMan 5 theme,
2) ">reproduced theme. Note how that musician also elaborated on it and added more richness to the arrangement, though this is optional.
To do the above you will need experience with notation and rhythm, tonal systems (scales and modes), chord progressions and instrumentation (how the instruments in those tracks are used, what are their musical properties and articulations).
You will also need to have practised with your keyboard (being able to play songs with it) and analytically listen to a lot of music as described in that listening exercise, so you will need some considerable study before attempting this, otherwise you won't know what you'll be doing and will be frustrated at the time that you invested for not much return.
Music production software (all free and open-source):
- http://musescore.org/ - You can use this to sequence MIDI arrangements (it also works with your keyboard instrument as a controller for you to input notes). You can use this software to make those MIDI mockups.
- http://lmms.sourceforge.net/home.php - You can use this to import your MIDI arrangements and produce them with proper samples, automation, effects and mixing. You can also sequence arrangements directly in this, but MuseScore has better features for that so it's better to use both software for their specific tasks.
- http://openmpt.org/ - You can use this as another sequencer, but it's a less traditional way of writing music. It doesn't work with a sheet or piano-roll representation of notes, only event lists.
- It's much easier to write a piece when you have a need for it. In your case, this means that it will be easier for you to write something to use in a game that you're making at that moment, when you are inspired by it.
- You won't know exactly when you will be 'ready' to write anything, you will only get hints of improvement. When you spend so much time dealing with music your mind begins to be creative about it. You will begin to have original musical ideas, sudden inspirations based on a context that you want to write something for. Make sure to record those musical ideas using your cellphone voice recorder or similar so you don't forget them. Depending on how much experience you have, you will be able to develop these ideas into a product by arranging\orchestrating those simple ideas into complete musical pieces for use in a game.
- You can give yourself inspiration by playing around in your keyboard and improvising melodies with different accompaniment styles.
- Other people may have different recommendations than mine. All of this information is from my personal experience as a hobbyist, self-sufficient game developer and musician. Fulltime musicians study through their whole life. They go to college courses on music, play in bands, it's a whole different path.
- Give yourself enough time to learn this art. It should take about a year or more of productive free time study before you can make 'usable' music tracks for your games, provided you have managed to make those game track reproductions discussed before. And even after you make music for a game, there's always more advanced things to learn. It's common for you to produce something usable while you're experimenting with a new thing that you just learned and polished enough.
If you are looking at a free programm to edit and manipulate tracks, have a look at Audiocity.
Perhaps you mean Audacity, the GPL-licensed multi-track audio editor.
Yes, that's it... haven't used it in a long time and frankly didn't look up the name as I was sure I got it right. Me brains getting old it seems.
I think you should use Reaper, pretty much free (50$ but you can have an evaluation that is unlimited for free) and very powerful for a DAW.
If you don't know anything about music yet, composition can be quite challenging. My suggestion would be to start with taking either:
- piano lessons
- guitar lessons
- a music theory course (or even just working out of one of those Freshman college music theory books)
The idea is once you begin to understand how to play music on an instrument (especially guitar or piano which can do chords and/or melodies) then you can start to develop an ear for how songs are put together. To just jump right into composition without any foundation could be hard but it's definitely not impossible. Learning how to play music does so many things, from learning all of the building blocks to developing an understanding of how music behaves and impacts you as well as others.
The other suggestion would be to use a DAW and then take MIDI tracks of songs you know and enjoy then modify them. Basically making new arrangements of them where explore what changing certain notes, chords or rhythms would do. Just be advised, all of this can take some serious time before you'll be really happy with your own music. And that's completely okay!
Also look around on Youtube as it has all kinds of video tutorials that cover how to work within a DAW as well as how to compose and produce music.
