Music Composition Software

[superslug]

I'd like to do a musical album, just to do one for fun. I've got a guitar and keyboard, but I'm not so good, so I'm kind of looking for a program that I can use to write the music and have the computer play it out.

Does anyone know any titles? Have any experience with them? Idea of price ranges?

 

[Hawkster]

I assume your using a PC and not a MAC, the type of software you are looking for ranges from about £50 to several hundred (UK prices). At the cheaper end of the market are programs like Traction and Cubasis (I've used cubasis in the past and it works fine but be prepared for a steep learning curve) moving up to programs like Cubase (various versions for £100 for the SE version to £500 for the SX version) , FLStudio , Reason and other. All are complex but rewarding if you work at it.

You could look out for a magazine called Computer Music (I'm pretty sure you can get it i US where you are(?)) each month it has a CD on the cover which has a free program called Computer Muzys which will do what you are looking for (plus some free software instruments to go with it) plus the mag offers tips for the beginner (especially the beginners specials they do) plus their website www.computermusic.co.uk offers tutorials on the spoftware. Another useful site (but probably more advanced is www.kvr-vst.com - you can get free software from there as well.

Good luck - if you have any more questions either post here or PM me !

 

[superslug]

PC/American, yes to both. Overall, that's probably the most informative first post I've ever seen to a question, thanks!