Best Soundtrack scoring software....

triplej96

triplej96

Veteran
I think this belongs in this forum...

I'm no John Williams by all means as a matter a fact I'm a novie when it comes to music. What would you guys sugges the best soundtrack scoring software that is atleast somewhat user friendly?

Thank You,

Josh
 
Not so much I use to be able to read it but been so long. Are their any progams that let you manipulate stock songs and let you hook up a midi keyboard and play with ease or things that simulate an orchrestra. As of right now I have Adobe Audtion.

thanks
 
thematthewbone said:
garageband on a MAC is really your only option.

not to much in the PC realm at the moment to compare to it.
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Garageband sounds cool but I have a PC so that sucks....
 
sorry buddy.

i am not sure if cuBase is available on PC but that is the ultimate software. any sound you can imagine all at your fingertips with any alesis or m-audio midi controller.

very very pricey however. if you are interested in film editing/music production get a mac.
 
There is a program for Windows. It is called Finale 2007. You can use horns, violins, chellos, grand piano, among others. You can sound like the big boys from Hollywood. The drawback to this is that they are samples (albeit high quality), the program itself is a bit pricey (about $500) and you will need a somewhat beefy PC. The way the music is done is by actually putting the correct musical note in the timeline. Check it out. I have used it, but I don't what I was doing. I'll let my composer take care of that part =). And yes, it is both PC and Mac compatible.

http://www.finalemusic.com/Default.aspx
 
triplej96 said:
I think this belongs in this forum...

I'm no John Williams by all means as a matter a fact I'm a novie when it comes to music. What would you guys sugges the best soundtrack scoring software that is atleast somewhat user friendly?

Thank You,

Josh
Click to expand...

Apple's (used to be Emagic) Logic Audio Pro using the Vienna Symphony Library (Orchestral Samples). Cheap too. The whole lbrary only costs a li'l over $10,000 USD. Logic has full notation scoring, midi, and complete audio implementation.

The "wabbit" formula also applies for music creation programs (except Garage Band - that's just for when you're high):

Good, fast, cheap. Pick Any two.
 
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Not sure if this is too "low end" for you but pgmusic.com has some software that is very reasonable and you can do a lot with using some ingenuity. Hope this helps.
 
triplej96...

First of all, don't let anyone tell you "WEll mAn, yoo only have ONE optIOn!11 LOLZ". You have many options.

While GarageBand does come with some orchestral sounds for use with a MIDI keyboard, and is fairly easy to use, there are plenty of people who make movies using PC's. A Mac doesn't put you at any more of an advantage than a PC user, except maybe being a little more condescending.

You have numerous options as far as scoring software goes. Finale seems like a very viable option, though I haven't used it since 2002 so I can't comment on it too much, and it would also hinge a bit on how well you read music. If you did so at one point in your life, it would probably come back to you fairly quickly.

I have personally had much success with Ableton Live. I can vouch for its user-friendliness. It in fact comes with built-in lessons and tutorials that teach you the ins and outs of the program. Even better, Live ships with built-in instrument samples including a choice selection of acoustic and electric pianos, orchestral strings, brass, woodwinds, plucked strings, and mallets. You might also consider taking the route of filmmakers like John Carpenter and considering synthesizers for some or all of your orchestrations. A lot of synth plug-ins sound really amazing today, and a unique sound can really do a lot for a unique movie.

I'm fairly sure that both programs have demos on their sites. If you have any other questions about Live, check out http://www.ableton.com or drop me a PM. Keep us posted on how it goes for you and good luck.
 
For begginer I highly recommend Proteus X bundle. You will find there huge amount of additional software (Cubase Le for example - which a little limited but enough for start) and instrumental samples which easy introduce you into computer music without expensive costs.
 
Well I'll toss in a few cents here. I am a LONG time Pro Tools user and a pretty long time Mac user, no condesendtion though - I used to work on PC's. On the PC side there are a lot of good programs. I'm very pro PT but I'm not sure it's what you want. It's not a shallow learning curve and the PC version is not as well supported as the Mac side. Also it is great for editing audio but falls behind if you want to do a bunch of MIDI stuff. As an alt for Garage band you might look at the app that it's concept is stolen (borrowed) from ACID. Acid Pro I think is quite a bit more capable than the old version I used. For pure editing SAW is a really nice program that had GREAT support (probably still does but I haven't used it in a few years). Cakewalk may still be around, Cubase etc. The two main reasons to use ProTools is if you need to mix at another facility and need to transport your session. Or you you want to work in post sound - it's the app to learn since it's probably 90% of the market. Or if what you want to do is more about editing. PT is solid and a standard but you probably don't need to follow that standard if you don't want to.
 
You would say PC and pro tools with midi keyboard and guitar is quite capable of creating scores right? I know Mr. Robert Rodriguez uses it to score his films.
 
Best software? Cubase. End of discussion.

Cubase is great software, and for music creation, could be all you need. It can use VST plugins and instruments. It's fairly pricey and so are some of the virtual instruments like Groove Agent and Virtual Guitarist, but once you get it and start using it, you'll never switch to anything else. Factor that in with Wave Lab, and a mind blowing array of filters, and you have everything you need at your disposal.

Reason is damn fine also, but is not as flexible for doing work where you need to record vocals or do multitrack work. But for doing sampling, drum based, and techno stuff as well as atmospheric music, Reason is king.


Both Cubase and Reason are great programs, and being able to use ReWire and have them both running at the same time is awesome.


Check this out:

http://www.steinberg.net/687_1.html


Listen to some of the demos. For 800 bucks, that is a steal. 27 gigs of samples? One job and it pays for itself.

Anyone who insists you need to use a Mac to do "Pro Audio" or "Music" is flat out wrong. Last time I checked, 1's and 0's are the same, and when you get down to the digital level with prerecorded samples like the so many instrument packs, they are all alike.
 
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Matt Grunau said:
Best software? Cubase. End of discussion.

Cubase is great software, and for music creation, could be all you need. It can use VST plugins and instruments. It's fairly pricey and so are some of the virtual instruments like Groove Agent and Virtual Guitarist, but once you get it and start using it, you'll never switch to anything else. Factor that in with Wave Lab, and a mind blowing array of filters, and you have everything you need at your disposal.

Reason is damn fine also, but is not as flexible for doing work where you need to record vocals or do multitrack work. But for doing sampling, drum based, and techno stuff as well as atmospheric music, Reason is king.


Both Cubase and Reason are great programs, and being able to use ReWire and have them both running at the same time is awesome.


Check this out:

http://www.steinberg.net/687_1.html


Listen to some of the demos. For 800 bucks, that is a steal. 27 gigs of samples? One job and it pays for itself.

Anyone who insists you need to use a Mac to do "Pro Audio" or "Music" is flat out wrong. Last time I checked, 1's and 0's are the same, and when you get down to the digital level with prerecorded samples like the so many instrument packs, they are all alike.
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Cubase does look nice but it does seem pricey not to mention the plug in prices but I guess now I'm torn cubase or pro tools. Like that symphony plug in for cubase looked nice but pricey. I guess now I'm looking at price and ease of use for midi operations.
 
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Matt Grunau said:
If you can find cheaper software that will allow VST instruments, that Orchestra pack could still be worth it.
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Yeah I'm going to look around and do some more research that Orchestra pack looks amazing!
 
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