music software

C

Cheesesailor77

Veteran
I want software that will allow me to use a midi keyboard to emulate many different intruments. I already have multitrack recording software.

I know nothing about this so if anyone can point me in the right direction i'd appreciate it.

THANK YOU!
 
Re: music software

It's a little hard to tell exactly what you're looking for, but I just started using Cubase SX for my music production software. Cubase is a multitrack system that acts as a midi sequencer/editor and recording studio. It's probably way overkill for my needs, but the capabilities are amazing. By itself, Cubase is only a sequencer for a midi instrument, but you have the option to use any of the thousands of VSTi plugins as synthesizer, sampler, and effects plugins. Cubase does come with a limited set of plugins to get you started. The trend has been away from using synthesizers to emulate instruments and toward using very extensive libraries of sampled instruments. Software synthesizers or softsynths are somewhat limited in emulating many real instruments, but are great at producing some very filmic background music and effects. For softsynths, I really like Absynth from Native Instruments. It seems well-suited for composing incidental film music.
 
Re: music software

Gracias Barry S,
Just to clarify, what Im interested in, and Im pretty sure this is what Cheese wants too, is to be able to hook up a midi keyboard to the computer, pull up some software with a bank of different instrument sounds (strings, booms, horns, whatever) and assign them to the keyboard, lay down a track, come back, assign a different instrument sound to the keyboard, lay down a track, and so on. For anyone thats seen the Once Upon A Time In Mexico DVD extras, THATS exactly what we want to be able to do. I'm checking out the software you mentioned, but franky the descriptions on these types of things are very vague to someone not hip to the termenology, for instance...I have no clear understanding of what "sequencer" actually means. They should say..."You can do what RR does on the OATIM DVD", giving a full basic description of what the software allows you to do!
 
Re: music software

Yep, DW right on. I want this almost purely for scoring movies.

I basically want an amazing sounding sound library that i can play through a midi controller, that either has multitrack capabilities in it, or can be usedeasily with Bias's Peak (which I have) or maybe Logic (which I might be able to get).

yeah, im on a mac ;D
 
Re: music software

Tascam Gigastudio 3

http://www.tascamgiga.com/

Alows you to map samples to the keyboard. Or take pre recorded midi and map real instruments to the midi.

I have used the demo and it is awesome. Plugs in to most audio editing software or standalone.   ;D ;D ;D
 
Re: music software

599 is too much if i can get away something cheaper.

And I cant find any samples to listen to and since thats what im paying for i wouldnt buy it if i couldnt listen first

is this available for mac?
 
Re: music software

Get yourself a short subscription to Electronic Musician. 2-3 issues will rapidly increase your knowledge in this area, and all the ads will give you plenty of options to research. There seem to be tons of approaches to this. The biggest downside is that you actually have to have some musical talent to use any of them. You may care about something that integrates with your NLE, or maybe not. You may end up with 2-3 programs (a synth/loop builder, and then an assembler, and then the program to integrate with video) to make it work the way you want, and get that last bit of video/sound timing.
 
Re: music software

It is one of the few available for mac. :-*

Too much? Are you nuts! That is the going rate for every piece of software out there! I can't think of any software that I own that doesn't cost that much. Hmm..... Let's see..

Vegas 5 - $524
DvRack - $495 - $295 with rebate
Sonar Producer - $499
Cubase SX - $579
Protools LE - $2000
Waves Diamond Native Bundle - $3800
Adobe After Effects - $639
Boris Red 3GL - $469
Final Cut Pro HD - $999
Avid Xpress Pro v4.6 - $1259
Mac OSX Panther - $129
Office 2003 - $259
Windows XP pro - $200
Gigastudio - $499

Come on, what is a measly $500 bucks. Lets face it you won't find a $60 prog to do what you want. I have tried hundreds of software and gigastudio was the only one that halfway worked and sounded good for under $1000. There are a ton of softsynths out there but nothing that sounds real.

Do you want your music to sound like a Nintendo Super Mario Bros rip off? Or do you want it to sound real?

Gigastudio is real. They are recorded samples. Oh, by the way you will have to purchase more instruments for gigastudio to get a full ensemble.

$160 per disk.

Oh and you'll need a smokin machine to run all this.  ;)

Sorry, I am just venting, because you are absolutely right! It is outragous what they are charging us for software!


;D ;D >:( :( :o ;D ;D :D
 
Re: music software

lol Hart, I never said 500 was unreasonable, i said i dont want to pay that much if i can find something cheaper.

I understand too that any of these programs will require at least a little musical talent, but i play quite a few instruments and in a few groups, so im sure it'll be fine.

Hart, is there a way i can listen to some of the samples for gigastudio?

Has anyone heard of Sampletank? its available for OSX, samples sound good, I'm really impressed with the with the STRETCH feature, AND its only 299.

Any comments?
 
Re: music software

Yes, you can. I have this magazine called Music Tech that gives free samples every issue. It is expensive. Roughly $13 an issue, it always has demo soft and samples. Look for any music mag with cdroms attached. They always have sample everything. Music Tech comes out of England that is why it is sooo expensive. I get it at Books-a-million. Or you can get a subscription delivered at home for about $230 bucks a year.

You can contact tascam for a demo, I think they used to have samples on their site.

They are recordings of the real thing. Every string, every note, every scratch and scrape recorded as a file. You can map every note to your keyboard or just a single note. So you really can't go wrong. But do try before you buy.

Contact them and see what happens. Tell them you are with a major production studio and you are interested in trying thier product. Sometimes they will send you the full version or at least something extra.

I do it all the time.... Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Be confident!

And yes it is not for a beginner. You need to know your midi basics and intermediates.

:P ;D
 
Re: music software

I don't want to rewrite a bunch of this so read this post first...

http://www.dvxuser.com/cgi-bin/DVX2/YaBB.pl?board=audio;action=display;num=1109073858

Ok, and you don't need gigastudio. Don't get me wrong it's still used, but you'd have to run it on a PC, get another lightpipe capable audio interface and pipe that into your mac. You just don't need to do this, and, quite frankly, the trend is moving away from this. I run the Quantum Leap East West Orchestra on my G5 and it's every bit as good as anything you'll get out of gigastudio and the best part is they created all the samples for that "Hollywood Sound". Check it out at http://www.eastwestsamples.com/.

This whole thing can get rather expensive. I also use Cubase SX/or sometimes Nuendo which is probably overkill for you. The nice part about Cubase, or any of the sequencers that I mention in the other thread I referenced, is that you can score to picture. So once you film is locked, you can import a quicktime file and score right to that. Makes life much easier. Then, once you record each individual composition as an audio file, you can bring them into a new project (again to the locked picture) and add in all your foley and do the rest of your mix. Very powerful.

Matt
 
Re: music software

D.W.,

I've seen the DVD segment you're referring to. But bear in mind, what he spoke of in that segment would be like me holding a camera and saying, "see you just point it at your actors, hit this little red button, and make a movie". As we all know, it's a wee bit more complicated than that...

A sequencer allows you to sequence midi events. You really should do a few google searches because books have been written on what I'm going to try and type in the few minutes I have available until I have to run out. When you hook up your midi keyboard and press a key, all you are doing is sending a set of commands to your audio app. Which key you hit, how hard you hit it, how long you held it, etc. Based on what "instrument" you have loaded, your sequencer will play the appropriate instrument patch and record what you played. If you actually write music, you can do what I do and write out your parts in notation and the computer will translate that into midi commands and play them back for you.

Again to "say..."You can do what RR does on the OATIM DVD", giving a full basic description of what the software allows you to do!" would take a book, and in fact many have been written on this topic.

Start here: http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm This site should keep you very busy for quite some time.

Best,

Matt
 
Re: music software

What?.... I am completely confused.

That program is over $4000.  It better give a hollywood sound.

I am positive that it would be a better program, but I think he is looking for something sub $500.

Oops, you are right there is no mac support. I blew it, I could have sworn it had mac support, damn. They are just loading up a box with xp, throwing the giga soft on and using it as a hardware sampler.

Sorry man.

It still stands, It is the best and most stable soft sampler I have used under $1000.

Poor mac users..... There is no good software left. Slim pickins!
:-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
 
Re: music software

You can get a version of East West Quantum Leap (Silver) for about $350 and it sounds fantastic (well, ok it sounds pretty darn good, certainly better than the "included" gigastudio samples).  The nice thing about East West is they allow you apply the full purchase price to any upgrade (there are three levels to this sample set).  By the way, the sample set utilizes the Kontakt soft sampler which works great on both Mac and PC.  You could also look at Garritan Personal Orchestra (also about $350) but for film scoring I like the sound of the EWQLO better, plus you don't lose any money if you decide to move up to the next level.  

Remember gigastudio is a soft sampler, even though it comes with samples, it's not a complete solution.  If you want to use it to play a really good orchestra, you're still spending some big coin.  EWQLO Silver or GPO would be his best bet, with my vote going to East West.  

Matt
 
Re: music software

Caubase SX already has virtual instruments, but I guess you can always get native instruments
or Reason
for movies Nuendo

if that's too much there's free pro-tools and there's a magazine in the UK called Computer music, each issue they pack it with free loops,refills,samples, and CM music creation software

cheers
 
Re: music software

east west's site is pretty un-navigatible, can u maybe provide a link? I'm VERY interested.


Also, i completely dsmissed it, but garageband does have midi controlled instruments (from what i've listened to they dont sound that great, even the jam packs) but does anyone know of a way i can use my computer keyboard in place of a midi controller until i either find my old midi keyboard or buy another one?

please keep posting any info of the subject u have
 
Re: music software

I wish I could hook up wit hthe set-up RR has (ON the MEXICO DVD). I play guitar so it would be great to select "SAX" and then jam out some tunes.

Damn.
 
Re: music software

Unfortunately John, the sax is one of the worst sample instruments out there, that's why I recorded it live for my little noir short. Brass however samples really well, so you can kick some ass there. most all orchestral instruments sample well as do most ethnic/world instruments. A sax is very unique, more akin to a human voice than pretty much any other.

Cheesesailor, earlier in this thread I posted a link to Tweakheadz, do yourself a favor and head over there and read. His site, or rather much of the information on it, is geared towards newbies and you can get yourself up to speed in a matter of days. I'm not trying to put you off but this really is a rather large topic. Not too complex mind you, but broad. Once you have a basic understanding of what's needed, then ask specific questions, and I'll answer each of them to the best of my ability. First you need to determine what sequencer platform you want to go with - everything else stems from there.

Matt
 
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