I agree - however I follow the thought process of imposing rules and restrictions when I compose that Peter Gabriel chooses to employ. I mean - rules are meant to be broken, but they also provide something to work against which is good for getting your creative juices working. Good example - there are no cymbals really at all on Peter Gabriel III (Melt) - this gives the drums a very heavy handed feel throughout the album. Recently his cover album was done with only orchestra, vocal, and piano - no guitar, or drums. Working against something can often bring out results in an arrangement that you would have never got if you didn't impose a restriction on yourself.
I make music in the Trip-Hop and Industrial/Techno genres (even though I dominantly listen to Melodic Death Metal/Thrash/Punk). I am not great, as all this music was done on Intua's Beatmaker (can't want for Beatmaker II!) for the iPod touch but yeah. ^.^
Oh of course. That's the sort of stuff you rarely pay attention to when you're first learning though. First you have to learn the big stuff, then you can move on to the nuances that make everything actually sound good. Theory and composition I think helps those who don't really have the head to work it out for themselves -- although even those who can could benefit from it. However, I don't think any of it is actually necessary. If you listen to enough music and deconstruct it in your head to figure out what makes it "work" you can pick up a hell of a lot that way. I'm self-taught in that fashion, and though it took me longer (probably), I think it also allowed me to form my own basis for musical composition, which itself helped shape my own sound without being influenced too much by the composers and artists typically taught about in schools. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but it's worked for me so far, and I think it can work for anyone that has the time and interest to dedicate to it. Wellllll..... I suppose it's very much subjective, much like someone throwing buckets of vomit on a canvas and calling it art, there will always be someone who's fascinated by it. But if American Idol has taught anyone anything, it's that there really are wrong notes. There's a reason music has a scale after all. Several of them, in fact, and they were a pretty good idea. When your composition pretty well stays within the normal frequency ranges of scale notes, playing an accompanying note just a few Hz off creates a dissonance that few who aren't tone-deaf would call pleasant. It might be art, but is it music? It kind of reminds me of when, as a youngster, Frank Zappa went on the Steve Allen show and proceeded to make music by doing things like hitting the spokes, frame and other bits of an upturned bicycle. Now, this is Frank Zappa, so he was never about following rules, but really, it just wasn't music in any formative sense. It was artistic, though.
What I got from that Zappa "composition" was more sound effect than song - I understood it within about 10 seconds of hearing it years ago. To me it sounds like a Zoo. I studied for about 2 and a half years under a guitar teacher who taught me bass, and a little bit of guitar. I was taught how to interpret rhythm and timing as well as how to read tablature. I learned a tiny bit of musical notation in Junior High - but never really started following up on it until now. Currently I am self teaching myself most things - as for engineering I learned a lot when I went in to record an album about 3 years ago with a professional. The trick is to pickup every little bit of knowledge you can find where ever you are.
Yeah, but you have to know how to introduce "wrong notes". Even Boulez's early music or Cage's music is delimited by clear rules. Boulez's Structures sounds like random music, but it is perhaps the most controlled music. it doesn't matter what kind of music you want to compose, you have to know very well what you are doing and what you want to do.
Oh wow thanks for all replies, didn't know it would get this many in one day. x) I only have experience composing piano music in Overture/Finale/Sibelius, and FL Studio looks a ton more complicated, but I guess my years of training in classical piano and experience in those three program counts somewhat as "musical education". I'm mainly composing background music (ie the music for songs to be sung), and the only instruments I'll really need are piano, violin, guitar, drums, flute, and occasional other, and the quality doesn't really matter that much (highest quality priority for piano and violin of course) as the major part of the song is, of course, the voice. So is FL Studio good for that, able to produce satisfactory background music? Oh and Mindfield you seem experienced in FL Studio and general software composing, mind if I PM further questions? ^^
It should be more than capable, there are a whole bunch of successful artists out there who use it for the same purpose.
Yes - not that anyone here would want to listen to what I write. On the PC I use Cubase, Reason and a handful of VSTs. On my iPod I'm using NanoStudio and iSyn (Bebot, iShred, Jasuto and a few others) Other hardware I own is a Yamaha P-80 stage piano, a DX7-IIfd, a TX7, two TX-802s and a SIDStation. Oh yeah, and my wife as a small grand piano and a guitar, multiple wind and percussion instruments, and I have an accordion.
I dunno. I suppose it's art in the sense that its interpretation is up to the individual, and perhaps it follows some sort of obscure rules only Zappa knows -- or then again it could have just been one big leg pull. You never know with him. But the takeaway from that -- and from anyone who loves to experiment really -- is that no matter what you try and make music with or how you do it, you'll learn something from it. When I was first starting out I used a program called Quartet, which was a 4-track digital music maker that used samples and standard music notation. It was really limited (no volume control, no panning, no effects, just straight sample playback) but I used to have fun just throwing notes up in various configurations just to see what it would sound like. Came up with a few interesting melodies that way. And a whole lot of crap. But I learned some things anyway. I'll second and third that. Learn everything, from everyone and everything. Always keep your eyes and ears open and take a look at what other people are doing and how they're doing it. There's a virtually unlimited number of things you can learn and every one of them can expand your musical horizons. But just as important is to experiment with everything you learn, and do it a lot. His piano is still tuned though, so even if he uses notes that clash, they're still within the normal frequency range of the notes. If he started detuning random strings, then you'd get really wrong notes. To be honest, FLStudio is really only as complicated as you want to make it. It can be a little daunting to start off with even with a bare FLStudio package with only a few softsynths. But to start with all you really have to focus on are the piano roll, playlist, and instruments. There's a lot to learn here, especially with the softsynths and piano roll, but there are lots of beginner tutorials, and once you've got those down you can start to pull in more complex stuff like effects, more synths, events, and so on. It's really quite a powerful package -- it's come am incredibly long way since version 3, when I started with it -- and probably one of the best DAWs I've come across. There are others -- Reason, for example, but Reason is really complicated, even right out of the box, as it uses a synth rack paradigm where you have to literally plug each module into other modules using virtual patch cords. Great for experienced musicians already familiar with hooking up and configuring real gear, but a steep learning curve for those who aren't. FLStudio by comparison is pretty simplistic, and its effects banks use a simple stack paradigm where effects at the bottom of the stack are affected by those above them.
just got my Toneport UX8 in - in another week (when I get my drum mics) I will be able to start tracking edit - sweet just upgrading all my software - it came with the complete Pod Farm package (all modules). Bonus!!!
I recently purchased Music Studio by Xewton (iPhone app) and I have to say, it's extremely good for composing on the go. It even works well on my 1st gen iPod Touch. I'm probably going to pick up a keyboard from M-Audio and Logic Express 9 soon.
just got my Toneport UX8 and KB37 to communicate - so I got a bonus 2 scratch track inputs from the KB37 as well as the midi keyboard setup again.
It's been a few years since I've read it, but when I did, I remember Computer Music Magazine coming with a decent, basic sequencer along with some free VST instruments and FX (on a DVD included with the magazine). I think it can be found in any book store like Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.. Also, once you have a sequencer/DAW that is a VST host, you can pick up tons of free FX and instruments at KVRAudio.com I use (Cakewalk) Sonar to create game soundtracks. There's a light version that's quite cabable. I don't know the price though. (I got it free years ago with a piece of audio hardware that I bought). I think Cubase also has a light version. It's pretty similar to Sonar. I've used both, but personally, I like Sonar more... it just seems more intuitive for me.
I was considering upgrading to Logic Express - but am sticking with Garageband, until I can afford to spend money on - http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp/ Its a shame GB doesn't support 96khz though.
so I went ahead and upgrade to Logic Express - installing right now Garageband was to limiting, and I can't afford DP just yet. So I cut my losses and went for LE.
@Taylor Were the Gomi and Trace soundtracks composed solely with MIDI instruments in Logic, or did you also record real instruments?
right on, thanks I've been fooling around with some of my projects from GB - I am so glad I made the jump.
