Music software for idiots

[ohp]

Now painting packages are easy to use, video editing packages arem't particularly challenging... why is music such a difficult thing to create on computers?

perhaps I just havn't found the right package...

Apparently garageband is easy to use, but I don't have a mac.

Any ideas?

[ThatSoundAgain]

What do you want to do? Record yourself playing guitar and singing, lay down a drum track, program minimalist techno?

If you want to record a few tracks from a mic / instrument and add some effects, Audacity is open source and free. No sequencing, though.

Good programs for noodling around with beatboxes, synths and loops are Propellerhead Reason and Fruityloops. Neither does very well (IIRC, may have changed) at recording, e.g. a vocal track.

Orion Studio and Cakewalk have products that are a rung up the ladder, on the way to a full-fledged DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

One thing you could try is to get a hold of Computer Music magazine (http://www.computermusic.co.uk/). They have tutorials (follow the link for some online ones) and a cover DVD with samples and software. At one point, every issue of the DVD had the "Computer Music Suite", a complete, albeit basic software package for sequencing and multitracking.

(The above information may be outdated, I'm on a Mac myself now - corrections welcome).

[ohp]

I can play the trombone (badly) and a few guitar chords, that's about it.

I guess I need some kind of sequencer.

[ThatSoundAgain]

Here (http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=results&st=adv&soft=h&type%5B%5D=0&f=0&fe=0&win=1&free=1&sf=0&receptor=&de=0&sort=1&rpp=100) is a near-complete list of freeware programs for Windows. Many of the descriptions are heavy on obscure abbreviations, but check out Temper, Music Studio Independence, and LUNA (same as the Computer Music sequencer), at least. I don't know them, but they could be worth a try.

That site is a central resource for VSTs, which are effect and instrument plugins. After you download a program, try searching for freeware instruments and effects to use with it. I think there's a quite active forum there, too. Maybe someone there could help you find the best free or cheap solution.

The thing is, the types of software you mention in your OP differ a lot from music production. With video and photography / image manipulation, you can get by with pointing and shooting, and then selecting and editing (all with various degrees of skill). The same would be true for music if musique concrète was the dominant form - you could wander about with your microphone and DAT and then go home and edit your piece from that material. Alas, the vast majority of music is concerned with a self-referential, almost totally abstract vocabulary of pitches, timbres and temporal structures of those. So this is, in a way, a language and skill set that has to be learnt, which is much more difficult than locating the shutter release on a camera. But luckily, it can be both fun and rewarding (as you may know).

You mention Garageband. That program is known for being easy, and it is. The trouble is, it's easiest when it's not really used for composing, but for arranging. It comes with a decent library of loop samples - the ones that are a few bars of drums or a complete bassline - that you can piece together and have a professionally sounding piece in no time. Anyone can do it. Garageband is capable of more, but the closest I've seen to this arranger side of it in other software must be something like "Dance Ejay" (I think it was called). The beauty of Garageband is that you can ease gradually from this side of it to the sequencer side, and fill in the parts you need along the way from the library.

So, check out that site and see if you can find a Computer Music (paper) magazine. They have lots of samples, tips and tools.

[MortFurd]

You might want to try Musix. (http://www.musix.org.ar/en/download.html) It's a bootable CD that contains pretty much nothing but music software. It's a Linux variant, and it can run straight from the CD or (if you really like it) you can install it on your hard drive along side Windows.

Software I've used on Musix:
1. Rosegarden. (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/) Composing and printing sheet music. It also has Midi import, midi playback with a software synthesizer, and control of external midi devices. You can enter your music using a note editor, by playing it on a midi keyboard, or by marking notes aon a "music roll," kind of like the old fashioned paper rolls for player pianos.
2. Hydrogen. (http://www.hydrogen-music.org/) A drum sequencer. Also can be controlled by Rosegarden to integrate percussion into your music.
3. Audacity. (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) Handy for recording vocals and doing final mix on tracks.

There's a pile of other stuff on the CD, as well.

[PixyMisa]

I like Acid a lot. Uh, that's Acid Music Studio (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/acidfamily.asp). :o It's the Garage Band equivalent for Windows, though in fact it's been around longer than Garage Band.

[ThatSoundAgain]

Oh, good one, PixyMisa! I'd forgotten about that. If I remember correctly, it even comes bundled with some hardware, so it pays off to look for it if you need a new sound card or a MIDI keyboard anyway.

[ohp]

Thanks for all those suggestions. I suspect I'll be spending weeks trying them all :-)

I think I'll be trying the free options first :)

[Langis]

Though I didn't make this topic, I too want to thank those who suggested music software. Granted, I still have to learn more about music appreciation and composition, but this is a good start.

[Reeco]

If you are working mainly with midi, Reason 3.0. (http://www.propellerheads.se/) is well worth a look. This is one great piece of software - a virtual synth rack that contains mixers, synths, effects, samplers and pretty much everything else. It doesn't record audio files directly, but you can easily import audio files that were recorded elsewhere. Reason is very self contained, well supported and doesn't require a hugely powerful computer to run.

If you like manipulating audio, Live 6.0 (http://www.ableton.com/live) may be the way to go. I have never used this myself, but it looks like a lot of fun.

[arthwollipot]

I'd dearly love to go back to making music. I remember what fun I had with MIDIWriter on the old Fat Mac back in high school. I've had lots of ideas for tracks since, but never had the wherewithal to actually be able to record any of them.