fanapathy

Hi,

I'm looking for software or otherwise something to aid me make compositions with high quality sound. I realized I don't really know much about music making software.

I currently use GuitarPro6 to compose and it's fine for making scores, but the sound is limited and unfortunately not very realistic.

Looking for something more professional to make music with, as I only have guitars and no access to other real instruments. I don't even have a MIDI keyboard but would like to be able to make instrumental compositions that sound good.

I've heard about EastWest Symphonic Orchestra, not quite how it works, but looking for things like creating drum tracks without drums, synth, string instruments, horns and pretty much anything

Does this kind of thing exist? For example, I'm pretty sure a lot of symphonic metal isn't actually recording with a massive orchestra and huge choir.

Thankful for any information or recommendations, I really want to get into making music on a bit more advanced level than MIDI etc

Tempoe

Any DAW will let you use the standard 120 sounds, drums etc. They sound pretty good, bass drums, sound effects etc. You'll have to use a mouse if you don't have a MIDI controller

fanapathy

^Thanks, I will try this. Trying out FL Studio. Do you have anything specific to recommend? Cheers

GaryBillington

Loads of info about this in the recordings forum. Try there.

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fanapathy

Thanks. I'll head over there

CryogenicHusk

I haven't tried it yet myself, but Sibelius is the name of one I see mentioned quite a bit online.

jebbe9696

Its basically the same as GP for his purposes. Its a good device for notation, but it sounds like shit (compared to real recordings, or proper synths)

Hellharicot

Drums: Toontrack Superior Drummer 2
Bass guitar: Prominy SR5 Bass
Keyboard/Synth: Omnisphere
Symphonic Orchestra: East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra / Sympobia / Spitfire Albion
Piano: Imperfect Samples Fazioli Ebony

Even Though you don't own a keyboard, you could use FreePiano. It's a software than turns yoour typing keyboard into a midi keyboard, it's very useful!
You'll need a DAW to use these VSTis, and I advise you to use Cakewalk Sonar X1 / X2. This is my favourite one because it's intuitive and fairly easy to use. Oh! And you'll need some EQs, Compressors and stuff. The top ones are from Fabfilter.

Hope it helps.

Xiaoxi

EastWest sucks. Terrible company, terrible software, inflexible samples. Symphobia is pretty limited but is a good auxiliary library. Albion is also auxiliary only.

For a beginner's main symphonic VI, you wanna go for VSL Special Editions Vol. 1. Comprehensive articulations, all the basic members of the orchestra, very stable sample engine.

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

macashmack

Logic Pro. It's quite expensive, but it should be. It's a very good composition software.

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Modes and scales are intelligent and useful. Start learning them. Seriously.

hamza hashmi

same here i compose every intsrument i dont have with gutiar pro 5.

i pass bass through guitar rig 5. the drum tracks are from ez drummer (it's damn easy).

frog_friend

This pretty much. East west is a nuisance. Unstable play interface coupled with shoddy customer service makes it a hassle. Symphobia and Spitfire Albion are good but they are really more of a supplementary type thing. Something you would use to sketch out an idea and then go back to with some more in depth samples. VSL are good like he mentioned. Cinesamples and 8dio do great work. For pianos the fazioli that someone mentioned is good. A lot of people like ezdrummer for drum samples but I've never used them myself.

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Hail

i hear they hire just any kid off the streets over at 8dio. hell, i bet some schmuck from here even works at that place.

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Angusman60

Sibelius is good. But, it is sort of like the Apple Mac of the Music Notation world. The industry standard is Finale. You can download a free version through their website.

http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/default.aspx

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frog_friend

huh?

__________________
frog_friend and WGP: UG's Kramer brotherhood

Ug's 4th ENGL endorser
Randy Rhoads is god
founder of the "ENGL amps" fanclub. PM me to join

Xiaoxi

Now here's a guy who knows what's up

and thank you

__________________
Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

Xiaoxi

Regarding pianos:

Fazioli's pretty meh, about the same level as Alicia's Keys (also meh). I use Cinesamples Piano In Blue and 8Dio 1928 Steinway. They're both freaking fantastic.


And for drums, I've found NI's Abbey Roads series really good. They sound pretty crap out of the box but once you've tweaked the mix and isolated the individual drums with the right amount of compression, they start to really shine. Main advantage is a wide variety of articulations/hits, playability, and full control of the mix.

Anyways, these are all just tangents that are beyond the TS's needs/tech ability/wallet lol

Here's my main orchestral setup right now:


On my sample server:

Orchestral Tools Berlin Woodwinds (VSL winds for aux)
Cinesamples CineBrass (VSL brass for aux)
VSL percussions
Cinesample CineHarp
Piano in Blue / 1928 Steinway
8Dio Adagio Violins (other sections still being developed)
LA Scoring Strings to cover where Adagio's missing
(I used to love LASS but now it sounds so dead compared to Adagio)

non orchestral libraries: Chris Hein Horns (jazz ens), NI MM Bass Guitar, a slew of Kontakt NI stock libraries, Symphobia 2, Heavyocity Evolve.

This is all hosted in Vienna Ensemble Pro, which sends the audio to my main desktop:

Digital Performer 7 as my main DAW, Pro Tools 9 for audio editing
Altiverb 6, 2C Aether, ValHalla Shimmer for reverbs
Waves, McDSP for general processors
Ozone 5 mastering

And I use TouchOSC on my iPad to control all the VI parameters
Sibelius 6 for notation/writing

BAM!!!!!

__________________
Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

Hellharicot

Well, I do not use EastWest's Play. I just use the library with kontakt and it works fairly well. Plus it sounds very realistic. The main difference between EastWest and VSL on the sound is that the first one sounds hollywoodian wereas the other sounds much more classical and occidental. Just based on their sound quality, both libraries are worht each others.
What I like with EWQL Symphonic Orchestra (Platinum XP) is that it is sort of a full library: it contains all the instruments a symphonic orchestra could need, recorded from 3 different mic positions, and hell a lot of articulations. Okay, Play is crap. But the library, used in Kontakt, is damn good.

Xiaoxi

VSL isn't necessarily more classical. It's just recorded fully dry, which can be both a pro and con depending on the user. Basically it's a lot more flexible than EW mix-wise and performance-wise. You can certainly make it into the "epic action score" sound if you know how to craft the room, reverb, and mix.

Also, all current EW libraries are proprietary to Play only. They refuse to go back to Kontakt even though a shit ton of people protest it everyday.

__________________
Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...