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just wondering what programs you use to compose music on a computer. if you have any links to free ones let me know. i am learning about music theory now after playing guitar for 3 years and drums for 3 months, so i want to start writing music on the computer and stuff too.

I downloaded some freeware called Anvil Studio, which works fairly well. I've just been using it to make simple little midi things, or to record notes from a keyboard. It's midi only though, not a multi-tracker.

I have a "multi-track" (both video and audio) program called Sony Vegas, which I would highly recommend, but it is far from free
I can't take full advantage of its live audio recording though, because my soundcard sucks (latency).

There are three music-related tasks you might want to use your computer for: writing notes, synthesizing, and post-production. If you simply want to write notes, then take a look at Lilypond. If you want to do synthesis then...

Back in the old days I used Fast Tracker 2 (which is DOS software and usually won't work on modern soundcards/os). There are other such programs for other operating systems (eg. Soundtracker for Linux) but I guess trackers are a bit outdated.

However, basicly you have two options: you can just write MIDI stuff using any kind of sequencer, and it will sound awful unless you have a real synthesizers or some VST instrument plugins, or you can just use a full-blown software-synth system, many of which can also host VST instruments for you.

If you are low on cash (and want to stay legal), then try Buzz. If you are willing to spend some money, you might want to checkout Reason, or any of the stuff Native Instruments makes. Some people also like FL Studio (former Fruity Loops).

Then ofcourse, if you are going to get serious, you might want something like Cubase or Logic Audio (I think logic is mac-only these days) and combine that with some wave-editor (for recording stuff, GoldWave is one good shareware app), or some VST plugins (for synthesis and effects processing), but then you probably want a MIDI keyboard as well, and possibly some real hardware synthesizers... this is also pretty much what you are going to use if you plan for using your computer for post-production only.

my brother has a midi keyboard, but ive never tried plugging it into the computer or anything. would he need a sound card with midi input for the computer, or could we use a 1/8th jack and plug it into the line in?

also, i have a 4 track here at home and do some recordings with my guitar, voice, and drums, and soon want to implement piano. i havent really recorded many serious things, just cool little things i like, and i recorded them so i wouldnt forget. but i want to get into writing, composing, and recording very soon.

If you just want to record multi track audio, try Audacity

i have audacity and i use it. but if i were to use the midi keyboard, would i need a midi card in the comptuer or something? or does the midi plug go into the line in jack on a sound card.

Many ways of getting a midi signal into your computer... I bought a little converter thing that plugs into a USB port. I think it was $30US or something.

I've been using Anvil Studio for quite some time to create my midis. Once you've got hang of it, it proves to be quite good.

I also use Sound Club to create mp3 music.


-Eigen

I, too, use Anvil Studio, and I know next to nothing about music.

On a related subject, it's very hard to make a "Biblical epic"-type song (like "The Ten Commandments" or "Ben-Hur") with only three tracks and no instruments.

I'd argue that it's pretty hard to create ANY music with just three tracks. As for having no instruments, one can always sing...

I'm sorry. I wasn't clear. I meant that it was for an AGI game.

For the internal speaker, you only get one track, and one note at a time, can't even harmonize, so what I like to do is first create the "simple pc speaker track" and then build onto it with other tracks and other instruments for other sound card settings.

Actually, some programs (like the good old FastTracker2) do fancy things with the PC speaker by using it as a "1-bit SoundCard". I don't exactly remember how it was done, but then you can have several tracks... and it sounds REALLY AWFUL.

Heh - back on our 386... (I feel old) ... which for obvious reasons ran DOS and had no sound card or speaker support.
There was one game on it that for some reason actually pronounced the game's title through the PC speaker. . . . Yes they had programmed a serious of beeps and whistles that sounded like speech.

Ok I'm going to leave you to just imagine that for a minute.
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Yes it sounded bloody awful - but (if you listened hard enough) you could actually make out the words - of course the result was proof of why more companies hadn't tried it before.

Well... FT2 was the origin of the .xm "Module" format, which carries both track-data and instruments (built from regular audio samples), so the result of playing .xm is always wave data (except some module players could load the samples into a WaveTable card's -- usually Gravis Ultrasound -- memory and let the card mix the tracks together..

In any case, FT2's PC-Speaker driver could play you any normal sample. In fact it could play you any 32 (?) channels of normal audio samples mixed together. Yup, and it sounded awful.