I want to start composing

R

RED ROBOT

Hey guys I was wondering how can I start making some music with the lowest possible budget on a piano .

I can play a piano quite a bit as I had some classes before .

The reason why I want to make some music for my films is not because I want to become a composer or do anything in that matter .

I love creating things , I love creating movies and I wanted to give music a shot . Just for fun .

Any advice ?

Thanks .
 
Learn basic chords for instruments you want to play.
Buy a good audio recorder.
Listen to all types of music. Rap, Rock, Experimental, Blues, Classical, Film, Indie, Folk, Pop, etc. and from all different parts of the world. Get out of your comfort zone.
Play as much as you can.

On another note, the program "Logic Pro X" (which might I add is getting much better reviews that FCPX) has built in instruments (like Garage Band), and at the same time advanced mixing tools at the price of $200. That might be worth investing into.
 
Lowest possible budget? Just piano sounds? We can do this.

Buy a basic MIDI controller. If you play piano, the action will be weird until you get used to it. Doesn't matter if it sounds like crap (el-cheapo casio keyboard) or has no sound engine at all. Should be USB (most of 'em are these days). (note: if you understand piano/music theory well enough, you could even program your pieces without a keyboard, so that cost could be kept down too)

Next, grab Reaper. http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ $60 (I think you can try it for free). Get a VST piano plugin...not sure if it comes with one, but you can find tons of them out there. Keeping it cheap, you can find free ones at http://kvraudio.com/ as well as tons of other instrument and effects plugins, for free and purchase. There are some good ones out there!

Your workflow will be like this:
play keyboard -> record MIDI data -> bounce MIDI to audio with your sound module of choice. You'll probably want a basic audio editor to edit your final audio tracks...Audacity is free, so that'll keep your budget down. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

If you have a piano, you could get a mic and an audio interface for your computer, but really to get decent results you'd have to spend way more than just doing it MIDI-wise.
 
JoshL said:
Lowest possible budget? Just piano sounds? We can do this.

Buy a basic MIDI controller. If you play piano, the action will be weird until you get used to it. Doesn't matter if it sounds like crap (el-cheapo casio keyboard) or has no sound engine at all. Should be USB (most of 'em are these days). (note: if you understand piano/music theory well enough, you could even program your pieces without a keyboard, so that cost could be kept down too)

Next, grab Reaper. http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ $60 (I think you can try it for free). Get a VST piano plugin...not sure if it comes with one, but you can find tons of them out there. Keeping it cheap, you can find free ones at http://kvraudio.com/ as well as tons of other instrument and effects plugins, for free and purchase. There are some good ones out there!

Your workflow will be like this:
play keyboard -> record MIDI data -> bounce MIDI to audio with your sound module of choice. You'll probably want a basic audio editor to edit your final audio tracks...Audacity is free, so that'll keep your budget down. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

If you have a piano, you could get a mic and an audio interface for your computer, but really to get decent results you'd have to spend way more than just doing it MIDI-wise.
Click to expand...

I really can't thank you enough!
 
I just saw a guy who bought a 50 dollar piano and just used some software so when he pressed the keys there were drum noises and then he switched and it was piano again and he mixed it and made a pretty cool soundtrack .

Do you think 50 dollars MIDI controller is way too cheap or it might do the job?
 
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