Hello community!
When making game music, would you rather use a synthsizer software or actually go and record it?:shock:
Regards,
Depends on the kind of music, the instruments needed, and the budget.
Samples can sound close to perfect for instruments which do not sustain sound (vibraphone, harps, non-strummed guitars, marimba, celesta, glockenspiel, simple piano writing, pizzicato strings etc…). Bowed strings, woodwind and brass need a lot of work and very high quality libraries to sound ok, but can be convincing in certain situations (the least movement, the better). Sampled choirs nearly always sound cheap.
A mix of real musicians and samples can work too - imagine you want a warm jazzy trumpet playing on simple string chords and harp arpeggios, recording a good trumpet player and doing the rest in samples will cut your costs immensely and might be perfectly convincing if the writing is good (the ear will be drawn to the interesting part of the real player, and might never notice that the rest is “fake”).
Another issue with recording is dynamic music : if you plan on implementing reactive music systems, working with samples makes it much much easier.
I’m not a musician at all, but I tried some computer programs like FL studio and I found them to be limited. Just make hip beats. I tried this one called MuseScore and it seemed to only do classical instruments, not possible to do electronic music. I wonder if there is any good synthesizer software.
The problem with recording live music is that you need a band for that. And a studio. With DAW`s (Ditgital Audio Workstation) like FL Studio, Cubase or Cakewalk you can make the whole song by yourself. At your home pc. Given you have the needed talent and the ear for making music of course. It is art. And like with every art, you cannot learn it in one or two days.
You can do any music in FL Studio. Theres nothing limited. Just a question of effort. Its of course easier to make step sequence based music with it, since the step sequencer is the first thing that jumps into your face. But you can switch to Pianoroll within an eyeblink. Sure, there is even more powerful software. FL aims from hobby useage up to semi professionals. But those are usually also more expensive.
There are tons of good synthesizer software. Its called VST instruments. And you can plug most of them into the usual DAWs like Cubase, Cakewalk, and of course FL Studio. Quality is a question of money here. You can spend several hundrets bucks for a single VST instrument. But theres more than enough freeware around too. My recommendations are for example the VST´s from DVS. And the almighty Synth1 is still worth a download. And more than enough at the beginning. The other thing is sample libraries or sound fonts. Thats a good thing for realistic drum kits for example. Or as mentioned for brass, strings and similar stuff where a syntesizer is in trouble to reproduce the sound.
If you need a cheap but mighty DAW i can recommend “Reaper” to you:
http://www.reaper.fm/
If you’re an indie, it’s going to be a lot easier to do it digitally then to record live instruments. Unless you can record yourself playing an instrument or have a really generous friend who will play an instrument for you, you’re going to have to pay someone to perform and musicians aren’t cheap. Additionally, you need a good microphone and a good recording space. Also, even if you can find one person who you can record, that only covers one person playing one instrument. If you want an orchestral sound, you need many people playing many instruments, for example.
DAWs can actually make very good sounding tracks if you know how to use them. Even a lot of AAA game music uses them, and you can go (relatively) very cheap if you do this option. You will be somewhat limited with a few things, but the only “instrument” that will be almost impossible to pull off is a choir. Perhaps and ambient choir mixed with other instruments will sound okay, but a solo choir will definitely sound cheap. DAWs also have the advantage of speed and flexibility. You can pull off a finished, solid sounding track in a couple of hours if you’re pressed for time, and you can make music whenever you want rather then trying to line up schedules.
Oh, for the record, I’m basing this post on my knowledge of Logic, but I’ve seen other DAWs and they are very similar. Doesn’t really matter which one you chose. Logic is pretty cheap these days, though (200$).
Logic is a good choice. But like everything it takes a while to learn if you are new. Cubase has an easier curve and has better tools for audio editing. Even though I have both I end up using logic more lol…go figure. If you already have experience with another DAW then its easy to learn a new one because all DAWS are essentially there to do the same thing. Just like if you know how to model in a 3D modelling app, then its not that hard to learn to model in a different one because the idea is the same.
As for the VST, well its the way to go if you want to sound professional (without having to rely on real musicians). But then again, if your composing skills are weak or basic, you could have the best virtual instrument libraries that it would sound as crap. If you want to do it all yourself, you need to know how to compose (harmony, voice-leading, counterpoint, rhythm…), have a decent knowledge of orchestration and instrumentation, and on top of that you need to have a knowledge of mixing and mastering.
FLStudio is super capable if you stick with it. Heatbeat from Argentina use it as their primary DAW:
http://youtu.be/fbHl568JI0E
I found FL pretty efficient, I recommend the low end cads if you want a good mic for indie stuff, should fit within any budget.
(for pc)
Best - Cubase
Hardest - Cubase
Most expensive - Not sure. Probably Cubase. lol
Easiest - Reason
I would consider Reason as an option for making basic synth music. I dont really keep up with reason at all, but back in the day it made putting tunes together a lot simpler than the likes of professional DAWs such as cubase/fruityloops/logic. All sound units are integrated. It never supported VSTs but im not sure if this is still the norm.
Writing your own decent music is an art form in itself and does not happen over night. It takes realistically around 2 years to make anything that sounds decent.
You would probably be better to purchase pre-made royalty free tracks. They can cost anywhere from 25-100’s per track, but will be easier and cheaper in the long run.
There’s a fantastic free DAW for Mac and Linux (not sure about Windows) called Ardour. The basic version is free, but you get the fully functioning version if you donate anything over $2.