Looking for simple, free Audio-Composition Software
Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 08:27
Hi everyone,
I am aware that there are endless threads and infos for free audio software. My problem is, I cant find what I am really looking for and I hope someone here might share his experience and maybe give me a nice tip.
I am looking for a free software to compose simple tracks. I am often thinking about melodies and I am looking for a way "digitalize" these thoughts.
What's important:
- it should be free
- I want all rights for the track. I want to be sure that I am not using any "stolen" sounds, ripped from old console systems etc.
- easy/intuitive to use. I have no experience in music creation and I don't want to invest endless time to learn a huge/powerfull software, designed for professionels.
- music style is not very important. 8bit old school, new school, whatever
- my system: winXP
Any help appreciated, thanks in advance.
I faced a similar problem a while ago. While still checking out various DAWs I'm using LMMS. Imho, when compared to other similar programs it is definitely not worse, especially for a not very experienced user like myself. The more I used the better it seems to me and I find it even simpler, more user friendly that other DAWs. It is also feature rich, well, at least for my humble demands.
You can use build-in presets, OLPC sounds, external sound-fonts, VST plugins. Well, definitely a good program to start with.
Good luck!
BTW: (you can check out the tracks I create using LMMS :) to get an idea what you can do having little experience in LMMS or music in general. )
I'm veery (very) slowly getting into LMMS, most of this is thanks to yd posting the mmpz files, which I can learn from.
I'd love to see a completely foss tracker in the style of beepbox.co though (which is freely licensed but based on flash).
@qubodup
:) My project files are not the most suitable for learning LMMS, I do not use even 10% of this software's functionality. So beware from whom you are learning. You should check out LMMS tutorial section and definitely visit LMMS Sharing Platform (http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php) for more "professional" tracks.
Are you using an external keyboard with lmms?
Thanks for your input. I have installed LMMS now and played a little bit around with it. Starting now to watch some tutorial videos. Looks promising.
Anyway, any other software tipps very welcome.
@yd: just a keyboard and a mouse. I got a wacom tablet but I doubt it makes sense to use that.
@Scrittl: feel free to share tutorial links if you find some that you found especially helpful! :)
Highly recommend getting at least a simple midi keyboard. That will make using LMMS much more fun.
As an example, AKAI LPK25 does an excellent job.
The easiest program I know is Aria Maestosa (http://ariamaestosa.sourceforge.net/).
Thanks Savino, looks very nice too. Going to play a bit around with that one too.
Download http://www.64studio.com distro. They have all you need, and more ;)