Music creation software for non-musicians?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Donny Bahama
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Donny Bahama

Donny Bahama

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I sing but I don't play any instruments. I'd like to find software that allows me to do the following...

1. "Select" notes one at a time - allowing me to hunt for it til I find the right one, then lock it in once I've got it. (Also, allow me to take each note and make it a chord if I want to.)
2. Tap a key (e.g. the space bar) to play each note (i.e. each time I press the space bar it plays the next note in the sequence), recording the timing to set the tempo as well as the duration of each note (based on how long I hold down the key).
3. Assign an instrument "voice".
4. Play back one or more tracks while I do step 2 for a new track.
5. Play back one or more tracks while I record vocals

If it could also allow me to change the key for all tracks simultaneously and or slow down/speed up all tracks/one track/part of one track, that'd be awesome.

This may sound silly/pathetic to many of you who can actually PLAY instruments, but I can't, and after working 60-80 hours a week, I barely have time to rehearse my vocals -- no time to learn to play anything. But I would like to play around with creating some multi-track backings for my vocals.

MANY years ago, I had a cheesy little Casio keyboard (literally a toy) that would do steps 1 & 2. I would think there must be some software that will do this today.

Oh, yeah... and if it was free (or really cheap or comes bundled with some piece of gear that I probably need anyway) that'd be great.
 
Ableton Lite does most of what you're asking for and comes bundled with some M Audio interfaces (and you'd want an interface to plug your mic into for the vocals you mention. (This is based on only the shortest of plays--I don't regularly use Ableton since almost all of what I do is recording live instruments, not MIDI.

Be aware that working note by note takes a LOT of time to get anything done though.
 
You're going to need some basic theory anyway... so perhaps a cheesy Casio keyboard and a EZ keyboard course for a couple of weeks will save you some time in the long run before you start delving into serious music production software.
 
As Bobbs says, one note at a time is laborious but my son found it very satisfying before he got a keyboard. Mind you he could play in the guitar parts but was interested in classical music and did a fair chunk of The Brandenbough #3.



http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/.......That's a freebee and is standard notion and I urge you to learn this form rather than (or as well as) the "sample cut n paste" technique, it will pay dividends, believe me.

Finale do a range of notation programs and they are all downloadable as trials. There are many others. Notion is one (note spelling!) . The Big Noise is Sibelius, again available to try and they all work in much the same way, get a grasp on one and the others follow.

I will say, even tho' you profess no musical ability, a simple $50 "dumb" USB keyboard makes things a lot easier.

Also investigate Modartt Pianoteq, great piano sounds.http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/

Cocked up the link!



Dave.
 
Audacity is free, and Reaper (using the midi piano roll) is cheap.

Either will get you going.
 
Thanks, everyone, for the responses but I don't think you're understanding what I'm looking for...

I want to specify a sequence of notes - just the notes themselves (G, C#, A, etc.) without regard for whether they're eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, etc. Then I want to put it into "tempo" mode and tap a single key. Each time I tap the key, it plays the next note. If I hold the key down, it sustains that note. If I let up on the key and don't tap again for half a beat, it puts in a rest. It's actually not that tedious to do this way. (Manually specifying quarter notes, eighths, sixteenths, etc., yes - that's tedious.) Specifying the notes to begin with isn't that hard or time consuming - I can bring up Tiny Piano on my iPad to do it if I have to. But being able to sit and tap a single key to set tempo, note durations and rests - that's a big timesaver.

So does anyone know of anything that can do that? As far as I can tell, Ableton Live doesn't. (I downloaded the 30-day trial and searched for that functionality. Didn't see it.) Finale Notepad makes you specify note durations, rests, etc. - manually for each note. Audacity definitely doesn't do this and Reaper's Piano Roll makes you click and drag to specify how long each note is sustained.

Just in case I'm still not making this clear, imagine it this way... you prespecify the sequence of notes that are going to be played, then you "play" that sequence using a single key. Based on when you press that single key, and how long you hold it down, the software interprets the tempo and note durations.

From there, I can assign it as bass guitar and move on to the next track - saxophone or violin section, etc. etc.
 
No, sorry Donny, don't get it.
When you have set a sequence of notes in a piano roll or in Finale you can play then with the PLAY button! It can also loop and play a phrase for as long as you need...Geez! I wish my son was here! He would have this sorted in trice (assuming it CAN be done on PC) .

Have you looked at simple drum sequencers? Once you have a sequence you can export the MIDI file and have it play any other instrument.
You might even find a second hand "Portastudio" keyboard does the bizz. Most of these (I have a Yamaha PSS-790) that has a crude sequencer/recorder in it. Most can then "dump" the MIDI files to a PC.

Looked at video of Tiny Piano. Still don't get it!
Anyhooos there are PC versions you can download but AT YOUR PERIL! One said it would install the Ask Toolbar (and G knows what else!) but gave "uninstall instructions"...Yeah!" Right! No thanks.

Dave.

Dave.
 
Donny Bahama said:
Thanks, everyone, for the responses but I don't think you're understanding what I'm looking for...

I want to specify a sequence of notes - just the notes themselves (G, C#, A, etc.) without regard for whether they're eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, etc. Then I want to put it into "tempo" mode and tap a single key. Each time I tap the key, it plays the next note. If I hold the key down, it sustains that note. If I let up on the key and don't tap again for half a beat, it puts in a rest. It's actually not that tedious to do this way. (Manually specifying quarter notes, eighths, sixteenths, etc., yes - that's tedious.) Specifying the notes to begin with isn't that hard or time consuming - I can bring up Tiny Piano on my iPad to do it if I have to. But being able to sit and tap a single key to set tempo, note durations and rests - that's a big timesaver.

So does anyone know of anything that can do that? As far as I can tell, Ableton Live doesn't. (I downloaded the 30-day trial and searched for that functionality. Didn't see it.) Finale Notepad makes you specify note durations, rests, etc. - manually for each note. Audacity definitely doesn't do this and Reaper's Piano Roll makes you click and drag to specify how long each note is sustained.

Just in case I'm still not making this clear, imagine it this way... you prespecify the sequence of notes that are going to be played, then you "play" that sequence using a single key. Based on when you press that single key, and how long you hold it down, the software interprets the tempo and note durations.

From there, I can assign it as bass guitar and move on to the next track - saxophone or violin section, etc. etc.
Click to expand...

I get what you want, and it would be kind of a neat thing to have, but I don't know of any contemporary program that will do it.

The only thing that comes close is simply to use a midi keyboard and play the melodic sequence. However, that requires you to manage two things, pitch and duration, which is exactly what you didn't want to do.
 
Ableton does have a feature where you can turn analog notes into MIDI. It might be the full suite that provides that. I've used it for a few guitar parts, but it has three features, Convert to drums, convert to melody, convert to harmony. This could be you just hum what you want and then you can pick the instrument you want to play it. See if this answers your question: Convert Analog To MIDI
 
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