Software inquiry

[Rokket]

I am looking for something that will let me compose an orchastra piece and play the parts together as an ensemble, but have control over the different parts. I am not a midi guy, and have nothing on the laptop I am travelling with that will even decode it, so it's not an option. Basically, I want to type in the notation and have it play back for me on whichever instrument I chose. Hopefully something realistic sounding. Any idea if that even exists, and where I can get it?

 

[gecko zzed]

I am looking for something that will let me compose an orchastra piece and play the parts together as an ensemble, but have control over the different parts. I am not a midi guy, and have nothing on the laptop I am travelling with that will even decode it, so it's not an option. Basically, I want to type in the notation and have it play back for me on whichever instrument I chose. Hopefully something realistic sounding. Any idea if that even exists, and where I can get it?

The telling phrase in your request is "I am not a midi guy", and I feel that might have to change, because all notation programs use midi.

There are a number of notation programs you can get, from fairly basic and cheap (e.g. Musicworks) to sophisticated and expensive (Sibelius). With these you can type in notes and assign instruments. You can play each part solo, or as an ensemble. They will play voices generated by your laptop's internal sound card. They won't necessarily sound very nice, but they will give you an idea of what it will sound like.

While these applications all use midi, for the most part this is behind the scenes, i.e. all you do is enter a sequence of notes, hit 'play' and off it goes. But there may be some initial configuring to get it up and running.

 

[legionserial]

You could try soundfonts aswell. Still midi of course but there's a lot of good free stuff out there. If you download sfz, it works as a vst instrument which you can run soundfonts through. I found some pretty reasonable soundfonts out there. However, there may be better options if you are wanting to spend money. For the odd orchestral thing I do, I use sfz which you can get from kvraudio.com, and soundfonts from sf2midi.com. All free.

 

[Rokket]

If I do this, what sort of midi engine will I have to get to get it running? Is this a software thing, or some outboard gear? I know absolutely nothing about midi...

 

[gecko zzed]

If I do this, what sort of midi engine will I have to get to get it running? Is this a software thing, or some outboard gear? I know absolutely nothing about midi...

You don't need a midi engine as such. Your computer knows all about it. If you get something like Musicworks or Sibelius, your PC can translate their internal midi commands and play them via its own soundcard. As I mentioned above, this may not sound very nice, but at least you will get an idea.

I am not familiar with Soundfonts, but if it needs to be loaded as a VST instrument, then you will need something that will host this instrument, which means a music program such as Logic, Reaper, SOnar or whatever, which then introduces another level of complexity.

If you are not familiar at all with midi, then a good way to come to terms with how it operates is to think of music boxes or old player pianos. You can think of midi as a set of instructions that tell a device to play notes of various pitchs, lengths and intensity; the same way a paper piano roll 'instructs' a piano what notes to play.

More elaborate player pianos exist, e.g. the orchestrion, which is a "player piano that is outfitted with additional automatically controlled instruments such as pipes, xylophones, drums, cymbals, glockenspiels, triangles, wood blocks, tambourines and other instruments and effects."

If you think of the orchestrion as your computer's soundcard, then midi is the means of communicating with this, which you can via a keyboard, or via notation software, or via the midi facilities of more general music production software.

There are alternatives to your internal soundcard. One is to use an external sound library, and the other is to use virtual instruments, as legionserial intimated.

Do you need to know about midi? Well, not really. For example, when making a player piano work, you don't need to know about its internal machinery. You just need to know how to load the paper roll and set the thing going.

However, were you to aspire to greater sophistication, and seek to modify the actions of your orchestrion, then you would need to know the internal workings. The same applies with midi.

I suggestion a search on the web for notation software; there may be something freely downloadable, and have a play with it.

 

[superspit]

You don't need a midi engine as such. Your computer knows all about it. If you get something like Musicworks or Sibelius, your PC can translate their internal midi commands and play them via its own soundcard. As I mentioned above, this may not sound very nice, but at least you will get an idea.

I am not familiar with Soundfonts, but if it needs to be loaded as a VST instrument, then you will need something that will host this instrument, which means a music program such as Logic, Reaper, SOnar or whatever, which then introduces another level of complexity.

If you are not familiar at all with midi, then a good way to come to terms with how it operates is to think of music boxes or old player pianos. You can think of midi as a set of instructions that tell a device to play notes of various pitchs, lengths and intensity; the same way a paper piano roll 'instructs' a piano what notes to play.

More elaborate player pianos exist, e.g. the orchestrion, which is a "player piano that is outfitted with additional automatically controlled instruments such as pipes, xylophones, drums, cymbals, glockenspiels, triangles, wood blocks, tambourines and other instruments and effects."

If you think of the orchestrion as your computer's soundcard, then midi is the means of communicating with this, which you can via a keyboard, or via notation software, or via the midi facilities of more general music production software.

There are alternatives to your internal soundcard. One is to use an external sound library, and the other is to use virtual instruments, as legionserial intimated.

Do you need to know about midi? Well, not really. For example, when making a player piano work, you don't need to know about its internal machinery. You just need to know how to load the paper roll and set the thing going.

However, were you to aspire to greater sophistication, and seek to modify the actions of your orchestrion, then you would need to know the internal workings. The same applies with midi.

I suggestion a search on the web for notation software; there may be something freely downloadable, and have a play with it.

we are indeed very lucky to have guys like this on these forums!

 

[Rokket]

You don't need a midi engine as such. Your computer knows all about it. If you get something like Musicworks or Sibelius, your PC can translate their internal midi commands and play them via its own soundcard. As I mentioned above, this may not sound very nice, but at least you will get an idea.

I am not familiar with Soundfonts, but if it needs to be loaded as a VST instrument, then you will need something that will host this instrument, which means a music program such as Logic, Reaper, SOnar or whatever, which then introduces another level of complexity.

If you are not familiar at all with midi, then a good way to come to terms with how it operates is to think of music boxes or old player pianos. You can think of midi as a set of instructions that tell a device to play notes of various pitchs, lengths and intensity; the same way a paper piano roll 'instructs' a piano what notes to play.

More elaborate player pianos exist, e.g. the orchestrion, which is a "player piano that is outfitted with additional automatically controlled instruments such as pipes, xylophones, drums, cymbals, glockenspiels, triangles, wood blocks, tambourines and other instruments and effects."

If you think of the orchestrion as your computer's soundcard, then midi is the means of communicating with this, which you can via a keyboard, or via notation software, or via the midi facilities of more general music production software.

There are alternatives to your internal soundcard. One is to use an external sound library, and the other is to use virtual instruments, as legionserial intimated.

Do you need to know about midi? Well, not really. For example, when making a player piano work, you don't need to know about its internal machinery. You just need to know how to load the paper roll and set the thing going.

However, were you to aspire to greater sophistication, and seek to modify the actions of your orchestrion, then you would need to know the internal workings. The same applies with midi.

I suggestion a search on the web for notation software; there may be something freely downloadable, and have a play with it.

Well earned rep for this post...

 

[Rokket]

The telling phrase in your request is "I am not a midi guy", and I feel that might have to change, because all notation programs use midi.

There are a number of notation programs you can get, from fairly basic and cheap (e.g. Musicworks) to sophisticated and expensive (Sibelius). With these you can type in notes and assign instruments. You can play each part solo, or as an ensemble. They will play voices generated by your laptop's internal sound card. They won't necessarily sound very nice, but they will give you an idea of what it will sound like.

While these applications all use midi, for the most part this is behind the scenes, i.e. all you do is enter a sequence of notes, hit 'play' and off it goes. But there may be some initial configuring to get it up and running.

I couldn't find Musicworks on the internet. Does it go by another name? I am looking at Sibelius right now.

 

[gecko zzed]

I couldn't find Musicworks on the internet. Does it go by another name? I am looking at Sibelius right now.

I expect that MusicWorks is no longer available. It was an early notation program, produced by "Middle Earth Software Systems", and was written prior to Windows XP. However, it was cheap and worked well.

I did a quick google and found a number of downloadable packages, including Finale, MagicScore, Pizzicato, MuseScore, Midillistrator and others. It's wirth playing around with some of the free trials of these.

I note that you are looking at Sibelius, which is at the higher end of the market. Consequently, though it will serve your purposes really well, it is complicated with many facilities and options. I venture into it with trepidation, though my daughter makes it turn cartwheels.