To Upload Or Not To Upload?

[SeraphCorrupt]

I really would like to share some of my music with you guys however, the problem is, they sound crappy as far as the instruments go. They sound MIDI. I do not have any good VSTs or know how to play any real instruments (except a LITTLE bit of piano). Now MIDI doesn't sound terribly bad on the ears but it would be WAY better to have the music sound realistic.,

I make music on my computer using Sibelius 5 (awesome program imo but 6 is naturally better. I tried the demo. really cool.) Even though Sibelius has a decent variety of instuments to choose from, they are far from sounding realistic.

So what do you guys think I should do?

[Frazmaster]

Collaborate with someone or learn to make it yourself...

I would highly recommend learning to make it yourself, though.

[SeraphCorrupt]

At 3/15/11 04:05 AM, Frazmaster wrote: Collaborate with someone or learn to make it yourself...

I would highly recommend learning to make it yourself, though.

Well I create my own scores. The music is 100% original. I really wish I could learn all the instruments I put into my music (violin, piano, cello, electric/bass guitar,drums) But i do not have the room or the money for all of that. D:

[myheadisaballoon]

Well, I don't know about Sibelius as a program, but perhpas you should investigate into investing in something along the lines of Reason 5. It has a huge library of built-in instruments and fx, all of which will help your compositions to sound less 'midi'.

You can download a 'demo version' of it here: http://www.propellerheads.se/download/

[SeraphCorrupt]

At 3/15/11 04:25 AM, myheadisaballoon wrote: Well, I don't know about Sibelius as a program, but perhpas you should investigate into investing in something along the lines of Reason 5. It has a huge library of built-in instruments and fx, all of which will help your compositions to sound less 'midi'.

You can download a 'demo version' of it here: http://www.propellerheads.se/download/

I will definitely give it a look. Thanks. I heard of Reason but I never really looked into it.

[Xyresic]

Sibelius isn't really for creating computer audio productions, more so for creating arrangements and sheet music. There are plenty of great programs out there to kick start you, it all depends on what kind of music you're interested in making...
Fl Studio, Ableton, Reason, Sonar, Logic, Cubase... there are a myriad of them, but these are the main ones you're likely to come across in the world of audio production. (These are just off the top of my head, mind.)

[SeraphCorrupt]

At 3/15/11 07:14 AM, crapatflash wrote: Sibelius isn't really for creating computer audio productions, more so for creating arrangements and sheet music. There are plenty of great programs out there to kick start you, it all depends on what kind of music you're interested in making...
Fl Studio, Ableton, Reason, Sonar, Logic, Cubase... there are a myriad of them, but these are the main ones you're likely to come across in the world of audio production. (These are just off the top of my head, mind.)

I see. Well I did download the Reason demo and it looked very complicated. 20- minutes is not enough time for me lol. But I see your point.

The type of music I am going for is: instrumental (I can't sing/scream. I sound like shit.) But I like to mix cello, violin, and piano with guitar and drums. I guess a closest band that I say matches the style I am going for is Red and a bit of Skillet and Demon Hunter. Hard, heavy stuff but have that soft sound of the cello and violins.
And maybe one day I could mess around and hopefully do a really cool techno/electronica kinda thing. Something that would be epic enough to be put in The Impossible Game.

[Arbiter]

Quite frankly, the main issue you had was whether or not you wanted to submit using the standardized windows GM-kit (.mid sound).
If you want your music out there, chances are that most people will judge your song by merit of composition, instead of the production. There are also a lot of alternatives if you really want your songs to be properly instrumented, such as sending the .mid files to another composer who will in turn produce your track. There's also other solutions, such as getting one of the sequencers mentioned earlier and testing them out (I recommend FL Studio personally, as you can test it as much as you want, but can only render tracks - not save the projects, in the demo -- not to mention if you buy it, you get free updates for life)

Personally, I would probably go for learning the sequencer - but chances are that if you want the best quality, you will need to send it to someone who is already experienced when it comes to production - that being said, sending your tracks to someone for production doesn't really exclude you learning the program yourself - so you can do the same, in the future.

[SeraphCorrupt]

At 3/15/11 08:19 AM, Arbiter wrote: Quite frankly, the main issue you had was whether or not you wanted to submit using the standardized windows GM-kit (.mid sound).
If you want your music out there, chances are that most people will judge your song by merit of composition, instead of the production. There are also a lot of alternatives if you really want your songs to be properly instrumented, such as sending the .mid files to another composer who will in turn produce your track. There's also other solutions, such as getting one of the sequencers mentioned earlier and testing them out (I recommend FL Studio personally, as you can test it as much as you want, but can only render tracks - not save the projects, in the demo -- not to mention if you buy it, you get free updates for life)

Personally, I would probably go for learning the sequencer - but chances are that if you want the best quality, you will need to send it to someone who is already experienced when it comes to production - that being said, sending your tracks to someone for production doesn't really exclude you learning the program yourself - so you can do the same, in the future.

I could get someone else to help me with it but first I gotta put it out there huh? Okay. So I guess I will post some of my music and see what will come of it.

I know eventually if i work with it enough I could use any program for this task. But I just hate demos.. ugh. makes me feel so restricted lol

[WerewNC]

It's great to see I'm not the only one on Newgrounds that writes his music in notation software! I generally put the midi file in LMMS and use LinuxSampler as a VST plugin to use this sample library and this one. I also use this soundfont and Frank Wen's Fluid R3 soundfont for some stuff.

Of course, none of these are pro stuff, but they sound much better than the midi sound you've got.

Also, people will judge your music based on production. If it sounds like a midi file, folks won't like it.

[SeraphCorrupt]

At 3/15/11 10:56 AM, WerewNC wrote: It's great to see I'm not the only one on Newgrounds that writes his music in notation software! I generally put the midi file in LMMS and use LinuxSampler as a VST plugin to use this sample library and this one. I also use this soundfont and Frank Wen's Fluid R3 soundfont for some stuff.

Of course, none of these are pro stuff, but they sound much better than the midi sound you've got.

Also, people will judge your music based on production. If it sounds like a midi file, folks won't like it.

Thanks for the links! These look very useful especially since most of my music have cello and violin. Now only if i had some with guitar and drums.

And I agree. I do think that most people would prefer anything over midi sounds.

[samulis]

At 3/15/11 11:55 AM, SeraphCorrupt wrote:
Thanks for the links! These look very useful especially since most of my music have cello and violin. Now only if i had some with guitar and drums.

And I agree. I do think that most people would prefer anything over midi sounds.

If you choose to use LMMS, look into various soundfont instrument banks. I picked up a few very good free SF banks that I used to use until I saved up enough cash for a good VST bank. LMMS is a great program, the only issue that I ever have had with it is that it doesn't export .mid files, only finished pieces. :(

[camoshark]

Sibelius FTW!

I'm working on Sibelius 1.4 (by choice, not by lack of ressource), but I save the songs in MIDI form and convert them using soundfonts such as the chorium or the as aformentioned Fluid R3.

I'm just wondering, doesn't Sibelius 5 come with a built-in Kontakt add-on? Because, then you could just get yourself better sounding sounds and export the whole thing in MP3...

Looking forward to hearing more notation-based music!

[UnmentionedSource]

Link us with some youtube of the songs you've made so we can listen.