Can anyone recommend me a good music software for free?

[Sairenka]

I'm trying to create my own original music for a game that I'm working on. The thing is I can't find a good program that's easy for a beginner to use that's free. Since I'm not exactly experienced with making music at all it causes problems for me since all the free programs I find have a rather complicated interface to me. If anyone can give me suggestions I'd gladly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[ThatMaestroGuy]

Reaper is pretty good if you're willing to look up tutorials and such, but that goes for any new software you get. But yes. Reaper works nicely. If you're more into musical notation, Finale Notepad works nicely, too.

 

[Kaiju Master]

http://www.soundation.com/studio you are limited using the free package but you can do a lot with it, you can use virtual dj home for free as well to mix up what you make on soundation.

 

[diamond16]

I second Clydous' suggestion, Reaper is great.  I used it for about a week when Cubase decided it didn't want to work for me with a deadline looming.

Audacity is another good free program for recording and converting files into different file types.

For notation programs, I love Sibelius 7 for it's layout and ease of use but I understand that it's a bit expensive.  Before I had Sibelius, I used Noteworthy Composer.  It's vastly cheaper and has a free trial or you can use Musescore which is entirely free.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Another good choice might be Finale. Notepad, that is. It's free and easy to use, but has limited features.  Good for somebody who's starting out.

Actually.... all the programs shown here are great!  The only thing is, though... I'm not sure if you can output any of the files to MIDI...so you have that little hitch...

http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/

 

[Shaz]

I've moved this thread to Program and Utility Discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

 

[diamond16]

With most of those programs you can just Save As and select midi as the file type you want.  In Sibelius, I use the Export function.

 

[iNSANiTY]

It depends on the type of music your really looking for...

I have tons of experience with DAW software (Ableton, FL Studio, Reaper, Reason)

Through my experience I really love Ableton and FL Studio equally, thought they are paid programs.

Personally I like these...

Reaper: Good for just about any project, but I think it is good for more serious games

Audacity: Of course right? It is decent if you want to touch up things when your completely finished... DON'T USE IT TO MAKE THE TRACK LOL

PXTone: Created by the creator of "Cave Story". I find that it is good for chiptune style music.

Musagi: Also used for chiptune, but it is a good midi music software.

MilkyTracker: I have not used this one myself, but judging by the info about it you can create some pretty epic arcade sounding/chiptuney music in it.

Now personally if I were you, I would try looking for someone with more musical experience. Creating your own sounds can be difficult if you have no experience with synths, or VSTs. Don't let that discourage you by the way, we all started somewhere!

Best of luck to you  Anymore information needed just let me know!

 

[Leonardo Myst]

I was looking at Reaper...

Wouldn't you need to purchase the commercial license (at least the discount license) for it if you were to use it to make music for a game that you may sell?

 

[Mouser]

Audacity is pretty much the uncrowned king of the "free" DAW's.

You'll find more tutorials, more help, and just plain more information on how to use that than you will anything else.

The only question is Will it do what you want to do?

Personally, I've used ProTools (an older version before it went native, so you need the box hooked up to even turn it on) and Adobe Audition, so I don't have much experience with the 'free' stuff out there.

 

[iNSANiTY]

I was looking at Reaper...

Wouldn't you need to purchase the commercial license (at least the discount license) for it if you were to use it to make music for a game that you may sell?

I totally forgot to mention that. You are entirely correct! Though using the free version may be able to help @Sairenka learn the basic fundamentals of music production.

However, if anyone reading this is considering going with Reaper. Here is some important information you NEED to know...

Fair Pricing

There is only one version of REAPER. We offer two licenses, depending on how you use it. 

 

$225: full commercial license.

$60:  discounted license.

 

You may use the discounted license if any of the following is true: 

 

• You are an individual, using REAPER only for personal use.
• You are an individual or business, using REAPER for commercial use, and the yearly gross revenue does not exceed USD $20,000.
• You are an educational or non-profit organization.