Game music, what do you use?

Hi everyone. Just wondering what programs do you guys use for your games music/ sound effects?
I need someone to recommend me a good (free) music making program to create music and sound effects to use in my games.
Previously I used this online music making site called Aviary roc. some of you might be familiar with it. Thats what I used for to make all of the music and game sound effects such as picking up items, etc in all my game projects up until now because the site recently announced that they are now officially offline. So now I need to look for an alternative program or else all of my games will be silent from now on. Recently I downloaded a program called Magix music maker because I heard it was really good and free (however it turned out that its actually not free you only get a 7 day trial) so that didnt work out. Looks like I'm starting to ramble.

Anyway, what are some good programs for game music and which ones do you guys/gals use?

 

Unless you are a sound engineer or professional musician, everyone is going to hate your sounds/music.

I recommend:
SoundDogs.com for sound effects
StockMusic.net for music

 

I would recommend:
SoundJay for sound effects and music.
NoSoapRadio for music.

If you want to make your own music Open MPT is a good free solution.

 

wow thanks so much ptdnet and sirtiddlesworth those are excellent sources. SoundJay especially, this has a bunch of sound effects I was looking for.
These sites should be very useful for any project not just game projects. So once again thank you. Very awsome sites.

 

@SirTiddlesworth:

Glad to see someone else plugging NoSoapRadio - felt I was all alone

cheers,

gryff

 

@ snowconesolid
Glad I could help

@ gryff
Not many people seem to know about it.

 

If you want to write your own music, this is a good place to start:

LMMS linux MultiMedia Studio - For writing music (there is a Windows version).
DSK Instruments - Here are some free digital instruments that you can plug into applications like LMMS.

If you want sound effects, you will either need to record them yourself and edit them with something like Audacity, or search for sounds in the public domain which are free to be used by anyone.

 

I listened to quite a few tracks on that site just to see which songs would fit right with certain game projects and im really impressed. There is a lot of awsome music that would fit with whatever you are looking for. Best part is all the songs are free to use for non-commercial use and commercial

@Horror, thanks Horror, I looked up a couple of similar programs like this one. This one looks pretty nice compared to the other ones I found. Ill check it out sometime.

 

Open MPT is what i recently downloaded, and it has a great user interface and fine granularity of control, although i am not an audio engineer. (Aside to Sir. Tiddlesworth, great statement "A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing."

 

I would invest in software that will do the job better than the gratis onces. here's why:

I use Cubase 6, with several vst instruments (like VSL (vienna symphonic library), Halion 4, few gratis ones (but good ones)). I also have some additional reverb and other fx plugins. It's anything but cheap, but in the long run you have more control under the belt, and are actually making music by playing an instrument (through masterkeyboard).

I personally dislike trackers, for real music usage (they are more the soundboard type of sample players, music illiterates mostly use as first try).
You've get a sample that sounds nice but you have barely any control over the sound setting, in terms of which instruments play that soundscape in the sample, nor what each instrument in terms of tone. I mean, what if you have a brass loop (sample), with a motive. But in that sample they play monofonic, but you want the trumpets to play e.g. a counter melody during the motive. You cannot do that, unless you actually play each section yourself and make up the "sample", you will use (e.g. repeating). As you can see, if you play the instrument sections yourself, you have full control, thus producing more closely to what you had in mind in the first place for the song. (and you can actually say, you've composed/played it aswell, since you actually did that instead of using premade sample loops..)

So long story short, you can go the "easy" road, by using a tracker type of software, which are in many cases gratis. (that's the word you ment, not free, because the latter can also mean freedom in licensing terms, which can be gratis but also commercial).
Or go the more complex, and thus more expensive, road (and more musical too), by using recording software (like cubase, ableton live, logic) and playing an instrument (most use a keyboard, like e.g. a masterkeyboard or synthesizer, that is connected to the soundcard). Although you need to learn how to play the instrument aswell (in case you cannot play e.g. a keyboard).

Let me clarify a bit: i don't say you should not use a tracker.. it's just my opinion on this type of software, I've heard some nice songs made with trackers.. But it's like a DJ, you trigger the melodies (prebuild, like on a record) and combine them. It's not the same as composing/playing music imho.

 

Shared Dig is one of my favourite pieces of game music and I'm pretty sure it was written in a tracker. Maybe it's just nostalgia, though. I guess it all comes down to what you're trying to accomplish.

Out of curiosity, does anyone use this Garage Band software that comes pre-installed on Mac?

 

Personally, my DAW is Logic Pro 9, but I almost always use 3rd party software with it. I'm big on sample libraries and vintage synth recreations, such as the Korg M1 and Wavestation, and the Yamaha DX7 (aka Native Instruments FM8). Sadly, due to my tight budget, I don't have many convincing orchestral sounds other than the Prosonus library and the basic VSL samples that come with Kontakt, though I am hoping to get EWQLSO Gold for Christmas.

Also, Horror, while I don't use GarageBand, Logic Pro is basically the upgraded version of GarageBand.

 

soundsdog.com is my first station for effects

 

Hey guys, I have been looking for free music production software as well but more specifically I'm looking for instrumental music producing software. What program would be best to use for making instrumental sounds?

 

Check out http://www.soundsnap.com/ for effects. And they're new site (launching soon) for music http://www.stereobot.com/

 

So I decided to go with OpenMPT, I did the getting started tutorial on their wiki but I still don't know very much about OpenMPT. Are there any good tutorials you guys could recommend for me? Also how do you access the instruments in the instruments library? I can't figure out how to use them.

 

From what i remember you need to add a sound font to the left area when you want to access a instrument library. Assigning a instrument to a specific channel was a bit more complicated, digging through tabs. I cannot remember how exactly. It`s too long ago. And making the samples sound good was some kind of black magic then.

I would let OpenMPT go. I loved it at it`s time, but its best times are gone. Trackers are a relict from the beginning of making music at a computer. There is no need for mod music and its very small file size anymore. The quality price you pay here is too high. Mod music will never sound as good as a well mastered mp3. Mods are very similar to Midi, and similar limited. Just that it brings its own samples. Which lets it sound a bit better than Midi because mods sounds equal at every pc.

I wonder why nobody mentioned FL Studio yet. The price is moderate. The cheapest version is around 50 bucks, which is especially for hobbyists a good entry point. And it`s well spend money to enter the world of making music.

 

@Tiles I'm looking for something free, do you have any recommendations?

 

Generally I agree with that, but I believe that someone who's not a professional, can still make a nice game tune that's pleasant to the player's ear, using the numerable music creation tools available. There are many people that have a good music sense even though they are not musicians. After all, many times (especially when working for mobile), what you need is this pleasant tune and not a motion-picture-like theme.

Personally I have been playing guitar since childhood and I am into the process of making music for my upcoming game, using Propellerhead Reason Essentials.

 

thank you for information

 

I also use Lmms.
It can make sound effects and orchestral game music too.

If you're using Lmms and you're trying to create, chiptune type game sounds...
Or, old school Nes, Snes, Sega game sounds and effects: these Lmms plugins
Nescaline, sfxr, bit invader and freeboy are your best friends.

 

Well if you cant to make some good sound effects fro video games I recommend you install garageband on your PC and use it. Garageband is a versatile music composing app and will definitely help you out