What programs allow creation of music using virtual instruments?

Does anyone have used any kind of software which allows you to create music using virtual instruments? Which is good and affordable?

 

FL Studio, Cakewalk, Reason, Cubase, Acid Pro 7, Reaper.

 

Thanks! Checking them out right now

 

Prices are big indeed. But music is important in games so it's worth it

 

I use FL. I like it a lot.
I've heard good things about Reaper too, but I haven't tried it.

 

Not virtual, but I recently acquired an icon ikey midi keyboard for approx $80. I'm looking at Mutools (free version) to use it with. Looks promising.

 

I've been using FL Studio in one form or another since 1998 when it was "Fruity Loops", a cute little baby sequencer. On version 3 I bought the "Lifetime Upgrades" deal and I've got free upgrades ever since (they're on version 11 now). Because I've been using it so long it's hard for me to recommend anything else, really. I hear Reaper is good (and free I think(?)) but I've never used it.

 

Heads up, Cakewalk hasn't been called Cakewalk for well over 10 years. It's called Sonar. Looking for Cakewalk you might not find what you're looking for. I've used Sonar for about 12 years myself.

My friend moved off of Sonar and onto Reaper and says he loves it. Reaper is free for 60 days, and after that you can buy it for $60 I believe. Are any of those other options more affordable than that?

I'd stay away from the program "Logic". It's supposed to be ridiculously hard to learn and extremely unintuitive.

Acid Pro: I'm not sure if it's still being made or not? What OS are you on?

 

Yeah I never kept up with it. Just used FL since eons ago and remembered Cakewalk was the 'other guy' during that time.

 

For those who don't need pitch bend recording, I would recommend LMMS, as it is free, and is actually really nice to use, In my opinion. for pitch bend wheel recording, I do recommend going with something like ACID or FL studio if you have the cash. (Doesn't fruity loops have pitch bend in it? )

Meanwhile, I might as well make a request for pitch bend recording on the LMMS forums...

 

@NA-RA-KU:

I might have guessed this wrong, but isn't reaper geared toward dubstep makers?

 

Um no lol. I know lots of people who don't even know what dubstep is that use it.

 

Heh... thought I got it wrong!

I do think though that some dubstep makers use it. (I think a couple of mixes noted this on YouTube, and that's where I got confused)

 

Well why not? Any genre could really use any of these. They mostly all have the same capabilities and same sound quality. It just comes down to stuff like:

1) What workflow suits you?
2) Can you already do what you want in one program (in which case, why switch)?

Acid Pro has some nice arranging features for instance. Good for speeding up arrangement of songs.

 

Actually, I will point out that making drum tracks in ACID took some time, whereas the same thing in LMMS took me a few minutes. That is thanks to the sequencing tools called "baselines" and made it easier for me to make some nice drum beats.

Of course, such a thing can be faked in ACID: just copy/paste! but I find having such a capability built-in was enough to have me sold. Plus, LMMS is linux!

 

It's a pain in Sonar too. But if you have plugins like EZ Player then it's really easy. I like Steven Slate Drums the best though.

 

Ableton Live Lite is free with practically any keyboard that doesn't come with a lite version of Cubase.

 

@OP: If you are on a mac, look at garage band (for a start) and Logic. Both are relatively inexpensive, and garage band should come with a mac anyways.

I use Logic, "upgraded" to Logic from garage band. Definitely a steep learning curve, but it's great. Lots of great (paid) tutorials on macprovideo.com. Logic comes with quite a few synths, lots of samples, has its own sampler, and *loads* of plugins. That said, nowadays I rely mostly on kontakt and vsl, so I can probably use any daw.

If I had the $$$ I'd love to try cubase - expression maps look sweet - but in the meantime Logic is very affordable, and meets my needs. I've also trialed Digital Performer, it's great as well but again, $$$ and it doesn't run as well as Logic on my old mac so.

Have fun! Oh, remember to check out vi-control.net for vi related stuff, get into the legato useful/useless discussions, which piano, dry vs wet samples... XD

 

LMMS!
Used together with Synth 1 and DSK Vst's.
Lovely sounds, lovely music!!

 

@BrandyStarbrite: FTW!

Also, for drums... GTG DPC 3! Awesome plugin, only caveat is that samples have to be 16-bit...

 

YEEEESSSSSS!!
Thanks for that one FuzzyQuills.
Just what I was looking for!

 

Wait, I accidentally suggested an awesome plugin?

 

Reaper user here, I'm very satisfied with it.
I've used FL and Sonar in the past but when I started using Reaper it became my main DAW.
The only weak point I found is working with video ( but that might be solved by now, I haven't done video on Reaper for a while) other than that, I'd recommend it.

 

I moved from protools to reaper. Never looked back. It's updated regulary and it's like $60 for personal use, but the dowloadable version is uncrippled. It's up to you to be honest and buy it or not.

 

I just shelled out the cash for Logic Pro X-- I highly recommend it for Mac users.

 

Oh I just remembered another one. It's for Android and iOS, called Caustic. I have it on my tablet and it's actually a great tool. Good sounds, simple enough layout, and fun to play with when I'm not on my main system.

 

Awesome Ony! I'm going to install that on my iPad.

 

@Ony: How much does it cost? Oh wait... I can check google play!

 

EDIT: Ok, it appears the android version has IAP (Really?!) but I did find it told me it is free for PC users...

 

The Android version is awesome. The IAP is for sound packs I think. You can buy extra packs, or register it, or whatever.

 

Don't know if you still have any questions, a lot has been answered here already. But if you do, feel free to give me a shout. I'd be happy to talk to you over skype or whatever if you want. I've been working on Sound for games and otherwise for a few years now and teach as well. So feel free to ask if you need some more support. Cheers

 

on pc, cubase is best
on mac, logic is best
neither are cheap.

Reason is much easier to get started with, comes with a bunch of instruments but doesnt (well... didnt) support vsts. Been a long time since ive looked at it though, so not sure if thats changed.

vst's are not cheap either.

Are you learning? Takes years to get good at engineering anything decent. Having a musical background will make it easier/faster to get something decent. (playing an actual musical instrument for years, not listening to music).

Probably easier to get hold of pre-existing music.

 

Cubase is best? Nah Sonar has a better workflow I say. If you (or I) are used to one, then that's the best for us, it's really just preference I think. What makes Cubase better for you? Now it's been so long since I used Cubase that I can't really tell you what I disliked about it 7 years ago, except that I didn't like how they "hid" the effects on each bus and I had to click something to go see what was on there. That really annoyed me.

Anyway, on PC people can start with Reaper, which is cheap. And not really missing features (can use VST's).

 

LMMS is pretty good and works on various platforms. It is also free/opensource software. It isn't perfect, but at the least for getting started it is great. You can use lots of VSTs with it too, though some of them don't work right.

 

I have Cubase and Native Instruments. I'm not a huge fan of virtual instruments. I mean, you have to use what you have to use. Most musical instruments are $2,000 and up for a good one. If you had to buy 100 different real instruments, you'd be in trouble real quick. It's not hard at all to spend $50,000 on a handful of high quality instruments. I've heard of professional violins selling for that much as a single instrument and that's not even one of the "expensive" ones like a Stradivarius which can go for several hundred thousand.

To do virtual instruments well, you need to be an excellent keyboard player, and if you're going to compose, you need to be a composer.

Loops are probably going to work better if you are not.

Cubase may be overkill unless you're doing a lot of recording, especially studio recording with real instruments and several tens of thousands of dollars worth of microphones.

Native instruments is pretty good for what it is. I don't have the latest version of the software. But last time I checked, they don't use very high quality samples. I suppose they market to the masses and assume you have a miniscule hard drive and super wimpy CPU. If you hear high quality samples, the difference is pretty clear, but high quality samples take a lot more disk space and demand better throughput.

Sampled instruments sound a whole lot better than simulated instruments generally. I can't think of a single digital instrument that I would say truly sounds good except maybe the Nord Modular (discontinued). I'm not sure if it is truly digital or if it has some analog sound generators in it. The best synthesizers are usually analog and very pricey.

So all considered, Native Instruments is about the best I've come across, although I haven't been working on sound in years now. So, I'm not up to speed on the most recent stuff out there.

 

Well... Want me to post my efforts to make music?

It isn't too bad for someone who literally has just a laptop and MIDI keyboard, but it's all I got for any sort of game music production. And for anyone wanting to find something even close to a proper digital synth with envelopes, reverb and LFOs, I recommend Synth1. Used it for a long time, it's free, and in the right hands, one can make some really cool sounds!

 

Is it possible to use an actual keyboard for playing other types of instruments. E.g, drums or guitar?

 

With a midi keyboard and sample based libraries you can play all sorts of instruments from your keyboard. Sounds are mapped to the keyboard keys and you can control parameters like expression and attack as well.
Why don't you try Kontakt out? You can download the player and the Factory selection library and see how it works

 

...And LMMS has built-in keyboard support! (Both MIDI and computer keyboard!)

This applies to all instruments! including VSTs, the built-in plugins, etc...

 

elmar1028, I don't know if you've seen this... but, I think that it's a fairly "honest" evaluation of the newest DAW software: http://www.musicradar.com/us/tuition/tech/the-19-best-daw-software-apps-in-the-world-today-238905.
That said, I like Logic Pro X (price is good and it's very intuitive...). Cubase is cool too (and I've been playing with Ableton for a few projects).... As they all tend to do very similar functions, it's about variety of instruments and "workflow." As long as you have a decent midi controller or keyboard input, you can play just about anything. Be well!

 

At first I thought you were strictly talking about digital copies of analogue instruments, which yes, in 95% of cases I agree with you, they don't match up to the real thing. But it seems like you're saying that no digital instrument even matches up to having an actual physical digital synth\keyboard, and I wonder how you figure that.

There are a ton of amazingly cool, great sounding VSTs out there. Way more than the number of physical synths. If they don't sound good to you then I'd suggest perhaps you're using the wrong mix settings, monitors, or something. If you're talking about digitally emulating an analogue synth then again I agree, the analogue synth wins out, but digitally creating a digital synth sounds great if you have the right tools and talent to make use of it.

 

@Rhet Guru: Agreed!

Workflow is always the answer IMO. It's the reason why i switched from ACID (Came pre-installed on my school lappy!) to LMMS because c'mon, the bassline editor's the best idea I have heard for a long time!

NO MORE MIDI DRUM RECORDING BY HAND FOR THIS ONE!!! (To the bassline editor!)

 

Well, I certainly haven't heard everything out there. I have a Bosendorfer piano with bigger samples than anything you can buy anywhere else and far bigger than you would find in the world's top samplers. I mean, we're talking better samples than you would get in a $2,000 to $10,000 keyboard. Those actually sound decent, but its still not like sitting in front of an actual piano.

My studio monitors are only about $1,000 for the pair and then the cost of the subwoofer on top of that. They're Yamaha and well known for being accurate as opposed to "good" sounding.

My Nord modular "may" be entirely digital and it actually sounds pretty awesome. That's an actual synth as opposed to a VST.

I've got a Dave Smith Prophet. It sounds pretty awesome, but I think it actually uses analog circuits for the sound generators.

I have Native Instruments Complete for VST.

But its hard to beat the "warmth" of an actual clarinet. Something about the resonance of actual wood just can't be duplicated in the digital realm.

Digital instruments are getting better all the time. And I haven't heard the latest generation of them. So, who knows.

 

@BBeck

I have a feeling you misunderstood my post, or I am misunderstanding your reply.

I totally agree with you that VSTs so far can't compete with physical instruments. I have an upright piano from 1912 that has the most delicious sound and no matter how many piano VSTs I've tried, none of them even come close to capturing that magic. One of my favorite guitars I have is my Martin. It sounds like heaven. It's not even a super expensive Martin, but I absolutely adore it. I've tried several VSTs to get that type of sound and again, none come close. So yeah, definitely, VSTs are a long way from truly emulating acoustic instruments.

What I was referring to in my reply to you earlier is that you said you hadn't heard any VSTs that "sound good." I was pointing out that when it comes to emulating acoustic instruments, yes, that is my experience as well, but when it comes to generating purely digital sound like any proper synth does, VSTs are awesome. The variety of sounds you can get these days is insane. For purely new sounds, that is. Not emulated acoustic instruments.

There are a ton of music genres that don't make use of any physical instrument sounds at all. That's where VSTs shine. If you're trying to effectively reproduce a real rock band or something like that then you're going to have a harder time, but if you're creating purely electronic music with no "real" instruments (god I hate that term) then VSTs are where it's at. And they sound awesome.

I think we are just thinking on two different wavelengths, even though we both agree on the main point.

 

Personal preference!

 

Do i have to use studio monitors???

 

If you're looking for free, look at sunvox. It's a tracking program, if you are familiar with those. I like it, but I personally prefer using FL Studio for more advanced projects.

 

Also recommend Caustic, but it's more a recreational DAW, but you can use it for more complex projects if you really want. What I like about it is that you can save the caustic projects to your desktop and continue composing there. I believe the desktop version is still free.

.Related, if anyone using FL Studio on desktop wants to also use the Android/iOS version, the mobile version is not as good. A lot of people complain about time/sync issues which is huge, and it's significantly more expensive than Caustic is for mobile.

EDIT:
And, this thread was necro'd. But whatever, there. I updated it with some current relevant information.

 

I am using Ableton Live.

Asides from what they usually advertised which you can go to website to see it, here is the less advertised aspect that I really like : they offer student discount without commercial limitations at all, AND doesn't require any USB dongle for authenticating. (Cubase and ProTools for example require USB keys) If you are a student, Live would be very very cost effective. (and the program itself is fun and quite unique) Works on both OSX and Windows unlike FL Studio, but FL Studio wins on the lifetime upgrade aspect when talking only about price.

For a trial version, I found Live very generous too since it is fully featured for 30 days. (Also, Reason is fully featured 30 days) So technically if you think you can finish a song for your game in 1 month you won't be spending any money with Live. Most program have limitations for example FL Studio you can save but cannot load.

You can start with headphone. I am in a dorm so headphone is more convenient too. (I am using ATH-M50 for 3 years now) Actually for mobile game using headphone is very passable since that will be what players are using to hear your song. The practice of making your song sound the best on listener side is called Mastering, and if your game is mobile only you could master with headphone alone. Using studio monitor can help your song translate well to more settings like loudspeaker, car, iPhone speaker or computer speaker, if someone decided to YouTube your mobile game.

 

GarageBand for iOS just added Live Loops. More evidence that everybody loves Ableton Live