So, music composition.

Niyumi·7/9/2016, 6:39:21 AM·7 votes·1,795 views

Obviously, I don't have an orchestra at my disposal, so I'd be using some kind of synthesizer. My brother owns FL Studio, and "borrowed" a very old version of a couple instruments / packs, but they just seem kind of lacking. I don't want to go spending thousands of dollars of programs, but if that's the only option then I have no choice, huh?

So, what do I use for digital composition? Not professionally (though that's a dream of mine), but more as a hobby.

And, number two! How do you come up with a complete idea? No matter what kind of artwork I'm doing (writing, painting, drawing, music, etc), I start something that's really clunky, end up hating it, and start over -- over and over and over again. How can I come up with a piece and actually stick with it and like it? It just seems like my brain has some kind of block on my creativity, and I don't know how to get past it. >.>

4 Comments

RiotRiot TreblMuffin7/10/2016, 6:55:23 PM7 votes

Hey Sciela!

There's a ton of potential answers to this and really, the only one that's right is the one you find for yourself. I think I'll start with the end of your questions first, because it's more important than the tech side of things.

It's really good that you start to hate the things you work on, it means your mind is trying to grow artistic objectivity; the kind that helps you know when something is really good. Right near the end of any project cycle I get frustrated and think I've screwed the whole thing up. ChemicalSeb and I were just chatting about this the other day. If you could draw a graph of confidence from the start of a project to it's completion, for me, it would be this hilarious mountain range looking thing where I think I'm on top of the world and then it just plummets when I start to make revisions.

All of that mental anguish is good though, and confidence grows. I've done a lot of jobs in my life. I've worked in corn fields, I was a cook and dishwasher, I've demolished and remodeled houses, but all of those things are mostly battles with external elements. I think creative work is often difficult because it has so much to do with the self, and wrestling with your own abilities. Writing music is very much internal. Ira Glass spoke eloquently on this topic in This American Life:

For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.

(Coincidentally, his cousin Philip Glass is one of my favorite composers.)

Now moving onto the first bit of your question. There's a lot of fairly affordable software out there to get the job done. For the kind of stuff it sounds like you want to do you'll need

A Digital Audio Workstation - Usually a multitrack digital editor that you record all your music with.
A MIDI Keyboard - Used to play the virtual instruments in your workstation
A few good starter plugins

For music composition a fine start is Cubase or Logic Pro for your DAW. Those come with plenty of fun plugins to start making stuff. To use the kind of orchestral plugins you're looking for you'll want a USB MIDI Keyboard. I think the Oxygen series does well to begin with and you can usually find used ones for good prices.

A good beginner orchestral library is Garritan Personal Orchestra. Their website also had a fantastic community to learn arrangement and orchestration techniques.

Hope all goes well and you get to get some of those ideas out into the world!

EDIT: Audacity is a totally free DAW that's good to get a basic working knowledge going before you put any money out there.

EDIT PART DEUX: If you happen to be a student, the website "Studica" has absurd deals on software and equipment.

Digielf7/9/2016, 9:21:53 AM1 votes

Start from Soundcloud, follow the artists of the music type that you like and get ideas from there, you can even post their own soundtracks on youtube as a start to get your channel known as long as you post links to their soundcloud profile you won't get coyprighted dont worry you acctualy help them with this.

The basic programs that you need for your own music/ or to create a mix of many tracks is FL Studio and to add picture/gif on the video either Windows Movie Maker or if you want to add extra effects then Adobe After Effects you can pirate the torrent for free, i know pirating is not good but if you don't want to pay for it it's the only way.

Here is a small example of what Adobe After Effects can do, it's one of the best programs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--cMOM8NJeQ

bottledpoop7/9/2016, 10:47:18 AM1 votes

Hey im a kid that plays piano and guitar. I like to make original music. I've been doing it ever since I picked up piano 5 years ago. To me it seems like your thinking too much. If your like me then your coming up with cool little melodies throughout your day. Just do normal stuff like play lol and when you come up with something cool go make it on your music program. Also when you sit down to make music do not think to yourself "ok time to make some music". Think about something you did or saw. Anything really. See when you think about random stuff your mind begins to wander and thats where creativity comes from. TL;DR Dont think to much. You cant make creative, original music while thinking about making creative original music.

TBakes7/10/2016, 11:38:52 PM1 votes

I think another major factor to keep in mind is that no artist ever has had 100% perfect creation. It is highly likely that your art will take on many different forms. Sometimes the final product will be great. Sometimes it will be rubbish. Sometimes it will be meh. But it's the times that it is perfect that should keep you doing it. When you leave the studio knowing that a piece of you was put into that work--that's what it's all about. But you won't always leave a piece feeling that way. And you can't be afraid to fail. You can't be afraid of people not liking what you make or even you not liking what you make. It is totally normal to get halfway through a project and trash it. It is totally normal to get to the end of the project and think it isn't quite right. But when you find yourself quitting over and over it sounds like fear to me.

Just my two cents. I'm not a professional artist, but I have created music, dance, and theatre in the past. Working on writing right now. And you know what? Most of my stuff is trash. But some of it is perfect--and that's why we keep doing it :)