Good Music Software

Ok, Im not a musician (really) but I do like playing around with music software (for next to no reason). Back in the day I used to use OctaMED on the amiga to satisfy my dabbling needs, but now I dont have my Amiga any more I need something else.

I did find octamed for the PC which is about 35 notes (not bad - after payday though). But wondered if there are alternatives, freeware bits, etc.

Fruityloops can do some pretty cool things but it seems WAY to complex for what I had in mind. I played with a very very old version of cakewalk (my dad used to use it back in the day) and that seemed ok, but would love to be able to mix the MIDI sounds with recorded samples.

So thats for me... And also I have a mate in a band who wouldnt mind doing some slightly higher end editing/producing/whatever they do (they ARE the musicians with all sorts of sound kit, etc. but no PC software/stuff) - any software reccomendations for them would be class as well.

Open to the floor, what do you think?

Thanks, a

Low end basic stuff: http://www.madtracker.org/main.php http://sourceforge.net/projects/modplug http://www.buzzmachines.com/

High end software: http://www.steinberg.de/Steinberg/defaultb0e4.html http://www.apple.com/logicpro/ http://www.digidesign.com/

What kind of music do you want to write?

If you want to write half decent music you're going to need to get a keyboard, a decent piece of software (I use cubase) and some nice vst instruments.

If you want to just throw stuff on and make some nice sounds then get something like sonic foundry's Acid.

This might help.
Gamedev.net music resources
I messed with CM Studio which comes on the coverdisk of every Computer Music UK mag. It seems pretty good and they have a few tutorials on their site.
Can't say I understood much of it by clicking each button when they told me to it seemed quite straightforward.

Since Blitz uses FMOD, I suggest to track your music, or use tracked music. To compose the music, the easiest would be the ModPlug software called the ModPlug Tracker. I've composed hundreds of small tracks using this software and the sound quality can be from horrible up to great, depending on the samples that you use (because it is sample base). It support MOD, XM and IT format, which should play directly in your Blitz application via the internally implemented FMOD device.

You're slipping. This one is only am year old.

tonyg, and what's your point exactly? Is it constructive? Is it in relation with the title subject? No? Then what is matter with you?

It was a light-hearted jibe to point out that necroing is frowned upon in forums.
In addition, you're giving advise to somebody who asked the question a year ago. If it's still an issue I would have expected them to re-post themselves.
<edit> Anyway, not my forum so none of my business really.