Free music composing software?

What do you guys use to make your game music?

I need something low cost or better still, free.

I'm at the stage where I have to get some music in my game and I want to try and make it myself. Don't know if I'll be any good at it but it's worth a try.

all the free ones are pretty bad,
the best ive found is anvil studio but that can only record one track per song unless you buy it

here is also a program called 'rebirth' is a big download so i havent used it yet

http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/

tell me your experiences with rebirth if you have a fast connection

If you are recording, Audacity is pretty good. If you aren't recording, meaning, you want to track some music, you are going to have to pay.. and I'm not a good person to ask.

Consider trackers:
- trackers are usually free, and its formats are useful for small games (it, xm)
- you aren't required to be able to play keys like a master
- tight integration of samples, which is often practical
- no odd MIDI limits (like 16 tracks per device, pitchbend for a whole track rather than individual notes etc. etc.)

Thanks for the replies. :)

I basically need to be able to use electronic instruments ie Guitar, Piano, Drums that sound OK. I'm not looking for anything that will sound like a midi song sounds.

What are the best Trackers?

Also, by Trackers, do you mean software like Octamed on the Amiga? If I could find something like that that will let me make all sorts of music it would be cool.

I'll check that link out slenker/Chunkations. :) Why did you change your name?

http://www.modplug.com/

It also depends a bit on what you'll be using in the game. Does it need to be small, e.g. a few hundred kilobytes per tune? Or do you accept .OGG files of, say, 1MB/minute. If it's small files you need then there's not much alternatives for a tracker, unless you like the eternal dullness of a GM midifile.

Of you accept the OGG route, then you could also try a modern tracker (I estimate fmod only plays the classic trackerformats?) and create a wav/ogg from whatever material.

I found Octamed for PC here. http://www.sonicspot.com/octamed/octamed.html

I'll try the Trackers available and see which one I like best.

Thanks for helping. :)

Less than that under B3D because .it playback is broken.

EDIT: Oh and I don't think .med is supported either.

I think so. What would be a non-classic trackerformat?

I used MilkyTracker (like FT2) to make my music in the .xm format :)

http://www.milkytracker.net

Also look at Skaletracker and Madtracker.

Can you record samples in that? I really miss that ability in Modplug 1.16 (all the old Amiga trackers seemed to have it) -- 'twas handy.

Sledge: not too sure, when I boot back into windows ill have a look.

Where do I get instruments for Milkytracker?

I don't quite understand how all this works.

Ta, I just downloaded it for a look and it doesn't seem to be there. Wow... it supports GMC files though -- that brings back some memories! Nice that there are some tutorial vids too.

Wish the size of the GUI font could be increased, mind :/

Sledge: Yeah, i wouldnt be suprised if it gets added in the future. Pretty sure you can change the font btw.

Amon: You can import wav files and make them instruments (not too sure where you'd get said wavs from though). If you're not too sure whats going on its probably worth watching some .XM mods playing, the site also has some tutorial videos which are actually quite helpful too

I came across all the ST-XX disks on the net last year -- they're not actually that useful, though, being low-fi and of an indeterminable legality. They were great for messing around with back in the day, but I'd look elsewhere now.

It looks like you can draw simple waveforms in Milky (like you could in OctaMED) so that's a starting point. If you've got a Creative card or soundfont host you could download some free soundfonts ( http://hammersound.net/ ) and sample from those (license permitting), or generate some samples with some VSTi's ( http://www.kvraudio.com/ ).

I'm going to have a quick look around for decent free sample collections but I'm not aware of any famous ones.


EDIT: Oh, I should mention also that in Modplug Tracker you can drag MIDI instruments right into the sample editor -- however bad your MIDI is, it probably has a few usable sounds.

I found a site with Fast Tracker 2 instruments. I'm wondering if it's legal.

http://www.kiarchive.ru/pub/misc/sounds/samples/ft2/

WOuld any of these do or should I steer clear of them?

I would steer clear of anything I couldn't vouch for. Try following up some of the links here: http://www.united-trackers.org/forum/index.php/topic,308.0.html

trying to get the silliest username on the forums

Anyone here familiar with a free little gem call Jeskola Buzz?

It's a tracker, sequencer and synthesizer and it still has lots of user support even
though it's 7 years old. You can use generated instruments or import sound clips for
instrument voices, the mixer is very nice, as you can see here:


Check it out! I've been happily using it for years now.

Computer Music mag come with a good music studio on the coverdisk.

second what tonyg said - really worth checking out:

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/

Other free tools to check out:

Keykit

http://www.nosuch.com/keykit/

Jazz++

http://www.jazzware.com/zope

GarageBand comes free on the Mac. It's pretty slick, and even people with no musical ability can create something not completely horrible with just a little practice.

Of course, you'll need a Mac first...

use www.modplug.com

I asked a similar question awhile ago, and things like Finale came up. Very high-end, but great sound. If only I had money...