I want to compose music

[rednova]

Hi:

I am a newbie musician. A few months ago I started learning to play the keyboard.
I don't like the keyboard anymore, and don't want to play it.
But I do want to use octamed in my amiga 2000, to learn to compose music.
I am very happy, and look forward to learn music composition.
Is there any advice for newbie musicians ?
Thank you !!!

fernando bartra

[giZmo350]

Is there any advice for newbie musicians ?

Yup.....

[Stevo]

Hi:

I am a newbie musician. A few months ago I started learning to play the keyboard.
I don't like the keyboard anymore, and don't want to play it.
But I do want to use octamed in my amiga 2000, to learn to compose music.
I am very happy, and look forward to learn music composition.
Is there any advice for newbie musicians ?
Thank you !!!

fernando bartra

aminet.net/package/mus/misc/AlgoMusic2_4u

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Practice.  :lol:


If you don't like just plain keyboards, perhaps you could build one of these instruments?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kDhpFaf4EY

[D00kie]

Trackers are a very different way to make music! It's more analogous to programming than making music traditionally. Check out some of the YouTubes - H0ffman has just done a really good seminar on ProTracker so check him out - he is A-MAY-ZING!

[SamuraiCrow]

Knowing how to create rhythm and chord progressions using the instruments of the preferred style of music you are writing will help you out a lot!  What key signatures are you familiar with?

[AdvancedFollower]

Yup.....

Not necessary for most styles of music you'd make on a computer. However I strongly recommend at least skimming through this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a0v7yxkshezyufr/rsg-0.8.1.pdf
It was a great help to me when I was trying to get to grips with chords, melodies, keys etc.

I started with MusicLine Editor on the Amiga, then moved on to Reason, Reaper and then Studio One. Sadly I don't find the time or inspiration to make anything these days, but it's very fun and rewarding when you have the motivation.

You'll have to find what works best for you You've got your old-style trackers like ProTracker, OctaMED etc. and there are also modern trackers that support VST plugins (virtual instruments and effects). Then there are loop-based editors like FL Studio, Ableton Live etc., and then there are linear editors like Cubase etc. There are also hardware sequences, groove boxes etc. (Electribe and so on). Trackers are probably the least intuitive to work with, but some enjoy working within set boundaries/limitations (it's easy to get overwhelmed with a modern PC DAW, tons of VST's etc.).

[dovegrace]

Yup.....

Not necessary if you're making oldschool industrial music!

[rdolores]

Deluxe Music Construction Set 2 by Electronic Arts is a good place to start if you want to learn traditional  music composition.  It has a very nice manual that went with it.  If you can't find it used, you may be able to find it in most general Amiga ADF collections.  The manual can also be found in PDF format.

Instant Music (also by Electronic Arts) is an intresting non-traditional method that's also worth a look.

[LoadWB]

I used to play around with the Stereo SID Editor on C64, then moved to Amiga and played with Sonix, did some stuff in OctaMED.  I have some of my old .smus files around somewhere.  Probably pretty embarrassing to listen to today.

[motrucker]

If you don't have enough drive to learn the keyboard, you're in serious trouble. After you learn an instrument, then you should study music theory.
I'm just guessing you don't like Bach or Brahms?
Writing music isn't something you learn in a week or two.......

[pneron]

that was pretty cool !

[awol2k]

Trackers are a great way to start!

Good enough for Calvin Harris when he made "I Created Disco", the Wikipedia page says this:

"All recording and producing for the album took place on an Amiga computer with audio tracker OctaMED"

(He had a few more addons too of course.)

I have actually been thinking about making music too - also using OctaMED, but I wanted to know if it was possible to use MIDI to control Multiple OctaMEDs.
(I figure it needs to be a total of four Amigas to get 7.1 out of it...)