megascrubsfan

First off, I gotta say, LOTTA awesome stuff in this topic dudes!:) I definitely agree with PaulPoehler - who doesn't enjoy it when someone applauds them for their performance, or when someone compliments them for their piece? Sure, "it's good" is spam, but if they elaborated more and said something like "I really enjoyed it, especially the bridge and how you..." would it still be spam? Or even if they did just say "I really enjoyed it, but I can't really explain why" - would that still be considered spam? Some composers will only be capable of giving advice of that caliber. Secondly, I am a self-taught/untrained composer, so the only words I USE myself are measure, beat, note, pitch, chord, rythm, melody, percussion, bass, intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro, interlude, and a few more. I have no clue what the poop you guys mean when you say wind, pipes, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.!! The most I could do for a critique is some sort of sincere encouragement to continue composing because I believed it was well-composed or at least showed potential based on what I've learned through my composing. I definitely can analyze and evaluate music (I do it all the time, drives me nuts), but I know if I did critique it I'd say something incorrectly - because I have no idea whether I'm using the words I am using correctly or not. And I COMPLETELY agree with EVERYTHING andersonalex said here (which is also what Nightingale was saying): . "I strongly believe that a policy of requiring a minimum number of posts prior to sharing one's own music will be bad for forum participation overall, particularly with older composers. You're going to get older, more experienced composers here who would otherwise be quite willing to participate and offer conversation, but when they see this rule, they're going to get the impression that the site is too geared towards young people for them. I have no interest in posting any of my own compositions - composition is not my primary interest. And frankly, I don't really care which way you go with this. But in my old-person opinion, I think this has much greater potential to slow your growth than to increase it. On another note, I think that getting to hear a newcomer's compositions gives other members insights into that person's compositional style and skill. QcCowboy recently joined and posted a recording of an excellent symphony. Right away that gave me a clue that his posts might be particularly insightful. Also, giving positive feedback right away to a newcomer's compositions is a great way to encourage them to become part of the community. People tend to stick around places when they feel they are valued. Finally, hearing another person's compositions is a great way to recognize common compositional interests and provides a great topic for initializing forum communication. If you feel that there is a problem with newcomers not participating, perhaps there are other courses of action, such as a warm welcome that tells them which places on the forum are generally most active, where they can go to listen to compositions and share their own, etc. Having forum members make contact with a new member is likely to be a more effective means of encouraging involvement than by imposing an immediate probation period!" . What this all really boils down to is that many of you have wasted your time in the past writing long, detailed, explicative critiques for n00bs, then regretted it because they left the site without even saying goodbye (so to say). I know I sound like the badguy and it's a harsh thing to say, but get over it. You've learned your lesson and you won't do it again, right? Problem solved. If you don't want to write critiques for new YCs, feel free not to, but don't try to prevent the rest of the YCs from doing so by turning away tons of new members by what will be perceived by many as an elitist system. PS: Note how I phrased it: "perceived by many as." I'm not saying it is an elitist system, just that it will seem that way to many. PSS: I know I'm new here, but the reason why I understand this so well is that the same thing happens over at the programming forum(s). A n00b comes and asks for help, then someone (me a few times) posts a very long, detailed, precise, exact how-to, then regrets doing so because the n00b leaves the forum(s) without even saying goodbye (so to say). It's the same exact thing, but with programming instead of composing, which programming is actually, well, I won't go into that!:P

If you want your stuff to remain yours just never post it here. That's what I plan to do. I know it sounds boring/unsupportive/whatever, but oh well. Sorry if this upsets you guys.

Banjo!!!:sleeping:

Agrees with previous post.;)

Okay, I'll go with Reason and see if I'm happy with that. Chances are I will be since RPG Maker 2 was never even meant to be used to compose music in the first place.:wacko: Thanks guys!!:whistling:

Oh no!!!!!!!! I'm so sorry PianoManGidley!!!:wub: I didn't realize it might have seemed as though this: "And I edited my post a bit. I still stand by my point though; he's HORRIBLY WRONG about the music in film thing and as far as I can tell also the criticizing-John-Williams-of-being-a-thief thing, and thus an idiot, regardless of how good of a composer he is." Was directed you. I'm so sorry!!!!!!:P It was directed at Stravinsky because Stravinsky had that quote about the music in film that I strongly disagree with, he also appears to have openly criticized John Williams of plagarism, and M is D's post before that post of mine implied that I should give Stravinsky special treatment because of the music he's composed. I'm very, very, very sorry if you thought it was directed at you!!!!!:D I'll definitely be certain to be more clear about these things from now on.:( ... I guess so. The thing is that "like" and "dislike" are personal/opinionative words that rather address how much the music at hand fits that person's preference in music than it does evaluate the composer's talent. "Hate" is a whole 'nother issue that takes a lot of describing, (simply) because hatred is a rather strong emotion that must come from somewhere deeper than simply just hearing a song a few times (so that's all I'm going to say about it, at least for now). I will admit that a lot of people use the word "hate" as a synonym for "dislike" when referring to music, but that's not at all what it really means. I agree with your point of "there's a difference between being best-SELLING and best-WRITING" 100% though. The words "over-rated" and "under-rated" (yes, I'm aware that one, the other, or even both probably aren't real words) have been thrown around countless times at the other forums I've frequented, and I believe I've come to a fairly intelligent conclusion on this matter: No matter what, everything will either be over-rated or under-rated due to word of mouth. Simply put, a vast amount of people don't actively seek out the entertainment that they would most enjoy themselves, but rather rely on others' opinions and preferences to get a sub-par entertainment experience from them. Also, the growth in the success of a show, movie, composer, etc. is exponential due to word of mouth. For these reasons, there will always be artists who are more successful than they should be and artists who are less successful than they should be. Where exactly the middle, where an artist is neither over-rated nor under-rated, is something that neither I nor anyone can truly make claim to without seeming arrogant (why is what you say more important what another person says?). ****. We're talking about music aren't we? Alright, well, just throw into the mix how a) the vast amount of people aren't even true to themselves with their musical preferences and b) how much influence record company support can or cannot have on a composer's success.

No problem dudes (both of you)! I've had more than my share fair of internet feuds. Alright, for now it's looking as though I'll first get Reason and then (perhaps) Finale or Sibelius, however I have but one more question (sorry, I know I've been relentless about this): Now, before I ask this I want to warn people: I know that this was an opinionative statement and that there are bound to be differing opinions, but please keep your replies kind, considerate, and solely related to the subject matter at hand. These are just opinions. leightwing said previously in this topic, in his first post: "Finale is primarily a music notation software package. Its primary area of expertise lies in its ability to write sheet music for players of acoustic instruments, and even more specifically, orchestral instruments. Yes, it does more than that, but those areas are not its strong points. Its midi implementation is rudimentary compared to many other composition software packages out there." So basically, I just want to get more opinions on this (it's not that I don't believe you leightwing!! It's just that someone said elsewhere on this forum that Finale costs around $200 or so). Do you agree with this statement, and why? Good news though! Others than this question I think I'm done asking questions! I'll wait about two weeks before making any purchases and make certain to come back to this topic, so if anyone has anything more to say please do so! (that's why I'll wait two weeks before making any purchases) And again, thank you to -everyone- who's posted so far to help me with this. You guys rock!

I already know which notes are which frets on which strings on the guitar, can come up with a melody and write it down in my pseudo music-writing way, and am also aware of (I don't know what they're called) and have used in a few songs the three-notes in two-beats thing. Here's what my pseudo-writing way looks like: R = rest # = play a note ABCD (notes of played notes) ####RRRR I just made this one up now in one second (I know it ****s ****) - I have much better and more melodic/rythmatic ones! Many of mine would go into eighth notes and some even used the three-notes in two-beats thing, and most were much harder to transcribe onto paper than the simple 4 straight notes 4 straight rests example with boring/bad notes above. Basically, I had to do this to transcribe it into RPG Maker 2. So, with me already capable of doing this, how long do you think it would take for me to learn how to read/write music? Thank you for all the help so far everyone!!!

That's fine, you insulted Scrubs in another topic so likewise, as well as everything else America has made, which I'm quite certain you haven't watched, listened to, and read everything America has made.:D And I edited my post a bit. I still stand by my point though; he's HORRIBLY WRONG about the music in film thing and as far as I can tell also the criticizing-John-Williams-of-being-a-thief thing, and thus an idiot, regardless of how good of a composer he is.:D

Thank you JuicyPork!!!:D I have a few questions though: What's a sequencer? A friend of mine had this music program thing and it totally blew because all you did was take pre-existing sounds and place them in measures, but there were hardly any sounds and you had little to no control over them (no pitch change, no tempo/duration change, etc.) and little to no control over when to place them (only one sound alotted per instrument line per measure that played at the very start of the measure). Even with all my complaints about RPG Maker 2 I still was building songs completely from scratch. And what do you mean by "instruments are expandable"? And cool! I can do that to add sounds.:D

Even if you or someone doesn't like it you or someone can't possibly deny his incredible talent and skill as a composer. It takes an incredible amount of talent to make compositions that invigorate and excite in that way, what do you or someone have to show giving you the right to criticize him? As for the copying thing, people are bound to recognize parts that sound similar to other parts when your music is literally heard by 85% of the world's population (fine, so I pulled that statistic out of my ***, you get the idea though). I'll bet something in one of my songs sounds like something someone else has made at some point (how many composers have ever lived? a million?), but no one knows (including myself) because only me and a handful of people have listened to my compositions - am I a thief already, before even knowing it? That's where I would draw line between thievery in music. If it's quite clear that the composer has no composing talent or skill what-so-ever (thus implying he/she did indeed steal that specific melody/rythm) like in the case of the Vanillia Ice being sued and losing a ton of money to David Bowie incident, then I say it's quite obvious they stole it, but in a case like John Williams's it's quite clear that he's an incredible composer and that even if a few parts of a few songs sound like parts of other songs, he didn't steal them because how else could he have composed all the original parts so well if he was simply just a thief? Oh, and that last quote from Stravinsky is total ****!!! The purpose of music in film is to transfer what the characters are feeling into the audience so that the audience, to some degree, experiences what the characters are experiencing themselves. Trust me, that's my other trade besides composing!!!

Oh man, it's gonna take for ever to check out all these composers, but I'll do it!;) Anyways, I was shocked but very happy to see someone else say Nobuo Uematsu! I'm in the same boat as you dude!:( One game with incredible music (and also my favorite game of all time because otherwise it's an excellent game) that very few people know about is Brigandine (Playstation 1) (ebay's your only chance, it'll cost about $30-$40 + shipping) (if you want to learn more come to the Brigandine www.gamefaqs.com forum, I'm over there too). As of now at least, Nobuo's also my favorite composer!:( I'm afraid to list any others of mine because the only ones I've known so far were Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Nobuo.

I'm sorry!:( I should've mentioned that. Yes, I'm untrained/natural/whatever, but I wouldn't be here if I didn't think it was worth it!:( I've been a composer on RPG Maker 2 for 3 years now and really have come a long way, but in order to advance any further I need a better (less limiting) program to compose with. It's actually in a way a good thing: RPG Maker 2's lack of ability to play lots of sounds forced me to evaluate each sound I added and whether it improved the song or not, and the other limitations did similar things. For fun I've actually done songs with just plain beeps like the old Nintendo days to see how well I could do with those limitations and I did quite well!:D Anyways, thank you for what's been said so far, but I noticed how populated this forum is, so I expect more posts!;) I myself prefer more classical instrument sounds, can only play guitar, and only own an acoustic guitar, but with my music I stand by what an old idle of mine said: basically, (something close to this) I don't want to limit the music I create by restricting what I create to my own particular musical tastes or to the musical tastes of a particular group of people. In short, the bigger variety of possibilities, the better. Oh, one more thing then. Since they seem to have tons of sounds/instruments to use, I'll ask this. Are there any of these sounds avaliable: dog barking, dog howling, dog growling, cat meowing gently, cat meowing like it's been hit with something, cow mooing, and chicken clucking? This isn't a joke!!!

Alright, first, I'll do my best to try to explain what RPG Maker 2 is and what all its faults are when it comes to making music since I'm quite sure no one here knows anything about that: RPG Maker 2 is a programing tool for the Playstation 2 designed to allow people to make their own videogames of the "RPG", or "role-playing game", genre, however, because of how powerful and difficult of a programming tool it is (it actually is extremely close to the rapidly-growing computer-programming language "Java") it can be used to make tons and tons of things including games of numerous other genres and you guessed it: music. If it weren't for RPG Maker 2 I probably wouldn't be here now. Anyways, why I'm here now is that RPG Maker 2 has a ton of really lame limitations in the music department, because it was never intended to be used that way, and is actually a God awful tool for music composition. So, I've come to you now asking for a better music composition program that is capable of doing these things: 1) Can play as many sounds as I want to, or at least can freely play a lead melody, two to four supporting rythms/melodies, a supporting bass, and one or two supporting percussions THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE SONG 2) Has at least the following instruments available: Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, High and Low Flute, Snare Drum, Bass Drum (is that what it's called? that heavy deep drum sound), Cymbal, Some more gentle percussion sounds, and Harp 3) All those instruments are free to be played in at least a good 48 different pitches/notes or so (RPG Maker 2 only had 24 and it drove me nuts!!) Also, I don't care AT ALL how long it'll take me to learn it, I just want THE BEST, MOST POWERFUL, NOT LIMITING program possible. Thank you!!!!! Lastly, a few questions about the program(s) you're recommending: How many different instruments does it have total? How many pitches/notes are you capable of using for each instrument? What are those "more gentle percussion sounds" that are available in the program? (in RPG Maker 2 it was this soft plucking sound that was called "Banjo" in RPG Maker 2 but I would say it sounded just like when I played a string on my acoustic guitar while numbing the string completely - that's what I used in that as a "gentle percussion sound", I want/need something like that!!)