What's the best computer program to use for writing music?

I've been wanting to start writing industrial rock music. I listen to Nine Inch Nails a lot, and want to start creating some nice instrumentals. I have so many beats in my head, but a lack of knowledge of how to get my beats onto a real song. The only tool I have is the computer. Is there any tips you can give me about how I should go about writing industrial music? I would also like to know of a good program that can help me do so.

What's the best computer program to use for writing music?
For your first question, it's difficult to answer...honestly, just write whatever comes out -- don't try to conform to creative norms. Find your own voice and roll with that.





As for what program works best, it's also difficult to answer. It's nice to have knowledge in multiple programs, as I've found it's foolish to limit yourself to one specific platform.





With that in mind, and pardon my lengthy response, you should check out Ableton Live. It's an extremely intuitive program that is FUN (key word, here). The guy who taught me Live had his mom making beats in less than a half hour -- that's how easy it is.





I'll preface my suggestion of Live with some comments on the other major platforms out there. Now, I don't mean to talk bad about these other programs...they obviously work, as people are making great music with them. But this is what I've found in working with them.





Pro Tools -- the king of audio, and the industry standard. The best program to mix in. Can be difficult to understand if you're just getting started. Sequencer is sub-standard, if you are working with MIDI.





Logic -- very powerful program, lots of virtual instruments included. EXTREMELY steep learning curve...it's a tough puppy to understand.





Digital Performer -- the best MIDI capabilities on the market. Audio is so-so, but you can make it work. A little 'blah' for my taste.





Reason -- amazing program for beats, hip-hop, etc. HUGE downside is you don't have any way to record audio (vocals, guitars, etc.) within the program.





Cubase and Sonar I haven't worked with too much, but I wasn't impressed when I used them. Sonar's interface is a friggin' mess compared to the other platforms I've used.





GarageBand -- obviously the most suggested here, and it's worth a shot if you have a Mac and don't wanna spend more money on another program. But it's the most limited compared to every other platform -- keep that in mind.





A couple suggested Sibelius, which is perfect for writing scores and the such, but for industrial rock, it won't do you any good.





So what's so good about Ableton Live?? The versatility, man. It comes with countless plug-ins already installed, you can MIDI-map them to just about any MIDI controller on the planet (I've even seen people use Guitar Hero guitars and Wii-remotes), and the Elastic Audio (the key function to Live that Pro Tools 7.4, to put it bluntly, stole) conforms every piece of audio and MIDI you're working with to a single tempo. It's also capable of being a ReWire Host or Slave, allowing other programs to simultaneously work in conjunction with it (i.e. Reason), or permitting the use of Live within another DAW, such as Pro Tools.





Basically, the way I learned it, Live is like a musical sketchpad, or canvas...and I'm not kidding when I say it practically collaborates with you in writing the music. I suggest Live to anyone who wants to write music because of this. You can experiment with the arrangement and clips (See Video: Improvising With Loops), all without even pushing 'Stop'. Creating beats is a cinch (See Video: Creating Beats). Live's interface is so unique and, again, FUN!!





I could go on more but this is already too long. I included some links to Ableton's website -- watch those videos (especially the 'Uninterrupted Creative Flow' movie), check out more, try out the free demo -- you'll see for yourself how sweet this program is.





Good luck with your music!!
Reply:I love the program Sibelius. It's apparently used by professional composers but what's great about it is that it's so intuitive you can just jump in and start using it without having to figure it out. It's really customizable too. I haven't tried the others apart from Finale and this was far easier than Finale.
Reply:NoteWorthy Composer is a great choice.You need to download though.It can put the notes and can play it too!
Reply:Microsoft Word is best.
Reply:I'm not sure if garageband writes musical notation.





I think it's just for recording tracks - like "audacity".





Sibelius is the best one for writing.
Reply:garageband for the mac





its got insterments in it already and u can make ur own
Reply:If you want lots of features -- FREE -- then try the OpenSource program called Rosegarden, which will also transcribe and/or read sheet music. But, in the final analysis, .MIDI is the way to polish each note of each voice that makes music.





One suite of software for serious multi-tracking is called 64Studio which will help you accomplish mixing. Again, free. 64Studio has the recording software, the drums, Rosegarden and others, all for the 64-bit machines.
Reply:I say FL studio for PC. After you do that for a bit and decide you're commited try a MIDI keyboard or finger pads.





NIN is one guy, weird eh? You should myspace celldweller, he's local and pretty damn good.





Nothing made past 98 is actually industrial, but more-so "post industrial" so they call it, but good luck!
Reply:I own a bmi publishing company, among many other interests. I've been in the business for many years. Many programs are out there, but not compatiable with PC format. What's best? That's debatable! For the PC user, a program called "Music Studio 11 Deluxe" is without a doubt probably the best on the market. It allows you to record %26amp; arrange, edit %26amp; mix, master %26amp; burn, and has virtual instruments, pro effects, notation print, track freeze, 64 tracks, unlimited midi tracks, tape simulation, tube saturation, as well as audio cleaning tools. It surpasses Cakewalk Music Creator 3, Cubase SE 3, and Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 8.0. With it you can synchronize, import %26amp; export many different formats, extract %26amp; export video sound, and do many other things not available with most other Mac type programs. The virtual instruments are awesome on the low end drum bass, and beat box for doing hip hop, rock, techno, and even acoustic tracks. This program was featured in Electronic Musician Magazine, and others. It has too many features to list, and allows many formats such as MP-3 %26amp; others. What really stands out is the ability to print your own notation. This comes in real handy when applying for copyrights in the music segment portion of your work. This is almost the perfect program for doing what you want to do, and the good thing is; it comes in at an affordable cost of just under $100. Take it from someone who does this for a living. You won't regret purchasing this program once you use it, and get used to getting around in the different aspects of the program. I don't think (for the price) it can be beat.


Glad to help out, Good Luck!!!
Reply:Dude, You've asked a question as ambiguous as "what's your favorite food". you're going to get a different answer for every person you ask. My advice is start downloading demoes. Almost all software has a demo version.


PC %26amp; MAC:


Ableton Live www.ableton.com


Cubase 4 http://www.steinberg.net


Pro Tools: www.digidesign.com


PC Only:


Cakewalk Sonar www.cakewalk.com


Mac Only:


Garageband (comes with ilife or a new mac)


Apple Logic Pro: www.apple.com/logicpro/


MOTU Digital Performer: www.motu.com/


--------------------------------------...


All of these, but Cubase (reason unknown)have demos.


Also most have "lite" version @ $100USD.


I wish you luck, you're about to step into a bigger world!


incedently, Trent Reznor aka NIN uses Logic Pro, HOWEVER!!! That doesn't necessarily mean it's the right app for you. different strokes for different folks :P
Reply:finale is pretty good and some versions of it are cheap!!
Reply:Try PowerTab, it's great because you don't have to learn about the stave or anything, just enter the tab and it'll do the rest. Works with bass and up to seven other guitars/piano or whatever...and it's free.





Try it here: http://www.power-tab.net/guitar.php
Reply:Definatly garage band by apple!!! its amazing
Reply:hat to say and agree garageband
Reply:my english is not very good and i wanna write my own lyrics i use a proggrame called





verse perfect


its a rhyming dictionary which contains thesaurus and dictionary





so all u do is type a word and it will find words rhyming to it and u can also get the meaning of some harder words by clicking so specific buttons and if u not happy witht hat word and want another similar one u can use tesaurus too and its free to download and will work even when u offline thats what i do





turn it on think of some idea and topic get my lrics roolin when i am out of rhymes the verse perfect always helpe me out with new words it even increased my vocabulary





and if uw ant to create music i would suggest hip-hop ejay 6


only cost about £15 i bought about 2 weeks ago and its fantastc i make my own beats there in 2 or 3 hrs i have a beat ready u have samples or u can create your own and record your vice it also has voice changer and effects very cool and once u get used to it its even easier so remember





hip-hop ejay 6 [buy or download free from file sharing and torrents]





verse perfect [download free from their website ] for lyrics adn rhyming things and meaning and thesaurus
Reply:Nero Start Smart
Reply:I use Finale Notepad. You can download a free copy or upgrade to the full version. If you are writing a big piece then i recommend upgrading to the full version because the free copy lets you choose only 8 instruments.


the website: finalemusic.com/notepad
Reply:Sibelius or Finale both work well. The fancier (and thus pricier) versions of Finale can "listen" via microphone and write what you play.
Reply:yeah um who cares about garage band?? and what if you dont have a mac? well i have tried out several programs and one of the best was notation composer. here is a link to their website: www.notation.com/NotationComposer.htm. seriously it is like $150 or something so yo ucan see if it is worth it buy using a 30 day trial. I found it really useful tho.
Reply:FL Studio.
Reply:sibelus
Reply:try nero 8
Reply:MAKING music? Use GarageBand. It's the best!


NOTATING or WRITING music? Use Finale. I got a free download of the the low-end Finale Notepad at the Finale website. It's really limited, but it's good for just plain simple notating. It does the job, I guess.
Reply:Garageband is definitely the way to go!
Reply:I like Sibelius for written notation. The other popular written notation program is Finale. I think Sibeius is easier to use.





Garage Band by Apple is pretty good. I use it all the time to create songs. There are lots of pre-recorded loops of all kinds and you can create your own tracks. I like the loops and I also use them for inspiration.





Another program out there is Band in a Box. I used this program briefly for a class in school. I remember it not being very hard to use.
Reply:ProTools, gargage band suks!
Reply:Though you must have a MAC computer garage band is the way to go. It is fairly simple to use and many turtrials (mind spelling) are on the internet. We had to do quite a few projects with it for middle school and let me tell you it was both easy and it is one of the only times we look forward for Music class.
Reply:Finale 2007. It's a really good program.
Reply:Masterwriter for Lyrics...garageband by Apple for the Music
Reply:Sibelius!
Reply:ignore the garage bandees... that's only an average program, though it is easy to understand.





If you are a mixologist (which is to say you aren't really writing your own music, but 'borrowing' others) then I would say, without hesitation, Ableton Live 6 is a great program. Along the same lines, for apple users, Soundtrack is a great mixing program. Also for mixing purposes, audacity is a good choice, and it's free for both major platforms.





But for someone that wants to do dedicated sequencing and composition Reaso, Logic, and Cakewalk are all equally good programs... the easiest to use among them being reason... the most full featured, cakewalk.

garden ridge