I'm mostly software based, personally, BUT, I have had the luxury of being able to buy a few synths from the 90s and late 80s. I particulalry love my Roland XV3080 and my Korg TR-Rack, and with MIDIQuest, editing sounds is made much easier.

I've also experimented a few times with hardware sampling. Currently I have an Akai S1000PB, though I'm leaning toward selling it, and an Akai S2000. I also have a CompactFlash card reader that works over SCSI to either.

Thanks everyone for the responses, first of all.

There are a few people on here who delve in both (PearlPixel, Moritz, Matt), and even fewer that seem to gravitate solely to sound design (YellowChord). Although I have DONE both before, I wouldn't dare consider myself well versed in the art of sound design and would label myself moreso a composer who dabbles.

I don't think it's easier to do both, but it definitely makes you look a lot more, eh, valuable, as an audio producer for smaller studios. The larger the budget, the more I feel that developers focus on someone who excels in one area, rather than multiple (though I would state having the ability to do both a huge plus).

How has sound designing been going for you, Python?

Yeah, I personally believe your theory that larger studios are more likely to have different audio departments, likely because of what you said that their budget is bigger and they can therefore afford to pay more people.

Sound designing has been interesting. I've only been dabbling at the moment, myself, though I did go as far as making field recordings of my footsteps in grass. XD Otherwise, I seem to prefer having the budget for premade sound effects.

I myself usually depend on Logic's Space Designer for my reverb. There have been a few times when I use the synthesized IR, but otherwise, I'm usually using samples, usually either the stock IR samples or samples of Lexicon reverb units.

The 80s fan I am tends to use more of it than others for drums. XD

In light of the many threads here regarding music, I'm curious to see how many people here do more audio than just that.

One reason why I bring this up is because I'm contributing to a game mod at the moment whose team wanted me to do a few sound effects as well. This is my first real time doing sound effects in addition to music, and judging from how many threads here advertise music services, I'm guessing sound design is a new territory for some here as well, though I admit I could be wrong.

Discuss.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/6i130ybxhee3la8/Genetic%20Rejects%20-%20Trevor%27s%20Theme.mp3

So I made this piece which is actually modern EDM, for a change. XD It's intended as a birthday present for one of my friends, but it also works as a soundtrack because it's a character theme for a story he's working on.

What Michael Klier said. I tried uploading content to the Unity Asset Store in the past, myself. Granted, the quality of my music was not the best then, but all the same, I never got a single sale from when I uploaded my first asset to when I took them down.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/juvqcbk3e0mmm3q/Hub.mp3

So I made this piece last month. It's intended for a music mod of The Talos Principle, which I may or may not finish. Used a high-pitched string sample and ran it through Renoise Redux.

I wish I had chosen to return sooner, speaking as someone who loves synthesizers...

Still, I'll gladly assist with voting.

Last night I was working on attempting original sound design, and I came up with this soundscape.

http://youtu.be/nQpS25sh1rs?a

I finally got around to making a submission. Originally this was intended as a Christmas-Carol-like composition. While a dark atmosphere, I still feel it captures a wintry sound and therefore fits the criteria.

https://soundcloud.com/pythonblue/cold-night/s-h1Knt

I look forward to this one. 

This dark ambient soundtrack was a bit of improv. I got onto a modding team for SOMA, and I intended this piece, among others, as demos.

https://python-blue.bandcamp.com/track/lights-on

Likewise, albeit yesterday evening.

Sorry to everyone I've been gone for so long, first of all.

I personally play VERY basic piano, though I am trying to find the time to play more of it and improve my playing ability. Also have tried singing a few times.

Still, like for M4uesviecr, I'm nowhere near confident or competent enough to consider myself a session musician.

https://soundcloud.com/pythonblue/ampere

This seems to be doing fairly well on SoundCloud.

I composed full time for a while, and it was hell. Music becomes a job at that point so the motivation to do it just isn't there since you HAVE to write in order to make money. Currently I'm doing programming full time 8-5 M-F and then write music at night and on the weekends. Sometimes I write for about 40 hours a week, other weeks I might write about 15-20 hours tops. Just depends on how tired I am or whether or not I'm inspired. The one important thing I have to keep in mind is that it isn't really a job, just something that I love to do that happens to make money.

As far as taxes go... they are really difficult to measure so if you don't put in a lot extra in your main job then make sure you save save save and also keep a record of all your deductions(any purchases you made for music, new libraries, new computer, new game(research material)). You can also write-off your cable bill since it's used for writing music. An accountant works wonders here but you can also find tons of information for this online.

The deductions may actually save you... this past year I made way more than I had anticipated and before I applied my deductions I owed the IRS... afterwords they owed me a nice chunk of money.

Another thing to consider, that I am always neglecting... is to avoid taking on too much work in the music side. There will be periods where you might not get a single gig for months, and you'll become semi-desperate as a result. Then when a gig finally pops up, and then another, and another, etc... you'll accept all of them because you REALLY need it by that point. Then before you realize what you've done you have 6+ projects all expecting music to be done by the same time period and you just don't have the time to pump out that much music. So budget your time... it sucks to toss a gig but it's gotta happen. I usually toss the excess ones I get to random other composers I know that write a similar style to what was requested of me.

Also don't be afraid of dropping a gig that wastes your time. If they make you rewrite or modify a track over and over again... kick'em to the curb. Every modification and every rewrite is lowering the value of your music financially. I've dropped a few in my past, not many... but once I spent so much time on a track that it wasn't worth it I would email the person and let them know that I'm dropping them because it's a financial burden to me now and obviously not working out for both parties.

I think that's all the advice I have for now... someone is messaging me on skype and it's distracting as hell...

I realize this thread was last posted in nearly a month ago, but bear with me.

Quite frankly, I fully agree with your position, Zach. I do my own music mostly only because I enjoy it, and doing things for a job can easily take the enjoyment out of it.

I also found your bit about dropping gigs very comforting. Just today I had to do the same, even if it was for a game mod, and as painful as it was to do, you assured me that it's normal for that to happen. I've also had plenty of experiences with developers who constantly want you to revise your piece to death, and that is where I get especially frustrated with doing music for others instead of myself.

Lesson learned: there are more things to think about with applying for composing game music than just the game itself. You also have to worry about the personalities of the others on the team, and they won't always be tolerant for opinions other than their own. Granted, I admit I'm slightly biased because one of my fortes is retro 80s music, but still, I'm sure it applies to some degree to every composer.

I'm trying to find the time to get an unrelated job in computers and IT, and I do have a 40-hour work period in the field coming up. This kind of thing I'd strongly urge for people to do if you want to make music for others to listen to but don't want to worry about depending on it for your income, because let's face it: there are more drawbacks to music as a career, as opposed to a hoby or part-time job, than just the competitiveness.

Back with some ambient music:

https://soundcloud.com/pythonblue/ancient-night

I'm willing to take a stab at this one, due to having some experience with scary soundtracks.

I guess we have different definitions of what's considered retro, then, as I'm not referring to chiptune music. When I personally say retro, I'm referring to the kind of music that would appear in 90s computer games that came on CD's, such as Tomb Raider. I have yet to hear of a well-established modern game that has that kind of sound in the music over going to the extremes of either chiptune or live orchestra.

Sharing more game music. This was meant for an Amnesia mod that seems to have since been abandoned.

https://python-blue.bandcamp.com/track/amnesia-custom-music-haven