there is an assumption here that music is "created" and or "programmed" instead of just played and recorded as is.
Hi there, I am not sure who exactly you are saying makes this assumption. Are you referring to people whose main profession is not musicianship? I.e. it is true that some game developers do not fully appreciate the process of composition and arranging an accurate and well thought out piece of music, that ties into their game, it's image, it's events, quite brilliantly, or terribly. But this is not a stamp that i'd give all, if even many game devs. They're mostly quite a cheerful bunch
Never worked with somebody I don't still talk to now.
Many musicians have their own process of writing, but there can be good thought in a lot of it, and as long as there is conviction within the process, something good can come out of it.
I think sequencing and programming aspects of music writing are being more integrated into my writing, I don't sequence melodies or chords, but I will seek some help from the software I use after writing the tunes basic form, to write the drums, and there is nothing wrong with that. I am a drummer myself anyway, so I have already played out the form grooves and change fills before sitting down to sequence it in via MIDI. I think good music has a very organic growth to it, from it's raw beginnings behind an acoustic piano or guitar or whatever, until it's final export, wheather orchestrated in a full string section, or accompanied by a brass funk band, or assembled with rock guitars, synths bass and drums.
However, heavily sequenced chromatic lines of blistering speeds just shows something that is purely a machine capability, and that's fine, but it's not the definition of music composition, or good music composition, in my honest opinion. So yes, in that aspect I can agree with you on that.
PLAYING and WRITING music has been around for MILLENNIUMS. i mean, people go to college for it. and making music, as opposed to playing and writing, is something that people still hardly go to college for at all.
Everybody has a different way of doing things. You don't need to go to college to learn any of the compositional and arranging skills that some of the greats have today. You CAN, and sure it'll all be arranged and collated and taught to you in a much more straight forward manner with support and assistance from those who have studied it enough to become lecturers in that module. But again, if you are committed and determined you can learn it all from home. Just find the right books.
here's a good one actually:
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/048007/details.html Brilliant for analysing the techniques used in proper orchestration. Especially film music.
Also playing and writing as opposed to making music? I don't understand that. If you write music, you're making music. You've written something, writing it into it's basica essence is making it into the form of a musical piece. The differing line between these two meanings is rather vague to me, could you re-explain it in some other way?
you DONT have to make music with software. please, someone who doesnt know how to make music for their game, just go pick up a guitar and find a chord book. furthermore, maybe sing some thing. and the producing part of that, once you have compositional and harmonic material, goes much much further. if you just record two tracks with different effects it can sound great.
Without getting into the time and effrot debate that many developers will use to learn how to develop better games, you must realise that you would need some degree of software in order to record and develop a good convincing mix of music. Even if that means bringing it back to an egg shaker and an acoustic guitar. Rejection of technological history to a high degree is just going to leave us with .. well not that much, technology-wise. Which isn't really gonna help you convince a game developer that your great compositions belong in their game. From a work musicians perspective. It is different when you are writing music for yourself, your expression 100% your product of creativity. But if you're working in a team, and they need to express a certain emotion, or inscribe a certain signature of sound to the game that makes you go "hey, that's like the music from (game you just made music for), just not as good!" or whatever, it's not a rock solid quote but you get my meaning, it's nice to put a sound to something that people can taste the difference in.
This might seem like too small a thing to make this big a deal of, but the thing about melody and harmony is that its really really hard to figure out how to articulate it and write cohesively if youve never ever played an instrument before. instruments are incredibly amazing! do not undervalue them! your sound card probably has a latency of at least 30 ms, and thats something you can hear. that means that there isnt a direct connection from when you make something and when you hear it, its such a distant thing.
all that said, if you want to learn about form and composition, which is really the heart of music, there is a way to do it. there are ways to create music without really writing anything yourself. you can sample simple melodies, use stock beats, and you can also edit it all in a modular way and use lots of effects. its a great exercise in perspective. and, i think tools can be very usefull to exxplore... all you have to do is make sure you arent creating anything other than music.
You keep going between playing and writing, and then creating music, I'm trying to understand you take on these two things. I think they're the same in most aspect if I am honest. Maybe not when you're cutting samples and beats and putting them together without any theoretical knowledge, but even then, you must be able to realise when a certain sample will not work with the rhythm, or key signature, or another sample, and that there, is important in making it right, and if you can do that, you are creating music. You're re-writing in such a way, that, you don't play the note, but you create a new sound, a new song. But these things come in all the programs that you wish to avoid, samples, beats, everything, in sample form to a point you can just hold down a button and a beat will play.
If anything, ALL of these aspects of music making should be used in a fine mix of the creators own preference. And that's what keeps music fresh, preference and opinion and personal taste of each person who makes some. I think this thread is good for sourcing out multiple ways of making music, you don't have to take one way and follow it by the letter, but infuse all different ways, pick out styles of writing you likes, disregard the ones you don't, find stuff other people may not have found yet, merge things, make hybrids of the original two sounds into a brand new one sound. These are things you have also touched on, but rejecting any technology that helps you out is just an opinionated piece of advice, and although it's not wrong, it can't be seen as a serious option in a world were technology has begun to ease up all the frustrations of previously not being able to have a guitar in your mix because you can play the guitar, or have a drum kit thats not that great because you cannot play the drums well, or whatever.
All these tools should be used and appreciated for their abilities, and the new advantages they pass on to anybdoy using them! I'm not a technology freak, I still compose behind my piano and my drum kit, sitting with a block of manuscript writing out my melodies and chords and changes and forms. But when it comes to writing for a computer game, I use the tools i've got that make me create sounds that otherwise could not be done with an acoustic guitar or an egg shaker or whatever. The production value you can achieve out of programs like cubase studio 5, is out of this world. And I'd never pass up a chance to record with the technology that is available to us all today.
i hope this helps someone, possibly struggling with what it actually means to create music.
there is an assumption here that music is "created" and or "programmed" instead of just played and recorded as is.
Honestly, I am not sure if you're using creative in a more serious tone by the end of your post, so you'll have to explain wheather you are for or against the term created. I think created, played, written, all come under the same roof when composing. Though I think composed and arranged is a safer term to describe the basics of the music writing & making process. But there is not set term for it really.
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