Castle Paradox

[J-Watt]

Hello there! I was wondering where an easy to learn (and free) PC music program. I'm new to this site, and I'd like a chance to show what I'm capable of musically.

By the way, are there any limits set to what we can use? For example, are vocals and non-synth instruments allowed?

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place.
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[Jack]

well, we're limited to midi and bam formats. i'm not really sure where you could find a free midi creator, and 'Stephanie's PC Piano' seems to be missing from the website..

any idea where that went guys?
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[Calehay]

Here's my little rundown of the various free music softwares that I know of:

Noteworthy Composer:
With it's easy to learn interface, it almost becomes second nature after you've learned all of the shortcuts. It's not free per-se, but for our purposes here (You can make MIDI's without buying the program, but not NWC files.) it works beautifully. Avoid it's sequal, however. It's a horrendous program. The biggest problem with NWC is that it just looks bad. It's probably the worst engraving system there is.

Anvil Studio:
While my time with this one is short, it seems to have some cool things going with it. While the base program is free, you have to buy plugins to print, use soundfonts, etc. It's a bit of a hassle, but it allows MIDI keyboard olug-in, and also allows you to use your computer keyboard as a note input source (But don't try the real-time input unless you are very good at anticipating how long it's going to take your computer to process you're keystroke. AS is very precise in it's rhythms.) My qualms with this program is it's almost foreign interface until you sit down and play with it a little bit.

Finale Notepad:
This will be biased I warn you. I hate Finale. While I have not used notepad, I have used a distant relative of Finale, Encore. I've had a few run-ins with Finale from time to time, and it's just time consuming to do small tasks that Sibelius runs off quickly.
With that out of the way, Notepad is probably the most advanced of the ones I've noted here, due to the fact that it is based off of one of the most popular music engraving software ever. You should give it a try and see if it suits your fancy.

And that about wraps it up. There is KBPiano, which you can only get free for a trial, but I suggest you avoid it. It's really fun, but for serious music, you shouldn't even dare to touch it.
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Calehay

[Bob the Hamster]

[J-Watt]

Thanks a bunch, you all. I know enough about MIDI from a class I took that I should be able to figure it out from here.
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