How do I make nice sounding music as an artist/programmer

[m0rr0ws0n]

Hello I have a programming and 3d modeling/art background and I know nothing of music. I came across this program from someone else on the internet who suggested that I use it to make music for my game. I watched many tutorials but alot of them only go into things like the interface of the program. I understand all that but how do I make music that people will want to hear in my game? I have no clue where to start.

I tried some stuff with the triple oscillator and I added some sound effects and stuff but it just doesn't sound good.

[Eino]

Hello I have a programming and 3d modeling/art background and I know nothing of music. I came across this program from someone else on the internet who suggested that I use it to make music for my game. I watched many tutorials but alot of them only go into things like the interface of the program. I understand all that but how do I make music that people will want to hear in my game? I have no clue where to start.

I tried some stuff with the triple oscillator and I added some sound effects and stuff but it just doesn't sound good.

It's hard to make music, without some knowledge. I suggest learning some basic musical theory first.

[TheTraveler]

No easy answer. Composing and creating music is a continual learning process, much like being an artist in any other medium. At the least, you'll want to spend some time in learning a bit of basic music theory; how keys, notes, chords, intervals relate to one another. That's the "nut's and bolts" part. Then there is composition itself, arranging the "nuts and bolts" to be pleasing to yourself and others. That being said, here's a very good book as an introduction to basic music composition: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-G ... 1592574033

Then, you'll have to learn how your tools, lmms for instance, work to produce your sounds and music. Synths, generators, effects, samples, midi are just a few ot those elements.

You're just seeing the "tip of the iceberg ... Google around the 'net and you'll find a huge amount of information on all these things. But be forewarned, making music, good music, takes dedication, education and practice.

Cheers and good luck.

One other thought. If your building a professional game, one that you intend to market and sell, you might consider hiring a musician/composer to make the soundtracks and effects for you instead.

[Kaze_Senshi]

There is a good Coursera course called "Write like Mozart" where you can learn a lot as a beginner, the last homework is a small piano composition using NoteFlight.

I would suggest you to try this:

* Try to compose anything without any theory knowledge, then try to compare with songs that you like and try to think that is different;
* Start to study some basic music theory, I suggest to start with basic Counterpoint to learn a bit about melody composition and basic chord progressions and cadences:
* Try to compose a new song using these theory, feel free to "break rules" if you think that it sounds good;
* Try to find a .midi from a game music that you like, import to LMMS and see what each instrument is doing;
* Get a piano .midi song from a game and try to cut and paste each part of the piano to create a song with various instruments (orchestration);
* Choose an artist or genre that you like and try to study the music theory concepts related to it and analyze music sheets/MIDIs about it;
* Compose a new song with what you learned and go back to the last step to the rest of your life;

[Spekular]

Very late to this convo but personally my favorite music theory tutorials are the ones by Varien. Finding tutorials that click can be tough so if these do for you as well then great, otherwise oh well (they might "click" easier if you're a fan of Varien's music ) IIRC there *might* be some swearing but if you don't mind it/ignore it then you should be fine.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... 6npfJI7Qmi

[Sti-Jay]

Or if you just want a song or two for you game, why don't you ask in a new thread for exactly that? Ask for example if people can create an epic tune, a generic electro one, or a DnB song with a lot of drums, I know I would try if I believed I could master the genre

[musikbear]

in respect to theory i always recommend 8notes
http://www.8notes.com/
Its a goldmine of info, of harmoni keys scales -aso
You can also find many fine lmms-related tutorials in the collection here:
https://lmms.io/documentation/Video_tutorials
Many is about interfacing (which also is neat to know, but many are also focusing instrument building, sound-generation, and music theories.

[Gps]

My guess would be, your not composing in key.
That was what I did wrong, not so long ago.

You need some basic music theory, like others before me already said.

Maybe see this topic, about my problems. http://lmms.io/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1128

Then you will stumble on this this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhkwmAB ... e=youtu.be

[badosu]

Nice tips from everyone.

If you don't know please check LSP: https://lmms.io/lsp/.

There are lots of really nice projects there for you to appreciate and maybe understand how to use lmms for your needs.

Also, you can always try using some of the songs for your game (of course, please contact the author first). There are some really nice computer-gamer related songs there.

[m0rr0ws0n]

Thanks alot guys for all the replies. Theres alot of good information here. Another thing I was wondering, should I buy one of those pianos/keyboards or whatever they are that you can hookup to your computer and learn to play piano/keyboard? I noticed people making beats and they had one of those and I also noticed in the triple oscillator of LMMS theres a record function. Also, I read a review of the complete idiots guide and they recommend you play an instrument. If I do this I wanna go all the way so anymore suggestions would help.

I got nothing but time so i can do my own songs and I think it would be enjoyable.

things like this:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... i+keyboard