   Programmer Music
  Hello!  We all know about "programmer art", where the programmer throws some stuff together for the graphics.  My question is whether or not a similar thing can be done for sound effects and music.I have no formal music training, and cannot play any instrument.  I was wondering, though, if with a bit of learning you could use some sort of software to make some basic music and sound effects.  I would very much prefer any such software to be multi-platform, but the primary concerns in my mind would be quality and ease of use.  Do such things exist?  In any case, thanks for your time! :)   
Here's a dorky drum machine.  It's fun to play around with, and you can export files for use in your projects.;Quote:Original post by guyver23Hello!  We all know about "programmer art", where the programmer throws some stuff together for the graphics.  My question is whether or not a similar thing can be done for sound effects and music.I have no formal music training, and cannot play any instrument.  I was wondering, though, if with a bit of learning you could use some sort of software to make some basic music and sound effects.  I would very much prefer any such software to be multi-platform, but the primary concerns in my mind would be quality and ease of use.  Do such things exist?  In any case, thanks for your time! :)The good news is that with the tools available today, it's pretty easy to put together something listenable even if your musical skills are minimal. (There are some downsides to this, from an artistic standpoint at least, but it is what it is :)There are several software packages available (Reason, FL Studio, etc.) that allow you to layer drum/percussion loops, synths, etc. in a sequencer-based environment. Most of these software packages come with a library of samples, loops, and synth/sampler patches. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), all you really have to do to get something decent sounding is lay a loop into the sequencer :) Of course that probably wouldn't suffice in the long run, but it wouldn't take too much skill to add some simple synth parts, and maybe vary the loop in a couple of places until you have something 10 or 20 seconds long (in other words, something you could loop in your game without driving everyone crazy).Once you get started, you may (or may not) find yourself developing enough basic music skills to create some decent tracks for your game. As long as you're happy using pre-made loops (rather than e.g. sequencing or performing your own drums and percussion), all you'll really need to do is lay in a few synth or sampler parts (you can perform these on a MIDI keyboard, or enter them directly into the sequencer).As for creating sound effects, that's a little trickier. For that I'd recommend getting a hold of some free sounds, and then (if you feel adventuresome) perhaps modifying them in an audio editing program such as Audacity.   ;  Thanks guys!  Could you recommend, specifically, any free or extremely low cost software?  This is basically just hobby stuff, and I'm a poor college student.  ~_^   ;  The tools here should suffice for programmer noise!   ;  I can't think of anything for Windows, but on Linux Hydrogen is a fantastic drum machine (very easy to use), and Rosegarden is a decent replacement for commercial music composition software.   ;Linux MultiMedia Studio is pretty cool as well.   ;  If you can, find yourself a copy Computer Music magazine in the newsstands at a local Barnes and Noble or Borders.  Each issue comes with a DVD, and on it there is usually a copy of their CM Studio.  It's a sequencer (what you use to arrange your various instrument pieces.. synths, basses, drums, etc.) and a handful of various virtual instruments -- things you plug in to the sequencer to make various sounds and tones.  The magazine is dirt cheap and the software itself isn't too shabby (it's how I first started getting into computer music), and if you're willing to sit down and learn how to use it, you can get some workable results.  Obviously there are far better tools out there to get this sort of thing done, but they can come at steep price.You can also head over to KVR Audio and search through their database of software.  There's a lot of good free stuff out there if you're willing to dig through it all.  Plus there's a ton of good info on the forums there.   