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Originally posted by atsumori:
**Ooh, so many topics to discuss...
Ok, as for music making, much can be said for either midi or mod formats, but I personally prefer midi. The reason I say this is because midi is expandable: where mod has all its instruments stored in the file itself, midi usually takes outside sources to compose. While that means you have to buy or demo more software, that also means that the programs are expandable and the sounds that you create are dynamic. Since mods use sound clips, the only way to make a filter sweep is to record it, and then, if you want several, you have to record each one (bloating the size of your file) where as midi you just edit the data for each setting of your instrument in real time.
To make midi then, you need a sequencer (protools, cubase, cakewalk...) and a synthesizer (software or hardware). I'm not going to talk about which is best because it depends on what your doing, and how much money you have (for a long time the program cubase was better than protools in my opinion, but because the superiority of protools was based in hardware ($10,000) most of us will never see protools where it shines). Anyway, since I'm all about sofware synths (portable and affordable) I can say that Retro AS-1 and Unity DS-1 are quite good for the purposes of writing video game soundtracks because any sound you can't create, you can sample, and they work on fairly old machines (beige G3). For techno, hands down, Rebirth for either PC or Mac. It's like fruitloops or whatever, but even the file format can be shifted from PC to Mac. Also, you can run all three of these programs into a sequencer using rewire, which comes with most sequencers (I think) For the record I use Unity 1.0, Retro 1.2, Cubase 4.0, Rebirth 2.0.1. All old buggy programs, but functional.
Sorry to drag this out, but... I can't help but comment on ill_a_nois's comment about video game music. I mean really, what do you listen too that is somehow not made it into a video game. Classical is your basic RPG music; as is shown from AYB, videogames make great techno, the afforementioned silent hill soundtrack is in my opinion, better thought out than anything by stockhausen, Nine inch Nails did Quake (along with Rob Zombie later), that new NFL game has surprisingly OK hip-hop track (well, kinda), and jesus, Grand theft auto had nearly everything including country. And most of these types of music aren't part of the "industry" at all, so, what do you listen too?
choobanashi atsumori**
I personally prefer midi sequencers and the like to MOD. There are a lot of good all-in-one packages (i.e. the newest edition of cubase).
But for the most control for your money (on mac) I suggest MAX/MSP. I've been using it for awhile and I can't rave enough about it. Its like super colider without the coding. It makes Reason look like a toy. On PC's I would probably just get reaktor and a good sequencer, but then again, its a lot of work to patch your own synths. For the $400 dollars or whatever, MAX is unbeatable (Still... we got ours for free).
check it out at cycling74.com
Mac 'll live forever