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Composing (Info on composing and synthesising using a computer)

Topic started by M.Sridharan (@ proxy.e1.iitkgp.ernet.in) on Mon Feb 21 01:25:02 EST 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Dear Friends,

I am a great fan of A.R. Rahman, Illayaraja and M.S.Vishwanathan.
I really want to know how music is composed so that I can take
composition as a hobby. I do not know to play any instruments and
also have no background in carnatic music. But I do listen to
a good number of tamil songs (selected) and admire the work that
goes into creating them. Folks please do drop in your views and
information. Let the info. furnished be authentic.

I once again invite you for a healthy discussion.

Thank You,

Yours friendly,
M.Sridharan.

PS: can someone give me the email-id of ARR / IR.

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Responses:

• From: siva (@ bkj-cache82.jaring.my) on: Mon Feb 21 04:17:50 EST 2000
  
  do yo have a keyboard? if yes, then its a good start... learn the basic of western music...the notes, scales and so on.. they are not very hard to learn...
  if you dont have a keyboard, get some software to be used.. i suggest Vienna... it has a virtual keyboard and easy to use...
  you can use Cakewalk Pro together with your keyboard (real one) and do your mixing with computer...
  
  hope that helped....
  
  
  
• From: bb (@ desert-54.slip.uiuc.edu) on: Mon Feb 21 05:29:56 EST 2000
  
  srikanth, good time for you to explain how this is done. take over:-)
  
  
• From: chidams (@ dialup-209.245.139.155.sanjose1.level3.net) on: Mon Feb 21 14:06:42 EST 2000
  
  I am more like you, except I can whistle the tunes. I have a webpage having outline for 2 songs.
  http://www.geocities.com/chidamt
  Also, there are links to more "keyboard-MIDI" sites, that are pioneers in this field [especially the tamil film music] in my webpage.
  
  
• From: M.Sridharan (@ proxy.e1.iitkgp.ernet.in) on: Tue Feb 22 01:07:37 EST 2000
  
  Thank you for the valuable info, Siva. But I want to know where I
  can get these softwares. Can I download them from the net. Also
  what hardwares are necessary to compose on my computer. And what
  do you mean by mixing with computer. Please elucidate. It is better to know specific sites rather than a blind search on the web. Suggest some web sites. I am also trying for a blind search
  on "Vienna" and "Cakewalk Pro".
  
  
• From: chidams (@ 38.23.1.248) on: Tue Feb 22 15:46:40 EST 2000
  
  The link for shareware related to MIDI:
  http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/
  
  If you see the MIDI sequencers, they have a general format of having many audio tracks. Each track can have music[violin,flute,etc.] or rhythm[beats; created using some drums].
  
  Before composing, please try to "explore" the already existing MIDI files, using a sequencer. This will give details about the tracks, timing etc.
  
  After this, choose a song and try to create a MIDI for that, which should resemble the song in the tunes, beats, and instruments, as much as possible. [You can take the notes from some sites like
  http://my.123india.com/keyless
  You might have to listen to the song multiple times and note down all instruments for each piece of music/beats; then, try to reproduce them in MIDI; if you have a music keyboard, you can connect it to the computer with a MIDI cable and record the music you generate from the keyboard, one track at a time; otherwise, you can enter the notes manually in your computer; see the help for the MIDI sequencer which you download]
  
  Mixing is adjusting volume etc of each instrument/rhythm track so that the song resembles the original. This you have to do manually using the MIDI sequencer software.
  
  You can repeat the above process of creating MIDI song, with your own composition.
  
  The computer can help you in putting together all the instrument tunes and drum beats, provided you give the notes for those tunes. You do not need an entire orchestra to hear how your tune will sound. The computer can also create some random tunes, some of which may be good [which you can use as some bits]. But, as far as I know, there is no software yet to create an entire song. [That is, you create the tune of the song in your mind and use the computer to play that with multiple instruments]
  
  You can also see some of the MIDI compositions of RJay, Srikanth, Sridhar, JNaveen [please follow the links from my webpage given in an earlier posting.
  
  Regards,
  - chidam
  
  

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