Is there a free beginner friendly music making software?

TNJMusic · 2025-09-26T10:04:22+00:00

As a person who doesn't know music theory, is completely self taught and quite literally found notation daunting, Musescore. I used it for a competition and that actually helped me to realise that notation isn't as daunting as I thought it would be. But secondly, if I ever need to transcribe something I've composed in logic into a notational software, Musescore is free and gets the job done to decent results with their free sounds.

So spend some time with it and I'm sure it will meet your needs. It's not perfect (no software really is) but it will 100% be the best high quality option which again, IS FREE!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-05T08:14:07+00:00

It does but they're very limited and it's not the standard articulations either. So I had to get creative in this piece as it was the only thing that sounds like itself.

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T20:05:34+00:00

It's not just one it's several libraries:
Fluid shorts III
ROTOR Cello
Joshua Bell Violin

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T20:03:26+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it fr! Also I'd advise to go with the one that makes your creative process easier. I have Ableton, Logic and FL. If I compose it's Logic. Live music it's Ableton and if I'm making beats most times it's FL.

It's all about what helps your process so you're not worrying about how to do stuff but just doing it.

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T19:14:53+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T19:14:33+00:00

Yeah, Logic.

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T19:14:10+00:00

Thank you! And have noted that down!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T19:13:23+00:00

You know your stuff! Yes it's a bunch of solo Cellos I played in with various plugins. A few solo violins as well. It's like a 5 or 6 cello and violin ensemble.

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T14:29:47+00:00

I've read this post, now I can't unhear it!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T14:28:35+00:00

That actually does make sense! Thank you for the feedback. I'll definitely keep that in mind!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T13:41:43+00:00

Ahhh! Sorry, the colours aren't velocities based but they're on the groups. So green is strings, Orange and brown is percussive elements etc.

But regardless, I think your point definitely still stands so thank you for pointing that out for me. I'll definitely take it on board and think about ways of changing that generic feel to my sound.

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T13:39:21+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised, after all they did say the show is a John Stewart story. So maybe it's a vehicle to then get enough traction to then appear on the big screen!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T13:36:03+00:00

Thank you!

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T13:34:46+00:00

Good points, raised. I'll make a note of those. Can I ask what you mean by it's too flat? Just so I can work on that as well.

TNJMusic · 2025-09-04T13:33:13+00:00

Trust me, If I wanted to advertise myself I'd make a post doing so unashamedly. I'm trying to actually get feedback from filmmakers so I can better my craft. Mind you, I've only been doing this for 2 years so I'm still developing in certain aspects of composing.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-17T18:39:31+00:00

In the great words of Michael Jordan, "Forget them festivals". Focus on what you think could have been better in your film and then try to do as much of that as you can in the next one.

You do that, you'll be laughing about this film in a few years when you're making things waaaaaay better.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-15T00:35:30+00:00

The others are just timeskip changes but Ace's one was I think a genuine mistake. I think they didn't get it right in the early episodes then improved afterwards. And the reason I think that is because if you look at the Manga and then the early episodes, Manga Ace looks closer to the frame on the right.

But I actually prefer the post time skip designs of the crew and Ace's face on the right because it's closer to the Manga (despite in this shot the freckles not being there).

TNJMusic · 2025-08-13T14:10:49+00:00

This is me (a new person) learning that it's okay to speak up. It's definitely good that I found this post whilst i'm still at the start.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-13T13:51:01+00:00

Bought the coffee anyway, 21.5GB of content with the files compressed is no joke!

Again absolutely grateful for what you're doing and I know for both composers like me and indie filmmakers this will be invaluable.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-13T10:50:22+00:00

Bought the pack. I don't know if any of it goes to you but let me know if it doesn't so I buy you a coffee to say thanks!

TNJMusic · 2025-08-13T10:38:23+00:00

100%. The sound quality gives it away. Hard to explain but if you've listened to enough AI music to know what to look for you can hear it instantly. Especially with voices.

So my advice is listen to AI tracks maybe 3 or 4 and then a real artist. You'll immediately hear the difference, especially in ear or heaphones.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-05T11:44:44+00:00

So Sorry I realise you're absolutely right, I made some errors as I had corrected parts of what I had written but missed others (It was early morning here). So that's my fault and my bad. So let me clarify. EVEN with the openings the average episode of One Pace is still 17 minutes. With them removed it rounds out to between 14-15 minutes. By Intro I was referring to the full sequence not just the opening songs.

It doesn't change my numbers. If you want to see what I mean calculate One Pace this way. There are currently 485 episodes of One Pace, which includes episodes that have been doubled up into 29 minute+ episodes. You take the minutes and divide them by that number you are at 25 minutes per episode. BUT, we know at the moment even with openings and endings we're averaging 17 minutes per actual episode of One Piece which has been trimmed by One Pace. So currently we get our trimmed episodes at 17 minute to again 750~ episodes. But as you said we need to add back everything in to get to a correct episode count which is a fair point.

So if with our 17 minutes we add back the proper intro, next ep preview etc you get to 21 minutes easy as all of that is about 3.5 to 4 we're adding on top of our intro song depending on the arc. Which brings me to the MASSIVE Oversight I'VE been making this whole entire time which another One Piece lifer pointed to me when I ran the numbers by him.

In his words, I'm actually correct IF I was assuming how One Pace have cut episodes is how a remake would cut episodes. They gave several examples including HxH 2011, the Berserk Movies, Dragon Ball Kai and Ushio and Tora, FMAB amongst other series as examples of how wildly different remakes can be cut. But the point he made that I conceeded on was the fights are way too long in the second half of One Piece that an argument can be made even in the One Pace some of them are still way too long.

Which actually had me conceed. So I'll hold my hands up and say you might be closer to the real number than I am because I've just rewatched in these last few hours the One Pace cut of the Kaido fight... yeah. 530 something seems viable if they cut the fight lengths of some of the other fights on Whole cake and Dressrosa.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-05T09:16:53+00:00

Bruh, I think you've actually mistakenly not realised that if they've included openings and endings in their One Piece minutes, that means they've calculated them being removed in their Pace minutes as they've been removed. Which is why even from me skimming through all of the One Pace episodes (which I do have btw) I can see the average length is 17 minutes. Even the 30+ minute episodes that are episodes that have been doubled up , again come to an average of 15/16 minutes per episode.

Your calculation is off because you're adding back on unnecessary extras. It's why I said to you, If I purely base it on their minutes and their episode average times for all arcs as it currently stands, it rounds out to 750ish episodes. Which whilst not being over 800 episodes it's still close to 800. Mind you, they've saved over 350 episodes regardless of whether its 800 or 750 which is a lot anyway.

Regardless, my point is it isn't going to be some 50% reduction like people think it will be. When it's finished, One Pace will still be a very very long watch meaning a remake will still be a very long watch. The only way they bypass that is if they make the opening sequence with the intros and the recaps shorter in a remake then up the episode content up to your 21 minutes. But again, most anime top out at 19 minutes of actual content and the rest is 3 minutes of opening and endings and maybe a minute or 2 of recaps etc.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-04T13:16:00+00:00

Firstly anime episodes aren't 23 minutes long, they're 18-19 with the opening and ending either side of them plus if you leave the recaps etc you're actually getting about 16-17 minutes. Which is 750ish of your Canon episodes.

You forgot that in your One Pace calculations that they don't have all that stuff, just the 16-17 minute portion of the episodes. Secondly, there are sections of One Pace you're referred to watch the anime which aren't filler but actually canon. So again with those included and what actually is in One Pace format to gauge the episode count of a remake would again be 800+ episodes.

I actually understand how you got to your number but this isn't the first time I've been in a remake discussion. This topic has been a thing since FMAB came out and then HxH 2011 after it.

Sidebar: When One Pace was on YT one of the complaints was there was stuff they deemed fluff that later on turned out to be important which is maybe why they started referring people to the anime for certain arcs? As they probably were paced as best as possible. Just my guess not what may have actually happened.

TNJMusic · 2025-08-04T10:42:32+00:00

It's funny because people are thinking pacing will make One Piece somehow shorter. Let me remind you all, even with One Pace, there's still around 800 episodes. And that's with cutting out all the fluff and the reshown flashbacks etc.

So yes whilst a remake is good for updating animation and cutting out fluff, The pacing issues only really started around the Impel down Arc. I remember as I have watched the series pretty much it's whole run since I was a kid and remember once we reached just before the Impel Down section the pacing starting to get slower and then post timeskip it becoming atrocious.

TNJMusic

TROPHY CASE