Creating A Soundtrack on the computer
 

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I was wondering if anyone could give me info on how to make a soundtrack on the computer. What type of program would work? And would it sound realistic and crisp?

What platform are you on Win or Mac?

Are you Mac or PC? In your profile, the Gear field is empty.

Ah, Matt, jinx! I guess I owe you a beer since your post beat mine.

PC.

Drew, your best options are:

Sony ACID-if you have even a quarter of a musical ear, this is the best way to go, as you can easily and quickly build songs that are yours, unique creations that have zero limits.
Sony Vegas has limited ACID functionality.

Sonic Fire Pro- more or less prebuilt music tracks with far less creativity, but good sounding, very little creative licence with the application.

From there, you can get into loads of MIDI and loop/audio based apps such as Sonar, Nuendo, etc.

Ableton Live is really good, but you can't preview video in it like you can with ACID.

With ACID does it sound like a real band or orchestra? Is it noticable that it was made on a computer?

Sorry for all the questions if they're getting annoying, I'm just trying to piece together things I've never done.

Do yourself a favor and avoid Sonic Fire Pro, IMO. The music from that program is too generic, and is not flexible in terms of making it unique. As for ACID, the sky is the limit with that software, because it all depends on the loops that you get for it, and how good you are with arranging them. Just download the demo and try it.

<<<-- Originally posted by Drew Meinecke : With ACID does it sound like a real band or orchestra? Is it noticable that it was made on a computer?

Sorry for all the questions if they're getting annoying, I'm just trying to piece together things I've never done. -->>>

If you do it half right it will sound like real bands and orchestras. The loops are as diverse as you can imagine and your creativity is what will make it sound real. There are some loop collections from Sony that are made specifically for sound track creation and some orchestral collections. You can also make it sound like it was made on a computer especially if you use only some electronic loops but that's easy to avoid.

Go to the Sony site and download some sample songs made with Acid and see what you can do. Acid Planet has some stuff, too.

Good luck.

Dennis