Music composition for the music illiterate

>I'm trying to create a cell phone ringtone. I have a ten-note
>sequence, I know what it sounds like (it's from a TV show theme), and
>I want to compose a MIDI file. (The target cell phone runs Windows
>Mobile, which only plays WAV, MP3 and MIDI for ringtones.)

Andrew,

There is a great app called easybeat (from Macility) which would do the job
for you. This app is just for Macs.

Paul

Andrew Laurence on 8/15/07 wrote something to the effect of:

>Ideally I'd like to select a piano, type in C# (or whatever), and
>then have the app play me the resulting tune and save a MIDI file.

If you can pick out the notes on a virtual piano keyboard or place notes on a staff, try the cool
Melody Assistant:

  http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/melody.htm

The only thing I know about music is that I don't know anything and that most music software is way
too expensive for my limited needs. That's why I like Melody Assistant. It's a shareware product so
you can try it for free. But it's surprisingly powerful and unlike most music products which are
really expensive, it's only $20! (And you get free upgrades for life, too. I paid $15 for mine back
in OS 8 days!)

It can read and write MIDI files as well as other formats. (It's cool to feed it a MIDI file you find
on the Internet and see it turned into music notation.)

The interface isn't exactly intuitive -- millions of options and lots of little icons. But you don't
need 99% of that stuff unless you know what you are doing anyway, so I just ignore that and play with
placing the notes.

-- Marc

On or about 8/15/07 4:09 AM, thus spake "Andrew Laurence"
<atlaurenes.nacs.uci.edu>:

> Does anyone have recommendations for a musical illiterate?
>
> I'm trying to create a cell phone ringtone. I have a ten-note
> sequence, I know what it sounds like (it's from a TV show theme), and
> I want to compose a MIDI file. (The target cell phone runs Windows
> Mobile, which only plays WAV, MP3 and MIDI for ringtones.)
>
> Ideally I'd like to select a piano, type in C# (or whatever), and
> then have the app play me the resulting tune and save a MIDI file.
>
> Any idea how I could do this?

You can do this in GarageBand, except for the export as MIDI part. (You
would have to export as MP3, or export as AIFF and convert to WAV.) This
might be an opportunity to dress up the sound a little more than just single
notes.

You could even use a $50 USB piano keyboard and as input to play the tune in
real time as a way of recording it. Warning: if you go that route, you may
not come out of your computer room for two weeks - it's way too much fun
playing with GarageBand this way.

m.

PS Take Control has an eBook on how to do what I'm describing!

--
matt neuburg, phd

At 1:34 AM -0700 8/16/07, Marc Zeedar wrote:
>If you can pick out the notes on a virtual piano keyboard or place
>notes on a staff, try the cool
>Melody Assistant:
>
> http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/melody.htm

Thank you! This did exactly the trick. I was able to drag notes
onto the staff, and with a little fiddling with temp it came out just
right! (Apparently if I pay the shareware fee I'll be able to change
the key, and some other bits.)

And also, thanks to the kind person who sent another suggestion via
private email. I'm afraid I lost your email soon after receipt, but
I intended to pursue your suggestion as well.

Thanks again,
Andrew

--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

On Aug 27, 2007, at 2:33 AM, Andrew Laurence wrote:

> Thank you! This did exactly the trick. I was able to drag notes
> onto the staff, and with a little fiddling with temp it came out just
> right!

Wow--that takes me back in time--50 years--to the TX-0 computer at
MIT (Transistorized eXperimental). So that a programmer could sort
of keep track of what his (sorry ladies--I never saw a female person
in the room with the TX-0) program was doing, there was a speaker
driven by bit 13 of the accumulator. And a screen with light pen.
Put that combination in front of students, and you have light pen
composing of music (recognizable as such, if hardly symphonic quality).

Point at the desired note (whole, quarter, half, etc) or rest, then
point at where you want it. (And yes, also select other stuff.)
Given a computer where the program is responsible for painting and
refreshing every pixel on the screen (any color you wanted, as long
as it was white), and that doesn't have to proceed on the basis of
scanning, it's pretty easy to recognize where the pen is (and ignore
it if it isn't in a reasonable place).

When the PDP-1 (one, not a typo for eleven) serial 1 appeared in the
next room* it had four sense lights. That meant four voices. Much
"better".

* That gift by DEC, complete with maintenance, got the General an
entire generation of productive staff. It also led to Space War.

   --John (who exemplifies musical illiteracy, so I didn't
participate in the composing)

Just a quick note about Melody Maker. As you get better and better and want to do more and more, you will grow out of Melody Maker and then you should definitely get Harmony Assistant, which was just upgraded to work with Intel Macs.

I use it so much and still have not reached its upper limit. It has so many features that it can be confusing at first. However, if you start with the basics that you use with Melody Maker, you can branch out more and more and, believe me, your music will be far more impressive and will sound GREAT.

Anyse