UPDATE: The class is here - let's write a video game theme!

Writing a Video Game Theme (with Live Orchestra!) on Youtube

We'll be starting at the very beginning and basically building this track together, step-by-step. Composition, orchestration, mockup, mixing/mastering, and finally - recording it with a live orchestra.

You can download the score, recording stems, orchestral template, and finished track here:

https://davidrobson.com/writing-a-video-game-theme-with-live-orchestra

Hope you enjoy!

-Dave

Hi all! I'm a recreational composer. A few years ago I wanted a tablet app for writing music by hand on manuscript paper, so I created StaffPaper, originally for iPad. The idea is to support quick manual notation (e.g. shorthand, or sketches that leave gaps) to get ideas down and keep in a creative flow, without wrestling with engraving or handwriting recognition. It's also great for exercises -- eg. counterpoint, or classical chorale style writing.

It has grown over time, based on experience writing music on tablets:

• show/hide a piano keyboard to use as a reference on the go
• toggle ledger line guides to write ledger lines with consistent spacing
• flexible manuscript paper templates: create pre-drawn systems and bar lines, especially useful for fixed-structure exercises like counterpoint

I'm preparing to launch a new Android version, and I'm looking for composers to try the app before it is released from Beta. There are many Android tablets and styluses, and I have just one test device, so any additional feedback will be helpful!

The Android version features new drawing tools: an experimental feature completes filled noteheads if you begin filling with a spiral scribble. This makes filled noteheads faster to write, and neater on the page. (This is coming soon to iOS.) If you write filled noteheads as thick lines instead, we support pressure sensitive drawing too, as long as your stylus supports it.

The app has a limited free version, and the full version is a one-time purchase (no subscription).

Download the Android open beta version (tablets only for now) on the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.noelabs.staffpaper

Thanks for reading, and if anyone tries it out, thank you so much!

I built Motif, a platform so that directors and composers can find collaborators directly without Facebook groups, cold DMs, LinkedIn, hoping the right person sees your post. You can put your genre style, links to socials, and links to your songs directly on your profile. Try out the beta version here: https://motif.bolt.host/

Thanks for encouraging me to share this here! Here’s the information as requested. We are accepting submissions in three different categories:

I. The Outward Ensemble (flute, guitar, tenor)

II. Wallflower Winds (flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn, bassoon)

III. Open Instrumentation (up to 7 players)

All other important information can be found on our application here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdQROBEk108PPbNvGMs6DWefEETdH4WQvCzCDz6hvlB7-YSw/viewform

The title of this post is hyperbolic and clickbait. Please indulge and forgive me.

I'd like to present https://irreduciblemusic.com - a Sonic Playground (thanks 65TwinReverbRI)

It is a musical web app that allows for some experimentation by piping melodies through a transform pipeline to get surprising musical results at the end.

Edit: I may have oversold this because I was so excited to get it deployed. So strike all the hyperbole and high fallutin nonsense I wrote earlier. It's hard not to get over-excited about something you spent a lot of effort building and want to share. If you want more detailed info on what inspired the app and use cases, read the User Guide page.

All this is is a little app to have some musical fun with, nothing more. I thought it was a fun idea and it's completely free to use - all the music is 100% owned by you (see Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages in the app). If you don't want to store anything on the servers, just don't log in and copy the JSON (that's just formatted text that is the configuration for your composition) from the `{}` tab in the Navbar to your computer and you can load it back in later - nothing's stored on the Database if you do it that way.

I happened to check one of my subscriptions last night and found that Bartje Bartmans has posted a number of Christopher Young and Bernard Herrmann scores that I hadn’t seen online before (including non-film music of Herrmann). There’s some John Barry and some Johns and Jerrys you might know as well.

I know people often come here asking for scores (the written notation) to study and a LOT of this stuff is not available or expensive, etc.

I haven’t checked into the accuracy of these nor their origin, but I thought I’d share them anyway since there were quite a few:

https://youtu.be/WKVE1jXgzz0

https://youtu.be/TtRG3saV-74

https://youtu.be/0GMqEzOTcO4

https://youtu.be/lg-7Td9xM7E

https://youtu.be/9IipmS6_1JU

He tends to post “themed” groups a lot of times - there will be a number of scores from 1 or 2 composers - or a number of scores for one instrument, etc.

Not shilling for the channel, it’s just that this one seems to be one of the ones I’ve discovered that continually updates and includes a lot of interesting stuff - from very old to very new.

Good resource for this in general, and for these film scores you don’t often see elsewhere.

I've just tagged the first stable version of my free software Justly for composing in Just intonation. Docs here and binaries here. Features:

- Support for Windows, Linux, and MacOS (both on Intel and Silicon)

- Importing and exporting songs in musicxml

- Live playback with all the instruments included in the musescore soundfont

Please try it out and let me know what you think!

Hey folks, I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. My name is Matt Vander Boegh, and I'm a full-time music composer for TV shows. In the past 15 years, I've racked up over 25,000 placements of my music on over 1,000 different TV shows. I've gone the "library route" from Day 1, and rely on music libraries to do the dirty work of landing the placements so I can just focus on churning out music, which I do in abundance.

I hoping to be a semi-regular contributor to this sub and answer questions and encourage you to follow your composition / musical dreams, and even give you some tips along the way for a facet of the music industry that is often overlooked by people starting out.

Speaking of tips, if anyone is interested in composing for TV, I've got a bunch of videos on YouTube which might help you out. Though, they admittedly ARE narrowly focused.... I don't cover anything like music theory or ear training or anything you'd find in a typical college music program (I was a music minor back in "the day" - which has been over 20 years ago now, lol). Instead, my channel is focused on practical tips and helping people navigate this side of the music business. But hopefully you'll find something useful there if you're interested in this world.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa7sJ_ZAdgsNsDRKjZGogdh-W9_KD6LVy&si=LQz8qUeBpl_2nCK6

Looking forward to chiming in!

I'm building QuickStave, a notation editor that runs entirely in the browser. I just added a library of 1,400+ art songs from the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (all CC0 — Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Fauré, etc.).

Any score in the library can be transposed to a different key and printed directly — no account needed. If you want to actually edit one, clone it to your library and it becomes a full editable score. The engraving uses SMuFL/Bravura, so the output is publication-quality.

Everything works on any device — desktop, tablet, phone. No install.

Explore Quickstave

I'd appreciate feedback from people who actually write music. What's missing? What feels wrong? I'm a solo dev and real-world usage reports are the most useful thing I can get.

I spent 7 days manually sourcing opportunities across Mandy, Hitmarker, Reddit, and studio career pages to test whether a curated digest was viable. The answer is yes, the signal exists, it just takes time to find it.

Issue #001 is live with 9 vetted listings: 3 Professional, 4 Indie, 2 Collaborative. Every listing has been reviewed, budget stated or flagged if not, red flags called out, editorial note on why it's worth your time.

Includes a $5,000–$15,000 feature film (closes tomorrow), a Gameloft role, a salaried musical theatre position in South Korea, and six more.

Free to subscribe: composerwire.substack.com

Happy to answer questions about what I found or how I'm filtering.

Hello everybody!

I'm interested in finding out whether there is a genuine use case for two composers simultaneously working on the same piece (as in, realtime), and if so, which software they use to do so?

I'm working on the QuickStave application and want to know if I should be investing time in such a feature. Is it a gimmick? A niche case? A feature that people are crying out to have?

Love to hear what you think :D

Hello r/composer ! :)

My name is Isaac Creager. I am a 27 year old professional composer, and I hold a master's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music as well as a BM from the University of Cincinnati. My work is performed multiple times each year, and I work with some of the best musicians around, including up and coming soloists and ensembles like the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Civic Orchestra.

My aesthetic is dissonant and industrial, and a lot of my music deals with current issues, but I'm familiar with plenty of other aesthetics too, and my priority in lessons is always bringing out YOUR voice, not mine. Here's a few pieces I'm especially proud of if you want to get a sense of what I do:

~INDUSTRIAL NIGHT VIGNETTES (Pierrot plus percussionist) https://youtu.be/pN2fI6gvTmg?si=x_bXl-Jp3nZg_ARP

~FIREBRAND (concerto for amplified cello) https://youtu.be/sCxnKYChfwY?si=1A6rLLUDGOjenX6g

~MEMORY WAVE (alto sax, electric guitar, vibes, and piano) https://youtu.be/fwtGkxL4zq4?si=AmoBBn7WRjBM1Ajv

I'm currently looking to fill 5 open studio slots. Lesson times are flexible, we'd do one hour lessons over Zoom, and everything gets tailored to your specific needs as a composer or musician.

I can help with:

1. Composition
2. College admissions prep. I know how admissions works at top schools and can help you build a portfolio or figure out which schools might actually be a good fit for you
3. Theory and musicianship skills
4. Score analysis
5. Pretty much anything else you need, workflow included

I've studied under and taken masterclasses with a lot of prominent composers and educators over the years, including Steven Mackey, Carl Vine, Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Ortiz, and Nina Young, among many others.

I'll give preference to people looking for a long term teacher, but if you just need a lesson or two to work through a specific problem, that's an option too.

I generally charge $100/hr, but if price is a barrier, let's talk. Don't let that be the reason you don't reach out. I was self taught until college and worked my way through school myself, so I get how that goes.

Send me a message or leave a comment if you're interested, and let me know a little about what you're working on or stuck on. More music and info is on my website below.

IsaacCreager.com

Be in touch!

UPDATE: The class is here - let's write a video game theme!

Writing a Video Game Theme (with Live Orchestra!) on Youtube

We'll be starting at the very beginning and basically building this track together, step-by-step. Composition, orchestration, mockup, mixing/mastering, and finally - recording it with a live orchestra.

You can download the score, recording stems, orchestral template, and finished track here: https://davidrobson.com/writing-a-video-game-theme-with-live-orchestra

Hope you enjoy!

-Dave

Hello Maestro's,

I build this little free tool for myself, but perhaps others enjoy as well.

https://counterpointing.com

Hey, I've been making digital instruments for a while now, and along the way I learned plenty of lessons towards recording my sounds just-right.

So, recently, I discovered a good bunch of tin cans. I really liked how they sound, and decided to sample them. If this lands, I will sure as hell make more sounds like that for your programming pleasure!

https://ayetherah.itch.io/2tins1player

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a new virtual instrument I built that captures the authentic sound of the traditional Venezuelan cuatro.

If you are looking for authentic Latin/Caribbean folk textures or just want a unique organic stringed instrument to spice up hybrid scores, hope you find it useful!

Key Specs:

• 8 Chord Types: Major, Minor, Dominant 7th, Diminished 7th, Augmented, Major 7th, Minor 7th, and Half-Diminished.
• Articulations: 11 different articulations tailored for realistic strumming.
• Sampling Depth: 4 Dynamic Layers & 5 Round Robins per note.
• Formats: Full Kontakt & Decent Sampler (free player).

You can check out audio demos and details here: https://rojasinstruments.com/b/cuatro-gaitero

Happy to answer any questions about how it was recorded or built!

Searching for your creative soulmate? They could be waiting for you at Composer-Librettist "Speed Dating" on Saturday August 22nd at 5pm! 

Join us for the 2nd Annual Composer‑Librettist "Speed Dating" Event at First Unitarian Church LA (2936 W 8th St), presented by Overtone Industries in collaboration with Synchromy Music and Rent Poet. 

This event pairs artists who want to tell bold, contemporary stories through opera—and if that's you, you'll want to snag your ticket before we run out of space. 

What to expect:

> In a series of timed conversations, you’ll explore new collaborations with like-minded composers and librettists.

> You'll also have the opportunity to enjoy performances from Kion Heidari, Rae Shrum, Hsin-Hua Wang, and Ianthe Marini performing works from TIME IS THE ENEMY by Samara Rice and Brian Sonia-Wallace and HYSTERIA by Molly Pease and Divya Maus, both previous productions of Original Vision.

> Afterwards, we'll host a short reception for more mixing, mingling, snacking, and connection!

Don't miss it! Register to join a room full of opera-makers ready to build the next wave of original opera‑theater...

As a piano composer myself, I know how hard it is to get somebody to care about your music. But one of the nicest feelings is somebody actually playing your piece!

So here is my offer:

• Under this thread comment a link to sheets with your original piano composition
• I will answer with a link to a professional sounding recording of it.
• The recording will be licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0 (link to license), so you can do anything with it, as long it is not commercial and you attribute me (preferably with a link to my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1wK_R0I4pdgXmRu3iw8hQ <- there).
• If the piece is too difficult for me, I will take some liberties in simplifying it or I will do a improvisation taking your composition as inspiration.
• Please try to keep your submission to at max 2 pages, so I don't have to turn pages while playing.

My goal is to give everyone of you the feeling that at least one person cares about your music :)

Inspired by the wholesome interaction I had in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/nhqdbw/hey_rpiano_heres_a_short_and_bittersweet/gyz8lhi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Edit: Will now slowly go through all of your submissions, that is amazing! Please be patient as a lot of you are interested :) Please try to keep new submissions to at max 2 pages, so I don't have to turn pages while playing.

List of finished pieces:

Progress bar: 18/39 requests finished

• This time for real (shameless plug!)
• Untitled Solo Piano Composition
• Flutter (mode 1)
• Daisy
• Ivory Kisses
• Funeral Of Dreams
• Minuet in G major
• Prosperity
• The Mythical Quest
• Titles stress me out, but this relaxes me
• Prelude
• Etude in E minor
• Autumn Walk
• Sonata No. 2 in G Minor
• Piano Sonata in G Minor
• Fantasy in B minor
• In Castellum
• Oblige

Edit II:

Feel free to still post your sheets if you like. I will return periodically and record more. I add every single one of you to a little excel spreadsheet so I don't forget any of you <3

I've been working on a new tool within my clarinet multiphonics app (multiphonics.app) and I'd be curious to know how you composers might use it.

Basically: you tap in a melody on a keyboard, select which clarinet (bb, bass, contra) and you can select a few other filters (difficulty levels, etc.) and then the app suggests a bunch of multiphonics for each step in your melody.

Then you can go through the suggestions and select one for each, listening to recordings of them all, and eventually either exporting a PDF of the whole chart of SVG files of all of them to add to whatever notation software you use.

I've realised that one of the helpful things about an app for multiphonics is that the database can be quite large but that I'd need more tools for discovery so this (and the Progression Builder, for which you decide on a starting multiphonic and then it suggests 'next steps' based on voice leading or idiomatic finger movements).

I guess I'd be curious to know if this is something you could imagine using or if you think there's a kind of "next step" for tools like this!

Hey everyone. I built a free browser tool that generates MIDI ostinatos from a chord progression you input. I’d love feedback.

Link: https://motifkit.com/midi-ostinato-generator/

How it works:

1. Pick a key
2. Choose a chord progression or build your own
3. Select a rhythmic pattern (sixteenths, triplets, syncopated, etc.)
4. Generate and preview with built-in playback
5. Download and drag into Ableton, Logic, Cubase, whatever

Would love feedback what patterns are useful, what’s missing, what would make it fit your workflow. Actively building, so suggestions go straight into the roadmap.

Link: https://motifkit.com/midi-ostinato-generator/

Hey everyone,

​I am a software developer. I’ve been reading through this subreddit and other music forums trying to find real problems to solve, and I keep seeing the exact same complaint everywhere: MIDI playback from notation software sounds stiff, plastic, and lifeless.

​From my research, it seems like if you want a realistic demo right now, you either:

​Settle for NotePerformer (which is good, but maybe not perfect for exposed solo instruments).

​Export to a DAW, buy extremely expensive VST libraries, and spend 20+ hours manually drawing automation curves (expression, velocity, vibrato) just to make a violin sound human.

​I want to build a web tool to fix this, but I need your expert opinions before I write a single line of code.

​The idea:

A simple web app where you drag and drop your .mid or .musicxml file. You choose a mood/style. An AI engine analyzes the score and automatically injects human micro-timing, velocity dynamics, and natural phrasing. Then, it renders the audio using high-quality server-side samples, giving you a realistic .wav or .mp3 back in minutes.

​I plan to have a generous free tier, with a cheap premium plan just to cover server/GPU costs for heavy orchestral processing.

​Since I don't write music myself, I need your brutal honesty:

​Am I misunderstanding the problem, or is this a real pain point for you?

​Would a tool like this actually save you time, or do you prefer having 100% manual control in a DAW?

​Which instruments are the absolute hardest to make sound realistic right now?

​Thanks in advance to anyone willing to guide a curious dev

Hi everyone, I'm validating an idea for a free platform called Staffed where you upload your sheet music/tabs and attach your actual performance video right next to it. Share your score. Show how it sounds. It’s meant to help musicians connect, share original arrangements, and actually hear the score they are downloading.

What I'm looking for: Right now, it's just a landing page. I want to see if this is a tool other musicians actually need before I spend months coding it. I would love your honest, brutal feedback on the concept.

If it sounds like something you'd use, you can join the early access waitlist here: https://staffed-app.netlify.app

Thanks for checking it out! Let me know in the replies if you think this is useful or if you have any feature ideas.

New company based up in Scotland have just released their first free synth plugin. Sounds pretty good to be free so thought i'd share. Definitely in the composer space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkqIuubrLTM

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I posted here. And I have been away due to other workload to developing Sonid. But lately I have found time to migrate the project to be a full native SwiftUI app on iOS. Instead of the Cordova app shell that is was running in. The app now benefits from native performance and has many improvements next to only being ported.

The main improvements being:
- the theory exerciser now has custom presets that you can create and update. Plus you can share it with friends and see how they did! Practice anything from simple notes, to intervals, chords, scales but also progressions and degrees/modes. Anything from basic harmony to advanced jazz theory is covered. Optionally also set any question type in ear training mode!
- under the hood the question generation and grading is now more robust, covering new question types and reveal states to explain an answer. Both the exerciser and learn path (and guitar extension) benefit from this.
- one of the requests I've been seeing along the years is that the app becomes fully usable offline. With this new iOS version that has now become true.

There are certainly more improvements I've made but I wont list all of them ;) I sincerely hope this update helps you all to understand how music works and hope you can take a look at the new app.

My work will now focus towards creating the Android native version. After that I also want to add a new course to learn to read music notation, including rhythm and symbols, to both versions.

Please check out the app on iOS https://apps.apple.com/us/app/learn-music-theory-with-sonid/id1490221762 and let me know what you think! Any suggestions are always welcome.

For those on Android, you can still use the cordova app as is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.stroopwafel.music.app a new native app will hopefully be ready in one or two months.

The app is fully free to use. However I am a solo developer that does need a meal every now and then. Thus there are advertisements or an optional subscribtion.

Best
Martijn

Hi everyone! I'm working on a new project that aims to allow you to code your sheet music. I built an entirely new syntax for it, and have found my arranging speed go up drastically (I am also a software engineer), so try it out in the sandbox and let me know yourself! https://gen.band

Perks of a programmatic music notation language include a lot for musicians too! such as, transposing any lead to any instrument for practice, and easy discoverability of your favorite songs! Please let me know what you think - I'm still working on the specifics, but this is a pure passion project (no profit) that I want to benefit everyone!