A computer that is powerful enough to edit HD video is certainly good enough for audio. I come from an audio background. I used to have my own studio that recorded ads for local radio (but the buggers went and built their own but that's another story!!). I have my own little setup now in a spare room in my house. Just a decent soundcard, some software and some plugins - OK and a few guitars a little MIDI keyboard and a Roland D12 kit (I can barely move in here!! :) I tend to use Cubase. I have a PT Mbox system too, but there's far better instrument plug-ins on the VST platform. A lot of them free.

Here's an example of some of the stuff i've been working on with a friend - Rough Mix

http://www.filefactory.com/file/cebdf32/n/Mix02_06.mp3

Years a go there was program (Band in the Box) what make music for you. Maby it is still alive dont know.
Songs where horrible in most cases. Just wondering how own the rights.

@davhar

Get a midi-keyboard controller and something like Reason. It's much more flexible in the end. Things like exporting, arranging, and mastering are much harder on a stand-alone synth... it's a breeze with Reason or Xpand in Protools.

Thanks B3Guy…but I don't have money to burn. Need something basic with no frills but great sound, many voices and the ability to manipulate, record and mix…with Garageband and/or Reaper and other downloadable programs that'll help me on my way as I try to figure out what the fuck I'm doing with my life.

Went to a big music shop today. Got lost. Wow! Lost of stuff. Went to the huge room of synths, etc… talked to a guy long enough for him to send me upstairs to another section of keyboards of… greatness. But to the side they had a small stack of Yamaha's. I focussed in on a "Synth Focused Portable (PSR-E423) that sells here for $250. Looks promising. Six tracks. Lots of "voices"- 182 + 462 XGlite +15Drum/SFX Kits + 40 Arpeggio. Yeah, lots of voices, O dear. The featured voices are - 5 sweet voices, 3 cool voices, 3 dynamic voices. Like I need more voices in my head. Okay. But, you know, it has knobs and keys and a pitch bender and 1.8 MB internal memory which sounds like a lot more than what I feel going on in me right now.

On my way out I passed a harp and immediately thought, "Mark-the-Harp"…and then…what am I getting myself into? Where I'm from they say that a boat is a hole in the water to pour money into. Well I ain't got no boat… just the hole.

I play keys as my main instrument. Go with

A. A MIDI keyboard and software. This is cheapest. Pay most atention to how you like the feel/action of the keys. You can always change the sound with the computer. That's what MIDI is for.

B. As has already been suggested, get a NORD. They make the best keyboards, available with either waterfall (Hammond-action) or hammer (piano-action) keys. The Hammond clone NORDs have an excellent organ simulator. If you play it thru a REAL Leslie or MotionSound, you will be hard-pressed to tell it from the real thing. Also, NORDs have the best . . . I repeat, the best piano sound out there. period. even expensive conputer-based piano software is no compare. I don't know how they did it, but it's killer.

C. (This one is me) . . . buy the real stuff. It just sounds the best, 'cause its not emulating with a bunch of ones and zeros. I currently have a Hammond B2 with a Leslie 122, smooth drawbars, TrekII Percussion, etc. NOTHING ROCKS HARDER. I also have a smaller Hammond M3 in working order that I got for $50 on Craigslist, soon to be rehoused in a roadcase. I have a borrowed '80s "60s" style Custom Shop Strat, a small 2-channel tube amp, a PBass, some mics, JBL speakers, and a small USB interface with GarageBand.

Learning to play an instrument requires time and effort, but can be very fun and rewarding at the end of the day. I highly suggest piano or keys to start, and get some lessons! Once you get the basics of music theory, start to dink around on other instruments. Its fun, and it WILL BURN YOUR MONEY, but lenses should already have you acclimated to that ;-)

@davhar

Collecting synths is a disease like collecting lenses...but you could start with something with lots of knobs and sliders and a fat analog sound...Roland JP8000 or a Korg MS2000 or a vintage Korg Poly 6. The Nords are also good but often overpriced. The Korg Karma was a mickey mouse attempt at an instrument that makes its own melody (using internal/variable algorithms). A real PITA to learn to use...but a unique sound...and, almost, a random "music" generator.

The cheapest way is to get a good midi keyboard controller for $200, a USB - midi interface (eg Edirol) and Steinberg's VST client (V-Stack). Then go crazy with the millions of VST synths/instruments available online...many as freeware eg Crystal Synth.

@GOODEMPIRE

Akai LPK25 when I want to be mobile (or just the keys on my laptop when I use Ableton, it actually works!)
In the studio I use Korg K49 (great key action for low price), but I still miss my old Roland JV80 and its pitchbender. Best keyboard I've used controller-wise is the Nord Lead with its Wooden Pitchstick and Stone Wheel. Too bad they don't make dedicated controllers :(

Sony Vegas Studio, and I'm sure the pro version had a music creation utility called cinescore that created music based on theme or styles, but it sucked, all the music sounded crappy and like cheap stock music.

I used Sony acid a lot, it's like garage band but for windows. Also the website acid planet has a free version and gives away loop samples every week. I made the music in this using acid.



And this...



I have no musical ability and it took hours of trying different loop combinations until I found something that sounded decent. It took me almost as long to make the music as edit the video.

@oscillian I don't know why, but Reason produces crystal clear sound while consuming minimal resources. I've been using Logic, Cubase, Sonar, Fruity Loops, even some early trackers but no other program could give me that crispy sound. One problem with Reason it can't work with real audio, evrth has to be sampled. Maybe I'm going to make my next video with a Reason track. What midi controllers are you using guys? It's kinda hard to have one's workspace optimized for both audio and video. Mine is the tinly AKAI lpk25 that can travel with me in my camera bag

@GOODEMPIRE Thx!

Reason is a good software! I prefer the 2.5 version to the newest one, though.
Another great software is Ableton Live which I use more often nowadays.

And the small Sony... what can I say? Have it with me all the time :)

+1 for Reason! It's an amazing piece of software!

@ Mark_the_Harp thank you so much. If anyone is interested, I'm trying to kickstart the project here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1574320286/dont-cry-for-your-hair You can find my second trailer down below. For that I recorded my acoustic Yamaha (bought on a scrape yard for $70) with my shotgun mic and my Tascam 100. It doesn't really sound good (and my performance isn't good either), but I was in a rush. Actually I was trying to imitate the sound of acoustic guitar from my beloved movies — Amores Perros, Babel, 21 grams, Motorcycle Diaries (all Innaritu+ Santaollala). If you add just a little bit of reverberation or delay to a single guitar arpeggio, it may become your self-contained sound track.

@Mark_the_Harp (: thank you, and yeap, we have to manipulate events in time, and with the particular characteristics of those events, that are placed in a particular order we have to evocate an emotion!, yeap in general ways music it is exactly the same as editing

btw about the "JACK OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE. " thread, i think that just means lazyness (if you do want to explore multiple paths), or that you want to follow an already known path of creation, a path that others have made already, or that to your own subjective mind is not comfortable with more than one path of creation.
either way is insulting...

btw, i think is absolutely legit if someone doesn´t want to explore a path with multiple visions to make a more complex own path. that just ain´t my path and i will not insult those that do.

hhaha i´m not that insulted, but adghfghasfghjhsjghf! was my reaction to that statement :p
greetings!