"Best" Music Generation Software for Me?

[qattack]

I would like to dabble in music composing purely for fun, so please take my request at face value. I know basic music theory, but would like not to have to think too much about it. I'm nearly a total beginner with the actual process of writing music.

I'd like software that "writes a song for me" with minimal effort, but is also very flexible in allowing me to dictate parameters of the song. I'd be happy to make simple adjustments through a program like EZKeys if practical. It should be easy to update those parameters and modify and/or regenerate the song. I've watched literally hours of reviews of various software/plugins and still find it difficult to know exactly what features each software has and what would suit me.

I've narrowed it down to four products:
1. Orb Composer Pro
2. Orb Producer Suite
3. EZKeys
4. Scaler 2

I'm open to other suggestions, but based upon my limited knowledge and research, I've considered all other potential products and eliminated them for one reason or another.

Questions regarding the above products:
1. How is Orb Composer different from Orb Producer Suite? That is, if I combine Producer Suite with a DAW, what can I do with Composer that I cannot do with Producer?
2. If I generate melody and bassline with Orb Producer Suite, is it practical to import those into EZKeys and generate other tracks based upon those (I know I can do chords easily enough).
3. EZKeys: How much variety can I get out of a single MIDI style pack? If I generate two songs with a single style, do they sound too similar?
4. Scaler 2: I've watched over an hour of scaler 2 videos and I still don't understand exactly what it does and does not do. How does this compare with EZKeys? Would Orb Producer Suite work better with Scaler 2 than EZKeys?

Any other relevant comments would be appreciated!

[Kalamata Kid]

On KVR a lot covered here on midi generators:
search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... 1&start=45
also Google search
https://www.google.com/search?biw=2280& ... 3oQ4dUDCAw

[qattack]

Thank you for your reply. I've visited many of the links and videos from the Google search.

Also, I've searched this forum for the above products and did not find answers to my above questions. As I said, I'm a novice and don't yet understand how these products work together, or indeed even what many of the features are for scaler 2 or EZKeys in particular (even though I've watched what I could get my hands on for the basic workings of these products).

I purchased Orb Producer Suite a short time ago, as this is one component I know I wanted. (I'm having freezing and crashing problems in Ableton though if I use any plugins besides the primary Orb Chords) I downloaded the demo of Orb Composer earlier and figured out the answer to question #1.

The other two products...EZKeys and Scaler 2 are not as apparent to me exactly what they accomplish. (or more precisely, how they accomplish it)

As far as I can tell, EZKeys might allow you to import a melody and input a chord progression, but the bassline feature from Orb Producer Suite would not be needed. And it's up to me to manipulate the backing tracks of EZKeys primarily by changing chord voicings in order to come up with a new sound. (?) [question #2]

I have found no information on how different songs in EZKeys sound that use the same styles. [question #3]

I'm also not sure if I'm overlooking features of scaler 2. From what I understand, it's primary use is that you determine a chord progression and Scaler will help you to harmonize the track. However, as a novice user, I have no idea how difficult this would be. So for example, I enter the chord progression and I guess import a melody (?), and choose rhythms and patterns, and Scaler will harmonize my melody? I didn't exactly understand all of the "playing along" on the keyboard to generate chords. [question #4]

[tatanka]

As I have played around a lot with this kind of stuff some suggestions.

First, I think with Orb producer you exactly have what you need, its by far the most easy to use of the mentioned ones and most flexible (Orb composer standalone you would only need for composing orchestral stuff or if you really need to put together very complex songs where still evrything is "chained" in a way).

You mention Ableton as your daw, is it the full version with M4L ? Then that is the place where you should look definitely, I dont remember how often I was excited when I found something new and thought: year, THATS it, and then it was....M4L .

One more: if its not the fact that you have to be online to use it I cant imagine any reason why you have excluded Captain plugins ? The big advantage in comparision to Orb producer (which is just a copy of the concept) is that you got lots of presets in evry plug to start with. In the end its a matter of taste and workflow which to choose (I use both depending on my "mood" ).

Scaler 2: I have it too and the same problems to just understand how it works. The way it works is just not the way I think . But it is really deep and powerful and evryone who had understand it seems to be convinced. There are lots of good, long videos, I think its worth to investigate some time.

But if you are willing to investigate that time then one other product that surely will be mentioned in here shortly . But as it is really the most powerful IF you are willing to investigate lots of time should be mentioned: Rapid composer. There is the melody part available now separately, so far I am not interested as it has no Chord progression but Attila already agreed to add this, then it might be an easier to use option.

So far my 2 cent, one more thing, its really worth to search again from time to time, there is lots of things going on even if most new things are online tools with with monthly subscription fee with both are exclusions for me.

[kovacs]

As far as I can tell, EZKeys might allow you to import a melody and input a chord progression, but the bassline feature from Orb Producer Suite would not be needed. And it's up to me to manipulate the backing tracks of EZKeys primarily by changing chord voicings in order to come up with a new sound. (?) [question #2]

I have found no information on how different songs in EZKeys sound that use the same styles. [question #3]

I don’t think EZ Keys is a «music generation» program as such. It is a concept similar to EZ drummer and other drum machines in that you can choose from a lot of predefined progressions, chord structures, playing styles etc and adapt/merge these to your liking. But it does not really «create» music for you. There are no «songs» in EZ Keys, only prerecorded playing styles which can magically be reproduced in any key or progression (this is the point of EZ Keys IMHO). So the various MIDI packs simply contain new playing styles.

My use of EZ Keys is to add a chord progression and then build up a song structure of various parts (verse, bridge, chorus) etc. I then import this into Logic Pro X to build an entire song with other instruments and parts. So EZ Keys is a useful tool to construct MIDI chord progression parts quickly.

I have also started to use EZ Bass to create the bass part for my songs. It is an extremely versatile plugin, but again not really a «music generator» but a very useful song construction tool.

(So to answer Question 3: You don’t «generate» songs. So if you choose the same playing style with the same chord progressions, it will sound 100% the same. But you can choose different varieties of each playing style so it is easy to get something that is different with a little bit of clicking and trying).

[warguppy]

Thank you for your reply. I've visited many of the links and videos from the Google search.

Also, I've searched this forum for the above products and did not find answers to my above questions. As I said, I'm a novice and don't yet understand how these products work together, or indeed even what many of the features are for scaler 2 or EZKeys in particular (even though I've watched what I could get my hands on for the basic workings of these products).

I purchased Orb Producer Suite a short time ago, as this is one component I know I wanted. (I'm having freezing and crashing problems in Ableton though if I use any plugins besides the primary Orb Chords) I downloaded the demo of Orb Composer earlier and figured out the answer to question #1.

The other two products...EZKeys and Scaler 2 are not as apparent to me exactly what they accomplish. (or more precisely, how they accomplish it)

As far as I can tell, EZKeys might allow you to import a melody and input a chord progression, but the bassline feature from Orb Producer Suite would not be needed. And it's up to me to manipulate the backing tracks of EZKeys primarily by changing chord voicings in order to come up with a new sound. (?) [question #2]

I have found no information on how different songs in EZKeys sound that use the same styles. [question #3]

I'm also not sure if I'm overlooking features of scaler 2. From what I understand, it's primary use is that you determine a chord progression and Scaler will help you to harmonize the track. However, as a novice user, I have no idea how difficult this would be. So for example, I enter the chord progression and I guess import a melody (?), and choose rhythms and patterns, and Scaler will harmonize my melody? I didn't exactly understand all of the "playing along" on the keyboard to generate chords. [question #4]

Not sure if you're still using it or having the issues with freezes and crashes. If the answer to both is yes, you may want to check in preferences and set autohide plug in windows to on.

I just purchased it and have been messing around with it a little. Had the same problem. Ableton would keep running and playing, cursor would move, but it was completely frozen as far as the GUI doing anything. Would have to go into task manager and kill it from there. After I set all the plug in window options to on it works fine. At least in my situation it seems to be purely graphical. After that change I can run chords with 7 other instances of melody, arp, and bass at the same time. Before, the third one would cause the lockdown. I use this same PC to play some pretty intense games so it is no slouch. Something with multiple Orb Producer windows makes it cry though.

Best of luck if you try this or in your search for exactly what you need!

[cassettedeck9]

Good stuff!

[TrueStory]

Scaler 2 is a beast for creating chord progressions and actually learning music theory. There are a few flaws but the devs seem pretty responsive in analyzing and eventually resolving issues with updates.