Sound and Music Software

General:
Sound File Formats
Software
Free stuff?
Windows Sound Recorder

MIDI:
Music Setups
Instructional Uses
Example Lesson
Music Examples
Noteworthy

CD Production:
Ideas and Applications
Microphones and Mixers
Recording Digitally
Software
CD Packaging

Sound Applied:
The Web
PowerPoint

Elsewhere on this site:
General Instructional Technology
Presentation/Web
Imaging
Sound
Video,
Home

Sound and Music:

Music Software

The following is by no means an exhaustive list of sound software - it's just the short list of packages I've used and know, and all are freely available for download - for evaluation as shareware, or, in many cases, free use. They are all Windows applications, as our district has precious few Macintoshes. I am aware that the list of effective and useful sound applications for Macs is extensive, and that the Mac platform is pretty much a standard for music professionals - I just don't own one, nor does my clientele.

Players
Windows Media Player (http://www.microsoft.com, go to the "Downloads" section):	This Windows-resident player plays MIDI, wav, Windows Media (WMA), and MP3 sound and music files, as well as several formats of video. Since you probably already have it, the only reason I list it here is to make sure you keep it updated to the latest version, as Windows incorporates new formats and compression algorithms into it as they become popular.
QuickTime	QuickTime competes with Real as a sound and video web-delivery format, and is rquired for QuickTime format media (.qt and .mov). Like Real, the QuickTime player just plays, but the upgrade to QuickTime Pro costs less than $30.00 and does a lot of editing tasks. Be careful with the install - see Shareware and Freeware - Warnings for things to avoid.
Real Player:	This is required for the playing of all Real Audio (.ra) or Real Media video files (.rm). Like QuickTime or Media Player, it can't be used for anything else but playing files, but this format is popular enough on the Internet to make it necessary. Be careful with the install - see Shareware and Freeware - Warnings for things to avoid. If you want to edit Real files, you'll need Producer, which is also free from Real.
General Utility
Music Match:	This free-for-download program is a popular player. However, it's use as a good general sound conversion utility program separates it from the others in that category. It converts to a variety of compression settings and file formats. However, like Real Player above, you should examine Shareware and Freeware - Warnings.
GoldWave:	Another commercial product with a free-for-download version. Good general file format conversions, and simple sound editing.
Total Recorder (also available from http://shareware.cnet.com/ - search for it by name):	This application has the distinction of being able to record absolutely everything that passes through your sound card ( including Real Audio, even Internet "phone" conversations) without external patching. This is shareware - only 40 seconds of recording is allowed in the free version. The full version, as of the fall of 2004, costs $11.95.
Music Editing/Production
Acid XPress:	This shareware program does enough that it's worth downloading and trying. It's a sample-and-loop environment - the sort of sound production that has found a permanent home in hip-hop, rap, and techno/dance music, though the style can be found in almost any popular music style. Of course, such environments don't actually encourage one to make sounds of one's own (you can, you just don't have to), so there are complaints about lack of originality, or risks of copyright violation. However, as a musical genre, it is no longer possible to ignore it, and its immediacy makes it a natural for kids. Sony's website has enough samples to whet the appetite of anyone, but the shareware limit of 8 samples in a song becomes constraining pretty fast. Also, only one sound format is available for your finished product, which means that Sony's shareware intent works well, and you'll soon be shellin' out the sheckles for more.
Adobe Audition	Adobe purchased CoolEdit in 2003, one of the most popular downloadable full-featured sound editing packages. It's a high-quality pure music editing environment - you can record, modify, enhance, excerpt, and save to a variety of formats. The software times out after 30 days, but for those days it is virtually fully-functional. It even includes support for loops and samples, in a very Acid-like interface.
MIDI Production (see MIDI Music Setups for a few additional titles)
Noteworthy Composer (See my web page on Noteworthy Composer.)	I have been using Noteworthy Composer for over five years, and have yet to find its equal in its price range. It is really a music manuscripting program that got popular enough to goad the designers into fattening up the MIDI tools, hence it can be used to drive synths and samplers with ease. You must be prepared to put notes on a page - no samples and loops here!
Cakewalk Sonar	Cakewalk has been an industry standard for a half-dozen years or so - a lifetime in computer applications. It is a multi-format music environment, which means that MIDI and real sound can live together - recorded and played back in a single environment. It is not for the faint of heart - you have to know what you're doing! Available as fully-functioning shareware that times out in 30 days.
Steinberg's Cubase	If you use and like Cakewalk, Steinberg's Cubase (as of 2003, owned by Pinnacle) is the next step up the ladder, giving true professional results with the right hardware. Cubase is a Mac program that only recently was released to the "dark side" - Windows and PCs. It is only available for download as a demo - fully-functional, but no saving is possible. I list it here because of its power.
Fruity Loops	This application is actually a useful MIDI tool, though in its free-for-download shareware version you can't export files, which makes it just a toy. It's a rhythm-construction environment, intended for looping. As a first exposure to MIDI composition environments, it's really quite useful, and a lot of fun.