Page 1 of 1

Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:19 am
by JohnBozi
Hey I just thought I would share what I used for audio on my last short clip.

It's called UJAM and it's an app for google chrome. I was suprised I could record audio and it would make any style of music I want in the background and to the perfect length and a heap more.

Anyone else use it or have suggestions for free Audio stuff?


Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:59 am
by Artpen
Yes, I've seen this, it looks like a great tool, I'll propably use it for my toons.

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:04 am
by Yosemite Sam
Yeah,

UJAM is so damn inventive in my opinion. It's one of those great apps that will change the way music is made. I'm not saying it will replace traditional music production, just that it will allow those who aren't educated in music, but have ideas, to create what's in their heads.

Plus, if you have no knowledge of how music is composed, it will give you a good primer. Things like B minor, C major, will become part of our language :).

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:36 am
by Scot Solida
I had to respond to this one, though I have not actually tried UJAM. However, you've asked about other free music tools. As a writer for Computer Music magazine, I run into plenty of great freeware. We've dedicated entire special issues to free music software. These days, you don't have to be a trained musician to make your own music - the Mac users among you already know that you can fire up GarageBand and pull some pre-fab loops from the included library and be crafting your own tunes pretty quickly. Even moreso on the (not free) iPad version. However, there are lots of others ranging in complexity from simple (LMMS on Linux and Windows - http://lmms.sourceforge.net/) to full-blown pro audio workstations like Ardour (Mac/Linux - http://ardour.org/. The 3 version of Ardour is near release and includes MIDI support). Mulab Free is available for both Mac and Windows users: http://www.mutools.com/. Presonus' Studio One Free is a cut-down version of their more advanced products and runs on Mac and Windows machines. This is a pretty nice DAW, having begun life as the free Kristal Audio Engine (Windows only, still available http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/index. ... n=download).

There are more free DAWs (digital audio workstations) out there. Traverso (not much happening since 2010 on it http://traverso-daw.org/) and the Java-based Frinika (http://frinika.appspot.com/), both Linux/Windows/Mac.

Of course, these are primarily audio/MIDI recorders - they won't make music for you, but many of them handle loops or host instrument and effects plug-ins (there are thousands of free plug-ins available), and offer easy-to-use features like step-entry of notes, beat matching, piano roll editing - all of which assume no traditional musical training (though it never hurts to have some).

I'd be utterly remiss if I didn't mention that the magazine for which I write always includes a cover-mounted DVD with an entire suite of everything you need to make music on your computer - and it's all free. There are scads of samples and loops to use license-free in your songs and a few demos of commercial stuff.

In any event - I'm new to this forum (working on my second-ever bit of animation, and my first vector animation in Anime Studio Pro), and you all can feel free to ask me anything about music, music software, recording, sound design. I'm always willing to help!

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:15 pm
by Yosemite Sam
Great post. Lots of very useful information. Thanks Scot!

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:47 pm
by cocoOS
thanks for share it jhon...I didn't know about this tool and seems really great for background music...thanks a lot!!....

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:38 pm
by Joelsquare
Of course, you'll never find software that can replace the years of practice, investment, honing of craft and high production values that you'd get by hiring a professional composer & sound designer on your animated projects. Ahem. :P

-j

----
http://joel-s-silver.com

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:19 pm
by Scot Solida
Joelsquare wrote:Of course, you'll never find software that can replace the years of practice, investment, honing of craft and high production values that you'd get by hiring a professional composer & sound designer on your animated projects. Ahem. :P

-j

----
http://joel-s-silver.com
That's true, of course! Joel, I would love to discover that the image on your site is what your studio looks like. I dream of an old-fashioned Radiophonic (or Koln)-style musique concret studio. (I have most of the stuff to set one up, but no space left in my own basement studio - and the tape machines are in poor repair). Good to see a fellow musician and sound designer here!

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:10 pm
by cocoOS
No has sense compare ujam with Raw softwares, It's true than you can do music without music knowledge...but it's true too than you need found a lot loops..make a good music library and learn the software, garage band is very nice but only works in mac...for windows or linux users the software tend to be more complex (I've used ableton and the amazing samplitude)...you can't do an original jinggle with ujam and this isn't a replace for musics, but you can have a melody in your mind and convert it in a song in less 10 minutes..that is great for no musicians, and it works for animations where the music doesn't play a fundamental role....for me it was very impressive...I did a song very similar to the song in my mind (very simple but sounds nice :D ) using a melody did with my keyboard...

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:42 pm
by slowtiger
Just as a caveat: although there's lots of software available, nothing beats the charem of anything selfmade, especially for animation. Get a microphone and some recording stuff (or software) and just use whatever makes a sound.

Re: Free easy music for cartoons

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:54 pm
by Scot Solida
slowtiger wrote:Just as a caveat: although there's lots of software available, nothing beats the charem of anything selfmade, especially for animation. Get a microphone and some recording stuff (or software) and just use whatever makes a sound.
Hear hear! Music can be made from anything, with or without any traditional musical training. DIY music is my personal favorite approach. Found objects banged, scraped into a microphone make for exceptional animation soundtracks. Grab a violin bow and scrape it across piece of sheet metal or press a metal spatula into some dry ice for sound effects. Non-traditional electronics can also be great fun. Turning knobs on a free software synthesizer just to see what happens can result in Forbidden Planet style sonorities. You don't need to know how to play or record, just dive in and do it. It's great fun and anyone who animates will already have an innate sense of timing that can be applied to music.