One of the major objectives I would like to accomplish with this site is to keep a post page with [tag]FREEWARE[/tag] programs I use for both for my home life and for the college. During the course of the year, I trudge through countless versions of both commercial and freeware programs. Many times I find useless programs and other times I find real treasures.
Most of my students, upon graduation, will and do get jobs in school districts that have very small budgets for things like software, especially for music students. In my classes, I endeavor to show the students both the major commercial applications and many similar freeware applications.
There can be little argument that the commercial applications almost always are the better products but it amazes me how many GOOD programs are available for absolutely nothing! A big Thanks to those who take the time to write these programs for us!
In the near future, I am going to make a separate page on JPisano.com that will be updated, fairly regularly, that will list the programs that I use throughout my daily life that I find both valuable and completely free. For now, here is my…
TOP 10 list of [tag]Music Freeware[/tag] (plus one):
[tag]Audacity[/tag]: A free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X, and other operating systems. One of the best digital audio editing suites available. This program will “more than fit the bill” for the casual audio editor.http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
[tag]Anvil Studio[/tag]: Anvil Studio is a free Windows program for multi-track recording, composing, and editing of audio and [tag]MIDI[/tag] music files. A great MIDI sequencer and composing tool. You may not need any other.
[tag]Finale Notepad[/tag]:Music notation software. Finale Notepad is the freeware version of Finale. This program is perfect for those that don’t have a midi lab or a budget. All you need is a computer to run the program. Available in cross-platform versions. A must have for ALL musicians.http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/
Function [tag]Ear Trainer[/tag]-Basic: This program establishes the key or tonality by playing a chord sequence, followed by a random note. The user has to guess what note was played. A must have program for ear training.
‘e’ [tag]chromatic tuner[/tag]: It’s hard to find a freeware chromatic tuner. Here is one that looks great and does a good job as well.
http://www.sharewareplaza.com/The-e-Chromatic-Tuner-download_37449.html
[tag]Picasa 2[/tag]: A free software download from Google. Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your computer. Undoubtedly one of the greatest freeware picture organizer available.http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html
[tag]CDBurnerXP Pro[/tag]: Burn and Rip Cd’s easily, quickly and for free. [tag]AMAZING MIDI[/tag]: AmazingMIDI automatically transcribes music, converting WAVE files into MIDI files. It can recognize single-instrument polyphonic music. It’s a powerful tool to help you to transcribe music, to practice musical instruments and to make MIDI files, and so on. It really does work. It’s not perfect but it does work.http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~araki/amazingmidi/
[tag]MidiNotate Player[/tag]: A free MIDI player that shows notes as midi music is playing. Also print the score! This is a great freeware program for grabbing midi files off the net and using them as a visual aid.http://www.notation.com/MidiNotatePlayer.htm
TwelveKey’s [tag]Transcribe[/tag] Assistant: TwelveKeys is a program designed to assist musicians to transcribe music recordings. A must have for jazz and other “play by ear” musicians alike.
http://www.nch.com.au/twelvekeys/index.html
Media [tag]Catalog[/tag] Studio Lite: Get a handle on all your music and media files. Think of it as an audio organizer like Picasa is a photo organizer. Great program.
http://www.maniactools.com/soft/media_catalog_studio/index.shtml
I know this list is HEAVILY on the PC side. For those of you who are Mac Users (and MACS are indeed Awesome!), Here is a current link to some excellent Freewares for OS X from The Second Press.
~J. Pisano
Timidity is available on multiple platforms and is a great midi (and midi karaoke) player. It even works for people who have no or low quality sound cards. Check out the http://freepats.opensrc.org site for Open Source soundfonts to use with this and other programs.
There’s a group of abc utilities that I find invaluable when creating music. These include abc2mid and abcm2ps. ABC notation lets you write and share music through text editors and e-mails efficiently. With abc2midi you can compose and create your own midi and Karaoke midi files. With abcm2ps, you can view your results in sheet music format.
Will post this again as it doesn’t seem to have worked on the first post. This is a great midi (and Karaoke midi) player. This program is also very helpful for people without sound cards or with low quality cards. Check out freepats.opensrc.org for free soundfonts to use with it or other programs.