A couple of days ago, I decided that I need to write more game music. Considering that I haven’t done so for about a year, I also decided that it was about time I got some new software on which to compose said music.

My previous setup, of course, was to use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 (from, like, 2001 or so) to write the music, and use a lovely little software synth called SurReal to select the actual sounds of the instruments, then convert the MIDI files to WAV (and drop the WAV files into OggDrop to make OGG’s, etc.) Now, this posed a problem of sorts when I got a new computer circa August 2004, namely, that SurReal only works in Windows 98.

What I did, therefore, was use VMWare to run SurReal, and run Cakewalk from Windows XP. This was somewhat cumbersome, as the things I played in Cakewalk sounded nothing like what they eventually became in SurReal. Also, since laptop sound cards aren’t very MIDI-friendly, I discovered that there was a bit of a lag time when I recorded things out of my MIDI keyboard. Not a very good setup, indeed.

So, what did I do? Well, since I had plenty of music written already, I ended up not composing anything for a while. However, at some point, one realises that there’s more music to be written, and this was that point.

I window-shopped around the Internet, and decided that Cakewalk Music Creator Pro would be beneficial for my needs. It’s a much more technologically-advanced version I had before, only, get this, it comes with its own soft synth. Now, I don’t have to rely on external programs to convert MIDI to WAV. Also, I was able to install some drivers with which to get rid of the lag time. This way, I can make WAY better music, as I can play it in real time.

I decided, for the sake of consistency, to import the existing MIDI files for TGTTPOACS into Music Creator. For some odd reason, some of them got screwed up, and I had to manually edit some notes for the music to sound good again. I also had to select new instrument patches, as I couldn’t import the existing SurReal ones, so now they sound a bit different. But they’re still reasonably good, so all is well.

I also ended up composing a new piece called “The Vulture’s Theme”, which is a little jazzy muted trumpet thing with strings in the background. It reminds me very much of Discworld Noir. I’ve also got an idea for the music for the game’s opening and/or closing credits. Maybe I’ll put up some OGG files if I’m not too lazy.