Composing problem

[Kwackman]

In recent versions of Cubase you can take a monophonic audio clip and convert it into a MIDI clip.
So a guitar line chords probably won't work) could be converted to MIDI then routed to a VI playing violin.
It mightn't be the most elegant workflow though.

[Luke W]

Another guitarist with (very) minimal keyboard ability here. I've not tried any of the MIDI-from-guitar solutions so I'll leave those suggestions to others, but I will echo what people are saying about not ditching the idea of using a keyboard entirely quite so quickly. When I play around with writing on a keyboard I find nice shapes and progressions that I probably wouldn't get to as quickly on a guitar, it definitely brings something to the table and once you get over the initial "What are my hands doing this way around?!" part, it does get a lot easier quite quickly.

It's interesting that you find Cubase clunky for this sort of thing though, it's one of the main players in the composing world with lots of people using if for exactly this sort of work. I don't have it and I can imagine it's a very different bit of software since I last saw and used it, but I'm sure there must be a good reason for it being so popular. That said, I'm rather against the idea that "XYZ use this so I must also use it" so if you don't get on with it, then that's that!

[CS70]

Hey guys, new user and I figure this is the best place for asking this so here goes! Ok, so my question is essentially this : Is there a DAW or program that is made for people who struggle with keyboards?

What of this (it's a plugin)?

https://www.codefn42.com/cales/ (free)

https://www.pluginboutique.com/meta_pro ... e-Scaler-2 (paid, but with trial)

I'm in exactly the same situation as you and never been keen on multi-instrumentalism, so if I ever had to try a keyboard I'd use something similar.

[ManFromGlass]

I’ve been playing with Scalar 2 to help me think more chordal and progression-like.
It’s bloody awesome for a person with my skill set. (guitar background, very basic keys)
You end up with chords triggered by 1 key and then you can dive even deeper. For me it makes learning chords and assembling tunes a bit of fun and doesn’t feel like studying.
There are YouTube’s that are very helpful and stretch the mind in new musical directions.
I bet it works in Cubase

[Hanley]

Check out Building Blocks.

It's an online music theory and composition course tailored to DAW-based musicians like yourself. No staff, no keyboard. You learn how write music with a piano roll. And it's fully interactive so you'll actually be writing drum patterns, bass lines, chord progressions, and melodies in an online production studio as you go.

Disclaimer: I'm the creator

[Fleshtemple]

Thanks for the replies guys ! Lots of good info that I was not aware of. That's midi guitar 2 program works shockingly well and am super impressed with how well it can track my playing. I used to learn keyboard parts, trumpet stuff, violin etc all the time on the guitar so I think I can definitely use this to move my actual writing forward past my guitar based comps .

Also that's scaler 2 plugin looks excellent as well would be fun to use to just pick something and compose over so that's something else I'll be looking into for sure.

[ManFromGlass]

It’s worth a peek at the Scalar tutorials by the creators. Takes the mystery of the interface away quite quickly so you can get to writing music.

[BJG145]

You might be interested in Theoryboard

https://www.irijule.com/

Or maybe something with an isomorphic keyboard?

...and Striso.

https://www.striso.org/

Both gadgets designed with music theory in mind.