As a music producer, oftentimes bands will send me their MP3 demos and I'll need to either help them transcribe the music or provide compositional suggestions. Here are a few of my favorite tools

Music Composition

• Scalar 2 is my workhorse. For example, suppose you have a verse and a chorus but you're not sure what next set of chords to use for a bridge, this is the perfect tool for the job.

• KeyFinder Github was designed for DJ's to quickly identify a song's key signature. I use it all the time when correcting a vocal using WavesTune or Melodyne.

• Oolimo is a handy chord finder for guitarists.

Transposing Guitar to Piano

Suppose I'm playing a Gbm sus2 chord on guitar and I quickly want to play it on a MIDI keyboard, then I use Virtual Piano Chords Chart to help me figure out where to place my keys. If I later want to figure out the inversions of each chord, I use 8notes.

Tempo Finder

• MetroTimer is pretty much all I need to find a beat.

Glossaries

The glossary of recording terms is handy when you're trying to figure out how to work with plug-ins that simulate vintage gear.

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Artistic Tools

Open Source Recordings

I use a lot of open source sounds to layer my music. A few great resources include:

• Archive.org offers execellent stuff. Here are a few queries I use to find royalty-free music.
  • Kosmic Free Foundation
  • Idea Vault
• Smithsonian offers some interesting stuff.
• Music Archives.
• Harvard offers a ton of excellent resources.
• Mashable has a good list too.

Open Source Programmable Music

• Mutopia is great if you're looking for some inspiration found in PDF, MIDI, and editable LilyPond format.