Posts Tagged ‘advice’
How to Add ‘Vst’ Instrument
- ‘Insert’
- ‘Soft Synth’
As you can see there is now a list of instruments now available.
I will now add ‘Cakewalk TTS-1’
—->>>>Links to video guides at bottom of page
To edit or write midi data we need to bring up the staff view screen.
Hold the ‘ALT’ key and press ‘7’
You should now see this screen.
Look at the interface at the top of the new screen.
You can enter notes by highlighting the pencil option and clicking on the staff.
You can delete notes by highlighting the eraser option and clicking the note on the staff.
You alter the note value to be entered by clicking the relevant button.
You can change staff layout by clicking the button. Not the ‘v’
This will open a box.
Under ‘Staff properties’
‘Clef:’
The drop down form that currently says ‘Treble’.
You can by clicking change to any staff you desire.
This is useful for writing
Bass or Drums.
For Drums – Choose Percussion.
Go to
– ‘Options’
- ‘Audio’
Choose your preferred sound card from the drop down menu.
Now we choose which kind of driver you need.
If you are sure your sound card supports ‘ASIO’ then choose that option.
If it doesn’t then try ‘WDM’
If you experience problems then choose ‘MME’
Make sure you click the ‘Ok’ button.
When finished Sonar will prompt you to restart.
Restart Sonar and the changes will be applied.
If you have conflicts. you can try disabling your wireless connection – if you have one
Also if you have a firewire, usb or pci sound card and the onboard sound card is setting up as default you can disable the onboard in sonar,
Ok so my laptop is a compaq presario, and while I like it, there is one major flaw.
The sound card. Conexxant HD. Proper rubbish.
No ASIO support. Which presents a problem.
So how do we solve this?
Well there’s the ASIO4ALL download click here and you’re welcome to try it.
The other option is this,
Open up Sonar , goto options and select audio
This opens the audio options box as seen below, click advanced.
Choose MME driver. The others will not work.
Now apply and restart sonar.
Should work nicely now.
Although please note that you will not be able to monitor recording through the ECHO function as there is a latency issue.
But if this all doesn’t suit you, it’s worth investing in an M-Audio Jam Lab. £20 – £40
Just after christmas I purchased the NanoPad and NanoKontrol usb controllers.
The keyboard wasn’t necessary, It looks too small and awkward – but that is from a visual impression.
NanoKontrol @ Dolphin Music £53.95
Korg NANOKONTROL USB Fader & Button Contrl -Black @ $59.99 @ Guitar Trader
Anyway here’s a review of how things have gone with these dinky studio toys,
This is my review.
From the start these were tricky to set up, I use sonar – a quick search on Sonars forum brought up a work through which I followed – unfortunately I can’t find it now to give a direct link – but I will add a work through of my own soon.
I don’t read manuals as a rule – so don’t ask me anything about those – that’s the beauty of the tinternet.
Once up and running they worked a treat.
The NanoKontrol is a bit cheap feeling (what do you want for the price?) – it works though, and it works well though.
9 dials, 9 faders, and 9 buttons.
Play, Rewind, Forward, Loop, Stop and Record Buttons
And a ‘Scene’ Button – 4 scenes available.
Each scene is dedicated to 9 channels – altogether you get 36 – with sonarthough you can assign only 32 tracks.
Korg nanoKONTROL MIDI Controller $59.99 @ Musicians Friend
That’s it really, once you’ve assigned each channel it works like any mixing channel – the time saved is much more than I expected – although if I’m honest some times I stil find myself reaching for the mouse – but hopefully I can drum myself out of that.
The NanoPad on the other hand is straight out of the box – plug it in and off you go – once assigned it’s set up to play.
The X,Y controller is pretty cool on synths – does some weird shit to drums though. The pads are good for the price and you can belt the crap out of it.
It has 12 pads – assignable to 4 scenes via software or drum map.
It has a scene button and roll and hold as well.
The roll works to a certain degree, really I don’t use it – the hold is pretty pointless – but then again look at the price!
Both of these are excellent value, and even though they may require a bit of work getting set up it’s worth it.
Also available in a very sexy black, I found out too late, dagnabbit.
Here’s what Korg says,
‘The nano Series from Korg – Serious Music Production in a Seriously Small Space
Meet the most compact family of USB-MIDI controllers ever! Introducing the new Korg nano Series USB powered slim-line controllers – so small you can put them on your workstation, in front of your laptop, on a recording console or anywhere else you need versatile control over your DAW, virtual instrument/effect or DJ software.’
‘Three Flavors to Satisfy Your Creative Palette
Despite their small size, all three controllers go HUGE when it comes to functionality, yet their intuitive layouts provide extremely easy operation for any user. The nanoKEY features a great-feeling 25-key velocity-sensitive keyboard that’s ideal for song production. The keys can also be set to send MIDI control data, further expanding its power. The nanopad features 12 highly responsive trigger pads, also capable of sending both notes and MIDI control data, plus an X-Y pad with roll and flam functions giving you a unique interface for realistic drum programming. The nanoKONTROL offers nine faders, nine knobs and 18 switches plus a full transport section for expansive control; plus it features a note input mode to help you lay down your next big groove!’
| ESI-32 – 1994 Essentially a cost reduction of the EIIIX sampler (EIII software ported to new hardware), this two rack space sampler broke the price barrier for high-quality sampling. Thirty-two voice polyphony, 32MB of RAM and a huge sound library made this E-MU’s best selling sampler of all time. |
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‘The ESI-32 is an excellent polyphonic sampler for any musician at any level. It offers all of the same sampler-type features and goodies that you would find in other Akai and Roland samplers. Its base model is perfect for anybody looking to get into sample-based music and is designed to grow and expand with you into a complete and professional sampler.’ – Taken from Vintage Synth Explorer
—–>>>
I own 2 Esi 32′s both are fully loaded with 32meg. And are fantastic.
They sound great, are fun to use and look cool(yeah I know, geek alert)
*Word of warning and some advice; If you intend buying make sure they have at least OS 3.0 installed – scsi transfer from Pc ‘WILL NOT WORK’ – if you have one you will have to buy discs or get scsi disks already loaded worse still pay for an upgrade ouch.
If you can get an Esi4000 or 2000 instead, they are OS 3.0 as standard.
If you want to transfer samples across you’ll also need a scsi card – adaptec seem to work best.
Be prepared though it can be tiresome work at first, and annoying if you don’t save regularly.
Honestly unless you really dig the idea of this, then don’t bother – stick to PC based sample software.
You’ll save money and time.
That said they do sound better than a software based sampler, warmer if that makes any sense.
And there is something very cool about making your own instruments on these things.
Articles about this sampler -
EMU ESI SAMPLERS MASTERCLASS@ Sound On Sound
The Emu Has Landed@Sound On Sound
Software:
ESI Win – PC software that allows connection with scsi drives and sampler*
Chicken Systems Translator – Not very good I’m afraid, works occasionally – supports the Emu like jelly supports a one legged man – I paid for it – not happy with the results. – You’ll see in the articles below I used it – but now I don’t – maybe it’s my pc but it blows 80% of the time.
Wavelab and Recycle(no links available- later versions don’t support scsi transfer) – Luckily for me I had old versions of both these software packages, and they work a treat for transferring samples across. Recyle 2.1 is best though allowing you to edit and place samples in desired locations on sampler. It is slow work but in my opinion worth the hassle.
Found this site – (found? probably wasn’t lost and has been around for a while, although I am new to it)
Anyway – I’ve been visiting it as a listener to see how it works.
Listeners can operate as a ‘scout’ – you listen to songs delivered at random.
Each song has to be listened to for at least 1 min before a written review can be entered.
Reviews have to hit a certain criteria, certain musical aspects have to be addressed and finally you score the track out of ten.
To be honest the rewards aren’t going to make you rich but there is satisfaction. You’re ranked and given a star rating.
The higher your rank the more you are rewarded.
Scores are based on how correct/inline with public opinion you are.
I enjoy it – as a listener it makes me listen differently as I do as a musician – as a musician I can give pertinent advice.
The cool thing is as you score bands you can influence wether that band will get the funds they need to progress.
‘Slicethepie enables you to shape and support the careers of your favourite new and established Artists.
We pay you to review and rate new Music in the Scout Rooms on Slicethepie – our A&R engine room.
The better you are at writing reviews and spotting talent the more you get paid.
Support your favourite Artists by investing in those that you think will be successful. This will entitle you to exclusive Artist access, your name on the album sleeve, a free copy of the album and a share in the in the financial returns from album and single sales.
Slicethepie is unique…it enables Artists to work directly with their Fans to create a professionally recorded album.
Join now, start Scouting, earn money and help yourself to a piece of the music industry…..’ – slicethepie – join now free
As an artist the feedback form my view be invaluable and also if you’re lucky you may get the financials to make a difference to your career.
‘Slicethepie is a financing platform for the music industry that enables new and established Artists to raise money directly from Music Fans and Investors.
As a financed Artist, you get to keep 100% of your copyright and publishing rights and will only pay a small (25p per track) royalty from your single and album sales for a 2 year period. Plus all the money you receive is non-recoupable.
To raise finance you must first qualify for a Showcase. There are two ways to get there:
- Receive high ratings from Music Fans in the Scout Rooms; or
- Demonstrate you have enough genuine Fans who want to finance you on Slicethepie
Once in a Showcase Artists must raise a minimum of £15,000.
Even if you do not reach a Showcase, you are guaranteed dozens of genuine, objective reviews of you Music from Music Fans all over the world.
Sound interesting? Join for free now….’ – slicethepie
For the past few years I’ve been reading up on all aspects of recording,mixing and mastering.
The following books cover all of the aspects of home recording,
some are written from the view point of the musician working out side of pc recording.
In my opinion the techniques can be brought over to the PC realm.
read more below…
As a musician who has worked with 4-Track and 8 Track cassette studios
and worked with Sonar, Cubase and Reaper I can honestly say that these
books give you everything you need.
It is not necessary to buy all. Each book has it’s unique style.
To start with I recommend either Guerilla Home Recording,
or Home Recording For Musicians….
Both books are ideal and contain just about everything you’d need.
For more advanced information the following books are for more advanced information.
Especially my favourite Mastering Audio – the art and the science by Bob Katz.
To be honest not a neccesity, just a bloody good book and an absolute eye opener.
My goto book when my head gets cloudy with all aspects of mastering.
It teaches you to think not to just do. And the way Bob Katz writes helps,
he doesn’t talk in reams of jargon and treat it like it’s a secret society.
He’s open, funny and immensely helpful.
The next few books are part of my library, they help when I need to understand something.
Each book is pretty much the same in content but come at the problem/solution in different ways.
I find it helpful to have many references, you may not and may need a definitive book.
To be honest I don’t think there is one.
Latency – is something you’ll hear a lot about.
It is basically the delay in analogue sound being converted to digital.
It works like this – analogue signal(mic/guitar) input – converts to digital in recording – output then converts back to digital – this can cause a delay.
This delay can be seen in monitored recording.
For example if you record a track without monitoring chances are you will not suffer any latency.
The problem usually comes when monitoring the recording.
The times I’ve seen it occur most is when using VST fx.
If you use monitoring to record when you play you will feel the delay, and playing to anything recorded or sequenced will be impossible to play along to.
ASIO is one of the methods to fixing this – although sometimes a lot of tinkering will be involved to get the correct results.
Latency can be caused by a combination of sound card and drivers – updated drivers is usually your best course of action.
Windows own drivers MME are considered to be the worst offenders when it comes to latency.
Most decent sound card come with ASIO drivers – these can in most cases solve latency problems.
Sometimes is best to search latency problems on the net and stating which software you are using – problems can be quite straight forward to fix.
Wireless internet can cause problems – clicks and drag – so disable it while recording.
Also any software running that doesn’t need to be.
Defragging is also an option – as is optimising your PC.