island991

anyone into the above? im just starting to want to do something with it and looking for advice on conecting it all up to laptop...??

ScoobyDoo555

kinda know a little bit about it

What do you need to know?

Dan
www.daproductions.co.uk

ru'

Used to hang around here when I was into that:

Forum

island991

im a sax/flute/general woodwind player and just bought an akai wind synth. neat bit of kit, also getting a yamaha motif rack es as a bank of sounds to play with. what i wanna know is what do i need to get sequencing on my laptop? i think i need some kinda way of getting the midi into the computer?!! how do i do that?!!

obviously i need software, but its the hardware that is the issue at the moment!!

anyone help?

oh yeh anyone recommend a good reference book i can buy which i can use for midi/sequencing??

Daz34

There is quite a choice but Cubase is still damn good & comes in various versions capable of sequencing and controlling midi instruments and soft synths.
Simpler stuff like fruity loops is still pretty impressive though.
It still totally amazes me that you can have a collection of soft synths & samplers and controlling software on an everyday laptop plus a midi controller keyboard for less than £100 that would rival any studio from the 1980-90s and sound just as good.

island991

cool, how about getting the midi into the laptop? there are no midi in/out etc??

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Soundtracker on the Amiga is where its at . . . isn't it

bob269

you can get usb connectors, something like this

Yamaha UX16 (UX 16, UX-16) USB MIDI interface (adapter)

island991

brilliant thanks thats the kinda thing i was looking for.

right now does anyone know about sound cards for my laptop? it currently has a soundMAX OE thing. would i need a better sound card if i want to sequence well??

bob269

If you're going to use external sound banks then i doubt the soundcard will make a hugh difference tbh. Even a basic onboard soundcard should be fast enough to process the midi commands.

ScoobyDoo555

lol @dunk

Dan

island991

cheers fellas. so is cubase the way to go or is there another option?? im using a PC with xp if cubase is best which version??? there seems to be alot!!

island991

should have said waht im looking for is a software programme that will enable me to lay down tracks for me to play back to live. So i need to be able to midi in all the parts, then be able to sequence the full track and play it back so i can solo over the top.

what software would be bes for this? i will imput many of the sounds from an external sound module.

ScoobyDoo555

No offence, but I sure as hell wouldn't take a PC laptop live, not without a Minidisc/CDr backup. Too unreliable.

However, for home programming, yeh usre, a PC running XP and Cubase will do what you want

Dan

island991

ok maybe not playing from the lappy live, but having the tracks burnt or something to play to!! sounds like cubase is the way to go. gonna try to pick up one of the smaller versions due to lack of ££££!! are SE and SL much different from SX???? anyone know?!!

cheers again!!

bob269

I've always favoured cakewalk for ease of use.

ScoobyDoo555

Se will do fine. Just a cut down version without the uber-scoring facility bascially.

Less tracks etc...

Oh, and it's rubbish

Cakewalk is easier to use (downloadable demo from Cakewalk too), depends on whether or not you want to record audio with your MIDI - makes better produced backing tracks combining the two

But of course, it's all personal preference. try em both

Dan

GaryK

Theres lots of choice out there ableton live would fit the bill for what you want to do, if you want more ideas advice then go to KVR: VST Plugins | DirectX (DX) | Audio Units (AU) : Audio Plugin News, Reviews and Community (Effects, Instruments and Hosts) for a whole host of seq's/plug-ins/fx etc. and hop on over to Computer Music

Personally I dont like cakewalk or cubase, I use this Mackie - Tracktion 2 but you really need to find something that *you* are comfortable using.

Gary

island991

had a go on the cakewalk/sonar demo and got on ok so ive just bought sonar homestudio 4 XL. we shall see how i get on!

im using

akai ewi4000s wind synth
simple midi keyboard
yamaha motif rack es sound module
midiman midisport usb interface (when it arrives!)
Sonar 4

ScoobyDoo555

nice range of kit.
Out of interest, how do you get on with the EWI?

The band I used to produce - the sax player used one once. Hated it and went back to his old WX5/7

Dan

island991

well ive never tried any of the other wind synths so i cant really compare it, but im getting on well with it after the first few days. the internal sounds are very synthy but the motif has some good authentic sounds to play with. then again lets face it if i want authentic ill play my sax or what ever!!

now ive been working on working my way around Sonar today. The main problem i have is how can i use the sounds from my sound module on Sonar? can anyone help with this? the motif rack has great sounds esp keyboards but i cant seem to see a way to utilise them.......am i being thick?!!!

ScoobyDoo555

Just put the Motif into "multi" or "performance" mode (16 or 32 channels IIRC)
Sonar will then be able to access the 16/32 midi channels piece of cake.

Allows for mutli-reocrding of mutliple sounds, and playback at the same time

Dan

island991

that might be tomorrows project!

i also notice that sonar homestudio doesnt seem to have a huge amount of instrument patches. how do i supliment these? can i download/buy more patches?
sorry for the newbie to studio music questions!!! your help is much appreciated!!

island991

scratch that i was being stupid! hadnt noticed there was about 10 banks of sounds and i was only looking at 1 bank! doh!

ScoobyDoo555

Dan

island991

ok played with motif today. although the midi interface which was supposed to arrive hasnt! so i was using the usb link up to my pc.

it worked ie i got the sounds, but the delay when using the windsynth was huge. I couldnt play naturally at all it was unusable. im wondering if this is due to using the 1 usb cable to carry all the midi in both directions?

island991

well after much swapping of leads and trying various combinations i managed to get the midi interface working and erradicate the delay from the wind synth. I tried setting it all up as the maudio instructions suggested but it wouldnt work?! using the synth with its midi in and out in setA and the motif as an external sound module in set B on the interface. couldnt get that going at all. but managed to put both synth(midi in as a controller only) and the motif (midi out) on set A and it works a treat, although im having to take all sound from the motif rack into the headphones/speakers. does this mean i have to take the final performance for recording from the back of the motif. is this the best way? or should i take the midi out of the rack and back into the computer??? im confused!! at least i got it working but is there a better way for recording it? or is it correct that the recording has to come from the back of the rack if im using the rack sounds?? ahhhhh!!!!????!!!

anyone?!!!

ScoobyDoo555

OK OK OK

First and foremost - some MIDI basics.
MIDI is purely a command protocol (like a telling your printer to "print") No sound is transmitted through the MIDI cable.

On a single MIDI In & Out connection, you have a maxmimum of 16 channels - these can be assigned to individual sounds. In other words, eg
Ch1 - piano
Ch2 - Bass
Ch3 - Strings
Ch4 - drums

etc etc....

Certain devices such as the M-Audio, have more than 1 set of MIDI connections, so this then becomes -

A Ch1 - piano
A Ch2 - Bass
A Ch3 - Strings
A Ch4 - drums

B Ch1 - violin
B - etc

In essence, you then get 32 MIDI channels (split across 2 MIDI outputs)

The next issue is the connections themselves -

MIDI "IN" - receives MIDI data ONLY
MIDI "OUT" - transmits MIDI data ONLY
MIDI "THRU" - daisy-chains the MIDI data from the MIDI "IN" (more on this later!)


So, your connections should be -

PC - usb to interface

MIDI "Out" (A) of interface to the MIDI "In" of the Motif

MIDI "Out" of the EWI to the MIDI "In" (A) of the interface.

MIDI "Out" of the keyboard (if you have one) to the MIDI "In" (B)

ALL Audio comes from the device selected - if you choose the Motif from the sequencer, then the Motif will generate the sound when played.

On your Motif, you would have to put it into Performance or "Multi" mode, so you can play more than one seperate sound at a time.

This is then selected in the sequencer as either Output (A) channel x,y,z dependant on the selected channel.

If you then want to combine the MIDI sounds with audio from the PC/Laptop (your live recorded wind instruments, or plug-in soft synths, for example), you would need a mini-mixer to mix the sound of the Motif and the PC.

The output of the mixer could then go to your Hi-Fi

Recording the resulting mix back into the PC to burn off a CD is WHOLE differnent (but possible) ball game

Does that make a bit more sense?

Dan

ScoobyDoo555

just thought I'd add - the reason why you had a delay when you plugged your EWI in........

You were playing the cr@ppy sounds off your PC's internal sound card.

You were experiencing the phenomenon of "latency" - the time it takes to process the sound through the PC.

By using decent kit, you won't get this problem (ie, your Motif), however, you can fettle with the settings to reduce the delay.

Dan

island991

thanks for that time and explanations. makes alot more sence!! i think that is now how i have it all connected!! sometimes the keyboard doesnt work when in interface midi in B, but i think that is all to do with when i turn things on. if i do it in the wrong order it doesnt seem to know its on or something!?! but ive now got the multi mode going with different instruments etc.

Im beginning to realise very quickly that a normal soundcard even on a media based laptop isnt up to much music wise!! ive written a 9 track program on SONAR and there are already notes that go missing that i know are there, but i guess the comp cant deal with all the info at once. i know i can bounce audio tracks together, but this is all midi tracks. guess in the long term i need a better soundcard!!

...oh if im looking for a mini mixer what is a good make?? and is it difficult to cue up the audio to match the stuff coming from the motif??