Alright geeks - help a sister out!

[Izzy HaveMercy]

Of course, always consider first what you want to do when making music on computer.

I can assure you that one needs the biggest machine in the world, but then again, will you need it?

If it is just to make your musical ideas, nested in your mind for ages, to come true, a proggie like FruityLoops is a good start.

You know what? You run Win98, go HERE and download ProTools FREE. It has only 8 mono channels and 48 MIDI tracks, but hey, maybe that is all you need!

When you feel that your computer is groaning under the efforts (crashing and going really slow et al), you 'll know that for your musical ambitions you will eventually need a bigger machine.

But this way you can try-before-you-buy.

Have fun, and post some of your works sometime soon!

IZ.

[Dark]

And I'm still waiting for that demo! What ARE you guys doing? Get off HeartLand and start recording some music for christ's sake! You are the future! I'm getting old! Etc Etc Etc...

IZ.

You see, this is proof you don't go on my band's site. If you did, you'd know that we've given up with demos and are just going to do the whole CD without demos or talking to a real record label, we're doing it all ourselves.

And there are two samples of these songs on the forum, so why don't you stop with the ambient soundscapes for a few minutes, and go listen to Shadows (a few notes awash with feedback) and Gemini (once a guitar song, still rawk with synths).

Right, that's the plugging over, now 'op it.

EDIT: A bit more, the discography page has exactly how far we are with each song. Go there and tell us we've not been recording music.

[nigel d]

if you want a copy of REASON v1 which is a rather good software sythesiser suite and sequencer pm me, ive also got cubasis vst 3 which will work on 98, that does midi and audio

[Izzy HaveMercy]

And I'm still waiting for that demo! What ARE you guys doing? Get off HeartLand and start recording some music for christ's sake! You are the future! I'm getting old! Etc Etc Etc...

IZ.

You see, this is proof you don't go on my band's site. If you did, you'd know that we've given up with demos and are just going to do the whole CD without demos or talking to a real record label, we're doing it all ourselves.

And there are two samples of these songs on the forum, so why don't you stop with the ambient soundscapes for a few minutes, and go listen to Shadows (a few notes awash with feedback) and Gemini (once a guitar song, still rawk with synths).

Right, that's the plugging over, now 'op it.

EDIT: A bit more, the discography page has exactly how far we are with each song. Go there and tell us we've not been recording music.

Admit you updated the site after my post

Def checking it out later then, not today.

Today is Sissies day and I will get in trance after lunch

IZ.

[Dark]

I posted that the downloads were ready for those who signed up on the forum nearly 2 weeks ago.

And Shadows has been up for months.

[nigel d]

mrs nigel went to town yesterday and went to a discount book shop(the works). came away with "the hit kit". has a cut down version of logic (that runs on xp)and a cd of samples and a microphone.....£5......bargain.
something to play with before spending too much money.

[boudicca]

Can I ask a very stupid question - directed at everyone who knows what they're talking about, and especially those of you familiar with freeware.

Don't I need some sort of keyboard to use these things? I've been looking at this and it's bloody confusing... there seems to be MIDI only keyboards, and ones that - well, that aren't MIDI only.

We immediately hit a stumbling block, because no matter how many times I read about it in doofus language, I'm buggered if I know what MIDI is.

Well, say I was to download one of the funky freeware thingummies that have been suggested to me.
Right, I have that, my rickety Windows 98 computer, and whatever soundcard came with it (which I presume is not good enough for making muzak). What else do I need?

A mic, but how do I work out which one?
And do I need preamps...? I read that you can either buy them on their own (and they seem bloody expensive), or they can come as part of a mixer.

Anyone help?

[Dark]

Look, Boudicca, when it comes to recording using a mic, I use a £10 one from Tesco's, plugged into the back of my computer, and I put a sieve in front of it to take away any breath noises when I'm singing.
Add a little reverb and you're there.

You don't need an expensive mic, just one that works

[boudicca]

Look, Boudicca, when it comes to recording using a mic, I use a £10 one from Tesco's, plugged into the back of my computer, and I put a sieve in front of it to take away any breath noises when I'm singing.
Add a little reverb and you're there.

You don't need an expensive mic, just one that works

What about a keyboard, Korin?

[aims]

Get a cheap-ass midi one and let the computer do the hard work of making it sound pretty

You do not need to pay silly money for 100 different dance phrases attached to each key

[Dark]

I use a MIDI keyboard, but I don't have any cables for that purpose.
Instead, I recorded one of each note, and put the notes into a sequencer. Cop-out, yes, but it makes sure they stick to the bpm and not a single sound aside from my voice is allowed to be out of time.

[nigel d]

like its been said , dont spend too much when you first start out.
you can actually programme the notes 1 by one using the sequencer and mouse, so no keyboard required, takes time though.Using loops reduces time.
keyboard contollers etc start at around £50 and go up to £000's.

[boudicca]

Righty-ho, I've established that I have 128 MB of RAM, and 19 GB hard drive (about 60% of which is free). This plus I run Win98, but will probably be upgrading to Win2000 soon.

What would you go out and get if you were me?

[Thea]

I would say "a life!" but... You scare me

[markfiend]

A new computer?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[ruffers]

Righty-ho, I've established that I have 128 MB of RAM, and 19 GB hard drive (about 60% of which is free). This plus I run Win98, but will probably be upgrading to Win2000 soon.

What would you go out and get if you were me?

I'm no help on the music stuff, but I would recommend you go and get some RAM. Quick easy and cheap way to improve performance. Go here www.crucial.com/uk to get the right stuff, I guarantee* it'll be cheaper than you think.

*unless you think it'll be really really really cheap

[boudicca]

I would say "a life!" but... You scare me

BLOODY OI!

[boudicca]

A new computer?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously, do you think I need to?

[timsinister]

I would say "a life!" but... You scare me

POT TO KETTLE, COME IN KETTLE!

[Izzy HaveMercy]

Righty-ho, I've established that I have 128 MB of RAM, and 19 GB hard drive (about 60% of which is free). This plus I run Win98, but will probably be upgrading to Win2000 soon.

What would you go out and get if you were me?

Now really... I will not laugh with or at you Only at yer computer.

If you want to make music this is far below sufficient. I fear you cannot even make a MIDI keyboard behave nicely with this setup.

The ver very least you need is 256 Mb RAM, normally 512 is used, to be on the safe side 1 GB. But forget about 1 gig with that computer.

To make some small tunes, 512 meg RAM and a HD of 80 gig will do. What PC is it? AMD? Intel? Pentium 3 or 4 or even less?

Now about MIDI. I'll try to explain.

MIDI means 'Musical Instrument Digital Interface'. It was developed somewhere in the 80s to let computers (and that includes synths, samplers, drum machines and PC/MAC) communicate with each other.

It is all based on zeroes and ones, the only language computers understand.

For example, a computer does not understand what velocity means. Some people even don't understand, so: it is an increase in volume or intensity of a sound, most of the time achieved by pressing a keyboard's keys harder (by hitting them harder or by applying 'aftertouch', eg pushing the keys further in after you initially played them).

When recording with a normal synth or keyboard via a LINE OUT, you can just record that into your computer. Now, if your synth or keys are supplied with a MIDI IN/OUT cable (or you use a MIDI-keyboard), also the VELOCITY-parameters are recorded, often visualized in your recording proggie with a curve upwards when more velocity is applied and vice versa. Now you can edit this velocity in your proggie. When you 'overdid' your velocity, you can bring the 'curve' down so you got less velocity. Otherwise, you just had to play it all over again... or use some tricky VST-filtering.

Just one example, of course

More onfo on midi can be found on Google. Just type in 'define:MIDI'.

IZ.

[Thea]

I would say "a life!" but... You scare me

POT TO KETTLE, COME IN KETTLE!

YOU GOT A WRONG NUMBER! THIS IS TEACUP!

[boudicca]

I'm reading one thing here and another thing there. According to computermusic.co.uk....

We recommend at least 128Mb of RAM, a fast hard disk with plenty of room (14-20Gb is good) and a Pentium III 500MHz processor (PC)

...but some folks here are saying I need more than this.
Anyone sort this out for me?

[hallucienate]

I'm reading one thing here and another thing there. According to computermusic.co.uk....

We recommend at least 128Mb of RAM, a fast hard disk with plenty of room (14-20Gb is good) and a Pentium III 500MHz processor (PC)

...but some folks here are saying I need more than this.
Anyone sort this out for me?

the key lies in at least. In computer terms that means it'll run, but it'll run sh1t.

[Dark]

I mean, I run my synth and drum machine and mixer softwares with 256MB but I'll be the first to admit I really need more RAM, cause many times the mixing software causes my computer to grind to a snail's pace.

Get more RAM, it's worth it.

[aims]

Up until recently, I did all of my music related activities on a 667mhz machine (this one in fact). It handled a drum machine, two inputs and recording software fine. As long as you don't run any unneccessary crap along side the essential programs, you'll be ok with the bare minimum. It might be a good idea to run adaware and spybot beforehand so that you know that there's nothing there that you didn't intend to put on.