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| The wabbit has the right attitude - no free cds, no free gigs. He's obviously a professsional at heart. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Bah :mad: .....promoters always get a piece of the gig :p |
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Location: NJ | ". . Cliff, when you get ready to lay down that first song, do one that you know well, is easy to play, and that you think you really sound good on. . . "
Thanks, Stephen.
I've recorded a BUNCH of stuff before.
But it was all done on my Tascam 4-channel cassette recorder. The results of which were STACKS of cassettes with a single song on each recorded at double speed in 4-tracks . . . .
Previously, I could mix it down to another cassete recorder to use for demos, but who the f@ck uses cassetes anymore???
Never had the ability to mix it down to a digital medium before . . . . till now.
The Tascam will now be relegated to being a 4-channel mixer.
Got the new new PC home Friday nite, but even with a 3-day weekend, didn't have a lot of time to "play" with it (gutting Jeanette's bathroom Sat/Sun, cookout to attend Sun, and I played music at a charity softball game Mon).
I DID get to install Cubase, and the little I've been able to tinker with looks KILLAH!!!!
(I shoulda' done this a LONG time ago . . . ) |
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Location: closely held secret | Same for me, Cliff - except mine was a Fostex. Having a pc with cubase, sonar or even powertracks, a decent mic and a mixer is a whole different world. The things you can do with editing, mixing, effects... there's really no comparison.
T28, check your PM's. |
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Location: Converse, Texas | Still think you should do Squeezebox, Cliff... |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | Me too! Should be a fun little 3 chord song for you to practice on. Besides, You do a great version of it. |
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Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by Bluebird:
A couple of questions:
What is "Atmosphere" and "Band in a Box"?
Also, I've noticed that every other recording posted here has a higher playback level than my songs as well as a nice airy sparkle that mine is missing. If I try to mix the levels any higher, they distort.
I've heard some negative things about using the Creative Audigy cards for recording. Could this be the problem or could it be some limitation of Magix Studio 7?
Wayne I've got a few minutes before going to my last inventory of the year (yay), so I'll see if I can hit these.
Atmosphere is a synth module, or 'vst' (virtual instrument - roland term), or 'dxi' (direct x instrument - cakewalk). It has a huge (3 gig) library of sounds which can be used as is or recombined into different sounds. Everything from pads to strings to leads to very interesting evolving sounds. What plays is controlled by MIDI notes and instructions. If you don't know about MIDI this should help.
Band in a Box is a MIDI-based program which has hundreds of pre-programmed song patterns, country, rock, blues, classical, bluegrass, jazz, etc... essentially you pick a style and a bpm, type in your chords(!), set up any repeats and codas, tell it how many times to play through and hit start. You can use the instruments set for that particular style - usually guitar, piano, drums, bass, maybe some strings - or select different ones from the choices in the GM set. You can also add an audio track (vocals, or whatever). I use it to set up backing tracks for demos. Again, as with all synths, some knowledge of MIDI is helpful. Quite an amazing program for setting up demos, especially. And at a very reasonable price.
As far as your sound is concerned, the Audigy is probably not the entire problem. Just remember Creative stuff is primarily designed for playback. You won't get the higher quality mic pre's you will find in an M-audio, Terratec, Presonus, MOTU, etc.
Still, you should be able to get workable tracks from it. Record your tracks peaking at about -.5db. If you have access to a hardware compressor/limiter, use one. Software compression has it's place in mastering, but if your initial tracks are too hot or too soft, correcting it with software will only introduce more noise into your mix.
'Sparkle' is mostly the judicious use of eq. Use an equalizer to carve out sonic space for each instrument. Here and here are some good tutorials on eq.
Above all, the better quality sound going into your computer will provide you with the best material to work with. The old adage 'fix it in the mix' is a bunch of llama poo. Use of a good mixer with quiet mic pre's and a quality sound card will show in the final product.
All in the interest of better sounding home-produced music!
Hope this helps. :D
Ok, I'm off to count plumbing fittings.... bbl |
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Location: SoCal | Does anybody here have the instructions sheets for Band In A Box? |
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Location: NJ | Yeah . .
. . . "DON'T open the Box". |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | Moody. Should be easy enough.
Try this'
Take Program box in both hands
shake box hard enough to wake up the sleeping musicians inside.
once they are awake, tell them what key your song is in, then tell them to get their butts in gear and play the damn song already. ;)
oh, I'm sorry, thats not what you wanted at all is it? :rolleyes: |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | Ok moody actually if you try this link, it'll take you to a tutorial. Hopefully it'll tell you just what you need to know.
try this
http://aitt.acadiau.ca/tutorials/Music/bandinbox/ |
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Location: closely held secret | Moody, did you get my email? |
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Location: SoCal | Yup and between the two of you, I've got it covered. Thanks very much. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Paul, got the Jerry Reed lick!
Thanks a bunch....gotta go and have a go at it now! |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Waskel, thanks for taking the time to explain a few things...it is very helpful. I will look at getting a different sound card as well as some of the other things you have mentioned.
Wayne |
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Location: closely held secret | You're welcome, Wayne!
Now remember, you can have more than one sound card in your system. You could get a decent card for input and leave your Audigy in for playback.
If you also have an onboard sound proc I would recommend disabling it to free up the interrupt.
Happy shopping. |
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Location: NJ | Any suggestions on a BASIC (ie: "inexpensive") mixer to use for recording?
I got my system to "work" using my old Tascam 4-channel cassette as an impromptu "mixer", but it won't allow me to record subsequent tracks without monitoring the intial track in the headphones (at least not without re-recording the initial track along WITH the subsequent track). It's designed to BE a recorder, not work in conjunction WITH a recorder . . .
I was considering one of those small Behringer 4-track mixers in MF.
Any recomendations?? |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I have the Berh-Euro track UB1002 and have no complaints what-so-ever. It has held up really well and sounds as good as other much "higher end" mixers i've run across. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | I have a Yamaha MG10/2. Great little mixer that you can find used for around $50-75 or new for around $100. |
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Location: closely held secret | Cliff, make sure you get one with an alt 3/4 out. Here\'s a forum discussion on why and how to set them up. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Great link.....I think I learned something new. |
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Location: closely held secret | I read Studio Central almost every day. Some of the posters are pro engineers and some are amateurs that produce their own stuff. You can gain a lot of insight into home recording techniques there.
Good stuff. |
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| Bongo Boy
With your great IT skills how come you haven't solved the problem of posting Angie? I wanna hear a U in action. Can you play it properly or just the Paul Simon version? |
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| I could have phrased that better.
Is it the original Davy Graham version? |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | I thought he was talking the Stones version! |
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GIVE A LISTEN .....Home Recordings
