[ddots-l] Re: A SUPER BEGINNER Question
- From: "Dan Rugman" <danrugman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 09:48:53 -0000
Hi Dave,
Don't worry about being a beginner, everyone has to be at least once! I
think one of the best things you can do is read through the tutorials that
come with CT, especially the ones about MIDI and hardware. In the mean time
here's a few facts that might hel to clear things up.
As Kevin said, audio and MIDI are two very different things. Audio data
represents the actual sounds that come out of speakers or that are recorded
by mics or generated by keyboards. MIDI is a code that different keyboards,
modules or software synthesisers use to comunicate with each other but it
isn't sound.
EG: you have a MIDI keyboard connected to a MIDI module which is then
connected to an amp which is connected to a speaker. When you press a key
on the keyboard it generates two pieces of data, a note on signal and a
pitch signal. These are two numbers, the first being a time code in
measures, beats and ticks, and the second being a number between 0 and 127
(60 is middle C). These are sent to the module which immediately generates
an audio signal at the pitch you asked for. This sound is sent on to the
amp which boostes it and sends it on to the speaker which actually makes the
noise. When you release the key, a note off signal is sent to the module
telling it to stop generating the audio signal. The signal between the
keyboard and module is MIDI, where as the signal between the module and amp
is an audio signal.
Where this gets confusing is with devices that have both MIDI and audio
capabilities. The keyboard you have is obviously one of those. The thing
to do is think of it as two separate bits of kit, one for audio and one for
MIDI. When you play the keyboard, MIDI events (note on/off, pithc, etc) are
sent to the synthesiser components, which generate the sounds. The clever
bit is that you can control the synthesiser components from another MIDI
device. Here's how your system could work.
You connect the MIDI components of the keyboard to the computer with the USB
cable. You might need to install drivers for it depending on what keyboard
you have. You then connect the audio out on your keyboard to the audio in
on the soundcard and the audio out on your soundcard to an amp or monitors.
Why bother I hear you ask! The point is that you can record the MIDI
signals on a MIDI track in Sonar and then edit the events. This means that
you can correct mistakes, quantise rhythms and do any number of other things
to effect the way that the synthesiser will play the music. Every time you
hit play in Sonar, the MIDI data will be sent to your keyboard, which will
generate the sounds as if you were playing it directly. When your happy
with the changes you made, you can play the song again and record the audio
coming out of the keyboard in Sonar on a different (audio) track. After
this, you can manipulate the audio with built in software effects
processors. When all this is done you can export the audio as a wave file
and burn it on to CD.
The exact way you choose to have your system set up will depend on what kind
of mixer and soundcard you have. The important thing to get across is that
the audio and MIDI editing facilities of Sonar mean that you can do things
that you could never do with the hardware alone. It may feel like a bit of
an up hill struggle at first but its well worth it in the end.
Hope this helps,
Dan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Wilkinson" <davewilkinson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 2:56 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: A SUPER BEGINNER Question
Many thanks! So now here's round 2.
What is the advantage of using my keyboard as a MIDI device? I could go
through a mixer and use it as as just an audio input couldn't I?
Also, I know I'll have to choose the keyboard as a MIDI out, but before
it's installed, why does nothing show up for the MIDI out? I have an
Echo Indigo sound card. Shouldn't that be able to be used as a MIDI
output device?
! I used to do editing with tape in college, but that was YEARS ago!
I've REALLY wanted to get back into all this, but have just had one hell
of a block!
Thanks again.
Dave
Again, thank you for your patience. I've had some of this stuff FOREVER
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