would like to know more about midi and virtual instruments

A

algup

New member
hi. im an old guy,played in rocknroll bands in the 70s and 80s and i am fascinated by the concept of midi and virtual instruments. I would love to be able to record my original songs using my computer so i have to purchase some decent gear to do that.
i am a bit of a technodil so im going to need some good advice regarding what to buy and how to use it to get started,so if anyone can give me advice on stuff like hardware, software, good books and tutorials etc i would be grateful,i would like to have a setup that is easy to use, not too expensive and able to generate good quality sound. thanks.
 
How much is "Not too expensive"?

You could be a multi-millionare and meaning £10,000 as being non-expensive :P

The reason I'm asking is because you can get good stuff cheap but you can get amazing stuff if you're wanting to spend a bit more eventually
 
Hi Paddy, I am hoping that $1000 Australian,would get me going.I have sm58 mic,bass,acoustc guitar and a laptop.
 
Reaper is $40US after 30-day free trial.

As far as soft synths go there are many many options available for just about any instrument you can imagine.

Youtube has lots of tutorials about using virtual drums and other instruments. That would be a good place to start. EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, Dimension Pro, Ableton Live and many others allow you to record or use drag-and-drop MIDI files to create grooves and backing instrument tracks.

If you have any keyboard chops a MIDI controller keyboard is handy. Akai and MAudio both have low-priced controllers that don't have any onboard sounds themselves but can provide tracking functions and have programmable buttons/switches/digital encoders that can transmit MIDI CC's to your software.

I'm mainly a guitar player too but always wanted to play keys. I started with a kinda low-end sample synth (Roland JV1010) but eventually ditched that in favor of software synths because they sound better. There's a bit of a learning curve with all of this software and sometimes playback can be a little bit glitchy so it takes a bit of work to make sure everything is running tip top.
 
 
c7sus said:
Reaper is $40US after 30-day free trial.

As far as soft synths go there are many many options available for just about any instrument you can imagine.

Youtube has lots of tutorials about using virtual drums and other instruments. That would be a good place to start. EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, Dimension Pro, Ableton Live and many others allow you to record or use drag-and-drop MIDI files to create grooves and backing instrument tracks.

If you have any keyboard chops a MIDI controller keyboard is handy. Akai and MAudio both have low-priced controllers that don't have any onboard sounds themselves but can provide tracking functions and have programmable buttons/switches/digital encoders that can transmit MIDI CC's to your software.

I'm mainly a guitar player too but always wanted to play keys. I started with a kinda low-end sample synth (Roland JV1010) but eventually ditched that in favor of software synths because they sound better. There's a bit of a learning curve with all of this software and sometimes playback can be a little bit glitchy so it takes a bit of work to make sure everything is running tip top.
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If I was just starting out, this is the kind of advice I'd be taking note of.
 
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