ProAudio9-AudioVSMIDI

[thebear]

Hello!! I am extremely new to Digital Recording. I just loaded Pro9 and I have been playing with the software and doing the tutorials. I see that MIDI music is "written" and can be played or "seen" on the guitar fretboard. I recorded audio, my acoustic with a mic but can't "see" the music or notes on the fretboard, is this a MIDI only type of thing? Is there a "device" or software that will allow me to convert the audio recording so that Pro9 will "see" it. I mainly play guitar, but I am looking into getting a keyboard to be able to make my own drum loops, is this a good way to go? Also last question, but will probably be answered in the first question, Can you take a "lick" from a CD and "convert" it so that Pro9 can play it on the fretboard?? Thanx in advance for the help. Later

[AlChuck]

Yeah, it's basically a MIDI only kind of thing. Actually MIDI is a way of representing information about music similar to standard notation -- note values, durations, volume, etc. Digital audio is just a recording of sound, like LPs and cassettes. In order to do what your are suggesting some software would have to be sophisticated enough to be able to discern the individual notes, which as you can imagine is pretty hard, especially when they are all piled together like on a stereo recording of a group, and then there's the ambience -- reverb, delay, all that -- not to mention the articulation of the players -- slurring and blurring tones from one to the other...

You can find software that wil claim to do a pretty good job of deducing MIDI information from a monophonic, very-cleanly-played single line... but "pretty good" means most people find it frustratingly inaccurate. Another alternative is a guitar synth -- a special pickup senses the note information as it happens in realtime and tries to convert it to MIDI data. Again, if you play very cleanly and clearly, this works pretty good, even useably good.

And the fretboard thing -- even if you did manage to accurately convert audio data from a recording of a guitar lick to MIDI data, changing it to a fretboard display is another problem -- there are so many alternative ways to play the same set of notes on the neck. That window is probably more useful for entering notes than for trying to learn how to play something.

[thebear]

Thanx alchuck.....unfortunately I had a feeling that that was the issue. Thanx for the input though. I am sure that I will be back with yet more mind boggling nuisance questions!!!!!!! Too bad though, that fretboard action is totaly cool.....if only....... I will see you in the funny papers!!!!!!!!!! Thanx, again!!!

[NationalSandwic]

Hi

You want to buy a keyboard to generate drum loops? Why not buy a drum machine (I have NO idea which ones are good)? That is what they are meant for!
Playing drums thru a kb is MUCH more difficult that it may sound. And even the slightest mistake can cause a problem... when CW interprets the stuff and generates a percussion line w. notation, these baby tiny mistakes can make the notation REALLY confusing (cause now CW has to make musical sense out of a small mistake and try to represent it, 'explaining' when and why this off-beat strike comes in.) You can quantise it, but that doesn't always help. I tend to program my drum stuff straight into CW as drum notation. You do, of course, have to understand the notation, but it isn't THAT difficult and I am sure that there are web sites with lists etc.

Maybe I am making too big a scene... but hey, just a thouht or two.

What I find the CW fretboard useful for is for generating TAB. I put down what I am playing on guitar onto the board (this isn't difficult, cos you are just transferring notes directly from what you do on your real guit, to a 'virtual guitar'. you can then play it back (ok. the guit sound modules aren't good, but you can at least hear it!) to check that you got the right tempo, notes etc. I give the tab out to band members so they can learn the songs. MUCH easier and more accurate and less time consuming than telling them what to play, or writing it down with a pen!
lazy huh?

cheers
National Sandwich

[AlChuck]

Most drum machines are not that great for "playing" the drum parts, maybe only slightly better than a keyboard, which is a better overall MIDI controller anyway.

If you have the bucks the best thing is to get a drumKat or an Octapad or something that's easier to play... best would probably be a set of those electronic traps like Roland and Yamaha and now Alesis make.

[bball jones]

For the money they want for those danged e-drums, you're better off gettin a real kit . . .if I repeat this often enough - maybe that's what I'll do.

[iHateRegisteringAtSites]

Ive only had CW9 for a short while, could somone tell me where to find this feature?

[iHateRegisteringAtSites]

no text

[bball jones]

I'd be a bitch, if I could finger those chords . . .