Midi advice for a real beginner please

[Decrink]

My brother sent me the following note. Since I record mostly acoustic instruments and am not that familiar with MIDI, I thought I'd post it for you experts to see what you think. Here is the message I received:

My boss is a classically trained pianist. He won the South Carolina state championship about the time we were listening to Thick as a Brick.
Anyway, he just bought a synthesizer with MIDI.

The guy at the place where he bought the unit told him he should get a Macintosh for his programming and MIDI stuff. I advised him that there should be PC programs that can do the job.

This is what he wants to do


compose, edit and record original compositions
download (and pay for) existing pieces with the compositions broken down by channel so he can remix and delete certain parts like the piano track. Kinda like the music minus one but with a better selection.
input the synthesizer into the computer so he can add strings, horns etc. to his original works
is there PC software that I can reveal to him? Is there locations where he can get MIDI info without having to deal with those lousy Midi files?
Just assume he knows nothing and has to buy everything new to get going. He can edit out any info pertaining to stuff he already has.

[Hano]

Hi,
Any shop that sells synths will gladly help you with good advise. All that you have metioned there is possible, aswell on a Mac as on a PC. You can find old Atari computers dead cheap that have standard Midi interfaces on board.(in that same shop) If you want to connect a keyboard to a computer you'll need to purchase an extra outboard Midi interface. Not so swith the Atari's. Built in.
Say hello to your brother, will ya?
Hano

[regebro]

99.99% of all PC's today come with MIDI. He may have to by the game port to midi adapter though.

[tdukex]

You might want to read these for starters:

http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/tutorial.html

http://kingfisher.cms.shu.ac.uk/midi/main_p.htm

http://www.midifarm.com/

Yes, there are many PC programs that do MIDI and digital audio at the same time (Cakewalk Sonar, Emagic Logic, Steinberg Cubase). Most of these come in full-blown versions ($300 - $700) and lite versions (about $100).

[duck]

Heres some links.
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tutr/miditutr.htm
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tutr/whatmidi.htm

If you just want to get your feet wet first try PowerTracks. Its cheap and does midi and audio files. Its $29.00

Duck