this is different

[shem]

I was using audio software "samplitude" basic and was pretty happy recording digital audio however it does not support MIDI. So I wanted to get on the MIDI bandwagon and purchased Pro Audio 9 dlx. It is very different, when i recorded in samp. i could go directly to the mixer screen , see all the levels pumping and adjust on the fly to match each level l.e.d. to each other, it appears though that Pro audio only shows levels when you are checking and recording but not individually on the playback, is this true? I can see the master levels but not each track on playback. I miss having that option, does anyone understand my babble?

[adam]

Not sure about cakewalk pro audio, but I think it is true. On the other hand, sonar has exactly what you are talkign about and most reviews, users, etc. mention this is one of the greatest improvements over cakewalk pro audio.

[Tekker]

Yeah it's true unfotunately. But hey, you can always go through and solo each instrument and adjust the levels (through the master levels) that way.

But I guess that just makes have to use your "ears", instead of relying on the meters.

-tkr

[shem]

Hey Tekker, Ive wondered if you guys were sick of my questions yet, guess not! I am just so used to seeing all the levels at the same time, its just going to have to grow on me, I dont think I should get the sonar too, unless you know of a way i can ditch the pro audio 9 w/o killin my wallet? Also I was wondering , If your just working with audio instead of midi, can you still quantize the beat for example with a bass guitar? The manual just doesnt seem to clear, I have textbooks in college easier( and smaller ) than this manual! Thanks for your answers.

[Tekker]

Nahh, you've only got 27 posts, so how could we be sick of you yet?

But no, I don't "think" you can quantize audio, but I maybe wrong though.

And if it doesn't say it in that whoppin' manual then it must not do it, because that manual has to have EVERY-SINGLE-THING that program does in there.

-tkr

[DavidK]

shem, the lack of playback meters in Pro 9 drives me nuts, so you arent alone, my friend. I am getting pretty good with PA9, but I will never understand why they didnt include meters.

[shem]

David, do you know if "audio" waves can be quantized in PA 9? Since you use it is there any tricks you could tell me , things that make it easier for you to record audio and mixdown? Also do you know how it is that I could record say dry vocals and somehow loop an outside fx hardware piece to it and adjust in cakewalk how much fx are added? I am sure glad that there are people like you to talk to in here, it can get frusterating figuring things out on your own!

[DavidK]

Shem, nope, you cant quantize audio in Cake9.

My biggest tip for Pro9? Log on and look for AlChuck (and others of course)! Lots of nice folks around here.

I agree with Tekker, that manual has it all; too bad it is no fun to read!! It is currently my bathroom read, and my smoke-break read, because there is no way I can sit down and get through it like a book. When you consider the price of PA9, thats one hell of a program for the money.

I dont know how to do the effects loop thing either, so I would like to know too. What I do is either use plug-ins, or record audio "wet" with my noisy quadraverb, but I use it sparingly and mainly on filler stuff. Best wishes, David

[Tekker]

If you have more than one output on your soundcard you could do it (digital outputs would be best, but only if your effects unit has digital inputs)....say for ex. your using outputs 1 & 2 for your monitors, you could then choose output 3 and send it to your effects unit then bring back and record it to a different track and have it's output going to your monitors on output 1 & 2. And If you recorded a completely wet signal coming back from the effects unit you could then control the amount by adjusting the original "dry" track and the other "wet" track, although you will probably have to slide the wet track ahead just a little to match up with the dry track as it will probably be a little bit behind it (from going out to the effects unit then coming back in).

-tkr

[shem]

I was just curious, tekker, how long did it take for you to have so much freakin knowledge on recording!?!?! Your making me jealous

[shem]

Somethin else, I am getting very discouraged trying to learn a new program like Cakewalk pa 9, i am used to using samp basic and have wondered if i shouldnt just forget about midi and learning c.w. for now. Do you have any advice and or encouragement for me? Please

[Tekker]

I was just curious, tekker, how long did it take for you to have so much freakin knowledge on recording!?!?! Your making me jealous

*blush*

I started recording about a little under a year and a half ago (I made a CD of our band for my senior project), and since then I've gotten a few recording books and magazines, and your sittin on top of one of the best sources right here. Before I came here most of what I read in my books (as many times as I read those things) was just complete garbledegook (I still had no idea what a compressor was) but now I can go back and read them and actually understand most of what their talking about, (which is a really cool feeling). I pretty much spent all of this last year reading as much as I could on here and other web sites, and because I just graduated high school last year (and decided to take a year off before I start college) and I don't have a real job yet, (other than my paper route ) so needless to say I have had a lot of time to learn.

Somethin else, I am getting very discouraged trying to learn a new program like Cakewalk pa 9, i am used to using samp basic and have wondered if i shouldnt just forget about midi and learning c.w. for now. Do you have any advice and or encouragement for me? Please

I don't use MIDI at all and I still thing that PA 9 is well worth the time it takes to learn it (but I've never used Samp Basic). I know it's hard to learn and that manual is pretty intimidating, but you'll be able learn alot more from the more complex programs and that will help you understand the other aspects of recording as well. The saying no pain no gain, also applies to recording (especially if you drop that manual on your foot ).

BTW, people like Harvey, Bruce, Ed and Skojo......now those are the people to be jealous of.

Good luck on your Cakewalk Quest.

-tkr

[shem]

Thanks tkr, what kind of music do you play/record?? I was just curious because I like electronic alot. It seems like cakewalk is almost all about MIDI and I wonder if I should just do like you and just use it for Audio? It sure would be nice to record audio with all those tracks! Thanks for the advice, keep those papers going, and try not to miss the porch next time!

[Tekker]

Thanks tkr, what kind of music do you play/record??

I play/record Christian rock; I play drums, guitar, can sorta play bass and I'm learning keyboards, but don't sing (absolutely refuse to sing )and I unfortunately am not in a band anymore (artistic differences between me and the singer/guitar player) so I'm not recording any bands unfortunately. So untill I get a band going it's pretty much being used as a scratch pad for writing music and stuff (got lotsa music, but no lyrics and no one to sing the lyrics). But I'm doing some stuff for a lady at my church who has written several songs and one of the guys here (Tubedude) wants me to send him some stuff to mix, so I'm gonna try to get someone from my youth group to sing for it. And there aren't really alot of other bands around here any more, they all pretty much broke up (at least the ones I've heard of anyway), but hopefully I can get some more stuff going here because I think I'm starting to like all this recording stuff just as much as actually making the music.

I was just curious because I like electronic alot. It seems like cakewalk is almost all about MIDI and I wonder if I should just do like you and just use it for Audio? It sure would be nice to record audio with all those tracks!

If you like electronic music, then why would you want to record just audio??
But if that's what you want to do then you can do that, because for my friend that I'm doing the keyboard recording for, I just run out of the audio (speaker) outs on the keyboard and record it as audio and it sounds great. So you can record you keyboards and do your "electronic music" without having to learn all that confusing MIDI yet, and as you gain more knowledge in recording you can then try to tackle it (if you want to).

Thanks for the advice, keep those papers going, and try not to miss the porch next time!

Ooops sorry, was that your house?.....and don't worry about it, I'll pay for the windows.

-tkr

[r0cker]

but u will need to cut it up to seperate notes. u can then put swing on or whatever. hope this helps

[shem]

Rocker, youve done that? So If I have a manual bass part played as audio and want to quantize it I can? What do you mean every note? That seems like it would take a long time to cut every note into little segments...

[Tekker]

Rocker, youve done that?

I just tried it and yep, it does work. That's pretty cool, I never really tried to quantize audio like that, I always just kinda assumed it was only for MIDI (but then again, I've never had to worry about getting off beat anyway ).

So If I have a manual bass part played as audio and want to quantize it I can?

Yep, sure can.

What do you mean every note? That seems like it would take a long time to cut every note into little segments...

Yeah, pretty much. I aways just slid it over by hand if something was off anyways, and that takes quiet a while too. But that's the beauty of doing all this at home, we have all the time in the world.

One more thing, you have to make sure that when you record your audio part you are playing along with the click track in cakewalk. Because if the tempo of your song doesn't match up with the tempo your quantizing too then its gonna mess your song up pretty good.

Thanx for the heads-up rocker.

-tkr

[shem]

Hey tkr, what city do you live in? Hey look, im a Junior!!!!!! Bow down all newbies!!! (kidding)

[Tekker]

I'm just below you in southern Oregon, what instruments do you play (other than keyboards that is )?

-tkr

[shem]

I love Oregon, especially the coast line! Just like you I play drums, guitar, a little bass , piano and TRY to sing . I have a song you could hear if you want at...www.garageband.com/artist/shem I like to put stuff together, I just wish i had a band sometimes

[Tekker]

I really liked the electronic song, very cool! A little too much reverb on the vocal of the non-electronic song (my computer just locked up so I don't have you page up any more, but you know the song I'm talking about), the vocals get way washed out and it's hard to understand the words.
Did you record them in Samplitude Basic, cause the recording sounded really clean.
How long have you been playing for?

I've been playing guitar for 4 years & 8 months and drums 1 month less, and kinda dinked around on friends basses and pluck my acoustic and pretend it's a bass. And the lady that I'm doing the recording for at my church started giving me keyboard lessons a few months ago, (and I'm giving her son drum lessons, so it works out great) but I've been bad and haven't really been practicing (can't seem to tear myself away from this site ). And I don't even attempt to sing as I mentioned before, but I can whistle pretty good.

As soon as I can find someone to sing, I'll try to get a song posted up somewhere and rock music just doesn't sound right without vocals.

-tkr


Ps. I've heard that MP3.com takes a while to get a song put up on their site, how fast is garageband.com? Or if you know of any other good (fast) sites that would be great too....for when I do finally get a song done.

[shem]

Ive been playin guitar for about 10 years, drums about the same and bass not that long, (not that great) I too have just picked up keyboards this year but feel real at ease playing them, I like it. Thanks for listening, the reason theres so much fx/verb on the pop song is because I SUCK at singing and had to cover mistakes as much as possible! I just did that song for my wife, but hardly ever sing. Garageband took a little while because you have to listen to about 20 songs of others before they let you post one up. I am looking for some where else though to put them up, and a few others

[Tekker]

Don't be ashamed of your "bad" voice, get it out from behind all that wishy-washy reverb, and say to the world HEY I HAVE A BAD VOICE AND I DON'T CARE!!! AND I'M NOT GONNA HIDE BEHIND A WALL OF REVERB!!! (and personally I think that adding a ton of reverb acually sounds worse, so give it a try without it)

But seriously, I really liked your playing alot, and you were serious about "sorta playing the bass"?!? I thought that was a joke when I heard the song, like "yeah I sorta play bass" *wink* *wink*. It was really very good.

I can tell that you feel "at home" on the keyboards and for just starting this year that's pretty dang good. I pretty much did that same thing with the drums and guitar, but I just can't really seem to get that "connection", that "be one with your instrument" sorta thing when playing the keyboards like I did when I first started drums and guitar, but I'm sure it will come as I get better at it......I gotta remember to practice though.

Why are you wanting to change off of garageband, if you're already on there? Do you have to listen to 20 songs for each song you put up?

-tkr

[shem]

Im telling my secrets here... I didnt play that bass on the pop song, that was generated But the tech song i did. Im not wanting to get off of garageband just maybe find another "easier" site to post because yes, you do have to listen to 20 songs for every ONE that you can up load! and you have to write a 50 word review for each one, (that takes awhile!) Oh well they need the feedback just like I do. I will try to sing it again without reverb, thanks for the advice! Practice, practice, practice and if that s not enough? PRACTICE some more... You got to get something here so i can hear what you play.

[Tekker]

WOW, sure coulda fooled me on that bass part, usually synth bass parts sound mechanical and don't groove like that one did, good programming.

As soon as you find a good MP3 site, let me know cause I wanna get something up too....but then there's still that issue about the singer. Maybe I'll just get the music down and when I find someone to sing I'll add vocals later......or if worse comes to worse I could always have my sister sing. But seriously she is good, but I just like guy singers better for rock, ya know what I mean?

Do you have any songs recorded where you play the (non-electronic ) drums?

-tkr

Ps. Until you do get a new site, why don't you just copy and paste "it was good" over and over again for your 50 word reviews?