Newbie with questions...

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Omega21

New member
Hopefully this will be easy to explain.

I currently have a Mackie MDR 24/96, a 24 channel 8 buss (which I will replace with a Soundcraft when there's some free $$$ available) and a custom built PC DAW with a Terratec 24/96 card in it. I feel I've got a pretty good hold on the audio end of life from DJ'ing for 8 years, and doing live sound for 7 on top of it. My gear although not 100% high end stuff is quiet, dynamic & does what I need it to do...almost.

The thing I don't know anything about honestly is midi. What I want to do is to be able to do is use my PC to create drum/bass/synth/strings tracks...and I'm not talking loops with Acid either. Acid is cool, but pitch shifting loops has it's limitations. I'm really looking to have individual note for note control over each individual instrument.

I don't think my wants are out of reach, but I could really use a quick primer in sequencers, samplers, synthesizers and what does what. Can a PC based sequencer control a PC based sampler or softsynth? Also, how much of the above is a good idea to run on the PC, and what should honestly be outboard gear?

Thanks in advance
Todd
 
Sequencers record the notes as midi data.

Synths and samplers make the noise.

Everything can be done in software or hardware. Personally I prefer software sequencers and hardware synths/samplers.
 
Omega21,

What you want is acceptable. Many nowdays PC sequencers included softsynth bundled with them. Take SONAR from cakewalk as example which includes DXi instruments or Cubase with their VSTi technology which serves as "all in one" package sequencer and softsynth. You can go to their site to download demos available first. As for me, I used SONAR for long time, and I love it so much.

;)
Jaymz
 
I think I've got a direction from a whole bunch of reading & listening last night....I've listened to the Triton & Motif strings in each companies sample .mp3's & don't care for them very much. It's really apparent that they're a synthesizer through my system. I did a little listening to the sample .mp3's from Garritan & really like the way they sound...which points me at using a sampler. I also did a bunch of listening to drum sample/loop CD samples & really like what I found there as well.

I've got 3 different Soyo Dragon plus mobo's laying around & probably enough stuff to build a relatively healthy PC to run something like Gigastudio on. Might need some ram and a case, but other than that, I've already got it. I'd probably put the new Sonar producer edition on my DAW (since I was thinking of buying it just for the audio anyway), then midi/usb it to another Giga-only PC. Drop a KVM switch in for the monitor, mouse & keyboard so there's no $$ out for those. From there I'd just find an old keyboard that has full midi implementation & use it for a controller..

Does this sound like it would fly? Because if it would, I'd be out an almost equal amount of money compared to buying a Triton, but be way up on the scale when it comes to sound quality. Am I missing something important that I should be paying attention to?

I appreciate the help.
Todd
 
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