Old PC and stuff....

Roel

Roel

That SMART guy.
In 2 months I quit my job, and I'm moving out to a place where I can't have extremely cheap internet... (Where I live now is a student residence, and I've got a cable connection for about 25$ a year. It's rather slow for cable, but deadcheap...)

So, I won't have the need to not see any pc in my spare time, so I might as well start using my pc to make music. (If I don't use it for the internet, I won't use it at all actually.) So I'll clean up the pc, do some cheap upgrades and start sequencing with it.

It's a rather old pc, a celeron 300Mhz. Running windows 98. I have a JV1010 that I can use a midi-interface using some special cable, I believe. Or would it be better to get a dedicated midi-interface? I only have to connect the JV1010 and a keyboard.

And what software to go with this?

Then I'd like to do some sample-stuff with it. This is more demanding as just sequencing I guess... I played with some friends in a program called Musicmaker 6.0 or something, and it was fun... So I wanna be able to do some of that too. However, I'd like to be able to sequence together with the loopingstuff.

I'll start off with my cheapo soundcard, and upgrade that lateron to something with decent convertors if I ever need it...

But for now, is my PC good enough, or is an upgrade really unavoidable? Do I need a midi-interface? And what softwares are available? I wanna do this on a budget at first, since I don't know if I'll ever get rid of my PC-phobia... But I wanna play around with it, get some experience with the kindof programs. Hit me...
 
that's a pretty old computer you have there. If the only software you will be running is audio then you might be able to. Most software have minimum system requirements you can check out. Pro Tools free , for example, won't work on your computer I believe. In order to later upgrade you may need to get a new computer. The audio interfaces also have minimum system requirements. Check out the web sites for both software and hardware and they should list what you will need to run their products.
 
If you want a cheap but powerful sequencer, check out N-track Studio at www.ntrack.com I only have a P2-450 but can run 16 24-bit audio tracks or over 30 16-bit audio tracks. It's very efficient on older PCs and unlike many high-priced packages doesn't require a gigahertz PC to run.

Only $40, Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, VST and DirectX plugin support, automation and tons of features. There is a manual and working demo on the website that will do everything except the final stereo mixdown.

You'll need a soundcard - a cheap $30 OEM SoundBlaster Live card can start you out plus act as a MIDI synth and virtual sampler with soundfonts.

To hook up your keyboard you can go audio only or you can get a cheap MIDI interface (a $10 MIDI cable will plug into the SBLive's gameport or if you have USB I reccomend the Midiman Midisport USB 2x2... mine works great.)

If you can read/write music notation I can also reccomend Melody Assistant a great notation package that will export to WAV, MP3 or MIDI. Only $18 at www.myriad-online.com

For doing drum tracks I use a cheap ($20) copy of ACID Music or for $50 you can get FruityLoops from www.fruityloops.com - Fruity can use any WAV as drumhits and you can get tons of free drumsound on the web - Tom Hicks put up a great acoustic set of real drums for FREE at www.samples.artistcollaboration.com

You'll also need an audio editor. Audacity is FREE at www.audactiy.sourceforge.net and runs on PC, Mac or Linux. Or you can check the list of others available at www.hitsquad.com When I bought ACID for $20, I luckily qualified for SoundForge5 for $99 and I'm very happy with it.

For listening to your mixes, run a cable from the Line-Out on your SBLive to a boombox or your home stereo... that's what your music is going to listened on anyway.... you can save the money of reference monitors when you get real serious about the hobby.

*Phew* OK, the above studio set me back $200-$300 and you can make a hell of a lot of music on it.
 
Thanks! I'll check the links!

Well, I forgot to mention, I have a small studio already, based on a VS1880. Some mics, a voice channel and monitors...

So the recording part is covered... But I need to be able to sync the 2 of them... And I'd rather sync the pc with the VS1880 as vice versa. So VS has control...

I have a cheap soundcard in here.... Which will do about fine for now I guess. N-tracks sounds cool. Gonna give it a try once I cleaned up this puter.

I can read notes. Doesn't Ntracks have some kind of notation to use while sequencing? I might need some notation software soon, but don't have the need for it now....

I like the fruityloops thingy... Well, I think I do... Free drum loops and drum sounds are very much to my likings.

I am pretty serious about my hobby btw. Just never used the pc because I sit behind it all day... And because I need portability. But not for sequencing. And without sequencer it's kinda hard to make a complete arrangement yerself... I want to try stuff without depending on friends for sequencing and sampling....
 
School?....................you mean that's not really you in that Avatar?





Whoa! you're only 3 years older than me, pretty damn smart!
 
Tim, I tried the links (internet at work is back up to normal speed). The links for the drumsamples of Tom Hicks and for Audacity aren't working here? Could be the temporary firewall too though.

Fruityloops is a Belgian program. hehe. I didn't know that. So you guys use this to produce your drumtracks, and then you import them in n-track to sequence and record tracks with it? Am I right here?
Since Fruityloops can output wav files, I can write them to CD, and then digitally load them into my VS. (or digitally copy the tracks using my CDplayers optical out...) This would already be a big step. With an audioeditor, I'd have a sampler and sequencer right there.

Do you know if I can synchronize Fruityloops on incoming midiclocks? That would be kinda handy. Then I'd only need a cheap soundcard with a digital output to get me going. Hmmm... A digital input and I could push tracks back and forward with n-tracks on the PC and the VS everywhere else. Me starting to like this.

And where did you get Acid that cheap? Used or something?
 
Oh, by the way Me myself and him, do I look that old?? It is me in the avatar. Normally I don't trim my facial hair like that, might look older like that. And I'll still end up in a class with kiddies 8 year younger than I am... hehe...
 
Maybe it's a combination of the shades and the size of the picture, I can see now that you could be alot younger than at first glance at the pic.
 
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