Home Studio 2002 and the Virtual Sound Canvas

R

Randy Yell

New member
Hey everyone,before I get to my question,please keep in mind that I'm a REAL MIDIOT!!Okay,that said,here is my problem.

A lady and I are making a cd of children's songs for our Grandchildren(yup,I'm an old fart).I would like to use some of the special effects sounds in the Roland VSC to add to the songs and I'm not sure how.I do have a midi keyboard to use but I am unsure of the whole process.I would guess that you record midi with the keyboard and then play the the sounds back through the VSC.Not sure though so any and all help will be very much appreciated.If you need any additional information let me know.I'm pretty new to computers in general and I have no experience with midi at all,so please be gentile!!
 
Welcome, fellow "Old Fart":D

I am assuming you mean the vsc synth freebie that ships with Sonar?. You will need Win 2000 or XP with WDM drivers otherwise the latency issue will make it virtually unplayable. Here is the VSC Help detail:



To Play the VSC in Real Time .

Make sure your MIDI controller is plugged into your MIDI interface and turned on.
Insert a new MIDI track.
In the track's Out field, choose the VSC, and also choose a MIDI channel and patch.
Make sure that the Audio Engine button in the Transport toolbar is depressed.
Play your controller--you should hear the patch that you selected for the new MIDI track.
You can move the Now time to the marker that's called Solo, and play along with the project. If you want, you can arm the new track and record your solo.


I guess you know how to select the midi track Channel and patch? Right click on the midi track number, select "Track Properties" and this opens the track dialogue box contaning the "Channel" and "Patch filelds".

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Paul.I don't need to play the sounds in real time,I just need to ad effects sounds like rain falling to some childrens songs.Not sure how to go about it.I could play thr sounds and record them on my VSR and then record them into Home Studio.I'm not sure,I am a major midiot.I am using wdm drivers.Thanks,man.
 
Sorry, can't help you there. Have you tried soundfonts? There might be some good rainfall sounds on the web.

Best of luck!
 
Thanks Paul.I guess I'll just record the sounds onto my VSR and then back to the computer.It'll work but I know there must be an easier way.
 
Not sure about Home Studio... but here's how you would do it in Sonar (from the Help file)

Converting Your DXi Tracks to Audio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once your project sounds the way you want it to, it's extremely easy to convert your DXi MIDI tracks to either new audio tracks, or Wave, MP3, or other exported files.

To Convert Your DXi Tracks to New Audio Tracks
Mute all tracks that you don't want to convert; make sure you don't mute the audio track that the DXi is patched into, or the MIDI track(s) that you are using as a source.
Use the Edit-Bounce to Track(s) command.
The Bounce to Track(s) dialog box appears.
Choose a destination track and a format.
In the Mix Enables field, make sure all choices are selected.
Click OK.
SONAR creates a new audio track from the MIDI tracks you selected. Don't forget to mute your DXi tracks so you won't hear them and the new audio track(s) at the same time.

To Export Your DXi Tracks as Wave, MP3, or Other Type Files
Mute all tracks that you don't want to export; make sure you don't mute the audio track that the DXi is patched into, or the MIDI track(s) that you are using as a source.
Use the File-Export Audio command.
The Export Audio dialog box appears.
In the Look in field, choose the location where you want the new, exported file to be.
Type a file name in the File name field.
Choose the type of file, the format, and the bit depth of the new file you're creating--for MP3 use 16 bits.
In the Mix Enables field, make sure all choices are selected.
Click OK.
SONAR creates a new audio file of the type you specified. Find the file in the folder you specified, and double-click it to listen to it.
 
livesynthpro

Randy Yell said:
Thanks Paul.I guess I'll just record the sounds onto my VSR and then back to the computer.It'll work but I know there must be an easier way.
Click to expand...

Something like LiveSynthPro is pretty easy to use. Might be something to consider as an alternative to VSC. But you would need a soundfont editor to create your own soundfonts.

I use VSampler with HS2002 on WinXP myself,. But the UI can be a little intimidating if you're not familiar with samplers (which I wasn't when I bought it). You should be able to load soundfonts, akai, and plain old wave files into VSampler to trigger them in your song. It's really a very powerful sampler for such a low price.
 
Right, I've had a look at this and this is how I think you should do it. The problem is, from your post you say that you don't want to play in realtime, so I take it you want to add rainfall noise to your recorded tracks or you wish to play the notes as if they are rainfall.

Be aware that if it is the VSC that comes with HS2002, the rainfall sound cannot be played as notes. The same pitch is heard whatever key on your piano/midi controler is pressed.

But if you wish to give it a go, set it up as you would for playing in real time, i.e. choose an audio track, right click fx, select dxi, select VSC and then arm the track.

Then open a midi track, select vsc as the output.

Select any instrument listed in the vsc panel and click on the down arrow on the right hand side of the instrument . Choose SFX and then select Rain.

Play away and you should hear rain.

If you have armed your audio track, it will record this sound when you press record.

Save your file in the usual way. Hey presto, recorded rainfall (If you live in England it is a very familiar sound:( )

If this isn't what you meant, let me know.
 
Thanks guys,lot of good info.Midi just freaks me out.I'm an old dog but I've very new to computers and midi makes me want to run for my bong(well,actually anything does!).I can recognize the power it holds but I'm very intimidated by it.

Paul,I think that is exactly what I need.Thanks brother!I think I'll give that a go.I really have to spend some time and get to know my equipment.Bitch is that I bought a Roland VSR about the same time I bought a computer and I had no experience with either,plus I'm still trying to learn to play guitar as I didn't start til I was forty not to mention the eight hours or so that I sit on the couch doing bongs and watching the tube.Time is so short.Anyhoo thanks again Paul,if you ever make it across the puddle to Massachusetts,there will be some bongs and a handshake waiting for ya!
 
No problem Randy, hope it all works out for you. Please posyt back and let me know how you get on with it.

BTW, sorry for the ignorance but whats a Bong?
 
Paul....if you really,really don't know what a bong is I can tell you as I have done some extensive research on this subject in the 70's,80's&early 90's.;)
 
Hmmm.......I got a feeling I might not want to know the answer to this..........:D

Is it illegal and involves the burning of crushed dead leaves?

I'll be on the first flight out of Heathrow in the morning:D
 
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Paul,You pretty much got it but I burn dead flowers instead of leaves.I'm burning a bit right now as a matter of fact.Don't worry though I will keep some in reserve in case you ever make it to "New" England.Thanks again dude,and this bud is for you! :D

Acidrock,thank you for your decades long research on a subject that is near and dear to my heart.I also have been doing research since the mid sixties but I see no end in sight to my "work".It is a tough job but someone has to do it,I'm just glad that someone is me!!! :D
 
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