Need a few good "new to MIDI and using Sonar" tute...

  • Thread starter Thread starter shawn gibson
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shawn gibson

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My recording experience in the past has been with regular 4-8 track tapes, electric guitars and bass, drum machine, and occasionally a keyboard. Nothing fancy.

Now, I'm using Sonar and MIDI (no instruments yet, want to get a handle on the sofware, and I'm getting a guitar on payday:)).

Can someone recommend some basic tutes for someone like me? The web is swamped with a lot of pre-supposing articles that I keep getting lost with...

Thanks very much:)

Shawn
 
Well, there's som e tutorials on the Sonar CD and in the help files, and the manual should get you started. You could also get Sonar 2 Power! by Scott R. Garrigus. It's very good! :)
 
Shawn, Ive been there also. With moskus, James Argo, Dachay2tnr and many other great contributors here, I found this forum will answer all your question better than any book you read. Just choose your destination, mess with your SONAR, and post here if youre not sure of what you do. Make sure you write complete story & info required here. They got an answer. God bless ACKUS.

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Clementine
 
Thanks for those kind words... and oh yeah! God bless ACKUS! :)

Shawn, Clemie had a very good point! You learn by trying. Sonar is pretty easy to get a grip with, and when there's something that's not right, we'll be here to answer your question (if we can). :)

I learnt using Cakewalk by try and fail, and try and fail, and try and fail, and so on... ;)
 
Wow thanks for all the positive replies!

I'll get cracking. I've only had Sonar for about a week, and since I am just getting back into recording, I'm all gung-ho (what a word!).

I've not seen any zipped, native-format Sonar files linked to here yet (maybe they're hiding?), is that frowned upon? The reason I'm asking is that's usually been a good place for me to start...have others look at my work directly. For example, I can't explain why I currently have all of my tracks that are using a particular effect (ReValver via Edirol with MIDI tracks created via the computer keyboard) on the same setup, when I'd like them to be on individual setups. I'm thinking the Console should act like a mixer on an old 4 or 8 track Tascam or Fostex, but it's not. Can't explain this, have to wait till I go home and have it all sitting in front of me so I can use the right words.

Thanks again, will get back with plenty:)

Shawn:)
 
I thought he meant the project (.cwp) files... Frown upon? No.
 
moskus said:
I learnt using Cakewalk by try and fail, and try and fail, and try and fail, and so on...

And I learnt Cakey by fail and fail, fail and fail :D

There are some neat tricks I've learned over the years that I'd be happy to pass on to you Shawn, but I guess we all need to know what it is you're trying to achieve.

Drum programming is probably the most difficult aspect of MIDI using a sequencer. Getting the drums to sound natural is quite a task, believe me :)

If you just want a metronomic thump tish thump, that's easy. But if you want thump bada-tish bada-boom bada-tish it gets a bit more complex. ;)

My fave drum pattern is the Shuffle. Think "Don't Stop" by Macwood Fleet. Ah sublime! It's all done with 8th-triplets...

--
BluesMeister
 
What I'm trying to achieve? Not sure yet LOL. I've added a link to my Apache server and put the 'song' I've been working on, just to try and get used to Sonar; it's all just MIDI notes added to the timeline with the mouse (yeah, fun...). If you look at it, you'll see just how little I know. I've been forcing things to work, but when I look at the console, I don't get what everything's doing, and now that I'm trying to change things around (like add a different ReValver set on a different instrument, for example) my ignorance is getting the best of me.

Take a look if you've the time, and if you have a particular way of doing things that you think is more correct and sensible than what I've done, I'd love to know.

Here's the song, even though it's only about 45 seconds long, and don't be too harsh since it's the first thing I've written in well over 5 years LOL:

http://65.48.144.230/testsong.cwp

Having some problems with my server, so it might not work until I get home from work...

Shawn:)
 
Ugh. Not even getting a LAN IP (65.48.144.230), just localhost (127.0.0.1).

I just tried to put in another hard drive, cd, and videocard into my computer, now it's asking me for ethernet drivers.

Blah. I hate being too cheap to get a pro to do these things!

Sorry guys, will have it up soon, or I'll re-link to my Rogers webspace and upload.

Hey maybe my cat sat on my router again...hummm...


:(
 
Here we go!

Wow I screwed things up big time. Gotta wait till the weekend to fix my server. BLAH!

OK, I uploaded this to my ISP space, I hope it worked.

I'd be very appreciative if you guys looked at it in different views, and let me know the kinds of things I'm doing wrong, or if I'm doing something right here or there, that too:) I apologize if the 'song' sucks but guess what? I just got a LEFTY Ibanez RG 560 from Songbird (layaway till mid-March)!!! and it's only $500 Canadian. I don't have to play an upside-down Strat, and I get to play what my heros play (Vai, Satch, Gilbert, and all those Shrapnel guys). Now you KNOW I'm an old fart. Do they still make paf-pro's? Or since I'm going digital with a clean signal, maybe I should look into active PU's...EMG?

Here's the hopefully working link: http://members.rogers.com/sgphoto/firstsong4.cwp

Shawn:)
 
There is no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to layouts. You decide what works for you! :)
 
Ah, but that's the problem right now...everything I've been doing is merely fluke when it works LOL. Anyways I got paid yesterday, so I'm gonna make my way over to the bookstore after work tonight - that will get me a lot further ahead I hope.

Thanks for your advice everyone, keep it coming if you're so inclined:)

Shawn
 
Shawn, I am in your same boat. I have this board bookmarked at home and work!

Drum programming is probably the most difficult aspect of MIDI using a sequencer. Getting the drums to sound natural is quite a task, believe me

This is a fear of mine. I am coming from a background of indie/punk music with a full band, but I am now going solo. Funny thing, is that my solo stuff is more dynamic than my ensemble stuff. At least, I want it to be. More instruments, more texture. I can handle the performance of everything except drums. But I've really been excited about the idea of using loops and programmed drums, to almost give the music a hip-hop trippy flavor. Not like Sugar Ray, but more like Moby or Enigma. A little bit dark and edgy - beatwise - layed over a folky indie musical songwriting style.

I got Home Studio XL, which came with Fruity Loops. I haven't played with it just yet, but I'm fearing that it will be very hard to learn. Here's to new frontiers, right?!

cheers
 
Miracle,

All I can say is, maybe out of ignorance, but...I have noticed the Rock Quartet thing in SONIC...get that down first...add a synth if you have to...but don't get into all the stuff that's available all at once.

If I had to, I'd fry my peeny brain. We're not so different I think, I hope you take this one step at a time like I'm gonna...

Shawn:)
 
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