Oh, is this confusing

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D'eviltoone

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I am trying to move to a differnet arena. From a nice simple Tascam 424 to digital. I'm having problems. I got Cubasis 4 VST with my Audigy 2 soundcard. I am far from a novice when it comes to computers but I found fiddling with Cubasis very daunting. I am also considering a 16 track digital audio workstation from Yamaha or Roland. But that's a big $ outlay considering I already have a software program and a reasonably good computer.

What I want to do is be able to record and mix 12 to 16 tracks of music. I work solo and use a Dr Rythm drum machine, Korg N364 synth, several guitars and voice.

I'm using a P4 1.5 with 1 gig or ram and lots of hard drive space. My Audigy 2 soundcard has midi in and out and although it only records in 16 bit, I'm kinda keen to give it a try. Unless the Cubasis program prooves impossible.

Can anyone give me their thoughts on how to move from an analog recording environment to digital. Are their any good books or web sites that start from the begining. The sales people and even the Cubasis people assume you already know about digital recording. They focus too much on individual products.

Heck, I can't even wrap my mind around how midi works. For instance...how can the sampled sounds from my Korg get into the Cubasis program? I tried to play a wicked guitar sound into Cubasis and all I heard was a piono sound. Hmmm.

Looking for direction, this is too big a question to expect answers. But any help would be appreciated. Really!

Oh, and then there's the mixing board. Can I use my Tascam 4 track to boost analog signals? And go direct, without mixer, from midi instuments to soundcard?
 
First of all if you're thinking about using a standalone with computer ditch the Yamaha and Roland and get yourself the Fostex VF160 and a soundcard with adat inteface so you can connect the standalone to the computer using the ADAT interface to move tracks between the machines. Utilizing the adat connection you can use the VF160 also as an recording mixer and 8 input soundcard when you record directly to computer. If you need to record more that 8 tracks simultaneously you can connect an external ADDA converter to the VF160 for up to 16 tracks simultaneous recording.

The Cubasis program is kinda limited and I suggest you download the trial version of n-Track studio from www.fasoft.com and compare those to.
 
PeteHalo, do you really like the VF160 ? I find fostex products to be cheap and toyish. Not trying to start argument, just asking your opinion in that area.
 
PeteHalo, the Fostex is one of the audio workstations I was thinking of. I just looked at it again. It looks nice and the price is coming down. However, my intention would be to use this instead of Cubase or Cubasis. Any reason why I would want to transfer recorded tracks from the Fostex into the computer? Ignorantly, I am thinking that the VF160 should work pretty well on its own. And, I would never record 8 track simultaneously. I play one instrument at a time. Lots of layering.

Your suggestion of the Fostex VF 160 gets me excited about the 16 track difgital workstation. But if I can save the money I thought I should try the Cubasis program, learn it and work with the soundcard I have.

Thanks for your reply, your getting me thinking about things I'd not considered. I'm a muisician who wants to record. Unfortunatlely the recording part is a tad bit confusing. Well, a lot confusing. But I like to learn and do things myself so I'll keep on plugging.
 
A big program like Cubasis can seem daunting. I would suggest though that you work through the tutorial of Cubasis or try the demo versions of other programs if you are just facing a mental roadblock.

If you only want to do one instrument at a time then all you need is a way to get that instrument into the computer, either through Midi or through the line-in of the Audigy.

Midi is a specification of when to start a tone, when to stop a tone, what velocity to start the tone, what velocity to end the tone, etc. When you record midi you are not recording sound but rather those definitions. You can then apply any instrument that your software synthesyzer has, whether or not it is resident on the korg. (Similarly when you play a saved midi file to the Korg you are sending definitions of when to start a tone when to end a tone, how hard to start it, how hard to end it, etc. and the Korg then turns that into sound.)
 
The editing possibilities of VF160 or any other multitracker in this price range are limited compared to even the cheapest software. There's plenty of free effect plugins that you can use to spice up your recordings and working on a big screen beats staring at the small LCD on VF160.

Using the adat interface to connect the VF160 to computer enables seamless integration between those two which means that there's many new ways to work with. You can use the VF160 as a recording mixer also and connect the keyboard to VF160's analog inputs and have the Cubase play the keyboard thru midi and then mix it with the audio signal coming from Cubase thru the lightpipe. As the adat card looks like 4 independent stereo outputs to the software you can even run several programs side by side each sending it's output to VF160 thru it's own stereo output where you can mix them together with signals coming in the analog inputs of VF160. Your imagination sets the limits here not the equipment and I sure like it that way rather than the other way around.
 
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