Where do I begin

[Tygerli11y]

Sup everyone, Ok so I am a singer/song writer and I have an idea of the kind of Tracks I want the songs to go to but I have no idea of how to make a track or get one made. The only equipment I have is adobe audition, and my yamaha. Where do I start?

 

[Tygerli11y]

Another question

Lets say I get someone to help me with my track, How do I protect my unfinished music from being potentially stolen by the person helping me?

 

[Autist]

What is your Yamaha? Guitar, keyboard, mixer??? You say you are a singer... do you have a microphone?

Do you mean someone here on these forums helping you, or someone in real life? There isn't much you can do to protect yourself other than work with someone you totally trust and has a good reputation. Perhaps you could record your ideas before having someone help you so that there is a record that you actually created the material (even playing and singing into a small casette recorder could be sufficient for that). You could send that off to be copyrighted if you wanted to and then send the best copy of the finished material when your project is done, but that'll cost ya.

 

[Track Rat]

You might want to get over yourself there Tiger. I doubt SERIOUSLY that anyone is waiting to pirate your tune. There are literally hundreds of tunes posted here every month for revue and not a one of them has ended up on a Britney Spears record.

 

[blazingstrings]

First of all, Track rat be nice he might be the next Bob Dillon(or not) ....
Second, your as concerned as the rest of us tiger about getting ripped off.
I have been making music and recording it for 12years and have not had one song stollen or used illegaly.

So that means
A. My Music Sucks!(Probably the Case)
B. People are ripping off big name artists because they make more money that way.
C. Its not that big a deal.

Now what do you have in terms of gear Tiger?

-Blaze

P.s. Track rat. The name Gear SLut use to my name in a band I was in as I always had new gear every week.... Just turns out I was spending all my pay check! Me : "Hey Dan" Dan : "yeah?" Me : "Can I borrow $20?".........

We also had a band slut..... He said he would play with anybody anytime! I always kept my back to the wall!

 

[Tygerli11y]

First off I'm a girl. Second, I'm an intern with universal music group so my concern stems from the shadiness of some of the people in the business I have met. Third, I have a lot of confidence in my songs (which I know doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going to steal them) but you can never be too careful when venturing into something new, especially if it involves entertainment. I have a Yamaha keyboard, a midi interface, and adobe audition. I guess I need a good program that can record my keyboard and voice as well as provide loops. As far as I know audition will not record from my keyboard (tried it).

 

[bennychico11]

Tiger, you're right...people steal songs. Chance of it happening on the forum here or even happening to you are slim, but shit does happen. Hell, people may even listen to your song hardly paying attention and then later not realize that the melody they just wrote to their song sounds a lot like yours. I do it all the time. I'll be writing and then say "This sounds very familiar". Copyrights are like home insurance. "My house is never going to be on fire...no one will break into my house in the suburbs." But it can happen, so you should protect against it. Plus, what?...copyright costs are like 70 bucks?

but you working at Universal should have the hookups already (and as an intern you should know this already, if not you will soon ). Get it copyrighted. There are forms on the net that you can fill out and submit to the Copyright people. Ask around your office if someone can help you, make friends with someone in the legal department, etc.
Start here:
http://www.copyright.gov/forms/

 

[Autist]

First off I'm a girl. Second, I'm an intern with universal music group so my concern stems from the shadiness of some of the people in the business I have met. Third, I have a lot of confidence in my songs (which I know doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going to steal them) but you can never be too careful when venturing into something new, especially if it involves entertainment. I have a Yamaha keyboard, a midi interface, and adobe audition. I guess I need a good program that can record my keyboard and voice as well as provide loops. As far as I know audition will not record from my keyboard (tried it).

I share your sentiments about trust and confidence, although I am not a girl.

I suspected you meant a keyboard.

Look into these (demo the ones you can to see if they are what you want to work with):

Home Studio 4

NTrack

Power Tracks

I would recommend Home Studio first because you can later upgrade to Sonar if you want more. It lacks some of the advanced features of Sonar, or other more professional pieces of software, but it is a good one to start with. I used HS 2 XL and NTrack before I got Sonar. Cakewalk is very good for working with MIDI. There are other options as well that are good, like Cubase, but I was trying to recommend more budget friendly things.

There is a learning curve to these things, so don't get discouraged if it seems too difficult at first, however, if you have Audition figured out, these shouldn't be too bad.

 

[MadAudio]

Um, she already has Audition. Why does she need another program?

What you need is a good soundcard so that you can record your keyboard. You'll want one that is full duplex, meaning you can monitor while recording.

 

[Autist]

I think she wants to use MIDI as opposed to just recording from the output, which Audition doesn't support.

 

[MadAudio]

I think she wants to use MIDI as opposed to just recording from the output, which Audition doesn't support.

Ah, I see. Well if you're going to use MIDI, then keep in mind you won't get the actual sounds from your synth. More than likely you'll be using a soft synth inside the recording program.

 

[Autist]

Ah, I see. Well if you're going to use MIDI, then keep in mind you won't get the actual sounds from your synth. More than likely you'll be using a soft synth inside the recording program.

Yeah, good point. Some of the soft synths can sound much better than a Yamaha keyboard, but don't expect them to be cheap.

 

[Tygerli11y]

I dowloaded a program where I could record notes onto my computer using a midi interface but I could not record the keyboard voices/sounds, can I use some of the recommended programs for doing this and have a good sound quality or do I need to record using a mic from the keyboard?

 

[Autist]

I dowloaded a program where I could record notes onto my computer using a midi interface but I could not record the keyboard voices/sounds, can I use some of the recommended programs for doing this and have a good sound quality or do I need to record using a mic from the keyboard?

To do that you would have to use the keyboard itself as a MIDI interface, or just record directly from the output as MadAudio mentioned (the keyboard should have one and I would not recommend trying to mic the speakers on a keyboard). Otherwise, you will need to get some soft synths that will produce the sounds you are after.

 

[Tygerli11y]

To do that you would have to use the keyboard itself as a MIDI interface, or just record directly from the output as MadAudio mentioned (the keyboard should have one and I would not recommend trying to mic the speakers on a keyboard). Otherwise, you will need to get some soft synths that will produce the sounds you are after.

Where can I get a soft synth and how much do they cost?

 

[Autist]

There are free ones, some are OK and there are very good ones which could cost over 200.00. Which ones you want depends on which sounds you want. Many are just synthesizers that try to emulate old analogue synths, but some are good at emulating organ sounds. The ones that sound more realistic use recorded samples of real instruments and can cost quite a bit.

This may be a good place to start looking and downloading:

KVR Audio

 

[blazingstrings]

Yeah if you are looking for free soft synths search for one called "Mr.Ray" its a fantastic Rhodes emulation.

I will chime in with my vote for Audition. I love that program!

But I play mosty guitar as of this year so Tiger may be looking for the midi sequencing more so.

What kind of Keyboard do you have Tiger?

-Blaze