Question for anyone.... but Jeff probably knows the answer

Don't you have an article to write about how bad the UT football team is?

 

First, are you on Win or Mac? Also, are you talking about using notes generated by your computer or by an external synthesizer? Finally, you want to record onto your computer's hard drive, correct?

If you just want to goof around, a simple program like Cool Edit Pro with a simple mixer program and tone generator could do the trick. You'd be limited to one of those cheesy little mics that come with computers because, in order to interface live mics, guitars, synths, etc. with a computer, you need an analog to digital converter. The cheapest are around $300.

The other software can mostly be gotten either as shareware or as freeware around the net.

Gimme some specifics and I'll see what I can find.

 

$500 on Nemesys Gigasampler (made in Austin!).
$200 on Steinberg Neueno.
$5000 on sample libraries, such as Bob Clearmountain Drums, Miroslav Viteous Strings, East-West Bosendorfer, etc.
$1000 on a AKG C414 for bright, modern sounds
$1000 on a Rode NTV for that old-timey Neuman sound.
+$1000 on a decent professional grade soundcard & pre-amp.
----------
$8700


the sound of almost but not quite being satisfied with how it sounds:

priceless


In otherwords:

There is no such thing as what you want to do for cheap, and even if you spend quite a bit of money it won't quite sound right.


Of course, if your not afraid of a little software piracy...

alt.binaries.sounds.samples
alt.binaries.sounds.utilities

 

They're not nice, but every soundcard has a analog/digital converter. The soundblaster line, particularly, has a somewhat decent, low internal noise A/D converter. They won't do 24/96 and they only have unbalanced inputs, but my SBLive will do 16/44, and when I turn everything down the noise floor is like -110db. Getting the impedence, or somesuch right is normaly a problem, but especially if you have a cheap little mixer (to provide phantom power) or a guitar preamp like a POD, it sounds O.K.

In fact, the A/D converters in the SBLive are the same as in the PARIS, which, while not great, is still considered professional grade equipment.

 

Good place to look for all of this stuff in general:
Harmony Central


Ok. Here's how it works.

Two Types of 'computer music'

A. Midi - this is the setup with the most possibilities & the most issues for you. Midi is a way in which your computer basicaly generates sounds itself from a series of sounds. The best analogy of which I know is a player piano. This can be broken down into 2 parts:

#1 is a synth. This is a device that is going to generate sounds. The piano if you will.

This can be futher broken down into 2 subcatagories:

A.FM Syntheisis - generating something out of a mathmatical formula - think 'Switched on Bach' or 'Popcorn' from the 70's. A synthetic 'computery sound. The best free one of these I know of is called 'VAS Modular'. But be prepaired to spend time figuring it out.

B.Wavetable(and it's many successors) - this is where you have a prerecorded sound - like the sound of someone playing a trumpet. Because these are big, you have just a very few of them, say one per octive. The syntheiser will then change and warp that sample as needed to make it change pitch or length. I only know of a shareware program that does this (no freeware). It is called 'Mellosoftron'

#2 is a sequencer. This is going to be like the player piano part of a player piano. It doesn't actualy make any noise but rather just tells the synth to make noise.

Good luck here. I know of none of these that are free, but an example would be Cakewalk. Perhaps try 'www.harmony-central.com'.

B. The other option from MIDI is a bit more streight forward. This is wave editing, where you basically treat your computer as a 'tape recorder' where you plug in and record what you here. Cool Edit is, unfortunately, a somewhat expensive piece of software. The only free one of these that I know of is (I think} Goldwave.

A slightly more advanced form of this is 'multi-tracking' where it's almost like having several tape recorders in parallell. Unfortunately, I believe that at this level of sophistication, you're out of luck for freeware. Dito for programs which integrate both the MIDI and the wave editing.

Does that help?

 

Ottoman put you on the right track. And while we're on that subject, ottoman, I didn't figure the guy wanted to become Brian Eno so I didn't start listing every MOTU, Sonic Foundry and Opcode piece of gear figuring he wasn't even close to the pro stage. Also, there is the chance that he doesn't have a sound card like a Soundblaster especially if, like me, he's on a Mac. I was just trying to think of what would work for someone who knew little or nothing about computer-based music.

By the way, I haven't heard the NTV yet, but I lined an NT2 up next to a Neumann TL103 and the NT2 (that's about $300 less) blew it away. Microphones are sure getting less expensive now, thank GOD!