BiPolar's MIDI files explained

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by avvie, Dec 21, 2006.

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  1. avvie

    avvie It's another cold day in Hell Tip Jar Donor

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    A while back BiP posted links to MIDI files of popular songs. When they're played back on GM tone generators (General MIDI synths that are stock in your software), they sound like crappy kid's toys. Why bother with that?

    Well, I found out their purpose, and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it before.

    More and more talented musicians are performing as solo acts with sequencing software as their backing tracks--MIDI files. The files are downloaded, seperated, and the parts are played by whatever instrument you assign them to.

    Most pro sequencers (like mine) have literally hundreds of instruments built in or added on that are played by MIDI notes sent through a sample player. I could, for example, take Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" and have it played by an orchestra because I have samples of an entire ochestra to do it.

    This band-in-a-box...infinately user controllable...can help generate a lot of extra income in small clubs, restaurants, weddings, barmitzfahs, etc, etc.

    Like I said, this is something I should have known a long time ago. Unfortunately, I'm still so old-school that I still think I have to actually play everything I record manually. One of these days I'll actually join the 21st Century and quit making everything so hard on myself. Oddly enough, the one thing I'm interested in is the one thing that I never think of solutions for.

    I used to daydream about owning a recording studio. It was only last year that it suddenly occurred to me that I already had one. What a *******.

    Carry on.....
     
  2. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

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    Hey Avvie

    Have you heard of the 'Sonar' recording studio software package? If so do you think it's any good.
     
  3. avvie

    avvie It's another cold day in Hell Tip Jar Donor

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    Yep, I'm familiar with Sonar. It's a Cakewalk product, and and most of my forumite gang use it.
    Most sequencing software all do they same things, with minor variations; preference is merely a matter of taste. Do you like the GUI? Do you like where the buttons are? The menus?
    The thing about Sonar is that it has expensive updates and apparently bad support to go with it. That's no surprise, because my forumite gang was the primary support source for the users, and they got fed up with Cakewalk not holding up their end of the deal. About 3 months ago chief technician and developer Ron Kuper stepped down also, declining to state his reasons.

    The upside (to me) is that it's more recent version has a great auto-tuner built in which looks very suspiciously like the industry standard Melodyne system. See celemony.com

    I believe YouTube has some of the instructional/sales pitch videos in their collection. Yep, it does: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Cakewalk+Sonar&search=Search

    If you're fond of Windows and are Windows-savvy, Sonar is a fine sequencer/DAW. If you decide to use it and need tech help, PM me about it, because those techs are now on a private forum available by invite only, so I'd have to show you where it is. Maybe you would want to do some presearch there?
     
  4. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

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    Dude you are the man...

    I 'acquired' Sonar5 just because it was there but haven't got around to using it yet. My intention is simply to mess around with my music files, a little mixing & editing etc. I'm certainly no musician of any kind.

    'Acquiriing' melodyne studio edition v3.1. as we speak.

    My PC is already under strain 24/7 through various apps so I'd be intersetded to know if Sonar or Melodyne take up a lot of memory when in use?

    I'm moving to a dual core set up in the new year & have been waiting for that to happen rather than working my current PC any harder but if they won't slow the PC down I'll get into it now.

    Ps:

    Adventures on Maui is in need of an update dude, have a heart winter is wet & grey here in the UK :))
     
  5. avvie

    avvie It's another cold day in Hell Tip Jar Donor

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    Gosh...yeah...I am the man! :geek:

    If earthlings knew what melodyne was and what it can do...it is the ultimate in studio magic.

    A gig of ram and 1.8 GHz and up will usually keep these programs under control. I have yet to hit 32 tracks though, and I have 64. My ear's not good enough for more than that ;)

    EDIT: You mentioned a new puter. I have just been reading some awfully scary stuff about IE7 and the new Vista OS. Try to avoid them.
    Vista takes a gig of ram itself to run. (Minimum 512, but let's get serious here...)

    Yes, Adventures definately needs an update...unfortunately, Life has settled in, and we're unbelievably busy or broke, so I've had little to write about. I do have a couple of ideas on the burner, though. Since I know there's actual interest now, maybe I'll get on it again!
     
  6. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

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    I build my own stuff & am familiar with the woes of microsoft(I recommend rebooting every day for windpows) but thanks for the concern avvie.

    I've no intentions of going anywhere near vista until they release at least service pack 1. From what I've read they've tried to incorporate Firefox's best bits into IE7 & still left lots of security holes in it. At least they make an effort to plug them with updates.

    I've been told by a guy who's been running a beta version of Vista that it needs a minimum of 2gig of memory to run as smoothly as he's been used to his pc running things with XP & 1gig. It's taken up over 10 gig of his hard drive too!
     
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