I have a pretty good working knowledge of midi and what can and can't be done with it. I have a lot of midi / accomp programs, 2 arangers, and a workstation. I have 2 soundcards ( not including the original cheapy one that came with the comp ).


Sometimes though, I wish I could just put it all into "one box". Trying to get things to work together sometimes is a chore. I want variety in my drums, not just repeats of arrangements, so I either sequence by hand ( a chore in itself ) or make them up from scratch in Pump sequencer ( an old beta pattern seq that never got of the ground but is excellent for it's drum machine ) , or make them in Jammer Pro 5, which does not MIDI sync ( it sends clock messages but won't receive .. how frustrating it is... ).

That's just drums. Then I want basslines, but I find it easier to usually play them in real timeas opposed to let's say trying to get the Motif's arps to sync together with another sound module and a software sequencer. Then there are some of the pretty good "ryhtym and chord" plug in guitar patterns that I can't really always imitate in real time ( because of the different picking techniques, arps etc ). So on and so on.

Just setting things up to chain / sync together can be tedious for me. I wonder how the rest of the composers here deal with it. I find it easiest to just record my own patterns in the PA80's step sequencer by introducing some drum parts as converted styles and then adding my bass lines, rythyms etc via real time playing. Sometimes I'd rather use the voice from a soft synth otr the Motif in a particular piece, so that becomes a chore too.

Sometimes I still find it easier just to record each piece in real time, but I also like having the pattern aspect to see how phrases sound in different keys as I'm writing.

Sometimes I wonder if Frank has the right solution by doing everything inside of the computer, but I get latency issues with certain pieces of software too, so until I learn more or am able to otherwise resolve that, it's not going to work for me .

Any thoughts ?

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 09-20-2003).]