Which one of the three would be the best choice?

Computer setup: AMD Athlon 2000+, 512 RAM, SB Audigy 2 Platinum, Radeon 9500 pro, 30gb HD

Goal: To create techno, game, movie music for the web. Example-http://www.allmediastudios.com

Choices for now: All I have in mind right now is the EZ30 for the keyboard choice. For the software and controller keyboard I don't know any good ones since I know little about them. I have Cakewalk Pro 9 but I can hardly do anything with it.

About:
Keyboard: nothing much. Just seems like getting a keyboard is the choice for the most fun but also pricey compared to the software solution.

Computer Software: I'm having a lot of problems with soundfonts. What do u do with the .sf2 file after you dowloaded it? What I tried doing was going to soundfont manager and click libarian. In the new window, I click File>Open, and select the .sf2 file I downloaded. It put the fonts in a separate category (the category above bank) and I cannot access them. Seems like the software solution is a buggy one and more advanced.

Controller Keyboard: sounds to me like its a solution of both combined. I know very little about these boards, but hopefully someone will tell me more about them.

-Horace

Ok first of all I recommend you downgrade the 9500 pro graphics card if its just sound/music you need and spend the dosh on an extra 512MB of RAM and up the CPU to say an athlon 2800+. I also recommend you increase the harddrive to say 120GB. Soundcard will do fine, if you go for the EX version retail you will get a free copy of cubasis VST plus lots of other nice music software. You can download sf2 fonts from the net, open the soundfont bank manager in the creative program group and click on "bank". From there you can load new soundfonts and voice banks... note that you might need to increase the available virtual memory used for the soundfonts depending on how many you load.
Once loaded you can access them as with any other voices from the cubasis software, simply change the midioutput to SB audigy synth A or B and then choose the bank. Set your latency to say between 3 and 7 ms (should be easy enough on that spec pc). With the cubasis vst you can also play around with virtual instruments and synths (VST instruments) and basically emulate almost any synth in the world!!!!
Have fun!

For midi input I suggest a 2nd hand PSR keyboard with touch sensitivity, or if you can stretch a 6 or 7 octave master keyboard with aftertouch. Eitherway try and get something with mod and pitch bend wheels.

Simon

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SVPworld.com - Creative Multimedia & Music
incorporating PSRworld and Tyrosworld

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I play videogames too, why I need that videocard This computer is built alrdy btw.

And I just found out I have cubasis, gonna try it out.
Thanks for the soundfont tip!


[This message has been edited by Bigfoot (edited 06-26-2003).]

Is there a way to use midi input in the program instead of using a keyboard?

And this way of using a software and soundfonts-is that software generated sound of the soundcard generated?

Soundfonts is a much under rated way of expanding your music making repetoire. Even the cheapest creative cards now offer soundfont support and use your PC's memory, so you get a very cheap sampler with huge capacity plus 16 bit (or even 24 bit!) stereo sample quality. Since the soundcard does all the work of playing the samples, you get realtime performance as you would with a synth and on most cards almost unlimited polyphony (though usually limited by the speed of your pc). There are several excellent resources of free soundfonts such as thesoundsite.net where you can download GB's of fantastic touch sensitive voices. Soundfonts also incorporate velocity switching, crossfading and filtering, so you get excellent results similar to AWM2. You can hear many soundfont pads from the above website in my cd's gentle rainstorm and transicity, there are preview samples on my site. VST instruments as provided in sequencers such as Cubasis VST and Cubase VST extend this further by using your PC as a synth and the soundcard as the digital to analog output stages. You can emulate a DX7, analog synths, phase distortion synths, vector synths and much more all on your PC and in realtime!! For the best results and lowest latency (delay between triggering the synth and hearing it) you will need a quick PC (say PIII700 and above), a modern soundcard and usually lots of ram. The latest audigy 2 ex card is supplied with Cubasis VST and includes a stunning demo all done using VST instruments and digital audio samples. Plus, you also get VST effects, a sort of virtual rack of digital effect units again all done in software.
Of course none of this replaces the immediatecy and creative fun you get with an arranger keyboard, but for multitrack work its the way to go and certainly saves you money and space!
As for getting the midi information into the software without a keyboard, I know theres an onscreen mouse operated keyboard and of course you could connect a plethora of midi input devices to the computer such as breath controllers, micro midi master controllers and guitars etc. Theres also software that converts the pitch of an analog signal into the soundcard into midi!
Then there is step input, slow but exact.

Regards
Simon

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__________________________________________________________
SVPworld.com - Creative Multimedia & Music
incorporating PSRworld and Tyrosworld

forum.svpworld.com - No adverts, No spam, No nonsense!
share your music, get help and advice, make new friends! All platforms invited!!

Do you use Cubasis? Or other softwares?

know any good tutorials for Cubasis? Because I can't even input nething in it.

I use Cakewalk too but I can't do nothing w/ that either.

Does Cubasis and Cakewalk basically do the same thing? If so which is better?

I use both Cubase and Cubasis (they are almost identical). I've tried Cakewalk and XGworks, but I can't get on with either, I find the logic of working in Cubase/asis much easier but thats probably because I was brought up on Cubase since the Atari ST. Pity because Cubasis isn't so good for style editing, as it doesnt support markers.
They all do the same thing, they just interface with the user in different ways.

Simon

------------------
__________________________________________________________
SVPworld.com - Creative Multimedia & Music
incorporating PSRworld and Tyrosworld

forum.svpworld.com - No adverts, No spam, No nonsense!
share your music, get help and advice, make new friends! All platforms invited!!

is it possible to record with a virtual keyboard in Cubasis? Because right now all I can do in Cubasis is edit, so I'm importing from Cakewalk but that's kind of a big hassle.