I am starting to build a new home studio so any comments or lessons would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a specific question. How do I save a musical that I sequence on CakeWalk or Logic Audio as an MP3 file? My final goal is to put some of my music as demos on my website. Please be detailed as I am still a rookie in this field.

Thanks.

It depends a lot on what sound sources you are using. If you are just using internal sounds you can simply run a cable from your soundcard output to your soundcard input and record a WAV file that you can then convert to MP3. If you are using external sounds ie. modules or keyboards, then you would need to run them into a mixing board and then connect the stereo output of the mixer to the input on your soundcard and then record a WAV file.

Hi Nigel and thank you for the reply. Ok the way I have been recording so far is going through my Midi's on my keyboards onto the dedicated serial port on my sound card (its a cable that has one end with midi in and midi out, and the other end is a 16 (I think) pin serial end). I am using cakewalk as the sequencer, but when I try to save the file types available are .mid or cakewalk file formats, I cannot save as wav or as mp3. So can you please elaborate on your answer? Also, once you tell me how to save as wav, then how do I convert it to mp3? Is there a software for that? if so where do I get it?
SOrry for the two many questions, and thanks for everyone's help.

hey man, I used to have the same problem. What you want to do is make sure you have recorded into cakewalk as an audio file. You'll know this by seeing your wav data as you record into cakewalk. now, cakewalk naturally saves everything as a .mid or .wrk file. So what you want to do is [highlight the material you want saved as a wav by clicking 'select all' in the edit tab] click on the "file" tab(I think thats the one its in) and click 'Export Audio'. When you do this you will be asked what type of file to save as. Choose ".wav". Your cakewalk will show you a progress bar that usually says something like "mixing down audio". when its done just go to the folder where you saved your file and access it. Once you have it in wav format you need to encode it to mp3. Depending on the cakewalk version you have this may be do inside cakewalk. If you do not possess this option in cakewalk your best bet might be to download an mp3 encoder off the net. That aughta doit!!!

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"check for the new DRU HILL Single 4 Steps"

Kidrow,
Thanks alot. That is the kind of answer I was looking for. One question though, you started by saying "make sure you have recorded into cakewalk as an audio file". Is there something I have to do in cakewalk to make sure of that? I am using CW version 9.0. I picked a drum style midi file from those already in cakewalk, and tried to do what you said. Under EDIT, I chose "SELECT ALL", then under TOOLS, there is AUDIO MIX DOWN, and that allows you two choices , one of them is EXPORT FILE, but neither choice was BOLD to where I can click it, so I could not select to do that. So that makes me think that not any file saved on cakewalk can be saved as wave, is that correct? I appreciate your feedback. Like I said, I am still a rookie when it comes to recording, so please excuse my ignorance.
Thanks
mosiqaar@hotmail.com

I'm not sure but I think that maybe when you want to convert a .mid using your internal multimedia card's patches. I think I read that Sound Blaster let's you do this. Of course, you would be stuck with the quality of your soundcard. You say you are using a synth. You need to get the audio outs of your synths into your PC in order to make .wavs or .mp3s. Connect the audio outs of your synth into your soundcard's ins (make sure the volume is off and start low before making louder). Of course, if you have a mixer you would connect your mixer main OUTS to your soundcard ins. Once this is done just open up your .mid file and add a left audio and a right audio track. Hit record and it will record all of your midi tracks to those 2 audio tracks. You can then save the stereo track as a .wav or if your version of Cakewalk let's you...a .mp3. You can go to goolge.com and do a search for MIDI to .WAV converters. There is alot of freeware and shareware programs.

WS,
You are awsome...thank you. You guys are great in this forum, I am glad I found it. There is so much for me to learn. Its not enough to know how to compose or play, but hey I am ready for it all. Thank God I work with computers so picking up on this stuff should not be too hard.
I will definitly try ur guys suggestions and have plenty more questions in the near future.
Thanks.

There is anouther way to record midi as a wave.If you have a sound card that allows,you can instert an audio track in cakewalk,open your soundcards control/mixer,go to options and click record.In the record controls you should find a slider for Midi,if not,open it.Select the midi control,minimize the mixer and activate the record buttn on your inserted audio track.Play the midi track and see if the uv meters monitor the sound on the audio track,if the meters show that they are recieving,you hit the record button and let'er rip.Now mind you that this does'nt always work,even if cakewalk helpfiles says it will.