All Musicians

[lubidog]

Okay, so if any of you budding pop stars out there could give me a little help it would be great!

I want to buy a digital piano, and a new computer with a really good usb external sound card and the best software there is to link them all together! I would like to be able to create at the end of the day high quality 'pop' music with all this. I am a musician, so the thing I really need help with is what sort of Digital Piano, whether a mac is better than windows, if I get Sibelius can I then multi layer (?) instrument solos without actually having these instruments (ie.make a sax solo without being able to play or even have one...) and then record them all together.

Of course the digital piano needs to be linked...

I have looked at some of these external usb soundcards, and they look fantastic!

I know I am a beginner, but want the best, is Sibelius really the best, or is that only good for classical music?

Any help much appreciated!

Cheers

Lub!

 

[clarky2o2o]

although usb sound devices are getting better. I always found pci cards with an external BOB to be the best.

I used a Sound blaster audigy2 platinum Ex to plug in in my guitar and i got very little unwanted distortion through my crappy speakers (about the same as a cheap amplifier).

i think the the Soundblaster X-fi Elite pro is the newest external pci with the features you require.

 

[lubidog]

That looks fantastic, but I will probably get a laptop.... If I can...

Many thanks for the reply. Any idea on Software?

 

[norm]

i highly recommend getting a mac for music creation - i use a macbook

as for software i currently use Propellerheads Reason 3.0 and Steinberg Cubase SX 3 and i highly recommend them. together they can do everything you're likely use, plus a few hundred other things. its expensive stuff though.

 

[foleyjo]

get a KORG

 

[Sphinxter]

Some of the chips on new mb's now, last one I bought had nvidia mcp-55 high definition audio on board, are pretty nice, combing area garage sales for 80's and up toys can yield some surprising results, my beep lab of casio rapman and yamaha shs-10 sound pretty hot when someone who actually has talent drops by. Still kick myself for passing up an sk-1 not knowing what it was. Research your requirements, know what you're looking for and beat feet or go on ebay and pay through the nose.

 

[lubidog]

Thanks so much for the help!

I looked at the Korg site, looks interesting. Was gonna go for a Yamaha digi, but...

Have been to a store and spent a few hours playing with Macs, this Garage BAnd software is very accessible....

Thanks fo rthe advice, lot to learn!

 

[norm]

garage band is a horrible piece of software, very restricted and generally poor

 

[sand_man]

I'm using X-fi XtremeMusic. I get really low latencies with ASIO drivers. I recommend steering clear from USB sound devices. If you must have a notebook, buy a Mac.
I just need to buy a BoB to reduce the noise I'm picking up from my computer.

 

[rokdcasbah]

there's really two routes: one is to get a good midi controller and sound card, and use that to make your music. the other is to get a keyboard that sounds good on its own, and record direct. i think the latter is easier to do, but if you're talking about using notation software then you're probably leaning toward midi. i can't recommend any brands to you, but i will say that the cheaper korg & m-audio ones lack the weighted keys that you might want.

also, if you want something that will work when you have the computer off (for instance, if you don't already have a regular piano or keyboard) then you need to keep that in mind.

the kurzweil stage pianos are nice. yamaha and roland also have really nice ones. but these tend to be more performance oriented, and not as midi-tastic as a dedicated controller. example: my yamaha p80 (which they don't make anymore anyway) has an awesome piano sound and really good weighted keys, but is sort of limited for midi...no usb, one channel at a time, no aftertouch, no mod wheels.

for a given keyboard, besides price, your considerations are:
- can it generate sound, or is it just a controller (depends on what you want, really)
- how complete are the midi options...velocity sensitive is a must, aftertouch is really nice to have, mod wheels are meh but an x-y knob is all sorts of fun
- how do the keys feel. usually the keys are less "weighted" than advertised. semi-weighted means they are crap with little springs. full-weighted means they are semi-weighted, but full-expensive. if they say "synth" or "organ" weighted, run.

there are decent external firewire & usb 2.0 sound cards. the m-audio fast track is probably the least expensive one that will let you record a track without a lot of latency or noise. for music production, i think you can skip the audigy and get something a little more focused. if you're comparing cards, look at signal-to-noise ratio, quality of preamp, quality of DAC (24-bit, 48-bit, 96-bit, etc.)

software...i have no clue. a lot of people like ableton live but it scares me. cool edit pro is a good general purpose recording software, although at some point audacity will probably be as good or better. obviously pro tools is the best. but if money is no object, cubase sounds best for what you need. reason, too. cubase for sequencing, reason for the awesome instruments.

i haven't used garage band. from what i've heard, it probably does a little bit of everything, but isn't terribly full-featured. starting from nothing, i'd actually recommend something like that. that way there isn't a huge learning curve, and you can get right down to writing music. using the best software won't make you a better songwriter, it will just make your workflow easier.

 

[deluded]

I agree with avoiding USB devices - I have 2 mixers with built in USB audio (one's a DJ one) and both have quite high latencies even with ASIO drivers. This is quite off-putting when trying to play sounds from the computer via your keyboard as there's a noticable delay between hitting the key and hearing it.

I ended up using the built in motherboard sound card with some free ASIO drivers and it works great with 4ms latency.

As for which is the best software - just get demos of everyone you can find and have a play - my preference is Proppellerheads Reason, but thats more geared up to dance music rather than pop. Tracktion is another good (and quite cheap) one which combines midi support and multitrack audio recording. I've not had chance to play with Logic but it's supposed to be very good on the mac.

 

[virusx]

I would prefer a Firewire interface than an USB one.
If you're planning of doing audio live recordings, I think it's better.

I'm using a PC because of the cost of the computer (I have a Cramware Pulsar modular soundcard) that was slighlty cheaper than a Mac.
But I would recommend using a Mac if you have enough money to do so .
Perhaps a Protools setup? It's quite expensive (nothing under 2500$) but it's a standard in music.
If you can't afford those (like many of us ), your choice should be made by asking yourself those questions:

- How many physical In and Out do I need? Am I going to record several audio tracks at the same time?
- Do I need specific Inputs (Mic, Hi-Z...)?
- What kind of output quality do I need (aka Am I going to do the final mixing and/or mastering myself?)

Once you answered those question, search for Firewire interface that meets your needs.
I had a look at those a year's ago, and I found the RME Audio FireFace 800 quite sexy.
But now it is perhaps a bit outdated.
Now almost every soundcard has super low latencies ASIO2 drivers.
I also have a Traktor scratch with Audio8DJ interface. It's a USB2 soundcard, and even if I can reach a 1ms latency, I still have some glitches if I don't close a maximum of apps and background tasks.

I know nothing about digital pianos, sorry
But my advice would be to test it in a shop before you buy it.

 

[lubidog]

Wow, thanks so much for taking the time and giving me all this info!

Must read again and really digest! But really appreciate it!

Cheers

 

[rokdcasbah]

I ended up using the built in motherboard sound card with some free ASIO drivers and it works great with 4ms latency.

unfortunately onboard sound tends to have a high noise floor and/or crappy preamps. but i'll agree that it's not a total show-stopper the way that high latency is.

about sibelius...i think that it's going to be hard to do much pop music with that. afaik it's like finale -- its main purpose is to make charts. like latex but for music. the little bit of recording/playback you get with those is a barebones midi, using whatever crappy sounds your sound card or windows have built-in. plus, if you don't need to score your music, it's just extra work but if your goal is to get better at composition, and to improve your music notation skills, or if you feel you're most comfortable making sheet music, then sibelius is not a bad idea. but you said pop music, so...

norm's got the right idea. but tbh i don't think something like garageband is a terrible idea, even if it's limited. for instance, reason is $500 US. it's super high quality though, and you'd pay twice as much for something like the nord electro, which lets you do that stuff in "hardware". but i see no reason not to start smaller. when you say, "hey", every organ sound i've heard is crappy, i need something better, then you can buy reason and at least know what you're getting. *anyway* if you want something good quality that will do a number of different things, and you're prepared to spend at least some money, i think you should try a demo of ableton live.

like i said: i tend to look at it as two different approaches (but with a lot of grey area). one is midi + virtual instruments, one is real instruments + recording gear. but on any given project, you're going to want to do both.

for recording, you want things like low noise, decent preamps, asio support. "hardware monitoring" is a very nice thing to have, and most of the sound cards designed for musicians have that. the more you can do in hardware, the better. for virtual instruments, obviously you need a fast computer, but you also need quality software. most of the homebrew vst & soundfont stuff i've tried either sucks or is terribly slow. some of it's good, but mostly you get what you pay for.

by the way: vista is no good for this stuff. it doesn't support hardware audio mixing. sucking up to the mafiaa was apparently more important than allowing people to have their choice of audio hardware. anyway, you want xp or osx. there's always linux too, but i'm not familiar with what's out there for linux software.