MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

V

Voytek_Stitko

Well-known member
"You have no money for composer? Make your own soundtrack man" - my friend told me.

So, anyone use MIDI Keyboard to make music at home?

Just curious cos just found one for 50 $ (eKeys USB MIDI Keyboard Controller).

Here is the link:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/s=midi/search/detail/base_pid/701522//rsrc=00990


Friend of mine says you just plug it in to your comp and play with it - depending of your talent - you can make some music for your movie. Or get frustrated - but it is maybe worth trying for less than 50 dollars...

Anyone can say anything about this MIDI stuff?

Voytek
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

Personally, I rather purchase a full sized keyboard for starting out. This ekey is probably only good for controlling loops, samples and maybe making your own beats. Plus it not touch sensitive. Every note will sound the same in terms of levels. There's audio programs out there where you don't need a keyboard to score your own tracks such as Acid.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

FL Studio is great! If you're a beginner (like me) then you might want to start with a loops program. You can build your own soundtrack with previous made loops (kind of like building your house from a model kit). It's a great way to learn and you can get some good results.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

Reading the title of this thread, I thought it was gonna involve throwing a huge net over some poor unsuspecting island native, dragging him home, then chaining him up to a 32 channel mixer. I use a Roland ported into an old atari 1040st the I port the tracks over to windows as analogue save to wav. Also use acid pro and a gazillion loops.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

Ok guys I just purchased midi keyboard for 100 doll and will let you know if it was a good idea. Soon.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

how would you connect a MIDI output to the computer? I have a roland digital piano with midi synth. module, and both have the big ass midi outputs.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

[quote author=Carlos Crespo link=board=Offtopic;num=1108422314;start=0#8 date=02/15/05 at 06:23:27]how would you connect a MIDI output to the computer? I have a roland digital piano with midi synth. module, and both have the big ass midi outputs.[/quote]


I use a soundblaster audigy card and audigy drive with midi interface but it's not cheap or wasn't when I got it. having said that....Bluspider should be along any minute with a rig that's better wich he picked up in the five and dime or someplace. I can't remember the name of his rig or if it handles midi.

You might get some extra milage out of this one by asking over in the audio section as well.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

you can buy a card with midi I/O or you can simply use your soundcard. it wont make any difference. the standard joystick game port on almost any soundcard will I/O midi. you just need to buy the cable to hook up to the gameport, and your good to go.
like this one :

http://www.computercasesandcables.com/ccc/CA-82001.html

its a gameport to MIDI cable .. almost all of them have a passthrough so you can still connect a joystick or whatever as well .

but i do agree with amahp.. IMHO if your going to be serious about composing youll want a real synth workstation or synth of some kind ..theres really no comparison IMHO. but buy what you can afford for now.. i started composing with an upright piano. a small drumset i made out of big old cans and such, a wooden flute, a really junky 7 sound casio kids keyboard and a set of 2 tape recorders. id play somthing and record it o one tape, and then play it back and play live with it and record to another tape.. rinse and repeat. alot has changed since then.
 
Re: MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK MAN

Voytek--I think your package will be enough to get you started.  The keyboard has a USB MIDI interface, so you don't need a special sound card or cable--just a USB port.  It also comes with some software and I'd guess that one of the applications is for sequencing and composing.  So, you can play notes on the keyboard and the program will record the MIDI information.  You can usually choose a synthesized or sampled sound up front or it can be changed later when the MIDI score is played back.  You'll also probably have the ability to use plug-in software synthesizers to get different sounds.  Some of these are available as freeware--just search on "free VST softsynth".  Also, the CD's that come with Computer Musician magazine frequently have free software.  Most programs allow multiple tracks and editing of notes, so you can build up soundtracks and fix problems.  When you're happy with your track, you render it out to a wave file (or other format) and drop it on your NLE timeline.  

The big hardware gotcha is something called "latency".  Latency is the delay between the time you hit a key and when the note is generated by your computer (and played back).  Both your sound card and your processor speed will affect latency, so you might want to upgrade your sound card the reduce latency.  Make sure you use the ASIO drivers for your soundcard to reduce latency to a minimum.  if ASIO drivers aren't available for your soundcard, then it's definitely time to upgrade.
 
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