Sam,
Logan told me to maybe try you via FB. It's kind of funny how I started out writing music on manuscript and got paid decent books for transcriptions by hand. I also was instrumental with Bell Atlantic getting started with this thing called the internet back in 1993. I am so far behind. I wish someone would just wire my brain up and let the music just come out as I hear it. Probably in the next generation :-)
so here's my current story and I'm sticking to it.
Not sure what Logan told you about me but I have a BS & MM in music; toured back in 70s & 80s. So the music I wrote nobody cares about but me. I have written tons of stuff and still have more to deliver even if just for posterity.
About 4 years ago I purchased a Yahama Motif ES8. It has amazing sounds and a lot of wonderful preset combo stuff; but it was meant as a workstation and not user friendly. Then I purchased DigiDesign Mbox2 and was using Pro Tools LE7 on a Windows XP system. The problem I ran into was a lot of delay and the Yamaha Motif ES8 just didn't sync well via a midi. There was a delay and then getting all the combo sounds to midi map was insane and a showstopper.
Since I'm a note person, a friend suggested Sibelius and it was terrific for me. I had to buy a new machine to handle the memory and it is a Dell machine running Vista. I was able to recreate by manually entering notes for many of my comps. The Yamaha Motif still had seriously delay and unfortunately at the time, Digidesign did not have a Vista version.
So, where I'm at. I feel at ease with Sibelius but it is not a mixer like Pro Tools or Cakewalk ,etc. I need to record voices which Sibelius does not do.
So do you have any suggestions for me. I'm willing to ditch stuff to make things work. Example: I think I just need a cheap midi keyboard to input notes instead of the Yamaha Motif. Also, I've been told that I probably don't need anything a complex as ProTools.
Do you have some advice?
Thanks for listening. It is greatly appreciated!!
my response:
Hey there!
Sorry it's taken a bit to get back to you. Crazy busy recently. Anyway, First problem...you're using Pro Tools LE. Though Pro Tools is the "industry standard" it's actually the Pro Tools HD that's the standard (starting at $10,000) and their LE and M-powered solutions can't touch other native DAWs these days.
Now, you're issues with the delay may be caused by one, or two things. The first is the latency amount set by your sound card, or m-box. There should be some settings in the audio preferences which let you adjust the latency for your box. This will cause more or less delay for all things in pro tools (plug-ins, monitoring, etc), but a longer delay is less taxing on the CPU etc. etc. So, first thing to check is that your latency is as low as it will go without hearing drop outs and slowing down your computer too much. The second thing is that you might be monitoring improperly. You should have the ability to do zero latency monitoring if what you're recording from your Yahama is going in via 1/4 input and not triggering some midi instrument. Zero latency monitoring means you're not listening to yourself through the computer, but directly from the output of the input (if that makes any sense?). Your m-box should let you monitor your inputs along with the playback of your computer, thus allowing for no delay recording. Of course, I've heard that pro tools LE doesn't have automatic delay compensation as well, so who knows if that's coming into play with your problems as well.
So, what I would recommend first is ditching pro tools and probably that m-box. Now as far as using a notation software...it's going to be a bit tricky. The problem with audio programs like pro tools, sonar, cubase, etc is that notation is really an after thought for them. They aren't going to touch a stand alone program like Sibelius. So you're probably going to need to just stick with Sibelius for notation and something else for mixing in voices and other various things.
The DAW I use, apart from pro tools HD, is Cakewalk's Sonar. Its got a fantastic work flow, and in my opinion is the by far the best solution for a windows based recording system. It sounds like it might be overkill for what you need though, which is why I'm actually going to recommend a brand new DAW from a company called Presonus. It's called Studio One. I've used it a good bit already, and it's FANTASTIC! It integrates perfectly well with all their hardware interfaces, but unlike pro tools stuff, their hardware and software is perfectly compatible with other formats!
Presonus just released a product called Firestudio Mobile, which might fit your needs pretty well. It's got midi input capability, two mic pres, 6 line inputs, headphone output, and two line outs for your speakers etc. Anyway, I'm not sure on cost, but it's probably not going to break the bank.
As far as midi keyboards go...I don't have any special preference. There are a plethora of choices out there, and all you really need to make sure of is that its got either a USB connection, or midi capability. If you're planning on just using it to control a virtual instrument running within your computer...than things will be much cheaper, and probably sound better!
Now, if you're willing to accept the overkill that Sonar may provide you, it probably has better midi editing, but Presonus Studio One's setup looks promising...and as I said they JUST released it so updates are sure to follow soon!
I hope I helped somewhere within all this. Any other questions...feel free to ask!!
Sam
Logan told me to maybe try you via FB. It's kind of funny how I started out writing music on manuscript and got paid decent books for transcriptions by hand. I also was instrumental with Bell Atlantic getting started with this thing called the internet back in 1993. I am so far behind. I wish someone would just wire my brain up and let the music just come out as I hear it. Probably in the next generation :-)
so here's my current story and I'm sticking to it.
Not sure what Logan told you about me but I have a BS & MM in music; toured back in 70s & 80s. So the music I wrote nobody cares about but me. I have written tons of stuff and still have more to deliver even if just for posterity.
About 4 years ago I purchased a Yahama Motif ES8. It has amazing sounds and a lot of wonderful preset combo stuff; but it was meant as a workstation and not user friendly. Then I purchased DigiDesign Mbox2 and was using Pro Tools LE7 on a Windows XP system. The problem I ran into was a lot of delay and the Yamaha Motif ES8 just didn't sync well via a midi. There was a delay and then getting all the combo sounds to midi map was insane and a showstopper.
Since I'm a note person, a friend suggested Sibelius and it was terrific for me. I had to buy a new machine to handle the memory and it is a Dell machine running Vista. I was able to recreate by manually entering notes for many of my comps. The Yamaha Motif still had seriously delay and unfortunately at the time, Digidesign did not have a Vista version.
So, where I'm at. I feel at ease with Sibelius but it is not a mixer like Pro Tools or Cakewalk ,etc. I need to record voices which Sibelius does not do.
So do you have any suggestions for me. I'm willing to ditch stuff to make things work. Example: I think I just need a cheap midi keyboard to input notes instead of the Yamaha Motif. Also, I've been told that I probably don't need anything a complex as ProTools.
Do you have some advice?
Thanks for listening. It is greatly appreciated!!
my response:
Hey there!
Sorry it's taken a bit to get back to you. Crazy busy recently. Anyway, First problem...you're using Pro Tools LE. Though Pro Tools is the "industry standard" it's actually the Pro Tools HD that's the standard (starting at $10,000) and their LE and M-powered solutions can't touch other native DAWs these days.
Now, you're issues with the delay may be caused by one, or two things. The first is the latency amount set by your sound card, or m-box. There should be some settings in the audio preferences which let you adjust the latency for your box. This will cause more or less delay for all things in pro tools (plug-ins, monitoring, etc), but a longer delay is less taxing on the CPU etc. etc. So, first thing to check is that your latency is as low as it will go without hearing drop outs and slowing down your computer too much. The second thing is that you might be monitoring improperly. You should have the ability to do zero latency monitoring if what you're recording from your Yahama is going in via 1/4 input and not triggering some midi instrument. Zero latency monitoring means you're not listening to yourself through the computer, but directly from the output of the input (if that makes any sense?). Your m-box should let you monitor your inputs along with the playback of your computer, thus allowing for no delay recording. Of course, I've heard that pro tools LE doesn't have automatic delay compensation as well, so who knows if that's coming into play with your problems as well.
So, what I would recommend first is ditching pro tools and probably that m-box. Now as far as using a notation software...it's going to be a bit tricky. The problem with audio programs like pro tools, sonar, cubase, etc is that notation is really an after thought for them. They aren't going to touch a stand alone program like Sibelius. So you're probably going to need to just stick with Sibelius for notation and something else for mixing in voices and other various things.
The DAW I use, apart from pro tools HD, is Cakewalk's Sonar. Its got a fantastic work flow, and in my opinion is the by far the best solution for a windows based recording system. It sounds like it might be overkill for what you need though, which is why I'm actually going to recommend a brand new DAW from a company called Presonus. It's called Studio One. I've used it a good bit already, and it's FANTASTIC! It integrates perfectly well with all their hardware interfaces, but unlike pro tools stuff, their hardware and software is perfectly compatible with other formats!
Presonus just released a product called Firestudio Mobile, which might fit your needs pretty well. It's got midi input capability, two mic pres, 6 line inputs, headphone output, and two line outs for your speakers etc. Anyway, I'm not sure on cost, but it's probably not going to break the bank.
As far as midi keyboards go...I don't have any special preference. There are a plethora of choices out there, and all you really need to make sure of is that its got either a USB connection, or midi capability. If you're planning on just using it to control a virtual instrument running within your computer...than things will be much cheaper, and probably sound better!
Now, if you're willing to accept the overkill that Sonar may provide you, it probably has better midi editing, but Presonus Studio One's setup looks promising...and as I said they JUST released it so updates are sure to follow soon!
I hope I helped somewhere within all this. Any other questions...feel free to ask!!
Sam
