gee maybe I'll know some-think..
Update-
...I can record, playback from my midi keyboard, everything seems to be working, but I`m having some problems. There seem to be some extraneous sounds. I look at the sound map, and there are lower register sounds there that I hadn`t played. Sounds seem to last longer than they should, as if the pedal was depressed as well. So I have to erase those out. The results are still not to my satisfaction.
Could the fact that I`m not using the metronome enter into it? Or perhaps my soundcard isn`t good enough? (I`m using the one that came with the pc) Btw, the midisport uno cable seems to be working fine as far as I can tell.
Also, the playback sound is very low volume, making it difficult to hear what`s going on.
If anyone knows what might be going on here, I would really appreciate the help.
Hi Rojo,
Maybe I'll have a tidbit or 2 to offer... the original request "music examples on my website" and here "soundcard not good enough.." is a wide field
I think what you are doing is GREEEEAT! Don't get me wrong. I just don't know what suggestions I can make, I basically use Mac G3 and G4, QuickTime a lot, but there is a PC available to me, windows 98 which gee, in a year is a decade old!
I'm going to try and help you... by ignoring all you've said and telling you MY experiences, maybe something along my way will clear up a think or 2, maybe give a pointer or 2?:smirk:
In the old days I composed using general midi, and learned the common sounds, the common controllers - pan, "expression," sustain, modulation, I forget the exact #s, find the manual for the keyboard you have, or find it online. Anyway, at one point I was crazy about panning various things, and at one point even found a patch editor for my at-the-time favorite sound unit, a roland MT 32. I learned to type hexidecimal, modify reverbs, even get into patch editing.. boy was that nerdy! Then later I realized I could never use those sounds except when my computer was plugged in...
Anyway, one aspect of MIDI is, of course, you can compose orchestrations at home that Bach or Beethoven would have loved.. though maybe it's like mathematicians nowadays with handheld calculators might never discover things like Einstein - people before the technology - anyway, you can compose and hear how this chord sounds on this tone, this octave, all that kind of stuff.
I would feel guilty if I composed by just dragging sliders and stuff, not actually playing on a keyboard. A few songs that I like, of my own, I still like them, but I feel I was cheating...
Now for the last 3 years I've been studying classical piano, and using just the accoustic piano in the living room here... learning specifics of what Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven and so on were composing, and learning skills really specific to a real weighted piano, and using all functions of the piano. For example, the middle pedal on mine here is not the sostenudo that either 1) sustains the right half of the keyboard or 2) sustains what is already held down, on my piano it is simply a "practice pedal" making everything waaay quiet. Then I realized, in many songs, if I used the sostenudo pedal correctly, I could play the root note, sustain JUST THAT NOTE, then the chords, all in the left hand, and the right hand wouldn't be sustained! But..
I've gotten used to enjoying the sustaining on the right notes!
So there are specifics that are important on a piano, but not sequencing. I also find that I enjoy using the soft pedal, then for powerful sections letting it up to be real loud. Strangely, the electric keyboard I bought recently DOES use a soft pedal, but get this: I can sequence to my computer, it gets the soft pedal, when played back to the keyboard, sure, softness! But... midi... forget it! It is not used in midi playback, so basically, even though I want to be a real pianist, midi won't use the soft pedal data. Here is a sample file:
http://webpageexperience.com/mid/softpedaltest.mid
the folder is "open," so you can peek some of my midi's there.
Personally, I really enjoy the fact that midis sound slightly different on every computer/sound card what have you. Example. A piece of a Liszt song..
http://webpageexperience.com/mid/LisztLetItBes.mid
I used sound #199 I think, a "pad" sound, and on the PC in QuickTime player it uses a different sound than in WinAmp! Personally I find it fun, making it work on more than one output...
Trying to stay "purist" or at least "true to form," I recorded "O Sole Mio" using piano tones, but later thought - hey! Put it on accordian! Well, the sustains on piano made it sound too muddy on accordian. I took them out of the sequence, they it is too dry - to sparse.
I figure I'll have to record USING accordian sound. Similarly I did some Bach and tried to put it on organ, I'll have to record on organ.
Going from piano to harpsichord is easier, works on both usually.
What I have gained from all of this, is that I find instead of just holding down sustain for say, a whole section of a song, I find myself releasing and pressing sustain more often - what if a person jumps to the middle of the midi file? So I'm sort of playing more conscious of what a sequencer will record.
In the old days I would use click tracks, either clave tone, sometimes even a drum tone. In an effort to be "real" nowadays, I ignore click and tempo and all of that! I used it for one song recently, no biggie...
Now here is where I feel I am still cheating:
I record along, from beginning - and I put a "splash" at the beginning of each song, just to make sure the recording gets started, - then when I make a mistake, I just start maybe a few bars back, where I know it will be easy to...
drag from the good part to the end of the sequence, CUT, select from the same note where I messed up to the end, PASTE. OK OK I'll admit.. I go and take out individual notes that are wrong, and... ok ok ok maybe drag one forward a little or ... boyo stupid of me to admit this hum?
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Later I decided to make an audio CD, and I started feeling so strange that instead of recording a real piano... I just went into QuickTime player, and simply "save as" choosing AIF. Sounds great, a little reverb is on it, I can tell. I decided... on the CD I won't mention anything about what piano I recorded it on...
I wish I had.. well, I'm sure the real piano store has ... "Real MIDI Piano," though probably out of my price range. I find that as I keep going from real pianos, and Grand's sure are great! Back and forth to little "toys," I think I'm getting chops that Beethoven and them must have, surely they were put on keyboards with various octaves, various tones, having to rearrange in a sense, a piano piece for organ, harpsichord, all of that kind of stuff. So, I don't complain, in fact, I find it a lot of fun! Maybe when I record O Sole Mio for accordian, and then change it to Piano patch, who knows, maybe some kind of expression will happen that I can later incorporate into ALL of my piano playing?
In other posts here you can see I've made all kind of efforts to put TAGS like performer, song name and such into midi files. If you go to midi.org you'll see me picking on Windows Media Slayer because they don't use the standard text tags..
Wishing you the best of luck! Keep us posted! Share some midis! Here's an Enchanted Waltz by Satie I'm working on, not finished, but it takes me to the ballroom!
peace
of music! he he..
Teo
ps attachment didn't open easily, here it is:
http://webpageexperience.com/mid/EnchantedWaltze.mid