Commodore Remix

Yo all!

I've been lurking around for quite a while, but finally got my courage up to writing something

I tried making some SIDs a few years back, and now I wanna havw a go at PC music. To start off with a bang I just bought myself a used Korg N5 synth, even though I don't know how to play it. I'm gonna hook it up to my computer, and that's where I'm hoping for som help from all you experienced musicians. I know squat 'bout MIDI, so I'll probably ask alot of stupid questions

First off, I'd like some opinions on my PC. It's a bit old, and I guess music stuff takes alot of resources. Specs are:

PIII 800 MHz
200 GB HD
128 MB RAM
SoundBlaster Live!

I know the soundcard is poor, but will the rest do? In particular - do I need lots more RAM? Is there a cheap sondcard that'll do a better job than the SB ones, without costing me a fortune?

Any suggestions on good music software for beginners is also very welcome. Sequencers, samplers, mastering - all these words just make my head spin at the mo', but I hope "learning by doing" is A Good Thing

Thanks in advance for any help, and cheers for all the great musc and retro nostalgia I get from R64 and RKO!.


- pfk

MIDI sequencing isn't hardware intensive: I did BIT 1 on a P133, for instance, and it barely broke a sweat. With outboard equipment such as the N5, the keyboard is doing all the work.

where it gets hairy is: 1) lots of audio tracks, 2) Lots of audio effects, 3) Softsynths and Softsamplers.

Then you need every single Hz you can get your hand on, and Ninja hard disks


Chris

My only advice is to get some more ram.

cheers.

welcome to the board....


the sblive is a nice card to start, esp. you can load soundfonts into
ram, and there tons of free soundfonts in the web.....

btw. the audigy player costs only 79,-€....



cheers ifadeo


p.s. i prefer my waveterminal 192m

sound fonts ?

Welcome to the board pfk :)

I own a N5 also, was the source of a lot of my intrumentation in my early stuff, now it tends to just be used as the midi-master keyboard. Your choice of software will affect how much/how easy you can use the N5 to compose with.

If you use a commercial sequencer like Cakewalk or cubase then it will be pretty easy, since those programs have instrument bank files specifically for the korg. If you use an "alternative" software solution - like I do - eg Renoise then you're in for more difficult time since it doesent directly support external midi hardware, you kinda have to program it yourself.

@Matrix:

Soundfonts are instrument banks used by EMU hardware - including soundblaster cards from the AWE32 to the latest Audigy cards (and other brands of card too) what you basically get a .SF2 file which contains PCM wave samples (more often than not multisamples for different octaves/notes with velocity responsive control)

They were fantastic but have been kind of overtaken by the VST revolution, tho I still have many many soundfonts including some I made myself, tho I dont use them anymore.

pfk wrote:Yo all!

That you, Per Fredrik ? =)

The SB Live! is actually a splendid card. I used one for many years and it was perfect and gave me crystal clear recordings and great effects. So don't look down on it

Oh and by the way, I used to use a 450mhz Celeron for it recording Midi tracks to audio (synths + modules via external mixer + internal sounds from SB Live)

Feek, i actually have an Audigy card. Ive only every used the sounds already in it !! (and next week i get to midi it upto my PSR-520



Dont suppose you be willing to educate me in the use of (installing etc) and the finding of ? - think im gonna have a lot of fun with these sound font things - would also be really appreciative if you can point me at some amiga/c64 style soundfonts.

well, if i remember right there are some c64/synth soundfonts like
vintage dream waves v2, vintage dreams drums, c64bank1 & 2 and
cia sounds.... to name a few...

so if you need a copy of this old soundfonts, send me a mail....


cheers ifadeo

That would be awesome ifadeo !! - but theres no email on your profile, so, 2 questions, how big are they (one of my isp's can hold 10 meg of email attachements), or i can set you up with my ftp.. whatever is easiest ...

Thx in advance

Matrix wrote:That would be awesome ifadeo !! - but theres no email on your profile, so, 2 questions, how big are they (one of my isp's can hold 10 meg of email attachements), or i can set you up with my ftp.. whatever is easiest ...

Thx in advance

you've got a mail....

Synth & Fx Cool ta man - now to figure out how to work with em.... ive not got the music room sorted yet so gimmie a week or so.... but if (as i suspect) i can play these with my midi keyboard, treating the audigy as an addon sound module/processor, then i think were in the honeypot !!

I may just get hooked on soundfonts

Thx for sending some Much obliged !!

no problem, i hope you like them....


here a little link where you can find some stuff:

http://www.analoguesque.com/sffreebies.htm

http://www.synthzone.com/soundfont.htm



cheers ifadeo

HAHA oh sweeeeet ty man - i just deiscovered my AudioHQ isnt working, sumthin about not being able to find some .AHQ files, so im gonna need to reinstall anyway, but all i feel is fun on the horison now

U da man TY