Dougie Boy
11-10-2002, 10:50 PM
Hello everyone,
Although I've been involved in discusssion boards since the 1980's from Usenet forward, I'm just another newbie on this board.
I'm also a computer programmer with 20 years full-time experience doing that on PCs so I'm not exactly naive to computers. I AM naive about what's been happening in the digital music world in the last several years, though.
When Windows 3.1 was the main PC operating system, I purchased a Roland A90-E keyboard, a midiman card, and a sequencing program known as "Master Tracks Pro." After taking the requisite time, I managed to get everything to work the way I wanted. I also had a Roland Sound Canvas that had what I considered to be some great sampled sounds.
Yeah, that was the 16 bit world and times have changed.
My keyboard was stolen and it has only been recently that I've been able to get back what I had lost. Yes, I purchased the Roland A90 again. Even though its manufacture has been discontinued, it has everthing I need, and I'm an accomplished classical pianist who has owned three grand pianos, including a Steinway Concert Grand. The A90 is an amazing keyboard, IMHO. I play Korg's and Kurzweil's and Yamahas and nothing even came close to offering what the Roland offered.
So now I have the keyboard and Cakewalk 2000. I have a 1.3 gig P4, 96 mb of memory (about to be upgraded to 256 mb). Although my on-board sound card plays midi files and .wav and .mp3 files just fine, it apparantly is not compatible with my version of Cakewalk. I cannot even play the Cakewalk sample files, let along record them.
Ok. No problem. I've ordered Creative Labs Soundblaster Live 5.1 and will receive it tomorrow. (I know its only 16 bit, but it fits my budget right now.)
My goal is to make my music available for the many net friends I've made over the years, but I still want to have a good reproduction of the classical music I play. I plan to record in midi and then convert to mp3. Am I taking the right approach here?
I also want to make sure I get everything to work without a ton of trouble.
I plan to disable or remove all of my current sound drivers before I install the SB card.
I will then install the card.
Is this the best way to ensure things work with Cakewalk?
Here are several other questions for those of you who are kind enough to take the time to answer them:
What are some of the best after market books on using Cakewalk?
Can I find quality sampled sound fonts on the net for free that are as good as the ones I had on my Roland Sound Canvas? If so, where?
What should a guy like me who has been out-of-touch with the midi world for half-a-decade do to catch up?
Most of my work will involve recording piano solo music and using Cakewalk to orchestrate music using other voices.
I appreciate any comments that could help me get going again.
Doug
Although I've been involved in discusssion boards since the 1980's from Usenet forward, I'm just another newbie on this board.
I'm also a computer programmer with 20 years full-time experience doing that on PCs so I'm not exactly naive to computers. I AM naive about what's been happening in the digital music world in the last several years, though.
When Windows 3.1 was the main PC operating system, I purchased a Roland A90-E keyboard, a midiman card, and a sequencing program known as "Master Tracks Pro." After taking the requisite time, I managed to get everything to work the way I wanted. I also had a Roland Sound Canvas that had what I considered to be some great sampled sounds.
Yeah, that was the 16 bit world and times have changed.
My keyboard was stolen and it has only been recently that I've been able to get back what I had lost. Yes, I purchased the Roland A90 again. Even though its manufacture has been discontinued, it has everthing I need, and I'm an accomplished classical pianist who has owned three grand pianos, including a Steinway Concert Grand. The A90 is an amazing keyboard, IMHO. I play Korg's and Kurzweil's and Yamahas and nothing even came close to offering what the Roland offered.
So now I have the keyboard and Cakewalk 2000. I have a 1.3 gig P4, 96 mb of memory (about to be upgraded to 256 mb). Although my on-board sound card plays midi files and .wav and .mp3 files just fine, it apparantly is not compatible with my version of Cakewalk. I cannot even play the Cakewalk sample files, let along record them.
Ok. No problem. I've ordered Creative Labs Soundblaster Live 5.1 and will receive it tomorrow. (I know its only 16 bit, but it fits my budget right now.)
My goal is to make my music available for the many net friends I've made over the years, but I still want to have a good reproduction of the classical music I play. I plan to record in midi and then convert to mp3. Am I taking the right approach here?
I also want to make sure I get everything to work without a ton of trouble.
I plan to disable or remove all of my current sound drivers before I install the SB card.
I will then install the card.
Is this the best way to ensure things work with Cakewalk?
Here are several other questions for those of you who are kind enough to take the time to answer them:
What are some of the best after market books on using Cakewalk?
Can I find quality sampled sound fonts on the net for free that are as good as the ones I had on my Roland Sound Canvas? If so, where?
What should a guy like me who has been out-of-touch with the midi world for half-a-decade do to catch up?
Most of my work will involve recording piano solo music and using Cakewalk to orchestrate music using other voices.
I appreciate any comments that could help me get going again.
Doug