Old 09-02-2007, 12:59 PM   #1
JohnB47
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Default A very real newbe

Hi.

I've just registered and have read quite a few posts and I'm really reeling by what I've read.

OK, this might just be a passing phase but I'm wondering if I can (or want to) get into the whole recording/mixing thing.

I recently bought a Yamaha digital piano and am right at the beginning of the learning curve with that. It comes with built in (but it seems to me, extremly basic) 16 channel recording/mixing and with USB/Midi connections.

So I posted a question on the excellent digital camera discussion group site dpreview.com about a good site on mixing and music production and that led me here.

So what do I want? Well, I really want some advice, in very basic terms, on what is possible. I only have the piano, so I'm imagining recording some tunes (they might even sound like music), then transferring them to Reaper loaded on my laptop and then messing around with them (eg adding seperate tracks and effects) and passing them back to the piano to play. Or should that read 'recording some songs direct to Reaper'.

Apart from passing them back to the piano, what else could I do? My laptop has a basic sound card built in with basic MIDI support but I understand that I could buy a (PCMCIA type?) sound card, install that and connect it to hi fi??.

You can see that I have no idea what I'm talking about. I have all these ideas floating around and they're not congealing.

So, has anyone got any good ideas for a web site or tutorial on the extreme basics here? A sort of "So, you want to record and mess around with your own pathetic musical creations but haven't the slightest idea how eh?" book/tutorial. Or if anyone has posted the exact same basic question recently (this has a disturbing way of happening to me in newsgroups) please let me have the link.

Thanks in advance.
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Old 09-02-2007, 01:02 PM   #2
Jae.Thomas
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hello. Im sorry, i dont really know what to tell you, and im on my way out, but i wanted to take this time to welcome you, and i hope REAPER works out great for you!

dont ever hold your questions back
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Old 09-02-2007, 01:38 PM   #3
pipelineaudio
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from Tim O'Brien

"My obligatory standard reply that I keep in Wordpad:

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076... ooks&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/..._beginner_pdfs

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info:
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books:
http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html


Plenty of software around to record for free to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
(It's $40 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($20) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (Last November, they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150 - pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
__________________
Tim O'Brien"
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Old 09-03-2007, 02:33 AM   #4
JohnB47
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Default Thanks Guys

Thanks for the welcome Jason and what can I say Tim? That's exactly what I'm looking for. Lots of reading for me to do.

Thanks again.
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Old 09-03-2007, 08:00 AM   #5
TimOBrien
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Ha!

Thanks, Pipeline.... you saved me a post...
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Old 09-03-2007, 01:58 PM   #6
JohnB47
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Default Opps

Didn't realise what was going on there. Thanks to you too Pipeline.
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