Well, first I was gonna tell you step by step
how to do this, but my message was getting really really long
and complex. So I'm gonna be brief, but you'll have
to do some actual work on this one:

You should print this up, it will come in handy some day.

Here's what you need to know:

1) the sampling rate of your recording
2) the exact length of your recording
3) a program that can do time compression/expansion
4) a program that can do sample rate conversion
OR a program that can do pitch shifting
5) the mathematical formula to shift a pitch

How is this helpful ?

Ok, if you know all of these things, you can
use programs that let you enter in sampling
rate changes or pitch changes in terms of musical steps.
You can also use this information after those pitch changes
to convert the length of the song back to it's
exact length using TIME COMPRESSION/EXPANSION

ok, I can give you # 5 right now...

to shift a pitch up a half step, multiply
that pitch by 1.059463094.

For example, to shift from Concert tuning pitch, A 440,
to A sharp, multiply 440Hz times 1.059463094.
The answer is 466.1637615, or 466.16 for short.
We just shifted the pitch up a musical half step.
To shift down, a musical half step, just divide the
number of the pitch by 1.059463094.

Now, you probably might like to know how to
shift up or down more than just a half step at
a time. To do this, you need to know how
many half steps you're going to shift.

Let's say we want to shift from B down to G.
That's a shift down of 4 half steps.

Mathematically, that's our original pitch multiplied
by 1.25992105. To shift up 4 half steps, I multiply
the pitch by 1.25992105.

How did I get that crazy number ? Well,
to go up one half step is 1.059463094... but
that's only half the truth. 1.059463094 is actually
2 raised to the 1/12 power: 2^(1/12)

the little ^ symbol means exponent.

This is musically sensible because a piano scale
has 12 notes in it, and one octave up from any
pitch is the same pitch only doubled.

go up one octave from A 440 and you hit A 880

You can get this number by multiplying
440 * 2^(12/12). Basically, it's 440 * 2, but
written in a way which lets us pick which note
in the scale to use.

the numerator of the fraction is the number of half steps
we want to go.

So if you want to go down 4 half steps, we need to
take our original number, and divide by [2^(4/12)]

the little ^ symbol means exponent.

Ok, so using this formula, if we know our original
pitch frequency, then we can shif up or down any amount of
half steps! You could shift up 2012 half steps if you
wanted by multiplying your original pitch by [2^(2012/12)]

The cool thing about this calculation, is that it's
useful for other numbers such as sampling rates
and BPM's and song durations, too.

Whatever you're dealing with, sooner or later
you'll have 2 numbers: The oringinal number, and
the number you got after changing something.

maye the two numbers are the pitch. Maybe the two numbers
are the lengths of the recording files. Maybe the two
numbers are sampling rates.

Well, what matters is their ratio.
A ratio can also be useful as a percentage.
1.05946... is actually about 106 %. It's inverse
(if I press 1/X on my calculator) is 0.943874313.
That's about 94 %.

This all sounds lame, until you look at the input
screen of a time compression/expansion command window.

All of the input parameters are in either percent
or scale factors above or below 1.

If i know the ratio of my sampling rate changes,
then i have a number which i can use to for
time compression/expansion calculations.

which number goes on top of the ratio (fraction),
depends upon if you want your result to shrink or grow.

If you do this with a scientific calculator, then
it all goes really fast. You can press the 1/X
button on any number to switch back and forth between
a number to cause a shrinkage or a growth.

Sometimes you need to divide, other times you may
need to multiply. At first, it's easy to get confused,
so press the 1/X button on your ratio number to
get the other number which I may need.

This can happen if I'm trying to shrink one loop
in size to match a smaller loop, but instead I make
it grow. I can just multiply by the inverse ratio
instead. It's also useful, because that way I can
pick and choose which sample I want to shrink or
grow, and which one I want to keep the same.

You should print this up, it will come in handy some day.

i used to have an FD-4, also.
you should just contact Fostex for another manual.

feel free to tell any potential buyers that they
can email me questions, too.

godspawn@hushmail.com

i just about have that system memorized.

the FD-4 has some tricky issues, but it is a
great portable unit. I like how it ignores SCMS.
I used mine with a CD player and two Minidisc recorders.

: My cousin just purcased the Roland 1880. How would you go about making a good quality recording of the drums with, say, Techtronic drum mikes, (I think that is the name of them, they came in a handy-dandy carrying case of four) a couple of condenser mikes, three sm-58's (vocals), and a six channel mixer. I can get a good level for each of the drums, it's just they sound so out in the open. We have toyed with the idea to inclose the drums in a booth of sorts that we have'nt built yet. By the way, we are going to record the drums first then the other tracks as to get all of the sound we can muster for each instrument.

Drums are always hard to get the exact sound you
want but here are the two most important factors
I've found in a situation like this:<ol>
<li><b>Tuning</b> - you really need someone who
knows what they're doing to tune the kit to the
specific acoustic environment you're recording in
and to the specific song you're recording. If you're
drummer hasn't had experience tuning for recording
then talk to a drummer who is experienced.
<li><b>The Room</b> - the room you're in will also
make a huge difference - especially if you're using
overhead mics which sounds like the case because
you're only using 4 mics by the sound of it. If you
don't have a 'flat' or 'dead' room to record in try
some of these quick fixes - hang some carpet or curtains
on adjacent walls (not oposite walls), put a bed
mattress in front of the kit, alternatively get
more mics and record close-up.
</ol>

I hope this helps a little,
Jason.

: how can i git a mp3 player on my 68k mac, but i dont have a power pc processor
: please help i need one bad

There is quite a popular MP3 Player that works on a
68K processor called MPLAY which you can get at
<a href="http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MPLAY/">http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MPLAY/</a>

If you are referring to the kind of remixes that you get on a "remix CD" or record, those are almost always produced using the masters from the original studio recording. If you are talking about DJ mix tapes or the equivalent, however, many of these are "unauthorized" remixes and use certain tricks to make it seem like they have isolated the vocals and added new instrumental tracks.

The fact that these remixes usually have female vocals is no coincidence - female vocals tend to be concentrated in higher frequencies then male vocals, while much of the instrumentation may be concentrated in lower frequencies (like a bassline.) Filters and/or parametric equalizers can isolate certain freqencies. This is a lot easier to do if the frequencies are far apart. Even under the best conditions, you will end up distorting the vocal, leaving some of the instrumental track, or probably both. But if you are clever about the new sounds that you add, you can cover up a lot of this manipulation.

If you don't know much about audio, the best way to learn is probably to play around with some of these tools.

-KK

: vocalist, guitarist,bassist,sound engineer,media arts graduate seeks work for bread

Hey dude, a possible way to start is to
join the American Federation of Musicians.

It's also called AFM. It's a really big union,
and they have set national standards for people
working in music.

For example, they set standards for kind of a
minimum wage for session musicians.

Even though not everybody goes by their
standards, many of the best, most professional,
most businesslike musicians and producers and
so forth are involved with AFM.

They also run workshops and junk like the
royalty collection agencies do.

I am going to join the AFM, myself.

However, I am also a graduate of Sound Engineering.
Basically, chum, I know just exactly how difficult
it is to find the right niche.

We are in this market at a crazy time.

Technology is our job, but technology makes
much of our job obsolete. All of the artistic
side puts us on the same platter as the
so - called starving artists.

Mp3 doesn't exactly fill our gig bags with cash.

wow... this is one that calls for a large explanation. I can however get you started =very basically. Press the "shift" button and hold while pressing the "pattern" ("patt") button. You are now in patter mode. Press the "Rec" button twice or until you see MORE than a flashing note sign. You are in step recording. You can use the jog wheel to select different note durations. Select one that you like . hit the drum pad for the sound you want to input, then press the "foward" button once, repeat process till the measure is full, you can over-lay hats, snares, toms, FX drums, whatever you like on the single drum track. This is by no means the fullest usage of the DR. 5 but it will get you started with the basic principle. Good Luck!