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August 2001 Archive of Music Software Discussion & Help Page
Submitted by hq_admin_smm on Wed, 08/01/2001 - 04:00.
Music Software Discussion and Help
Archive: August 2001
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I suspect....
...that is normal although I could be wrong. The reason I say this is there may have been some preferences for logic that were lost in the upgrade. I suspect the thing to do is re-install the instruments again after scrapping the instrument folder. Make sure you have all the installers before doing this. Compress the folder with stuffit and start again. You may need to locate the preferences for the instruments themselves which would be somewhere in the preferences folder in the system folder, do a sherlock search with the instrument names. Infact, do this before you reinstall them as they may not be thinking they are relevant to the newer logic version and this is messing the system up.
I used logic 4.1 for some time after a couple of upgrades were available. It's sometimes worth waiting for a while and listening to what people have to say about it. The bug fixes for new versions often sound good but sometimes they introduce new bugs of their own. If the system works and there isn't much new offerings in an upgrade, it's often worth waiting for a while... Just my opinion...
Cya
Steve...R
help/advice needed with setting up a studio
i need some advice with trying to setup a home studio of sorts. im looking to write all sorts of music (hip hop, garage, guitar music), and was wondering what equipment i would need?
i have a rough idea that i need a synthesiser, a drum machine, a mixer? is this along the right lines?
id like to stay away from computer programme based synths, drum machines and mixers. however i do have cubase and would like to use this or another powerful composing progamme.
if anyone can help me in anyway, or point me in the right direction(websites, magazines, shops) id appreciate it very much.
Re:
Since music has entered the digital domain long ago, I can only suggest www.digidesign.com as the most apropriate(& expensive if you need 32 channel simultaneous recording)...
Wav and CDA on the fly & MP3 question
I believe musicmatch has a system by which you can convert mp3 to CDA on the fly resulting in a complete
cd burn ready to play. I am accustomed to converting mp3 to Wav and then burning. Is there actually that much advantage to converting on the fly and is the CDA
format as good as Wav sound wise. Also someone told me that if I route my mp3's through a good receiver they will sound just as good as Wav files. is that true?
Re: Wav and CDA on the fly & MP3 question
: I believe musicmatch has a system by which you can convert mp3 to CDA on the fly resulting in a complete
: cd burn ready to play. I am accustomed to converting mp3 to Wav and then burning. Is there actually that much advantage to converting on the fly and is the CDA
: format as good as Wav sound wise. Also someone told me that if I route my mp3's through a good receiver they will sound just as good as Wav files. is that true?
You ask several good questions here. MP3 files, when created at a high bit rate, are pretty darn good for most music. Certain sounds just don't convert well- I saw one of the developers of MP3 (a guy from Fraunhofer Institute) demonstrate how certain harpsichord sounds are really bad after conversion. But it's good enough for most uses and most ears and listening environments.
Note- purists will take issue with this!
Many programs allow you to go directly from MP3 to burning a CD. There is no particular advantage or disadvantage other than it saves some time if you don't need to do any editing or add EQ, normalize volumes, fade in or out, etc.
My preference, as somebody who loves music but doesn't have much time to spare, is to use a program that allows me to burn CDs either directly from MP3 or to convert them to wave if I want to tweak. Programs like that aren't free, but you get what you pay for. I switched to RipEditBurn from www.blazeaudio.com after I got tired of wasting my time with free programs. Your mileage may vary.
Re: Wav and CDA on the fly & MP3 question
<a href="http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/RipEditBurn/">http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/RipEditBurn/</a>
: : I believe musicmatch has a system by which you can convert mp3 to CDA on the fly resulting in a complete
: : cd burn ready to play. I am accustomed to converting mp3 to Wav and then burning. Is there actually that much advantage to converting on the fly and is the CDA
: : format as good as Wav sound wise. Also someone told me that if I route my mp3's through a good receiver they will sound just as good as Wav files. is that true?
: You ask several good questions here. MP3 files, when created at a high bit rate, are pretty darn good for most music. Certain sounds just don't convert well- I saw one of the developers of MP3 (a guy from Fraunhofer Institute) demonstrate how certain harpsichord sounds are really bad after conversion. But it's good enough for most uses and most ears and listening environments.
: Note- purists will take issue with this!
: Many programs allow you to go directly from MP3 to burning a CD. There is no particular advantage or disadvantage other than it saves some time if you don't need to do any editing or add EQ, normalize volumes, fade in or out, etc.
: My preference, as somebody who loves music but doesn't have much time to spare, is to use a program that allows me to burn CDs either directly from MP3 or to convert them to wave if I want to tweak. Programs like that aren't free, but you get what you pay for. I switched to RipEditBurn from www.blazeaudio.com after I got tired of wasting my time with free programs. Your mileage may vary.
Mixing
I am not quite sure what type of software is going to meet my needs. I have been told that there's a software package which allows you to take samples from audio tracks, whether it be the singing, bass, melody etc. Being new to this I don't know what would be the best package to get. I would like something that allows me to rip samples from one track and put it on another. Any ideas?
It's....
...impossible at this time to remove individual instruments from a mono or stereo mix of a group of instruments.
Steve...R
Re: Mixing
: I am not quite sure what type of software is going to meet my needs. I have been told that there's a software package which allows you to take samples from audio tracks, whether it be the singing, bass, melody etc. Being new to this I don't know what would be the best package to get. I would like something that allows me to rip samples from one track and put it on another. Any ideas?
Can you describe what you want to do a little better? It is virtually impossible to separate out the parts (eg, vocals, guitar, drums, etc.) on most CDs. Sometimes you can reduce the level of the vocals if they are the only thing in the center channel.
But I may not understand what you are looking for...
MMJB.exe
Can anyone help with the missing MMJB.exe file that I keep getting when wanting to play something. It seems like no one knows what to do about it.
Thanks
Re: MMJB.exe
kozida is right on the money. You can find out more about <a href="http://www.mp3machine.com/news/783/">'The case of the disappearing mmjb.exe'</a> on MP3Machine.
: Can anyone help with the missing MMJB.exe file that I keep getting when wanting to play something. It seems like no one knows what to do about it.
: Thanks
Re:
Obviously you had erased by mistake the musicmatch exe file (mmjb.exe). If you need the mmjb player on your system reinstall it, if not associate any other music program with wav,mid,mp3,cda (options/associations)...
New Ohm Force plugin
The predatohm is going to invade the sound during this month !
Ohm force releases its new plugin and it will soon be able on www.ohmforce.com
Ohm force is actually trying to obtain the RTAS norm for pro tools.
If anyone have an advice to obtain it ....
Need info
Hi there,
I'm searching for software that can help me write musicnotes.
I've got a lot of wav.samples and made several songs.
But before i can release them, i need to write them out in standard notation.
I already tested sibelius and note chaser, but it hasn't got standard notation.
If you can help me out with some software, or URL to find it, i'd be very gratefull.
thx in advance
linux 2.4.x/MMJB/create audio cd
Has anyone gotten mmjb(1.00.0043) to create an audio cd on linux with a 2.4.x kernel and ide cdr(LG CED8080B)?
The recorder says 'you can only create a cd if you have a cd-r drive' . I have written datafiles to the drive using cdrecord
recording analog on Mac - LP to CD - software?
Any recommendations for (free/shareware?) software to put all my old vinyl onto CD?
This is overspec but free...
Protools free isn't as easy to grasp as a simple HD recording package but it will do a good job of what you want to do.
All you need to consider is the input into your mac. Mac sure your record player is plugged into your hifi amp on the phono input and then get a tape output from the amp and plug it into the mac's audio input (whatever it may be). Protools will let you select the input of the computer (so will any recording program) and record it as a variety of files. .AIF is the main mac one although it's identical essentially to .WAV, they are both uncompressed wave sample files.
Any mac burning software will burn the resulting file onto a music CD if you select it to be burnt as an "audio" CD. Toast knows what the files are and will work it out for itself.
Cya
Steve...R
p.s. don't plug the record player 'directly' into the mac.
Cakewalk 9 Audio Editing
I'd like to use Cooledit Pro in combination with Cakewalk 9 to edit my audio files. Is there a way of getting Cooledit in the "Tools" menu along with the other tools (tuner, wavestudio, ...) ? 'cause opening the temporary files in the wavedata directory is not a very handy way to do this ...
plz help me
Re:
Look for audio editor on the menu. Click, browse locate cooledit.exe (name depends on version) and tick to enable it.
I'm not sure it's called audio editor (I haven't used cakewalk for a long time, sorry), but I'm sure it's there 'cause I used it to associate cakewalk with wavelab...
Re:
can't seem to find it... me too, i'm sure it's there somewhere, but i must stupidly miss it every time somehow... thx anyway
How can I print on my CD's?
How Can I print on my cd's?
Two ways I know...
One is to buy a cheap CD label printer which usually comes with some sort of software package and some sticky labels for the CD's themselves. Buy some card paper for the CD inlays.
Two, is to buy a dedicated CD printer that usually work as normal printers too. They can spray paint onto the CD itself and although expensive, are much more in the reach of us mere mortals than they were a few years ago.
Cya
Steve..R
Edit
Hello!
I need a program to edit .wav or .mp3 in the following way.
* Changing the speed, but not the tone.
* Changing the tone, but not the speed
* Filtering to take away background-noise
Help me find PC style editor for Roland G-800
hi my name is marko , I 'm G-800 user, I use user styles and I'm tryig not to use midi files as much as it is possible, but making my own styles is quite difficult od g-800, using his small display. It will be much easy for me if i could make it on my PC, and if I could use part of midi files to make stiles....please wich program is the best for making user stiles ang where can I find it????
Re: Help me find PC style editor for Roland G-800
There are lots of resources here.
Steve...R
can't get song to sound good after it leaves my pc
A song I've made sounds like crap when I burn it to cd and listen on a stereo or convert it to mp3 and listen on another computer. Its not as loud and the bass becomes muffled.
I'm running cakewalk sonar with an aardvark lx6 soundcard (and sb live!). I've recorded a song consisting of digitally recorded guitar/voice tracks and internal software synth tracks. I mixed the tracks as loud as they can go without distorting in sonar. I then converted it to a wave and used some free limiter/compression/normalize software to boost the volume. It sounds good on my PC, but nowhere else.
Any ideas?
Re:
Use your free limiter/compression/normalise software to check if your songs volume is above 0db (you can use sonar to check it before mixdown). Keep in mind that overcompressing might produce more compact (& loud) results but eventually music loses space & clarity.
In some cases speakers & amps that colorise excessively music are the reason for different auditions.
You might also check your soundcard(s) mixer settings , and the mixdown process on sonar...
Although it's not easy to read between the lines..
I suspect it could be your inexperience with mastering. When you say it sounds good only on your pc, through what monitors do you mean??? If you are refering to some cheap PC montiors then this is your problem. It's important to mix with a full range studio monitor if you can as plastic PC speakers and even hifi speakers wont necessarily show you the full story. Small speakers lack real bass and hifi speakers are generally coloured to make the sound individual to that design.
Recording levels in the digital domain are very important. People often use their experience with tape record levels, which I personally get as high as I know I can get them without saturation. The thing about digital is, digital saturation/distortion is ugly so anything over the 0db range should be avoided. It will distort from that point upwards so avoid it. Normalisation is great although I always normalise around 90-95% as there are some problems with normalisation with badly mastered levels.
Limiting and compression can change the appearance of the sound and should be done with an element of skill. It will confuse heavily bass weighted mixes and this could be your problem. Think about this process.
Multitrack. Eq (if at all) your instruments in small doses. Heavy changes can cause problems in mastering. Listen to the mix you are doing against a similar professionally recorded commerical song and see how the bass and mid range lie in comparison.
Use High and Low pass filters. This process will remove a bandwidth from an individual instrument where the instrument may not actually hold any useful information. If you have a hi-hat on a track then high pass filtering up to and around 800hz or higher will take away everything below that set frequency. This attitude, when applied to a bunch of instruments, can clean up muddy mixing no end as it removes the masses of bandwidths that aren't being used. Get that?
Listen to the track loud when mixing as speakers don't accurately reproduce bass at low volumes (hence some amps loudness buttons, don't use during mixing at any level though...!). I was taught to mix at around 90db SPL which can be confirmed with an SPL meter. This will help the final mix sound right on an array of different systems. Remember, a good mix will allow any system to be able to pick out the notes of each instrument whether the equipment is capable of making it sound full. A heavily eq'd bass at the bottom end may go missing on a tiny stereo so the bass note must be there. Think about that.
Compression is a mastering engineers greatest tool. Eq maybe but I think compression is. You can make a mix and ruin it with a tiny adjustment. Compression will bring a mix together and bring it to the front of the speakers but it will also affect the bass. It would suprise me at all if you have messed up your mix with a limiter. There should be no need for a limiter during mastering IF you have recorded and mixed properly. Compression is different though. Use 2:1 ratio compression and observe carefully the gain reduction. If you have a lot of GR then you more than likely have the threshold set too low. Listen to the mix and make adjustments for ages until it sound like that commercial mix.
If you like, you can send me the final result of your mix and I will give you an engineers opinion. Don't be shy now... hehe...
Regards
Steve...R
Re: Although it's not easy to read between the lines..
Steve - thanks for the lengthy answer and info.
First, you are right about the speakers - since this has just started as a hobby, I'm just using the lame 2 satellites/subwoofer setup that came with my PC. But I figured I could get away with them just to make decent sounding demos. Apparently not though?
Normalization - Sonar has that feature right in it. But oddly enough, when I use it there I still notice the level getting into the red a little bit. I called cakewalk and asked them about it, and the guy said a little red is ok, as long as you can't hear distortion. Is that right?
I am an amateur - so this is all a learning processs. The high/low pass filters sound intersting - where could I get those? Are they in software form? My goal is to do everything within the computer.
And mixing at 90db SPL - don't know much about this (or even what SPL stands for!). Could I get a software SPL meter? Sounds like thats what I need though - a gage to know what across the board volume I should be at.
And for the mastering/compression stuff - I'm just using something I found for free, so I'm not sure how good it is. What software is good? I've got a demo of T-racks and have heard that Sound Forge is good.
The main problem is low volume, and its unfortunate because some of the tracks are much louder than others - but you can't turn the "quieter" ones up or they'll distort. Therefore you have to turn the others down. For example, the bass track (which comes from a dxi software synth in Sonar) and a snare drum sample (which I got on the internet) are the "quiet" tracks - so the other tracks have to revolve around them.
If you'd be so kind you can reply to me here or at cstephan@innocent.com to discuss further. I'd be happy to send you the song for you to hear. Its actually a cover of a Moby song. Figured I'd move on to original stuff once I learned how to use this stuff....
Thanks....
patch name scripts for cubase ?
i am seeking patch name scripts for the korg ER-1 and yamaha DX-200 - can anybody help ?
in hope . . .
:)
Wav songs getting cut off during CD burning
I have Windows 98. I have lots of complete wav songs that I burned into a cd. When I played the newly burned cd I noticed that all wav song files over 2:00 minutes were being cut off. Burner software I used is Adaptec Easy CD. When I play the wav songs on Microsoft's Music Player, the songs play all the way through. However, when I preview play them using the Adaptec player, the songs are then cut off. HELP!! Is there anything I can do about this cutting off problem? Thanks so much.
Re:
The preview time is set for 2 minutes, see manual for details...
Wav songs betting cut off during CD burning
I have Windows 98. I have lots of complete wav songs that I burned into a cd. When I played the newly burned cd I noticed that all wav song files over 2:00 minutes were being cut off. Burner software I used is Adaptec Easy CD. When I play the wav songs on Microsoft's Music Player, the songs play all the way through. However, when I preview play them using the Adaptec player, the songs are then cut off. HELP!! Is there anything I can do about this cutting off problem? Thanks so much.
Re: Wav songs being cut off during CD burning
Use the Microsoft Sound Recorder...Bring the song up in the Sound Recorder...Select Properties....Select ALL FORMATS...Then Click Convert Now...Select CD Quality and Click Save. Your songs will play full length on your burned CDs now.
Re: Wav songs betting cut off during CD burning
: I have Windows 98. I have lots of complete wav songs that I burned into a cd. When I played the newly burned cd I noticed that all wav song files over 2:00 minutes were being cut off. Burner software I used is Adaptec Easy CD. When I play the wav songs on Microsoft's Music Player, the songs play all the way through. However, when I preview play them using the Adaptec player, the songs are then cut off. HELP!! Is there anything I can do about this cutting off problem? Thanks so much. Bring the song up in your Microsoft Recorder....Click Properties for the song. Change song file to CD Quality and then Click Save. This will allow song to play it's full length on your CD you have burned.
Vst instrument-no sound.
Im having some trouble using vst instruments, they arnt producing any sound.
I have my instrument selected in cubase and a Midi track is also selected with the plugin name, now how do I get it to make some sounds? Do I need a midi keyboard? Or can I use my computer keyboard?
Re:
Did you set the track output to your vst instrument instead of midi out?
On some VST instruments you need to manually set the proper notes that correspond to the proper sample.
Repost with more details if problem persists...
Arabic PSR Styles
I would appreciate it if somebody can tell me where I can find arabic styles for my keyboard.
Thanks
Re: Arabic PSR Styles
If what you want is Arabic Stickers for the keyboard or Arabic Keyboard then Call this Tall Free Number in Canada (1888)8238963 or go to their WebSite www.multivisionsinc.com
MIDI and Mp3
Err I heard that you cannot convert Mp3 to MIDI because they are two totally different things, right? Well then can you convert .wav files to .mid?
I wanted to get some anime MIDI's on my dumb Yahoo! page builder. That program is for the birds, I swear. I already paid for Earthlink and the dumb Click N' Build sucks as well... It doesn't let you put music on your site. One question for someone out there who has Yahoo! Page Builder: Why is it that when I try to upload certain MIDI files, it says it could not upload file and for others it works like magic?!
Help me here...
Re: MIDI and Mp3
I wouldn't bother with MP3 to MIDI. It's not going to sound good at all (I bet). A good clear WAV file with an instrument of two stands a far better chance. Remember a WAV is a digital representation of sound while MIDI is really just a series of instructions. Try these:
<a href="http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/WaveGoodbye/">http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/WaveGoodbye/</a>
<a href="http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Wav2MID/">http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Wav2MID/</a>
As for your other question, I've no idea.
Lisa
: Err I heard that you cannot convert Mp3 to MIDI because they are two totally different things, right? Well then can you convert .wav files to .mid?
: I wanted to get some anime MIDI's on my dumb Yahoo! page builder. That program is for the birds, I swear. I already paid for Earthlink and the dumb Click N' Build sucks as well... It doesn't let you put music on your site. One question for someone out there who has Yahoo! Page Builder: Why is it that when I try to upload certain MIDI files, it says it could not upload file and for others it works like magic?!
: Help me here...
can somebody help me with WAVELAB 3.0
Hi,
My computer crashed and I am trying to reinstall Wavelab 3 so can anybody email me an authorization code as otherwise I can install it.
email me : johnrichardandrew@hotmail.com
Re: can somebody help me with WAVELAB 3.0
Email WAVELAB and get them to give you the code. They would have records of purchase. Or is this simply the lamest attempt ever at trying to get a regcode?
;)
Lisa
: Hi,
: My computer crashed and I am trying to reinstall Wavelab 3 so can anybody email me an authorization code as otherwise I can install it.
: email me : johnrichardandrew@hotmail.com
Beginner
Hooked up midi cables...
Went to multimedia-midi...
Created external MIDI instrument...
Open "SymSynth" program...
Load a file for synthefication...
Press keyboard...no sound
What next???Please.
MP3 FREQUENCY NORMALIZER
IS DER A PROGRAM THAT CAN NORMALIZE,MINIMIZE DA VOLUME TONE,TREBLE,BASS AND FREQUENCY...ON MP3 FILES!!!!!!
NOT WAVE FILES!!!! IM TALKIN BOUT MP3'S
volume and frequency Normalizer
Can anybody tell me if ders a program dat Can Normalize da volume,tone,bass , and da frequency in mp3 files???
Re: volume and frequency Normalizer
: Can anybody tell me if ders a program dat Can Normalize da volume,tone,bass , and da frequency in mp3 files???
You have to convert to wave first- at least I don't know of a program that does it natively in MP3. Blaze Audio RipEditBurn works for me- normalization, fade in and out, and 10 band EQ.
Vinyl to CD
Need to convert (and clean up) some old and rare vinyl to CD. What do I need (shareware preferably) and where can I get it. I use an IMac with Yamaha CD writer and Adaptec toast.
Many thanks,
Pat.
Re: Vinyl to CD
: Need to convert (and clean up) some old and rare 78 rpm vinyls to CD. Where can I get it done for me?.
: Many thanks,
Josef
Wait there a sec...
a search for LP-recording actually, Grin...!
Steve...R