I have the driver for Opti 931 at home
please contacy me on my e-mail or
phone me 0274-864440

It's a forum, come back for your answers...

SteveR

: I need to know what the best system (computer,software, etc.) for recording, writing, playing, has guitar, bass, drum, keyboards etc.... need to know also what the price is around... appreciate any help...thanks

You want to compose for guitar and bass, but you don't play them, right? I'm partial to Jammer for music composition, and melody (or harmony) assistant for working on a score. As far as sounds go, Midi is okay, but if you want realistic guitars and bass even the most expensive sound fonts don't do the real thing justice.

Steve

Try Spark for OSX which is currently a beta and is therefore free. It works well though..

Try Reason which is the big boys rebirth and is available in demo form although I don't know if you can run it in OSX yet. Run it in OS9 (hold 'ALT' as you boot the computer and select the OS9 partition)

Live is an OSX program which has got a lot of press, demo available. I have seen this running at a show and although it looks a little cheap, it's very cool.

Check out the link below as an excellent source for all OSX shareware, freeware and demos. Check the audio section as there are a lot of things I haven't tried yet. Software synths and stuff...

SteveR

forgot to mention, also have ReBirth for some minor playing around, what about CakeWalk and/ or some stuff for mixing tracks, looping, sequencing...
cheers

Its on Kazaa file sharing software.

i've got both Files of it.

You might not need SysEx at all. I maybe misunderstand you, but it sounds like you could do this:

Set up your computer to use the drum machine as a master clock for synchronization. This is so your drum machine controls the starting and stopping of your computer sequencer. This may require using a different sequencer, if yours doesn't support external clocking or doesn't support MTC or MMC (Midi TimeCode or Midi Machine Code). Of course, your drum machine must be able to be set up as a master, also. Sometimes this is described as slaving the computer to the drum machine.

Send your drum sequence into the computer using MIDI cables. Set up your sequencer to receive on all channels (receive all channels = omni mode).

Record your drum sequence by pressing play. Your drum sequence should be playing as it normally does, but while sending it's midi output to the computer's midi input.

When you use Omni mode, all midi data gets recorded. Your sequencer might not call it this. Just make sure that your sequencer is set up to receive all channels. If it can't, you might have to just record each midi channel separately.

If you are forced to record each channel separately, you'll have to give extra care to making sure that each channel is sent to the correct number. 1 is sent to 1, 2 is sent to 2, 3 is sent to 3,...16 is sent to 16.

You drum machine may or may not send instrument note-on data on separate channels. Sometimes, each drum sample just matches a separate note on the musical scale. You will know after you get the data into the computer or after you read your drum machine's manual.

Other considerations: program change signals for drum machines usually causes a changing of drum patterns or songs. Program change signals for other midi sound devices have other meanings:

MIDI program change
___________________
multieffects unit = change to effect #
hard disk recorder = change to song #
hard disk recorder = change to marker #
lighting unit = change lights to setup #
digital mixer = change to mixer snapshot #

program change is also a bit more complex for
GM or XGM type sounds. (General MIDI, Extended General MIDI) Hope that you won't be dealing with this stuff.

When you run into problems, that's when it's time
to get books or look for file to read from online. Reading is power.

Just remember what you are dealing with.

A sequencer records note data, not sounds.
A multitrack recorder records audio data, not note data.
A drum machine with a MIDI output sends note data.
A drum machine with a MIDI input receives note data.
A drum machine's audio outputs can only be connected to something that uses audio, not notes.
MIDI is a form of timecode, NOT a form of audio.
Audio is NOT a form of timecode, but digital outputs and inputs (SPDIF,ADAT,AES/EBU) are!
If your sequencer can deal with both MIDI and audio, then it's really 2 or more programs in one: It has a sequencer, and a multitrack mixer. If you can do editing, it also has an editor. The computer acts like it's all one thing, but as long as you're dealing with MIDI, there's a distinction, especially if you use external devices.

It's probably easiest just to set up your drum machine to play out each audio track separately and record each track onto a separate audio track. When you're done, you'll have a multitrack mix of your drum machine's parts. Now calculate the audible BPM of your song (Listen to it and count the BPM). After a few tries, to be sure, set the BPM of your computer program to be equal what you counted yourself. Then, move the audio tracks until the start of each beat is on the start of each beat in the audio waveforms.

To calculate the BPM of any song you are listening to, use a stopwatch and a calculator.

240 divided by {the time of one loop} = BPM

Trust me, it's much faster and easier than programs and stuff. With a calculator, you can get superior accuracy, both mathematically and audibly.

Good luck. Be sure to ask other folks. I'm not that good at giving simple answers.