Multi Track Midi Recorder?, Midi, old system Options

[IRONSLAVE]

Ok. So I have a G4 laptop I got a hold of. I also have an M-Audio E-Keys 37 USB midi Controller. I am totally new to this. I am looking for a good setup i can use to record a multi track midi song. I tried using garage band but it's not working out for me. I am using ableton live 7 LE and I like it, but my computer overloads quickly and it is a little confusing

All i want to do is use this USB controller to make some midi songs.

software instruments would be great

Stylings for drum n bass, 80;s electronica, and techno would be my forte.

some small Fx like Echo, Delay, Chorus,and Distortion would be awesome...

I am a guitar player, so this is going to be an interesting experience.

Something I can get ahold of as far as being able to download would be great as well because I will be unable to accept delivered items for the next 4 months as i will be traveling.
If it would work on an intel CPU i would be grateful so I can use it at home when i return.

I was trying to find a copy of tracktion 1.5 but I am un sucessful

I was peeking at Cubase 4 and it has a 16 track Midi Recorder.... could i Use this with my USB piano? would i need a way to use Midi Inturements outside of the program?

Can anyone guide me in a general direction with the keyboard? I havent even recieved it yet and will get it on tuesday.

This post has been edited by IRONSLAVE: Sun 31 May 2009, 23:03

[deaconblue]

Hey Ironslave,

Not sure what I can recommend as a start up application beyond the two you have listed already. Both GarageBand and Ableton Live will do what you are wanting to do.

What problem are you having in GarageBand? I know the first thing that pops out at you in GB is the 'loops' option. And while this can be a good thing, it can also be a bit distracting, especially when building a song using loops is not what you're after.

For Ableton you'll need to make sure you have enough RAM (depending on the PowerBook you have [there are a few varieties of G4s]) you can use between 1GB and 2GB of RAM. For your Harddrive, it should have at least 20% free that you do not use in addition to the space you need for your apps, files and the music you're creating.

The keyboard will work as long as you have the drivers loaded (for the M-Audio Keystations I believe they are CoreAudio compatible and will not require any drivers) and the application you are using is CoreAudio aware (most modern Mac compatible DAWs are).

In the interim, what are the issues you're running into with GarageBand? If you can fix those they you won't need to purchase anything and I believe you can use the LE version of Ableton within GarageBand so you could have the best of both (depending, again on the hardware configuration of your PowerBook).

Lots of variables to consider, but the first two are what PowerBook G4 do you have and what is the configuration? (Speed Ghz, RAM GB, HDD GB); what issues are you running into in GB?

peace.