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

[mortalengines]

Hmmm.....you ask many questions.....I'll try to answer as best as I can. Garage Band is one of the easier programs to get started with....the fact that it's free with any new mac makes it a great bargain. I learned it in something like an afternoon to help my daughter get started making music. Was there any one thing that you had a hard time understanding? Different programs come easy (or not so) to different people. I use the full version of Live and, I am not sure how much you would really like the full version or not. Its odd GUI makes it a little difficult to wrap your head around at first. I hear good things about a program/sequencer called Reaper and it is only 60 dollars to download.....which leads me answer to your next question. ALL of these programs are available to buy online and download. ALL of these programs have a demo available that is free to download as well. Google any of the popular software titles for Mac: Logic, Digital Performer, Live, Cubase, and you will be well on your way to downloading a demo and making up your own mind about how you want to start. All of the above programs have similar, yet very different ways of approaching audio/midi recording....all of them are very good at what they do as well. If you are really just wanting to work with Midi and virtual instruments then you may want to take a good look at Reason 4.0. It doesn't really handle audio, except as samples to be triggered by the NNXT sampler module or the Dr Rex player (two of Reason's instruments). That simplifies things greatly. Working with audio and audio interfaces can get very complicated sometimes. Propellerhead Software (Reason's developer), will be releasing an audio recording platform called Record very soon. Many are getting excited about it. You may want to have a look at that as well.

You must be looking at the LE version of Cubase 4. The full version offers midi tracks in the hundreds probably.... I tried using a Cubase LE program that came bundled with the sound card on my old PC and almost ran away screaming. I understand the newer versions are much easier to get in to. Try the demo. The full version of Cubase has a TON of virtual instruments and effects. So does Logic, DP, and Live (Live's offering of instruments is pretty pitiful compared to the others but, as a program it is pretty excellent overall). All of these will work with the midi keyboard that you have on the way. As soon as you get the keyboard, install the drivers that come on the disc included with it, and proceed immediately to M-audio's site to make sure you have the most up to date drivers on hand. You will save yourself so many headaches if you just do things like check system compatibility before buying/installing new software, and making sure you have the most up to date software available. Don't plug in the keyboard until all the drivers and updates are successfully installed. Once the drivers are installed, plug in the keyboard and go to the Audio/midi utility which is something like (Macintosh HD/Applications/Audio Midi setup....you will need to create a new profile for your instrument there. This should be easy to do as your computer has the drivers, and knows what is plugged in to it. Then open up whatever sequencing program you will be using, and make sure that you go to the "preferences" drop down menu for the App. From there it should be farily easy since you usually only need to select your keyboard from the MIDI prefereces section and make sure that it's turned ON.

Your G4 should work alright but, keep in mind that it's getting a little "long in the tooth" and as it is, it will only JUST meet minimum requrements very soon on many platforms. You will probably want to try to get as much RAM installed that you can possibly afford. Like, try to have around 2 GB of RAM installed, and more if it's possible. Reason is probably the least taxing on your computer's CPU compared to the others, giving it another "plus" in your case.


Good luck and have fun!


www.reverbnation.com/mortalengines



This post has been edited by mortalengines: Tue 2 Jun 2009, 08:17