I know Squeak and Dave use one. I'm having plenty of trouble with Cakewalk. It took 2 days just to get sound on playback figured out.

Then I'm holding a sax and trying to work the mouse. Everytime I need to change something, I have to wait for a new screen and the list goes on and on.

And trying to figure out how to assign effects is like unbelieveable. There has to be an easier way than software eh?

If not I'll have to stick with my mini disk, I guess!
Boo

I Have a nice Sony Mini disc deck sale? Hmmmm? Trade? maybe for a portable walkman style CD/Mp3 player?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 02-10-2004).]

Boo, I recently purchased a Korg D1200mkII
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=D1200MKII

and highly recommend it for it's compact size, ease of use, and most of all for it's excellent sound quality. I recently recorded the song "Cattle Call" exclusively with it. You can listen to it on my website. http://scottyee.com . The Korg D1200mkII is very simple to operate. Hit record and away you. There's even a dedicated Korg Recorder forum www.korgstudios.com available if you have questions. Very friendly & helpful people there. I too was using the Cakewalk Sonar but have found the Korg D1200mkII more convenient when I just want to make & record music without the complications of the computer getting in the way of my music making creativity. Low street price, under $999. - Scott

bric
I use the Tascam SX 1LE. To me h/d recorders are about 100% easier to deal with....push record and go.
Terry

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Boo, I have a Boss BR532 I've hardly used. I've also got a small mini-disk N707 to records well, when I can remember how to use it.

Dnj - is that a deck style minidisk?

BTW the Boss is always for sale.

Yes its a Sony deck style mini disc player recorder I'll email ya a pic of it....I could use a CD/Mp3 walkman

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 02-10-2004).]

Sax by itself is hard to get the true sound while recording. The technique you see where the guy has the mic right in the bell is wrong.

I read in a very good publication that the mic should be above the bell at the middle of the horn because sound comes from all of the holes in the housing also. I tried that today and it was a big improvement.

I tried to ad some reverb in Cakewalk it was way too much and then I couldn't figure out how to get it back to where it was.

With a digital recorder all I have to do is turn a knob for balance, volume, reverb or whatever right, no?

I just got the Mackie a while back and the Carvin amp just a couple weeks ago so I'll have to get maybe the Zoom MRS4 or Fostex MR8 I guess.

Boy if I could sell that scaffold. You guys don't know any bricklayers or stucco folks. Get me a sale I'll give ya $200. Dave'll probably have this sold by morning.

Then on some of the forums it seems it's may be a bit of trouble getting the stuff into the computer to burn a CD.

How much an hour do studios in your area charge?

Boo, Hard Disk recorders are fine but I wouldn't give up on Soft Synth recorders so quickly. Cakewalk in particular has a very crowded User interface IMO and trying to find your way around its many features can be daunting as you have found out. There are other Software based recorders or multi-track recorders that you may find easier to use. You should be able to download Demo versions of other Soft Synths like Cakewalk and try them out to see which one[s] suit you best. I can tell you first hand that Sound Forge has an extremely easy to use interface and everything is laid out very logically and its very uncluttered. If you need a Multi-track recorder - (Sound Forge is simply a 2 track "Stereo or Mono" recorder) - then you may want to consider Sony Vegas 4.0. 4.0 is the newest version, Sony having acquired it and all other Sonic Foundry software programs when Sony bought them out. Vegas is a multi-track recorder albeit a rather expensive one.

There is so much you can do with a Soft Synth recorder or Soft Synth Multi-track recorder that you can't do with a Hard Disk recorder. There are enormous amounts of Tools and Editing options on a software based program that Hard Disk recorders can't touch. You just need to find the program that is to your liking and has an easy to use and navigate interface. If you do decide to go hardware based there are many fine options to fit your needs though.

Best regards,
Mike

Boo,
Just use the 'undo' feature in your sequencer prog to take the reverb (or any applied effect) off that you did not like. As long as you have not saved the cut in between you can 'apply' and 'undo' as many effects as you like until you get a cut you are happy with.

With a bit of perseverence I'm sure you will get the hang of it in the end. I'm no expert by any means but have learned to do what I need to just using a sequencer and the pc. The experts might say I'm doing it all wrong but as long as we are happy with the end result it does not really matter how we do it

I take it from your posts that you are mixing midi with audio? Why not just do the whole lot in audio to save sync probs? Just run the line out of your keyboard to the pc and let the keyboard play the sequence. Record it in audio on your pc sequencer. Then do another audio track for your sax but obviously this time with your mic connected up instead of the keyboard.

Like all this music stuff we do, half the fun is the learning bit ... followed by the buzz when we can finally do something we could not do last week.

Best wishes
Tony

I have a Yamaha AW16G DAW. It was under $1000 and I love it. I use it almost exclusively now to record my acoustic accordion through it's 1/4" jack. There is almost no noise and it is a breeze to get something recorded and burned to a CD. I messed around with Sonar for a while and got tired of it.

I don't like the 10,000 options of a softsynth. To me it's like drawing a picture with 10,000 crayons. You'll sit there and keep adding and keep adding and keep adding color until you've got this big ugly cluttered mess. At least that's the type of person I am. I'll tweak it until it's dead.

With my DAW, I record, maybe add a couple of effects, maybe not, and then burn it to CD.