Guys,

I recently purchased a Motif ES7. I am a newbie and would like to know the most practical method for me to be able to get sound on my laptop.

I've got a Dell Inspirion 9100, 3ghz, 1 gig ram, Intel 865 chipset.

On this computer I've installed Sonar 4. When Sonar loads, it displays a message stating no acceptable sound device found. I am guessing the cheesy SigmaTel Audio soundcard that came installed on my laptop isn't cutting the mustard.

What is the most efficient method for me to hit the ground running, being able to lay down some tracks? Down the road, I will want to add vocals and guitar to the tracks, as well as the synth.

Would the best solution be an external soundcard or an audio interface? What about the mLAN16 expansion board.

What I know is that I can't get any sound when I open up sample files in Sonar4. I need you guys to give me some recommendations.

Thanks!

You can get GM midi sounds from your Inspiron sound card if you are using the "GS Wavetable Synth" as your midi sound source. You can also load softsynths and/or soundfonts. The easiest would be the Roland VSC3 or the Yamaha SYX-G50. Your Motif sounds can be recorded into your LT thru any audio recording program - Cakewalk, Sonar, Sound Forge, etc. They will be actual audio, not midi. And, if I'm not mistaken, Sonar4 has its own sound engine.

[This message has been edited by cassp (edited 05-02-2005).]

You're right. Sonar 4 probably won't work with your internal soundcard, in it's present state. You'll need something a little better, with better drivers, but.. you can probably use your internal card for now.

How ? Install Asio4all on your computer, and it will give you generic Asio drivers that work with most modern soundcards. The quality of your internal card will be the limiting factor as far as the sound quality goes, but at least you will have low latency drivers that Sonar can work with. It works for me on my laptop, although I have since installed an external usb driven card as well.

You can get it here... http://www.asio4all.com/

I'm not certain whether you were interested in this part of it, but cassp mentioned it and I'll add a little if I may, because you may want to use other sounds to enhance your ES. ( My setup too btw, but an ES6 with Sonar 4 ).

You can use the GM wavetable sounds available in your computer, but you may not like them very much. It's easy to upgrade, and you can get a much better set for free. SGM120, SGM180, MagicSf2, Personal copy , are among the better freeware soundfonts out there ( there are several other good ones too ).

Do a search in google or Yahoo, and I bet you find them all. You'll need a soundfont host that will open as a vst in Sonar. More good news. You can find freeware ones over at KVR-Audio. You can also find many good freeware and commercial vst instruments and effects plug ins there as well.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 05-02-2005).]

AJ,

Thanks for the info. I downloaded and installed the driver, opened up Sonar4 and setup ASIO.

Now within Sonar4, I have the ability to launch the ASIO control panel...cool.

After performing the steps above, I opened up one of the example tutorials within Sonar4 and executed the "play" command. I still hear no sound on my computer speakers.

Should I being hearing something thru my speakers?

Thanks for your help!

I'm assuming the tutorial has wav file ? You should be hearing it through your speakers. Two things to check. Make sure ASIO4all is setup for your soundcard. Just open it up and assign your soundcard. You'll need to go into advanced options ( press the picture of "Einstein"..lol )

Second, make sure that it is assigned corectly in Sonar. You should be selecting ASIO devices in the options - audio menu. Also, remember, any soundcard settings you change don't take effect until you close and then reopen Sonar.

I just finished cleaning up my laptop and I am restoring several apps, so right at this exact moment, I don't have ASIO4all up and running. Give me a day or so and I hope to have it all back. Then, if you still need any help, I can better walk you through it.

Regards,

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 05-02-2005).]

AJ,

You were right, I evidently didn't open the right file type up. I tried another Cakewalk folder and once played, heard sound thru the speakers.

Woo who!!! Exciting stuff.

Here's another question for you. In order for me to record a CD of sounds sounding exactly as they sound on my ES7, what do I have to do? I am guessing that with my current setup, if I hook up my ES7 to my laptop and record some sounds, the sounds that I hear on my computer speakers will be the sounds from the ES7 as interpreted by the soundcard on the laptop, correct?

Pardon me for being a bit of a stosh, but I am brand spanking new to this. It's all terribly intriguing!

Pretty much yes. That's the way it will work. You'll mix your tracks down in Sonar and save them to a wav file, and then burn that wav file to an audio CD ( or send to cd as a wav file if you want to store data instead of an audio cd ).

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 05-02-2005).]

...and so a new label was born...

Cool, you fixed it!!! This nice guy could help you so much better than me. I don't work with Sonar4 and I also don't use a Motif. My knowledge is more computer related and I can support you for general questions - hardware and software related.

I hope we will hear some more of your further experiences with Sonar4 in combination with Motif (and maybe mLAN16?)...

------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

[This message has been edited by Sheriff (edited 05-02-2005).]

Me too Sheriff. I'm very tempted to go to the mlan system myself. Best of luck with your setup hauschild, and let us know how you make out with it. I like Sonar 4 with the Motif.

The bundled SQ01 DAW that comes with the ES isn't half bad either, when you want simpler. All of my Vst plugins work well in both.

AJ

Thanks for the assistance, gentlemen. I am sure you will be hearing from me quite often in this forum with my newbie questions.

Here's a non-technical question I've been thinking about lately...Since the synth craze of the 1980's and the proliferation of computers since that time, why does this MIDI stuff seem like such a big secret?

Years ago, I would have suspected that integrating synths with computers would have been more mainstream by this time, yet it still seems overly complicated. Am I nuts, or is there some truth to what I have observed. If so, why is this the case?

Just something for ya'll to chew on and comment on.

Yes!!! 100% YES!!!


It's the today's marketing...
If you're still not nuts then you'll buy and buy and buy and buy...
M$ gets richer and the world gets poorer - it's a nearly perfect strategy...

And in a few years we will have to pay the bill...well, or still the Bill...

------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

Actually, back in the 80's and early 90's, there was quite a bit of it going on. Much if not most of it was being done on the Atari platform.

Cubase was born there, and if I remember correctly, so was Band in A Box. There were lots of other very cool apps too, some of which are long gone. Many of these apps were very simple, yet, even today, for just running midi based programs, or programming midi synths and editing patches, these old apps are still quite relevant.

Why today do they seem to be so complex ? My guess is the it's because of the multitude of technological advances, and the fact that many users want to be able to customize their own setups, and have an entire studio in a box or two. There is a lot of competiton today too, in a rather tight market. I'm pretty amazed at what can be done today on one machine, but I guess all of that brings complexity

Today, we can all go to forums that companies often frequent, and request different features, as well as submit both positive and negative feedback. This really didn't exist not so many years ago.

Just a sampling of this forum could speak volumes on if, for example, we all tried to accomplish a similar thing musically. My guess is that each member might have similar yet slightly to largely different approaches to the way they want to work.

The one other glaring thing is that the original General midi standard from back then hasn't really evolved at all, but different companies have gone in somewhat different directions in order to upgrade and try to keep it commensurte with technological advances..eg - Yamaha with XG, Roland with GS, etc. So it isn't quite so "standard" any more.

As a side note, a while back, I ran across Tim Conrardy's Atari midi site. His site hosts many of the old commercial Atari apps, and most have now been released as freeware. His site also hosts the old .tos images as well as Steem, which is an Atari emulator for PC. I was thrilled when I was able to install steem and run some of the old Atari apps. Great nostalgia.. and fun, but also, there are quite a few apps that I find to still be useful, so many years later. Great job Tim, and many thanks for it.

AJ

and now, once again because AJ can type a lot faster than his marginal brain can think..... once again...


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 05-02-2005).]

I have been using my Motif ES with Mlan16e for a while now and it truly does work. I dont have it hooked up to a laptop though. But to a regular pc i put together.
I really like the ES because the Mlan feature gives you like 4 midi ports of 16 midi channels each. Plus all the Digital audio channels. 16 total. So you can send upto 14 individual digital channels to your pc sequencer or total 16 together via channel 15&16. then you can send upto 4 stereo or 8 mono digital channels back to the ES via Mlan. All via one single Firewire cable!
I love it and its working flawlessly for me.



------------------
Peace,

Musikman

Yes, AJ, the many supporters of Atari related softwares made a really good job and they're still doing it. TOS is now open source under the GPL and so it's still alive. TOS had grown to a modern system in the shadow of the market.
TOS emulations for PCs are very pretty but not amazing. Newer Atari hardware will provide better abilities for TOS applications than emulations ever do - because emulations are replications and no innovations!

Hey, AJ! If you're interested in newer hardware projects read this thread: http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum1/HTML/003421.html
Just for information...

------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

[This message has been edited by Sheriff (edited 05-03-2005).]

How does it work? I remember that the most synths do provide 16 midi channels only...


...and, and, and...

Hey, it sounds amazing!!! How much costs a system like Motif ES7 plus mLAN16-E? And what hardware else do I need? I guess this will be more money than for my old Atari system...

------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

[This message has been edited by Sheriff (edited 05-03-2005).]

Sheriff,

Well, I can tell you I paid 2000 dollars + 175 for sales tax = 2175 dollars for my ES7. The mLAN16 expansion board is 300 dollars.

Plus your computer and sequencing software and studio monitors and God knows what else, I'm realizing I am very lucky I am a software developer because I would not be able to afford this stuff if I had a normal job!

MUSICMAN...thanks for your input about your mLAN16. Can you tell me, if I purchase one of these and install to my ES7, will I need any other pieces of hardware? What sequencing software are you using? I've got Sonar4 installed on my laptop, but I have hooked my synth up yet. I'm trying to determine the best road for me to travel down. Thanks!

Guys, sorry for not responding earlier. I always check my email for responses to my posts, but for some reason, I never get any from the Forum. I dont know how to fix that unfortunately.

But anyways here we go:

Im using One Man Band with my ES7 to come up with the backing tracks for my songs. I recently purchased Jamstix from Rayzoon, and I think my drum tracks will never be the same.
Ok, but to use the ES7 with Mlan, you dont really need anything else.
http://www.mlancentral.com/

Most of the stuff is included with your ES7. Yamaha gives you a CD with Editors, and even a fully loaded Audio and MIDI sequencer called Yamaha SQ1v2, which you can use with your Mlan16e to send audio and midi to your PC. I used this one mostly in the beginning till I learned how to use Cubase SX. Which is what I only use now.

I basically use One Man Band, record the midi output of OMB to my Motif ES sequencer, then once the song is there, I can change voice patches, drumkits, or do what ever I wish to the song. Then, I hook up a microphone to the Analog inputs of my Motif ES, and patch that input via Mlan to my computer, apply insert effects if I wish, and send that vocal tracks, playing along with my motif sequenced tracks, all in pure digital audio to the pc via a single firewire cable. I dont have the latest System, but my athlon 2600XP is working flawlessly. Im using 512 pc3200 ram with a Firewire card, and its working like a dream.

You can use any software you wish, but to make sure, you can always go to the:
http://www.motifator.com/es/index_es.php

Hey, gotta go but if you need any help, check out the Motif Forum, man, there is so much info there about mlan, and everything else. Dont get intimidated if you dont see many arranger folks there, but believe, there are, we are just behind the curtains. Im one. And proud too !! LOL

Rock on my frinds,

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Peace,

Musikman