|
There are 3 types of instruments that can be used for scoring with sequencers.
- Internal Virtual Instruments (Internal meaning running from within the computer.
- External MIDI controlled devices (sound modules, samplers, etc.)
- External real instruments (or live audio recordings).
There are different methods to set up each of these methods... here's how:
Internal Virtual Instruments
After having installed the virtual instrument software (see here to see our list of reviewed VIs) your sequencer will automatically find and examine the compatibility of the VI when you start it up for the first time. There are 2 types of VIs. The first is the type where you can load only one sound per occurance of the instrument, and the other is VIs that allow multiple sounds per occurance of the VI.
To add a VI track go to Project / Add Track / Instrument Track / Add Instrument... (the advantage of chooing this selection rather than just the instrument is that you can also assign how many tracks you want assigned to that instrument.)
A new window then appears that allows you to select how many occurances of the instruments you want opened, your instrument (by clicking on the drop down menu where it says 'unassigned'), how many MIDI channels you want assigned to each instrument and finally, if you use folders (which are handy for saving screen space) you can automatically add it to a new folder.
Then press OK and your new instruments tracks will appear in the track list while the VI opens in a new window. Now that you havethe VI open you will need to assign the 'sounds' to the tracks within the VI. In this case I have opened Quantum Leap's 'RA'. You can select up to 8 tracks of instrumental sounds.
Now you can return back to the sequencer needing only for you to 'record enable' the corresponding track to start recording on it (i.e. in the above example there are 8 available tracks within RA, therefore tracks 1-8 within RA will also be tracks 1-8 under RA in the output column of the sequencer).
External MIDI Instruments
Before you can use an external MIDI controlled instrument, such as a sound module, you need to have some sort of interface that will control that instrument, such as MOTU's MIDI Timepiece AV or a MIDI over LAN application for controlling another computer's MIDI software. Once this is installed it will appear in your Audio MIDI Setup device, which can be found on your Hard Drive / Applications / Utilities folder. In the example below I have another PC set up in this studio which is running Tascam's Giga Studio 3, and its running over the Local Area Network via MIDI Over LAN. The first 3 ports of Giga Studio are assigned to channels 1, 2 & 3 meaning that I have 3x16 MIDI channels available. In your own studio, you might have different interfaces and if its installed correctly, you will see this interface automatically in this window in place, or as well as the MIDIoverLAN interface you see in this example.
Lets now say that you wanted to add another instrument to this list. For arguments sake, lets say that you wanted to add a JV2080 sound module to your studio. (In this example as the 2080 doesn't have Ethernet ports I would need to get a MIDI interface, so here, lets just pretend that the MIDIoverLAN software is a physical device as the principles and methods are exactly the same. Go to Add Device (as circled above) and a new window will icon will appear called new external device. Double click it and a new window will appear.
Under Manufacturer select 'Roland' and Model select 'JV2080' and then scroll down to find the icon image you want to represent the JV2080. Select 'Apply' and then close the properties window and your new device will be appropriately named and shown. Now you will need to drag from the output of the MIDI interface to the input of the new device to connect the dvice to the interface.
Close down the Audio MIDI Setup window and return to DP5, and add a new MIDI track by going to Project / Add Track / MIDI Track (or SHORTCUT KEY: APPLE KEY, SHIFT M). A new MIDI TRack will appear in the track list. Click in the new track's Output columnand set it to one of the JV-2080 channels.
Finally, you can change the Track name (in this example it's currently called 'Track-2') by clicking on the track name while holding down the ALT or OPTION key on the keyboard and then typing in the new track name.
External Live Instruments
To add a live instrument track is very simple. All you need to do is add a microphone into your studio that will run through your sound card - and you can record live music. All you do is go to Project / Add Track / Mono Audio Track OR Stereo Audio Track (depending on your set up). With most sequencers you will find though that you will not be able to use many features such as quantize, notation, etc. but you will be able to use the same effects and busses that you would use with MIDI instruments. If you have soundcards that allow for multiple inputs, such as M-AUDIO's Delta 1010LT (which is a card that allows you to have 10 ins and outs), you can set it up so that you can have multi track recordings within the sequencer. Companies such as MOTU, TASCAM and PreSonus make multi-input firewire interfaces too which are well worth looking into if you want to use your sequencer as a multi-track recording studio.
Personally, I would recommend doing the live recordings in sofware such as ProTools, and then import the audio file if needed as part of the sequence, but its good to know the options are still here in most sequencers. If you want to record live instruments and have the note notated I woudl recommend software such as Coda Music's 'Finale 2008' which will notate your live performance.
|
|
|
