Set-up

[oblitafried]

Hi! Extreme newbie here, so please be gentle!!

I decided to impulsively buy a M/K last week (Berlin has got to me!). Bearing in mind my complete inexperience could anyone recommend a good, cheap:-

a) Mixer?
b) Drum machine?
c) Sequencer?

Any help or links to a good complete beginners guide would be most welcome.

Thanks!!!

[gusargrk]

mixer - behringer, alto, yamaha
sequencer & drum machine - MPC500, MPC1000

[BatterieslikeBullets]

mixer = a nice berhinger xenynx of ure choosing
drum machine/ sequencer= an electribe!!

u cant go wrong

[ronP]

Hi! Extreme newbie here, so please be gentle!!

I decided to impulsively buy a M/K last week (Berlin has got to me!). Bearing in mind my complete inexperience could anyone recommend a good, cheap:-

a) Mixer?
b) Drum machine?
c) Sequencer?

Any help or links to a good complete beginners guide would be most welcome.

Thanks!!!

.


Hi. Here are my suggestions, based on my own use and experience . . .


Mixer: BEHRINGER Xenyx Series (4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 channel) -- $60-100

Drum Machine: ZOOM MRS-3B or ALESIS SR-18 -- $100-200

Sequencer: KORG Electribe EA-1 mkII -- $200




.

[heloseinnate]

if you're mixing to your comp wouldn't you want a mixer that has MIDI in/out thru?

I'm having trouble finding a mixing interface that has MIDI, 2 Mic Pres and 2-3 1/4" inputs.

any help would be much appreciated.

[xmlguy]

Mixers mix audio. Midi is not audio. So finding a mixer with midi is like trying to find a gasoline car that runs on diesel. Midi and audio are fundamentally different and can't be mixed. Midi can be used to create audio, just like a musical score can be used by a symphony to make audio, but the score itself has no sound - it just says what to play at what time. The score is music, but only in the abstract sense - it doesn't become sound until someone or something plays it. Midi is abstract music until something plays it.

[heloseinnate]

Mixers mix audio. Midi is not audio. So finding a mixer with midi is like trying to find a gasoline car that runs on diesel. Midi and audio are fundamentally different and can't be mixed. Midi can be used to create audio, just like a musical score can be used by a symphony to make audio, but the score itself has no sound - it just says what to play at what time. The score is music, but only in the abstract sense - it doesn't become sound until someone or something plays it. Midi is abstract music until something plays it.

Conceptualization at last! Thank you sir.

So then MIDI ins and outs are only for MIDI code to send between MIDI mechanisms, i.e. slaving one to another.

Then the resulting audio would be sent to the mixer or recording interface via L/R cables without any information being lost.

[xmlguy]

Yes, you can view midi and audio completely separately. Midi is used to trigger, control and manipulate the audio source (synth, module, keyboard, softsynth, etc.), and the midi control data can be recorded and played - but not as audio - as midi data. The audio that is generated from the source as a result of the midi can be mixed, recorded, played, overdubbed, processed, etc. competely independently of the midi itself. DAW software allows midi tracks (note/control data) to be synched and displayed side-by-side with audio tracks - but they remain distinctly different kinds of data. Often the midi data is retained even after being played and recorded as audio - just like it's helpful to keep the sheet music around after recording the performance of a symphony that has played it, so that you can go back to the musical score to perform the song with different instruments or musicians. In the electronic world, you can substitute different instruments, patches, or synth/modules to perform the notes for a different audio result. If you want to change the music itself, it's much easier to change the midi notes and control before it gets performed and turned into audio. Think of midi as a composition, while audio is the performance of the composition.

[rchaney]

You can get a good decently priced mixer from guitar center. I wanted a cheap one so I went with the Alesis multimix because it uses usb to interface with your computer. A lot of people say a lot about latency and whatnot, but I haven't had any trouble with anything.For sequencing, Ableton Live is amazing in my opinion. Plus you can get Live LE for a decent price and just add midi instruments to it. You can do almost anything with Ableton, not to mention it is what Daft Punk uses.

[X-Trade]

Alesis do a MultimixFW (Fire Wire) version too and I use that quite a lot now. not too many problems after installing the firewire fix from microsoft.

For sequencing I use both Cubase Studio 4 or my Korg TR depending on how i'm feeling

I used to use a behringer mixer and they're fine for most stuff. people will shout quality at you but at anything but the most professional fields its just not worth the price.

Behringer XENYX 1832FX is what I have lying around somewhere and its great.

[rchaney]

I really wish that they had the USB 2.0 version when I got mine. I could be multitrack recording right now even though I would never need to :p

[X-Trade]

it is handy. Same can be said for the firewire version. usb2.0 is a bit more expensive still i think.

if you ever play in a band, or buy more keyboards (as most of the more serious players inevitably will), its a godsend. to be able to record everything at once to different tracks is incredibly useful, especially when it comes to effects and mixing. then again a good multi-port midi interface can allow you to record all the midi at once and then just record back each keyboard seperately...