Music

Composition and Performance

I’m changing this around now. I will be blogging about my journey into composition. You can follow this at: lifeonmusic.com

[November 2008] Recording equipment update: I now use the Korg D3200 Digital Recording Studio to lay down tracks and add session drums. It has an intuitive matrix of 16 knobs to control parameters below a built-in screen.

I find this a little easier to deal with: plug the keyboard midi out into the sound module midi in. Then audio outs from the sound module into the Korg mixing board track audio inputs (assign however you like). Lay down the tracks, including session drums. Then mix down and burn right to the internal cd drive in the Korg.

I specialize in performance on the following:

• Kurzweil SP-88 Weighted Stage Performance Piano
• EMU rack sound module
• Roland KC-550 180Watt Keyboard Amp

Recording through USB to the Computer:

[March 19, 2007] I have now attached the Lexicon Omega interface to the sound module. It gives me two inputs for microphones and four line inputs for instruments. It uses USB [1.1 - wish it was 2.0] to communicate to the computer.

I tried to record into the laptop but there was an awful buzzing and background noise. I tried powering up on UPS but no change. I finally isolated it to the power brick. Don’t know how to do without that for very long -- I can’t see recording on batteries! So, I moved the Dell desktop to my office and set it up to record.

Now for the next problem: Latency. I record one track, then lay down the next track. Unfortunately they don’t line up in time. There is some latency in the recording process. So I lowered the buffers to a point where the latency disappears. However, I don’t really like the sound. I’m starting to wonder if my equipment is going to be fast enough to handle the process.

So, I tried another software program: Magix Music Studio 2005. I did like the sound of the track that I recorded. But again, back to the latency problem of tracks not lining up in time.

[March 22, 2007]  Finally got a setup that works for recording -- no latency and great sound.  Used Steinberg Cubase LE and did the mixdown with higher settings. Solid! Saved the setup as a template.

Where are all the music downloads and previews?

Ans: I just built this site. I’m sure I will find the spare time to get all my projects done, including new music written, recorded, and published. Check back later... OK, it’s getting closer. Some lyrics done...

Audio Recording Info

• Article on Bit Depth and Sampling Rates from tweakheadz.com
• Article on Mac vs PC for Recording from tweakheadz.com

Piano Tuning