custom made backing tracks

[freeway]

Wow !! John thats some info to take onboard.....still trying to get my head around Sonic Cell and now this ;D SC obviously wouldnt be in the same league as these pro sounds but there's plenty to chew on here..as well as the time factor you'd need to lock yourself away for 6 months to get to grips with this lot ;D still Id say to master this the effort would be well worthwile ....anyway gonna take some time and read into all this a bit more before I rush into any purchase and maybe as you rightly say the entry level Silver Edition wouldnt break the bank should I find its all above my head at any stage ....once again thanx for sharing your expertise and advice on this ...regards
Barry

[JohnG]

Yea, it is, and it's what I've been doing, and why I've been so relatively quiet for so many months now.

At last I think I've got a handle on it and I'm starting to get sounds that I enjoy listening to. I'm currently re-orchestrating my MIDI file for Dvorak's Rusalka, "Song to the Moon" for my wife.

When I first started with it, I thought I'd jumped in over my head, but perseverance (some say obstinacy ) is, at last, beginning to pay off. The investment in the Silver library, as a starter, has been worth it and I can run it on my new laptop okay with an Indigo i/o PCMCIA sound card for audio. Much better than any on-board sound chip, and with ASIO drivers too.

A forum you may like to visit that focuses more on orchestral stuff is northernsounds.com. There you will find an on-line version of Rimsky-Korsakov's principles of orchestration (not for the faint hearted) with examples etc. from Garritan, another good set of samples.

I think you've the right approach, by taking it easy and making sure you don't rush in. I held back for a year or so before taking the leap earlier this year. At times I thought I would never master it, but the thick fog is an almost imperceptible mist now. and I'm beginning to enjoy it all.

Today I paid MusicStore Cologne for the Production version of SONAR 7, not bad at 129 Euro. I've been using the LE version up to now and decided that there won't be another offer like it for some time. I went for Sonar because it is just a later version of CWPA in effect, and I'm reasonably familiar with that.

Any questions just ask away, I'll do my best.
JohnG.

[rainbow]

Hi John,
Thanks for advice re: East West Quantum Leap and the wealth of info. and your very kind offer of answers to questions. As I have quite a lot of questions I think it probably is a good idea to put quite a long post over on the Technical section and give Barry (freeway) a chance also to do the same and then we won't be hijacking doricvision's original post.

Cheers ... Rainbow:)

[JohnG]

An excellent idea.

I'm not sure I'm quite ready yet to start posting tutorials on using VST instruments, but it'll come, it'll come!

JohnG.

[rainbow]

Cheers John

[doricvision]

Wow guys ,never thought that my original post was going to open up such a diverse and simply enthralling side topic. Makes me feel quite humble to be amongst some really hi tech people on this site.
I applaud your great knowledge
Regards Bigmike.

[JohnG]

Well BigMike,

I truly believe that any moderately intelligent person can achieve the same. What it needs is a passion for what you do, a degree of self-belief that you can master it if you try and keep trying, and the will to keep applying yourself to the task until you have learnt it. And a great desire to explore and to know something.

Several of my past managers in ICL commented that I am as stubborn as a mule, and don't take kindly to people who prevent me from understanding something. Both a positive and a negative trait, I think.

I am no genius, believe me, far from it. To paraphrase the words of a once well-known politician.
Application, application, application!

With regard to your comment about it opening up a new area of discussion, yes, it has done. I feel as if I am about to write a simple tutorial on the "Virtual Studio" and I shall dedicate it to you BigMike.

JohnG

As Bach once said about his amazing (apparently) keyboard skills and compositional ability, something like, it has all come through much study and a lot of practise. Not that, for one nanosecond, I am comparing myself to the genius of Bach. Hasn't the word genius become terribly devalued? I may be treading on some people's toes here, but how can we compare in the same breath, for instance, Bach with Michael Jackson? Sure Jackson was a talented dancer and had some musical abilities, but a genius, like Einstein? Pah! Now that's thrown the cat amongst the pigeons!

[doricvision]

Couldn't agree more John, the only thing wrong with the equation for learning and achievment though, is how to study without being interrupted by the wife and the grandkids. Did Bach etc have the same problems???.
Fondest regards Bigmike

[JohnG]

Yea, poor old Bach had a HUGE household, with many of his own children, 7 I think, a sister, as well as several students, living in, at any one time. Certainly from when he took up his final job in Leipzig in 1723 until his death in 1750. AND his apartment was in the Thomasschule which was a boarding school for many students, so he had them around him too. It is said he worked into the small hours on a lute harpsichord, very quiet with gut strings, and remember all done in candlelight. How was it possible? And we only have 1000 or so of his works, many were lost from Weimar in the fire in the library in the 19th century, and it is said that only roughly 2/3 of his church cantatas survive. The others have gone missing.

You might guess that I have untold admiration for the man.
Even Mozart said "here is someone from whom I can learn."

All the best,
JohnG.