...your music...

...with your iMac!...

iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
sounds + midi + cubase + vision + noise
teaching + scores + mp3 + recording + sampling
Mac + G3 + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac4music - tips

...tips and tricks
- last update 12.09.2000

demo emagic...

 Somehow - sorry - disappointing: E-Magics demo version of emagic sequenzer software - too crippled..., but at least Logic Rocket is available for free from the logic-rocket homepage... to you use you definitely do not need 128 MB of RAM - at least it is an acceptable Midi-Sequenzer with four Audio Tracks for training issues E-Magicīs Rocket Logic -; at least it gives you an inside in the very good screen design... if someone happens to use the web-features from harmony central reporst are highly appreciated...

how can i get my music into the iMac?

 - good question- well, yes this is basically no problem: you just need a good (ideally just one cable from cinch to stereo miniplug not a mixtures of different adpaters!) cable and connect the audio input of your computer with the output of your four track or whatever - and you need a small programme like - ideally - the freeware "coaster" - which is fine for recording. I am not sure whether this is O.K. with the old Macs but it should work (some of them a 8bit/mono only...!!!). There are maybe two smaller problems: depending on the output level of the recording device it is sometimes tricky to get the right level and too avoid distortion...or noise - (fine with coasters automatic recording level --) e.g. the level of my DAT output is a little bit too high -- you can try it with the headphones output. But as far I recall you can also manipulate that on the four-track itself... So usually you try to work with a high output level on your 4-track to avoid noise. Maybe the computer screens produces some extras noise if the 4-track is close to it (also guitars, basses, mics - ) so keep an eye on that as well. By the way: Many of my recordings on mp3.com (www.mp3.com/thomasoesterheld) are mainly analog recordings done this way - I re-recorded the softsynthesizers demo-version and the quality is really fine I think. I also used this input for direct recording of guitars, basses and other instruments and it fine...
...latency

A traditional, serious problem of direct to disk recording is latency - the delay caused by the internal signal processed in the computer and reaching the output on phone a little bit later. On most systems a sensitive musician is able to hear it - but it differs a lot depending on soundcards, number of channels - so this can be a annoying echo or just a strange feeling of - etc.

I recall only one system that worked really fine - a HD-recording 2.11 from Switzerland - (it is not clear whether it is available). Some systems may work better as soon as you reduce the number of channels (make a small monitor mix).

Also you maybe want to use Coaster to record and Sound App for simultaneous playback of your track if your HD-recording systems lacks memory (but there is no monitor sound either). A simple Workaround concerning the delay is to use two headphones at the same time: Smaller walkman like earphones to get the sound from e.g. the recorded device (letīs say a effects processor) and the bigger headphones plugged into your computer: This really works - but careful concerning the cables..
Even without latency it is very useful to seperately create a small monitor mix if you want to record a singer or a accoustic instruments, using maybe a multieffect processor or other devices that work as a simple mixer, you may use an old tape machine a old 4track recording system etc.
Another idea is to use only one headphone with a muted signal - and monitor your voice directly "unplugged" (or with a little bit of the signal) - this method is often used by professional musicians in the studios.

By the way: Monitoring yourself playing with headphones is really a complicated task, you may have to spent some time to find your "personal" setup and many people that are used to live performances with real instrumentss never really feel comfortable with this "inside-your-head"-sound.


MIDI cables for free...



While USB cables are new (and cheap...) - many people owe MIDI cables - without knowing it... MIDI is exactly the same cable called DIN - Audio in Europe - and it is most likely you or your parents still have some beige (oh sorry) versions of these cables.

November 13, 1999

MIDI cables - connections



While USB assures you do not have to identify what is the input/output you have to be careful concerning the MIDI-cables themselves: Keyboard MIDI out, connects with IN-A (or -B), MIDI in on the keyboard with MIDI OUT-A (or -B) on MIDISPORT. Perfect: lights are blinking on the in/out and dimming on the USB-light on the front. November 12, 1999

USBMIDISPORT

You can connect this device also to your keyboard - so there is no need to to buy a hub already, and also this helps a lot with the typical homerecording setup (keyboard on keyboard, mouse close to and the screen somewhere else.....

November 11, 1999


MiDi Setup in OpcodeŦs studio setup

If you actually succeeded to install a MIDISPORT USB, lights are blinking here and at least something comes out of your keyboard you have to setup the OMS Studio correctly. This is almost a simple procedure - if you have one of the keyboards listed there. Well, thanks to opcode most of the professional keyboards are there (good overview if you want to suprise someone of your perfect knowledge about the keyboard history...) . But probably, if you use a cheap GM-device you will stumble: A low budget XYZ-203 keyboard ist not listed, and, too bad there is not a typical setup like "GM instrument" or "GS instrument". Many of the synth listed there will either show up no list or a wrong list of instruments, eg. a old Roland D-10 has a setup that looks much like a modern GM but has different numbers for many of the instruments. Even worse - quite often you will have just three empty windows that as you to add numbers for banks, programs, voices or whatever and nothing significant happens.
Try the Yamaha W7!, and donŦt forget: Midi drums are usually on channel 10, you will not find a drumset in the other listings.

November 10, 1999

iMac: Soundcard...

Quite often I heard questions like from Bob (thanks for pointing my attention to this issue: "I notice that Steinberg says that Cubase VST is supported for the iMAC--but is the iMAC (without soundcard) capable of using the multi-track audio recording capability of Cubase VST?". Well the simple! simple! simple! marketing concept is brilliant - but it may cause some misunderstandings. The iMac is fairly underestimated technically, espacially its soundcard. It is not only a full-duplex soundcard capable of both playback and recording on different, unlimited number of tracks.
The iMac soundcard is even capable of working with different programs at the same time (like a software synthesizer and a recording programme) - this is a sophisticated feature even professional soundcards sometimes do not provide.

November 09, 1999

MIDI-update necessary...

Users of Midisport USB will probably fail to install the Midisport without updating the the USB-software, also the given instructions concerning the install procedure are obviously wrong: Files mentioned do not exist, the ask you to put the files in wrong places etc. - I hope to post solutions asap at least you have to download
the USB update.
November 07, 1999


Vision bug? Aiff is not aiff...

Users of Vision DSP usually fail to convert their final mixes (they are shown on the screen as aiff-files) to mp3 with the popular mp3 0.12 encoder. The solution: First use Sound App to convert the file to aif - obviously it is not an aiff file before...
November 06, 1999


Vision bug? Acadia Error....

Sometimes Vision DSP quits the playback of a recorded (usually longer...) file with the message "Acadia error"- nothing about in your manua - donīt panic - nothing is lost, restarting the program after simply quitting it brings back the song.
November 05, 1999


Make your reset Button in 5 seconds...


If you work with lots of different programs you may quite often have to reset your iMac (you may checktechnical information to avoid this), but also if you Mac is a real "family Mac" you probably don like you 5 year old sun to fumble around with a paperclip to reset due to the crash of a game...
Solution: The simple paperclip itself can be easily used to built a simple button, just the bent the inner part upward a little bit and the end of the wire downward - this produces a kind of spring if you place the tip in the reset hole (the upper one!).

Use a little piece of adhesive tape to fix the paperclip. Advantage number two: The reset software hole is "locked". October 30, 1999

A simple freeware sample-player available...

Sound App is a wonderful tool not only to play all kind of sound files but you can also use it as a simple sample player by creating several copies, opening them and play simutaneously various loops - a more precise description is available later, first testing was most encouraging.
October 25, 1999

Printing a score

With the iMac you will probably use EPSONīs Stylus Color 740 or another ink jet USB printer. Unfortunately printing a score in good quality is fairly slow and time consuming. A nice workaround is to print the score with your fax software - e.g. you can sent to someoneīs working in an office, a shop round the corner, a friend or even your own fax machine.
October 24, 1999

Hardware requirements

Following the above mentioned limitations of our iMac it is mandatory to have at least 64, better 96 MB RAM (which is fairly comfortable) available. If you have to get more for a low price donŦt hesitate to do so...


I strongly discourage you to try to work with 32MB RAM - this is almost impossible and you will get mad about the system hanging all the time rebooting again and again - it just makes no sense at all (ask Steve Jobs why they tried to sell G3 based computers with only 32 MB of RAM - even the simple IE may crash due to the lack of memory and many games require just more RAM.)
October 23, 1999

Recording soft synth-demos and other sounds from your Mac

...iMacs and Macs with two earphone outputs allow to "self record" sounds of all the sounds your iMac produce, e.g. from soft synth demos that canīt write on the hard disk: Simply connect the headphone output with the micro phone input - check carefully that you have the right setup for input. I recommend the simple recording Freeware "Coaster" for doing this. Donīt try to find out how to play your recordings with Coaster, this is just not possible with the programme.
October 22, 1999

...bad sound?

...you may have bad results hearing music or samples through your speakers that sound fairly strange - try to turn off the surround sound in the sound/screen menu.
Basically this also makes sense the other way round: you may enhance the sounds of software synths, games or whatever you want to record...

October 21, 1999

No disk space left?


Nothing special for the busy homerecorder... If you have no additional space available late at night on CD Rom, zip-Disks or whatever you may use the iDrive or freem3space.com or other internet-based systems to backup at least some of you files. Also you can scan your Harddisk for doublets... -
Tips and trick lost, looking for something specific? Go to the search index under imac4music searchpages, this will allows you to find details.... October 20, 1999


...with your iMac!...
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling
iMac + music + mp3 + recording + sampling

Đ by Thomas Oesterheld, last update 12.09.2000,
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