jump to part 2   File formats and on line media

Music & Computers Part 1.

As you sit in front of this wonderful machine that can do so many things like surf the web, play your favourite CD’s, display live pictures from around the world, etc. etc. etc.

How many of you realise that because you have a piece of hardware called a soundcard hidden in the depths of your computer, not only have you got the ability to play music from games, music CD’s etc you have got the all hardware required to compose play and master your own CD quality masterpiece and then place it on the internet for all the world to hear.

Intrigued eh ? Read on……..

Over the next few months I will try and guide you through the mysteries of scary little words like:

I am going to start at the very beginning so if those of you who already know a little bit about the subject can be patient so that the less knowledgeable get the full picture.

In this world of Hi-Tech and Multi-Media audio and video presentations, many forget that one of the most basic thrills and kicks known to mankind is

As I mentioned earlier, by the fact that you are reading this I know that you are sat in front of a piece of machinery that is very easily turned into a Hi-Tech MIDI Workstation.

The first thing that you need is a MIDI sequencer program. You can download one of these free of charge from my web-site (see the links at the end of this article). Then to make sure that you get the best out of your machine you are going to need a MP3 player. These are free and again there will be a link for you to get more info later.

"Hmm… so you want to compose a piece of music" …….

Before we tackle this one I’ll wait until you have all got your free software installed but will guarantee that you will composed your fist masterpiece by the end of the next instalment.

MIDI, which stands for "musical instrument digital interface" is a means of allowing one MIDI instrument to talk to another. The instruments are not always keyboards but can be guitars, drums, wind instruments etc. This means that you can plug a MIDI drum set or MIDI guitar into your computer and play the voices of your soundcard. Cool eh?

For the time being we’ll concentrate on keyboards though.There are basically two types of keyboard available.

This is a keyboard that contains no sounds of its own. Its sole purpose in life is to send out information to a sound source like your computer and allow you to play them like you would a piano or organ. They are available in many different formats costing from under £50.00 to over £2000.00 depending on what you want. Certainly your local PC store should be able to fix you up with a package that will allow you to get started in the home studio business for very little money. Yes Home Studio. You have potentially got all the hardware you need to master a CD in your own front room.

These keyboards fall into many categories from Home Keyboards to Professional Performance Synthesisers. For around £150.00 you can buy a superb quality Digital Keyboard that has not only got excellent sounds but will normally have on board little patterns of music that play in various musical styles. This is known as the auto accompaniment or auto arranger. Quite simply it means that with very little musical knowledge you can have for example a big band or pop / dance band playing away following the tune you are playing. The advantage of this type of keyboard is: it can still be used as a control keyboard hooked up to your computer. The computer can also play the sounds of the keyboard via your free sequencer. You can take it away and play it in your bedroom etc. or make lots of dosh giging at your local hostelry or become the one that gets an invite to all the best parties.

GM (general MIDI) or SMF (standard MIDI file) is a format of saving musical sequencer information that will play on any GM MIDI equipment in the world. This means that if you save a song in MIDI file format anyone in the world put that floppy or e-mail attachment etc. in their computer or GM keyboard and it will sound exactly as you intended it to. It's a bit like recording a film on your VHS video recorder and lending it a friend to watch. It will look and sound exactly the same on his TV as it would on yours. Try searching the web for MIDI files and you will be amazed at the amount of free software songs that you can download and play immediately in your computer.

Well, that’s a brief overview of what I intend to try and enlighten you on over the coming months. At the end of it all you should be able to compose and play music in many different formats and maybe you’ll remember me when you sign your fist recording deal. In the next instalment I’ll explain how to record your first tune. And why there are so many different formats of playing and recording music and which ones you should use for what.

Also from my site if you go to the download page I have written a short article on how to set up or update your Windows Media Player. This is an essential piece of equipment that you all need.

Bye for now …………..Bim

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PART 2 File formats and on line media

ope that you all enjoyed and learned something from the last article. This month for those of you who took advantage of the free MIDI sequencer download I have included an easy to follow guide to using this programme. See the links at the end of this article for free downloads.

Now for the good news. There are several free programmes available that play MP3's and one of the most useful is called MUSICMATCH.  This wonderful piece of software not only allows you to play and save free MP3 music from lots of sites on the internet but it also allows you to put in you computers CD ROM drive any or all of your personal CD collection and compress them into MP3 and then save them to a favourites folder. Just imagine all your fave songs in your computer at CD quality. And all you have to do to listen to anyone of them is drag the song title that you wish to play into the players window and away it goes. Beats undoing all those CD cases and putting the old spectacles on to search the index insert to see the number of the track you want. But wait......it gets better. Most of these free players have cool things like EQ control with pre-sets to emulate Jazz Clubs, Concert Halls, Clubs etc.They even have funky real-time random video graphics which interact with the music if you so wish. A bonus to all this is that allot of them also support real-time streaming from various web site allowing you to listen to live web-radio etc. from all over the world. There are some great UK stations like Classic FM & Jazz FM that are broadcasting off their websites as well as thousands of others world-wide catering to all musical tastes.

Having dipped your toes in the MP3 and Digital media Tidal Wave you will rapidly learn that it opens up a whole new world of video and audio enjoyment to you. Recent developments mean that there are some very inexpensive portable MP3 players around now. These devices allow you to literally drag songs off your desktop into this tiny unit and take them with you in your shirt pocket to listen too on a headset. Much like a conventional "Walkman" but much smaller and lighter. One of the biggest advantages is that there are no moving parts so they don't skip and jump when being shaken about when you are on the move.

The real bonus of using this type of unit is that you can very quickly compile a virtual CD to suit your mood for that day which can include tracks off many different CD's. When you get home and your mood gas maybe changed you just load it up with a different set of songs. Pretty damn clever eh?

Maybe next month I'll go back to the more conventional hands on music covering home keyboards and computer music. If you have any feedback for me or suggestions for the future please let us know.

Here are a few links and downloads.  

http://www.musicmatch.com  to get your free music match player / CD to MP3 converter.

http://www.winamp.com     A great MP3 and other media type player again its free.

http://www.jazzfm.com      UK jazz station that streams live over the net

http://www.classicfm.com    Live classic radio from the web.

http://www.mp3.com    A huge data base of MP3 music that you can download onto your computer.

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Part 3    Home keyboards: What are they? What do they do? Which Type should I buy?

Home keyboards fall into two categories. Those that are MIDI and those that are not. The latter are the least expensive and although you can have great fun with them & some models offer extremely high sound quality, they are not designed to be used in conjunction with other pieces of High-Tec equipment like computers. Prices for this kind of instrument start around £25.00 and sound surprisingly good for the money.

However…beware… At this price level you will only get a mini sized keyboard which is fine for the tiny fingers of your 4 year old up and coming musician, but all but useless for serious playing. They are a good introduction to the world of music, but it ends there. My advice is to spend a few more pounds and get something with least full width keys. If you take this option, you have an instrument which can be used by any member of the family for study or fun. Although you could not expect a product like this to take the place of a Piano, it would suffice as a temporary solution for home practise. Prices for full width keys start from around £50.00.

The other great thing about the modern keyboard is that they nearly all feature some sort of "Automatic Accompaniment" feature. This means that without any musical expertise, all you do for example is, select maybe a "Rock" Rhythm Pattern, and even using just one finger, you have at the very least a drum beat and bass guitar playing away to accompany your melody line. This is great because you immediately sound as though you are playing real music and don’t get frustrated and disinterested. They encourage you to keep playing and learning. Many of this type of keyboard come packaged with a learning method and music books to get you started.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) keyboards are a little more expensive that the basic ones we have looked at earlier, but are well worth the extra money if you want to make home music a hobby as well as maybe incorporate it with your computer. Most MIDI instruments come with a minimum of 61 full sized key and are touch sensitive. This means that like a piano, the harder you press a note, the louder it will sound. This is very important as it allows you to be more expressive with your music and in the case of a student or accomplished keyboard player they make a very good:

"home studio - performance - keyboard - workstation"

The BIG advantage of this type of product is that they are of extremely high sound quality and sound great playing all types of music. I always say to people who are considering buying this type of product "look at it more as a family purchase" a bit like buying a new TV set. I guarantee that no matter what the age range of your household, everyone will want to play around with it.

Because of the way a modern digital keyboard can be programmed, they are equally at home playing: a very credible arrangement of a Top 20 hit, and at the touch of a button they can become a, Piano - Jazz - Trio or in the hands of granddad, can belt out all those Sing-Along Pub Favourites. Some of them have floppy disk drives, which further increase the potential of these instruments.

Floppy Disk can contain MIDI files, which are professional arrangements of your favourite pieces of music. All you do is put them in your keyboard disk drive, and they will burst into life giving you the most incredible sounding orchestrations. A bit like a CD on a floppy disk. The difference is that because its is MIDI, you can alter the key in which it plays, and at the press of a button, change round the instruments to make it your own special arrangement etc.etc. Some of these keyboards even have a lead that plugs into your TV set to display the lyrics of the song being played.

To see just how many titles are available and the incredible range of musical tastes covered, check out www.bck.co.uk where you will find thousands of MIDI files to browse through.

The price for this type of keyboard starts from well under £200.00 

The full benefits of MIDI we will cover next month. But just to wet your appetite.

A MIDI keyboard will plug straight into the back of your computer or any other MIDI equipment with absolutely no technical expertise.

Once you have done this. You have created your very own DIGITAL HOME RECORDING STUDIO.

Now the Musical World is Your Oyster

…bye for now …Bim

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