Im so lost...I need basic advice

[FATARSE]

Okay so i bought this program thinking it was going to be like garage band for Mac. It is very confusing and i just want to be able to line up the beats or notes i make on my keyboard...Also the loop system confuses me alot i have no idea what the F im doing please, the tutorials are confusing to me. can someone please give me a very basic tutorial or just some tips?

[FATARSE]

plEASE

[Quily]

same here lol

[tomatoes.dll]

hey fellas. maybe i can help. what do you need to know? it really isn't hard to use once you know your way around the controls.

However, please let's try to just figure out one thing at a time.

loops are the most complicated, and there is some stuff to learn, but that's becuase there is more you can do. At the base level, they're a piece of cake. But you can do a lot with them, so maybe that's why you're confused Paddy. Beats are also very easy, and the great news is, there is no complicated side to them really.

So anyway, just ask a question or two and I'll try to help.

[hurg]

Its not your fault at all for not be able to figure it out as this is the biggest piece of garbage software you could have bought. The demo video is totally mis leading as far as ease of use. Notice how he flies through the demo so fast you could not follow what he is doing if you were a pro. Here is a list of facts and some questions to ask.
1. You open a new normal project, yet you cant insert midi files of any kind and get them to playback.
2.Why is there no funk beats in the audio drum section?
3.If your trying to make a track with just audio tools, all you have are drums, backing tracks, and loops, where are the rest of the intstruments?

[tomatoes.dll]

Gentlemen, despite nurg's diatribe about MC6T, the software is good, and not difficult to learn once you get the basics figured out. People here are more than willing to help. Like I said, jsut ask me a question or two for starters, and I'll help you out.

Nurg, as to your numbered list:

1. You may not be able to insert MIDI in a "Normal" project (I'm assuming you're referring to the template for a standard project), but the rest of us can. Its simple. Select Insert. Select MIDI track. Select virtual or hardware instrument. Make sure inputs and outputs are set correctly. Done. Or, you can just insert a softsynth and the program does all the rest automatically.

2. You can find about one million funk beats free online, for one thing. Secondly, I don't know about your copy, but mine has "Soul & Funk" beats to use.

3. In the audio loops there are drums, bass, guitars, pianos (electric and regular) and backing tracks, both in the form of individual or as a "group." And again, if finding good "loops" to use is your problem, you haven't spent 10 seconds online trying to find any, 'cause I've got another million of those just from searching for what I wanted. When a DAW is released, its purpose it to provide you the primary tool to do Audio recording and editing. It assumes you will have things to put into it with which to work too. I don't expect you thought they'd send you a guitar with your purchase so you couldn't argue that the only instrument you had to record live audio tracks was some pots and pans drum kit from the kitchen?

[bigcat]

DAWs are to a musican like a word processor is to a writer. Yes some DAWs are better than others and this is an entry level DAW and it isn't perfect. If you watch the new tutorials and possibly the old ones, while understanding they are old, and play around a bit you can get the hang of it and create music if you have the talent. I don't have the talent, but I'm having fun and watching a 50 part music theory course on youtube to learn some of what I'm missing.
If you actually desire to create music and have a decent soundcard, a $50 midi keyboard, if a vocalist a mic, and this program you can create reasonable sounding music limited only by your desire and talent.
Is it easy? Not really. Will it create music for you? No! Could Bach have blown your mind using this? Oh Yeah!
Ask questions, HMS can teach anyone to use this and check the sub forum where you can find all the major instruments (and a lot more) for free.

[bigcat]

My ultra simple way to start. I'm not that talented so... I listened to some elses stuff

Kick up MC6T and start a blank project. Cruse google and look for a midi file you want to hear. You can just type in midi files and get some (I just got Jingle Bells) or type the name of a song you like + midi. Download it for free (a few places try to charge) and then drag the file into MC6T. Hit play. You should hear a cheesy version. The instruments are likely just the ones that came with your computer and don't sound very good. Cakewalk to the rescue.

Find an interesting looking track in your midi and hit the down arrows, this makes the track bigger and you will see an 'S' button (Solo) hit it and now listen. All you hear is the one track, still cheesy. Decide what instrument it is or what instrument you want to hear. Hit 'B' go to plugins and instruments, choose 'Instruments'. You should see some SI instruments along with Soundcenter and a few other things. If one of the SI instruments sounds good to you drag it over into the big window. If they don't look good drag over Soundcenter. The instrument should pop up. If you chose Soundcenter pick one of the instruments that looks good.

Now make sure the solo track you messed with earlier is highlighted, just click on its track number if it isn't. Go just up to the top of all the tracks and click the 'Tracks' menu and the 'Selected Track Outputs' option. Chose the SI instrument or Soundcenter and 'OK'. The track's midi file should now play back trough the selected instrument. Basically midi file is a digital recording someone made that can be played back through any instrument, you just have to direct it toward the instrument you want. Note that often the top or bottom tracks of a midi are basically blank except for the name of the song, author's name, copywrite etc... Note to that you shouldn't share these songs on the internet as someone else owns the right to them, but noone is gonna sue you for listening to them.

Now choose more tracks (remembering to take the first track off solo), if there are more, and give them an instrument to play back through. You should notice that things now sound better than when they were just playing through the instrument (GM) set that came with your computer. Learn what things sound like, compare the SI instruments with the Cakewalk Soundcenter and note that the SI instruments generally sound better.

Head over to my Instruments sorted by type thread and download some interesting looking VST types. Or just look for VSTis on the net (start with free). Kick up 'Prefs' from the upper right side of MC6T and choose ' VST settings'. Put your newly gotten VSTs in the directory it shows here and then hit 'Scan VST folders'. Now you should have new instruments in your Instruments Panel to the right side of the screen. If you don't hit 'Midi FX' and then back to 'Instruments' to make it update. Now try your new instruments and see if you like them or hate them.

Now ask smarter people than me what to do next.

[FATARSE]

okay well i have a MIDI keyboard and im very lost how to use it to create synths and how to aline my notes i just played up witht the ryhthm . also there is a lag that comes in from my keyboard about 1 seconds

[andymcnish]

Paddy - the midi lag is probably caused by a too small midi buffer (I think it's set at 64MB by default for some daft reason). Up it to 256MB and it should get rid of lag/notes not sounding issues.

The lack of the song creator (using audio loops) functonality that was in MC6 (and is shown on their vids) is confusing and makes it harder for newbies like us to pick up.

If you want to go down the playing around with audio samples route you might like to buy some audio loops (Soundpool do big DVDs stuffed with these for use with DAWs and they are pretty cheap).

[tomatoes.dll]

Paddy, are you using an I/O interface? If not, that is also a major issue which could heighten lag, amongst other things.

How to get sound out of a softsynth and record it in time? Hmmm, you are starting out fresh I see! lol.

Well, do you know how to insert a synth track? that's the first thing. I assume you do since you're describing a sound lag, but maybe that's because your keyboard is not just a controller but also as synth as well?

[76561198099638397]

PaddyJoe, the lag you're referring to sounds like it's most likely your audio hardware latency. You can adjust your latency by going to Edit | Preferences, and on the Devices tab of the Audio category (the first page that comes up in the Preferences) you can adjust your mixing latency slider bar as far to the left as you can while maintaining stable audio playback (read as not distorted or choppy audio). That slider bar adjusts your hardware latency buffer, and a lower buffer size will give you a faster response time.

Ideally, you'll want to use an audio interface as HearMeSmell suggests. Most integrated audio cards that come included with your computer aren't designed for low latency performance, and getting a dedicated audio interface with ASIO drivers will go a long way in giving you the performance you're looking for.

[LunarSail]

I've been trying to figure out how to change my export audio file settings for MONTHS. I go to file, export, audio. the file setting is always stuck at sterio, wave, 44.1 khz. and that's NOT what I need. I can't find anything about it online.

[76561198099638397]

As Music Creator is our entry level version, you can only export at the available preset options in the Export Audio dialog. You can see our guide for how to add Ogg Vorbis and LAME MP3 export presets.

[tomatoes.dll]

Origineel geplaatst door Cydonia:

I've been trying to figure out how to change my export audio file settings for MONTHS. I go to file, export, audio. the file setting is always stuck at sterio, wave, 44.1 khz. and that's NOT what I need. I can't find anything about it online.

What do you need to do? Is the problem the sampling rate, the file type, stereo vs. tracks, etc.? I can probably help ya' out, but need a bit more info.