[Ti] Pet Shop Boys + Powerbook

[b]

cheshirekat paused, thought it over, and spoke thusly:

>Well, since the subject has been brought up, I'll ask what I've been
>wondering about for some time but don't know where to start looking it up.
>
>I would like to be able to have 1 or 2 midi instruments, and a microphone
>connected to my PowerBook. I'd like for the sound of the instruments and
>microphone to go out to speakers and recorded to an external FireWire
>hard drive simultaneously so I can later burn them to CDs. This
>discussion makes me think this is possible, but when I mentioned my idea
>to my husband, (who is a musician but not at all knowledgeable about
>using midi instruments with computers) he said it couldn't be done. I
>think it could be done, but I'm not much of a musician though I do have 2
>midi instruments; a GEM keyboard and a Yamaha digital drum pad. My
>husband and I frequently have friends get together to play mostly various
>organs and keyboards - I would like to record some of these sessions.
>They usually do the playing because I'd just be an embarrassment, but I'd
>love to use my PowerBook to record to CD some of the more memorable sessions.
>
>Any suggestions I could look into? The husband has a lot of natural
>musical talent (I'm so jealous) but isn't too keen on spending a lot of
>money on computer stuff, so if we could start small while learning the
>possibilities, it would be easier to convince him. We have the
>instruments, several sets of speakers and amps, microphones and access to
>regular midi cables. I'd be willing to start off spending around $200 for
>the midi interface. But I'm clueless about the necessary OS X software,
>including software to record midi input to sheet music.

Okay, a MIDI interface is an easy one. Well under your starting budget.

But I have a question refarding your hoped-for end result: Do you 
want to end up with completely self-contained recordings that be 
burned to a CD?

There are numerous ways to go about this. Having a microphone 
involved can be problematic. If there is music, being played, AND 
monitored through your speakers, while the mic is 'live' you're 
looking at feedback, etc.

Sequencing software (Cubase, Digital Performer, etc) can keep track 
of MIDI events, write them to a file, and then, when the piece is 
played back, re-send the same MIDI events to the keyboards, so that 
the original material is reproduced.

Where it gets tricky, (and your hubby is about half-right) is your 
interface only has so many channels, your keyboard and drum pad have 
only so many 'voices', so you'd want to mix each board and the drum 
box to simple stereo, or maybe even mono. Any one of a number of free 
or inexpensive apps will 'grab' the audio path and record to a hard 
drive. In mono, you can record at 5MB per minute, and then, once 
everything's on the hard drive, go back and use software plugins to 
regenerate stereo imaging, and re-record the treated track.

However, Mark of the Unicorn makes one of the most popular 
'solutions' to exactlyu what you're talking about. It's the 828mkII 
and, unfortunately, retails, new, at $795. It has 20 or 22 
send/returns, 8 channels of digital audio in/out, 4 separate stereo 
monitor mixes, is compatible with Macs and PCs, and allows digital 
recording of all 22 midi channels and audio 'ins' simultaneously.. 
The older versions, which are hugely popular, are available for a lot 
less, when one looks around. You should be able to get one for 200 or 
a bit less.

One needn't use Digital Performer (the Mark of the Unicorn sequencer) 
with the 828, as it will work with any software-based 
recording/signal-processing app. It also works for mixdown, without a 
Mc, if need be. It's hardware, after all, and MIDI is MIDI, audio is 
audio, regardless of other factors.

It has builtin timecode (SMPTE) synchro, allowing one to record, and 
then overdub both audio and digital source material, locked-in as far 
as sync, with zero latency.. which is great when one runs out of 
voces on synths, and wants to use the same keyboards again, on the 
same song, patched differently. Also syncing to film/video makes 
timecode necessary.

It is, in a lot of ways, a blast. I'm sure others out here can 
recommend other MIDI/analog interfaces, but there is huge installed 
base of the MOTUs. Hope that helps, or gives you a bit of a 
realistic/optimistic look at the relative ease of doing what you 
sound like you want to do.

I'm fishing for the 828 pages, and here they are:

http://www.motu.com/english/motuaudio/828/body.html

regards,
~flipper