[I'll post this here, because I need quick info.]

Ha ha. Yeah my main mike at the moment is an NT2. In comparison to my Shure SM58 it sucks in alot of detail. I really like the 58 as it's really east to use. You tend to get a big chunky sound that doesn't require much tweaking from the desk. The NT2 breathes higher resolution and realism into the sound. Highly recommended.

Any article I've read on mics indicates that you need a good quality mic preamp to really get the benefit. A high quality desk will have a whole pile of these built in at wonderfully high cost. However, if you, like me, tend to need to record only one track at a time then it makes sense to record using a high quality channel strip. A one channel mixing desk in effect. I use a Focusrite platinum voice channel optimised for . . .well . . .voice I suppose. This incorporates amplification, noise reduction, saturation (kind of valve type thickening), compression, EQ, and de-esser. Basically it helps rip the musical information of yer mike and then gives you plenty of scope for some creative polishing. If used subtley it can make your recordings sound a little more "professional". Well recommended.

However, with the advent of digital stuff some of the good quality analogue gear has dropped in price so keep an eye open in the ads.

Best

Dave

[What is a sampler?]

Hi Steve

Your description of a sampler pretty much holed it. A sampler records sound digitally and allows you to play it back in interesting and musical ways. e.g. spread a across a keyboard. Originally (in the 80's) these machine would have cost the same money as a semi detached house and were the ultimate on stage posing kit. People did spend much time sampling there own sounds - breaking glass, dogs barking, car engines - you heard the records. But it transpires that you have to spend a lot of time recording and programming these sounds when you're trying to play music - therefore it's easier to use samples that some else has already recorded or even programmed.

However samplers have become much more powerful and much cheaper- particular in memory size. The most powerful ones run purely as software on computers - it is not unknown for serious media composers to be powering a virtual orchestra with banks upon banks of computers all running Gigastudio. As suggested the samplers great strength is it's ability to emulate realistically real sounds in musical ways. But the terretories of synths, samplers and other electronic stuff can be very blurred these days. A software samplers like Halion has a fairly competent synth section. Other software synths incorporate a level of sampling. All a bit confusing. I reckon the most interesting area is in dedicated sample playback devices. A good example is Steinberg's the Grand. THis is a soft instrument which emulates a grand piano using 9 gigabytes of hard data in some fairly clever ways. It sounds bloody good. It may not sound as good as a real steinway cosying a semi detached house but for £170 for the best sounding digi piano I'd say that was a steal.

Godammit, this is a GOOD time to be getting into electronic music!

[Absynth]

Hi

I've just got hold of Absynth 2. So I'll tell you what I know. WHen I first heard this synth I was blown away. It has wavestation type sounds - strange alien sequences, it has beautiful smooth brass and pad sounds. Yeah on the whole it sounds smoother thean anything else I've heard. But get this; this isn't a sample playback device. There are sampling capabilities but this is a true synth instrument in that it creates the sound from an algorithm rather than sample playback. You can draw in your own waveforms. Check out the MP3's or the demo version on the Native Instruments site. (Additive syntesis comes to mind.)

With A2 they've added granular synthesis and I think you can import any wav type file. i haven't had enough time to comment on the programming side of things other than to say it's extensive. But it does sound gorgeous, and original. Have a listen.

[Favourite Synth Players]

Yeah Jean michelle.

I would agree he's overhyped but also a little misunderstood. It's his own fault that he's likely to go down in history as someone who put on very big firework displays. 65% of his creative output is juvenile lazy crap. However there are a few saving moments. The track on Oxygene that resembles a virtual beach washing over you. It relaxes me into a trance. Zoolook I reckon is an original piece of music. I have never heard samplers used in this way before or since, voices chopped into rhythmic patterns. And I like rendez-vous, the music is like simplified Wagner but the tones and production are beautifully smooth. It sounds like music and the production prevents you from hearing the seams. He does have an impressive and eclectic synth collection which I suspect he has some mastery over. But I don't think he's quite got Dad's musical abilities.

Oooh I think I might be being pretencious here. Then again why not!

[Akai 3000XL]

Warren

John's pretty much covered this but the fact that a wee light is coming on indicates that a midi signal is coming through. You could try connecting up a keyboard and seeing if that can trigger the sample, might help eliminate some of the possibilities.

Dave

[Favourite Synth Players]

I would struggle to put together a list to those criteria. Most "synth" players tend to intersperse their music with "real" instruments, whether that be a piano or whatever. I suppose that the synth player might be someone who uses synths in an integrated or dominant way. Vangelis would be top of my list. I can't think of anyone else who has been able to play synths and make them sound as musically and emotionally evocative as the Greek. And this was done to best effect on his albums (and synthesizers) of 20 years ago. My personal gear lust would be for something like a Roland AX7 (keyboard that thinks it's a guitar) with all these little controllers on the headstock. I would also add Peter Gabriel to the list. ALthough PG is renowned more as a music fusion person anyone doubting his synth prowess should listen to Passion.

[Best Synth]

Roland JV1080

Although I'm beginning to use soft synths predominantly (Absynth soars?) I remember 10 years ago negotiating with a mate in the pub next door to my local music shop in glasgow (the internet is my local now) about financing this item. At the time I was running a D550, M3R, U20, and a Korg DS8. The JV virtually replace dthe lot. Huge polyphony, Massive library, much less timinh issues than U20, FX, proper FX mixing buss. I could pretty much write and mix tracks within the unit. It sounded better and quieter than everything else in the studio. To my ears these days it sounds a bit samey and the other disgarded gear did help to alleviate this to some extent. It responds velocity wise much more pleasingly than my Proteus 2000 which has a uselessly complicated FX buss. It sounds very Vangelis. Mmmmm

It will always be usefull and has a ton of my own patches in it. A never sell box. A first.

[Steinberg but out...]

Tis Steinberg having been bought out by pinnacle video software). Following the buyout of Emagic by Apple this cam as a bit of a surprise. One would hope that both companies utilize the specialist knoledge of both video and audio from the two companies rather than any watering down of the audio side of things. Apparantly the buy out wasn;t for al that much but there is some reassurance that although Steinberg, although owned by Pinnacle will still function as an independant unit. I read an interestin comment that if every user of Cubase had bought their copy legit then Steinberg could have bought out Pinnacle!

[KORG 01W]

John

Try here:

http://www.soundtower.com/synth/01w.htm

It cost £35 (discount f $10 if there is a link to their website).

It looks OK and for the cost of £15 you can have easy and much needed editing and librarian tools. Unfortunately nothing for the JV1080

Dave

[Cubasis]

Hi Mad

If your midi device has been selected correctly you might want to check that the required output and midi channel have been selected in the inspector or the midi channel selecter to the right of this; I think. Difficult to sort it out if I can't fiddle with it.

Try downloading the OS Downloader from http://www.emu.com. This utility is primarily designed for updating proteus modules but has a handy midi moniter function that lets you see exactly what midi info is coming from where. Would allow you to check if your midi ports are the problem.

Best

davlan

[MOTU and Cubase]

John;

MOTU stuff has all the usual ASIO etc drivers. Am currently using Windows 2000 Pro

[MOTU and Cubase]

Anyone got any idea if MOTU sound cards might have problem running with Cubase? Xmas beckons you see.

[No one uses Cubase anyway...]

Why is it Steinberg stuff seems to raise heckles so much? I am a Cubase user; just upgraded to SX and am v. impressed. Everything is a little less awkard to use; the graphic interface is more customizable and . . . well read a review see for your self.

But the nagging question: why cubase? Answer: because I've always used Steinberg products and any attempt to do otherwise i.e. Sonar, Logic has instantly turned me into a computer illiterate at the bottom of a very steep learning curve. I've invested a lot of time into understanding Cubase and I enjoy creating music not fiddling with software. I reckon that part of this learning process is about generating a map in your own head how the sequencer operates and process becomes second nature. You want to do something; you know how to do it.

I have lots of quibbles about Steinberg; their software does not have the same reputation as it's competitors concerning reliability. That is software being released early before bugs have been ironrd out etc. My midex 8 is only half operational (is it the 8 or my computer; would a USB 2 interface work). SX seems OK though except for one fairly horrendous bug in the score editing pages where instead of notes I get spectacles and mail boxes. I kid ye not. As soon as reg no comes through I'll be on the phone. But other than that very groovy.

But surely the point is if you are prepared to spend big money on software generally speaking all the high end sequencer packages are all up to the task and more. Maybe it just comes down to what you know.

ps Hans Zimmer uses it; so it must be OK.