Starting Out

[jdoodle]

SO ALL YOU TECH HEADS
If I am starting out, what should i start out with? Cubase? Cake walk? give us some tips and advice as to what I should be starting out with, its a big bad world out there. Got a p3 450mb 128ram decent sound card, plus decks etc, do i need some sort of midi card in order to inpout the decks?

What software should i start looking at?

Thanks

[phunkdust]

Well first of all, to get the decks into the computer you just plug a cable from your mixer into the soundcard Line In...

The style of music you want to make will govern what gear you need...

The industry standard professional package is Cubase SX

however many guys out there run much simpler programs, and come up with excellent results. Cubase is a platform for lots of virtual synths and MIDI gear...

You can look at fruityloops, which is a fully featured virtual studio, with step sequencer, pianoroll, midi, effects channels, VST (virtual instruments) support...

If you have any piano skills you might look into getting a Control Keyboard... This is a "dumb" keyboard that has no sounds of it's own but sends out MIDI signals so you can play in notes directly instead of using the mouse...

You'll need a MIDI interface to use this, and any other gear. The cheapest plug into the joystick port on your soundcard, and on the other end of the scale you have multi-port MIDI bays that have 8 or 10 ports, and run off USB or FireWire

All depends on what your trying to do, but this is just a general guide

[hpstekno]

jdood:)

http://www.inthemix.com.au/p/np/viewnews.php?id=5475
one of phunks articles

[DJSeb]

Get yoruself a copy of Reason, I find it's alot simpler to use than Cubase.

Reason's GUI pretty much looks like a rack of virtual synths, samplers, mixers and stuff. You can download their manual from their website too..

<font color="blue"><b>seb</b></font>

[mungo]

If you start with cubase then you will have the grounding in sequencing software to use most of the software out there.

[phunkdust]

If you just want an easy standalone package, then yep, Reason is the bomb. It's a little pricey but it does almost everything

NFX (http://www.mp3.com.au/nfx) uses reason for his tunes, with some excellent results...