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Adding Hardware to Your Setup

my current setup exists of a pc, loads of software + vsts, an m-audio adiophile fw sound card and a set of tapco studio monitors.

im wanting to get amyself a fairly cheap synth for crimbo and was looking at the korg microkorg and was wondering if i would need any other equipment than ive already got to be able to run it properly?

cheers
mick

You should probably invest in a MIDI keyboard also, since the microKORG only has 37 keys (3 octaves).

Modern synths increasingly come with UBS or FireWhire interfaces. Which is good because the sound is linked directly to your sofware mixer and can be used just like you would use a VST. The Virus TI Polar is one if the first in it's generation apart from modular synths like the Nord Modular which doesn't quite live up to the 'new generation' standard.

On an older synth you simply have a MIDI input and audio output. The Audiophile has a midi output and an audio input. So they can easily be linked.

The downside to this setup is that you will have to play and entire tracks through live and record it to audio. After that you will have to make up for latency that de direct-to-disk recording causes by dragging the audio sequence a little to synch with the rest of the track.

It's very much possible, but I wouldn't call it the most efficient setup. But a lot of guys do it obviously and with great succes too.

kind regards,

Charlie Darwin

ok cheers guys,

on the spec for the microkorg it says it has midi in, out and thru,

does this not mean i can plug it into my audiophile and use it the same way as a vst and also as a midi keyboard?

sorry if this contradicts what u just said, still trying to get my head round it!

cheers

also: could ne one recommend ne thing else in this price range?

You could use it as a controller to control any midi device (including VSTi's) or itself, or have the computer control it.

I highly suggest getting a full size keys keyboard with at least 4 octaves as a controller. That microKorg is only good for doing lead lines on.

k thanks man, doesnt it have an octave shift option on it?

ne ideas for what to look at?

Well, the octive shift will help, but trust me, if that is your only controller it will get old fast.

If you are on a very limited budget you have a couple of options:

Get a cheap M-audio controller, and have a cheap feeling controller with a lot of features

or

Get a used synth.

Personally I would just get an old used synth that has a good keyboard on it to use as your controller. A DX7 comes to mind and can be found for around ~$150. Heck it even has a jack for a breath controller. Other good options would be a Korg Wavestation, 01/W, or M1. Roland JV or DX series stuff. Most of those synths don't sound that great, but have pro features (aftertouch) and potential when hooked up to a good effects processor. But most importantly they have nice high quality keys.

quote:

on the spec for the microkorg it says it has midi in, out and thru, does this not mean i can plug it into my audiophile and use it the same way as a vst and also as a midi keyboard? sorry if this contradicts what u just said, still trying to get my head round it!

most synths have those.

you connect the MIDI out port on your audiophile to the MIDI in port on your microkorg. that allows your soundcard to send MIDI clock to the korg and tell it what to do.

if you want to use it as a midi controller you need to connect the MIDI out port on the microkorg to the MIDI in port on the audiophile. Then, depending on what you want to control you will need to assign MIDI cc numbers to the MIDI out controller in your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). there are a set of standard numbers which refer to funcions like filter cutoff and amp envelope attack etc etc. but depending on the synth and depending on the feature set there will probably be some unique c numbers too. your host may have a template for the microkorg saving you the trouble of having to do this but its probably best to google cc numbers for the microkorg.

if you want to use the microkorg to control virtual soft synths then you might need to set up a virtual MIDI cable. its free but you need to install the MIDI Yoke driver (google it) and do the routing manually.

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MIDI thru you probably wont use unless you have loads of MIDI outboard gear. MIDI thru is used to daisy chain MIDI devices, saving you the hassle of routing everything through a MIDI interface. However, the more MIDI gear in the daisy chain, the higher the latency, which will make MIDI devices later on in the chain trigger out of time. But for daisy chaining 2 or 3 devices its generally ok.

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keyboards. a 3 octave keyboard really isnt that bad. i played on a virus indigo 2 and with octave transpose you get used to the limited range of the keyboard. if you are sequencing parts of your songs (i.e. not recording them live), you probably wont even use more than 3 octaves. check the quality of the microkorg keyboard because i heard it was plasticky shit.

the microkorg should have an octave transpose function. i cant think of a modern synth that doesnt have it. and if there is one it is a fu.cking retarded move by the manufacturer.

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other synths in this price range? well the alesis ion is fairly inexpensive and it has alot of neat features. the LCD display has alot of visual feedback with graphs and so forth to show you what action the envelopes and filter has when you use them. that is just a brilliant idea and it should be on every synth with a visual display. its a pretty versatile synth too and its not hard to program.

another good one is the roland SH-32. its like a cutdown JP-8000 in some ways although the filter is crap (it 'zippers' and isnt smooth). but its probably one of the easiest synths to program and the presets are pretty good so its a good place to start if your sound design isnt awesome. dont be fooled by its cheap appearance - its made of steel and its built like a brick shit house.

if you can stretch to a korg ms2000b then that one is a cracker. its packed with features (including a decent vocoder) and the keyboard is quite good. you can still find the rack version second hand for really cheap so if you cant afford the b model try to find the r model on ebay instead.

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