Several of you already know how to do things with your computers that some of us can only dream of. I am a slow learner, however, and I just figured out some cool stuff and decided to share it with those of you who may be interested in doing same.
I bought a Creative SoundBlaster Extigy external sound card and surround sound speaker system for my year old computer, a Compaq Presario 6000. New goods cost $300.
Now, I can upload any CD or track from a CD, and then, with the existing software, slow down or speed up any tune without changing pitch (range is 50% to 200% i.e., half speed to double speed). Further, I can upload Minidisk or tape recordings made at tionols or anywhere for that matter and make CD’s, alter playback rate to facilitate learning, etc. With the surround sound, even “I” can now sound like a pro piper in the recording studio when I upload MD’s of my own pipering!!!
I use an Sharp Minidisc recorder (MD-MT770). Sharp rather than Sony, as you can change the recording levels while you’re recording on a a Sharp. I have a Sony external stereo condensor mike (ECM-DS70P) - it’s small, just plugs in and needs no external power supply.
I didn’t bother with a digital/net minidisc recorder, as you can’t upload digital from minidisc to your computer, just through an analogue recording.
My laptop has some sort of (3 year old) sound card, and a couple of external speakers. I think I get great sound quality from my recordings, without state of the art sound card/speakers. I keep all the recordings on my hard disk for ease of reference, and can cut them to minidisc or cd when I fancy it.
I use Amazing Slow Downer (www.roni.com - as above) to slow down the tracks, either to play along with, or to transcribe the notes, or to figure out the hard bits. It also changes pitch if you want - very useful if you’re trying to play a D pitch set against a C pitched recording. It works on CD tracks or my recordings.
Finally, I use Melody Assitant from www.myriad-online.com to enter music that I have transcribed, so I can play along with that - think it helps me on my timing. I also use it to play back abc fromat notation, so I can hear what it’s supposed to sound like, or sometimes just to play a beat, like a metronome.
However, I wish I could pick up tunes more quickly, and in real time, by ear - save me time messing about with all this crap! :roll:
Just for the purposes of chatting, I am using a Midiman Delta 44 sound card because of the high capacity and quality of its A/D converters. I amusing Cool Edit Pro for sound manipulation. I am using Logic Audio to run my synth midi setup. As glands has noted, you don’t have to spend this much money for just learning UPs.
glands, I hope you realize that, for recording yourself, you can just go directly through the mic port on your sound card. Your note suggests you are recording yourself on mindisk, and then piping this into your sound card. Each generation of copied analog sound like this causes a slight degradation of sound quality. That is what is so great about digital recording. It lets you avoid the signal loss and additional introduced noise that was so prevalent in analog recording. To take advantage of this, you want to record live digitally right at the beginning, and then stay digital until playback, whether from your PC’s speakers or your first self-produced CD.
