I started recording even before I started playing. My humble little studio consists of equipment that I have amassed over a period of years. Currently I have an old Foster A-8, 8 track reel to reel, a Teac Model 3, 8 in 4 out mixer, an old Teac 3340 4 track reel to reel, A Pentium III -800 with 100 gigs of hard drive, a Creative Audigy sound card, assorted software and a collection of other goodies. I recently bought a Tascam Port-a-Studio 424 for $15.00 US. I cracked open the power supply and changed a blown fuse. I also had to re-solder the output connectors.  Using my electronics knowledge I have built equipment such as a dual limiter, a parametric EQ, a dual compressor, direct box, attenuation pads and other goodies. These were all featured in music or electronic magazines. If you are interested in building your own circuits check out "Electronic Musician", "Recording"and numerous European electronic magazines. By the way the flashy European magazines put the US magazines to shame. Britsih mags like Music Tech slighly more expensive than Electronic Musician give you a CD or DVD with software every issue. Every issue includes tutorials. The US mags only seem to be pushing new products. There is still a lot of good info on the web. Check out my "Electronics page" Check out libraries and used book stores and find older issues. There are many circuits that can be built inexpensively with excellent results. Try to buy parts from surplus houses. Radio shack can always used if you have no other choice but they tend to be more expensive.  We have a gold mine of parts here called Addison electronics.Combining MIDI with analog or digital recordings allow you to add instruments or automation that will enhanced and expand your music. 

If you want to find out more about MIDI, look for older magazines that were written when MIDI was new to everyone. Old Keyboard and old Electronic Musicians are pretty good. Every few years some magazine will explain the fundamentals of MIDI. There a company in Brooklyn that has MIDI fundamentals and FAQ sheet KID NEPRO.

M.I.D.I. (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), is an electronic protocol or language created by synthesizer manufacturers so that synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, tape machines, and computers can communicate with and control each other. General MIDI was later introduced so that a sax sound on one synth would be a sax on any other synth.

MIDI files are small because they are not recordings of sounds. They are sequences of control codes that tell i.e. a synth what note to play, how long to hold it, how loud, what voice to use( piano, bass, violin) etc. If you even saw an antique player piano you can see a great analogy. It's actually the piano that plays. The piano rolls are just rolls of paper with holes in them that drive a mechanism that strikes the piano strings. MIDI works in a very similar fashion. It uses a master/slave configuration. The master could be a sequencer or computer playing the MIDI file. The slaves are the synths, sound modules, other computers ( synthesizers without keyboards) and drum machines. You could have more that one master but you'll need  a MIDI merger to merge the two controllers. There are 16 channels or addresses. In the beginning synths could play only one instrument sound (voice) at a time. Players would string together many synths, each set to respond to a specific channel. All modern synths are now multi-timbral which means they can play multiple voices at a time. A modern synth is also polyphonic in order to play more that one note at a time. If it is not polyphonic ( monophonic) you could not play chords on it. My old Korg Poly 800 II is polyphonic but not multi-timbral so it can play only one instrument sound at a time. Today all you need is one good synth or sound module. An old FM sound card will not do. You'll need a wave table one. There are also many virtual synths (software) available. System exclusive messages are special commands that pertain to a specific brand of equipment. Each manufacturer has an exclusive ID number assigned to them by a MIDI group. Think of it as it's own telephone number. An example of this is the ability to do a data dump to a specific MIDI device. 

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Try to find some used MIDI equipment because I believe that you best learn "hands on". Don't be frightened by all the specs and other techno-warble-garble B.S.. You do not have to know everything about MIDI to use it, but eventually it helps to learn more of the technical side. The first MIDI device that I bought was an old Korg POLY 800 II synth. I had an old Korg DDM-110 drum machine. Shortly there after I found an old Korg KMS30, multi sync unit. Then I started experimenting with tape sync. Later I read about this sequencer, sound module, mini keyboard device about the size of a VHS cassette. It was the Yamaha,QY10 (it was the canned demo that sold me). The QY10 also has drum and instrument patterns that can be programmed. At the time I had just a 4 track reel to reel. The sync uses one track . This left 3 analog tracks but the sync track could later (as the master) drive a stereo drum machine, a stereo sequencer and other stereo synths/sound modules. From 1 control sync track you could drive 6, 8 ,10 etc. virtual tracks. You could start by writing a sequence on your sequencer (or Computer). I did it the other way.

At first I used FSK (Frequency shift keying) syncing then I tried "Smart FSK" syncing with an Anatek Pocket Sync. With regular FSK you have to sync from the beginning of the tape so that if you screw up you have to rewind and start again. With Smart FSK you can start the tape deck anywhere and your sequenced parts i.e. on a computer jump to the spot on the tape. My tape deck's heads may be a bit worn on the edges so I had lot of drop outs. Then I bought a used MusicQuest / Opcode Frame Lock. It's a SMPTE encoder/coder and things have never been better. It appears to be drop-out resistant.

First of all I stripped a track on my 4-track. This is when you record a sync track onto an outside track of a multi-track recorder. If you are using FSK or smart FSK, the tape is stripped with a drum machine, computer or sequencer as the MIDI master device. The tempo that you set is the tempo that you will have to live with so plan ahead. If you use SMPTE , you just stripe the tape with time code so the tempo can be changed without having to re-stripe. You could even have a varying tempo. Now using the sync track as my MIDI master I played guitar and sang onto my 4-track using 3 tracks. Now using a computer with a MIDI sequencer ( or a hardware sequencer) software ( Cubase or Cakewalk etc.) you can play your tape with the sync track set as the master and add virtual tracks on the computer. Most sequencer software allows tons of tracks. Using a midi keyboard or other midi controller  you can play along and build up the tracks. If you use FSK or smart FSK the tempo is set. If you use SMPTE you have to plan a head. You'll have to set a tempo on your drum machine or computer before you start to record the analog tracks. You have to mark this tempo down or else you will have no reference to the tempo. It may be an idea to record the drum on on of your analog tracks. Later you can re do the drums on the computer. It doesn't have to be elaborate. You could just add some horn licks, strings  or a piano. 

You don't have to mortgage your home either. There is always a lot of used equipment around. I check out the pawn shops, classified ads and Ebay. One of my finds was this old Ibanez Xing MIDI guitar model IMG2010 circa 1986. It also had a rack mount MIDI converter MC1. I bought it with a Roland MT32 sound module. The guitar is a pretty decent guitar. As a MIDI controller it is limited. I would not recommend it for live use as the tracking is a bit slow .  I've recently bought a Roland GR-09 with the GK-2A pick up for $150.00 US. The guy had bought it for about $ 800.00 US. It tracks very well and I hope to use it live. It's got a great sax sound. Always remember that today's hottest technology will be tomorrow's old junk. By being a few steps behind the times, I have all this great gear that was hot a few years ago and I got it for about a third the cost. You could use a good sound card as a multi-timbral sound module. My Sound blaster Live and Audigy put out some reasonable sounds. You can even play using your computer keyboard as an instrument. Some years ago I bought DS330, a BOSS sound canvas sound module better known as the Dr. Synth. Unfortunately it was discontinued. It has 156 tones and 8 drum sets.

Once you get your feet wet  you will realize that you want or need MIDI expanders and MIDI mergers etc. but if you look hard enough some one is always upgrading and willing get rid of their old stuff at quite reasonable prices.

A word of warning , I recently bought a Startech MIDI cable from Radio Shaft thinking that all cables are created equal, NOT! I could communicate only with the old Poly 800 II. The voltages on pins 4 & 5 were 10 times what I read coming out of my Roland MPU card. I could not get any communication with any other MIDI device. I tried a Creative Labs cable & voila , no problems.

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MP3 & CD ROM

There are still some diehards that say that the quality of MP3 is sub standard. Some complain that CD is also substandard to vinyl. Well this is my take. I grew up with scratching vinyl and worn tape. So MP3 is hi-fi to me. 

Recently I been trying to figure out why some MP3 files play on my MP3 player and some do not. The files all play well on my computers. The tech support from both Sanyo & Boss is almost non existent. So I've been scouring the Web for some answers. I came across something which did not work but lead me to make an observance. I have a little utility named ripper. I had used it for re sampling and converting real player files to MP3.  When I try to open these problem files , they is an error unknown file type. So I found another utility MP3 Doctor and resample  these  files and guess what, my portable MP3 likes them now. 

I have tons of reel to reel tapes, cassette tapes of  gigs, practices sessions, live shows etc.  & jams that span almost 40 years. I also have all these vinyl LP records. The last time we moved my wife asked what we in all the boxes? So I plan to compress this into MP3. "The quality ain't gonna git no worse." 

I recently re-sampled some of "The Jam"  mp3's from 256k bits to 128k bits  and after I did some A/B tests , I could not hear any difference. 

I have converted Mp3 files to Wave and find the results quite extraordinary. Remember you can put about 6 hours of MP3 on a standard CD-ROM that can cost as little as $ 0.28 a piece. Don't fall for that Audio CD B.S.. I use standard data CD's. That reminds me of the time I friend bought  a box of VHS tape marked HI-FI stereo. Remember what P. T. Barnum said. 

For sequencing software I've used Cakewalk. Cakewalk since it released the Pro-Audio version allows you to record analog along with MIDI. The current version is now called Sonar 3.0. I still cannot get Sonar to work properly with my Audigy card. With the WDM drivers a  sequence with audio  just stops. With the ASIO drivers it just does not play. I've tried the Audigy with Cubase SX and it works great. The problem without ASIO or WDM is that there is a delay when trying to over dub tracks. With out these drivers you have longer delays that make it impossible to play along with the previously recorded tracks.  

Most software sequencers now include audio. With MIDI and now with Audio you can do almost exactly what you do in MS Word. You can copy, cut and paste. You could sequence and record all the parts even the parts that repeat or you can save time by simply cutting and pasting. You could sequence a bass part in one key and simply transpose it to other keys. Drum parts are easier to create. Drums are very repetitive so why waste hours when you could key in one measure and copy the rest. Afterwards edit the accents, rolls etc. 

See below for links to the most popular ones. Check out the Harmony Central link below for free demo's. Probably the best deal going is with "Band in a Box" because not only do you get a fun accompaniment program but it comes with a super powerful sequencer called " Power Tracks Pro Audio" from PG Music. If you want to use a sound card for a sound module you must use a "Wave Table" sound source and not an "FM". "Wave Table" means that the synthesizers sounds are actual samples of real instruments. In the old days sounds were actually synthesized or mimicked. By screwing around with sine & square waves etc. the timbre and sound of instruments could be recreated reasonably accurately. As digital electronics advanced ( and prices dropped) it became easier to record bits of real instruments. The old mellotron actually used a multitude of analog tape recorders to reproduce sounds of stringed instruments. Your best buy is a SoundBlaster Live or Audigy.

Here's a tip. Listen to music with head phones at a low volume so that you can hear everything that is going on. Study it. Listen to the EQ, the delay, the mix and not just the playing. Try to emulate what you hear. I have made good live recordings with a minimal amount of mikes on two to three tracks. I would set up in another room so that I could here what was going on tape without being drowned out by the band. Recording is like learning to play an instrument. After a while you learn how to create or copy sounds by adjusting  your volume, tone and attack. Soon you will be able to recognize compression when you hear it.  Most of all experiment. 

One great musical link that I've found that contains lots of good links is HARMONY CENTRAL try it. There is lots of software demo's, links etc.

There are  lots of the MIDI sequences available on the web. Most of these suck. In the words of Dr. Phil " What were you thinking?" Others can be rather impressive. Most times  the drum parts are sooo bad. It seems the more complex the song the better the sequence. 

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Line6 Variax guitars and effects

Cakewalk MIDI & digital audio editing software

Cubase Midi & digital Audio editing software

PGmusic Band-in-a Box-Power Traks Pro Audio

Home Studio & Roland equipment

Sonic Foundry Digital audio editing software

Tons of shareware Audio editors etc.

Cheap Midi guitar