Links and info to additional equipment you may need to make music happen with you Amiga or any midi project.
This page may be of more interest to the beginner or "lite" midi music user, but also has links to equipment that heavy or pro users would like to check out. I personally do not use mods, but you can find links here to others who do and can guide you better than I on that subject. In its most basic form, musical recording setup needs these components.
A musical human. ( Warning: You must already know or learn an instrument and at least some basic theory. Keyboard, guitar...... as far as I can tell this is the really tough part...)
A computer, preferably an Amiga with at least 512 fast and 512chip ram.
And some type of midi compatible instrument. A keyboard or one of many other types
And links to midi equipment manufactures is always helpful
An expanded more powerful set up would include many items like sound cards for analog recordings, equalizers, a mixer, microphones, multiple midi instruments and some type of recording deck like a tape deck, DAT, CD or Hard Disk recorder. There is no way to cover all the possible equipment choices, but I have supplied links to some of my favorites along with other well respected choices. What I will try to cover for you here is the basics and some more advanced setups for doing semi-pro or pro recording projects. This information can work hand in hand with video production. I not covering video here though. There are many other sites to visit that can cover the video realm far better than I can. You will find from reading all of this, that an expanded recording setup can become expensive But a lot of good music can be done with just the sequencer, a good keyboard and recorded to a cassette tape deck. If you want to move into live instruments and vocals though, the price climbs. Here's a picture with my own idea of a more powerful recording setup for example.
A midi interface for an Amiga is an adapter that plugs into you serial port or Zorro slot and communicates between your sequencer and your midi compatible equipment. Some external interfaces provide a "pass through" serial connector that allow you to leave your other serial device connected while the interface is installed. Such as your printer or modem. Other simpler interfaces require that you free the serial port to install the midi interface. Still another interface is a Zorro II card. It's an expansion card that can be added to any Amiga that has a free Zorro slot. Most of the interfaces are no longer made, but can be found for sale used in the Amiga news and marketplace groups. A good place to start is <comp.sys.amiga.marketplace> A fast search of what is for sale can be found at dejanews.com using the search words <Fs:, midi, Amiga, interface> I have been able to get used external interfaces for about $30US. One interface maker remains. Hisoft. With both an external interface and a combination sound card/interface (The Clarity 16). You should be able to find a distributor in your country, but if not you can always try and talk to Hisoft directly. One other possible interface that is still produced is the Triple Play by Octave 2. If you know of any other sources of Amiga interfaces, please let me know.
The sequencer is the software that turns your computer into a midi recording and playback deck. Several SEQUENCERS were made for Amiga. Music-X, M, Dr. T, Tiger Cub, Bars&Pipes, Dominator and a few others I can't recall. Each has their own look, style, feel and features, but all do the same basic thing, record and play back midi events. Most also have editors and special effects that can be applied to the midi data. They also can handle samples and play them together with your midi sounds. Sadly I don't know of any still being sold or developed except the currently free versions of Domintator. We want to change that.
The most commonly used instruments may be a multi-timbre keyboard and a drum machine. Other instruments are used also, and more traditional instruments are being converted or invented to be midi compatible. Pianos, guitars, violins and drums of every type are now compatible and can be plugged into a midi sequencer. Stand alone SEQUENCERS and newer keyboards even include a library of drum sounds and a built in SEQUENCERS of their own. Do these SEQUENCERS eliminate the need for a computer based sequencer? So far, No. The computer has more powerful features requires by a studio based set up and can handle "on the road gigs". The keyboard and stand alone SEQUENCERS are handy for road trips.
I don't know or endorse this business, but it has a very impressive list of links to most midi instrument manufactures if you would like to look around for all the hundreds of choices in midi gear. Lentine's Music Inc.
If you are looking for instruments, mixers or effects to buy, again a good source to start with for bargain equipment is dejanews.com. Using a search with <midi, keyboard, drum, effect> will give hundreds of postings with information about what exists, what it will and won't do and who makes it. Simply adding < Fs: > to your search words will narrow the choices to those items for sale.
An instrument may contain several individual midi instruments within one piece of equipment. My keyboard for example, has 8 separate keyboard modules that can be programmed and played through midi commands from my sequencer. Most professional keyboards made after 1991 are multi-timbre. Each module can be programmed to imitate a different instrument and each played individually Through midi, one keyboard can sound like an entire band. If you own a multi-timbre instrument, check your manual. I actually met 2 other musicians that bought new keyboards, but thought the keyboard was only capable of one sound at a time. They used multiple keyboards to do their work. Once they learned what the equipment could do, they sold their extra keyboards.
Just like recording midi data from your instruments to your sequencer, it is possible to record vocals, guitars and other instruments through sound cards to your sequencer as samples and have them played back, in time to your midi music. Using Bars&Pipes with a Sunrise AD516, you can record midi and live recordings and have them played back together. Most newer SEQUENCERS have this feature, while some older ones do not. Look into the sequencer you're interested in.
A mixer allows you to combine multiple audio inputs, alter their equalization, add effects, pan sound left or right and send the finished sounds to a single mono or stereo output that can be recorded to tape, DAT, HardDisk or CD. In a simple setup, you would have left and right signals from a keyboard, left and right from a drum machine and maybe a microphone or guitar input also. Through several cables and one mixer, you combine all 5 channels into a traditional stereo output. Check my equipment links for mixer support and manufactures.
Effects can be one of many ways to alter the sound of your recordings. Just a few basics would be, reverb, echo, reverse, and stereo flange ( big stereo sound). Many more are available and hundreds of variations on each one is also possible. Some of these effects can be added with you sequencer. Many others are added with a separate piece of effect hardware through loops in your mixer set up. One importantant effect for analog recording is the compression/limiter.
Any analog recordings converted to digital data to be used with midi SEQUENCERS, sound cards, CD's or other digital based equipment.
Loops are connections made from your mixer to you effects equipment. A mixer will allow you to direct some or all of a sound input to an effect such as echo. The returning sound is then added to the original sound and other sounds coming in.
A compression limiter is not necessary, but very recommended if you are recording live audio to tape or to sound card samples. It is a separate piece much like an effects unit. It is used and connected usually directly in the path between instruments or microphones to your recording equipment. It auto adjusts the recording levels into your mixer or sound recording gear so that you cannot overload the record inputs. It also boost the soft sounds so they don't get lost and hard to hear. It make the soft strings or vocals audible as well as keeping those blazing guitars from over running the rest of your sounds. The amount of control is adjustable to suit the sound your looking for. Most sequencers have this feature built in and can be used to "smooth" out recordings that have all ready been made. If you are careful to keep your record levels below max, you can use the built in compression/limiter features to adjust those highs and lows. Songs that have vocals that go from quite verses to soaring chorus's probably need an external limiter to handle the levels for you. I do.
I don't use mods, but many other musicians do. I'm no athourity on them but this link is a good place to start to find out about them. Amiga Music: The MOD. And these are two of the highest rated MOD players for the Amiga. DeliTracker and EaglePlayer. These mod players are used to manipulate sample recordings
List of links to new midi hardware manufactures.
Alesis
- DATS, Electronic Midi instruments, Compresion/Limiters, Effects (My
Fav)
Art - Effects, Compression/Limiters
Ashly Audio - Compression/Limiters,
Equalizers
Bose
- Speakers, Amps, Sound Systems
C.F. Martin - Guitars
DBX - Compression/Limiters, Equalizers
Kaman Music - Takamine, Ovation
Guitars (My Fav)
Denon - Recording Media and Recording
Decks
DOD Electronics - Effects
EMG - Microphones
Ensonic - Synthisizers (Keyboards)
Gibson - Guitars of course
Fostex - Recording Decks
Kurzweil - Synthisizers
Lexicon - Mixers, Effects, Compression/Limiters
(The professional top of the line)
Mackie - Mixers (My
Fav)
OPcode
Peavey - Guitars, Bass, Mixers,
Amps
Roland - Electronic Midi Instruments,
Recording Decks
Shure - Microphones (My
Fav)
Yamaha - Just about every thing!
Music
and Recording equipment.