Any recommendations for sequencing software and sounds?

[Sparkly]

I'm a pianist, but for awhile I was making music onto CDs for modern dance classes that I teach. I'd like to get back into doing that.

I have a Kurtzweil PC88mx, and used a lot of the percussion on it combined with the piano and flute sounds, mostly (so many of the other sounds seem cheezy). I was using Cakewalk ProAudio -- but the version I have is now outdated. At some point, I got my stepson to do some "upgrades" to my soundcard and other things, and the result was I couldn't get the Audio files to record at ALL. And I kept getting the wrong sounds. So I gave up for awhile.

I have Finale and Sibelius, but have only used them for notation -- not for sequencing or recording. What's the best program now?

How can I expand the sounds I have from the Kurzweil -- are there more realistic ones out there now? Should I start over with something else? (I know there's a $1000 Kurtzweil "rack" that can be added to it.)

Any other suggestions or recommendations?

[MazeRat7]

1. Sound Sources and Software

If you want "realistic" piano and sting sounds, then Kurzweil is about the only choice. While I have not played the 88mx, I currently use a PC2x and a K2500Rack. Having played every other major brand keyboard out there, nothing is better.

For all the other sounds (synth, pads, horns, organ, etc) I use the Korg Triton Pro which is also available in a Rack and has a sequencer/sampler built in.

That being said, the "VSampler" technology can get really close to those Kurzweil sounds. It definitely cheaper than a K2600/K2500 but you will need to buy the "samples" which can run several hundred for like a piano set. Check out http://www.sonicimplants.com there is a huge selection in many formats.. VSampler uses the "SoundFont" format I believe. The cool thing is it allows you to have a software synth on your computer since it uses many samples assigned to key ranges (like the Kurzweil keymaps) rather than "generating" the sound on the fly which takes a lot of compute power. I have considered using that on a laptop and just a Midi keyboard as a easy way to play those 45min sets without having to haul all my gear.

I still use the Cakewalk products for recording and editing - Sonar V3.1 has everything I have ever needed to produce a professional quality CD. I generally record all the keyboard tracks in the Midi domain and then send them to my sound sources and capture the audio when I have all the "stumbles" taken care of. Also of note, it comes with VSampler that I mentioned above and you can generate scores if needed. When all that is done, I bring in the other players and capture their audio tracks then spend time mixing it all down to a final 2-track mix.

There are many new plugins in the sonar product that make all of the above easy and flexible.

Hope that helps,

MZr7

[Sparkly]

2. Thank you so much!!

Wow, that's a lot of information! The Cakewalk I was using was ProAudio 7 -- that shows how long it's been. I don't know a thing about Sonar, but I'll look into it. In the old ProAudio, it was very awkward to get MIDI files into Audio files, and that's always where I had the most difficulty.

Realistic sounds are important to me, so I chose Kurtzweil for that reason, although I still don't like all the sounds. It may be that I don't know how to use them well. I saw a demo of the rack at a conference about a year ago, and it blew me away -- but I realize part of it is that the guy doing the demo was very good at using and combining the sounds in ways that made them even more realistic.

Thanks again for all the info!! :hi:

[Ariana Celeste]

3. My S.O. uses Cool Edit Pro

for recording, mixing, editing, effects, everything.

[ironflange]

4. I use Noteworthy Compser for sequencing

It does a decent job. I have put together a custom soundfont, the stuff I do is all orchestral. When I went to Win XP, I found that it no longer supported Soundblaster Live, so I got an Audigy. It didn't like my great big soundfont, so I then had to rebuild that. Yecchhh. All is working smoothly now, though.