~ ~ ~ Continued from the previous post ~ ~ ~Reason 7 (Propellerhead Software) is another excellent addition to the digital music production virtual instrument palette and the new Rack Extension (Re) technology makes it possible to expand the capabilities of Reason 7 . . .
[
NOTE: Propellerhead Software are the folks who created the ReWire technology. Reason 7 has a new External Midi Interface (EMI) that lets Reason 7 control real and virtual MIDI devices, which includes being able to play NOTION 4 virtual instruments, and NOTION 4 can play Reason 7 virtual instruments via music notation on NOTION 4 External MIDI staves, which is done with a "virtual MIDI cable" created with IAC Driver that comes with Mac OS X. When this is done in a ReWire 2 session, ReWire 2 handles the MIDI synchronization and so forth, which is very helpful . . . ]
Reason 7 (Propellerhead Software)If your primary instrument is electric guitar and you want to focus on using it for MIDI input, then there are several ways to do this, which range from using (a) a Roland GK-3 MIDI pickup and Roland GR55 Guitar Synthesizer to (b) a Ghost Modular Pickup System (GraphTech) with a Roland GR55 Guitar Synthesizer to (c) a MIDI guitar . . .
The first flavor is the easiest to install, and it differs from the second flavor primarily by the specific technology and amount of custom luthiering required, where using the Ghost Modular Pickup System is virtually invisible if you have a Fender Stratocaster and are comfortable doing a bit of luthiering, which includes replacing parts of the bridge and doing a bit of work on the pickguard, as well perhaps as some internal guitar body routing . . .
Both of these require the Roland GR55 Guitar Synthesizer, and the overall cost is around $1,000 (US) for everything, but if you want to use standard MIDI cables then you also need an external digital audio and MIDI interface like the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid, which is another approximately $750 (US), although the GR55 has USB port that gets MIDI to the Mac, hence the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid is more focused on digitizing microphones and standard guitar and keyboard inputs but is handy for standard MIDI interfacing . . .
On the other side of the coin, if you play keyboards at least a little bit, then you can get a Behringer 25-key MIDI keyboard and use it as your MIDI input device . . .
It is useful to know that over the past few years, Native Instruments has had a 50 percent discount sale on Kontakt 5 during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, and they might do it again this year, although they had 50 percent discount sale earlier this summer, so all I can do is guess, but if you are planning to get Kontakt 5, I would wait a few weeks and see what happens regarding the one-week Thanksgiving holiday sale . . .
Summarizing, I think that you already have the digital music production software that you need, and I think it makes a bit of sense to focus for a while on making sense of it at least to the level that you can create a simple song from start to finish . . .
While you are doing this, you can start doing research on third-party virtual instruments like Kontakt 5, and you can do a bit of research on MIDI guitar options, including the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid . . .
And for reference, you can use the music notation on NOTION 4 External MIDI staves to play external MIDI instruments as well as to play virtual MIDI instruments using a "virtual MIDI cable", which is included in Mac OS X and is provided by the IAC Driver that is configured via the Audio MIDI Setup program found in the "Utilities" subfolder of the "Applications" folder on your Mac . . .
If you are reasonably proficient with music notation, then you only need to discover how to configure NOTION 4 and Studio One 2.6 Professional for doing ReWire 2, which is not so difficult to do, but if you plan to record electric or acoustic guitar and then use the Melodyne Editor to convert the notes to MIDI, including doing a bit of editing, then this is another technique that you need to understand, since once you have the MIDI, you need to interface it with NOTION 4 to use NOTION 4 bundled instruments, although you also can use it in Studio One 2.6 Professional to play the Studio One 2.6 Professional virtual instruments . . .
I think it makes sense to ponder your budget with respect to the practicality of getting your electric guitar setup as a MIDI guitar if this is going to be your preferred way to input notes, because you could spend $1,000 (US) getting Logic Pro X and some of the EWQL virtual instruments, which might be fine, but from a practical perspective it might make more sense to get the Roland GK-3 MIDI pickup and GR55 and to connect it to your Mac via its USB MIDI port, which is done using a standard USB cable and gets the MIDI output into the Mac in a way that the Mac can use it . . .
Explained another way, I think the best strategy is to have a specific plan based on what you need to accomplish your goals, and since digital music production hardware and software is expensive no matter how you do it, I think it makes sense to give a bit of attention to making purchases that provide new capabilities in a practical way that makes it easier to do what you want to do . . .
If you have a budget of $1,000 (US) and do not have a MIDI guitar, then if electric guitar is your primary instrument, I would ponder the idea of upgrading your electric guitar to be able to use it as a MIDI input device . . .
You have NOTION 4 and Studio One 2.6 Professional, and there are plenty of high-quality professionally recorded and digitized symphonic orchestra instruments, and you can do MIDI and ReWIre 2 with NOTION 4 and Studio One 2.6 Professional, which is fabulous, where for reference in this context "fabulous" indicates that (a) I have verified it and (b) I can prove in a YouTube video . . .
Lots of FUN! P. S. Regarding the way everything sounds, all these sampled sound libraries, including the NOTION 4 Bundled and Expansion Sounds, are high-quality professionally recorded sampled sounds played by skilled musicians and sung by skilled singers, but it is important to understand that they way they sound in songs and orchestral pieces depends strongly on the way the music notation is done and on the way everything is produced, mixed, and mastered, and in this respect the fact of the matter is that you need a calibrated full-range studio monitor system if you expect to be able to trust your ears . . .
Unfortunately, there are no new commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) full-range studio monitor systems available anywhere on this planet, hence getting a calibrated full-range studio monitor system requires doing a bit of custom work, which is not so difficult to do and is explained in one of my ongoing topics in the IK Multimedia FORUM . . .
The Fabulous Affordable Studio Monitor System Project (IK Multimedia FORUM)For reference, as you might know, the full range of normal human hearing is 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz, but I extend it downward to 10-Hz, since what typically is considered to be subsonic deep bass is very important, even though most people feel it as tactile vibrations rather than actually hearing it . . .
The fundamental problem is that the rules of acoustic physics requires the loudspeakers (a.k.a., "woofers") for reproducing deep bass to be "big and heavy", which at the dawn of the early-21st century increases the cost of the components and increases the cost of shipping everything, hence none of the COTS studio monitor manufacturers make and sell full-range studio monitor systems, which is virtually mind-boggling in the sneaky weaseling department . . .
What happens is that otherwise bright people get what essentially are piece of junk studio monitors and then try to do professional audio producing, mixing, and mastering, but the problem is that since what they are hearing is not accurate, they intuitively attempt to compensate for the missing deep bass and subsonic deep bass, which (a) does
not work and (b) skews the midrange and high frequencies . . .
Explained another way, it is like trying to take a photograph with a camera that will not focus or trying to take a color photograph with a black and white camera, and the way this applies to virtual instruments and sampled sound libraries is that you need to hear everything
accurately to know how to make the various adjustments required to create the most realistic sounds . . .
~ ~ ~ Continued in the next post ~ ~ ~