Sherry Crann after listening to some of my music asked me how I record it. There are two aspects here: one the midi recording in Midinotate and the other an audio recording of either midi output or keyboard output. "Keyboard" means "music keyboard" in all the following.

I tend to work from the keyboard in real time, not step record and not note-by-note. That's partly explained elsewhere in this forum, although now I also doodle at a keyboard with Midinotate running and recording the midi output:
http://www.notation.com/cgi-bin/disc...=6403#POST6403

Midinotate Composer gets variously used as:
1. A capturer of one-off keyboard input
2. A sequencer performing while more parts are input from the keyboard over-the-top, or while a playing part has more notes added to it
3. A notation and sequence editor (including dynamics, tempo etc) with mouse, fingers and occasionally keyboard involved in the editing
4. A sequencer performing by itself--driving either a stand-alone synthesiser or a virtual synthesiser
5. A sequencer running earphone-only accompaniment so a singer can sing a clear, accompaniment free track for later mating with the audio output of the sequencer--sounds circular till you think about it...
6. A producer of sheet music so that a human performer can then perform.
(I think that's the full list)

1 to 3 are purely Midi functions, all described in the Midinotate help. 4 to 6 have audio output which needs recording and fiddling with, and 5 has to have the ability to mix audio tracks with midi tracks, which is beyond the present scope!

At its simplest, audio recording from a stand-alone synthesiser involves Midinotate sending midi info to one of my midi keyboards, the audio line of which comes back to the line-in socket of the soundcard. I use separate audio recording software to capture the line-in. The soundcard, as with most modern sound cards, is capable of acting as the midi interface (Midinotate/synthesiser) as well as the audio recorder. The resulting .wav file is cleaned up a bit with audio editing software. But there's a limit to how many silk purses can be created with the audio editing gear!

You're allowed to stop reading now. The rest is examples and the actual equipment/software used. Still here? Right then...

EXAMPLES

Neither silk purses nor pigs' ears, the following can be streamed on http://www.soundclick.com/flyingtadpolemusic.htm

"Lost, forlorn" Midinotate performing by itself; multiple parts. Not strictly in time and not "cleaned up"

"Notomonotony" Midinotate as a recorder of an actual performance, or actually three sequential performances (three parts), each performed with the metronome running: not cleaned up other than a couple of discordant notes edited out.

"Notomonotony 2" Midinotate performing by itself after extended editing of the notation. (Note, a different synth. was used from the previous. The real differences are in more accurate time and more even "playing")

"Tidewater 2" A human performance using sheet music generated by Midinotate. A lot freer in timing and expression than it would be under a metronome. A Midi transcript of this performance would not be a pretty sight. Better-quality recordings (download only) of this and Notomonotony 2 at http://music.download.com/timfatchen

Examples of mixed audio/midi recordings: most of the vocals at http://music.download.com/internetopera other than the scatological "Catfish Row", which was live tape to tape recording without benefit of computers as a recording studio...

EQUIPMENT

My equipment is regarded as an infradig amateur lash-up by purists, but is adequate for my current standard and did not require black-market body part sales to fund.

The amount an amateur could spend is appalling. BTW, by definition, almost all musicians are amateurs ("Don't give up your day-job!"). In Australia, most practising visual artists earn less than $A3000/year from sales of their art, so they are amateurs too. I don't see what the issue is with sneering at "amateurs", unless it's to convince them to buy "professional" equipment at enormous cost for little musical improvement. So, I'm going to detail just what I have/did spend, as until very recently we were very, very money-challenged. $A1=$US0.70, indeed $US0.55 earlier on.

An IBM 300PL P3 550Hz 384MB desktop with 2 hard drives (total cost on Ebay about $A200) The hard drives only total 25GB so it's getting time for buying an 80GB drive as the price continues to plunge.

Audigy 1 soundcard (remaindered, $A95 two years ago, now available on eBay for about $A45), replaced a Live! 5.1 bought new on eBay for $A35 and now running on the office computer as its soundcard. There are better soundcards, but add a zero to those prices for them, folks.

A midi-cable adaptor kit for converting the Audigy gameport to midiport ($A15),

A MidiDock midi interface, bought for use with a laptop but which can also go on the printer port of the IBM and run as yet another midi output without the delay (latency) issues which appear with USB 1.1 midi interfaces on the slow computer, about $A20 for memory (more remaindered stock).

OTHER SOFTWARE APART FROM MIDINOTATE
The Audigy came with its own recording and audio edit software which I still use for audio recording.

Cakewalk Music Creator 2000, now supplanted as my midi editor/sequencer by Midinotate but which is still used for some aspects of music production and for mating audio and midi tracks. Effectively the same software as in Cakewalk Home Studio except it won't allow you to change instruments unless you know the work-around trick. $A135 when I bought it in 2001 (in theory it could have been bought for 1/3rd the price out of the USA, but could only be couriered at a price that would have made it $A170 when it arrived here. "Clowns to the left of me/Jokers to the right...").

JawsPDF for printing for which I had a free (promotional) version courtesy of a computer mag's cover disc--I've since bought it and its stablemate for professional use, otherwise I would have continued with the earlier free version.

As of a week ago, Steinberg Clean 4.0, also a free promotional with a computer magazine, which I've tried out and which is going to make an enormous difference to my recordings! Goodbye hiss, rumble, snap, crackle, pop!

As of now, a bundle of SoundFonts which I haven't yet had time to try out.

Behringer studio earphones, to keep my marriage intact. Bought new, not very expensive. $A45 ?

Note the repeated words "eBay", "free" "promotional", "remaindered". If you are both brave and careful, those words will save you a great deal of money.

SYNTHS/KEYBOARDS

The three hardware (wavetable) synths with the Audigy card

A venerable Yamaha PSR-310 (it must be the only one surviving in captivity) bought in Singapore in 1992. It was not repeat not cheap at the time, even though it was the bottom of the midi-capable range then.

A Medeli MC710 bought (you guessed!) on eBay, new, $A420 including courier. Bought with grave suspicion as a cheapie 76-key keyboard intended for use as a dumb keyboard, turns out to have quite reasonable sounds (especially brass, where the Yamaha falls down) and a good organ action, and I haven't broken it yet.

[My acoustic recording equipment, not really relevant to the Midinotate input but worth mentioning, comprises two excellent 30-year old Sennheiser mics, unused when I bought them ($A25 on eBay), an old but serviceable Tascam 112R cassette deck ($A120 on eBay) used for recording acoustic piano mainly and my John Brinsmead & Sons piano which was not bought on eBay. I'm streets ahead of the decrepit tape-to-tape boom-box and appalling mike on which the scatological "Catfish Row" (http://music.download.com/timfatchen) was performed 3 years ago]

WHAT I DON'T HAVE AND NEED RIGHT NOW:

A mixer (2 keyboards, only one stereo line-in socket on the Audigy 1 card!

A good mezzo-soprano, a soprano, a good tenor, a reasonable tenor and a good baritone. Apply within.

Whew!
Regards,
Steptoe, oops, I mean, Tim