Turns out a lot of you guys are musicians (more than I realised certainly), so post a little about you, your instruments and your band (if you've got one) here.
I'm 16, and I play bass, guitar, keyboards and sing on stage, though I can also play drums, ukelele, and a fair few others. My band are called Complication and we formed in October '07, with our first gig in March '08. We've done a few since, and our most recent was January. We are a trio (drums, guitar, bass) and we write our own music. There are two of three videos of us on Youtube but they're awful quality so I'm not going to link you to them!
Aged 19. Hand me an orchestral instrument, I can probably play it. Main instrument is String Bass. Also play bass guitar some. Used to play in a local punk band, quit when the lead guitarist pulled a stupid stunt. The band's still around, though. I won't post the name here, if you really want to know, you know how to contact me.
I tinker in FLStudio :P
I can share one of the songs I made (and its subsequent "Dance Mix") if anyone cares.
Me, not a music talent, but, I use my computer knowledge for audio editing. Y'know, like, echoing and stuff
Anyone can do that, Arby.
But isn't it remarkable for a 12 year old? I mean, hay, I was the only student in my former school who could do that. People tend to waste time playing (The game called Maplestory)
Not really. Just download Audacity and mess around with the filters. Anyone could do that.
Quote from: Arbystrider on May 12, 2009, 07:21:31 AM
But isn't it remarkable for a 12 year old? I mean, hay, I was the only student in my former school who could do that. People tend to waste time playing (The game called Maplestory)
I've been thinking about learning to play the saxofoon, but things keep getting in my way ... mostly games :D
I play a bit of piano and at groundschool(not sure how you call it, was about 10 years old) I learned to play a (literally translated) blockflute. (besides a triangle one of the most basic instruments you can learn how to play, its basicly to teach you to read music.)
Quote from: VSMIT on May 12, 2009, 07:24:22 AM
Not really. Just download Audacity and mess around with the filters. Anyone could do that.
Dang! Forgot to mention that nobody even knew what audio meant moreover spend time googling things not related to MSSEA.
Dude, fix your quote tag.
A lot of people are musicians because it's basically a universal language.
Quote from: VSMIT on May 12, 2009, 07:38:37 AM
A lot of people are musicians because it's basically a universal language.
Plus learning to play an instrument well doesnt come easy. Most people here are active in a game thats 10 years old and I would say that makes you a rather dedicated person (something you need to learn to properly play an instrument)..
Quote from: Arbystrider on May 12, 2009, 07:14:50 AM
Me, not a music talent, but, I use my computer knowledge for audio editing. Y'know, like, echoing and stuff
So?
When you program your own processor to add echo, THAT will mean something. ALL you do is open a program, hit a button. HA!
I don't know any instruments. I seem to have the ability to pick up the base of a language very easily, which allows me to get the gist of a conversation in another language without knowing a single word of it.
I wish I knew how to use some instrument. I used to know some, but it never kept in my head.
Um, read like about the last 3 posts by me on this thread. It's remarkable for a guy from that kinda school. I was like, a picometer away from getting that ultimate title, but my apprentice betrayed :(
Quote from: Arbystrider on May 12, 2009, 07:21:31 AM
But isn't it remarkable for a 12 year old? I mean, hay, I was the only student in my former school who could do that. People tend to waste time playing (The game called Maplestory)
Dude, before I was 10 I was already making flash animations...
Were you perhaps in a special school with only 1 computer?
Quote from: bigbadbogie on May 12, 2009, 09:49:40 AM
Dude, before I was 10 I was already making flash animations...
Were you perhaps in a special school with only 1 computer?
I guess it also very much depends on how old you are. When I was about 12 we got an IBM(dos only at the time) at home and 1/2 the street came over to check it out :)
We didnt have a PC at school untill about 2 years later ... so its would have been rather difficult to be able to do flash animations when I was 10 :D
I was a band geek back in high school, played mainly the brass (or 'fiberbrass') basses, i.e. baritone (~euphonium), tuba, Sousaphone and bass keyboards (Fender Rhodes model). Now I mostly dabble in electronic/computer multitrack audio/midi mix and master (on a DAW), along with some keyboards/synth/keytar (usually just vst/vsti/dls/sf2/xg/tracker, etc) and maybe some vocals skills too. Am about to record a live gig for a band client in a couple weeks. Hopefully my daw laptop won't die anytime before that. But I wouldn't rule out a seeing a bsod during one of the recordings though, lmao. :P
Wow technoid, you are the man I've been looking for. I think everyone here knows I play lead guitar. I want to stop using my webcam microphone to record youtube videos with and use my M-audio Fastrack USB. The only problem I have is the software it came with doesn't allow me to put on a song by someone else and record me playing along with it. The webcam recognizes the m-audio device and records me playing guitar and of course the video, but I can't seem to find a way to record both at same time. I made the first video using m-audio device by using Windows Movie Maker to somehow start the song at the same time I start playing(which anyone can tell that is not a viable way to do it) but somehow I did it. I don't want to go through that again. I downloaded audacity last night but haven't tried it yet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to put some more of my original Axeminister songs out, and some Iron Maiden.
I've sung before. I dance modern.
Quote from: Axeminister on May 12, 2009, 01:25:52 PMThe webcam recognizes the m-audio device and records me playing guitar and of course the video, but I can't seem to find a way to record both at same time.
Get a 1/8in. to XLR adapter and plug an MP3 player into the Mic line?
Quote from: Axeminister on May 12, 2009, 01:25:52 PM
Wow technoid, you are the man I've been looking for. I think everyone here knows I play lead guitar. I want to stop using my webcam microphone to record youtube videos with and use my M-audio Fastrack USB. The only problem I have is the software it came with doesn't allow me to put on a song by someone else and record me playing along with it. The webcam recognizes the m-audio device and records me playing guitar and of course the video, but I can't seem to find a way to record both at same time. I made the first video using m-audio device by using Windows Movie Maker to somehow start the song at the same time I start playing(which anyone can tell that is not a viable way to do it) but somehow I did it. I don't want to go through that again. I downloaded audacity last night but haven't tried it yet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to put some more of my original Axeminister songs out, and some Iron Maiden.
Well I don't own a Fast Track (although I do have an M-Audio Uno USB/MIDI interface), so can't be sure what it can do. I'm not totally sure what you said (lol), but it looks like you need to mix the pre-recorded music/song with your guitar and vocal feeds. I think the Fast Track has a mic-in, guitar-in and line-in, so all those should get mixed inside and then output to your pc/recorder via usb, afaik.
You need to buy a real microphone, instead of the one off your webcam, as you stated. Go get a dynamic/condenser mic with xlr connection (or the unbalanced/balanced phone plug), although I checked and it says the Fast track requires a dynamic (probably because it may not have phantom power for a condenser). Start the audio recording along with the webcam and it should be good to go (depends how powerful your rig is recording A/V). A cheap dynamic (with cable) can run $20 or so. If you only find a cheap dynamic with a phone plug (such as on some home karaoke units), you can get a 1/4" to xlr adapter with imp balance, like at Radio Shack.
VSMIT says to try the mic line (on the PC I assume, not Fast Track). You might get an impedance mismatch there, unless you feed the mp3 player, or what have you, through a line-in (if any) instead, should you decide not to use the mic-in on the Fast Track.
I go to music college where i study sound engineering and creative music production.
I play the drums and have done for about 3 years. ive played in and formed two bands, the latest of which i tried to name with the help of you guys. According to the people ive played with im 'pro as f*ck for only 3 years!'. Which is one hell of a confidence boost :)
I play heavy metal mostly, the only kind music i could get a niche in. I do appreciatte many others though, jst cant play them to well!
BTW, if its electric guitar youre playing Axe, try and get an SM57 from the internet (mic) and an XLR lead so it can plug into youre m-audio kit.
Place the mic RIGHT up against the speaker cone, about halfway between the edge and the epicentre. That gets a good sound for a budget system. (Decent mics are NOT cheap!)
The mic is what I'm trying to avoid. I just want to go totally digital. Play guitar along with a pre-recorded song and have them record at same time as the video. Basicly I want two tracks of sound (my guitar and one cover song) and one video that's in sync. I don't play in a band anymore, my favorite thing to do is play along with old heavy metal songs here at the house, I made some videos of me doing that using the mic on the webcam, but now I want to increase the quality of the sound by using the "m-audio fastrack usb". It allows me to plug in my guitar to the pc basically. I've tried other programs to help me with this but they are so damn hard to figure out it's not fun. It should be easy, but so far I've been defeated.
Here is a video of me using the m-audio device:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF6SUsiyDPQ
And here is one with the webcam microphone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3mkXW1F6I
But like I said, since I can't make the two sound recordings merge into one I had to use the windows movie maker program to literally drop the cover song into the video timeline and then move it back and forth a million times until it matched up. This sucks. I've already spent too much money, I don't want to buy a tascam or anything else really. If I do my wife will want a new car or something to balance the spending out. lol
I might need to recruit ppl for something at some point. Seems all Steeveeo can make is techno, which I don't want...
What do you want then?
I have that FL Studio 8 that Steeveeo has. Very advanced program. In other words, I don't what in the hell to do with it except play with the keyboards that make drum sounds. lol
GoldWave, and access to Cubase VST5 (I think) and Sibelius 5 at school.
I play the piano, my favorite song is my own variation of Pachelbels Canon in D, i can also play around with other songs but i like playing Canon, the Diary of Jane, My Immortal, Bring Me to Life, and other stuff i find laying around.
Also im into ballroom dance im on my team at our high school
Some nice tunes in there, I wish I was a proper pianist... I'm more like what a rhythm guitarist is to guitar to piano... if you know what i mean
Quote from: Axeminister on May 12, 2009, 02:38:47 PM
The mic is what I'm trying to avoid. I just want to go totally digital. Play guitar along with a pre-recorded song and have them record at same time as the video. Basicly I want two tracks of sound (my guitar and one cover song) and one video that's in sync. I don't play in a band anymore, my favorite thing to do is play along with old heavy metal songs here at the house, I made some videos of me doing that using the mic on the webcam, but now I want to increase the quality of the sound by using the "m-audio fastrack usb". It allows me to plug in my guitar to the pc basically. I've tried other programs to help me with this but they are so damn hard to figure out it's not fun. It should be easy, but so far I've been defeated.
Here is a video of me using the m-audio device:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF6SUsiyDPQ
And here is one with the webcam microphone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3mkXW1F6I
But like I said, since I can't make the two sound recordings merge into one I had to use the windows movie maker program to literally drop the cover song into the video timeline and then move it back and forth a million times until it matched up. This sucks. I've already spent too much money, I don't want to buy a tascam or anything else really. If I do my wife will want a new car or something to balance the spending out. lol
Well, in that case Fast Track is not the best way to go, as that only captures audio as you already realize. It's also overkill if you're only going to upload your creations to Youtube, since Youtube will dither and compress down your file to some .flv format anyway to conserve their serverspace. You need an audio/video recorder/capture and since money is definitely an issue, just capture audio/video simultaneously in Windows Movie Maker. I have never in my life used that program (yet), so I don't know what it's capable of, but I quickly perused through it. It looks like you can capture audio using the Narrate Timeline. Have you tried that yet? You've got several choice of audio input. And because of Youtube (again), superior audio quality is not going to be necessary. Yes, FLStudio and other DAW's out there can be daunting at first because of their huge learning curves, but if you really want to get into recording stuff, you need to sit down and get into it, heh, much like you did when you started learning BZII. :P
Did you say you can see Fast Track in Movie Maker?? Let's start with that, otherwise, you really will need an [analog] mic if you want to record audio/video at the same time. Going fully digital as you said may not be the right way to go until I know what we're dealing with.
i pwn all of you. i have access to Pro Tools HD 8 next year, along with Logic...
Currently i have Cubase 4, Reason, Audacity (lol) etc that i can use well enough. Goldwave would be great if i had a full-lisence. really liked that program before it expired.
I've got Audacity, Traction, Garage Band and Finale 2009/Finale Allegro 2007/Finale Print Music 2004 (Think I like Finale much? Take that, AHadley). I'll have access to Reason, Protools, and one other program (Starts with an "A," I think), starting in the fall.
Thanks for all the help. I'm still stumped as to how to do all this digitally and may revert back to using the webcam microphone for my videos. I tried the Windows Movie Maker and it won't record the video and let the song I drop into the timeline be recorded while I play.
The Logitech program for the webcam is almost everything I need. It sees the M-audio device and records the sound of me playing for the video just fine. But it only records one audio at a time.
The funny thing I tried was to merge the cover song and the guitar with a 1/4" jack adaptor into the back of the m-audio device so they both would be recorded at the same time from the same device. Of course one cancels out the other. lol
I'll read more about the audio/video recorder/capture device Technoid was talking about.
Quote from: VSMIT on May 12, 2009, 11:57:33 PM
Think I like Finale much? Take that, AHadley.
I have finale notepad 2009, but didn't mention it because Sibelius is more annoying but superior.
That's Notepad. Full version Finale is much better.
Yeah, maybe... though ive never tried it.
Quote from: Axeminister on May 13, 2009, 03:08:24 AM
Thanks for all the help. I'm still stumped as to how to do all this digitally and may revert back to using the webcam microphone for my videos. I tried the Windows Movie Maker and it won't record the video and let the song I drop into the timeline be recorded while I play.
The Logitech program for the webcam is almost everything I need. It sees the M-audio device and records the sound of me playing for the video just fine. But it only records one audio at a time.
The funny thing I tried was to merge the cover song and the guitar with a 1/4" jack adaptor into the back of the m-audio device so they both would be recorded at the same time from the same device. Of course one cancels out the other. lol
I'll read more about the audio/video recorder/capture device Technoid was talking about.
What you need is audio/video multi track channel capability. Note I said audio and video, i.e. simultaneously. I could give you a list of many audio multitrack DAW software out there (such as the ones already mentioned in this thread), but that is not what you want. Sony Vegas would be a good candidate for A/V recording, but again that is not within your "budget". We are trying to find something close to freeware as possible.
I still think you should find an XLR dynamic mic and hook that up to your Fast Track, since that is the device you really want to explore. I believe that you should be able to then record your vocal and guitar straight out of the Fast Track right into your computer, while recording video off the webcam at the same time. You should be able to get better quality vocals than off the webcam mic. I would think that the audio off the webcam mic would produce somewhat muffled sound because you're a little farther away from it, though I don't know what webcam make/model you got though. A USB mic might also work. Note also that when you do record the vocal and guitar from the Fast Track that this will only show up as one track, not separate tracks. That is one limitation of the Fast Track and that is where your problem lies in that you can't layer another track (where your song is) during the recording (while recording simultaneous video as well). An EMU 0404USB comes to mind for USB multichannel recording.
So then, if Movie Maker doesn't work, why don't you try Multiquence (from the makers of Goldwave)? It is also an A/V editor. It is crippleware much like Goldwave, but not in the way of disabling file saves. Find it at www.goldwave.com and read the description. In unregistered mode, it will put up a logo on the video, but nothing big.
Other than that, you might want to expand your music recording arsenal, like say with a cheap multichannel external mixer if you dont have one. Run vocals on one channel, another with guitar and another with your song, then take it through the mixer's Line-out into your PC's Line-in, while recording webcam video in Multiquence. You can do the same with a digital USB multitrack recorder (like that EMU 0404USB) and this will separate tracks in FLStudio or whatever, but again these cost around $100 or more.
I'll keep looking for something.
I play piano, took lessons for years. I've been off lessons for a while now, playing and creating on my own. I picked up guitar in High School, my first song was AC/DC's classic Thunderstruck. Lets see... I played baritone for a while and if I had time now I would be continuing it, but you know how that goes.
My ex-Band:
Pink Unicorns of Doon -- a parody black metal band. We rult.
My Band:
Harbingers of Cool -- Our tagline: "DC's premier band, specializing in blues, blues rock, and black metal."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSihy1hrTM