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Bruce writes:
For anyone who wonders, how do you record songs and get them on the internet, here are a few details on what I'm doing (there are many other tools and methods - I don't claim this to be the best approach, but it works for me). I'm primarily a songwriter and singer, though I'm OK on guitar and can play keyboards just a bit. But to make home demos that sound more like a band, I need help.
Band in a Box
I really like this program from PG Music (www.pgmusic.com). Band in a Box (BB or BIAB for short) allows me to enter the chords that I play for a song by name, choose a tempo, and choose from one of hundreds of musical styles. The program then generates an arrangement for MIDI-generated bass, drums, piano, guitar, and strings.
I can audition different styles in real time as the song plays, and even modify styles, usually by importing parts from other styles. How is this different from the auto-accompany features in a Casio or Yamaha keyboard? Well, there are many styles, each with two substyles (e.g., for verses and choruses). But most of the styles have many different ways of playing each part, chosen randomly based on various rules controlled by what's happening bar-by-bar in the music. Since the "riffs" in these styles have been played by professional musicians, they are often quite human sounding. I've upgraded BIAB several times - upgrades typically add some really cool and useful new features, and various new styles are also included depending on the particular upgrade you buy (they usually run holiday specials in December). Good stuff.
Jammer Professional 4.0
I also have Jammer Professional 4.0 (www.soundtrek.com), another auto-accompaniment program. It has a bit steeper learning curve than BIAB, though it gives you more detailed control of the "virtual musicians." This program generates some amazingly human-sounding music, especially in jazz styles, which may be right for some of my songs. I did the jazzy backing track for my song "Chicken Soup" with this program, but not much since then - BIAB just seems to be quicker and gives me more styles and sounds with less effort. I noticed Jammer is now on version 5, but I've decided not to upgrade.
Going to MIDI
Once I have an arrangement I like, I need to export to a general recording program (BB allows you to record one audio track in addition to the standard MIDI tracks - I sometimes use this for a rough vocal to see how it works with the MIDI instruments). Both BB and Jammer Pro allow you to export a general MIDI file of the selected tracks. MIDI files are compact and can be played on most media players, though the sounds that are generated will depend on the quality of the sound card in the PC, or the external synthesizer or keyboard you use. MIDI files contain digital descriptions of notes and other music "events," but no actual sounds. |
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Home Studio 2004 and SONAR 3
I started with Cakewalk's Home Studio 2002 for general recording (www.cakewalk.com). This is the junior version of Cakewalk's SONAR, and is really a great program. It supports unlimited MIDI and digital audio tracks and allows you to apply special effects and manipulate the tracks in endless ways. I did a couple of upgrades to Home Studio but in 2004, I got a pretty cheap upgrade offer from Cakewalk and moved to SONAR 3. The interface is essentially the same as Home Studio but SONAR comes with more effects and many improvements (they are now on SONAR 4 but I'm not upgrading quite yet - I still have a lot to learn in SONAR 3 and I'm sure I can do everything I need with it).
I usually import the MIDI track I created with BIAB, then begin overdubbing vocals, guitars, or maybe even other MIDI keyboard parts. I have also used SONAR's ACID-compatible "looping" features, using a couple of loop library CD's I bought, including some great steel guitar samples.
Do the WAV
MIDI tracks have to be rendered to audio. Usually your sound card does this, but I often use the "software synths" supplied with SONAR (e.g., Roland's VSC, Virtual Sound Canvas - great sampled instrument sounds). I also bought a plugin called LiveSynth Pro that uses "sound fonts," samples of instruments that can sound amazingly real on recordings. SONAR has great mixdown tools, even including mixdown automation (as you change levels of tracks or effects, SONAR can remember and replay all the control positions, just like expensive mixing consoles).
Once I have the track mixed the way I want, I use "export audio" to create a CD-quality WAV file. These files are huge (36 MB is typical).
MP3 to the Web
There are various programs that can convert WAV files to the compressed MP3 format. I have used RealJukebox Plus (www.real.com) so far, rendering to "CD quality" 128 kbps that is the de facto standard on the web. Recently I have also used MusicMatch 7.0 for this conversion (more conversion options).
Then I go to soundClick.com, garageband.com, or amazon.com where I have artist accounts, and simply upload the new MP3 file. Voila! A new song on the web (pretty much real time for soundClick.com, days to weeks for the others, which I now rarely update because of this). This can be done really fast in some cases. With "Dedicated and Sincere" I went from entering the chords in BIAB to hearing the song on SoundClick.com in about a day and a half of one weekend.
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