The Sound Card - the Basis of a Desktop MIDI Music Studio
Basic Requirements of a MIDI Music Studio
What Sound Card you should buy
Support for MIDI standards
Quality of Wavetable
Downloadable Patches
Bundling
Sampling
Setting up your Home MIDI Music Studio
Using your Home Music Studio to Produce your own Demo Tapes
Expanding your MIDI Music Studio
It is every
musician's dream to set up a home music studio. But for a long time,
only professional and established musicians were able to enjoy this
privilege because setting up a home studio was costly and involved with
sophisticated equipment that would not fit into a standard size room.
Today, with the aid of computer technology, music technology has advanced
by leaps and bounds without inflating costs. In fact, the cost of electronic
instruments has fallen significantly.
A new technology called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which
allows musical instruments and modules to communicate with each other
has also gained much popularity. All these now make it possible for the
average musician - electronic or classical- to set up a home studio for
as little as under US$1,000. So what accounts for this significant reduction
in cost?
When Creative Technology first introduced the Sound Blaster, it was perceived as a useful peripheral that brought the sound dimension (8-bit sound) to games which were fast gaining popularity. However two important additions to the Sound Blaster - a MIDI interface and a synthesizer chip - were to create quite an impact on the music industry. Musicians could now connect their MIDI compatible instruments to their Sound Blasters and harness the power of the PC to arrange, compose and produce music!
The ability to produce and play MIDI music also benefited the game developers. Because MIDI songs mainly contain instructions on what notes to play, developers prefer to use them as they do not consume as much hard disk space as sampled music (music recorded digitally onto the hard disk). The only problem is that these MIDI files are determined by the production quality of the built-in synthesizer. The early sound cards made use of FM synthesis which tries to imitate different instruments by reconstructing the appropriate wave forms. As a result, the sound quality generated by FM synthesizers simply wasn't good enough for musicians. Nevertheless, they used the sound card as a MIDI interface between their computers and MIDI instruments.
Meanwhile, the quest for better sound quality (not just MIDI) went on among sound card manufacturers. Soon 16-bit boards capable of producing CD-quality sound were developed. Of greater significance to musicians was the advent of wave-table synthesis incorporated into current sound cards. Instead of recreating wave forms, wave-table synthesizers store high quality 16-bit samples of actual instruments into a ROM. This means that sound cards using wave-table technology are capable of playing MIDI files that are of equivalent quality to those produced on CDs.
Sound card manufacturers have been quick to recognize the potential of wave-table synthesis. They have licensed advanced music synthesis technology from professional musical instrument manufacturers such as Korg, Yamaha, E-mu, Ensoniq and Kurtzweil. The same synthesizer chips found on these music manufacturers' products are built into today's sound cards. Creative Technology acquired E-mu Systems Inc., the world leader in audio and music synthesis, to incorporate the company's music technology into its new generation of Sound Blaster wave-table cards -- Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 32.
Today, musicians have two options when incorporating a sound card as part of their MIDI music studio setup. They can either opt for an expensive synthesizer controlled by a cheap sound card used only as a MIDI interface with their PC, or they can buy an expensive sound card worth more than US$350 and a cheap MIDI keyboard. This second combination relies on the built-in synthesizer to produce the music while the keyboard serves only as a controller by sending MIDI messages which are played back by the sound card.
How on earth can you set up a music studio at such an affordable price, you may ask? Firstly, most of the essential components are already present in your home. Your present PC is the platform on which you will build your studio. Don't worry too much about your PC's performance. Since your PC will be merely recording what notes you play, you can get along fine with an old '386. As for your sound system and tape recorder, use your existing hi-fi speakers and its recording facilities. Unless, of course, you want reasonably good quality recording for demo and circulation purposes. Don't fret if you don't have a DAT recorder. For these requirements, you will need a reasonably good '486 and most importantly, lots and lots of hard disk space to store your digitized music.
Another crucial component of your MIDI music studio setup is a MIDI compatible keyboard. If you are an electronic musician, your existing synthesizer is most probably MIDI compatible. For those of you who own a Portasound keyboard, an electronic organ or piano, check to see if they have MIDI connections. Otherwise purchase a MIDI controller keyboard that will cost as little as US$150.
Once you have your PC, sound and recording systems in place together with your MIDI keyboard, all the rest of the other equipment automatically becomes available with the purchase of a single sound card.
Although Creative's Sound Blaster AWE32 offers only 1 MB of sound samples, the card supports E-mu's SoundFont technology. You can purchase additional patches available in the form of SoundFonts that can be loaded into the DRAM (Dynamic RAM) found on the board. E-mu has 150 Mb of SoundFont banks from its renowned Emulator library.
Some sound cards offer additional value by bundling a microphone and even a MIDI cable which saves you a lot of trouble looking for one. If you require additional software to meet your music needs, there's a whole lot available in the market.
Believe it or not, every high-end sound card bundles a software version of a mixer. These sound cards and their standard mixers allow you to connect a microphone via a microphone input as well as other external devices such as a CD or a DAT player using a line input. You should also be able to control each individual volume including the treble and bass. The master volume lever determines the overall output of sound to your sound system.
To use your MIDI keyboard with your desktop, you will need to have the appropriate MIDI cable to connect your soundcard to your MIDI device. A common mistake which newcomers to MIDI make is plugging in the cable incorrectly. Ensure that you connect the end of the MIDI cable marked MIDI IN to MIDI OUT of your MIDI instrument. This allows your keyboard to send MIDI messages to your sound card.
When you have installed your sequencer program, select MIDI Out under MIDI devices if you want the music to be produced by your synthesizer. Select MIDI Mapper or the appropriate synthesizer that is built onto your sound card if you want the sound to be produced by your sound card. Or both, if you want these two options.
Other than allowing you to produce MIDI music, a sound card is also capable of digitizing 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo sound which is equivalent to CD-quality audio. Most sound cards bundle a sound recorder and an editor software that can match any DAT player in terms of features. Such software allow you to cut and paste digital samples, add special effects like echo, amplify the volume, etc. However, digitizing sound may require you to have at least 200 - 500 MB of available hard disk space depending on the length and sampling rate of your samples.
Once your music is ready, you can start recording the vocals by using a reasonably good microphone. Turn on the mic option found on your software mixer and adjust the lever to a reasonable volume that does not cause unnecessary feedback. If you have ample hard disk space, you may want to digitize the voice using a sound recorder and editor program so that echo or delay can be applied. But first remember to turn off the recording option for MIDI so that only the voice gets recorded while the MIDI music accompanies the vocals. This method may be slightly complicated as you need to sync your WAV with your MIDI accompaniment when recording to a tape deck.
You also have the option to bypass sampling into the hard disk. Instead, you may want to record directly on to tape while your MIDI music plays; in which case, you can first connect your microphone to an effects processor that adds reverb and echo to the voice before going through the mixer on the sound card.
To ensure that you get minimal interference, get the singer to use a pair of headphones while he or she sings and shut out any music that may come out from the external speakers. This would cut out the possibility of the microphone amplifying the music from the speakers.
If your sound card has built-in effects, by all means, utilize them. The Sound Blaster AWE32 has built in effects such as reverb and chorus and I use them to add richness to the overall output of the music.
If you have a non-MIDI compatible instrument and wish to accompany both the music and vocals, connect your electronic instrument to the line input on the sound card. Start recording or sampling once you have the right mix and balance. As a general rule, cut out inputs such as line-in or mic-in if they are not in use as they can create unnecessary noise in your recording.
For those who wish to sequence tracks other than MIDI music, consider buying the Darwin, a dedicated 8-Track Digital Audio Hard Disk Recorder from E-mu Systems.
Now whether you are an accomplished musician or a beginner, having your own home music studio can be a fulfilling experience. Once your studio is set up, take a trip to your nearest computer or CD-ROM store and go shopping for additional music software. You will be surprised at the number of music software sitting quietly on the shelves. These include instructional, accompaniment and sequencing software. So if you are a music enthusiast, a classical music student or just simply someone who wishes to take up music, take the first step into the world of MIDI music by buying a sound card and a cheap MIDI keyboard!
©1995, 1996
Creative Labs Europe.