Mp3 Recordings Of Music And More
Recording music MP3 has a number of advantages over recording with real instruments. For one, it allows you to play instruments that, in real life, you might not own, let alone know how to play. This method also means that it's not necessary to make any audio connections between the PC and the instruments, so there's no need to shell out for expensive microphones or interfaces and there's no loss of audio quality.
In addition to the music keyboard and sampler, most people use another program called a sequencer to arrange the music, building it up track by track and instrument by instrument. Some sampler programs include a sequencer, but these are usually rather limited. Sequencing programs allow note-by-note editing and include copy-and-paste functions so that a verse or chorus can be repeated perfectly as often as required.
To record this way, you'll need quite a few items: a modern home PC and a sound card, an external music keyboard with Midi in and out connections, at least one software sampler and a sequencing program. Most modern musical keyboards attach to the PC using a USB cable, while older ones require a Midi connection - even cheap sound cards usually include some way of connecting Midi cables via the old joystick connector, although it's worth checking to make sure.
Software instruments are great, but with a modern PC and sound card it's also possible to record music using real acoustic instruments, such as guitars and pianos and vocals.
Most sound cards have a microphone input, but these usually use small mini-jack audio connectors rather than the large connectors required by most instruments and microphones, so most will require a special interface to link the instrument and computer.
It's possible to spend hundreds of pounds on one of these devices, and the factors that influences the best choice are complicated enough to warrant an article of their own. Therefore - and given that we're trying to get the most out of the PC we've already got - we recommend buying an inexpensive analogue mixer with line-in connectors for instruments and XLR connectors for microphones. Plug the mixer into the line-in input on the sound card and from then on simply plug instruments and microphones into the mixer. This will save you scrabbling around under the desk trying to find the right socket for whatever's being recorded and keeps the inputs away from all the electrical interference being pumped out by the PC's components, so recordings are less noisy.
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