DROOL...SWOON...THUD!

THIS PAGE UPDATES AT IRREGULAR INTERVALS IF SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING OR USEFUL COMES UP. SO IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST READING, READ THIS THROUGH AND DO THE VIDEOS BEFORE YOU MOVE ON ANYTHING; This page is the first word --NOT the last! There are things I haven't even touched here, like Native Instruments (Kontact, Reaktor, etc), Cubase, Propellorhead and Sonar

SECRETS TO EFFECTIVL LEARNING: abstracted from Behavior Modification therapy;

  1. 1. The biggiest impediment to learning is to think "How am I gonna learn all this stuff; there's so much of it?", so you freeze up. No, you won't get it all at once. You'll get it in pieces as you work with it. And see if you can't make up sone NEW swears; the old ones will be very tired after awhile
  2. 2.SMALL STEPS: How do you eat an elephant?: One bite at a time. Now, a bite-size piece for you, and a bite-size piece for a T-Rex are different. The basic unit of learning is the act and its result. If the result is what you want, that is called a "reinforcer" which increases the likelihood that you will do it again. Hey; why not? it's what you wanted. The "bite size piece" is the act-results "amount" that the learner, that's you, is morst comfortable with and can use most effectively
  3. 3. SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATIONS: As you use something, you learn more about it and get better with it.
  4. Ultimately, as put by Tom Rhea, one of Bob Moog's associates, in the Multimoog owner's manual, "It's not 'what will it do', it's 'what can I do with it'". All of this stuff is a means to an end; like building blocks. Nothing here has a mind of its own. That is for you to have and use. And THAT'S the whole point of this

    ABOUT

  • VST BasicsStart here
  • GLOSSARIES: Wha'chu talkin' about?

    MID - Musical Instrument Digital Interface;Not a piece of equipment, but the language of computer and computer-equipped musical instrumens:

    1. MIDIWorld
    2. GLASSARIES: Take your pick
    3. CODES & "MESSAGES": Many to pick from
    4. MIDI*Site Search engine for MIDI

    Places: Subscribe to the newsletters if they have them. The downloadable zip file of this page has the 7.zip multiple format file extractor in case you run into the occasion .rar. Do grab it up

    1. SWEETWATER Been around for over 25 years. Look in their DealZone or "B-Stock" sections these are factory-refurbished items at good prices. I got my Roland Lucina AX-09, Mackie Pro FX8 Mixer (w/USB) M-Audio plus Analog to digital audio interface (w/USB) and M-Audio Oxygen49 MIDI keyboard controller. often M-Audio hardware comes with free access to things like Ableton 9 Live Lite and AIR Ignite and the Makie comes with access to Tracktion 3
    2. B&H Photo A very reputable company that advertises on major NY news and sports stations. I got a factory-refurb (the only kind of refurb to get) Lenovo Edge 15 touchscreen 2GHz; Turbo-Boost to 3.1 Intel core i7 dual-core [sic] 8gb ram, nVidia 840m w/2 GB ram, 1 TB 5400 RPM HD for $499 (New MSRP $899)
    3. KRAKLI is a designer and maker of many free VST plugins, such as Morphiza but no real website. Their manin installation appears to be on Wordpress as KRAKLI BLOG, YouTube and facebook. Don't pass them by: So many plugins' so little time
    4. ARTURIAARTURIAsells both hardware and software instruments. I got the V Collection 3, plus the Vox organ. I recommend Collection IV: Can you say ARP 2600, MiniMoog (8-note poly) Moog Modular, Vox/Jemmings organs, Yamaha CS-80, Oberheim SEM's, Wurlitzer Piano, Roland Jupiter 8. Check out their current V collection
    5. DEMONIC SWEATERS (Mothman) Sounds like a 1968 Pscychedelic band. Home for some plugins,links to othersand some kraziness that fits in with the name; absolutely CRAWLING with vids
    6. VSTFree
    7. Free VST OASIS
    8. vstinstruments
    9. VST PLANET
    10. MyVST Many Organs - A welcome break from synth 24/7/52, even if the Hammond clonewhee is WAYYYYY overdone
    11. GIZMO'S BEST FREEWARE SITE might find some useful music software here
    12. 7.zip A freeware multi-format extraction program you may need to open the occasuional .rar or other exotic compressed files
    Workstations: Also called "host"'s. Mixers, recorders, playback devices and "standalone" so you can play an "instrument" like it was a real thing and do live performance with it
    1. KREATIVE Home of BOTH PreSonus 1 and KRISTAL Audio Engine
    2. Linux MultiMedia Studio
    3. WAVOSAUR Like Audacity, but VST/VSTi oriented. AUDACITY has many more audio editiong features that would make it better for creating WAV samples for SFZ files, but is not currently supported in Windows 10
    4. REAPER Not a freebie but VERY Reasonavly priced lisence DAW with a good rep
    5. Stagelight Another inexpensive DAW
    6. VST bridge: Enables older, 32bit programs to work in the 64bit world
    7. ARDOUR
    8. MULAB
    9. OHM
    10. PODIUM
    11. TRAKTION 5
    12. AUDACITY still chugging along: It is now much more powerful than before. If not for professional recording, it is still good for samples since you can manipulate speed and pitch separately, ideal for string ensemble sampes and it has a whole host of plugins and more VST friendly than before
    13. SAVVIHOST small VSTi host that converts individual VSTi plugins to standalone units that you can use "live"
    Things
    1. NIGHT FLIGHT String Machine Like Solina IV but with a whole bunch of bells and whistles
    2. BLOGOSAUR A Wavosuar blog that has access to a goodly number of VSTi and VST effects plugins
    3. ASIO4ALL Deals with"latency" (time delay between input and recored and track-matching) problems) driver
    4. Free VST/VSTi plugins of various kinds. Look for the Windows instruments download
    5. BEHRINGER honey hole A mixed bag of goodies
    6. VSTi Vox Contintal organ
    7. VSTi Farfisa Mini Compact organ
    8. VSTi Yamaha YC-20 organ
    9. VSTi ENSONIQ SQ-80 LITE
    10. VISUALIZATION Make "psychedelic art" that moves to the music: The eyes have it!
    SOUNDFONT; SFZ: An exceedingly popular format for sample-based VST instruments. it is also an excellent user-level Do-It-Yourself virtual instrument creation system because of the simplicity of writing the .sfz file and the ready availability of SFZ players and the fact that it can use most WAV and mp3 files; and use the same samples over again in many files, the number one choice being:
    1. SFZ & Player Overview: Meet SFZ and its Pllayer
    2. PLOGUE's Sfortzando SoundFont player
    3. Intro to SFZ
    4. SFZ writing page
    5. SFZ editing page
    6. HARMONY CENTRAL's SFZ page
    7. GOOGLE SFZ page
    Reviews & Instruction vids
    1. ARTURIA Sweetwater is big on this company
    2. M-AUDIO M-TRACK PLUS USB interface Mine did not have the DVD's
    3. M-AUDIO OXYGEN49 MIDI Keyboard Controller Mine did not have the Abelton Live 9 Lite DVD
    4. MACKI PRO FX8 USB 8 channel mixer w/effects
    5. Home Studio
    6. Wavosaur Tutorials
    7. Linux MiltiMedia Studio
    8. AIR Ignite
    9. Tracktion
    10. ABELTON LIVE 9 LITE
    11. REAPER Review
    12. Stagelight Review
    13. YouTube VST videos Sometimes provide access to actual downloads: Check UPROAR24
    Get this page for yourself Includes 7.zip; multiple format file extractor for things like .rar