Live 4 It

The question: “What features should I look for when choosing audio recording software?”
The answer: “It depends on what you want to record.”

There are many low cost recording programs available that can be used to record from existing media (tape, cd’s, vinyl lp’s) or from radio and internet broadcasts. Even these low priced software programs have editing features and native effects that can be applied to the recording.

Live recording is best accomplished by using multitrack recording/editing software that incorporates tools and effects suitable for application to live voices and instruments, one of the most important being compression. Compression is essential to level the extremes in volume that inevitably occur in live recording.

Several features/capabilities should be considered when choosing software for live music recording (listed below).

Required features:

1. Recording – record multiple stereo tracks

2. Editing – edit a track’s waveform

3. Mixing – mix multiple tracks into one stereo track

4. Effects – native (built-in) effects such as delay, reverb, fade in, fade out, flanger, compressor and various high/low filters

5. File conversion – convert to/from the most popular music formats such as wav, wma, mp3

Additional useful features:

6. Plug-ins – accepts 3rd party software plug-in effects and tools

7. Ripping – pull individual tracks from music cd’s

8. Burning – copy recorded tracks to cd audio

Optional features (depending on need):

9. Midi – record midi instruments (midi keyboards, synthesizers, guitars)

10. Video – synchronize audio with video files

So, in conclusion, if you are recording music to computer from pre-recorded media, you can certainly get by with software on the low end of the price spectrum. But, if you want to create professional sounding mixes from live music, you’ll need the higher level of sophistication available in a quality multitrack recording program.

Cost shouldn’t be an issue in the choice as the difference in price between the low end software package and a quality multitrack program can be as little as $10 – $20.

Steve Leedy
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/how-to-choose-audio-recording-software-107512.html

Writing a rap song is not as easy as you may think. There are many aspects that go into writing a good sounding rap song. These aspects may go unnoticed to the listener, but it is in essence what can make or break a rap song. One of these aspects is how much syllables you rhyme with. If you rhyme with only one syllable its likely to sound like a novice wrote it, also known in the Hip Hop culture as “Nursery Rhymes”. If you rhyme with too much syllables it is likely not to make any sense, witch is just as bad as making up your own words to rhyme with. The recommended approach is to rhyme two to four syllables, and have at lease one rhyme every two bars. A bar is when the snare in an instrumental or beat hits twice. A rap verse usually has sixteen bars and a hook usually has eight bars. This means that in a verse the snare will usually hit thirty two times, and in a hook it will hit sixteen times. In some instrumentals or beats the snare might have a change up. When this happens you will have to estimate when you think the snare would of hit. This is not hard to do if you can rhyme on beat. Another aspect to writing a good sounding rap song is to rhyme a multi syllable word with two or more one syllable words. An example of this is to rhyme the word “activate” with the words “pack a plate”. This is a good way to avoid using the same words over and over again. If you are ever stuck and can’t think of words that rhyme, you can use a rhyme chart to find out what words to use. A good website to find a rhyme chart is http://upbeat.tk which is highly recommended. They also have good instrumentals and beats that are not too expensive. There is no orthodox way of writing a rap song but if you use some of the aspects you read about here, there is a good chance you will be writing good and professional sounding rap songs in a small matter of time.

Kevin Cox
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/the-secret-art-of-writing-a-professional-sounding-rap-song-82635.html

Selling merchandise on eBay is effective and easier with auction software. If you use eBay auction software when you are attempting to sell on eBay, you will be able to make your site look a lot better for potential buyers and, therefore, anticipate an increase in your sales for the help www.auction-entrepreneur-kit.com. There is auction software for purchase and there is free auction software available on the web. Depending on which program you use, the auction software packages offer different features. Here are a few of the basic features of most eBay auction software packages.

Many of the auction software packages have a Paypal checkout option. This is a special link that you can put on all of your eBay sales to give the customer the option of making a Paypal payment right from your site. All the customer has to do is click the link and eBay will direct them to their Paypal log in page. From there, they will be able to send you the payment directly without a lot of back and forth and cut and paste. This feature is very convenient for your customers who use Paypal for their eBay purchases.

The auction starting and ending bid tool is another feature that many auction software packages offer. With this tool, you are able to pre-set the minimum starting bid. This is useful in the beginning stages of your sale. It sets the minimum price for which a possible customer or buyer may bid on for that particular product. The ending bid tool allows you to set the final date of the sale process for your merchandise or service on eBay.

One of the most useful tools of auction software is the email notification tool. This is a great tool to encourage customers to place higher bids and haggle for the merchandise that they really want. If they are notified by email, then they will know about the outbidding and they will be able to take immediate action.

The auction reserve bid tool is another feature that is found on most auction software packages. The Auction reserve bid feature of the auction software component allows you to set a minimum amount for a customer to buy a specific product or service. Once the auction reserve bid is met, the product will be sold to the highest bidder upon the completion of the auction process. If the auction reserve bid is not met, notifications are sent out to the various bidders explaining that the item is still for auction due to not meeting this threshold.

All auction software packages have a feature called the auction close out tool. The auction close out feature of most auction software components automatically completes the bidding process by recording the required information into the various compartments of your software, processing the funds, and sending out final notifications to the winning bidder.

There is eBay auction software available for sale that offers a lot of advanced features to liven up your auction. Some of the key features include photo enhancement tools that allow you to resize, crop, design, and clean up the pictures that you post on eBay, borders and clip art tools that allow you to make your eBay store or space look very nice and for the help www.mining-auction-gold.com presentable for your customers, sound capabilities that allow you to play music in the background while your customers shop, a voice recorder that allows you to record a voice message for your buyers and lookers, and various tracking tools such as spreadsheets that keep track of how much you sold, how much you sold it for, and to whom you sold the particular product.

Selling successfully on eBay does not have to be hard. With the help of quality auction software, you will have a profitable eBay site or store set up that will help you to earn a lot of money. Whenever merchants sell anything on eBay, they sometimes consider using some free auction software to help them make their eBay store be one that many people enjoy.

Remember, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. Make that first impression count with eBay auction software. So, before you starting selling on eBay, take the time to review some free software packages online or packages for purchase. You will be glad you did, and you will more than likely be successful on eBay. The majority of eBay sellers succeeding on the Web are doing so because they understand the importance of auction software.

ravi singh
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/the-basic-features-of-most-ebay-auction-software-packages-724786.html

It is very common among the amateur beat makers that they aim straight for the top position even before they have started knowing their field properly. This makes them commit mistakes and fall short of success in their career.

Although they think that they are capable of attaining great success in their career, but they still cannot accomplish their dreams.

The problem mainly lies in the quality of their production and their beats. Even though they have good melodies and great lyrics, they fail in good sound quality and unique and attention-catching beats.

They can make their beats successful by just realizing that the beats make an important part of their sounds. Hence as an amateur beat maker, you should search on the internet for all kinds of professional beats including hip hop beats, instrumental beats, jazz beats and Reggae beats etc. By listening to these beats, you can get a fair idea as to how these beats are made successfully and what makes them different.

You can then built upon your ideas and create your own beats based on that.

In order to choose what kind of beats you want to produce, you should be able to first realize what you intend to produce. You should know what kind of audience you would like to perform for, if you are planning to go for an independent label or just stick to the underground music, how far do you want to go, like do you want to become a popular artist all over the country or even the world, and whether you want to attain fame and fortune or the popularity. Hence, you should be clear in your mind about your vision.

However, the beats still make an important part of your career, whether you want to go public and popular or you want to stick to the underground scene. Your beats should be created in such a unique way that they attract the attention of your audience and keep them interested in your music. If you are planning to go for the pop then you should choose a slick or commercial beat.

If you are looking for a slow style, then you can consider the southern hiphop beats; however, if you are looking for the high energy beats, then you can use the Hyphy or Crunk.

Apart from your audience, the venue of your performance or your audience also makes a difference. Some people just look into the target venue and create their beats accordingly. You can get a clue from your audience’s preferences and interests, so it’s better that you analyze your audience before deciding about beat making. Once you know about your audience, then you can better decide whether you want to make the Rap beats or the hip hop beats.

While considering your audience, you should not give up your own preferences and the style. However, you should be able to make such beats that take into account both your and the audience’s preferences. You should also learn from your performance and try to make necessary changes that are required to make your beats better.

Seth Willis Jr.
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/making-rap-and-hip-hop-beats-731370.html

When I go into any room that is a haven to music making- classic machines a plenty, I hear one little thing…usually “I still can not finish this track!”

I then take a good close look at this persons room and computer and usually the key to their predicament usually shows its face within a few minutes.

So I have collected the best 5 ways to get your tracks finished, made on time…and even started…without any musical influences:

None music way #1

Before you even start to make any music, make sure that the Internet is turned off. If it is a computer that everyone uses, make yourself a new user account without internet connection- this was my problem, so I turned off the Internet and saved myself 4 hours per day (surfing adds up)! If everyone is using that one computer, make sure that you have a secure section on it (passworded- so you can back up your section) as you can bet alot of money on something getting deleted. Even have a rota as who can have the computer at what times. You don’t want to be interupted in mid-fantastic-never-been-heard-before-number-one-hook making.

None music way #2

Do a mini spring clean and make things user friendly. I have a Temp Store, Downloaded Folder, VST folder (subfoldered into beats, FX etc). This makes my computer work well, quickly and makes my time in music making more efficient. If your computer is not efficient, or you have to have time to find a piece of software that holds the secret to your humming tune, then you will forget that hum before you find the folder. Having things at hand is a practical way of music making. I know of top artists that go around with a tape recorder or writing pad all the time just in case they get “inspiration”. The 2006 UK Football World Cup Song came to the artist in the bath.

None music way #3

How about invest in another monitor? This may seem odd, as we all have been brought up with the idea of one monitor leads to one computer. However, leading computer music artists are leading the way in utilising 2 monitors at once. In one monitor you have your sequencer running, in the other monitor you could have your software instruments, or mixing deck or any combination that you want. Making music this way is much easier than having to minimise, maximise all the time- you need the computer music making phase to be as realistic as possible, rather than stop starting every few minutes to maximise a window.

None music way #4

Make sure that you are using what you should be using and that you know how to use it. A hotkey function sometimes is much quicker than if you use the mouse, but if you do not know how to use them properly your work can be deleted within a key stroke. Knowing your software, and how to use it properly will save you a heap of precious time, and will also show you functions that you never thought that you had. I have read somewhere that there are secret functions within the Ableton software that you will only find by experimenting. Take time out once every 6-12 months and read up on your software. Keep it refreshed within your head, don’t assume that you know it. Make yourself a practice screen and just mess around, nothing is going to get wiped out. By experimenting you will find some great sounds and work much quicker.

None music way #5

If you have something that sounds very good…save it. I shall repeat…save it! Unfortunately there are many bits of software out there that do not have a “undo” button, so getting back that classic sound is impossible. Repeating the process will give you a sound that sounded 90% close to your long lost original. I tend to store good sounds into a folder called “experimentation”, and thats where it stays. If I play the same sound after a day or two later and it doesn’t sound the same, then I tweak the sound. In the past I used to write down all the values on how I built up particular sounds. I would even have a “sound day” where I would just make sounds of various types, and this kept me away from tinkering at music making time.

Before you make any type of music, stand back and just think, have you actually done all your none music making tasks?

D.J.Hough
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/5-none-music-ways-to-get-better-tracks-87470.html

Do you want to download music! Looking for an online store that offers the newest, coolest, most happening rap beats and sound effects? But can’t afford to spend a fortune, right!

There are few websites that offer royalty-free beats, instrumentals and sounds. And one such site is Beats 365 that offers you a unique package of several beats to download and can even produce and sell as many copies of your music using royalty-free beats. Simply go to their website, search the beats that you need and download your beat right away in a high-quality mp3 file format.

Our membership is quite affordable. Simply sign up with us in few simple steps and enable yourself to preview and download hundreds of tracks, hip hop beats, rap instrumentals, sound effects, nature sounds and instrument sounds from whopping 39 diverse genres and styles all at your own leisure.

It’s once in a lifetime affair! You just need to pay while signing up with us and get the unlimited access to our vast ensemble of music for the rest of your life. There are no recurring fees. Register yourself now and enjoy safe, legal music downloads for an affordable lifetime membership fee.

The huge ensemble comprises of thousand MB of beats which is upgraded with new beats, rap instrumentals and hip hop beats every week And the best part of all…You can even record your audio absolutely LIVE and market your music to record labels, distributors, and license your individual tracks. To possess high quality, genuine rap beats on your demo will display your seriousness regarding your career.

Alice Shown
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/how-to-buy-highquality-rap-beats-sound-effects-online-676572.html

Your parents may never forgive you for your career choice but being a Disc Jockey is a great way to make a living. If you have a passion for music and can build a great rapport with the crowd DJ’ing might just be your calling. Think about all the advantages you will be enjoying if you choose to take it up as a regular job.

Advantage No.1: You will still be able to maintain and manage a Full-time job. Most DJ’s play at night, since the hottest spot for action, the clubs are busier during nighttime. As a result you can work wherever you like during the day and then finally head off to the club at end the day on a musical note.

Advantage No.2: The job pays handsomely, and for almost no effort on your part. If you are a music enthusiast playing good tracks and making them sound better should be a cakewalk for you.

Advantage No.3: Total freedom in your work zone and an equal amount of space to help spread your creative wings. DJ’ing ensures a quick and easy flow of money. Gigs are popular and thus most DJ’s make money hand on fist. With the cash flow taken care of you can easily try out new things to suit your own creative taste.

Advantage No.4: Whether you are playing at a club or at a wedding you will be getting oodles of those complimentary drinks and food items constantly, so party on Bro.

If DJ’ing sounds like your cup of tea here are a few pointers. Begin by broadening your musical horizon. As a DJ you will be expected to play a lot of music, many of which may not suit your personal taste. To equip yourself for this challenge get your hand on all the music you possibly can.

As you probably know not all music works on the dance floor. Decide what is to be your forte, is it Trance that you specialize in? Or is it Hip-Hop? Are you eager to experiment with funk? Or rap?

For anyone looking to be a DJ, good music recording software is a must. A number of top DJ’s also have his or her own recording studios but this is obviously not an option for everybody. If you do have access to a recording studio however, do make good use of it.

Now, the rest of your requirements will depend on whether you are looking to be placed in a disco or a club or whether you choose to be mobile. Mobile DJs play for various events such as high school reunions, parties, socials, proms, weddings, private parties etc. They usually carry their sound recordings in some preferred medium, such as MP3, midi file etc. on compact discs or vinyl records or in MP3 compatible devices such as an iPod. To playback the recorded music mobile DJ’s require at least 2 playback devices so as to ensure continuous playback.

On the other hand if you are a permanent DJ at a club or a disco you will have your own console with a turntable, and will thus not have to carry your own playback devices.

So what are you waiting for, if music be the food of love go ahead and play on. And this time watch the crowd sway to your tune!

Sarika Kabra
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/making-music-swaying-the-crowd-with-your-tracks-127533.html

The most successful rap artists in the business work with the most gifted and talented producers, programmers, musicians, and recording engineers to help them bring their vision into reality. For the up and coming artist, he or she has got difficult choices to make. Does one invest the time and money in all the equipment necessary to self-produce a CD, or do you buy ready-made rap beats and hip hop instrumentals off the internet. The fully produced royalty free hip hop instrumental from the net can be a very cost effective option, especially if you are just putting together a demo to showcase your talent. These non-exclusive instrumental beats can be licensed for very little cash, and usually can be downloaded in the form of a simple wav. file, Broadcast wav. file, or even an mp3 file. For those that have never heard the term “non-exclusive”, it simply means the site is granting you a license to use that beat for your demo purposes. Some sites offer “exclusive” beats which can mean different things on different sites so read the fine print people! Usually an “exclusive” rap beat will cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, but once licensed, the site will remove that “exclusive” rap beat or instrumental from their on-site catalog, so only you can use it for your album. Pretty cool.

If fully produced hip hop instrumentals are the best option for you, then when checking out beats sites listen to the quality of the demos presented. Do the beats sound professional? How do the recorded demos sound? What format will the music be on once delivered? Will you have the tools necessary to convert the file into some other format if you needed to? It’s worth mentioning that in some cases, the producer that created the beat may in fact be a terrible recording engineer.

I would also tell anyone looking for just about anything on the internet to not assume that the first ten “beat-makers” are the best or most qualified just because they are in the top 10 for that query. Certainly visit and start listening to the demos on those sites, but I would also suggest you dig even deeper to the beat shops on pages 2, 3, and beyond. The reason for this is the guys that came up #1 for rap beats might be amazing producers, but horrible web designers. Seek and ye shall find.

You will most likely run across some beat and instrumental sites that give you access to thousands of beats after you pay their membership fee. Again, listen carefully to their production, and their recordings to help you deciding whether that’s a good investment or not. What good is it to have access to thousands of beats, if the audio quality and production is not up to industry standard?

Once you have your beats chosen and downloaded, you have many options as far as audio software you can use to record your rap or vocal in. The majority of the big expensive software like Cubase, or Sonar, Acid from Sony, and others will have scaled down or home studio versions that can be had at a fraction of the cost. It’s also worth mentioning that there are some budget microphones available that connect directly to the computer via USB connection that don’t need a mic pre-amp.

In closing, with a small invest for the recording software and a inexpensive mic, and a handful of hip hop instrumentals or rap beats, an artist can make the demo of their dreams without breaking the bank.

Charles Outlaw
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/hip-hop-beats-articlehow-to-make-a-tight-rap-demo-on-an-even-tighter-budget-284347.html

Computer based home recording studios must include a reasonably powerful computer (with at least 1 GB of RAM), an audio interface, and a digital audio workstation program. If you want to record any kind of acoustic instruments or vocals you will need microphones. For those who interested in using synths, samplers, loops, and drum machines I highly recommend the Reason software. You will also, of course, need some sort of system for listening back to your music. You really should have both speakers and headphones (listen to your music both ways to make sure you have a good mix.)

What kind of computer should you get? Well if you already have a computer that you are happy with then you can likely use the one you already have. But you must make sure it has at least 1 GB of RAM. And in all likelihood you’ll want more than that. I recommend at least 2 GB. Your recording and mixing software will work far better with more RAM.

Should you get a Mac or a PC? In my opinion either option is fine. Most people make too big a deal out of this. Some programs work better with one or the other and while other programs only work with one or the other. So if you have a certain program that you really want to use, make sure it’s compatible with your computer.

What kind of audio interface you get depends on two things: Your needs & your budget. If you only plan on recording yourself then you won’t need more than two inputs (at most.) Unless of course you have a live drum set (it’s good to record drums with many inputs for the different microphones.) But there’s more to consider than just how many inputs you get with your interface, you should also consider sound quality. The more expensive models tend to also have better sound quality. Get what you can afford.

There are a lot of choices as far as digital audio workstation (DAW) software. There’s Pro Tools (which works with the Digidesign audio interfaces.) There’s Cubase. There’s Nuendo. There’s Logic. And there’s quite a few others as well. Which one is right for you? Well first you should know that some of these programs only work with PC (Cakewalk’s SONAR & Sony Acid) or Mac (Logic & Digital Performer.) Bedsides that I think they are all quite similar actually. The important thing is which one you feel most comfortable with. You can download free demo versions to see which one fits you best. There are some general tips about digital audio workstations that I can give: Sony Acid tends to be a good choice for those who do loop based music (like hip hop and techno.) Cubase is a good choice for people on PCs or Macs. Pro Tools is a good choice for those using a Mac but it’s probably not the best choice for those using Windows. It tends to work better on Macs and it’s actually not as full featured as Cubase.

As far as microphones are concerned you will want to buy a condenser microphone for recording vocals and acoustic instruments. With microphones you usually get what you pay for. Better clarity comes from better mics (and better mic preamps but that’s getting a bit too complicated for this article.) Better mics cost more money. Dynamic mics are good for recording drums and amps. I would say they are less essential unless you have a drum set. If you have some good guitar effect plugins (such as Waves GTR 3) then you’ll probably be able to get a good sound plugging your electric guitar (or bass) directly into your audio interface.

Reason is the best all in one solution for those who want a drum machine, a sampler, a synthesizer, and/or a looping program. It’s top quality software that I cannot recommend any higher. If you can afford it and you are interesting in any sort of “synthetic” elements in your music then it’s a must have.

Marvin J Markus
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/making-music-with-your-computer-726159.html

Trackers! What are they?

Tracker is the generic term for a class of software music sequencers which, in their purest form, allow the user to arrange sound samples on a timeline across several mono channels. The interface is mainly numeric, notes are entered with a computer keyboard; with the parameters (effects, etc) being entered hexidecimally (numerically). A full song consists of several multi-channel patterns held together via a master list.

There are several elements common to any tracker program: samples, notes, effects, tracks (or channels), patterns, and orders.

Samples – A sample is a digital sound file of an instrument, voice, or other sound.

Note – A note designates what frequency a sample is played back at.

Effect – An effect is a special function applied to a note. Common effects include vibrato, arpeggio, and portamento.

Track – A track is a space where a sample is played back. Modern tracker software offers a virtually unlimited amount of tracks to use.

Pattern – A pattern is a grouping of simultaneously played tracks that represent a full section of the song.

Order – An order is a part of a sequence of patterns which defines the layout of a song.

The History of Tracker Software

The term “Tracker” comes from a piece of software called “Ultimate Soundtracker”, the first tracker software. It was released in 1987 by Electronic Arts for the Commodore Amiga. The general concept of how the program works; by step-sequencing samples numerically, can be found in sampling work stations as far back as the late 1970’s. Most early tracker musicians were from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. This may be attributable to the close relationship of the tracker to the demo scene, which grew rapidly in Scandinavian countries. It grew very popular with home audio recording fans, as it did not require the expensive wavetable sound cards to function. During the 1990’s, after the invention of the Sound Blaster line of sound cards for the PC, tracker music gravitated over from the Amiga. The Gravis Ultrasound, which continued the hardware mixing tradition, with 32 internal channels and onboard memory for sample storage offered unparalleled sound quality and became the choice of discerning tracker musicians. Modern software and hardware has grown to the point of making tracker software obsolete, but it still lives on. It is used primarily in modern video games as well as a number of indie games. The tracker’s stigma of being complicated and difficult to learn is being discarded as the new tracker programs are becoming more and more user friendly. Tracking has recently enjoyed a mild resurgence as people begin to appreciate the importance of laying down music as quickly as possible. Some modern musicians that use trackers as part of their audio production process include, Brothomstates, Bogdan Raczynski, and Venetian Snares.

Jason Cole
http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/tracker-software-the-beginning-of-software-music-sequencers-96352.html