Originally Posted By: justanoldmuso
Cathie.
i thought i saw in one of your posts that you have a piano.
am i mistaken ? please confirm. also do you have a microphone ?
do you anticipate doing high quality vocs ?
please detail your objectives/needs. please also detail the model of your computer so i can look up the specs.
for future reference i never buy new (too much bloat on new pc's.) i only buy refurbished pc's with ssd's.

Hi oldmuso. I have a Yamaha DGX 660 keyboard. For recording, I've been using an older digital recorder, Zoom H1. I had bought a Cobalt Co9 dynamic cardioid mic when I bought Gizmo (the keyboard), but it's never worked with the keyboard and so it sits in the box along with the mixing headphones. I have absolutely no idea how to use it with my computer.

The computer says it's "HP Laptop17by4xxx" and I haven't found any other model name no matter how I've searched. It's running Windows 10 Home. I have two fastUSB ports, one HDMI port, a port I don't recognize (the little icon looks like a zipper), and one audio jack. There's a webcam with a mic but I haven't tried it yet. It also had a card reader slot and a DVD drive.

Quality on my vocals... well, I myself am the weak link there **rueful smile** but I would like to at least be able to get an accurate recording.

Objectives... My hands are giving out. I need to be able to create the accompaniments for my vocals without having to play my keyboard. What I wanted to be able to do is put my already written songs into BIAB, including the notation, add in the vocals, and then export the final song as an MP3 so I can share it with friends and post it on Soundcloud. I anticipated being able to write the instrumental parts like I would in a notation program, especially since I have some school band and orchestra pieces. I anticipated MIDI patches that sounded professional rather than tinny (since it turns out MIDI is the only thing I can write for in BIAB). I don't have any idea why my MIDI patches are so bad, since the RT sound so good. **shrugs**

I opened my SGU in RB. It plays static free, just like it does in BIAB. And I read a goodly chunk of the Users Guide today but it never says anything more than "It's possible to save the file as WAV or MPwhatever" so I still don't know what I'm doing... but I do know that most of the users guides for RB and BIAB alike read like a foreign language to me, which is why I started watching youtube tutorials instead.

I know that I need to learn music production skills in order to fully realize what I hear in my head (unless, you know, I could win the lottery and hire a 40 piece dance band... not so likely, eh?). I just didn't know it would feel so impossible to learn these skills, and I honestly didn't know I would need anything more than a new computer, BIAB, and RB.

Love is always worth the risk.

HP laptop; Windows 10 Home 64 bit; core i5; 2.40 Ghz; 8 GB RAM; 256 GB hard drive; BIAB 2021 Build 835.