It is time to provide an example of how some popular music software works, and some aspects of it which may lend it self to music education.
In this video, I will step by step add different musical parts that belong in the arrangement of Ice Cube’s “Go to church”. The work is done within the environment of the popular sequencer program Steinberg Cubase which is linked to Propellerheads’ Reason.
The sound sources are software synthesizers, software samplers, hardware synthesizers and the recording of an acoustic melodica. The software instruments are triggered by an external synthesizer via MIDI, and what I record in Cubase is not the actual sound of the synthesizers, but the MIDI data. Examples of MIDI data are keystrokes, velocity and the use of pedal. Once MIDI data is recorded, I am able to change what software instrument the recorded musical phrases should be directed towards. I can change the timbre after the recording is done.
The recording of the melodica represents a different approach to digital recording. The melodica is recorded as audio on to the hard drive in the same fashion as if the hard drive were a tape deck.
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