Recording to a DAW
I am a newby to MIDI. I can load kontakt 8 to a midi track. I can load an instrument. Say Harp. I hear a beautiful sound when a play the virtual keyboard at the bottom, or when a d-click on a preset. I arm the track.
But the sound does not record. Some instruments have a circle on the setting panel and I can drop these on a track to record. But not other instruments. I understand I am missing a lot here.
So is there a tutorial on how to record the ethereal sounds coming from the plug-ins to the recording track. Really simple. I would like to use the sounds for soundtracks, i.e.export to wave after recording. It has been several weeks trying find how to do it.
Best Answer
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This entire post was one of the reasons I dropped all Sonic Foundry/Sony programs back in 2009. Their design (or lack thereof) made even the simplest things way more difficult than they needed to be.
The only program that was easy to use was the orginal Sonic Foundry SoundForge from way back in the day.
As soon as I moved to Nuendo and then to Studio One - I was thrilled to put this stuff in the rearview.
VP
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Answers
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You should tell us what DAW you are using and what track type you are trying to record to.
It should be a MIDI track. Load Kontakt onto that track, load a patch into Kontakt, arm, hit record and record your MIDI.When you play back the MIDI data - that will drive your Kontakt patch and you should hear your patch playing its sounds.
VP
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Hi Vocalpoint. It is a MIDI track. (ACID Pro has both midi and audio tracks.)
When you say load a patch, are you referring to Kontakt itself.
When I do load kontakt onto a midi track, and then select say "Ethereal Earth", I click on a preset or click on the virtual keyboard. I can hear a sound. I see the meters actuate.
I click on arm (shows red) on the track, play a note, or select a preset to play a chord again, as above. But as nothing is recorded there is no sound. I select the track again and hit play, but no sound, no meters actuated. I have looked for where the recorded data/notes are on other plug-ins but nothing
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I used Acid years ago. As with all DAWS- βarmingβ is just readying the track to record. There is another button click somewhere that actually puts the track into Record.
I also remember that Acid was a pain to route the track to the instrument. Do not remember the process now but there are number of dropdowns on the track that route the instrument.
Sorry I cannot be of more help here but there are tons of YouTube stuff you can checkout.
VP
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The problem that you are experiencing could be for more reasons.
You mention Acid but you do not mention the version number or where you have the program from.
Anyway the greater problem with something like Acid Pro is that while in theory it all sounds really great then in all practicality then it might not be so. With this I am referring specifically to the fact that you can not even be sure that Acid actually will support VST3 bug free. Also if you go to the Acid help forum over at Magix then you will see a lot of problems of which more have not even received any answers.
ACID Pro Arm for Record Lights Red, Meters Work, won't record
Some paid VSTi instruments do not produce any sound in the midi track
VST versus VST3 in Acid Pro 11
Also relevant : Status of the future of ACID? , New Update for Acid Pro 11 , Magix "new" strategy
I am not saying that you can not possible get your stuff to work , you might , especially if you download the manual and start reading it. If you bought the program at Magix then at your account there, then where the program is listed and says downloads then there might also be listed "Instructions" which will be the link to the manual.
Also if you want any help then you might want to post not only program version info but also screenshots of what you have setup in the program.
Anyway then alas the best advice I can give you is to use another and better DAW.
As I wrote to another person recently then : Getting Ableton Live Lite 12 (not sure if it comes other than with hardware) / Ableton Live Intro ? is most likely the easiest way since that support integration with the N.I. keyboards. Else then I think that you can use Reaper as free and also Mixcraft 10 is not that much either (at the moment starts at $19) and both of the mentioned will be a lot easier to use , especially Mixcraft got a lot of tutorial videos for the novice. Mixcraft 10 University 101 (skip lesson 2) , Mixcraft 10 University 202 , Mixcraft 10 Videos
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Thanks for trying Vocalpoint.
I also use ableton (Lite), but the problem is the same.
Arming, I appreciate, is getting the track ready, but I still cannot see where I start a recording, or what I D&D such as a preset onto the track. I can understand that there might be another activation to start the recording, but???
The trouble is that there is a lot of YouTube stuff. But they all so far lack that detail as to how to actually start a recording (either Acid Pro - very little, or Ableton). There is a lot of presumption at that point. I have watched with keen eyes, even magnified to see what is activated. So if you know of a YouTube that might help, I would be grateful.
Cheers Peter
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Thanks PoorFellow.
I am grateful for the time that you took (clearly from the detail). It is more obvious now that I am new to midi. But I thought my problem was generic, hence no photos and versions, but perhaps not.
I also use Ableton Live, and I have the same problem, almost the same steps taken in both. [Acid Pro is ver 11, and Ableton Live is 12]. The problem presentation is almost identical which made me think that what was wrong was me missing a key step. I have looked at tutorials from both. Ableton's help videos with Kontakt are much better than Acid Pro's, but both skip past the actual recording steps. I suspected it was a really basic step they assumed but I did not know. Kontakt 8 is the only common factor.
I will chase up the videos.
Thanks again for your help.
Peter
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What about this tutorial:
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PS. I initially assumed it was a kontakt problem.
Low and behold (it only took me a month), the problem was I was playing the Kontakt virtual keyboard and not the computer keys nor the midi controller I have. There is no YouTube tutorial for that, that I could find. Sheer luck clicking here and there. I feel like the monkeys typing up Shakespear.
It seems the Kontakt virtual keyboard with the Kontakt preset, e.g. ethereal sounds, is for playing the plugin presets only, not for recording. This has surprised me, and I thought that it would be available for recording but I cannot see a way to activate it through devices setup. I shall persevere.
That has lead me to another problem now. If I close a track's kontakt plug-in window, I cannot see how to bring it back. I have to insert another track and attached Kontakt to it, and remember not to close it. I can drag the previously recorded notes to the new track. If anyone has an answer I would be grateful.
Thanks for the help.
Peter
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Thanks Maciej,
I'll give it a go.
Peter
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I have been there myself , including with using 'cheap offer' Magix software thinking that that would bring me what I wanted but actually that brought me only problems and defeats because or the problems there has been over time with the Magix software and when you are a beginner then you do not know enough to understand when it is yourself that fails and when it is the software , and when it is the software then you have no idea why it possibly fails because you do not know what the 'typical problems' can be either.
So I am actually kind of impressed with you for taking it as far as coming her to get help. I myself has progressed somewhat further but not that much since all I have ever done so far is to record simple ideas and I always wants to do so much more that I do not know how to do and because it doesn't say anywhere how to produce this or that sound or effect to put the pieces together , but I do progress even if at a snails pace π.
In the following I have used Ableton Live since you have that. Generally I think that using the computer keyboard as Midi keyboard generally will limit your efforts so I would suggest that moving forward then you ought to try to integrate your Midi keyboard into your 'workflow'. but how that works might depend on what is your keyboard so I have treated this as if using the computer keyboard.
On Ableton Live then you turn on/off the PC Midi keyboard using M on the keyboard or mouse in top right of interface. And shift view to Arrangement view by using TABulator on keyboard.
Drag Kontakt plugin from left to right onto the Midi track in 'Arrangement view' ,
then set kontakt instrument of choice and close Kontakt
Then make sure that the little red icon on the Midi track to the right is enabled and red
Then press SHIFT + F9 on keyboard , that arms the recording
Then to start actual recording then press F9 or SPACE on keyboard
Then play using the PC keyboard
Stop recording using SPACE on keyboard
If you are not satisfied with your recording then undo by pressing keyboard CTRL + Z
Then if you want some 'lead in' to give you time to start playing after start of recording then in Options - Settings then set the 'Count in' to the bars that you want.
I hope that this explanation in combination with my pictures will enable to start recording.
Ableton Live though being 'intuitive' is advanced and professional software that take a lot of knowledge to use when you want to move beyond the most basic and again then when you do not know what all the expressions are or even how things works then sometimes it can be hard to even gain understanding of some topics of how to do what you think sounds as something that ought to be pretty easy to do since you 'only' want to do this or that.. But this is where it helps you to use software that is well documented and that a lot of professionals use. That way there is both a lot of experienced people that knows things and a lot help made. I am mostly the 'happy amateur' when it comes to 'music making' and there is a lot people here that can assist much better than I will ever be able to do.
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This entire post was one of the reasons I dropped all Sonic Foundry/Sony programs back in 2009. Their design (or lack thereof) made even the simplest things way more difficult than they needed to be.
The only program that was easy to use was the orginal Sonic Foundry SoundForge from way back in the day.
As soon as I moved to Nuendo and then to Studio One - I was thrilled to put this stuff in the rearview.
VP
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Phewww! Thank very much for the explanation. I to started with the Sony program. I am primarily a movie maker. I only wanted to add some depth to the sound track. I progressed to Sound Forge, and it has largely done the job. Some of the sounds that Kontakt had, esp. ethereal. I wanted to use it in a sound track on the Temples of Central Java. That needed MIDI editor.
It is the first time that I bought a program (Acid Pro) where I had almost no idea of what to do nor find a way to do it. It has stunned me a little.
Thank you Voice pool and others for taking the time to explain. I am sure now that I will not be expanding my MIDI universe. I have enough to do.
But thank you all so very much.
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Do you want me to try to check if things can work in Acid Pro 11 ? I got that also , just do not have it installed at the moment , but I am willing to give it a go if it can help you.
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