Recording to a DAW

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/223303#Comment_223303

I would like to see if Acid Pro 11 will do the same. It seems easier to work with. Almost intuitive except that i cannot make MIDI work. I do appreciate that is a lot of work and time. But i have the program and i am a neophyte regarding MIDI.

If you can, and you wish to, I would be a grateful receiver of knowledge. If it is too much trouble, or you have gone onto other projects, please do not give it a second thought. I am grateful as it is.

@PeterF ,

So I installed the Acid Pro 11 Suite and gave it a quick go.

I don't know what you mean by "if Acid Pro 11 will do the same" , what same ? Acid Pro 11 is not made to be used with a computer keyboard as Midi input device and after having tried if I could do that then I dropped that idea because I else would have had to tweak Acid Pro 11 to not respond to most keyboard input (if that is even possible). You can get small Midi controller keyboards also if you need so use a Midi controller keyboard.

Else then for Acid Pro 11 to work then you have to set Midi and Audio devices to a setting that works.

For audio devices (driver setting in Kontakt 8 standalone and then Acid Pro 11) on Windows then use Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver (Please see below here).

For Midi-in set your Midi controller keyboard in both first Kontakt 8 standalone app and then Acid Pro 11.

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While testing then Acid Pro 11 generally worked but it did crash one time when re-opened Kontakt 8 and when I started Acid Pro 11 again and let it recover the project then Audio and Midi did no longer work , so I had to close Acid Pro 11 and re-load the crashed project from my own previous save to get Acid Pro 11 to work at all. So I am warning you (as I did previously with respect to the software quality) , save your projects manually and progressively in more saves and if Acid Pro 11 crashes then do not let it restore the project , simply reload from your own last good save. If you get 'strange problems' with Acid Pro 11 then I can not help you with that and you have to ask in the Magix forum about that or contact Magix support.

I am prepared to help you with getting a basic setup going here so feel free to ask about that but beyond that then if you want to use Acid Pro 11 then ask their Magix support resources.

That settled then let us proceed :

Acid Pro 11 in general worked . Setup things as I described , insert a Midi track and insert Kontakt 8 soft-synth as shown on picture, arm track by clicking the Arm track button as shown on picture , be sure that you have set the track progress indicator to start of track (rewind), press computer keyboard Control+R to start and stop recording. That's it , it worked OK for me. To reopen the Kontakt 8 plugin then right click on Kontakt 8 in the Mixer settings and select Soft-synth properties.

In my opinion then the Acid Pro 11 Metronome is extremely poorly made or have a poor interface and alas then you have to experiment with that yourself.

To get yourself a best chance of getting things to work then setup things as I have described and then start with a fresh track. If you have some questions about the basic setup here then please ask , but preferably tend to this so that I will not have to go forth and back to this over weeks and months.

I have made pictures for you :

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Try using Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver: information & download for all music programs and DAW

then also do the following :

Right-click the speaker icon in your system tray and select Sounds.

Go to the Playback tab, select your active audio device (e.g.,your speakers or headphones), and click Properties.

Go to the Advanced tab.Uncheck both options under Exclusive Mode (Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device Give exclusive mode applications priority)

Click Apply and OK.

Please notice though that the Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver from what other people say is one of them 'not a real ASIO driver' and that it may give more latency than some other 'ASIO' drivers.

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PeterF

Thanks Poorfellow. You have gone to a lot of trouble. I will have a few weeks between jobs coming up and I have started to prepare to try to learn about making music (more accurately just sound) using MIDI facilities. Your lesson alone will take some time to absorb. I am finding that the MIDI world with its loops, instruments, etc, is a bit overwhelming at this point

The "will Acid Pro do the same" refers to your explanation about how to use Kontackt with Ableton, and would it apply to Acid Pro. Some experiments with Acid Pro has taught me what you have already pointed out. It is complex and does not always work well.

I am not wedded to Acid Pro. As I have Ableton and I find it is a little easier to use. The MIDI device/machine I have is a controller for working with my video editor and my audio only DAW. If this proceeds well enough, then I can see a simple MIDI keyboard will be needed. I am no Beethoven.

You mentioned audio/device drivers. That has been a bugbear. I set up the drivers for MIDI and then find my Video editor does not have sound and v.v. I had a similar problem when setting up 5.1 sound tracks. Mostly when I change the driver back from the video stereo track to the 5.1 track sound systems, or from a stereo (video) to Acid pro or Ableton midi audio driver, I have to reboot the PC to allow it to take effect. More exploration needed. I have yet to find a driver that will do it all. Who knows, maybe the Steinberg ASIO driver will do the job. The inbuilt ASIO driver does not. Wish me luck.

Once again thank you very much,

Peter

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/229415#Comment_229415

Thanks Poorfellow.

You are very welcome.

Some experiments with Acid Pro has taught me what you have already pointed out. It is complex and does not always work well.

I am not wedded to Acid Pro. As I have Ableton and I find it is a little easier to use.

Yes , I felt like dwelling on that also and like recommending both Ableton Live and Mixcraft over Acid Pro but since the whole point of the exercise was that you wanted to use Acid Pro then I didn't really go into that. But I think that generally then the Magix software mostly is un-intuitive or unstable or both and alas then often it takes hard lessons to reach that conclusion. (Considering the cheap price and how often it is on offer then Mixcraft is relatively good software , but I think that ultimately then while Ableton Live is the more expensive then it also appear as more advanced and while maybe hard to start with then I think it very intuitive compared to a lot of other software)

You mentioned audio/device drivers. That has been a bugbear. I set up the drivers for MIDI and then find my Video editor does not have sound and v.v. I had a similar problem when setting up 5.1 sound tracks. Mostly when I change the driver back from the video stereo track to the 5.1 track sound systems, or from a stereo (video) to Acid pro or Ableton midi audio driver, I have to reboot the PC to allow it to take effect. More exploration needed. I have yet to find a driver that will do it all. Who knows, maybe the Steinberg ASIO driver will do the job. The inbuilt ASIO driver does not. Wish me luck.

Because of your use of more software then it would be hard for me to try to assess it all. But generally then Windows can sometimes be extremely hard to get to behave especially if switching between e.g. analog audio and digital audio , it can even sometimes go into states where it can be very hard to recover from settings wise. So you are well advised to both perform an image based drive backup of your system drive when things work as well as performing manually made restore points in between and especially before changing driver configurations !

More 'professional' users here thinks drivers such as Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver not very good but it's perfectly fine for my personal use so far. But some audio problems that people have in general also stems from some drivers (especially ASIO) grabbing exclusive access why I also recommended turning that off in my previous post.

However then it is entirely possible that you would benefit even more if looking into using the Voicemeeter Banana or Potato. You can find the Voicemeeter site here , but you should also visit the VB-Audio site also since they also have 'virtual audio cables' including something called VB-Audio ASIO Bridge which is found at the lower part of the cable page. (says for use of Audio Pro ASIO Devices with regular Audio Software for Windows). Documentation : The VB-CABLE Reference Manual (PDF document). explains all about VB-Audio Virtual Cables. They also have something called 'Matrix' (says audio router) and 'Matrix Coconut' says ultimate audio router.

Voicemeeter STANDARD, ALL THE BASICS.
Voicemeeter BANANA, ALL YOU NEED. AND MORE. STANDARD VERSION INCLUDED.
Voicemeeter POTATO, FOR AUDIO PROFESSIONALS. STANDARD/BANANA INCLUDED.

VB-Audio licensing page.

Link to manuals , forum , guides and tutorials respectively here and here.

However please notice that I do not have had the money to have had use for all this and I know very little about it all , so alas then I can be of very little help when it comes to the actual use of such software. But I do know one thing and that is that again you are very well advised to both perform an image based drive backup of your system drive before even starting to use such software as well as performing manually made restore points in between and especially before changing driver configurations ! Having the option to fall back on reloading from a backup will relieve you from a lot of worries and stress with respect to trying some unknown software and from worrying if your settings are OK or whatever. Then if one achieves to alter setup to something really good that works great then of course one makes a new full system drive backup. (If doing recording and file editing for a living then you of course need to make sure that all personal files and all editing layouts and files are kept safely so that they do not get deleted/thwarted if loading a backup)

Being able to use backups should be considered a basic computer skill. Remember to also have a tested boot media made , in the case of recovering from Audio driver/settings problems it should not matter but is necessary step in general.

If this proceeds well enough, then I can see a simple MIDI keyboard will be needed.

You can get cheap Keyboards with few keys to get your feet wet just remember that not all have full size keys and besides everything else then there are also both quality differences including between brands as well as key-bed differences. Here is a link to a compare of the N.I. keyboard offerings. I have no overview of what is best brands for economy class keyboards but N.I. keyboards works with N.I. Komplete Kontrol software so there is that at least , though that apparently is being brought to more brands.

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PeterF

Thanks Poorfelolow, You have been most helpful indeed. I go to start an intensive learn it yourself on MIDI Musics. Peter