Beginner's Guides to mixing?

I dunno, I use Sonar for scoring, but only limitedly. I suppose if I really wanted to properly score something I should get Sibelius..

I wholeheartedly recommend Sonar for a sequencer, I have been using it for a long time, and I have only a few quibbles with it.

Also, never forget to add reverb, especially to concert hall pieces. That is my tip.

Originally Posted by Fox

Hey Nikolas, on EWQL is there anyway to reduce the attack/velocity of the piano that you know of? (Depending on which word is right lol). I have the volume where I want it but it sounds like the keys are being hit just a little too hard.

reduce attack/velocity? try making the midi notes less loud (-> lower velocity values).




one more tip, when using EWQL, don't tamper with volume controls, try to se 'natural' volume control (velocity value). so instead of making something softer or louder, decrease/increase their velocity value. this makes orchestral mockups more realistic. you can always make something softer or louder after that.

^ Thanks for that.

I have Cubase now, and I was just trying to think of how to use it. I mean, should I write my music in Sibelius, export each staff as an audio file and then mix in cubase? Or should I export as MIDI and assign the sounds in cubase? I'm really not sure how best to utilize both notation software and sequncer.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Export it as a MIDI, I would. That will give you a lot more control.

It's not like you need Sibelius for the actual audio output anyway, so you may as well have direct access to the MIDI in Cubase.

yeah I just tried that and cubase seems to hate me! I can import the MIDI file but I cant get any sound to come out and I cant load EWQL in either. I've put the WEQL plugin in the "synths" and "other" folder of the Cubase VST plugins folder, but my primary concern is the fact my MIDI isnt playing back.

My output latency is about 2million at the moment if that might be the problem, I cant figure out how to get it down.

take a cubase sx3 crash-course. in spite of what you might have been told, cubase is very newbie-unfriendly.

crash course getting sound out of cubase while importing midi files.
1) import the midi-file.
2) press F11 for vsti's, click on the dark bar next to 1 and choose EWQLSO (silver, gold, whatever your flavour is).
3) when the sampler is loaded, load in an instrument (by again, clicking on the bar next to a number, i'd suggest number 1).
4) back to the midi file. click on the track, then on the left of the screen there are lotsa things concerning this track showing. in the top of this list there are buttons like, mute (m), solo (s), read (r), write (w) and other thiongs like, volume, panning etc. etc. when you don't see this, you can 'unfold' this 'menu' by clicking on the bar top-left which has the midi-name written in it bold.

ok, look for in: and out:. 'in:' probably says midi input or whatever, doesn't really matter unless you're recording midi on this track, which is not relevant right now. the 'out' though, we need to change though, click on the bar next to 'out' and select EWQLSO or whatever synth you've loaded in the vsti-load-thingy (F11). also, makes sure the channel is set to 1 (since you've loaded the instrument in the sampler on 1).

i hope this helps and i didn't just waste 5 minutes of my life typing this.

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getting latency down could (in most cases) also be done, check the 'device manager'. you do use an asio-soundcard right? if not, you should try the asio4all drivers, which will most def. get your latency down by numbers.