Virtual Studio Technology-The VST Plugin

This is a follow-up to my article "Turn your computer into a Recording Studio". This article will cover what types of programs are available, how to set them up, and hopefully enough info to help the beginner work around any D.A.W.

www.hotconcept.net

Many Good Choices 

How much do you want to Spend ?

The D.A.W. is the software equivalent of a multi-track recorder, editor, and mixer. It also takes the place of many hardware devices such as reverb, compression and delay machines.
Some of the most popular are : Digidesigns Pro Tools, Cakewalk Sonar, Cubase, Ableton Live, and Samplitude.
They usually come in two editions. The limited or LE editions, and the full version pro editions.
Some of the "light" editions are Sonar Home Studio, Ableton Live LE, Cubase LE and Samplitude SE. Another good starter D.A.W. is Acoustica Mixcraft 4. You can get a good deal on it, or try it free here......
The main difference between the limited and the pro comes down to the number of tracks you can record, and how many features, effects and instruments they include.
If you can live with 8-12 tracks the lighter editions will do nicely. If however you have large amounts of cash, what the heck, buy the Pro versions. Lighter editions sell for aprox. $100. or less, while the pro versions can cost hundreds to thousands. Either way you will be able to record in better than cd-quality!

Setting up the Basics 

First things First

After installing your software you will need to specify some basic settings. Depending on which DAW you are using, look for a menu item for Settings or Preferences. There will be an audio setup to configure. You are just telling the software what interface you are using. Using a Tascam interface, you would need to choose that in your settings. Similarly there will be a MIDI setup where you must locate your hardware, such as Tascam Midi in. If you are using an external device for playback like a synth, you must specify the Tascam (in our example) MIDI out. Now your software is ready to receive and send signal to your equipment.
The music you're about to create is called your project. The next thing you should setup, is your project settings.Look for Project settings, or right click on the workspace.
An important one is Grid. This sets up the "Graph" behind your music.Later this will help to keep your timing accurate.
You may wish to setup the tempo of the project as well. To find tempo, look for a large "120" on your workspace. This is the default tempo . Look for a Tempo menu, or right click the "120" display to change the tempo.
There is more important info on setup at www.hotconcept.net

The Interface and Basic Operations 

Finding your way around.

Most D.A.W.'s have two main views. The "track view" and the "mixer view." The track view is where you will edit your music, and the mixer view is where you will mixdown your instruments into a masterpiece.
The track view is shown in the above image. The different colored horizontal bands are the different recordings or instruments. To the left of that is an area on each track where you can find buttons for Record, Solo, Mute, and usually a dial or slide for Pan for each track. There are other settings as well including a speaker icon button for you to monitor the track. Usually to the left of that is a dropdown box where you can specify the "ins" (your interface) and the "outs" for the track.
Another important control is called the transport. This is a set of controls that resembles the controls of a VCR, having a play button, record button and buttons for advancing forward, or rewinding.
If your interface is hooked up correctly, you should now be able to choose a track, arm it for record, push the record button on the transport, and you should be recording whatever is setup to record on that track.
This is a very basic explanation of your workstation. The workstation is an incredible tool with many different functions including recording, editing and mixing. 

For more info visit www.hotconcept.net . Also check out the review of Samplitude Music Studio 14
A.W.