EXTREMELY new- PLEASE help

Okay, so, I invested a lot of money into a new synth and software before I knew what i was getting into. I desperately need help.

My most pressing question is that I cannot get Project 5 or Sonar LE to recognize my synth to where I can control what the "instruments" are playing. I press the keys, and no sound. I can control instruments on the piano roll, but that's it.

Basically, i asked this same question before, but the answer was full of words that I was completely unfamiliar with and, therefore, did nothing but confuse the hell out of me (although, thanks to whoever answered it... I know you tried to help me, haha).

****I AM A TOTAL NEWBIE TO ALL OF THIS- PLEASE TRY TO HELP ME UNDERSTAND CERTAIN TECHNICAL TERMS/JARGON YOU MAY USE.****

Pretty much, I'm a complete **** and using small words or talking down to me will not offend me. I just need help :(

Let us know your set up - not so much the computer specs but what sound/midi card you are using and keyboard.

Welcome to the forum Trypticon.

In addition to AT's and techead's suggestions about listing the gear you're using, it would be helpful to know how you have hooked up your hardware synth and your computer to send and receive midi from each other.

Apparently I am going to make Trypticon look like a genius

I would like some advice - I have a qs8.1 but I've yet to hook it up to anything... what would you suggest for a complete and total noob like me?

I am looking to buy a new desktop to use primarily for this and can get XP or Win7, is one better than the other?

What MIDI/Sound card should I be looking for?

Which software package is going to be decent and yet as simple as possible?

I've been a computer programmer for many years but I can see that this is going to be a huge learning curve...

Anything else anyone can suggest is more than welcome!!!

I just want to be able to get a decent home set up for myself, a mild enthusiast at this point.

Thanks for your time!!!
~Dante

Dante,

you'll need an audio interface and a midi interface - many models have both, which keeps things simple.  The most important question is how much money you have.  There is a lot of info in the Hardware section, but some of the choices are:

TC Konnekt 6.  Firewire. Great sound, good drivers (now), volume control on the desktop, no midi.  But at $200 you can get a separate USB midi interface ($50).

Steinberg/Yamah MR16.  8 input output interface, FW, midi.  Great sound, 8 mic preamps and with digital expansion.  $700.

Lynx - up from $700 for 2X2.  No preamps but midi.  Lots of pros use it.

There is stuff all over the place - lower, higher etc.

The QS8 is the old Aleiss keyboard, right?  Some modern keyboards have USB midi built in, yours doesn't.  The Midi from it goes into the Midi on your computer interface (out goes to in, and visa vers).  That allows your computer and P5 software to "see" what notes you are playing, the volume you are striking at, etc.  Then you can "play" those notes back to your keyboard so you can hear it.  Think of a roller piano in the old west or a victorian drawing room.  And in the computer you can edit it, just like a word processing programming, so you can correct wrong notes just like a mispelled word.  You can also take that midi input to "play" soft synths.  P5 comes with several, there are pay synths that are worth paying for, along with lots of free ones at KVR, etc.  You can use your keyboard to control those.

The other thing is to have the audio from your keyboard plugged into the audio inputs of your interface, so you can record the audio itself.  Out goes to input on the interface.  Even tho the Q is multitibral you'll probably want to layer more sounds.  Or add effects, or mix it with audio loops like drums, etc.  The output of your audio interface will probably need to go to a stereo montior.  Much better than computer speakers.

That's the theory.  Hook your stuff up as per above (and the all important manuals), and start banging away w/ the P5 manual in front of you.  P5 also comes with lots of audio loops and midi clips, so you can see if a problem comes from hooking up your keyboard (P5 should sound w/o touching the keyboard).

@

You can also visit my website and look at the music pages..... under MC and follow the tutorial for setting up a synth.

Once you grasp the concept it is really quite simple. Most synths all operate pretty much the same way with respects to the host. Learn one, you can understand them all.