help please: Dimension Pro

Please provide some system specs...Mac or PC? XP or Vista if Windows? Which version of OS X if Mac? What host audio host program?

all I have is Dimension Pro, is there another product I need to buy to use it?

No, you don't need anything else. It'd be helpful if we knew whether you had a controller keyboard of some kind, or if you intend to create within the host software alone (Acid Xpress, at this point). If you have a keyboard, there is a Dimension Pro microhost available for free download. That would get you up & running with DP without any further configuration.

all I want to do is create simple music, i have a demo of Acid Express

I've used Acid, but I was unfamiliar with exactly what you can do in Acid Xpress. Honestly, it doesn't appear to be all that limited at first glance.

I downloaded the manual, just to see if it was capable of loading VSTi instruments. Apparently, yes. Related to your Dimension Pro question, there's a section around page 157 that should provide the step-by-step process of getting Dimension Pro into a MIDI track (where you can use it). I know that you're new to all this, so if you have any problems with that, please respond back.

When you install Dimension Pro, there are options for DXi, VSTi, and others. (It's been years for me, so I don't recall the exact process.) If you left everything at the default settings, you should have a VSTi installation, and that will be one thing that you can use in Acid Xpress.

ORIGINAL: Reaver

EDIT: all I want to do is create simple music, i have a demo of Acid Express, but wanted a cakewalk program due to its high praise from other people, and just plain popularity, if you know Acid Express, whats the closest thing you have...

I recommend that you not buy any more gear until you know what stuff you need to make the music you want to make. It takes a few different pieces of gear to make music on a computer--audio and MIDI interfaces, sequencer program, VST or hardware synths and effects, MIDI controller, etc.--and you need to put them together in a sensible way. You don't want to buy more, or less, gear than you need, and at the moment you're kind of flying blind.

I recommend VERY strongly that you get your hands on a copy of Computer Music magazine (computermusic.co.uk). In fact, you'd do very well to get a subscription. Every month, they give you a magazine full of detailed instructions on exactly how to perform and produce various styles of electric music (right down to which EQ and compression settings work for the style, and why). They also give you a cover disk every month with a set of 2000+ samples, a suite of very capable synthesizers, and a bunch of decent effects, and they tell you how to put it all together. In other words, they give you a toolkit and the knowledge of how to use it. It's well worth the $US 15 or so for an issue. I'd go so far as to say it's the most cost-effective and fastest way to learn how to make music on a computer, unless you've got a very knowledgeable friend who already has a studio full of gear.

Regards, lightninrick

REver,

Dimension is a instrument you can play in a DAW - Digital Audio Workstation, which deals with audio and midi. Audio is, well, audio, a recording. It can either be a linear recording (like a tape deck or video deck) or loops - musical phrases we'll call them, such as a 4 bar beat. Acid was the original program that used "acidized" loops, which are these phrases with the info built in so Acid (or P5 or SONAR, etc), can change the pitch or the time so you can put the same loop into different songs at different tempo or keys, or change them within a single song.

Now, on to midi. Midi, at its simpliest level, records a synthesiser that you play and remembers the velocity (ie. loudness) and how long you held the key down. Just like your computer's keyboard - it records the keys you hit and other instruction LIKE CAPs or 'séçíá'l instructions inyour input. Once that input is recorded you can rearrange it and/or change it up (just like a word processor) and then play it back to the synthesiser. Dimension Pro is a soft synth, or one that runs inside your computer rather than a box outside of it. That is why you probably need an external keyboard, tho you can use a notation program to write the music.

So, acid is your DAW, Dimension is your synthesiser. I don't know about acid express but you should be able to "insert" a softsynth into the program. Once you have that up, you need to have a keyboard and set up Acid to recognise the keyboard and assign that signal to Dimension. Then Dimension has to be routed out through acid so you can hear it on the speakers.

you might want to visit http://bnoirfilm.tripod.com/ It is an old site, but serves as a beginners guide that I never finished. Might give you some clues. You should also download the demo for Acid express, if they have one, or at least some audio. That way you can get some sound from your DAW since the routing should be easier. Then move on to Dimension, which is a very nice sample based synth.