Freeze synth - mixdown audio

Hi again - am getting to grips with MC6 afetr years of Cakewlak PA 9 and a messing about with the earluy Sonar products.
 
Can anyone advise me on one or more of the following/
 
1) Freeze/unfreeze synth - what does this really mean?
 
2) How do I attribute a TTS 1 instrument to a midi track? Example - I loaded a midi file into MC6 - and i wanted to change the guitar sound to something on the TTS1. However when i laiunch this synth i only get the choice of steel guitar - I cannot seem to change it.
 
3) When I click the freeze synth button (the snowflake icon) it mixes down the audio for that track into a new audio track. This is fantastic as I didnt know how to do this prior to finding it outt accidentally. However i did not have any control as to how the resultant audio track would sound it simply mixed it down straight away. The track it mixed it to was the TTS1 track. If I was to assign another intstrument to the TTS1 would it have been mixed down too?
 
4) Can i mixdown any midi track to audio with this method as it doesnt seem to allow me to do so?
 
Thanks in advance.

1. freezing renders the midi synth output from synth to a wave file and shuts off the synth, this is temporary and can be unfrozen at any time and return to the synth/midi 

2.   www.herbhartley.com   go to the music page and read the tutorial I put up there on TTS  it might help you understand this...... if not ask specific questions and I'll try to answer them.

3/4.... Freeze mixes to a WHAT YOU HEAR type format. TTS is capable of 16 midi tracks so freezing it will freeze all the midi tracks ... i don't know if you can freeze just one midi track.  You would need to insert one instance of TTS per track you want to freeze.   Many synths are one instrument per instance... freezing works well with them.

next post.....tts has a master tune function so you can set it to A-440.

there are better synths than TTS for sounds. especially stuff like steel and other obscure things.

I don't use PRV much but selecting the track is required...it can not read your mind. 


add: I did learn something about PRV the other day.... it is possible to have PRV open and on the right side to be able to view the various synth/midi channels and to be able to work on multiple midi tracks by simply clicking on the needed right side synth or the PRV notes.  I'd have to look to find the video where I learned that. Using this method makes it easy to work on several things at one time in the same window of PRV. Pretty cool stuff..... but I'd need to do it more to become proficient with it. 

Hi there sorry about the lack of info.
 
Windows Vista 32 bit.
Soundcard is unfortunately Realtec HD
Music Creator 6.
 
I am getting problems with softsynths using the soundcard and wonderd if there was an external device anyone could recommend?

Does the externals you mention have their own midi banks incorporated within them i.e. GS etc. and can you verify they will play soundfonts as well as softsynths?

Many thanks

Right.
The Soundfont format was developed by E-MU for Creative's Soundblaster, and to the best of my knowledge,Soundblaster cards are the only ones that were ever able to play soundfonts natively.
A lot has happened in the twenty years since sounfonts were developed.
It is not necessary to load the soundfont files into the banks in the sound card synth, as this function is readily handled by today's VST soundfont players.
That's where SFZ+ comes into the picture(mentioned in your other thread).
The soundfont player/ softsytnh/sampler works within the framework of your DAW (in this case MC6),and does not directly relate to your soundcard/interface.
The interfaces may have some additional features, but they all do the same thing.
They handle AD/DA conversions of incoming and outgoing signals.
MC6 handles the softsynths.
To directly answer your question, a resounding no and no, but it doesn't matter because these functions are handled more efficiently through MC6.
Does that make sense?

Audio is easy and straightforward stuff... no hard calculations needed.....

a synth has to be processed differently. The factory cards simply can not handle the calculations needed to get the sound to the speakers in a reasonable time.....so you end up with skipped notes, latency, pops and clicks and even a complete shutdown of the processing engine. 

we all are using one brand or another of the external sound card/interfaces and really... if you want to do this right, there is no other way to get it done. 

57Gregy


In other words, the stock sound card has inferior digital-to-audio converters.

you said that so...eloquently 

I would not buy any audio interface that doesn't have true ASIO drivers. The io4 doesn't have them. On their Docs and Downloads page, the have a link for the ASIO4All driver, but that's not really ASIO, just a wrapper for the WDM driver, which is really weird since they include Steinberg's Cubase recording software and Steinberg created ASIO.
But, many folks do get satisfactory performance with ASIO4All. It's just not for me.
Avoid anything that says "plug and play".
I would keep shopping.
 

Greg nailed it, as did Robert .... I also saw on the last page on the Alesis site that it has "optional asio4all drivers"   ....

NO.... do not purchase this interface. 

I am partial to the Focusrite product line because I have one and know how well it works. 

If you are using softsynths, that means you are working with MIDI. If your synth/keyboard has USB output you do not need to have a midi input on the interface, however, if the synth/keyboard is old school and has the 5 pin midi output you will be better served to find an interface which also supports midi in/out with the 5 pin connector. 

Look around and find something with the inputs and outputs you need and running native ASIO drivers. You will appreciate it. Consider the interface to be the heart of the studio. It should not be short changed. 

Seriously... you can get what you want... and some of the things like the Zoom can be quite useful.... 

However, I prefer not to use a multi function device like this. It does 4 things. recorder, interface, controller and sampler. 

I may simply be "old school" but I like the interface to be simply "the interface". You have the ability to use more tracks internally in MC6 and keep everything inside the box.  

Ultimately, it is your choice and if the Zoom works for you then that's your option. 

For the money you would spend on the zoom, you can get a really nice dedicated interface with audio & midi and have some change left over.

There are ASIO drivers for Zoom products, AFAIK. At least I DL:d one for my ZoomH2.

I've read several comments by happy R24 users, but it surely is much more complex to set up and use. So if you don't really need the extra features it offers, I'd recommend an "ordinary" USB-interface.

There are ASIO drivers for Zoom products, AFAIK. At least I DL:d one for my ZoomH2.

 
That's good to know.

I personally do not recommend the Alesis USB mixers because they use the windows USB codec for drivers and do not have their own low latency drivers.

if you want good advice on what kind of soundcard to get, check my website.  I have a spreadsheet with a lot of choices.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Cakewalk-V-Studio-100-Portable-Music-Studio-105487599-i1449577.gc
 
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Cakewalk-V-Studio-20-Stereo-Audio-Interface-106073067-i1526693.gc
(may not be 64-bit compatible)
 
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Focusrite-Scarlett-18i6-USB-Audio-Interface-106731359-i1882487.gc
 
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Line-6-POD-Studio-KB37-USB-Audio-Interface-with-POD-Farm-Plug-in-105634240-i1435738.gc