MC5 demo files not playing. Advice please.

Hello,
 
I couldn't find the demonstration files as described in the MC5 manual.  Found and downloaded them from this site but I am still unable to open them.  Advice anyone?
 
Thanks,
 
Vincent.

Hi Herb,

Thanks.  Just printed off your 'Tips' page.  In a previous response I asked 'was the site psychic?'.  This morning I'd just found the 'staff view' but it remained silent after I'd inserted some notes and I was, as usual, confused [and defeated].  I then submit a different question and discover [through your tips page] the possible answer to an unasked question.  Spooky. 

I've just had another go at opening the demo file.  I can see it the files to the bottom right of my screen and it highlights in blue when clicked on but does not open.  However, I have just noticed that while other files are just plain, yellow 'folder symbols',  the demo file has some black maks down the left side [perhaps zipper-like].  Some kind of lock perhaps?

I'm sure I saw that some others had had trouble locating these files but I have not noticed any who can't open them at all.

Got to nip out now.  I'll attempt your 'staff view' tips when I get back.

Regards,

Vincent.

I maybe can help but I am new myself. You have to first go to file and new, create a new project file and name it, then I use Blank (no tracks or buses)
Then go again to file, open and find the tutorials. Then double click the tutorial file you want  and it will open and play. They do have a black corner. As for opening up the audio and midi files you have to do the same basically and create a new project.
Whether that is the correct way to do it I am not sure. but it works for me.

OK.  I don't know what has happened but now I've got some sample audio files that open and play.  However, if I click on 'tutorial' it's still no response. 

Have I misunderstood the term, 'tutorial'?  I was expecting something along the lines of, "Here is a sample mix of 2/3 instuments and this is how we did it........"

Regards,

Vincent.

Hi,

Thanks for clarifying that.  I can stop looking.

Back to the grindstone then.

Cheers,

Vincent.

Hi,

I have managed to relocate [by redownloading] the download MC5 demos from where the computer placed them into MC5 Sample Content and some of them now open and play. 

However, these are single track samples with 1, 2 or 3 instruments mixed together.  I have printed out the Tutorial 7 documents but nowhere can I locate any file named MixingTutorial. cwp. or a MC Demo Project which opens up as a multi-track piece.   From MC5's tutorial 7 and comments on this site it is my understanding that a multi-track demo sample should be available containing "Cymbals Left & Symbols Right" and several other tracks with which users are encouraged to practice 'tweaking' of volume & pan, adding effects etc.  Page 1 of volume & pan tells the reader that the project sounds 'muddy' and 'bland'  which, presumably, after following the lessons in 'tweaking' will be much improved and give the reader insight into 'tweaking' thier own projects.  Unfortuneatly, I can't find them in MC5  and my computer is telling me they don't exist.

I've had a quick look at the 'Online videos' as suggested and I'll go back and do a more extensive search to locate the guidelines on unzipping files.

Thanks.

Regards,

Vincent.

Later today I will open the DAW and play around...I will open MC5 and see if I can find the demos. If I can, I will see if I can send you a few of them. IIRC MC4 has a bunch of demo's in it that are all midi.

is it a desk top...."replace the soundcard"?   A lappy makes that about impossible so we mostly use external interfaces to "upgrade the cards".

Yeah, Vincent, they really make connection simple.
Plug it in, load any related software (read the instructions first: some want you to load the software before connecting), go to their website and download and install any driver and software updates, set a few things in MC, like changing the Driver Mode, and you'll be recording with it in no time at all.

Financially, things are very 'tight' at the moment and when I said that I had not had any money since 1967 it was obviously a gross exageration. I didn't get married until 1969.

 

 
As splinx wrote, you can use the stock sound card with MC, but when using a lot of soft synths and effects, especially in real time, things could get bogged down.
Doing it the way you have been, with the keyboard making the sound is okay. I still work that way; I just add soft synths and effects after recording my MIDI tracks. My Yamaha makes all my MIDI sounds until everything is recorded. I almost never use soft synths or effects in real time, even with my fast computer and efficient audio interface. That's just the way I work.
So don't be going hungry because you got a Fast Track... 

Hey Vincent,
Congratulations on 40+ years of wedded bliss. Time to hand your wife a mic'...

We need to be recording engineers too, and as Greg notes, reducing the load on your system during critical segments may be one way to go, although being a mouser, I can't add any 1st hand experience.

Nevetheless, it seems that by breaking up song recording into smaller pieces, or modules, you may be able to work around some of the latency isues by reducing the load on your system.

As others have suggested, as soon as a midi track is working - or even while it's still a scratch track or under development, bounce it out to audio.
 
MIDI itself is quite simple, but apparently the latency issues arise when the OS goes to convert the MIDI into an audio signal for output. It is well known that Windows does a lot of behind-the-scences thunking and other machinations that take up a lot of processor cycles. Apparently, the better soundcards remove the MIDI-to-audio conversion process from the Windows domain, and the latency goes away.

There are many ways to skin this cat by reducing the load on your system and breaking up things into penny packets.

And so a general question for the forum and all the helpful lads and lasses: what is the result with an on-board soundcard when ONLY the midi keyboard is plugged in AND when no other audio or MIDI tracks/channels are active?

And so a general question for the forum and all the helpful lads and lasses: what is the result with an on-board soundcard when ONLY the midi keyboard is plugged in AND when no other audio or MIDI tracks/channels are active?

 
Well, on my system, I can run 16 MIDI channels through the keyboard's synthesizer with zero CPU usage and zero memory usage.
The audio interface in this case is just a MIDI conduit between Cakewalk and the keyboard; it really doesn't do anything.
I run the audio output of my interface and the audio output of my keyboard through a Yamaha mixer which is connected to my stereo system, so audio tracks in a project and noise from the keyboard can all be heard.

Hi, Vincent.
If you don't enter sharps and flats in the staff, it will play the natural, but in the PRV you can see what notes those are because of the piano keyboard.
So if you write a D major chord in the PRV, you can see that you put in a D, an F# and an A, but in the staff there is no F#; you have to click in an F, then right-click that note to change it's pitch to F#.
Or you can enter a Key Signature and presumably it will enter an F# automatically if you choose D as the key.

splinx


Yes, I simply enter notes with the mouse in piano roll, and then move them around a few hundred times or so until they begin to sound better.

'floating magnifier' in piano roll is slightly disorientating.

 
We don't have the same program, but I'm sure you can turn that off by clicking the zoom tool button. If it's on, it will be lit up.
Then select either the brush tool of pencil tool to draw in your notes.
Oh, and if you enter a key signature (at the top>Insert>Meter/Key Change>select key or Views>Meter/Key) it will place the correct notes for you, as I thought it would, but I don't know keys and record from the keyboard most of the time, so mine is always set at 'C'.