Some questions from a Complete Newbie

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robert3353
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2013/12/19 12:07:46 (permalink)

Some questions from a Complete Newbie

 
Hello all,
I am completely new to all of this and recently purchased Music Creator 6 Touch on a whim a couple of months ago on Steam. I am on a medical retirement and have too much time on my hands and wind up wasting too much time gaming. I have not done anything with music for years and thought I would try and get back into it and want to see if I can lean to play keyboard and possibly later guitar.
Since buying Music Creator 6 I have been trying to figure out how to use it. I just received an email from Cakewalk offering steep discounts on their new Sonar X3 for owners of Music Creator on Steam. I am considering getting Sonar X3 or X3 Studio because the price is so good. The main reason I am thinking about upgrading is I discovered that there is a training course on Lyndadotcom for Sonar X2 that I thought would help considerably in getting up and running with X3. I am currently involved with digital art creation using Painter 12, Photo Shop and Blender and I already subscribe to Lyndadotcom. When I get involved with something I tend to move past the introductory stage and want to really learn how to do the new endeavor. I think that even if you do not use a MIDI instrument with Sonar X3 you can still learn how to import sounds, instruments and clips and create new music and learn how to do music mixing, is this correct? I will never be using any of this professionally, only for my own enjoyment and education.
Does any one here know of good resources for learning how to use the software as well as digital music creation that is not program specific and do you think I should upgrade to Sonar X3? And if I do would the instrument packs purchased for Music Creator 6 work with Sonar X3?
Thanks,
Robert
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    scook
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    Re: Some questions from a Complete Newbie 2013/12/19 12:32:30 (permalink)
    A MIDI keyboard is not necessary but very handy even for someone (such as myself) that does not play keyboards. Even without a keyboard a lot can be done with audio and MIDI loops. Groove3 is a great resource for educational videos. They and many other companies have samples on Youtube. Youtube is also a good resource on it's own. Currently the Cakewalk store has several comprehensive X3 specific videos on sale. Anything you purchased for MC6 will work in X3. The basic version of X3 is a great value which should exceed your needs for some time.
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    robert3353
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    Re: Some questions from a Complete Newbie 2013/12/19 14:07:24 (permalink)
    Hi scook,
    Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post, I appreciate the helpful suggestions.
    Robert
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    gswitz
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    Re: Some questions from a Complete Newbie 2013/12/19 17:16:02 (permalink)
    I like the sonar power books. Also Craig Anderton has some books.

    StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen.
    I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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    gcolbert
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    Re: Some questions from a Complete Newbie 2013/12/21 07:37:53 (permalink)
    There is a lot of good information on the Cakewalk TV web site cake
     
     It covers a lot more than what you need right now, but most of the information for the other products applies to MC6 as well.  Isn't there an online help option available under 'getting started' on help and from the startup menu?  It seems like MC6 used to have some very good on-line tutorials available from there.
     
    MC6 is a great program and should do everything you need for a while.  When you find that there is something that you need to do that it won't handle it might be time to think about upgrading.
     
    Glen

    Platinum / VS-100 / 12 GB RAM / Win 10 Pro / AMD A8 / MP Touch Monitors
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    THpfft!
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    Andy McNish
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    Re: Some questions from a Complete Newbie 2013/12/24 10:27:00 (permalink)
    The upgrade to the basic version is so cheap, that I think it's worth getting X3 anyway (I know I just did).
     
    The Comping and the Session Drummer 3 alone are worth the price and you get yourself used to the full version of a cutting edge DAW too.
     
    A small midi keyboard is well worth it even if you can't really play. It's just so much easier messing around with stuff when you have the option of keyboard input - and of course you can step-record, quanticize or constrain to key if you are having issues playing the notes in real time.
    Also something like the Korg MicroKey is only around $60 and comes with some great instruments (including the Acoustic Guitar Strum app that is in the X3 Studio and Producer versions).
     
    #6
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