Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES WINTER 2015 saI-NaTIONal.ORg 10 like Garage Band or Fruity Loops. For those of us who remember the first time we saw a cell phone, simply seek out one of these young, gied, musician/computer hybrids and hire one of them! My personal workstation is made up of the following equipment: HARDWARE 1. MacBook Pro (laptop computer) 2. Oxygen 61 (a MIDI controller; looks like a keyboard but contains no internal sounds) 3. Cables (Radio Shack sells all cables you may need) SOFTWARE 4. Digital Performer (a professional MIDI composer digital workstation) 5. Kontakt 5 VST (Virtual Instruments; the sounds not in the keyboard) And a great pair of headphones is a must. All of this equipment is professional standard for the audio industry. If you were to go out and buy the above system yourself, it would run you about $9,000. at seems like a great deal of initial investment, agreed. But this gives you the ability to create and manipulate the sounds (samples) of over 10,000 instruments. With my system as listed above, I have provided music for over 22 hours of film, television, dance works, art installations, and theatre in the past three years. Financially speaking, if I hired musicians and paid for studio time to record them, I would estimate a total investment of over $22,000 out of my budget (Remember the old adage of "you must spend money to make money"). Within one year of purchasing my current set-up, I had paid it off. is system also allows me incredible freedom to incorporate change as directed by the producer. For example, if a piece needs to be eight seconds shorter; simply adjusting the tempo is a possibility. If that were attempted on a true musical recording, it would change the pitch. MIDI can be manipulated without sacrificing key or nuance. Let's say you get the best news possible: Your theme song was so well received they have decided to do a live performance of it! No problem! All MIDI programs contain a folder for notation. In Digital Performer, it's called QuickScribe. Whether you are a PC or a Mac user, there are many options for soware. You will pay more for the bells and whistles, no doubt. I should also disclose that Digital Performer is not user friendly. It has taken me several years to use it as I wish. ere are more economical choices as well. e good news is if you learn one DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and its soware, the information transfers well. It's very similar when learning to ride a bike and then later getting a ten-speed. Give yourself a couple of hours and you got it! I love what I do. I love what MIDI and computers allow me to do with all those years of traditional music composition and advanced theory. Seeking out ways to get my music heard has been a full time job in and of itself, but it paid off. May you create beautiful music and pay your mortgage doing it! Tori Meyer is a Gamma Omega initiate at Webster University and a member of the Long Beach Alumnae Chapter. mUSIC TEChNOlOgy Two screens from Digital Performer, including the mixing board, at top. TEChNOlOgy continued from page 9

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