AA3 sample midi recording.......

I did a midi recording of John Lennon's "Imagine", using the new Adobe Audition 3 program.

I first recorded it in midi, fixed a few flaws with the editing features, mixed it to a mp3 file. and here ya go.

Just click on "Imagine MP3"

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/djwayne2000@sbcglobal.net/lst?.dir=/Audition+3+Recordings&.src=bc&.view=l&BCID=djwayne2000@sbcglobal.net

Overall, I think you could benefit from a real sequencer with a quantize function.

What piano plugin did you use?

The piano plug-in is East West Symphonic Orchestra's Silver program, the Bright Steinway B selection, or it could be the Steinway from the Silver Pro XP collection, they both sound almost identical, and I interchange them all the time, so I'm not sure but believe it's the Steinway from Silver, not Silver Pro XP.

I'm not a big fan of quantizing. I know it would help my recording, but even still, practicing and getting the song right is important to me.
 
I see that Audition has also added  a "Humanizing" feature to get away from that "sounds like a machine" sound.

I don't think it is necessarily quantizing that is the problem, it sounds to me like the notes are cutting off too soon

Yes, I'm cutting off notes a little soon because my system tends to get overloaded and then cuts out completely for a second or two. If I take it easy and don't push it with too many notes it'll play okay. I'm thinking I need more memory and a better quality midi interface than the M-Audio Uno I have right now. I currently have 2 gigs of memory but some people are suggesting 4 gigs for use with the Symphonic Orchestra Program.

I'm also going to try using a different keyboard, when I get some time.

And lastly, I definitely need to do some practicing as I haven't played on the keyboard much lately. This recording was just a test recording , to get familiar with AA3. I also went thru the motions for making a MP3 and burning a cd , just to check out the program. The cd came out great.

I posted this particular song on 12/08 the anniversary of John Lennon's death as a tribute to him.

I just tried another midi keyboard and I'm getting the same problem, I checked the Symphonic Orchestra's settings and I'm definitely overdriving their interface, which in turn is causing dropouts. So it looks like adding memory maybe the solution. It's ether that or keep my foot off the sustain pedal, hehehehehe.....this is not, I repeat NOT an Audition problem. It's definitely in the NI East West Symphonic Orchestra program, which probably can be solved by adding more memory to my computer.

I even get the same results with Audition closed, and S/O used in stand alone mode.

What I think is happening is I'm peaking out the 64 note maximum polyphony limits on the NI interface and program.  It's showing 64 note usage when the drop outs occur, and they occur religiously when I reach that number by holding down too many keys or the sustain pedal for too long. I'd still like to have more memory, but I'm not sure if that would solve the 64 note polyphony limit problem. So I have to learn how to play within these limits.....this is where a nice quality piano would come in handy, but there's no way I could afford one or have a place to put it or play it without bothering the neighbors, so this is why working with midi instruments comes in handy, but they do have their limitations.

What I think is happening is I'm peaking out the 64 note maximum polyphony limits on the NI interface and program.  It's showing 64 note usage when the drop outs occur, and they occur religiously when I reach that number by holding down too many keys or the sustain pedal for too long. I'd still like to have more memory, but I'm not sure if that would solve the 64 note polyphony limit problem. So I have to learn how to play within these limits.....this is where a nice quality piano would come in handy, but there's no way I could afford one or have a place to put it or play it without bothering the neighbors, so this is why working with midi instruments comes in handy, but they do have their limitations.

I would keep checking the settings if I were you, it doesn't sound right that you are peaking out because of memory. Have a play with latency setting as well. What cpu have you got? I am no midi expert so hopefully someone will jump in here, but I guess the polyphony will max out if you use too many sample layers per note? Is that something you can adjust?

Good luck!

What I think is happening is I'm peaking out the 64 note maximum polyphony limits on the NI interface and program.  It's showing 64 note usage when the drop outs occur, and they occur religiously when I reach that number by holding down too many keys or the sustain pedal for too long. I'd still like to have more memory, but I'm not sure if that would solve the 64 note polyphony limit problem.

More memory is always good to have - but it's not going to solve this particular problem.  Once you exceed the poliphony limit of the software (or hardware, makes no difference) then notes will be dropped, no matter how fast the computer or big the memory.

My CPU is a Intel Duo Core 2 -E6750, and I'm running 2 gigs memory at around 50% while Audition is playing with the O/S program. I'm thinking Grame is right, I may not be able to get more notes playing than the 64 presently. So I have to learn how to play within that limitation.

After some more experimentation, I'm finding the big culprit is the sustain pedal. I just need to use that sparingly.

Other than that, I'm very happy with the sound quality of the piano sound and final test cd I made. So I've gone thru the AA3 system and it's working out great for me.

I'm thinking the extra 2 gigs memory will help me with multiple instances and more instruments with the S/O program. With the cost of memory down so much, having a total of 4 gigs of memory is now possible for me, without too much pain. So I am planning that upgrade sometime soon. Symphonic Orchestra loves memory.

[RECOMMENDED]

I am not convinced.... on the Symphonic orchestra web site, for recommended system it says:

# RECOMMENDED SYSTEM (for Native Instruments software)
# Windows XP, P III/Athlon 700 MHz, 1 GB RAM
# Mac OS 9.2, OS 10.2.6* or higher, G4 733, 1 GB RAM

I think you need to investigate your settings some more!

Checking my RAM usage meter I'm running about 50%  with this track Imagine playing. I also tried another session I have that uses 16 instances of NI/SO programs, and I'm just starting to get drop outs, and my RAM usage is at 87%. So I'm thinking upgrading to 4 Gig memory will fix this problem, and give me even more instance capability.


As far as settings go, I have tried various buffer settings and I end up losing in terms of latency.

[RECOMMENDED]

I am not convinced.... on the Symphonic orchestra web site, for recommended system it says:

# RECOMMENDED SYSTEM (for Native Instruments software)
# Windows XP, P III/Athlon 700 MHz, 1 GB RAM
# Mac OS 9.2, OS 10.2.6* or higher, G4 733, 1 GB RAM

I think you need to investigate your settings some more!

You're probably right about settings.  The above memory recommendations are for small number of instances. The more instances you run, the more memory you should have.

Well, my AA3 demo test recording has passed my ultimate tests on how well it sounds outside the studio. In my truck's cd player it sounds great,  I couldn't be happier....on an "el cheapo" boom box/cd player, it sounds mid-rangy but that's the boom box's sound on everything, but overall, my test cd sounds pretty good.

Good enough for me.