Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music: Recording Triton Audio

Recording Triton Audio

You can record Korg audio on only some of the stations in M373: all the stations against the west wall, which have the larger keyboards (#27-#31), all the stations in the next row (#19-#26) and one station in the next (#11). Please report to me any problems you have recording.

The Mac built-in audio hardware converts the analog audio signal of the Triton Le into a digital signal for use by the computer.

NOTE: You must adjust recording levels carefully to get a good-sounding result.

Copy your Digital Performer project to the Desktop (i.e., internal hard disk), and eject all other disks, including the server disk. Having the server mounted can sometimes confuse Digital Performer. When you record audio from the Korg, Digital Performer writes it to the Audio Files folder in your project folder.
IMPORTANT: If you just have a MIDI sequence file and no project folder, DP will create a new Audio Files folder in which to store the recorded audio. Do not overlook this folder when copying your work back to the server! It's best to put the sequence file and the Audio Files folder into a project folder, to keep them together.
REALLY IMPORTANT: Recording audio directly onto the Music Server is asking for trouble! Even having a CD mounted can cause Digital Performer to stutter when recording.
Launch the System Preferences program from the Apple menu (in upper left corner of screen).
Click the Sound icon, and click the Input tab. Make sure that Line in — Audio line-in port is highlighted in the list.
Set the Input volume slider to the second hash mark from the right. Keep this window open, since you might need to adjust the volume later.
Turn the Triton volume slider all the way up.
Open your Digital Performer sequence, and create a stereo audio track (Project > Add Track > Stereo Audio Track).
Make sure the output device for this track is set to Built-in Output 1-2. If it's not, click and hold on the OUTPUT column for this track, and then choose New Stereo Bundle > Built-in Output 1-2 from the pop-up menu.
Set the input device for this track to Built-in Input 1-2. To do this, click and hold on the INPUT column for this track, and then choose New Stereo Bundle > Built-in Input 1-2 from the pop-up menu. If the correct device name shows already, but it appears in italics, this indicates an invalid device. If it is, just choosing Built-in Input 1-2, as described above, should fix it.
Record-enable the track, and make sure the track is also play-enabled.
CAUTION: Make sure you don't have any other tracks record-enabled, or else you might erase them when you start recording!
Play-enable whatever Triton Le MIDI tracks you want to record.
The simplest thing is to record all the tracks in one pass. But some people like to record MIDI tracks individually, into seperate audio tracks. That way, they can process the resulting audio tracks separately, using the Digital Performer audio effects.
NOTE: If your sequence already has some audio tracks, mute them before recording your Triton tracks. Normally this wouldn't be necessary, but our mixers suffer from cross-talk that will cause audio played by the computer to leak into the Triton sound you're trying to record.
In Digital Performer, open the Audio Monitor window (Studio > Audio Monitor).
Play the sequence while looking at the meters in the Audio Monitor window.
The goal is to make the Triton audio signal high enough that you won't hear much background noise. But if it's too high, you'll get clipping, which is an undesirable form of digital distortion. The meter has a clipping indicator that will turn red when this happens. (Click the indicator to turn it off.) It's best to have the meter show a finer resolution near the top of the scale. To do so, choose a smaller dB value from the Level Range submenu in the Audio Monitor mini-menu.
Adjust the Triton volume using the Input volume slider (in the System Preferences window that you opened earlier) so that you get a good recording level and no clipping.
When you have the levels you want, rewind and record.
The audio you record will appear as a single soundbite in your stereo track. The sound files (.L and .R) will be in the Audio Files folder of your project.
Once you've turned your MIDI tracks into an audio track, you'll no longer need to hear your MIDI tracks. So you should mute them now.
Copy your project folder, which includes the new audio files, to the Music Server.
If you're working on Exercise 3, press the Back button on your browser to continue with the exercise. You still need to export the sound you just recorded and then make an MP3 file.