The big advantage of MIDI files, is they’re a tiny tiny size. Like, really really tiny. And the big disadvantage, is that the song will only sound as good as the MIDI module playing it back, and only sound as good as MIDI. I have Microsoft GS Wavetable SW synth playing back my MIDI files, and gosh, they sound so bad. Really, like, bad tacky computer game music from the 90′s…. Which is great because that’s exactly what I plan to use MIDI for. Tacky computer game music is secretly incredibly cool.

You can find MIDI files all over the net for use as backing tracks for playing guitar over or karaoke, or if you’re a real masochist you can even just download MIDI songs to listen to. You know, if you really hate yourself that much…

Here’s just a quick little thingamee I chucked together while trying to figure out how to get the whole MIDI thing to work. I made the file in Cubase, but I must have been doing something daftly wrong because it kept coming out with all the instruments sounding like a piano. Which annoyed me something wicked. So I imported it into a super little program called Anvil Studio to save the instrumentation. Anvil studio is free – and totally anti-intuitive to use (hence me only using it after Cubase repeatedly failed me). But it’s free, so yay for that anyway

Click to hear my fab tacky midi file

VST Plugins:

Digital Fish Phones – A groovy little package of a D-esser, Compresser, and Noise Gate.

Kjerhus Audio – The ‘Classic Series’ are a bunch of free plug-ins from Kjerhus – who do some good pro stuff too. The Classic series includes Chorus, Compressor, Delay, EQ, Flanger, Master Limiter, Phaser, Reverb and Auto-filter.

Audio Editing :

Wave -Pad – Possibly a slight rip-off of the legendary Wave Lab, this is a wave editor with the usual wave editor feature like, cut, paste, silence, amplify, reverb, reverse, etc. It is part of a suite from NCH, that includes a multitrack mixing software called Mix-pad, and Record-pad Sound Recorder. I couldn’t figure out from the site if these last two were free or trial versions, so didn’t bother downloading them as I already have more than enough ‘non-free’ software in this department.

Audacity – Audacity was the first bit of recording software I owned back in the good old days… It’s so much cooler now than it was back then! You can record/mix with multiple tracks, it’s VST compatible, with multi-channel hardware you can record up to 16 tracks at once. Comes with a few built in effects too. It’s open-source software which is apparently good and has something to do with a Gnu.

VST Instruments:

Mr Tramp Synth – Mr Tramp is very cool, a kinda vintage Wurlitizer sounding piano reminiscent of the one in used by Super Tramp (though, for that SuperTramp sound you’re gonna need to drench it in effects…).

MDA Piano – You don’t look a gift piano in the mouth. And as far as free piano VSTi’s go, this one is the best. It actually sounds like a piano. It is good, and it is free.

Anyway, thats about all I have time for right now. If you’re hungery for more free stuff…. KVR Audio is a good place to start trawling.

I bought Adobe Audition 1.5 for a spectacularly cheap student price. Student discounts rule! Since then they’ve brought out version 2.0 which I’ve used at a friends studio and I hear rumors that there will soon be version 3.0 (which makes my meager 1.5 sound awfully crappy).

Cubase comes free with audio interfaces by Tascam, Lexicon, and Yamaha. You can buy it on it’s own too, if you really fancy. Most interfaces come with the ‘light’ version, but that is still very good. And it’s a bargain if you get something like a Lexicon Alpha for only $349nz. Though, personally I’d go with an interface that at least has phantom power – eg Tascam US-122. Which I have got, and it does me well. For now…. admittedly I do want something bigger and shinier with ten ton’s of inputs, and jack outputs instead of RCA’s…..

Anyway, back to my subject at hand – Cubase vs. Adobe Audition….

Adobe Audition seems to be much better for mixing in. By better I mean; it’s really user friendly, it has a really good waveform editor, lots of built in vst plug-ins, an excellent pitch correction function (IMHO waaay nicer than le ProTools one) unlimited tracks, lockable effects for when your computer can’t handle ten million reverbs in real time. Good stuff.

But Adobe Audition isn’t without fault. (Now I’m talking about version 1.5 here – if newer versions are better then yay for them ) I wish, oh how I wish, that Adobe Audition did Midi. How can I record cheesy synths, and drum machine drums if we can’t do midi? I also wish Adobe Audition had a proper grid system for editing things to a click. And I wish I could solve my Adobe Audition recording latency problem.

On the things Adobe Audition lacks, Cubase comes to the rescue. Writing with midi controllers and VST plugins is easy breezy lemon squeezy with Cubase. Even blondes like me have very little trouble. The grid is great for those quick “can’t be arsed” copy&paste demo’s. And I’ve never had the slightest problem with recording latency on Cubase. Though admittedly both programs were equally bad for monitor latency, but that doesn’t bother me so much. Who needs monitors anyway

But Cubase is a damn pain to mix in. The panning is all wrong, the bus’s are a pain in the neck, I can never get my head around the automation system. And horror of horror – I get a limited number of tracks and effects per track! How can I go completely overboard when I have limitations like that!?!?

So, neither program is close to perfect, but I’m having a good run lately by recording in Cubase, and then mixing in Adobe Audition. (And then completely screwing everything up by mastering in an old version of wave-lab that’s quite possibly from the 90′s.)

Every time I record I end up wishing I had more money to spend on gear (Specifically LogicPro… Oh yeah…) But if you’re thinking about getting some cheapy software for yourself, I’d recommend going with Cubase to start with. You can do some pretty good stuff with it if you keep it simple.

And there’s always the spectacularly free Audacity. Which keeps getting better and better I’ve noticed.