Software instruments which are also referred to as soft-synths are a major part of computer music. They receive a digital message, in this case, midi data and make a sound based on the information contained in that message. Our goal in this tutorial is add a software instrument so it can be used in a project. The insert tracker system is the easiest method for inserting synths. For this exercise, we’ll start with a blank project already loaded.
1) Click the new track button at the top left of the control bar. A menu will display the available options.
2) Point to instrument track. A menu lists all available soft-synths that are installed on your computer. Click cakewalk sound centre, which is one of the synths included with music creator. A new track will be inserted in your project. This type of track is a combination of a midi track and an audio track. It holds midi data and accepts a midi input but outputs the sound of the synth you’ve selected, like an audio track would. Note that if the instrument window does not appear or you closed it, you can reopen it again by double clicking the track icon. Now let’s take a look at the cakewalk sound centre. First you’ll need to choose a sound. In cakewalk sound centre and most other cakewalk synths, a sound preset is referred to as a program. Programs in cakewalk sound centre are organised so that they are easy to find by the type of sound they model. Let’s look at its organisation from left to right. Type is the column on the far left. This lets you decide what type or family of instrument sounds you would like to use such as brass, bass or synth. Subtype is the next column. It allows you to pick a specific instrument from the selected type. Program, the last column allows you to pick a specific program or sound from the subtype. For this tutorial, we will pick a bass sound. In the synth window, select bass from the type section. In the subtype section, click synth bass. You can select a program by double clicking its name. For this tutorial, we will use the rick base program. Cakewalk sound centre will load the program and display its name, instrument, factory and library that it came from. To preview the sound, do one of the following. Click on one of the highlighted keys across the bottom of the synth window. Or click the midi pattern preview button. Note that each soft-synth uses a different method of choosing and auditioning sounds. This is often outlined in the synths documentation. You can press the F1 key to open the help documentation for a synth.
3) Now that we have inserted an instrument and selected one of its sounds, we can make use of these sounds in our project. This is where you can get creative. You have the option of recording a performance that you play on a midi controller, manually entering notes in advance or use a prepared MIDI loop. For this tutorial, we will audition our soft-synth with a prepared MIDI loop which came with music creator. Focus on the loop explorer window on the bottom half of this screen. Let’s turn on auto preview to find out which loop we want to use. First make sure you are in the sample content folder in the folders column. Click on the MIDI groove clips folder. Then click on the bass folder. Then click on the electro folder. You may audition any loop by selecting cakewalk sound centre as your preview centre and then highlighting your preferred loop. When you are happy with your loop selection, just drag and drop into the track viewer bar. This concludes our soft-synth tutorial. Remember, every soft-synth is a little different. Always refer to the help documentation if you run into any issues. You will quickly realise that your compositions can expand to new heights by now being able to utilise software instruments.
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