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Teach Me Piano Deluxe 27

Using Jammin’ Keys to create background tracks

With Jammin Keys (explained in the next section) you can quickly build background tracks for composing your own
songs in different styles. By importing these background tracks into Recording Station, you can then add more
instrument tracks to create a complete song.

Downloading MIDI songs from the Web

The Internet is an exciting resource for thousands of MIDI files that you can download and import into Recording
Station. There are hundreds of Web sites devoted exclusively to MIDI songs that you can download for free. Most of
them are in General MIDI format, meaning that they will translate directly from the Internet to Recording Station,
with the instruments separated into different channels so that you can manipulate individual sounds, volumes and
panning. Some of these songs include lyrics which Recording Station will display so you can sing along with the music
and record your voice!
As of this writing, here are a few sites to get you started. Follow instructions on each site for properly downloading
MIDI files to your computer. It’s an easy process, and the files are small, so they won’t take long to download:
www.midifarm.com- large selection of files and links to other sites
www.classicalarchives.com – a handsome and easy-to-navigate classical music MIDI site
www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/SMF.html – this site bills itself as “The Most Complete & Best-Maintained List of Sites
With MIDI Files", with well over 30,000 links to MIDI music sites.

Recording your own songs

Once you have performed the following exercises, you’ll be ready to try your hand at recording a song in Recording
Station from the ground up. You can record all of the MIDI instruments from your MIDI keyboard, inclu ding drums,
bass, guitars, strings, etc.. You can then add vocals, acoustic guitar or other real instruments using your microphone if
you wish. Or just record your own piano for a living record of your playing progress.
Recording Tracks
Recording Station is based on the concept of “Tracks”—a term used in recording studios to identify particular voices
or instruments in a song. For example, when you listen to a popular tune on the radio you might hear some drums,
electric bass, guitar, and vocals. When this music was recorded, each of these parts was recorded on a different track.
This way, each part can be independently modified without affecting the other instruments. This saves time and
reduces the chances of errors when recording. Recording Station uses the principle of multi-track recording by
combining MIDI instruments and digital audio on separate tracks that you can control.
In Recording Station, tracks 1 – 10 correspond to MIDI channels. This lets you record up to 10 MIDI instruments
(one per track) in addition to two digital audio tracks (for voice and acoustic instruments). Note that track 10 is a
special track only used to record MIDI drum sounds.
The Recording Station mixing panel organizes an array of controls in columns—numbered 1 through 10 to correspond
with MIDI channels 1 through 10. To the right of these MIDI Tracks are two more columns for digital audio tracks.
Each column’s knobs, dials, and readouts control just that specific track, so, for example, pushing up the volume slider
in the third column will only increase the volume of track 3.
Here’s what you need to know when making a recording:
Each track is controlled by the buttons and sliders in its column. Any and all changes made in that one column
will affect only that single track’s playback and recording.
Use tracks 1 through 9 for melodic parts only. You can choose a different instrument for each track. There are
128 different instruments to choose from for each of these tracks. As you click the forward and backward arrows,
you’ll see the list of General MIDI instruments scroll in the display window.
Track 10 is always reserved for the drums and works a little differently. We’ll discuss this a bit later.

To record on a melodic track (1- 9):

1. Make sure that you are at the beginning of the song. If the position indicators do not read 00:00, click on the
rewind button.
2. Check the tempo setting and make any changes you need. Note that if you haven’t yet recorded any digital audio
you can set a slower tempo to make it easier to play. Later you can change to a faster tempo for the final
performance.
3. Click on the Record Mode button for the desired track. The red indicator will light up to show it is active.