A looooooooong time I ago, I saw Herbie Hancock on Sesame Street.

Please stop laughing.

Herbie was demonstrating how he makes (made) electronic music. He asked a little girl to say a word or two into a microphone. He pushed a few buttons. Then he started to play a keyboard. Her voice was now the 'patch' on the keyboard, shifting pitch as he hit another note, playable as a chord, as a melody...

How did he do this?

More importantly, how can *I* do this?

I have a MIDI keyboard, and OS 9 and OS X Macs. I also have a Windows XP laptop. What software will I need to sample and play my own voice, and other (brief) audio samples, from my existing 'dumb' keyboard, i.e. it drives my JV-1010, but doesn't make any sounds itself?

BTW: I don't want to buy a 'workstation'. Just software, if possible.

rellstab humbly asks your help.

First, you need any recording/editing software to prepare your sample. Try Sound Forge, it's a decent one. Then all you have to do is load the sample into any soundfont creation software. A soundfont is a musical patch, meaning an instrument.

Vienna is a good soundfont creation software but needs a Creative Soundblaster sound card to work properly a.f.a.I.k. But if you search for a soundfont editor, I'm sure you'll be able to find a good one easily.

Then, when your soundfont is ready, you just have to hook your keyboard to your soundcard with a standard midi cable, configure input/output midi settings, and finally just play!

It's really really damn easy to do it all.

Try to do this and if you have any problem just drop a post here, I'll try to help!

Thanks for this info. I shall search for Macintosh soundfont creation softwarre, and ask again if I get into trouble.

rellstab

roger!

Have found Polyphontics for the Mac, but cannot find any review of it.

Is this because (1) Polyphontics is very new and unknown, or (2) It's totally crap, or (3) No Macintosh musician will buy it, because they all use [insert name of Macintosh Soundfont software] instead?

I am a Macintosh user. I want my MIDI keyboard to play samples of my voice as an 'instrument'. Maybe using Quicktime, maybe using my Roland JV-1010 or my Yamaha TG-100, with a Macintosh computer (OS 9 or OS X, I use two machines. They are both Macintoshes.

How?

rellstab, the Macintosh user.

PS I use Macintosh.

Native Instruments Kontakt is the one I use, but it's not really easy to start with this one...
http://www.native-instruments.com/in...ftu=9a736539aa

I have just discovered Polyphontics! It rocks! Got it going in ten minutes!

Now I am leanring how upload the bank I created to my Roland JV-1010... using SoundDiver... scary...

rellstab

this answers a question i was about to ask well in part anyway. does anyone know of hardware that will do this sort of thing? for example would you have to use a laptop and midi controller live. i know that some the early casio range of cheap keyboards like the sk1 and stuff had a very simple sample function. there are also some really high end keyboards thatdo this but theyd be like swatting a fly with a bus for what id use them for to be honest!

Philip.

you can look on one of the major internet auction sites and buy a sampler and connect it to your midi keyboard, you can pick up a nice Akai (ie good quality) for peanuts and they work great live also try sound on sound magazine they have a good classified section and you can check it on their website at sospubs.co.uk