How to make Happy Hardcore on the PC very cheaply

I use an AWE32. This is basically a sampler so I can sample anything from CDs or vinyl. I can also download samples in a variety of different formats from the Internet and convert them to AWE32 format. I use a program called Sound Forge 4 to edit the samples, though there are shareware programs that will do roughly the same thing. This lets me do equalisation, etc to them if I want. I have 2Mb of RAM on it (it normally comes with 512k) so I can use up to 2Mb of samples in any one song.

The AWE32 also has filters, which make a kind of wah-wah sound as you alter them (like TB303 basses), and other cool stuff.

When you are constructing a song, you build up a bank of sounds for it using a program that comes with the AWE32 called Vienna. I have built up one of these files with 127 stabs, so I can try loads of stabs when I'm creating a new sequence.

I also have a Yamaha DB50XG. This is a little board that piggybacks onto the AWE32. It's got hundreds of very high quality sounds built in. The digital to analogue converters are even 18 bit! (very good quality in PC sound gear) The DB50XG is basically a module called the MU50, which costs over twice as much but it doesn't have the case. The whole chipset is exactly the same. There is now a new Yamaha soundcard coming out called the SW70XG which is a soundcard like the DB50XG which can also take samples (it has 512k RAM) - thus no AWE32 is needed. Alternatively a Turtle Beach card can be used instead, which is very similar to the AWE32 but more expensive and better quality (it is also compatible with less games). For professional quality there is a board available called the Digidesign Samplecell II, which has 8 outputs and works in better than CD quality but costs a lot more than the other boards. .

I construct the songs in a sequencer called Cakewalk Pro 5, which for happy hardcore is just as good as Cubase (in some ways it is a bit better and in some a bit worse). So what are the disadvantages? The AWE32 & DB50XG can produce just as complex tracks, etc, as a real setup *but* :

-the sound quality isn't professional (the ADCs & DACs are like ones from a cheap CD player, the outputs are very slightly noisy, though I can't hear it) -no multiple outputs (on pro gear each track can be sent to a different mixer channel to be equalised, sent through effects units, etc) -not portable

Of these problems the lack of multiple outputs is the principle one, though I have run an instrumental track from the PC straight through to DAT before and got it mastered from that. If you want decent gear, get something like an Akai/e-mu sampler, Novation BassStation, Korg M1 (for *that* piano), a Roland JV-1080, some effects units and a 16 track mixer - but that'll set you back about 10 times as much as my solution!

Return to Miscellaneous index

Return to main menu