Finding your Poem
Use the internet to find a poem that you like. The poem must take you 1 minute to read (Between 50-70 seconds). The poem must evoke an emotion (happy, sad, scary, etc...)
I suggest you do a google search for 1 minute poems.
Setting up your microphone (after you found your poem)
*****Make sure you have a microphone plugged in to your computer (microphones on the table in front of the headphones )*****
PLUG YOUR MICROPHONE INTO THE TOP PORT ON THE FRONTOF YOUR COMPUTER (not your headphone jack extension)
To get the microphone to work correctly, you must do the following:
a) right click on the volume control (speaker icon) located at the bottom right of your screen
b) select "Open Sound Settings"
c) On the pop up under INPUT select "DEVICE PROPERTIES"
d) At the bottom of the next page click on "ADDITIONAL DEVICE PROPERTIES"
e) At the top of the pop up, select the "LEVELS" tab
f) Make sure the microphone volume set to "100" (or change it to "100")
g) Makde sure the microphone boost set to "+24" (or "+36")
h) Click "OK" and close the SOUND settings popup and go back to Mixcraft
Part 1 Recording your Poem
1)Open Mixcraft 7
2)When you first open MixCraft 7 and the Pop-up window appears, change the audio tracks to "5" and instrument tracks to "2". "Unclick" the PERFORMANCE PANEL box. Click OK
3)When screen opens we need to move the piano tracks down. Simply click and drag the piano one of them down to track 4 and the other one to track 7
4)Go to the first track labeled "1 Audio Track"
5)Click on the button labeled "arm" (this tells MixCraft which track you want your voice to record to by "arming" the track for recording)
6)If you cannot find a microphone that works for today, then move on to making the music for it (make 1:10 of music so you have plenty of music for your poem)
7)Click on the red circle found below the tracks to begin recording your poem. Press the grey square stop button when you are finished.
DO NOT PULL OUT THE MICROPHONE WHEN YOU ARE DONE RECORDING!!!!!! FIRST you must save your work and close the program. THEN, remove the microphone. If you pull the microphone out with doing those steps, Mixcraft will freeze and close up and you loose your work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9) If you would like, you may add any "fx" special effects to your recording of the poem (HOWEVER, you must still be able to understand the poem). This is not necessary, but is allowed.
Part 2 (Appropriate music for your poem that ENHANCES it)
1) Open the library at the bottom of the screen and sort the sounds using any method you like.
2) Make music that fits your background (both in feeling and in length of the poem).
3) Your music will have 3 tracks for it (Percussion track, Bass Track, Melody Track)
4) One of the 3 tracks must be a virtual instrument track and recorded with the keyboard.
5) The other two tracks can use instrument sounds from the library.
6) Use tracks 2-4 for this purpose
Part 3 (Music that has RUINS/DESTROYS the poem)
1) Same idea as Part 2 but now the music you make gives the poem a very "different" feel from your original music in Part 2
2) DO NOT DELETE PART 2 background music!!!!
3) Mute the tracks used in Part 2 while making Part 3 tracks by click on "MUTE"
4) Your music will have 3 tracks for it (Percussion track, Bass Track, Melody Track)
5) One of the 3 tracks must be a virtual instrument track and recorded with the keyboard
6) The other two tracks can use instrument sounds from the library.
7) Use tracks 5-7 for this purpose
DO NOT MIX DOWN TO AN mp3 FILE!!