But I never use the M-Tron Pro nor the Arturia because I’m afraid I’ll just try to recreate some classic Genesis or Yes passages (not that you’d be able to recognize them, since I can’t actually play even the simplest parts).…I created shifting drones of adjacent keys, wandering between A and C or C-sharp.…Three Mellotron tracks, with three different patches.…As I kept refining the mix I kept attenuating them because they seemed too musical, even though there’s nothing even remotely melodic about what I did, and distracting from the samples. The scratchiness and wobble of the tapes is gorgeous and irresistible. For more than 50 years the Mellotron has been one of my favorite instruments. Then it seemed a good idea to try some Mellotron patches (Arturia’s Mellotron V). I’ll keep that in mind-might curb any excessive tendencies. I noticed that, with my monitor size and GUI layout, 17 tracks is the maximum fit in the mixer panel, if I want to see all of them. (This was done in Sound Forge at least 10 years ago, so I’m now often left guessing how I got some of my sounds, or even what made them.)…Some of these samples were looped and randomly placed on Reaper’s time grid, just to create a mechanical rhythm. The long swells of machine-like groans were a quick rubbing sound stretched, with the pitch dropping each time I lengthened the file. Most of the sounds-the first seven tracks-are from the recordings I made with those speakers…something like 15 years ago. When rubbed grill to grill they made interesting sounds. The speaker grill stood out, like a box lid, and had a slight convex curve from side to side. The speakers had teal plastic bodies, to match, with black perforated metal speaker grills. One of those little fake stacks of components, maybe 7-8” across and 10” high. Years later, probably when in high school, she got a new stereo and was throwing that one out.…It was teal. Finally press Start and begin to play.Maybe when my older child was in grade school, in the 1990s, I bought her a cheap bookshelf stereo (did it even have CD, or just cassette?). Modify the filename and location if you wish, and at the bottom select the correct Record device (this should be your MIDI input device) and the correct MIDI Thru device which should be your softsynth. To record, just press the record button and select MIDI as the option at the top. Press it (or press Alt-F7) so that its selected and you should be able to play your MIDI keyboard and hear the softsynth. The first button at the top right looks like a MIDI connection and if you hover your mouse over it, it will say “Enable Realtime MIDI Alt-F7”. This will bring up the softsynth properties dialog. Select menu Insert->Soft Synth and then select one of your VSTi’s. If not, add the directory that they are in to the search list so ACID can find them. Once you’ve done this, click on the VST Instruments tab and make sure your VSTi’s are listed there with a checkmark next to them. This is where to designate your MIDI input and output devices. Once the hardware is hooked up, you need to go into menu Options->Preferences and click on the MIDI tab. This can be provided by a sound card or dedicated MIDI interface such as a USB device. If you want to record MIDI you’ll need a MIDI keyboard connected to a MIDI interface on your computer.