Help Getting Started With Midi

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PANTYBOY

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I use fl studio 4 pe for the instrumental composition
and sonar 4 for the multitracking and vocals and recording

I have mastered the art of point and click production
and am ready to try a more hands on, getting into the mix approach
and I believe this would be accomplished by using a midi board

I am super exited about being able to play the keys and get into the mix
but I don't know if I have the facts straight( I have no experience with MIDI)

just a few questions

1. I NOTICE SONAR HAS GM AND YAMAHA PATCHES ONBOARD W/ THE SOFTWARE, CAN I USE THEM VIA MIDI BOARD? ARE THEY GOOD QUALITY?

2. IF I USED A REGULAR KEYBOARD OF THAT SUPPORTS MIDI, COULD I GET THE EXACT SOUNDS OF THAT BOARD TO PLAY THRU FL or Sonar?

3. WHERE DO I GET SOUNDS TO USE VIA MIDI (ex.= other than fl stock sounds and other than the vsts i have)

4. Are some sounds only available through use of MIDI? (like the ones with Sonar?)


Basically I see a lot of instruments in Sonar 4 PE, and beind a FL studio user
I grew accustomed to point and click piano roll composing but it seems some apps REQUIRE MIDI and won't work like FL's point and click piano roll to play notes

and also i was wondering do any of you consider Midi patches better thand soundfonts or samples like the ones u would use in FL?

I am getting an E-MU Xboard 49 this weekend which comes with Proteus LE
and am very excited about entering a new level in my music,
and I was wondering if I would really even need MIDI at all truthfully
because if it doesn't give me acxcess to more or better sounds available
only through Midi
than I may as well take that money and buy some sounds intead
i just thought that a midi controller would give me access to other sounds that can on only be triggered by way of a Midi controller?

Any help would be forever appreciated ,(we have a very meager income, and
can only afford the neccessities and i don't want to make a bad investment)
seeing as this being my first leap into the world of midi i will always remember it.

p.s. - sorry for the long post (dohh!! i'm an idiot)
 
I NOTICE SONAR HAS GM AND YAMAHA PATCHES ONBOARD W/ THE SOFTWARE, CAN I USE THEM VIA MIDI BOARD? ARE THEY GOOD QUALITY?
Click to expand...
No, SONAR has instrument definitions for many synths, but no MIDI synth sounds per se (except for the demo SoundFonts they usually have).

IF I USED A REGULAR KEYBOARD OF THAT SUPPORTS MIDI, COULD I GET THE EXACT SOUNDS OF THAT BOARD TO PLAY THRU FL or Sonar?
Click to expand...
Just in the usual way -- use SONAR to record the audio output of the keyboard. There's no audio present in MIDI messages.

WHERE DO I GET SOUNDS TO USE VIA MIDI (ex.= other than fl stock sounds and other than the vsts i have)
Click to expand...
A myriad of places.
MIDI synths have on-board sounds and often have ways to save patches in files that can be loaded up and used. Many sound sets are available and some can be used with several kinds of synths.
Then there are sampler soundsets, which are similar to synth patches but also contain real audio data. SoundFonts are one format that's widely available but there are others.

Are some sounds only available through use of MIDI?
Click to expand...
Well, anything that's available from any MIDI synth can always be recorded to audio, so technically no, you can always record the sound anything makes just like you can record guitars and flutes and voices and shit.
 
Thanx!

THANX FOR helping a newbie

I vastly appreciate your time reading my post and offering your assisstance.
I do my mixing easier via mouse and dont need anything for a controller for
that.
So i was thinkin if i wanted the sounds of a particular keyboard to record
into my cpu wouldn't i do better getting just a regular keyboard w/Midi support and recording (as stated above) the keyboards mix through sonar
and mixing from my DAW.

Seems that way I still get a midi keyboard and a standalone Keyboard with
its own sounds and i could still mix everything down through FL & Sonar
with the added bonus of outboard realtime hardware sound without even having to bother with all the latency / driver issues seeing as i will record live in realtime from my board via the line in of my soundcard?

Is it me or does it seem like instead of a dedicated MIDI keyboard I am
probably thinking of more of a general standalone board w/midi support
would be what I am looking for?

(something I can record sounds into my cpu from and use as a MIDI keyboard)
 
BTW, that point and click method that you've used entering notes in the piano roll to (presumably) controll the soft-synths and samplers are all MIDI data. You've just been entering them by using the mouse. If you use a controller keyboard or another MIDI capable keyboard (synth), you'd be entering them by playing the keyboard. In the end as far as your soft-synths are concerned it doesn't matter how the data got there. They see a message like "play the note G#5 with Velocity 80... stop playing note G#5"... that's all MIDI does. What kind of sound that G#5 will produce entirely depends on what's programmed in the synth... it might even be just a drum sound in a sampler.
 
So i was thinkin if i wanted the sounds of a particular keyboard to record into my cpu wouldn't i do better getting just a regular keyboard w/Midi support and recording (as stated above) the keyboards mix through sonar
and mixing from my DAW.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you still think any MIDI controller played into SONAR will give you the sound of a particluar keyboard by picking SONAR instrument definitions. This is not so. Instrument definitions merely map the synth's program names to the patch change numbers. The sounds are not there. You need the "particular keyboard" itself.

Seems that way I still get a midi keyboard and a standalone Keyboard with its own sounds and i could still mix everything down through FL & Sonar with the added bonus of outboard realtime hardware sound without even having to bother with all the latency / driver issues seeing as i will record live in realtime from my board via the line in of my soundcard?
Click to expand...

???

Sorry, I have no idea what you are trying to say there and I'm not even going to try to guess.
 
AlChuck said:
It sounds like you still think any MIDI controller played into SONAR will give you the sound of a particluar keyboard by picking SONAR instrument definitions. This is not so. Instrument definitions merely map the synth's program names to the patch change numbers. The sounds are not there. You need the "particular keyboard" itself.



???

Sorry, I have no idea what you are trying to say there and I'm not even going to try to guess.
Click to expand...

I got it figured out now
i can record my mix in my keyboards sequnecer and let it play as a midi signal
through fl studio, i can then line the notes up properly so that everything is in sync (keyboard in sync with fl studios drums etc)
i can then export the mix as a midi signal back through my keyboard
let the actual music play through my keyboards output which i will record
directly into my soundcard via the line in port
that way i can use my keyboards sounds as audio with the drums from
FL Studio backing up the keyboards sweet leads

only use of the midi file being imported into fl is to line up the keyboards data
with FL studio so that everything will be in sync with each other and combined into a full track.

I guess i was basically trying to get my board setup so i can record the sounds from my board into my computer and sync it with my FL studio mix

the midi data import helps me line everything up in FL, that way,
when i play the audio back thru my sound card it will be time synced .
 
PANTYBOY said:
I got it figured out now
i can record my mix in my keyboards sequnecer and let it play as a midi signal
through fl studio, i can then line the notes up properly so that everything is in sync (keyboard in sync with fl studios drums etc)
i can then export the mix as a midi signal back through my keyboard
let the actual music play through my keyboards output which i will record
directly into my soundcard via the line in port
that way i can use my keyboards sounds as audio with the drums from
FL Studio backing up the keyboards sweet leads

only use of the midi file being imported into fl is to line up the keyboards data
with FL studio so that everything will be in sync with each other and combined into a full track.

I guess i was basically trying to get my board setup so i can record the sounds from my board into my computer and sync it with my FL studio mix

the midi data import helps me line everything up in FL, that way,
when i play the audio back thru my sound card it will be time synced .
Click to expand...

Man, that's one convoluted and highly unnecessary way of working. Just record the MIDI in FL, go in and edit the notes in the piano roll so they're just as you want, then record the audio outputs of the synth. Done.
 
noisewreck said:
Man, that's one convoluted and highly unnecessary way of working. Just record the MIDI in FL, go in and edit the notes in the piano roll so they're just as you want, then record the audio outputs of the synth. Done.
Click to expand...

That sounds way easier, but hut how can i get the sounds from FL into my board so that it plays everything together?

would a triton le let me load the wave samples from fl and sequence everything thru the triton

what kind of board lwould let me loads waves from my cpu into it
that way everything can be sequnced in FL and sent back through the board
and play the sounds i want?
 
Check out the new Roland JUNO G.

HEY THAT SAYS I CAN IMPORT WAVS

DOES THAT MEAN I CAN LOAD MY WAVE SAMPLES (FL SOUNDS)
AND JUST RECORD IT ALL THROUGH THE KEYBOARD
AND IMPORT THE FINISED WAVE VIA USB BACK INTO MY CPU FOR MASTERING
IF SO I'M DEFINATELY GETTING THIS

THANX FOR THE LINK
I'VE SAW THIS IN GUITAR CENTER AND ASKED THE CLERK ABOUT A BOARD THAT LETS
ME IMPORT/EXPORT WAVS & SAMPLES AND HE SAID NO BOARDS CAN DO IT :mad:
 
JUST GOT THIS FROM WWW.FUTUREPRODUCERS.COM

To record the sounds of your board into FL
You dont have to record it in a wav editor and then import it into fruityloops just to get your JunoD sounds playing in FL.

All you need to do is first,
-get your midi connections to your computer, which you already have.

-Then, get audio connections from your juno into your soundcard.

-Now, in FL, go to MIDI Options from the 'Options' menu and hightlight the MIDI port you are using in the 'Output Port Mapping' box. Give it a port number by selecting it from the little text box underneath, and give it a number, say, '1'.

-Now, Add a 'MIDI Out' channel to FL's sequencer, and on that channel set the port to '1', and now you shud be able to play your juno and have its midi data in FL "
in addition to this, you can select your input from your soundcard in any mixer channel in the lower left black box in the FL-mixer. by doing that you can even put effects on the output of the juno.(asio-soundcard NEEDED for that though)
port number 1 is usually already taken, so using port 5 or up would be better..

but he still have a little problem: he will still have to record the audio input (you have to connect it audiowise of course as well), because if you simply export the audio file it won't automatically bounce the sound modules sounds to disk..
 
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