MIDI for "slide" instruments?

[bojax34]

Coming from a total newbie to MIDI, how do you play dobro, steel guitar, and other "slide" instruments if you are using a keyboard to input the data. I guess you could get creative with the pitch wheel, but that doesn't seem like a workable solution. Is there a way to "join" notes together in a slide fashion after you input the data?

 

[fraserhutch]

Coming from a total newbie to MIDI, how do you play dobro, steel guitar, and other "slide" instruments if you are using a keyboard to input the data. I guess you could get creative with the pitch wheel, but that doesn't seem like a workable solution. Is there a way to "join" notes together in a slide fashion after you input the data?

Portamonto, and a lot of lead patches have exactly the articulation you are referring to in that you get a continuous tone of you do not release the first key before hitting the second. The patches are programmed to either slide up or down to the next note (portamento) or just change to it.

 

[ssscientist]

Continuous Controller # 5 is portamento control.

Here are links to three good articles on midi basics --- part one, part two and part three. Part three is the one that deals with understanding and using midi continuous controllers (or CC's) but read the other two as well.

It's possible to achieve a very convincing performance if you keep it to one note at a time and use a little delay to cover up bumps or tuning problems in the syntheziers or samples you are working with.

 

[altitude909]

You can get a continuous ribbon contoller like the Doepfer R2M or the Kurzweil Expression Mate to do the job.

 

[bojax34]

Thanks everybody. You've given me enough information to keep me occupied for the next several months.