Midi Implementation

[Middleman3]

Hi.

I've spent more time than I probably should have, learning about MIDI. I understand the big words and all, and I know what it does, but I still don't know how I would use it.

I have a Yamaha keyboard with midi, a Yamaha Drum machine with midi and a Digital Recording Studio with Midi. But because I have able-bodied musicians, a nice place with microphones to record and mix a drumset, vocals, guitar, anything, Im wondering if I need to waste my time with midi.

What can I do with midi, that I can't already do?

 

[kidkage]

I don't understand

I mean, there really isnt a need for you to use MIDI. And since you know what it does and aren't interested I dont know what to tell you

 

[Armistice]

You would use it (after reading my reply to your other thread) to capture the exact performance (or close) of your MIDI instrument. You could then assign different sound libraries to it in the same way you would assign different patches to the keyboard to get different sounds. This gives you the luxury of being able to play around AFTER you've recorded the audio.

Your Boss machine doesn't "have" midi, it just accepts and works with it. And whatever drum machine you have, unless you particularly like the sounds, is probably obsolete compared to a PC based drum library / MIDI editor / DAW combination such as Addictive Drums / Reaper, or many other variants, where you can program drums much more easily and to a much higher quality..

 

[TyphoidHippo]

What can I do with midi, that I can't already do?

I think you misunderstand what midi is. It's just a protocol - you can do anything with midi, just like any other digital protocol. It's useful for the stuff Armistice mentioned - it's also used to control digital mixers from software, to control software with external stuff (I use stuff loosely - it can be anything that implements the protocol - a control surface, a keyboard with some sliders at the top - anything). In live settings - it's commonly used to control lights and smoke machines and stuff. Somebody even made a game once that used midi instead of tcp or udp for the multiplayer/networking part.

 

[TyphoidHippo]

You would use it (after reading my reply to your other thread) to capture the exact performance (or close) of your MIDI instrument. You could then assign different sound libraries to it in the same way you would assign different patches to the keyboard to get different sounds. This gives you the luxury of being able to play around AFTER you've recorded the audio.

Normally I would feel douchey making this correction, but I think it may be needed here. I'm pretty sure you meant to say "after you've recorded the performance". As in - record the midi data, then determine what audio it's going to be used to produce later. (I feel douchey anyway )

In addition to letting you pick the synth/instrument patch/whatever after the performance is down - I've found it handy because it means the keyboardist doesn't have to be any good - fixing the performance is literally drag and drop in the roll editor, lol.

 

[Middleman3]

Thanks guys, lots of enlightening just went down over here. so, say I wanted to record a piano part, but I didn't know what patch to use, ect ect, this is something I can use midi to mess around with, without having to re-record the piano part. Also, By drum machine, I mean this Electric drum pad I have that "uses" midi. Thanks again.

 

[soundchaser59]

Thanks guys, lots of enlightening just went down over here. so, say I wanted to record a piano part, but I didn't know what patch to use, ect ect, this is something I can use midi to mess around with, without having to re-record the piano part. Also, By drum machine, I mean this Electric drum pad I have that "uses" midi. Thanks again.

Yup! Record just the midi on as many instruments as possible (unless you have great instruments and great mics, then keep the audio tracks as well). Then if you don't like the sound of the piano, or you think you should have used a Fender Rhoades instead of a Steinway Grand, you can change the sound to a Rhoades without having the keyboard player come back to the studio. Record the midi drum hits that the drummer plays, then use EZ Drummer or Superior Drummer or some other DAW based drum collection to decide what kits and what drums you want to use for the audio sound of the drums. If some of the timing is not perfect, use the mouse to move the midi notes to correct it. Or correct piano mistakes by using the mouse to change wrong piano notes to the correct key numbers.

If you still have an outboard rack full of black box effects, midi can control all of your fx (assuming the fx boxes are made to receive and comprehend midi commands, most newer ones are, but even older ones will at least understand patch change commands), and it can automate your mix as well so you don't have to ride faders when you mix down for the final.

Several years ago, I had an Atari 1040 and a Tascam 2488 and a 7 foot rack. The 2488 was slaved to MTC (Midi Time Code) so it would start and stop under control of the Atari. All things midi were recorded (midi only, not audio) and played back by the Atari, which would select all the correct synth patches and fx patches for me, with the synth and fx audio routed to the 24 channel Mackie mixer. (The Atari was essentially "playing" the synth instruments "live" every time I started the song, since the audio coming from the synths was not recorded! ) All the audio (non-midi) sources were recorded on the 2488, and all of the 2488 faders and pan and fx settings were also controlled by the Atari by using midi. The only thing not controlled by midi was the Mackie mixer, simply because it was too old to have midi control, and I could not afford a midi controllable mixer.

When I was all done wtih a song, I could literally hit the spacebar on the Atari, and I could watch all the synths and fx boxes blink with patch changes, watch the 2488 synch and start in time with the midi tracks on the Atari, literally watch the Atari run the entire show in real time and sit back and listen to the finished mix. As stated above, I could have had lights and fog machines controlled by the Atari also......

Indeed, what can you not do with midi?