travelin travis
New member
don't argue with me. i'm right.
midi sucks
- Thread starter travelin travis
- Start date
You have never been more right.
I suspect it sucks because I can't figure out how to use it to better my recordings, but whatever, it sucks.
travelin travis
New member
do yourself a favor and just ditch it now. check back in a few years maybe. it sucks because it doesn't work right. i've known it since the first time i connected a midi controller to a computer but i jumped in the herd with the rest of the sheep and did my best to keep my eyes shut. this is what i'm talkin bout: http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11317
Great use of the ez_willis principle! Out on DVD soon!
I ditched it years ago and haven't looked back. Somehow I still record music with drums, bass, guitars, keys, vocals, the whole bit. 5 years from now the young ones won't be able to figure out how I did it, either.
I read the first 6 or 7 posts. I refuse to read any further.
Get a drummer, or better yet, a drum set, learn to tune it, play it, mic it, record it, and be done with it. In the years that it takes you, you'd still be figuring out how to configure your nerdy midicrap.
travelin travis
New member
nail on the head. that's the plan once i get settled some where.
Maybe you're just too stoopid to use midi
nah, i've been using midi since way back with my sr16 and midi keyboard. it sucked then and it sucks now.
Gandalf
Number 10
travelin travis
New member
So maybe you was stupid then and still stupid now
maybe i was and am but i have a challenge for you. record something using midi, a drum track, piano, etc. something very dynamic. listen back and see if what goes in is what comes out.
Gandalf
Number 10
Hey I'm just pulling your chain dude...
However, when you're talking digital, what comes out is never what goes in. It's all quantised.
I've never had a problem with midi. And I can't play drums, afford a drum kit or have space for one, so I'm stuck with MIDI anyway...
Not that it matters with my mediocre (at best) guitar playing
it all sounds like crap anyway 
However, when you're talking digital, what comes out is never what goes in. It's all quantised.
I've never had a problem with midi. And I can't play drums, afford a drum kit or have space for one, so I'm stuck with MIDI anyway...
Not that it matters with my mediocre (at best) guitar playing
it all sounds like crap anyway travelin travis
New member
Hey I'm just pulling your chain dude...
However, when you're talking digital, what comes out is never what goes in. It's all quantised.
I've never had a problem with midi. And I can't play drums, afford a drum kit or have space for one, so I'm stuck with MIDI anyway...
Not that it matters with my mediocre (at best) guitar playing
man, digital really does suck doesn't it? everything is estimated, rounded off, quantized, approximated. being that no two midi notes can be recorded at the exact same time, midi is even worse than digital audio. notes are shifted to approximate locations in time and velocity. what a bunch of crap! i feel like a complete idiot for buying into this whole virtual studio ball of shit.
yep, you were right. i am an idiot.
Gandalf
Number 10
antispatula
Active member
midi is great if you use if right.
I love using midi for demos.
It's perfect if you just need some ideas down, QUICK.
Like 10 minutes ago. I put down an acoustic guitar track, and a vox track. Then I added bass, drumset, rhodes, and a hammond b3 soundfont down with midi, and I love it! I love it all works together. My point is, while it may not sound as good as the real thing, it gives me a great idea of how it will sound like.
And even when I am seriously recording, midi definitely has it's great uses. While some things just will never sound as good as the real thing, some pretty much do in my opinion. People say there's no rhodes sounds out there that sound like the real thing. This is NOT TRUE! I've owned 2 rhodes in my life, and have tinkered and cleaned, repaired, and even completely disassembled them, so I have a very good idea what they sound like. I downloaded a free soundfont of a rhodes a little bit ago, and it sounds great.
There are certain string sounds that sound very realistic also, and midi is also great for things like bells and stuff.
Of course, most instruments just can't be easily sampled and played back through midi. Piano sounds still don't sound like the real thing, especially the few octaves between middle C and the top octave. Violins always sound cheesy, and of course guitar sounds are always horrid.
I love using midi for demos.
It's perfect if you just need some ideas down, QUICK.
Like 10 minutes ago. I put down an acoustic guitar track, and a vox track. Then I added bass, drumset, rhodes, and a hammond b3 soundfont down with midi, and I love it! I love it all works together. My point is, while it may not sound as good as the real thing, it gives me a great idea of how it will sound like.
And even when I am seriously recording, midi definitely has it's great uses. While some things just will never sound as good as the real thing, some pretty much do in my opinion. People say there's no rhodes sounds out there that sound like the real thing. This is NOT TRUE! I've owned 2 rhodes in my life, and have tinkered and cleaned, repaired, and even completely disassembled them, so I have a very good idea what they sound like. I downloaded a free soundfont of a rhodes a little bit ago, and it sounds great.
There are certain string sounds that sound very realistic also, and midi is also great for things like bells and stuff.
Of course, most instruments just can't be easily sampled and played back through midi. Piano sounds still don't sound like the real thing, especially the few octaves between middle C and the top octave. Violins always sound cheesy, and of course guitar sounds are always horrid.
That's all fine and fucking dandy, but trying to get my keyboard to record the midi notes is slightly more complicated than shooting those rover buggies to Mars.
WTF? If they'd make it to where I could buy a midi cable, plug it in to my keys on one end and one obvious spot at the other end, then press record, and have something even close to Rhodes sound instead of just another error code or some bullshit, it would be great.
All right. Fine. I don't know wtf I'm doing, but I've never met a nerdy midi kid that could explain it clearly enough get it to work so I'm going to have to blame them.
You're drunk. Chime in tomorrow when you're sober. You'll just confuse things.
EddieRay
#?
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travelin travis
New member
i'm not going to tell you how to destroy your recordings with midi.
antispatula, it's not so much the sound of vstis and soundfonts that i'm uneasy with. it's this: what goes in isn't what comes out. i'm speaking of recording midi performances. note timing and velocity come out slaughtered. some say it's subtle but i'm a stupid guitar player and it completely bugs me out. always has. i've been listening back to projects and the best ones don't involve midi or vstis. i swear the frustration is recorded right along with the quantized notes. i can only wonder if the audio alignment suffers too. i know it does some but to what extent? now i'm drifting back to 'digital sucks'. the whole enchilada and midi is the filling. i got into digital with the intention of assembling musical ideas quickly, 'demos'. i feel like a loser for being such a whiner about the whole thing but the magical recording box just won't jive with me. ever stared at a fast moving ceiling fan and tried to focus in on one blade? that's how recording on a computer makes me feel. i can't focus thru the jitter. i get side tracked by everything drifting about when it should be stationary. i feel like i'm trying to draw a picture but the lines are moving on the paper. tell me what can be so good about it all when everything is approximated. sound is approximated, time is approximated, and alignment is approximated. how does this affect the overall vibe of a piece of music? seriously, think about all the 'close enough' estimations that go on in a computer based recording from input to final media. it's scary for me to think about.
in fact, we need something to replace midi. it's been acceptable for way too long.
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