Midi - WTF?

[lumpy]

Here's the deal. I've tried to lead a band, in the traditional sense, for the past 6 years. Before then I've been in a variety of bands since I was 14. I really thought I had something special this last go round, but I can't keep it together. I have a songwriting partner, who is also the only constant in the past 6 years, and we are just tired of the whole band thing. We have decided to sell our stage gear, buy some decent recording equip, and do a low key Steely Dan for the rest of our lives. Even though I'm afraid of the new technology, thanks to Brandon I am going with PC based recording gear.

Now for my next question: What the f*** is Midi? From what I've read it sounds like a songwriter's dream, and something we could use instead of having to deal with douchebag bass players. Like Brandon I don't think like a bass player and really don't wanna buy bass equipment. I also hate borrowing and don't have the time to learn. I have taught myself guitar good enough to write, but this Midi thing sounds enticing.

Please explain Midi to this burned out old drummer. Thanks.
Lump

[richiebee]

MIDI is a protocol - Musical Instrument Digital Interface. That's it. Just a method for different devices to communicate. It allows you to connect synthesizers, sequencers and a whole bunch of other stuff together to make your music.

In recent times the actual MIDI connection has become a rarer sight because devices are relying more heavily on other communication protocols like USB and Firewire. One big reason is that they can both carry more bandwidth faster than any midi connection can. In addition, much of the work traditionally done by synthesizers, samplers, drum machines etc is now done by what is called plugins. These are applications that run on your computer either alongside your sequencer, or actually as part of it. There are several different "standard" formats for these softsynths that use different protocols to communicate with your sequencer. Plugins can be sound generators or effects processors, and there are even some utility plugins that don't come under either category.

MIDI has gotten a bad name for itself over the years thanks largely to General MIDI files that conform to a standard instrumentation program (eg acoustic piano is always patch 001, electric bass is always (uh, it's been a while...) 036(?)). This was great for people to play back MIDI files (which are much smaller than audio files), but the quality of the sounds in many people's sound cards is poor, and the programming often leaves a lot to be desired.

MIDI is very powerful and using devices that don't conform to General MIDI gives you a lot more scope for good sounds. It still requires programming however, and the programming of MIDI sequencers is still something of an art. But writing can be done very quickly, parts can be copied and pasted and sequencers are powerful enough to give some automation to the process of writing, arranging and producing your music. I wrote a short competition piece yesterday afternoon - took less than an hour to write and realise full production. Okay, it's only two minutes long (competition rules), but it includes ethnic instruments, guitars, drums, bass and some strings. Think how long it would take to produce in a studio... and at what cost. Here is the result - http://www.richiebee.ca/kvr/0607_ric..._ethnicity.mp3. This piece of music hasn't seen a single real musical instrument, microphone or real studio outboard. Everything was done with my computer and a two octave USB keyboard. All parts are sequenced by hand, not sample loops. Alas the competition also requires that the output be 128kbps MP3 which unfortunately takes the final production quality down significantly.

[brandondrury]

Great post, Richiebee. It's a little technical , so I'll give the dumbass explanation.

MIDI lets you record the performance, not the sound, if that makes sense. So let's imagine we have one of those Roland midi guitar pickups for a second. We can now record the performance of a guitar with our recording software. So, let's say you are playing Don't Fear The Reaper's intro. You can then run that performance through a piano, bass, trumpet, drum set, or whatever.

MIDI lets you "trigger" two different types of sounds. A) Synthesis - some computer algorithm turns whatever into a snare drum or a bass guitar. These have gotten better, but synths got a bad name in the 80s because they simply sounded fake. B) Sampling. This means a real snare drum was recorded with a microphone by some bad ass and you can use that sound.

MIDI does powerful things when it comes to songwriting. As long as everything is midi (and there are no real instruments recorded yet) you can change the tempo of the song. You can change the key of the song fairly easily. For songwriting, I can't speak more highly of MIDi.

Now when it comes to creating music that should sound like human beings played it, MIDI takes some work to get right. MIDI lets you quantize which "de-humanizes" everything and snaps it to a tempo grid. You don't have to use this feature, but many people do. This creates the 'stiff" dance music feel that also gave MIDI a bad name in the 80s.

Now as far as playing bass is concerned, I'm not sure if I'd highly recommend synth bass to the Nixon, since I know your needs fairly well. You could make it work, but the human-ness factor is a big deal to your music. So this sort of leaves out quantizing. This means you need to play your bass parts on the keyboard (or maybe midi guitar).

I think MIDI is an awesome thing for actually creating music. But, if you are only looking for a bass solution, it probably isn't worth it. I know I wouldn't learn midi sequencing just for bass.

You really don't need a ton of bass gear to make the bass thing work. There are good sounding, cheap basses. Just plug the bass in DI. I've been doing that for the last 6 months and prefer it over micing 80% of the time.

Brandon

[lumpy]

Thanks for the reply guys. I was afraid it was going to be something like that. I was hoping for this massive, easy to use library of sounds like Jewish harps and oboes and chainsaws and fart noises that I could just jack around with late at night and turn my shitty three minute guitar/bass/drums/vox tunes into something magical. Think I'll take Brandon's advice and pick up an Agile Beatle Bass and learn the blasted thing. Thanks again.
Lump

[brandondrury]

I was hoping for this massive, easy to use library of sounds like Jewish harps and oboes and chainsaws and fart noises that I could just jack around with late at night and turn my shitty three minute guitar/bass/drums/vox tunes into something magical.

Actually, this is where the midi stuff really shines, actually. There are all sorts of wacked out instruments, samplers, etc that can do all kinds of crazy things. Some of them sound very, very natural. Others sound like the Matrix Soundtrack. Actually, the techno stuff is all midi, pretty much.

If you are looking to add sounds to your recordings, you may want to give midi a try. In this case, it's more like an extra toy than the core of what you do. I'm actually learning how to do the core stuff in midi and it's a highly involved process. I've had to "play" drums with the mouse. You can get very realistic drums this way, but it takes a ton of work. I'm very much considering picking up an electronic drum set and paying a buddy to come play drums anytime I need them done. Not only because it's quicker, and more natural, but also because I don't want to ask myself "what would a drummer do here?".

Brandon

[guitar junkie]

Lumpy: if you are just wanting sounds to drop into your songs.. then you need something like Garage Band... sorry it is a Mac only app but it works for the sort of things you were talking about... somewhere i am sure a PC work alike is out there... but you just take clips loops and samples and drop em in.. Midi is no real big deal it just takes some time to fool with it, just like learning to play guitar you have to be willing to stretch your fingers around to make that bar chord happen.

[Spunky Munkey]

good info, actually, I purchased some midi software today, the gist is, it takes your wav or mp3 track and changes it into a midi instrument of your choice. I thought it would be crap but it syncs up correctly and does what it says it will do. I then load it into my recording program and on mixdown it records the midi track as a wav and the midi track is deleted. It is then a wav track and I can add effects if I wish, so it has added some new possibilities to my usually guitar music. I will probably do a complete revue later on. I think there is about 75 sound possibilities

[brandondrury]

What program is it? I can't tell if what you are describing it really amazing or if it's taking the long way to do a short job.

Brandon

[Spunky Munkey]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

What program is it? I can't tell if what you are describing it really amazing or if it's taking the long way to do a short job.

Brandon

WTF - here you go,

First off, don't really know diddly squat about midi but a couple days ago I purchased this program TS Audio to Midi.

It takes a track and changes it to the midi instrument of your choice. After it is done I can then take it and add the midi track to recording projects in N Track. N Track has a function whereby it records a midi track to a wav file and then deletes the midi. That's basically how simple it is. Haven't really done too much with this midi thing, a few different drumbeats, some orchestral type stuff and that's it. So far I like it because it adds different sound possibilities to my typical guitar, drum and bass sound. THe only thing I don't like about it is the way it reproduces bass, but for drums and the higher stuff it seems good. I might get into midi more eventually but for now this is interesting.

[kyleknapp]

This sounds VERY interesting. I also know nothing about Midi, but have often wondered if it shouldn't be possible to play guitar notes and somehow have then come out as (for example) piano.

Tell me if I'm understanding this right - you can input, say, a guitar track (or possibly live guitar input?), this software will convert it to a midi sequence, which can then be used to play xylophone or oboe or whatever in Cubase?