Why MIDI rules the World (and some don'ts)

[MatsonMusicBox]

Here's a "mini white paper" I wrote a while back in another venue that I thought might be helpful here - on the virtues of MIDI recording - and some things to be careful of ...

Since moving to Sonar, I now have the ability to record MIDI tracks side by side with audio tracks, even simultaneously if I choose. As a keyboard player, this provides a lot of options. (BTW - this will apply to Cubase and other good MIDI software too)

I started sequencing heavily in the late 80s for a "live" band and forgot how much fun it was SONAR has made it 10x more fun! Oh sure - I could record midi via my Motif sequencer all along - and have - but it is a pain to edit and only provided a few of the benefits I'm going to discuss here (from a practical standpoint at least). With Sonar, however, and I'm sure most any PC-based MIDI recording/editing tool, a whole new world opens up. Being able to work with MIDI very visually in a "piano roll" type view (literally like a player piano roll on your computer screen) is really cool.

First - for the "purists" who might say that MIDI recording is "cheating" or "not real recording" .... BULL$%$^#!!!!! It is true that a person could STEP-RECORD, punching in one note at a time without ever playing anything, but that is used rarely in general and I never do it. Don't confuse step-recording (which is some people's view of what MIDI recording is) with regular MIDI recording, where you just start the recorder and play, with it capturing every nuance of your performance including all subtle licks and all the mistakes.

The coolness starts after recording .... here are some of the real advantages I have found.

(Note that I am playing my outboard keyboards from within SONAR as opposed to using soft synths, so my discussions is from that angle. I think most of this would apply to soft synths as well)

1) Change what instrument is playing - very cool to try several different grand pianos for instance and even come back much later if you need one that bites more, is brighter, etc. So easy to run off to a new audio track with a different instrument!

2) Adjust velocity - didn't quite hit those keys hard enough or over-pounded them in the ground? Just use a little track slider to raise or lower the key-down velocity overall for the track.

3) Splitting tracks - Do you like the lower octaves on one piano and the higher ones on another? Just copy the midi track and delete the top notes on one and the lower notes on the other and assign them to the two different pianos! Did this for someone and it took me less than an hour on about a 3 1/2 minute song to make the edits and re-audio-cut both parts!

4) seamless punch in - never worry with punch noise, finding the right spot, or overlap again! You can see - note for note where you come in and out. I would note that you have to be careful with and may need to adjust sustain pedal and other controller events if you punch in the middle of them or cut them off.

5) Quantization - Ok - maybe this is cheating - but is it really cheating any more than just redoing takes until you get it right? YOU MUST BE CAREFUL WITH QUANTIZATION as it can do anything from making things sound very mechanical to really altering (messing up) your rhythm/timing. Make sure to take advantage of parameters that let you quantize only with a certain strength (% wise), put in syncopation, etc. I also recommend only quantizing key sections and then maybe only part of it. This is another strength of the piano roll view - you can easily pick out certain notes, parts, of chords, etc. and just quantize those. I do not recommend hard quantizing during recording unless you want that mechanical sound or are laying down a rhythm track as a metronome. My best recommendation is the next item .....

5) granular step editing ..... this is MAGIC ..... hit a bad note - even in the middle of chord? ... drag it to where it needs to be (try doing that with audio!) .... timing off here and there? Drag 'em over in time ... Didn't play a note you should have or want to add a note to a chord? Draw it in there ... hit extra notes or have some chords that are too full? highlight a few notes and delete them ... didn't hold a note long enough or too long? grab it with the mouse and resize it making it longer or shorter! hit notes too hard or softly? change the velocity note by note or section by section ... it's all crazy cool.

So surely this is cheating ... right? Well ... I look at it like this ... it's just doing what I would otherwise do with multiple takes, punch ins, and even digital editing of audio files .. UNLESS YOU ARE RECORDING A LIVE PERFORMANCE STRAIGHT THROUGH WITH NO EDITING, EFFECTS, MIXING, OVERDUBS, ETC. ETC. ETC . ... YOU ARE ALREADY "CHEATING" !!!!! That's what producing is! Working with the midi is simply much more efficient and precise.

Well - I could go on - sure I've forgotten some things ... but this is already too long. Enjoy! and I look forward to any comments ... pro or con ...

[MatsonMusicBox]

OK - thought 'd expand a little on quantization. First for the uninitiated, "quantizing" is the act of automatically pulling notes into exact time - you typically select a note type (1/8 note, 1/16 triplet, etc) and apply it to a section (or entire performance) of notes - they are then dutifully snapped to exact time.

The upside is that it gives you .... well ... perfect timing, which can make things very tight. The downside is that it gives you ... well .... perfect timing, which can make things sound mechanical and sterile.

Good quantization functions which most any sequencer or software will have to some degree, include the ability to only "mostly" pull the notes on line (usually with a percentage strength parameter) and add some syncopation to a series of notes - moving every other note slightly ahead or behind the beat (again as a percentage) - towards a split triplet type feel. These things can HELP the mechanical-sounding problem, but not cure it .... here's why.

If you are able to see midi notes visually (like in SONAR or other software), and zoom in a little, you will see that RARELY are notes that sound perfectly "in time" exactly "in time" mathematically. most music sounds best with chords and notes played either "in the pocket" ( a little behind) or "jumping the beat" ( a little ahead), Not only does this happen - but it a happens at different degrees through a song - some notes jumping the beat - others in the pocket, etc.

The other thing is that with chords (piano chords for example) all the notes do NOT hit at the same time!!!! In a piano roll view, you can easily see that they land at slightly different times. I'm not talking about a "rolled chord" which is done on purpose - I mean regularly played chords. Most of the time your fingers are going down at slightly different times (milliseconds difference), and this shows up as notes that are not starting or releasing at the same time in midi - or with the same velocity - this adds character and style to the sound.

The problem with strict quantizing - even with syncopation - is that the notes in a chord are put together at the same start time - not natural. Percentage pull will help this, but per previous post, my best recommendation is to just manually drag the more egregious notes into time - since you can't drag perfectly (without a snap feature on of course) this preserves the character. You can also highlight a whole chord and just nudge it over, preserving the relative start times of the individual notes.

So what's my general recommendations for quantizing? I'd summarize as follows:

1. Don't quantize on record unless you want the mechanical sound - might be good for electronic Dance music for example
2. quantize only parts of sections as opposed to whole sections or songs wholesale. One technique I've employed is quantizing a left hand pattern while leaving the right hand part untouched - gives it a solid feel but preserves the natural touch.
3. Take advantage of strength and syncopation features of the function - don't pull things all the way on time in most cases.
4. Remember - some things sound better jumping the beat or in the pocket ... in these cases, being right on time can actually sound WRONG.
5. Use manual-visual adjusting (if you have it) for the best natural effect - leave chords "imperfect" and pull only parts on time. For example, I've learned that pulling the bass and lower notes of a chord in time will usually do the trick without touching the higher notes.
6. Leave a few things "out" a bit - then no one will think you've quantized at all!

Hope this is of some help to someone! I'd love to hear any feedback.

[ctc7191]

Hey nice write up on the midi bro. I use Sonar also and I'm somewhat familiar with what you're speaking of.
Just out of curiousity, how would you go about creating a nice drum track via midi for a typical rock n roll song?
I have used Addictive Drums within Sonar and I like the drum sounds but just to create one full length song seems to take forever.
Especially changing the velocities.
I haven't figured out how to drag the velocities the way you spoke of, so I've been entering them manually (trial and error).
I'm also not familiar with changing the quantization for part of the track.
I've been just creating a basic beat and copy and paste it along the whole song while going back and changing different instances so it doesn't sound exactly the same.
All this has been trial and error for me and I have never really discussed with anyone about strategies since I only piddle with it here at home in my free time.
So if you've got some ideas you can share with me for making drum tracks easier, I'll buy you a coke.

[hwhalen]

Originally Posted by MatsonMusicBox

First - for the "purists" who might say that MIDI recording is "cheating" or "not real recording" .... BULL$%$^#!!!!! It is true that a person could STEP-RECORD, punching in one note at a time without ever playing anything, but that is used rarely in general and I never do it. Don't confuse step-recording (which is some people's view of what MIDI recording is) with regular MIDI recording, where you just start the recorder and play, with it capturing every nuance of your performance including all subtle licks and all the mistakes.

The coolness starts after recording .... here are some of the real advantages I have found.

Hey MatsonMusicBox,

Agreed, many advantages.
All you keyboard players got a little heads up on the rest of us in the 80's.
I'm a guy who started on guitar, so I guess I'm a guitar player.
At one point I sold my Les Paul Custom (my only regret in life) to buy a DX7 and amp.

WHY!

Anywho, I now use midi a great deal on my recordings.
I have some OLD gear such as a Roland PM16 with some old Yamaha & Roland pads which I use for drums.
I have a friend's acoustic kit in my room, but not enough mics or channels to record it so midi drums it is.
My DX7 for keys and a GR1 midi guitar controller for various other stuff.
I also have a Roland Sound Canvas.

I track everything live and sometimes record both the midi and audio.
I can use the audio as a latency reference if I need to nudge the start time of the midi track a little.

My GR1 is a great tool as I'm not a hot keyboard player.

I also record some guitar and vocal audio. Its all great fun.

Cheers!

[MatsonMusicBox]

Originally Posted by ctc7191

Hey nice write up on the midi bro. I use Sonar also and I'm somewhat familiar with what you're speaking of.
Just out of curiousity, how would you go about creating a nice drum track via midi for a typical rock n roll song?
I have used Addictive Drums within Sonar and I like the drum sounds but just to create one full length song seems to take forever.
Especially changing the velocities.
I haven't figured out how to drag the velocities the way you spoke of, so I've been entering them manually (trial and error).
I'm also not familiar with changing the quantization for part of the track.
I've been just creating a basic beat and copy and paste it along the whole song while going back and changing different instances so it doesn't sound exactly the same.
All this has been trial and error for me and I have never really discussed with anyone about strategies since I only piddle with it here at home in my free time.
So if you've got some ideas you can share with me for making drum tracks easier, I'll buy you a coke.

Well - what I do to get decent drums is to "play" them via my keyboard - separate drums are on separate notes of the keyboard. I'll usually do a pass with kick and snare - a pass with HH, and then pass on ride, and finally on the crashes.

Playing them this way gives all the variance in timing, velocity, etc. to help them sound more real. I'll sometimes quantize them a bit (not too strong) jsut to tighten it up. You can also - if you have the licks for it - get some electronic drums/pads and record that way. I have a couple friends who do this.

it's also important to have some great sounding drums. Since I actually get a real drummer to do my stuff, my programmed drums are just scratches, so I don't put a ton of effort into them. I've used the Drums on the Motif XS and also the session drums in SONAR. With a little work - both can sound pretty good, and I'm sure there are people here who can recommend even better sounding soft kits.

To REALLY get it sounding real - you have to learn how to play some real sounding licks and fills - this can take practice and involves a lot of listening to what actual drummers do.Also - keep in mind, that depending on the song - more electronic or mechanical drum sounds might actually be desired. It all depends. For me - I'm glad I'm working with a real drummer.

[Vulconizer]

Good write-up and tips.