What is MIDI?

[Laura]

Originally Posted by richiebee

Looks like some of you need a music theory 101. It's helpful to know how music is broken down into subdivisions, particularly for quantizing, but also for using the piano roll editor and drum editor. Understanding it will make much more sense of what your DAW is telling you about where your notes are placed and the length of them.

Rich

Yeah I know about basic rhythm, like 1/16 notes, measures etc.

But the DAW interface doesn't seem to relate to those. There is a grid and a series of numbers at the top, like a graph, but I don't know what those numbers are. Fractions of a second? It doesn't relate to "parts of a measure", like 16th notes.

I know about metronome timing like 60bpm etc. but again, I'm having trouble relating this to the grid.

[Phlipper]

Originally Posted by richiebee

Looks like some of you need a music theory 101. It's helpful to know how music is broken down into subdivisions, particularly for quantizing, but also for using the piano roll editor and drum editor and if you're tracking a live band to the DAW's click, even in the project window. Understanding it will make much more sense of what your DAW is telling you about where your notes are placed and the length of them.

Rich

Sage advice indeed! I know I do!!

[richiebee]

I'm not sure about LE, but in Cubase SX, you can select different measurements for your project. Try right clicking where the "ruler" is, and see if you can choose bars and beats, or something like that.

Virtually all my stuff is MIDI based, so usually bars and beats is the best unit of measurement for me. But I also do work to film, and for that I need hours, minutes, seconds and frames. I can either set up two rulers on the time line, or switch between them. I would think you could do that in LE too.

[Phlipper]

Originally Posted by richiebee

I'm not sure about LE, but in Cubase SX, you can select different measurements for your project. Try right clicking where the "ruler" is, and see if you can choose bars and beats, or something like that.

Virtually all my stuff is MIDI based, so usually bars and beats is the best unit of measurement for me. But I also do work to film, and for that I need hours, minutes, seconds and frames. I can either set up two rulers on the time line, or switch between them. I would think you could do that in LE too.

Yes, you can. I should've included that with my post. Oops!

[Midiman]

Hello everybody!
I enjoyed Richiebee's midi production and it moved me to do some more work myself with the midi controllers and stuff...I'm hoping that this little production will inspire someone as Richiee's work got me moving....This was done in Sonar 4 rewired with Reason 2.5.....Peace!

Midiman

[alansmithnl]

The difference is truly amazing. I bought a Yamaha SW1000XG card back in 96 and with it came bundled software called Yamaha XG Works. The sounds are truly amazing and all controlled by the sequencer. Sadly, Yamaha don't support this card or the software any more, but I still use it for awesome backing music and sounds that compare to a studio recording. Maybe I'll post a few so you can hear the difference.
Midi is not all that difficult to learn I suppose. I am certainly not a Guru on the subject, nor do I profess to be an expert at it, but using it on some good midi capable cards is certainly a blessing in disguise if you want "true sounding" instruments. Editable? You bet!
I recently bought Spectrasonics Omnisphere which is midi controlled via a host sequencer. I had to buy AcidPro7 to host it, as Sonar 8 Producer, doesn't seem to like the program. That has some awesome sounds and I'm still getting to grips with the immense sound library that I can assign Midi to, but that will take some time. The sound library is around 40Gbytes (yes! Gigabytes!)
Anyway, I will post some files that will blow your mind that show anything really is possible with midi!

[bozmillar]

Love it. I teach a recording class, and my favorite part to teach is MIDI because there are so many misconceptions about what it is and how it can be used. I'm going to use these two clips in my class next time I teach the subject.

[jpjeffery]

Originally Posted by Phlipper

Composing in MIDI is no different to writing a symphony. You don't have the instruments there with you, so you tell them what you want them to do.

LOVE that analogy.

Originally Posted by Phlipper

Just so happens that VSTi's drink less tea!