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Re: What good is MIDI??
| quote: | Originally posted by Digital Aura
I've played keyboards my whole life (I own a KORG Trinity and a KORG Wavestation) and I've always wondered what MIDI was good for. I mean I know that its purpose is to ensure that the notes from any instrument are compatible at the computer/sequencer level...but who cares? Who wants to listen to midi?
What are you doing with these midi files you post on here?
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I think you are referring to MIDI as the .mid files you see posted here and on the net, and when you play them normally, it sounds crap. That's because your soundcard has a pretty basic wavetable (or FM) synth integrated, that makes the sounds.
First misconception : you say, who wants to listen to midi? Midi doesn't carry audio at all. You can't listen to midi. Midi is a protocol invented to let several musical instruments communicate with each other. Of course, over the years Midi has received other features (you can control parameters with it, sync several machines together with MTC, even control light effects, ...). But it's still used for it's main purpose, communication between musical instruments.
So, let's assume the notes and parameters are well played in midi (good timing, velocity, aka not played by a noob). Then the quality of the sound depends only on the instrument the midi is controlling. If it's the internal wavetable of your soundcard, no wonder it sounds crap. But if it's your Trinity for example, it will sound much better.
So why use midi? Let's say you have three midi instruments (for example your Trinity, your Wavestation and something else). You want them all three to play something. Without midi, you'd sit behind the Trinity, play something and record it. Then get behind the Wavestation, play something, record it. Then get behind the third instrument, and so on and so on.
With midi all that is made much easier. Provided you have the right equipment of course (enough midi ports, everything set up right, ...) your workflow could be : you sit behind the Trinity, and play something, but you only record the midi (so no audio). Now you want to play the Wavestation part. What you do, is only change the midi channel to that one that is assigned to your Wavestation. But you play on the Trinity keyboard. You control your Wavestation with your Trinity in other words. Same could be done for the rest of the instruments.
Of course this is only an example, where I took the Trinity as master keyboard. In this example you recorded only midi, no audio yet. If you find there is something wrong (one note is off, or not in time for example), you can simply edit the midi part to solve the problem. And the next time you play, the instrument will play exactly the same thing again, only with that particular note fixed.
Like I said, not only notes can be controlled, but also parameters like filter cutoff frequency, pitch bend, velocity, modulations etc...
So you see, Midi is very powerful, and that's why in many studio's (especially where electronic music is made) it's pretty standard. That doesn't mean you cannot achieve the same result without midi, just that it will take much longer and much more effort.
Midi is also the reason rack/desktop instruments are possible. Have you never wondered how the hell you could play on a Trinity rack for example? It has no keys! That's because it's controlled by Midi.
So what do people do with the mid's they post here? Well, they steal (haha) the melody/rhythm/whatever from a tune so they can use it in their own productions. Personally I don't see the use either, cuz I find in most electronic music the melodies aren't so complicated to recreate yourself, but hey, if some people ask for it, they find it useful don't you think...
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What good is MIDI??
