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Jin Huang
Wow, look at the date! I’m writing this blog on Children’s Day! Yeah, I love kids and I love kids’ music. Have fun today! So… what am I talking about now? MIDI, yes, this is quite an interesting lesson. A midi controller is just like a kid’s toy. Lionel and I had a great time playing around with midi during the lesson. Now let’s make some great music with the powerful toy!
Date of Session: May 2, 2014
Time in: 10:00
Time out: 12:00
Lesson 16: MIDI
MIDI is short for musical instrument digital interface. As MIDI itself is already a digital interface, a midi controller can be plugged into the computer directly. MIDI is quite old. People used to laugh at midi because it’s all fake, it’s kid’s toys. If you really want to play with midi, Cubase is the program you would use. However, nowadays midi is becoming the super powerful toy that is widely played by kids, adults, musicians, artists and even professional producers. lolz
There are several advantages about MIDI. First, midi controller is cheap, and nowadays you can even use your iPad as a midi controller. Second, midi doesn't take a lot of space; neither the space in your computer, nor the space in your physical room. Third, midi information is easy to edit, and one performance can be read by tons of different virtual instruments. Also, midi information is very precise for the computer to analyze, so there is less noise in the background comparing with a live recording.
In addition, midi sounds a lot more like the real instruments nowadays. It’s not merely the tonal quality of virtual instruments, but also the different aspects you can adjust for the sequenced performance. For example, pitch and modulation, groove and swing, even velocity itself can make the whole midi track sound more natural and more human. There is a lot that we can be creative with midi. Midi is no longer the robot reading some dead notes; however, it’s our job to bring midi its life and make it human.
As I’ve mentioned before, midi is a language, a series of digital information sequenced with a midi controller, it needs the virtual instrument to read the midi information. Therefore, whenever you create a track with midi information, you need another virtual instrument to read the information so that it will make some noise. Within Pro Tools, there are two kinds of tracks that are related to midi — one is the midi track, the other is the instrument track. The midi track on its own will not be able to make any noise until you route it to an audio track with an virtual instrument as insert. Also, you need to sequence the midi information with a midi controller, which is mostly a piece of outboard gear. On the other side, the instrument track seems to be a lot easier. A instrument track on its own is already a midi track and an audio track routed within one track, so only an virtual instrument insert is required for the track to produce sound. Also, midi information can be sequenced or written within Pro Tools.
Talking about midi from my personal point of view, it survives me as a ‘band’. Without midi, I will never be able to create so many different elements on my own, thousands miles away from my band in China. The song you heard from me, literally, everything except for the guitar and vocal track is midi. However, Pro Tools is probably not a very good midi program for me because of the limitation of native virtual instrument plugins. Thanks to Logic Pro X, the virtual instrument bring me back to life, especially the new drummer feature. Every time Lionel asks me, where did you get the drum track? Yeah, it sounds amazingly real.
This time I brought Lionel my mixing assignment, The Siege. Lionel told me that the mix can be more open, and the key of making the mix open is to make room for each individual instrument. Of course, if we have only a few tracks, we are managing to fill in the space with effects; however, when there are so many tracks in one song, what we need to do is to make space for each thing to stand out. First, if we can start from the very beginning, make sure that the arrangement of the song is perfect so that no two instruments are fighting each other. Next, clear all frequencies that are unnecessary and rely more on EQ to distinguish different instruments. Then, remember pushing the volume too hot is going to close down your stereo image. Sometimes, better open sounding outboard equipment is also required.
Lionel said he had been struggling for years to open up a mix. Even now, I haven't tasted what an ‘open’ mix sounds like. This is curiosity, just like a kid, and it takes time to develop, to grow up. Yeah, I will achieve it some day, or maybe soon. Good luck, kids, and enjoy the day!
