What is a MIDI controller & why do I need one to make music?
Ran across Starr Ackermans new blog and saw this article. Starr goes pretty hard in the industry so you’d be foolish to sleep on her articles and blog…
A MIDI Controller is essential if you are making music with your computer. It’s hardware…you’ll use it to control your virtual instruments and sequence your music.
The main reason you would use a midi controller is so you can trigger sounds. You can be inspired to map any plethora of sounds across the keyboard and slam your pretty little fingers on the keys and instead of normally hearing crickets, you might hear the ocean. But seriously, if you have the sound of animals or nature to mix in with your music, then you have the gift to spread psycho ambient feelings to all who might listen to your music, or feel that wave. Midi is just the language used to point to a sound like a cricket, low C cricket, or any sound that you can own on your computer, spread like a sampled keymap in each octave, if that is your choice. It all depends on what you like to spread your fingers around, and listen to.
Now you’re saying, WTF is a MIDI Controller? OK, basically its something that is a piece of hardware. Lives outside the computer, you bang on it if it looks like a drum machine, or play concerto style like Frank Sinatra on the piano…but basically- it’s a piece of hardware so you can control the software sounds and synthesizer controls on your computer. You press a key, a sound comes out of your computer. You decide what sound, based on what virtual instrument you are using to trigger the sound.
The cool part is, if you know how to use your MIDI controller and virtual instruments, and you start dabbling in Low Frequncy Oscillators, (LFOs), you can make some really sick beats- and you need your midi controller to use the filters and drive the sound thru touch as you feel it. When recorded, this data is stored, and its called MIDI information (controller numbers will be recorded when you use something like a knob -real name is rotary encoder- and numbers have names in this language). For example, Volume is named number 7.
Here is a short list of controller numbers that you might want to learn, but I don’t know what the last one means. If you think you know, feel free to leave a comment and help school the planet, and myself included.
Control Change Messages (Some Optional)
- Bank Select (cc#0/32)
- Modulation Depth (cc#1)
- Portamento Time (cc#5)
- Channel Volume (cc#7)
- Pan (cc#10)
- Expression (cc#11)
- Hold1 (Damper) (cc#64)
- Portamento ON/OFF (cc#65)
- Sostenuto (cc#66)
- Soft (cc#67)
- Filter Resonance (Timbre/Harmonic Intensity) (cc#71)
- Release Time (cc#72)
- Attack time (cc#73)
- Brightness (cc#74)
- Decay Time (cc#75) (new message)
- Vibrato Rate (cc#76) (new message)
- Vibrato Depth (cc#77) (new message)
- Vibrato Delay (cc#78) (new message)
- Reverb Send Level (cc#91)
- Chorus Send Level (cc#93)
- Data Entry (cc#6/38)
- RPN LSB/MSB (cc#100/101)
What is a MIDI Controller? Is it a piano? A Drum Machine? Dude, what are you saying?
I’m saying it looks like a piano, or a hybrid of a piano and a drum machine, and the only sounds that really come out of it are the ones living inside your glorious sample collection in your computer (that you have spent years or just a few minutes collecting, so that you may always be given the opportunity to make music with any sound you want), and make it as gorgeous as possible. What a really long sentence that was, but so true.
What are some MIDI controllers I use? Right now, I use two: M-Audio Keystation 49 and Akai MPK-25 (obviously a space issue determines amount of keys from this point- less desk space equals less keys, but there are still a lot of knobs, faders and even some drum pads for those of you that need to bang your groove on).
Here is a photo of the MPK-25. I bought it at Best Buy- didn’t even get a deal on it, but it was so worth the money for my music production.
Via: starrackerman.com
The Modern Newbie Files: Recording Software
There are a few of very popular recording software. The most popular ones being ProTools, Logic, Sonar, Cubase, Acid Pro, and Reaper.
The best way to pick a recording software is just too look at the features you need. Like Mac or PC, plug-in format, track count, audio interface options, routing features, and price.
For Mac you pretty much can choose any of them except Sonar.
For PC you pretty much can choose any of them except Logic
VST is the most common format for free plug-ins. ProTools and Logic both do not support VST plug-ins.
ProTools is limited to 48 tracks. Most other recording software is unlimited or much higher.
ProTools is limited to M-Audio interface (ProTools M-Powered) and Digidesign interfaces (ProTools Le and HD)
Most software allows any ASIO supported audio interfaces.
Almost all software has the same routing options now although I prefer the easy routing in ProTools the best.
Reaper is by far the best bang for the buck. Starting at right at $60 for a fully functioning high quality recording software.
They all sound pretty much the same though. So it’s all in what you can afford, what you need, and what you like.
The Modern Newbie Files: Computer Recording
There are two types of recording. Analog and Digital. Since this is the Modern newbie files we will only be talking about digital recording on computers even though there are digital recording consoles out there that doesn’t require a computer.
Now the most important thing in computer recording is the sound card. It is what determines how well your computer handles audio. Also most of you will be using the built in converters in your audio interfaces (or sound cards) and that is what determines your sound quality of how you hear your music coming through the speakers and the sound quality of the audio going in to your computer during recording.
The most important thing to do when choosing a sound card to buy is to make sure it has an ASIO driver. ASIO drivers are what allow a sound card to function at a much faster speed so that you have much less latency (see footnote for definition).
There are three types of sound cards to get. PCI, Firewire, and USB. PCI is the fastest, Firewire is the second fastest, and USB is the slowest. Fastest isn’t always best though. The most important thing is quality. The quality of a sound card is based on drivers, power supply, converters, and analog stage. I will make some recommendations on sound cards later as well as provide a guide to picking the best one for you.
Computer Types: You have Windows based systems and Apple systems. Both are equal. Mac’s don’t get viruses as easily and usually come with better parts from the factory but pc’s that are built well are just as good.
Take note that although Windows 7 is the current windows system there is not full support for it yet. Hopefully soon there will be. Same goes for 64bit operating systems.
[Latency refers to a short period of delay (usually measured in milliseconds) required for the conversion between analog and digital representations of the sound data.]
The Modern Newbie Files: MIDI
The very most important thing to understand about midi is that you can not hear it because it contains NO MUSIC OR AUDIO. Midi is purely just data and information. Midi Data tells devices what to do to make music.
There are basically three midi device types. There are midi sequencers that store the midi and then play back the data. There are midi controllers that are used to play other midi receiving devices or to send midi data to a midi sequencer for recording and playback. And finally there are midi devices that play music based on the midi data they receive.
For making beats or instrumentals you will need all three. Usually the software is the sequencer and instruments so you really just need a midi controller for playing the melodies to your songs for recording and playback. Most midi controllers hook up via USB for a very easy hook up. The USB connection supplies the power usually as well as transfer the midi data to the computer.
MPC’s are also midi sequencers as well as sample players. So you can store real sounds in them and play them back and you can sequence any keyboard or rack module that has sounds that can be played via midi notes. MPC’s are not necessary for making professional tracks though. They are just different computers.
Note that most audio interfaces also have midi in’s and out’s.
The Modern Newbie Files: Intro
There are a few very important things that every newbie should know before starting to record, produce, or make beats.
- All software is the same sound quality. ProTools doesn’t sound better than Acid Pro.
- Expensive mics are not the most important thing in get high quality recordings.
- You do not need tons of expensive software instruments to have a lot of high quality sounds to use.
- You do not need tons of expensive software fx to make your recordings the best they can be.
- You do not need 50 gb of drum sounds.
- You do not need to pay a ton for great drum sounds.
- 0db doesn’t always mean 0db. Actually there is no such thing as 0db. Because db refers to a scale that is used and you have to be clear on what scale is being used. So, NEVER SAY 0db or -6db or -12db or any other number. You need to say dbVu, or dbFS, or dbPPM.
So now that we have some basic things to remember I’m going to explain them all in more detail later. There are a lot of other things that you must know be these are some of the most common things I see.