MIDI and Sequencing
MIDI is the most misunderstood part of making music on a computer. Almost everyone starts out thinking a MIDI file is music the way an mp3 is music. It is not: a MIDI file contains no sound at all, only instructions.
- no audio
- note on and off
- velocity is the life
Where you run into this
- Production
- Programming
- Film scoring
- Live
In short
MIDI is a protocol from the early eighties, built so synthesizers from different manufacturers could talk to each other. That it is still in use half a century later says something about how well the basic idea was chosen: a note on message says note number so-and-so starts now at this velocity, and a note off says it stops.
Understanding that there is no message meaning play a note half a second long explains most of what is confusing about editing MIDI.
How it works
Velocity is the single biggest difference between a living and a dead arrangement. Drawn-in notes usually get one default value, and a part where everything is exactly equally loud is the clearest sign of programming rather than playing. Fixing velocity before anything else transforms more parts than any plugin.
Where you run into this
- A MIDI file that sounds different on every computer
- A programmed part that comes alive when velocities vary
- A quantised performance that lost the thing that made it good
In practice
Quantise in degrees rather than absolutely. Full quantisation puts everything exactly on the grid and removes the timing that made a performance feel human. Most DAWs let you quantise by a percentage, which moves notes toward the grid without pinning them to it.
Keep going
Everything in production and arranging
- Synthesis
- Sound Design
- Sampling
- Programming Drums
- MIDI and Sequencing