Thoughts on my Personal MIDI liberation

[Guest Soyuz]

Sorry bad english.....

 

i have allways thought that there are more advantages in working with audio files instead of midi data. for example, it is very easy to cut the impact of a recorded ride, leaving you with only the ambient ringing tonne. also, by cutting out parts of a recording, and pitching them differently can also do wonders! and there is the good old reverse.

for me, working with audio recordings inside my daw (reason7) gives me more creative control of the sounds that i'm working with.

but, i dont find me being a guy of control. you can unleesh just as much chaos working with audiofiles. for example stretching (and then quickly exporting the streched sound before it has rendered and fixed all the glitches) has given me alot of chaos in my work.

 

I also think that there are more advantages (for me) in working with "analog" equipment, or atleast -the idea and feel of analog equipment. the idea that all sound created is audio, just a signal and you just kinda play more with it when it is analog gear. just just twiddle som knobs and make up new sounds in the moment. and to make some filter follow a rythem in your head, does not mean you have to do an automation -you record it in the go.

 

i like the playabillity of alaog. the "live" onetake, feel of recording that. problem is that i really dont own any analog gear. and i have an old casio toy synth that sounds very ugly and a SQ1 workstation, but they dont offer that much control over the sounds, -in real time, that is to say.

But! i got a mashine last year, yeah -that beatthing with colours and blinky buttons and stuff. it's bacically like an mpc midi controller.

But! i love pads! i play melodies so much better on pads, and my brain can like remember the scales when it is on a grid. and i can play rythems very nicely on the pads. i just love playing around with the mashine. the problem is just that if i do something live with it, it can sound nice and exiting but when i want to record something -it all comes down to automations and midi notes......

SO HERE IS WHAT I DID, it's not like revolutionary or anything, but i really got me rid of working with any midi! (:

I borrowed my friends soundcard (he doesnt produce anymore, -only gets high) and i dusted off my old stationary PC. booted it up, installed reason7 on that mothafukka, and now my production setup is like a digital marrige beetween two computers (PC + MAC), two soundcards (EIE + BALANCE), two daws (REASON7+MASHINE2.0). so all i do on the mashine software on the mac computer is spit out through the balance soundcard and into the eie soundcard and into the pc and recorded in reason.

 

this new way of working has done sooo much for me! and has given the playfullness of making electronic computermusic back. i am thinking to expand, you can get like very cheap midi replika synths with alot of knobs too, i think aturia makes them.

buying alot of midi knob twidling stuff -will not sound like analog DUH!.
-But will have the same live, playfull feel in this context.

SOYUZ!

[Guest Chesney]

Great stuff man. Stoked you found a cool way that works for you.

Although, try not to get caught up in false notions. Analogue is a total buzzword. It does not mean "better sound" it's just a word to explain that the instrument etc is using voltages to make the chips work. as opposed to zero's and ones in software. of course, there is a difference, in sound and feel. but one is not better than the other.

I DO prefer the immediacy of hardware and love analogue synths but incorporating them with the midi of a DAW or sequencers and you get a powerhouse. And of course you can manipulate the audio afterwards too as you said.

Midi is an amazing tool, it does not have anything to do with sound, it's just a great way to control sound whether it be to a hardware synth, drum machine, softsynths or just presets in your DAW.

use Midi, use CV, use CC, use anything you can to make things generate sound, do not limit youself until you have found the best route for you. Then once you know what works for you, limit yourself then so you can hone your ideas and get the best music out of your setup.