012: Intro to MIDI, Part 1

[ItTakesII]

It's free in the download vault on the dftba website :)

-Julian

[funkwurm]

Cool Alan, I know Cubase, my dad works with it (he arranger for profession)

He uses Midi a lot for his project, and I wanna ask you to explain that people shouldn't be turned off if they prefer real instruments and don't like the sound of virtual libraries.

Cubase has a pretty cool Score-feature, so what he does is make his composition or arrangements, that might be for a full orchestra, in midi first, so he can get a rough idea of what it sounds like, and then print the score for the players.

[Marj12592]

What on earth is a crotchet and minim? haha I know eighth and sixteenth notes. XD

[Flangel66]

Oh and Paige's arrangement is FIT!

[Flangel66]

Eighth notes? Sixteenth notes? I miss crotchets and minims! xD

Great tutorial, though, Alan! Really useful, as ever!

[Alex2zl]

Quavers and Semi Quavers*

those crazy americans call crotchets quater notes... I'd want my syllables back if I were them..

[buddystar22]

I LOVE that song<3

From your album (:

Great teaching alan!

[Biancatheredhead]

thanks so much! I have cubase and i had no idea how to do any of that stuff. o___o

[MROforever]

I used to use Cubase a couple of years ago when I was doing my GCSEs (if you know what they are), and I didn't get along with it very well, I tend to use Sibelius so I can actually see it written as actual notes.

Thought I agree that using MIDI gives a more professional sound when working with instruments, unless you have a large amount of extremely good musician friends!

[songsfrompaul]

I really need to get me some midi software - I can see myself spending hours with it =)

[eddplant]

Reading the comments on this video, I'm amazed so many people had no idea what MIDI even was! Definitely a worthwhile upload!

I really want to get hold of a MIDI guitar, those things are awesome.

[fallofautumndistro]

It surprised me too, kinda. Wait til I start showing them the differences between sample libraries and synths. I'm all smiles just thinking about it.

[barefootfiona]

I thank the Universe very very often for you, Alan. What would Youtube be without you? *fangirls*

[platospaceandtime]

MIDI <3

[Director705]

If only I had enough money to get this stuff, my keyboard is not touch sensitive, and it doesn't even have reverb, then again, I paid $70 for it.

[jbdazen]

Great video! But it's not true that the MIDI aspect of Cubase is stronger than Cakewalk's. From what I see here, they're basically the same :-)

[fallofautumndistro]

Then they've done some upgrading. I started out on Cakewalk Home Studio 9 when I first started recording music on a computer. It's midi implementation was pretty terrible. And when I had my M-Box I couldn't do anything MIDI-related in Pro Tools. =(

Happy to hear they've upgraded that then. =)

[jbdazen]

Maybe it's different in Home Studio, never used that. But you should never go for stripped down versions anyway ;-) I use Sonar and it's great :-)

As for Pro Tools, I don't think that was really designed for MIDI. Hardly ever used it in there.

[LotteCM]

I know this is random but you have the same wallpaper as your desktop as me :) Awesome vid again by the way! Really enjoying this channel.

[thelinkisstrong]

Is this from my request, or just a coincidence? Ever way, thank you soooooooo much *hugs*

[takingthesky]

Hey Man, I use Reason 4, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but I'm having trouble finding out how to record loops I create.

Also, thanks for posting this video! I think I'm going to look into Cubase!

I use my Axiom 61 for a Midi Controller, I would recommend it to anyone. Weighted Keys, and you can tweak the sounds directly from it.

[CalebICT]

Nice explanation. I had to go to your EP and listen to all of Can't. I would love to hear the full symphonic version.

[iamcrookedneighbor]

Oh, and does Cubase LE (The version I have...) have the same MIDI options as full-functioned Cubase?

Oh, and I have a 64-bit processor. Should I upgrade for the speed boost? Is it worth it?

ben.

[fallofautumndistro]

64-bit isn't really about the speed, it's more about the RAM boost. 64-bit can address 8 GBs of RAM, to where 32-bit tops out at 4GBs. So I can load up more virtual instruments with the extra 4 GBs of RAM.

[iamcrookedneighbor]

Alan, with the velocity thing, you need a compatible keyboard, right? You can't just use anything with MIDI, can you? Because my keyboard is from about 1996, so I doubt it has velocity-sensitive keys.

ben.

[fallofautumndistro]

It depends on how expensive your keyboard is, not how new it is. There were touch-sensitive keyboards then, but if it cost less than $200 it most likely isn't sensitive.

[Director705]

On most keyboards, the feature is called "Touch" and you can turn it on or off if you have it, and it's easy to tell if you do or don't. Just hit the key, and if it doesn't change in volume depending on how hard you hit it, then you don't have "Touch".

[musicislife00000]

Thanks for the step by step, this really helps!

[Vluppey]

where did i hear that final song before?

[fallofautumndistro]

It's a string arrangement of my single "Can't". =)

[Vluppey]

see...from your music video...what does that tells us? its a catchy song :)

[xperpetualmotion]

Oh wow, I had no idea any of this existed. Great explanations, Alan :)

[fallofautumndistro]

Yeah it's pretty incredible stuff, been around since the mid 80s!

[digitalfare]

Alan, great vid! Your explanations are informative and clear.

[fallofautumndistro]

Thanks so much.

[CellPhoneMern]

hey great video, even though I'm already familiar with MIDI but I must say this is a very good introduction for someone who is just starting out. BTW Alan, your book just arrived hehe, hope to learn some stuff from the pro haha. Good luck.

[fallofautumndistro]

Yay, hope you enjoy the book!

[8Tails]

Oh, midis are so cool. Any chance will see a video on 8-Bit music? :P

*goes to play with garage band*

[eddplant]

The minute I learn how to do it, I will make that video!

[8Tails]

Sweet. I think it's one of the most awesome musical styles out there.

[sparedtowin]

That's so awesome! I'll need to look into it, as I would probably find that incredibly useful. Thanks!

[bombsfadeaway]

Well now of course I have to get/play around with MIDI. Thanks for the super informative video, Alan!

Also, I'd love to hear the rest of that string quartet version of "Can't".

[FueledByRock]

Nice background. Now to watch this...

[FueledByRock]

This was cool. I'd like to see some more videos on MIDI. Is there any free or low cost MIDI software?

[fallofautumndistro]

I don't know about free, but there is a "lite" version of Cubase for either $99 or $199, I forget which.

[artvandelay13]

Awesome vid. I'm trying to get into MIDI myself; does anyone know anything about Magix Music Maker? It looks like a much more affordable version of Cubase, but I'm wondering if it's worth the money... I definitely can't afford Cubase right now...

[xGlowFliesx]

Ok, now I have a question:

You said you could switch notes around, right? So if you played every note on the keyboard into the program, could you then arrange a song completely on the computer, verses playing it on the keyboard...controlling note length and everything? Also, on the MIDI does it keep track of time signature or do you have to set that yourself?

[fallofautumndistro]

Yeah you can totally use your mouse to input all of the notes. You don't have to use a keyboard. You can set time signatures and keys for songs, you can also speed up adn slow down tempos mid song if it suits the song, and hcange keys of course.

[tayls1993]

although i already knew what midi was, this was a far better explanation than my school music teacher gave me!

[fallofautumndistro]

That's a shame. Maybe show this to your teacher and see if they will use it in class? =)

[tayls1993]

youtube is banned in my school :(

btw what capture software did you use to capture your screen? and was it free :P

[fallofautumndistro]

I use Jing, and yes they have a free version. They also have a paid for Pro version.

[Navs1231]

this is actually really really cool

[fallofautumndistro]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[asimplecadence]

Awesomeee!

[MimsieSky]

That's really cool Alan! :)

p.s. I'll do that thing for you soon. Promise! <3

[fallofautumndistro]

Awesome, thanks. =)

[jacktheorange]

So, will part two be next Sunday?

[fallofautumndistro]

It should be, yes.

[shessomickey]

Wow, I had no idea any of this stuff existed! You must have done a great job to make MIDI so accessible/understandable to a newb like me (=

[HelloYoungPadawan]

This was awesome, but I'd be a lot more excited about it if I had said programs.

[Thysane]

This was a very, very informative vid. Always wondered what MIDI was all about... starting to understand it now! I'm looking forward to the next installment with baited breath

[hopeonatenspeed]

hooray for midi instruments!

this is so fun.

[fallofautumndistro]

Yay, it is fun. =)

[homskllet]

are these programs free?

[fallofautumndistro]

No, Cubase is about $500 and Kontakt is about $400. Then the instruments you load into Kontakt cost money for each one too.

[LemondropSoldier]

... looks really complicated! good thing i'm musically inept and don't have to use this program! :P

[fallofautumndistro]

Totally give it a shot, it's nothing to fear, just be patient.

[doctornoise]

thanks for this vid Alan, it's good to see what it looks like to put Midi together for a change. Until now I've still yet to know how to do it or what it even looks like TO do it. Now it seems like it's not so intimidating.

[GHRocker1234]

that was cool and useful, i loved the string version of can't

[NathanIsReallyBored]

Good vid Alan learned a metric shitton

[fallofautumndistro]

Sweet. Thanks.

[someone332]

Ten thousandth.

[kthxrae]

yay, this is perfect for me right now. i'm just now starting to experiment with my microkorg.

[eddplant]

Aw, come one, microKORGs are live instruments! The MIDI aspect is a waaayy secondary feature!

[klazzam]

Last.

[doctornoise]

haha

[doctornoise]

thirteenth.