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Those saxes sound pretty good. Did you play those parts live on a keyboard or through your Yamaha WX5 Wind MIDI controller? I do think there is a world of difference between
a) playing a midi part through a midi-wind instrument (or Mick's Synthophone) and
b) typing a midi part into a notation chart and adding synth patches to that.

The one thing I have to admit to -- the idea of playing a gig with backing tracks that you slaved over to make them the best they can be is better than just using canned RT's (from a self satisfaction standpoint and probably quality, too). If I was great with midi and had the right sound modules, I would do a whole lot more in the midi world (but I am not ... and I don't -- ha, ha). From a recording aspect, I have been quite pleased with the RT's -- but again, if I was great with midi I would use that too.

Kevin


a) I played the say parts with my WX5 Wind MIDI controller. I find it's the best controller for wind instrument emulations.

b) Furthermore, I don't think typing the parts into a notation chart and adding synth patches is an acceptable way to make music, unless you are doing Techno or another form of music that is supposed to be robotic. Whether you use a keyboard, wind, guitar, percussion, tactile, or any other type of MIDI controller, IMO it is important to play the parts in real time if you want them to sound played when you play it back. Real music breathes, step input does not.

I started using MIDI tracks because there wasn't any option back in the 1980s. My first ones weren't all that good, but like any musical instrument, the MIDI sequencer gets better with practice.

When pre-recorded loops came out, I was enamored for a few months, but the honeymoon was over when I realized just how limiting they were. Sure the tone is good, but I was stuck with what someone else played and there was no way to customize it to my own preferences, even if the song desperately needed some editing.

Now don't get me wrong, PG has done some great things with the loops, but they are still non-editable. If I want to change a bass note or two to fit the turn around, or if I want to put a kick in the music, or if I want to keep the same part but put it on a different instrument, I cannot. And these are all very easy edits in MIDI. And if I cannot do these simple edits, there are a lot more complicated edits that I cannot do either.

I'm happy that PG is not abandoning the MIDI part of their excellent program for the RTs, but I still am hoping for more MIDI improvements of the types that others and I have put in the wish list.

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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