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There is nothing wrong with MIDI, only some synths and synth players. I use a physical modeling synth (Yamaha VL70-m) with a Yamaha WX5 controller and I can get the nuances of sax (scoops etc.), trumpet (including lip slurs), guitar (including hammer-ons & pull-offs) and a number of other instruments.
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By the way, did you tryied the Ketron SD2 with the wind controller?
Thinking to buy one to use with my EWI4000S. Or would I prefer the VL70-m? At a first glance, I would preferr the SD2 because it appears to be "general purpose"... What is your oppinion?



I haven't tried the Ketron with my wind controller, but I have tried plenty of other sample-based synths. None of them can hold a candle to physical modeling.

In my opinion, if you want to emulate other instruments you really want the VL70-m.

Why?

Playing with a sampler or a sample based synth feels like you are triggering samples. Playing with a physical modeling synth feels like you are playing an instrument. The subtle gestures you make with your lip and thumb controllers allow you to play subtle nuances and more.

When you scoop up on a sax patch with my VL, not only does the pitch change, but the tone also subtly changes making the scoop sound like a scoop instead of just a pitch bend. When I bend down on the blues harp patch, the tone changes drastically muting the high frequencies as if the harmonica player was cupping the harp with his/her hand. When I wiggle the reed on a brass patch, the note jumps up and down to the next harmonic just like a trumpet or trombone player does when he/she does a lip slur.

For emulating saxes, guitars, trumpets, trombones, harmonicas and quite a few other instruments, using the right MIDI controller in the hands of a talented musician and a physical modeling synth can provide the very best emulation of those instruments.

Admittedly the tone is better on a sample based synth. But the ability to create nuances on physical modeling far exceed any lacking in tone. When you hear an impressionist/comedian 'doing' a famous person (like the president or an actor) you hear the president or the actor. Why? Not because the impressionist/comedian has an identical voice, it is because the impressionist/comedian can recreate the nuances of the president or the actor's speech.

IMHO most musicians get too hung up on tone anyway. The real secret to playing a convincing sax synth or guitar synth is not tone, it's the ability to be an impressionist.

And each form of synthesis has it's strong and weak points. Remember FM and the old DX7? I don't think another method of synthesis does a better job at many melodic percussion instruments like vibes, Rhodes, Wurli, and dozens of others. But it doesn't do saxophones very well because it cannot recreate many of the sax nuances. Using the right method of synthesis for the job is important.

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Wow Notes, those are some great sounds! I had watched some youtubes of what wind conrollers can do. Fascinating! I'm very tempted to get one and learn how to play it since I'm selling one of my trumpets. Oops, got off the midi super tracks a little here.



Thanks. If you listen, the sounds aren't all that great - they sound much better 'live' but they were ripped at a very low bit-rate for fast streaming. All but the last guitar clip were ripped at 56kbps. IMHO to get a decent sounding mp3 you need to go 196kbps minimum. The reason they sound as realistic as they do is not because the tone is right, it is because the player and the synth module were able to recreate the nuances of sax and guitar.

If I played the guitar patch using the same technique as I did the sax patch, the guitar patch would have sounded lame.

Music is more than note on/velocity/note off. This is what too many MIDI people do, and is why MIDI gets a bum rap. There are a number of continuous controllers that let you manipulate the sound during the entire duration of each note, from attack to release. They govern more than tone but emulate what a wind player does with his/her lips or a guitarist with his/her fingers/feet and so on. I have a complete list published here http://www.nortonmusic.com/midi_cc.html

I have MIDI continuous controllers assigned to my WX5s breath sensor, reed sensor, thumb up rocker, thumb down rocker, two different toggle (on/off) keys and one foot rocker pedal. Depending on the patch and synth I can get wah wah sounds on trumpet or guitar, breath noise that varies with my breath support (like sax subtones or a flute), flutter tongue, throat distortion, I can even use one to emulate the tonal changes that a sax player does by changing the shape of his/her mouth while playing.

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You have a PM.



Sorry Mario, I didn't get the PM. Try again.

Back to super MIDI tracks and their ability to emulate other instruments.

Like all MIDI, in order to emulate other instruments you need the skill of the person playing the MIDI controller, the MIDI controller used, and the playback module. The weakest link with be the limiting factor.

MIDI doesn't sound 100% like the acoustic instrument and perhaps never will. But it can sound 100% like a recording of the acoustic instrument. But then, audio files also sound like a recording of the instrument.

MIDI allows you editing functions that pure audio does not (yet). For example: I have a number of clean guitars in my SD90. Say I'm working on a MIDI file that has a clean guitar. I can make it sound like a Tele rear pickup, Tele neck pickup, Les Paul, Strat, ES-335 and quite a few other guitars. Or getting farther away from clean guitars I can take that clean guitar and use a patch called AttackClav, turn it into one of many distorted guitars, or one of may acoustic ones. All this with a patch change.

Second example. I really like that drum part, but the cymbal would sound better as a cowbell. No problem, click and drag in my sequencer and the ride cymbal is now a cowbell. Bass drum too boomy? Not boomy enough? I've got plenty to choose from. Take the reverb off the kick drum? No problem, move it to another synth and take off the reverb while leaving the snare on the synth with reverb.

At the advice from Peter Gannon and others on this forum, I have done a bit of editing with Audio files and found I can do a lot of things with them that I didn't know I could (thank you all). But there are still a lot of editing I can do with MIDI files that I cannot do with Audio files, so I for one welcome new MIDI tracks.


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