While I love audio, when I work with it or edit with it, I feel crippled. I want to do this and that and so many other things that I can do with MIDI, and they are impossible to do with audio loops. I suppose some day the tools for audio may catch up, but for now, I use audio when it's right with no tweaking, but I use MIDI 90% of the time.

  • Something as simple as tuning that ride cymbal to a cowbell or changing the guitar sound from a Les Paul to a Telecaster or a piano into a Rhodes is easy with MIDI - a couple of clicks away - and impossible with audio
  • I can change the groove of an entire song by pushing or delaying the same beat(s) every measure
  • change the balance of individual drum sounds-like increase/decrease the volume of the snare, ride, sock or whatever
  • I can move the ride cymbal a clock tic or two sooner to add brightness without affecting volume
  • transpose with no artifacts, to any other key or even a few octaves if I want
  • duplicate a track - de-tune it slightly - and/or layer it with another instrumet to add fatness
  • add crescendo/diminuendo and other expressive elements
  • reduce-add-increase the FX like reverb/echo/chorus/etc.
  • get the entire band to play quarter-note triplets or any kind of kick
  • hold a note as long as I want
  • add or increase/decrease the speed and/or intensity of the vibrato
  • keep the same drum kit but change one of the drums - for example put the kick drum on another synth with no reverb so it thumps better or put the snare on another synth and add more reverb
  • add song-specific licks that are so important to many popular songs - and do it without changing the tone of the instrument (almost impossible with audio even in the same studio with the same mic played by the same musician with the same instrument and using the same engineer)
  • and thousands of other things not available with audio.
In other words, it's a big playground and I can play in MIDI with no limits to my heart's content.

With a good MIDI sound module, you can get very close to audio in tone, and if you climb the moderate learning curve, you can get as expressive as any instrument.

And a good MIDI synth is the first key. Most people who dis MIDI are using the software synth that comes in their computer. This is an el-cheapo synth that is predominantly good for games and IMHO is not ready for prime time.

The second key is talent. MIDI is easy to plug in, step enter, and/or ignore the continuous controllers http://www.nortonmusic.com/midi_cc.html that add expressiveness to the music.

The people who dis MIDI also don't realize that many of the instruments on virtually every hit record for the past 30 years are MIDI instruments. I've read about guitarists trying to get the sound of an instrument they thought was a guitar on a Nashville record, and was really a synth and impossible to duplicate on a guitar. Years ago Rolling Stone magazine chose a synth solo as one of the 500 all-time greatest guitar solos.

We have both audio and MIDI tools available to us. It's about using the right tool for the particular job. --- Just as we have forks, spoons and knives at the dinner table. A crescent wrench can be used to drive a nail, but a hammer does it better. But that crescent wrench will remove a bolt better than the round nose gas pliers.

I for one am not ready to abandon MIDI but will use it along side of audio.

I have some hardware synths. I bought my first one in the 1980s, hooked it up to eihter my Atari, Motorola chip Mac, or PC-DOS 5 comouter, and it still works perfectly. MIDI is independent of the computer brand or OS. What worked with the Atari still works with Win8 or OSX. Sure some of the sounds are dated, but others are just perfect for particular songs.

Through the years I've collected others. The old ones don't go out of date, they just become part of the group. And that's one good thing about hardware synths. I can choose the bass sound from one synth, the guitar sound from another, the sax from yet another, and even the conga drum from another.

Another good thing about hardware synths is they all have about 5ms of latency. You can mix and match with no timing problems and no drain on the CPU of your computer.

In summary, it's not a Real Tracks vs. MIDI Tracks thing, it's about having both at our disposal, and using the one that is most appropriate for the song at hand.

And to get back on topic, with my EXPANDED MIDI styles, I can put a chord in BiaB on every eight note if I want.

Insights and incites by Notes

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

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
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