Originally Posted By: jazzmandan
<...> I have always said, "there is nothing faster or easier then using RealDrums." Same goes for much of the RT stuff in BIAB. "Why would anyone want to use anything else?"<...>
Editing. There are thousands of things you can do with MIDI that you cannot do with RTs or any other audio formats - yet.

Here are just a few:
  • The endings on BiaB styles are limited to 2 bars. Some of the endings just don't work right. In MIDI you can create a proper ending or simply copy and paste from one of my MIDI intro/ending disks.
  • There are no "real" intros in BiaB. You can easily create one in MIDI or simply copy and paste from one of my MIDI intro/ending disks.
  • Some songs have rhythmic kicks (I was jamming with some Salsa guys and they called them "breaks") -- a section of music where the entire band plays a passage consisting a number of what PG calls Shots and rests in a very definite, rythmic pattern.
  • Some songs could use volume manipulation on individual drum instruments (bring up the snare, take down the cymbals), this is easy to do in MIDI, next to impossibld to do in Audio Loops
  • Sometimes you may want to change a drum sound, for example, on a Latin/Rock tune, change the ride cymbal to a cowbell, easy in MIDI, darn near impossible in Audio.
  • I've often changed instruments on some of the BiaB output parts. (That piano part might sound better on a Rhodes for a particular song, or a nylon string guitar, or a Clavinet and that Clean Guitar might sound good as an Acoustic Guitar on another song.) I have a sound module where I can change the clean guitar to a Tele (front or rear pickup), Strat, LP, 335, and a dozen or more others Again, easy with MIDI, impossible with Audio
  • crescendo (A directive to a performer to smoothly increase the volume of a particular phrase or passage)
  • diminuendo (A directive to a performer to smoothly decrease the volume of the specific passage of a composition)
  • accelerando (Gradually accelerating or getting faster) with no audio artifacts
  • ritardando (Gradually getting slower) with no audio artifacts
  • fermata (notation marking directing the performer or ensemble to sustain the note of a composition affecting all parts and lasting as long as the artistic interpretation of the conductor or performer allows)
  • transposition with no audio artifacts
  • Composing - you cannot get audio loops to do what you want, but you can change or add anything you want in MIDI format very easily.
  • Sometimes when changing from an A substyle to a B substyle you might not want a roll. In MIDI it's a simply copy and paste operation.
    You might want to rearrange the drum rolls in a piece or change the roll from a snare to a tom. Again in MIDI it's just copy and paste or a simple transpose command.


Of course if you had the same instruments, studio acoustics, mic and other studio gear of the original recordings, and the skill to match their tone you can do these with audio loops. but that's one giant IF.

With a good MIDI tone module you can get sounds 90-95% as good as 'the real thing' - and believe me, the audience won't know the difference.

Real Tracks are fine, there is real genius in making them work, and I do use them when they are the proper tool for the job. When I need deep editing, MIDI is the only way.

We have both tools. Just because you bought a new pair of "vice grips" there is no reason to throw out your socket wrench set. Use the proper tool for the job you want to do.

That's why we can talk about MIDI here.

Sometimes RealTracks are the proper tool for the job, and sometimes MIDI is the proper tool for the job.

Quote:
Excerpted from Keyboard magazine, March 2014 by Craig Anderton:

…Today you can easily record 100 tracks of digital audio on a basic laptop, so MIDI may seem irrelevant in the studio. Yet MIDI remains not only viable, but valuable, because it lets you exploit today's studio in ways that digital audio still can't.

…

Deep editing. Digital audio allows for broad edits, like changing levels or moving sections around, and editing tools such as Melodyne are doing ever more fine-grained audio surgery. But MIDI is more fine grained still: You can edit every characteristic of every performance gesture: dynamics, volume, timing, the length and pitch of every note, pitch-bend, and even which sound is being played. MIDI data can tell a piano sound what to play, or if you change your mind, a Clavinet patch. With digital audio, changing the instrument that plays a given part requires re-recording the track….but MIDI can do much more…


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
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks