Hmmmm. Ok, switches get into some deep territory.

smile

If someone develops a midi and loads a bunch of keyswitches in there that you don't like, there is not much you can do but erase all the controls which I will talk about in Lesson 2.

So there really are two things to consider:

A.) The midi file itself. Which instruments were chosen? Are there any "hard-wired" volume or velocity controls in there that you don't like?

B.) The SOUND. The final sound will only be as good as the synth plug in and samples you are using.

And yes, regarding B, there are some things that translate well, and others that don't.

A piano can be sampled to sound great. Horns and brass can sound great.

Groups of strings, or "20 violins" can sound okay for film track type stuff even though anyone will know they are sampled strings. But sampled strings are streaming on every movie and t.v. show playing anywhere in the world right now, so people are used to it.

SOLO violin, and SOLO guitar (acoustic or electric) have been almost impossible to use successfully as samples because of velocity and articulation.

That is, when you are playing the violin, there are infinite moves you make where you go softer or louder on each note, or sustain, or do vibrato for very short periods of time. Same thing for guitar. So against that background, it is almost impossible to get a guitar or violin to sound real in a midi-driven sample. In the best scenarios they are passable and in the worst case they are horrible.

However, groups of strings seem to slide by unscathed and are used all the time. They are the bread and butter of film scoring.

Here is where BIAB and Real Band come in REAL HANDY.

If you check out most of the examples of "film score" sound track stuff people are posting on You Tube in tutorials they are using something like Ableton and stitching together the same old A minor audio samples everyone else is using. The first millionth time was cool, but after a while it gets really old. It all sounds the same.

Using BIAB, you can find numerous Midi styles in all genres (though techno samples and classical samples usually work best for film in the midi world) in which you can generate robust string sections (or other sections) with interesting chords and notes and tons of musical contrast.

Bear in mind: for creating musical backdrops less is more, so you are only look for those sounds that give you a warm, rich, uncomplicated sound.

If you want a melody, keep it very simple and choice the right instrument. Simple piano parts almost never fail.

I of course have been speaking of orchestral stuff up until this point.

For electronica, like Moog emulators, bass, synth pads, funky stuff--you can't beat midi.

There is a whole world of funky out there.

Well, I will try and address this more in Lesson 2.

If you can learn the basics of what drives the orchestral samples and scores, then everything else is a piece of cake.


David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
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