For those not proficient with a keyboard, it's still could be a good idea.

Because the keyboard transmits better timing and velocity (volume of each individual not) than either mouse or step entering, you can play your keyboard without worrying about wrong notes, just do the best you can, and then fix the wrong notes in the program.

I showed a guitar player friend this many years ago, and he's been doing it so long, little by little, without really working at it, he has developed a decent right hand on keyboards.

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One of the most useful and very simple things I like about MIDI is instrument selection. I have a sound module with over a dozen different clean guitars. So I can choose one that sounds like a strat or a tele, or a 335 or a LP or something else.

If you are using a real track and decide you like the part but the guitar sound is not right, you can't change it. In MIDI it's a couple of clicks away.

Or if you want an Rhodes instead of an acoustic piano? Click it's done.

And using hardware MIDI, they will work forever. The Yamaha TX81z that I bought in the late 1980s still works today and still has one of the best Rhodes pianos ever on it (plus a few other great FM sounds). FM does great with melodic percussion instruments like e-pianos, marimbas, vibes, and so on.

Plus since most hardware sound modules have the same latency ±1ms you can use more than one with no timing problems. So if the best guitar for a particular song is on one sound module, the best piano is on another, and the best bass for the same song is no another synth, no problem.

RealTracks sound nice, but tone is only a part of music expression. Singers like Stevie Nicks and Dr. John don't have great voices, but they sell zillions of records because they express themselves well.

With MIDI you can make the expression of a song your own, not whoever recorded the track for you. And with a good sound module or soft-synth you can get great tone too.

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