Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

It's easy. I record them live, in real time using the appropriate MIDI controller then I use a good MIDI sound source to play them back.

I do this when I make my Norton Music aftermarket styles. Everything gets recorded live, in real time, using the appropriate MIDI controller.


So, do you use guitar synth controllers and brass synth controllers?

Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

Of course with MIDI you can step-enter a part in a style but I never do that, it doesn't sound musical to me.


Maybe. My floundering around on an instrument that I don't play could be a lot less musical, though. I wondered that back when I was working with a keyboard player who sequenced. I never felt that his bass parts sounded right. Too staccatto. He considered bringing in a guitar synth so that I could play the bass parts more "live", but that never materialized. However on a static bass part with 8th notes, I pointed out that his staccato notes generated from the keyboard would be much better served as legato into each other. He elongated the notes and the whole part grooved much better.

Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

I never use BiaB to play a melody or solo. Why? Playing solos or the melody is the most fun part for me, so why should I let the machine have all the fun?


I agree, but often I'm putting together practice tracks for my students, with and without melody. The younger kids have a hard time understanding the Melody if it doesn't sound like it's the same instrument. If it's a uke, I can play it on the guitar, but being able to step-entet notes that sound like a uke would be easier.
Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

One nice thing about playing melodies or solos into a sequencer in real time via MIDI is that if you hit a wrong note and keep going, you can fix the note without changing the expression of the part you played in.


I've often thought about that. In defiance to my old keyboardist's insistence of "garbage in,garbage out", why couldn't I play a part piece-meal, with rhythmic and dynamic conviction, but with a lot of my [*****]-up notes, and fix the notes later, as the phrasing and attacks are still preserved?

Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

I generate the parts first in BiaB, then export the very good BiaB music to a DAW and turn that very good output into something better.


But then how do you get that better output back into BIAB as a style?

Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

IMO The best way to input horn parts is with a Wind MIDI controller. It takes a better keyboard player than I to get the subtle dynamics a horn player does naturally with breath. If they are just horn stabs or background sustain chords with little dynamics, I'll use the keyboard.


What about brass parts? Do you use a trumpet MIDI controller? I watched someone use the breath-control tube for a keyboard to get realistic horn parts in Beatles tunes a few years ago.
Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

Same for drum parts. I use a drum controller.

Same thought here. Keyboard players tend to play these on on keyboards and then quantize. My old keyboard player felt that the majority of the parts needed to be played in. However, he played them in on a keyboard, which seems to defeat the purpose.

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