Quote:
For most purposes, it translates into volume.


This is generally what happens; however, some synths respond differently depending upon the velocity (how hard you strike the note). Sometimes you get a harsh sound at higher velocities, or sometimes you get a different articulation. But yes, velocity and volume generally are related.

That being said, all MIDI notes have a specified velocity in a range from 0 to 127, but the track the MIDI data is on also has a specified volume setting. So velocity is sort of like volume within volume (or as I like to view it, the strength of the note at that volume setting).

So, if your volume settings went from, say, 1 to 10. Then, if you strike a note with velocity of 127 (the highest velocity), and your volume is set to 8, that's the loudest that instrument will play at volume 8. If you up the volume to 10, then velociy 127 is the loudest it will play at volume 10. You can kind of think of velocity as the strength of the note in relation to the volume setting.

But conversely, you can hit a note with velocity of 127 at volume 1 and it will be very quiet; however a note with velocity of say 50 at volume 10 would be louder than the note at volume 1, because it's all relative.

Hope that made sense, or maybe I made it worse.

John

Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD
Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA

BB2024/UMC404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/MixBus/Notion/Finale/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK

http://www.sus4chord.com