Welcome to MIDI! (Do check out the Links at the bottom of this page...click here)

 

Some of you may know that MIDI stands for: "Musical Instrument Digital Interface". Most MIDI projects are done with a MIDI-ready keyboard, but there are other MIDI controllers such as the funky "drum-sticks" and wind-controlled IWI's that you may have seen or heard. Musicians and inventors are coming out with new MIDI controllers all the time.....some are quite unique. The keyboard is still the most common, however, and it's my MIDI instrument of choice.

 

Other than a keyboard and a MIDI interface to hook it to your computer, you'll need some software to do recording. Sequencing software is basically a digital tape recorder, but with MANY more options and features. Most sequencing programs will allow MIDI and analog music to be recorded and mixed.....

 

That means that all you need is a good microphone (or better yet, a mini disc recorder!) and you can record yourself "live" into the sequencer. Then give yourself a combo or an entire orchestra to accompany your solos! It's not that hard, and it's a TON of fun. Besides that, you'll learn a great deal about MUSIC as you work with these programs. Your appreciation for what you hear all around you will grow immensely.

 

Many of the more COSTLY sequencing programs also allow you to print what you've written. This is known as a "notation" application. Some stand-alone notation programs, like Finale and Sibelius, also have limited sequencing abilities. Here's what I use:

 

1) I have an old, bare-bones MIDI keyboard by Yamaha called the PSR-60. It doesn't have a great deal of flexibility or "programmability", but at least it will send a MIDI signal to my computer...that's really all you need until your creativity starts spinning out of control. And it might......

2) This keyboard is connected to the USB port on my iMac via the "MidiSport 2x2" interface by "midiman". This is just a converter box that's about 3 inches square that translates the MIDI signal between the keyboard and the computer. Cards are available for you PC folks that allow you to connect a MIDI cable directly to the computer.

3) The sequencing program used for the examples below is Metro 5 LE by the Cakewalk Company. Check the links below for their homesite....you can download this program from the site for around $30.That's pretty cheap, folks. This is a "scaled-down" package almost functioning as a demo in many respects, but still very effective and very cheap. At some time, though, you'll probably want to upgrade to the full packages offered by Cakewalk or others....if only to be able to save your music as mp3's and MIDI samples for immediate distribution on the Web. There are work-arounds and cheaper alternatives, though, if you've got a little creativity and patience.

NOTE: if you have at least 128MB of RAM and a relatively fast processor, visit hitsquad.com and download ProTOOLS Free. It is a fully functional home recording system. Excellent!

 

So........all the MIDI tracks you hear in the following examples were done using the set-up described above.

But what about the trombone and how did I turn these into mp3's?

 

OK...pay attention, this may get confusing:

The trombone tracks were recorded directly into my Metro 5 program as AUDIO tracks. In other words, they're NOT midi. When a track is recorded as audio, the manipulations you can do to it are a bit more limited and more difficult than midi tracks. Still, though, some serious editing of audio tracks is possible with programs such as Peak LE.....that's what I use.

In any case, you'll need some kind of AUDIO recording software to record your trombone into the computer.

You can record yourself playing trombone (or anything else!) a couple of ways. One way is to record into a microphone hooked directly to the computer. If you have a very good mic, this works well. Another option is to record yourself onto a tape recorder or mini disc recorder, then "dump" it into the computer using either the microphone jack or "sound in" jack on the computer and either the headphone jack or "sound out" jack on the recorder. You'll need a cable with 1/8" mini stereo jacks at either end. This is about $4 at Radio Shack. More often than not, I use my mini disc recorder in this manner.

If you've got an optical plug on your sound card, you can use the optical cable from the minidisc to the computer. This will transfer all data as DIGITAL, rather than analog. There are advantages to this besides the cleaner quality:

Any track labels or ID tags you've put on the disc will translate to the computer.

A third option which works quite well is to use Yamaha's Silent Brass System! Simply connect the Silent Brass' line out to the "sound in" or microphone jack on your computer! Pretty slick! All the reverb effects and volume controls will translate to the recording.

You will need some kind of recording software, though, before you just play the stuff into your computer.....I use Peak LE. It's cheap and easy! Demos can be found at hitsquad.com

 

Since my small sequencing program doesn't allow me to save directly as mp3's, I need a way to convert my music so the world can hear it! Here's what I do:

I assemble the entire work in Metro 5, then I play it back while recording it to mini disc. I simply hook the "sound out" or headphone jack on the computer to the "sound in" jack on my mini disc recorder. Then hit record on the mini disc and press play in Metro 5....that's it!

Now I have a "hard copy" of my tune. I then play it back into the computer as Peak LE is set up to record. Just open Peak's transport Window and press the record button. A dialogue box will then help you set up your system. Connect the "line out" or headphone jack on your recorder to the "line in" or "sound in" on your computer. Press record ("Start") on Peak and Play on the recorder and you're in business.

You will then have an audio file on your hard disc. This is a CD-quality recording, but a VERY big file (usually over 20 MB for a couple minutes of music!) Too big, really, to expect folks to download it over a phone modem! So I need to convert this audio file to mp3. That will cause the recording to lose a little bit of fidelity (some would argue a lot of fidelity), but it will "shrink" the file to about 1/20th it's original size.

The program I use to do this is a freeware application known as BladeEncoder. Freeware means it's FREE! I downloaded it at hitsquad.com

It's literally a "drag and drop" application........I drag my audio file on top of the Blade icon and it converts my file into mp3 format..........God Bless the writers of this program, ladies and gentlemen! It's an incredible resource they've provided us for NOTHING.

If you can't find Blade anywhere for download, look around........there are other free mp3 convertors.

Once I've done this, I have an mp3 of MY music ready to send as an email attachment, or post to a web page, or anything else I want to do with it!

*Of course, all these steps can be cut out if you buy a sequncing program that allows you to save directly as mp3.

 

Once you're all set up, you can do stuff like this: (Windows users, right-click on the link below and choose "Save file as..." Mac users, hold the mouse button down on the link and choose "Download link to disc")

(If you're an AOL user, try using Netscape or Internet Explorer instead of AOL's default browser. Although theirs is a slimmed down version of Explorer, the plug-ins aren't very effective for the following files.....)

 

"Boundless" by Tom Gibson, copyright 2000

 

"HappyCat2" by Tom Gibson, copyright 2000

 

*** Of course, you will need some sort of "mp3 Player" to listen to these....if you don't have Quicktime, you should go here to download it. It's free and works on Macs AND PC's

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Here are some Links for you to learn more about MIDI and MiniDiscs; and to get the tools you need to unlock your Musical Mind!

As Always, I'm available for questions and comments.......email me:

 

hitsquad.com

MIDI Instrument Patch Map: this will be VERY helpful when you're trying to achieve a variety of sounds through your keyboard!

Cakewalk: they make some great software, but they also have a TON of useful information on their site!

Coda: they make the immensely popular Finale notation program. Sibelius is another program worth checking out, but this link has some great info for musicians.....

Classical MIDI Archives: hear some wonderful MIDI samples and get a feel for the boundless possibilities for making MIDI music.....

MIDI.com: the name says it all.....

Harmony Central: if you're a musician and you don't visit this site on a regular basis.....you're a fool!

MIDI.net: once again, the name says it all......

The Synth Zone: learn about MIDI keyboards and what they can do.....

Composing and Recording Music and Video: some great stuff here, folks.....

MiniDisc Community Portal

MiniDisc T-Station

MiniDisco

 

 

 

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