Why is it when musicians begin to program music, they feel like there is a big difference between their MIDI sequenced projects and professionally-sequenced projects heard on commercial CD's? All too often, beginning programmers look to buying more (and newer) keyboards and sound modules in an effort to improve the sound of their projects. Most of the time, however, a MIDI track's weaknesses can be fixed by improving the MIDI programming and the way the tracks are mixed together.
So, just what do the top MIDI programmers DO to get great sounding tracks?
On close inspection, we find that good MIDI programming is quite sophisticated in the way quantization is used to creative the right rhythmic groove. Similarly, great care is given to the articulation, duration and level of each note. Different layering techniques allow the programmer to design interesting, vibrant and unique sounds that increase the impact the tracks have on the listener.
Likewise, great care is given to the mix of MIDI projects. Even though most tracks in a MIDI project originate from a sampled or synthesized source, extensive use of automation and audio processing is used to beef up the tracks, as though they were acoustic sources, miked in the studio.
In addition, we find that top programmers use multiple tools in the course of producing a project, taking advantage of the strengths of each tool. In this course, we will use Propellerhead's Reason software, alone and simultaneously, with Apple's Logic Pro and Digidesign's Pro Tools.
This course will help you incorporate specific advanced MIDI programming techniques into your sequencing projects and bring the quality of those projects up to professional standards. We will listen to and analyze many examples of MIDI programming and electronic music, including our own, and use this analysis to inform our creative work. To that end, we will present our best work to others in a concert showcase tentatively scheduled on December 11th, 2008.