MIDI MORON ASKS MORE QUESTIONS

[titser_marco]

Now guys, first of all I'd like to thank everyone who replied to my very silly MIDI questions. I just need another set of answers for these questions and a bucketloads of patience from yuo guys.

1. Now that I know how send MIDI notes to a PC and have it encoded in notation, can I assign what types of sounds would be played by a particular staff?

3. If so, would I be able to use sounds that I sampled on my own (and play them at any pitch) or am I going to be limited by the synthesized voices that my software can produce? What software is the best for this purpose?

Thanks!

[KitC]

Now guys, first of all I'd like to thank everyone who replied to my very silly MIDI questions. I just need another set of answers for these questions and a bucketloads of patience from yuo guys.

1. Now that I know how send MIDI notes to a PC and have it encoded in notation, can I assign what types of sounds would be played by a particular staff?

If you are using Sonar or Cubase, each track can be assigned its own midi channel and each channel can be assigned a separate instrument. Most midi synths have up to 16 midi channels and you can assign a different instrument per channel.

Same goes for notation software like Finale or Sibelius. Each staff is equivalent to a single midi channel and each staff can be assigned a separate instrument.

3. If so, would I be able to use sounds that I sampled on my own (and play them at any pitch) or am I going to be limited by the synthesized voices that my software can produce? What software is the best for this purpose?

Thanks!

What happened to #2?

To play back your own samples, you need a sampler, either hardware like the Yamaha A3000, or software like Gigastudio, Kontakt, Halion, etc. A sampler can pitch transpose any sound but there are limitations. The pitch transposition algorithm is usually good over a range of +/- 3 to 5 semitones; anything above that and the sample starts to sound strange or artificial. Some of the expensive sample libraries sample every third note (or every note like in Giga libraries) to avoid weird artifacts. Then there's the problem of looping but we're getting too far ahead of ourselves.

The easiest way to experiment with sampling? A soundblaster, vienna software (usually comes with the 'blaster and is freely downloadable) and soundfonts. Tweakheadz has an article on how you can make your own soundfonts.

[titser_marco]

3. If so, would I be able to use sounds that I sampled on my own (and play them at any pitch) or am I going to be limited by the synthesized voices that my software can produce? What software is the best for this purpose?

Thanks!

What happened to #2?

To play back your own samples, you need a sampler, either hardware like the Yamaha A3000, or software like Gigastudio, Kontakt, Halion, etc. A sampler can pitch transpose any sound but there are limitations. The pitch transposition algorithm is usually good over a range of +/- 3 to 5 semitones; anything above that and the sample starts to sound strange or artificial. Some of the expensive sample libraries sample every third note (or every note like in Giga libraries) to avoid weird artifacts. Then there's the problem of looping but we're getting too far ahead of ourselves.

The easiest way to experiment with sampling? A soundblaster, vienna software (usually comes with the 'blaster and is freely downloadable) and soundfonts. Tweakheadz has an article on how you can make your own soundfonts.

Yeah, but what I was thinking was could I use these samples as intruments that can be triggered by a MIDI controller to produce the pitch sent to it by the keyboard?

[starfugger]

while i dont have so much experience with midi, i think your question has a lot to do with what i am trying with the alesis d4 and my electronic drum kit.

Yes you will be able to sample your own sounds, create MIDI signals to trigger these sounds, and alter the pitch of the sample as you alter the MIDI note (either in real time --- as you play a keyboard controller hooked up to your soundcard's MIDI port, or by programming i.e. plotting notes on the staff or piano roll in your sequencer).

triggering of samples using MIDI notes can be done, like KitC said, by using software samplers like Halion, GigaSampler, Kontakt (i think), etc. note however, that a software sampler can alter the pitch of a sample only up to a certain point before the sample sounds "unnatural".  this is why you have to plant several samples on the sampler's keyboard as the pitch goes higher, and not just rely on a single sample to cover all your bases.  hope this helps.

regarding your first question, other than samples you can also use virtual instruments.

[KitC]

I learned about sampling the hard way with my SB AWE32 that I upped to 8mb ram    using the aforementioned Vienna soft working in a Pentium 166 MMX 'puter.

The thing about playing samples across the keyboard is that playing the sample higher will make it play faster and playing lower will make it slower. Most pitch transposition algorithms follow the tape machine analogy to pitch up or down a sample. This can be disconcerting if your sample is a drum loop. Even the old Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard 'suffered' from this problem. You will find, however, that drum 'n bass mostly relies on this little quirk (even the Powerpuff Girls theme uses a speeded up drum loop).

Other algorithms can maintain the sample length by 'cloning' a number of wave cycles in the sample as the pitch gets higher (or removing cycles when pitching down). If you've used SF Acid and pitched a sample up or down, that's the same principle. At certain transpositions, the sample becomes very unnatural because of the number of inserted 'cloned' cycles.

Another difficult part of sampling is looping. All sounds have an ADSR (attack-decay-sustain-release) envelope. If you were to check the raw samples in a synth, you will find most samples rarely exceed 1 or 2 seconds. So, to make a piano sample sound like a real piano, they loop a portion of the sample for the sustain portion of the envelope. With clever use of the amp envelope, the sample can be made to 'die down' when you hold down a key for a long time. If you listen closely, you can hear the loop points on some samples in some keyboards; the really cheap keyboards are especially guilty of this.

Lastly, you will need something that can play back a sample. Hardware can start from a Casio SK series keyboard to rackmount samplers. Even the Triton and Roland V-Synth can sample. I have an Alesis QS6 with which I can fly samples into, but it requires the use of a ram card and the only card available at the time was 256 kb!  

For software, like I said, you can start with soundfonts and Vienna, or go up to Halion, Kontakt, Vsampler, Gigastudio, etc. - so much to choose from.

[KitC]

while i dont have so much experience with midi, i think your question has a lot to do with what i am trying with the alesis d4 and my electronic drum kit.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do with the D4, but was it something like this? I've experimented with a piezo transducer to trigger the kick on my SPD11 a while back.

Also, have you heard about Drumagog? Use that in conjunction with BFD and DFHS libraries, I think you'll be golden.

[starfugger]

drumagog and dfh kicks major *ss!  hopefully i will have enough to get a dfh superior from sweetwater in the next few months

yes, Kit, that's exactly what im trying to do.  i have a td7k so the pads arent a problem. i put that away after toasting the module (nggrrr 110 and 220 --- note: label the plugs).  now i got an alesis d4 to translate the drum hits into MIDI notes.  i hope this works.  so far i have dug up the td7k and set it up a while back. still nice after all these years.  i will be getting the rme fireface 800 (with MIDI ports) in a couple of days so i will be able to test this theory after then.  hope it all works without a hitch.

thanks!

[starfugger]

p.s. what is BFD?

[KitC]

BFD, ala dfh but by fxpansion. I've heard they have excellent samples of different kinds of kits.

I've been developing a system where 110V adapters, outlets and equipment with IEC cords have their plugs/adapters/outlets (even stepdown transformers) color coded in bright red. Right now, I have bright red tape on the cords and adapters of my 110V equipment.