The music industry is one of the fastest growing industries globally due to the rising number of subscribers, followers, and die-hard-music lovers. The growth, evolution, and change are mainly driven by technology and a group of people willing to transform entertainment. This love is due to the improved music quality, nice instrumentals, and resonating lyrics that leave one desiring more.
To make such quality tracks, artists and producers mainly rely on the power and impact of MIDI controllers to transform simple tunes into complex and alluring sounds.
If you are a music lover, you understand the significance of having the best instrumentals for the lyrics. An artist may have the best and most resonating lyrics; however, not many people will show interest in the music if the sound and instrumental are off.
With MIDI, your music is likely to have the best vocals, pitch, velocity, and notes, hence grabbing the attention of every listener. For the best experience, here are guidelines on how to use MIDI for quality tracks.
Why Use MIDI Controllers
MIDI is just an interference consisting of languages that link the musical instrument to generate the right pitch, tone, velocity, and rhythm for your music. In plain language, it is the software that links all the musical instruments to ensure the final sounds produced are the best. Otherwise, without MIDI, the instruments will likely have conflicting effects, and the resulting music sound and towns may not be the best you ever desired.
Therefore, a MIDI controller is an instrument, a hands-on interface for controlling various musical instruments and signals generated. As technology evolves, most instruments are integrating it as a part of the musical instrument not to reduce the clutter when creating music. For instance, you can now integrate MIDI into keyboards, drum kits, and pads to generate unique tones from a simple stroke.
It is due to these impacts that most artists, including amateurs, are buying a MIDI keyboard controller to produce some of the best instrumentals for the lyrics. With these keyboards, you can technically create the best instruments for your rap, hip-hop, blues, and soul lyrics. The keys on the controllers are illuminated to boost the vibes around the studios.
MIDI keyboards are not like the ordinary; they are smaller but integrated with various technologies and settings for sound optimization. For instance, you get ROLI studio and per-key pitch bend technology to generate studio, acoustic, and karaoke effects. Therefore, it can also be the best instrument for creativity, i.e., all you have to do is press different keys at different intensities to produce a rhythm.
Devices You Need to Set Up MIDI Setup
Having a MIDI Setup requires different instruments, and one of them is the keyboard or a digital piano. When buying a piano or a keyboard, you should ensure it has integrated MIDI capabilities. There are different keyboards to select from depending on your needs.
Next, you need the software, which mainly serves as the sound source that is the interface to interpret different keys, intensities, rhythms, and velocities to produce the best sound. With the software, every key can be used to generate different sounds. Additionally, you can use the software for roles like repetition and optimizing certain bits in the background.
The ideal software for such a need should have customization capabilities and be compatible with all your MIDI devices. Next, you need a laptop or PC suitable for the music production operating system. The device should support the software and other OS you need for music editing. Some specs to consider are 64 bits, about 8GB RAM, Windows 10 or 11, etc. Alternatively, you can go for some of the best MacOS devices.
Every time you modify a sound, you should test it to get a feel of the impact. You need some of the best speakers to feel the sound variations in a small, large room or open area setting. You also need the best headphones for those who love listening to music via earpiece or headpiece. Finally, get all the relevant connectivity cables like USB, firewire, MIDI cables, etc.
Setting up MIDI Controllers
Before you connect everything, ensure the laptop is suitable for music editing and operating all the controllers simultaneously. Ensure the laptop is optimized to work as the perfect digital automation workstation to connect the devices. Do a quick test to ensure all the installed software and OS are running optimally.
The MIDI software enables the MIDI device manager and interface to recognize other MIDI controller devices, enabling them to work together. Next, connect the device to the laptop using the various connectivity cables. The best cable to use is MIDI cables, making it easier for the device manager to recognize connected devices.
Run the device manager to ensure all the controllers are connected and working by doing sound and other tests. After that, connect the sound systems, that is, the speaker and headphones. Once connected, integrate all the devices through the MIDI device manager to work in unison.
Practice Makes Perfect
If you are an amateur artist, this should be your studio set up at home to help you generate the sounds. Once the controller is in place, add a quality microphone to capture the best audio. After you finish the recording, you can edit using the software and music OS.
When editing, focus on optimizing different sounds produced by different keys. You can blend the sounds to have one perfect aesthetic effect. Play the sounds through the speaker as you edit to let you know the impact and what to change to improve the appeal.
When editing, focus on velocity, pitch, rhythm, and speed. Every time you edit, try playing and singing so that you know whether the sound is perfect for the lyrics or if you need to change the lyrics to fit with the sound.
Bottomline
Before you set up your MIDI and studio, you should have all the resources to ensure the MIDI controllers have the best effects.
Buy the best laptops, MIDI keyboards, music software, speakers, and other MIDI devices. Also, take your time to learn how to use the devices and edit the sounds frequently for the best impact on listeners.