Midi Recording

If a composer wants to write music, MIDI is probably the best way to do it. In order to composer with midi, a sequencer is needed. There are many midi sequencers on the market, but the best ones are Sibelius and Finale. These sequencers can help a composer write midi files in a notation form. After the composer is finished composing his music, he saves the file, and the resulting file is really a midi file, even if it has a Sibelius or Finale extension. This is the first step to midi recording.

Midi Recording Process

1. Midi Sequencer

2. Software Sampler

3. Gigastudio

4. Sound Libraries

5. CD Mastering

The second step involves the actual recording and converting from midi to mp3. One way to do this is by using a microphone to record the midi file, into an mp3. However, this method is poor, because not only will the mp3 still sound synthesized, but it won't sound as crisp anymore. Another method, which is the correct way to record midi, is by using a hardware, or software sampler.

Midi files have come a long way. The traditional midi file from the 90's use the sound cards built in ROM sounds, each instrument sample is about 2 megs or less. Then came the midi keyboards, which were better, but still not great. These keyboards also used rom. The samples in a $200 midi keyboard probably still had 2 megs sampled, but had better quality instrument sounds. Even the $5000 keyboards are not that great. The samples loop after seconds, and the samples may be 30 megs, which is ok, but still not what a demanding composer wants for a professional recording. So how do we go about getting an instrument sample with no restrictions?

Hardware samplers used to be great, but now they are getting outdated due to software samplers. Hardware samplers are more restricted, because they have limited memory. For example, they use ROM (read only memory). Rom is very fast, however it cannot hold as much memory as RAM in a personal computer. Ram is slower than rom, but it is still fast enough for recording purposes.

They key to getting a recording with very little restrictions, are software samplers. There are a few software samplers on the market. Cubase (steinberg halion), the built in Kontact that Sibelius users can benefit, Reason, and Gigastudio are a few. In my own personal opinion, I feel that Gigastudio is the best software sampler for midi files on the market right now. The reason being that there are more sound libraries created for this software, the and sound libraries are professional and amazing.

Let me just explain the basics of how a software sampler, like Giga Studio works. The software sampler and your sequencer has to be loaded every time. They work together. The software sampler also has virtual midi ports that your sequencer will recognize. You have to change to the virtual midi port created by the sampler, within the sequencer, this is very easy. Now that everything is all set, a sound library has to be loaded within the sampler, every time you start it of course. Upon loading the sounds you need, the sequencer will play back the music using the sampers loaded library, and the result will sound superb, depending on how expensive your sound library is. This leads me into the next topic of "sound libraries".

Where there is a software sampler, there is a sound library to go with it. The software sampler, sound libraries, and your sequencer are purchased separately. The sound libraries must be compatible with the software sampler of your choice. For example, Gigastudio can read soundfonts, and the format "gig". Sound libraries are quite expensive, and huge files. Some sound libaries can be gigabytes big, thus the name of the software program, Gigastudio. Remember that ROM can only hold a very small amount of memory? Well now we are using the harddrive to store these libaries. The main purpose of the sampler is to load the libraries from the harddrive into RAM, and route these sounds through the virtual midi port used by the sequencer of our choice. The program has the capability of automatically recording the midi file into a WAV file in realtime as it plays, and this is the correct way to record a midi file.