Practical MIDI

Aside from the examples I’ve already talked about in the first three columns, there is another aspect of MIDI that can be very useful in your musical career. Not only are these files handy during your live performances, they are also a life saver when it comes to putting out that CD you’ve always wanted to do.

I can speak from the experience of thirty-six years of having performed live with various bands. During that time I’ve also spent my share of time in the recording studio. For those of you who haven’t taken that route yet, maybe I can fill you in on what to expect and how MIDI files can make the experience not only easier, but less expensive as well.

The first fact you want to drill into your head is this—studio time is expensive. It’s no place to practice or to play final run-throughs or to write songs or share ideas with the other musicians. The producer’s clock is running and whether you lay down any tracks or not, you’re being charged the going rate for studio time. That rate can vary depending on the complexity of the studio, the producer and the amount of money he personally has invested in equipment.

I’ll give you examples from both ends of the spectrum. My first time in the studio was in 1971 and even then the studio was charging $25.00 an hour for recording time. Peanuts by today’s standards, but keep in mind that my five-piece band back then was playing for $125.00 a night—split six ways (our agent got a cut, too). Being the naïve teenagers that we were, we figured we could just show up at the studio and play a live performance while the producer recorded it. What actually happened was that we left the studio that night without a single track on tape. We were unprepared.

Fourteen years later my wife bought me a block of studio time for my birthday and armed with the knowledge and experience of that first time, I came prepared and left the studio an hour later with FOUR complete tracks on tape. That averaged out to fifteen minutes per song. The songs were each about three minutes long and there were four or five tracks to each song, so needless to say, I didn’t waste a minute.

I was proficient on four instruments by this time—guitar, bass, keys and drums so I could do it all myself. I laid down all click tracks and bass lines first. The click track is just that—the sounds of clicking on the beat. Actual drums parts were added later on the computer. That’s three minutes. Rewind, switch instruments, cue up and go. Next I laid down the guitar tracks on top of the bass and click track. Rewind, switch to keyboards and so on until I had four tracks to sing along to.

I had ten songs I wanted on my album so the next night I came back and laid down the bass tracks for all six songs in a row. Rewind and switch to guitar. Lay down six guitar tracks. Rewind and add keys. Finally the vocals were added. I was able to complete six recordings during that second one-hour session. Time IS money.

What does all this have to do with MIDI files, you ask? Well, let’s skip ahead another fourteen years to 1999. I had another dozen original songs I wanted to put out on an album, er, pardon me, CD. By this time studios were charging upwards of $100.00 an hour and I really didn’t want to waste a minute. I came armed with my twelve original songs in my shirt pocket—on a floppy disk. The parts that I would have spent hours playing live were now in MIDI format and all I had to do was transfer each of the separate MIDI channels to a corresponding track on the multi-track tape recorder. It doesn’t get any slicker than that.

Now, not only did I have my original four instruments laid down, I also had the ability to add a complete horn section. Imagine what it would cost to bring four or five horn-tooting musicians into the studio, not to mention paying them for practice? I also had the backing of several talented violinists, even though they weren’t real people, just a channel on a MIDI disk. The only tracks I recorded live in the studio were some extraneous lead guitar licks and the vocals. Everything else came from the disk. Let’s face it, I’m a fair drummer, but set me down in front of my computer with a sequencer, and I can sound like Ginger Baker on an octa-plus set.

The other advantage that MIDI has over live recording is that you’re human and humans make mistakes while playing live. You get nervous or you’re tired or you get distracted by the producer’s daughter on the other side of the glass. Sequencing at your computer, you can redo each part until it is perfect. If you mess up, you don’t have to play the entire track over again. Just go into the edit mode and replace a few sour notes with perfect ones and you’re there. Move on to the next track and get it perfect, too.

Give it some thought. It may take some time at the computer to structure your initial tracks the way you want them, but isn’t that better than shelling out big bucks for several more hours of studio time? Heck, the other guys in your band will understand once the CD starts selling. They can always play those songs live at the gigs. But they don’t necessarily have to be involved in the recording process…just you.

©2007 Bill Bernico for CYBERMIDI.com Downwind Publications