Practical MIDI

Over the years I’ve been involved with several recording projects that resulted in commercial CDs that were eventually offered to the public for sale. I know what steps the project had to take before it was all over. With those experiences in my resume’ I believe I can tell you how I’d personally tackle this same task today—MIDI.

First I’ll describe the old-fashioned steps and then we’ll compare this project’s steps using MIDI as our basis. The first steps in either process are identical—you must create the music. Writing songs would follow basically the same steps in either example. That is, you sit down with your guitar or piano and a pad and paper and some artistic creativity and write the songs that you want to sell on your CD. Create a simple cheat sheet for each song so that each musician you hire will be able to follow along when they record their parts. True, you could gather up all the necessary musician at once and just record the session with everyone playing at the same time. Keep in mind that this would require days if not weeks of constant practice and musicians don’t practice for free. They are on the clock no matter what,

Okay, so now you have your twelve masterpieces in hand and you need to record them. The first step in this process would be to find, hire and practice with the musicians you’re going to need to cover each part on the recording. This is assuming, of course, that you play only one instrument and sing. There will be exceptions and shortcuts to every procedure when the artist plays more than one instrument, but for simplicity sake, let’s say you only play the guitar. Go into the studio and lay down a click track with the proper tempo for your song. That is exactly what it sounds like—constant clicking for each beat of the song so the next instruments to record will all be recording at the same speed.

Once the click track is laid down, play your guitar part off the simple cheat sheet you created. Sing along if you like, but I’d recommend singing on a separate track after the guitar part is done. Take this primitive recording to the drummer and have him get familiar with what you are trying to express. When he’s comfortable with it, he can come into the studio and lay down his drum track. Now you can erase the click track.

Bring in the bass player and start the procedure over, laying down the bass part on it’s own track. So far you have the makings of a power trio with the guitar, bass and drums, as well as the lead vocal. Find, hire and practice with the keyboard player of your choice. Play the crude three-part recording for him while he adds his part. Now you have four parts.

Let’s say your vision of this particular song encompasses the use of horns and strings. These types of musicians do not come cheap so choose them wisely. Keep in mind that a three-part horn ensemble could take at least three more takes on the recording, assuming they each get their part right on the first take. As your own producer, your mind will also become boggled with the thoughts of mounting expenses for studio time and musician’s salaries. Can you still enjoy the process?

So here we are three weeks later and now you have the guitar, bass, drums, keys, horns and strings recorded. You’ve taken a second mortgage on your house to finance the project but justify it by assuring yourself that these costs will all be recouped when your CD sells its first million copies. Personally, I’m not that confident that I can sell enough to recoup my expenses so I start rethinking the project. How can I cut costs and still maintain the integrity of my song? Then it hits me—MIDI.

You can take all the time you want creating each of those parts (except the vocals) using MIDI. Edit, tweak and adjust the drum track all you like until you get just the sound you’re looking for. Do the same with the bass and keyboard parts. Personally, when it comes to the guitar track, I’d just as soon play that one live. No matter how good the sequencer is, MIDI guitar never seems to match the real thing for realistic sound. Bass is bass, so go ahead and use MIDI for that. Keyboards can sound very lifelike with MIDI so stick with that. Horns and strings via MIDI will sound like an actual orchestra.
That leaves the vocals. Spend your studio money getting the vocals professionally laid down on tape. After all, that’s what will sell the songs. Not only will you save a ton of money by not having to hire all these extra musicians, you can take all the time you need in the editing process without racking up a lot of expensive studio time.
Subsequent steps will be identical no matter which process you decide to use. That is, you must have the CDs produced, cover art printed and products packaged and shipped so figure in those costs no matter what.

With MIDI your finished product will be something you can be proud of and believe me, when the public hears your recordings, they won’t be able to tell which parts are done by live musicians and which ones were created on your computer.

©2004 Bill Bernico for CYBERMIDI.com Downwind Publications