MIDI Manipulation
MIDI is the control signal we use to trigger sounds on hardware synths or samplers. DAWs also use MIDI to send Note data to your synths or samplers.
Getting a grip on this will immediately widen your sonic palette and give you a control over the sounds you might not realise you had.
Regular MIDI messages
Let’s breakdown what MIDI is and look at the basic building blocks including Note Pitch, Note Length, and some of the basic controller signals including Pitch Bend and Modulation Wheels.
Controlling With Hardware
If you’re a musician who likes to play controller keyboards or enjoys handling MIDI controllers, we can look at the possibilities at your fingertips and feet which you might not have realised, for example AfterTouch or not using Pitch Bend wheels to bend the pitch!
MIDI FX
In the same way we use plugins to affect the sound of an audio recording or synth output, we can use special MIDI plugins to affect the MIDI signals being sent to the synths or samplers. These include things like Arpeggiators and Scale & Velocity Processors.
Articulations
Articulations are mostly associated with large sampled instruments where you might want to specify that your violin is playing a normal sustained note or a short pizzicato. Very powerful tool when you know what you want.
MPE / MIDI 2.0
MPE stands for MIDI Polyphonic Expression. This is a recent advancement of MIDI technology (as is MIDI 2.0) which enables us to create hardware controllers with an advanced level of expression. We will see more of these in the coming years and if you want to get to grips with it now, buy this course!