General midi player vst how to#
General midi player vst software#

It’s like putting a list of sheet music on a puppeteer in front of a piano player. In fact, outputting your MIDI track to an external instrument (like a digital piano) or to a virtual instrument is a way to make this MIDI track sound. You can output your MIDI track to one of your digital piano’s channels or to any virtual instrument (VST plugin or stand-alone).

General midi player vst software#

Yes going forwards, this is one of the biggest advancements of many contemporary music software platforms – that you can keep MIDI and audio tracks together. As we mentioned above, MIDI tracks are easy to edit, including after your performance.Ĭan’t play a wide arpeggio? Draw it with a mouse and set your MIDI track to play, even while you record it as an audio track. Just play it and the machine will do the rest by writing it down for you.Īnd of course, MIDI is a convenient way to save your performance for an audio recording. So nowadays you don’t need to be adept at writing sheet music to score your tune. MIDI is also a format for all the music notation software. Need to practice your part at home at a lower tempo but want to hear the whole band? You can play the simulation of your band with a MIDI file at any tempo. As said above, MIDI technology is like having an orchestra at your fingertips.ĭid your bass player get the flu and can’t play at tonight’s gig? Record his part as a MIDI track, run it at the gig with a VST bass, and play your solo. The answer is that sometimes you need your music to be performed by someone else, including your computer or smart device. So then, what can you do with MIDI files and why would you need them? A MIDI file with one of Bach’s Preludes will probably require 10-15 kb. In addition, MIDI information doesn’t take up too much space. It will play the same amount of sound programs (patches) as it has MIDI Outputs. Note: To play a few different sound programs simultaneously, your digital piano, synth, or VST instrument must support a multichannel MIDI format. One more great feature of the MIDI format is that it is easy and convenient to edit after an initial recording. In this way you can change a sound program that your instrument uses, at any desired point.įor example, you may wish to use a thicker sound for the coda of your piece, with a pad or strings layered under your favorite piano tone. Moreover, you can store information like the change of a program. Let’s say that when you record your MIDI track, you tell your devices: “Dear computer, please order my dearest piano to play staccato sixteenths in the second bar and ritenuto in the eighth, and to change tempo in bar number 45.“

General midi player vst how to#

Thus creating a MIDI file is essentially creating instructions for a computer on how to order an electronic instrument to play sounds. When you play this MIDI file back from your host program or other MIDI player, your computer sends these MIDI messages back to your instrument, telling it what and how to play. All these messages are sent to your computer and recorded as a MIDI file. When you press a key on your keyboard, a sustain pedal, or use any other controller that your instrument has, you generate MIDI messages that tell which key was pressed, how much pressure was used for it, how long a note was held, etc. It was invented in the 1980s and is a protocol that allows computers and electronic musical instruments to communicate with each other. So, what is MIDI and how you can use these files? Let’s break it down and you’ll see that it’s much easier to understand than you think.įirst of all, MIDI is an abbreviation for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. On the other hand, when recording a MIDI track, you are recording MIDI data. Thus, when recording an audio track, you are recording the sound. Instead, MIDI contains the information of the MIDI messages that are generated by your electronic musical instrument when you are playing it. The principal difference between audio and MIDI data is that audio consists of information on sound, like frequencies and amplitude, while MIDI data doesn’t. If you are a musician and are going to make recordings, a good starting point is to understand the difference between audio and MIDI formats.