A virtuoso MIDI drummer and trying to explain MIDI to Mom....

-- Michael Stone --

Yesterday, I posted a video that showed the slower tedious, but effective way to program MIDI drums. At the same time I also sent this video to a number of musical friends demonstrating Brandon Bush's mastery of MIDI drumming via the keyboard.
http://vimeo.com/4682836 ... Pretty amazing stuff.

"Spies Like Us" - Keyboard Drums Jam from Andrew Aversa on Vimeo.

I got a note back from my Mom asking , "What are MIDI skills?" I tried to explain. It's long winded but you may find it of interest.
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Hi Mom..

OK let me try to explain what MIDI is. It stands for :MIDI (short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) a music industry standard communications protocol that lets MIDI instruments and sequencers (or computers running sequencer software) talk to each other to play and record music.

Nowadays many musical "instruments" are software that play specific instruments ie: horns, organ, piano, strings. The resulting sound that is recorded in the computer is comparable if not better than the actual "live" instrument, though sometimes lacking the 'feel" a live musician brings to a tune.

The "instruments" are "triggered" by an external keyboard, ie: synthesizer or digital piano. The information as to loudness, velocity with which you strike the keys on the keyboard are all turned into digital data that in turn makes the software play the sounds that the musician has chosen. See those organ lessons did pay off :)

All of these sounds can then manipulated to increase velocity with which the note is hit, sustain of note, pitch. and a host of other alterations that can be adjusted using the software as determined by the musician.

These sounds like strings, organ, flute, piano, bass, drums etc. , can then be layered over each other to create the complete band. Throw in some "live" musicians on guitar or other instruments and you've got a production.

You said the "drummer" in the video I sent looked like he was barely touching the keys as he laid down the drum tracks. That was what made the video so incredible is the virtuosity with which he had developed his skills.

Examples of all of this, MIDI and live are on the songs from my CD....

* All drums on ALL of my songs are using MIDI and played/programmed by David Wohl, EXCEPT, "Believe" (MIDI drums- Dimitrius Liolos - Athens Greece) and "To Be Free." ) (LIVE drums by Elad Fish in LA -see note below)

* The drums on "Believe" were played/programmed via MIDI by Dimitrius Liolis in Athens Greece.

*The gorgeous strings on "Will you stay" were MIDI performed by David Wohl.

* The flute on the song 'Blue Eyed Friend" is actually played by me using a MIDI keyboard.

* The saxophone on "Today" is me playing keyboard with MIDI.

* All the guitars are played by me except on "To Be Free" and "We should've been fiends." Additional bass and electric guitars were provided by Asef Rodeh and Guy Bartor, musicians in Israel.

* The LIVE saxophones on "We should've been friends" were provided by Dan Cipriano in NY.

* The LIVE horns on "Heaven Can Wait" were performed by Jim Miller in Paris, TX.

As you can see all of this was a large collaborative effort involving both live and MIDI instrumentation. And all of that for ONLY 8 songs, not really many songs considering most cds nowadays come with 10 plus songs. But it was the best I could do ( and afford). Did I make money on this ? Not even close, but it really is all about the creative effort and the realization of my musical vision, and all in all I was very pleased.

Of course I'm looking to improve on all of that on the newest project. Fingers crossed that I can accomplish this new quest, I've set forward.

Many times my Becky asks me why I write these blogs and do all of these OCD things that I do. Good question, but every once in a while they do pay off.

See the note below from Elad Fish. He's a producer and incredible drummer in LA (To Be Free) What he's offered is a great value...

This was all long winded, but I hope it helps you understand the process behind the music.

Love you!
Me

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From Elad:

Hi Michael,
I hope all's well. Long time no see..

I saw your blog on AudioPros.com and fell in LOVE. :) (http://audiopros.blogspot.com/2009/06/creating-midi-drum-tracks.html)

You are really talented writer. I like it!

I was thinking: "What if your next post will be about LIVE drum tracks?"

I noticed that the song in the video on your home page (http://michaelstonemusic.com/index.html) has midi drums... Would you be interested in drum track from one of StudioPros.com's drummers ?

Elad.
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My answer to Elad !

Hell yes.... !!
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Let me tell you about the difference between a "live" drummer and a MIDI drummer in my humble opinion. THERE IS NO COMPARISON.

A good "live" drummer, such as Elad or his crew at StudioPros.com will always outshine a MIDI created drum part.

I used Elad's talents on "To Be Free", as well as StudioPro's, Asef Rodeh and Guy Bartor on guitar and bass on several tracks you can listen to below. We also used MIDI on many other tracks, mainly because of budget constraints.

Either way this is such an incredible way for musicians get quality players on their own tracks.

I'll be using my friends at StudioPros.com in the future and hope to be able to chronicle this process on this blog. I hope you'll find it useful and of interest.