It’s been a while that I haven’t had the luxury to browse the internet freely as they sent me to a project in Indonesia’s most remote island (Papua). The internet security was quite tight there, I suppose they try to make sure no negative publicity was transmitted to the outside world.
Well, I think it’s time for me to share some of my experiences which I have gathered for few years working with Electronic music that has been getting cheaper these days. Ten years ago no one on earth would ever imagine that they can make a decent demo very quickly with just about Rp 2 million rupiahs (around USD 220) budget. But to tell you the truth, I’m not a real musician who I know will devote their lives in entertaining others: gigging, composing interesting music for larger audiences, etc. I’m more like bedroom musician who likes to amuse myself by fooling around with multiple gears which I accumulated over time and produce my own type of music. However, I believe that I have learnt a lot from those hours of tweaking and I think my knowledge can benefit those who just begin to record themselves with modest recording gear.
The objective of this article is not to give you a complete lecture on one of the most powerful invention in the world of music: MIDI or detailed explanation on Digital Audio. There are a lot of books and web-sites that contain those materials (ask me if you need to know). Instead, this brief guidelines are expected to provide you, hidden gifted guitarist (not like myself, few years back I already realized that I was not that talented), with some major steps on utilizing the digital technology in producing a decent and impressive demo. I truly believe that it is very difficult to produce a Major Label recording quality with some modest equipment and audio environment not designated for recording, but I think by knowing some basic rules on MIDI composing and Recording, you can avoid some unnecessary results.
So…before you proceed to read the entire articles, some basic knowledge on MIDI and digital music are necessary because I won’t explain the basic stuff. Some experience in using any MIDI instrument or controller (in fact some Digital Multieffects are MIDI devices) will tremendously help you understand what I’m talking about here. Being computer literate is a must (But I guess everybody is, otherwise how can you read this article?). But most of all, being open minded to keep looking for all possibilities is a big asset, and only your creativity is the limit….
So….you’re alone with no band….here’s the workaround
Many guitarists are left alone when they want to pursue their own musical interest. If you are in a band sometimes you need to compromise your musical ideas for the sake of band’s interest. As a soloing guitarist, you can either get other dummy musicians to join you so you can become the leader, or you need to pay other professional players to provide the backing track for your music/solo. But if the purpose is only to produce a demo, there is a more economical way to produce the background music for your solo: MIDI. Since its first introduction in the eighties, the development of MIDI has enabled musicians to express their musical better and better. Many professional studios have been employing MIDI sequencer to lay some backing tracks for Big Hits recording. Only necessary acoustic instruments such as Drum and Guitars are recorded to complement the basic tracks. Some music genres like Hip Hop and R&B completely rely on MIDI for building the music.
Many sophisticated sequencer products have been deployed to the market: Sonar, Cubase, etc. They all provide the easiest way to lay down MIDI tracks and to perform quick editing. Thousands of virtual instruments provide a huge range of realistic sounds to liven the MIDI track. Some MIDI plugins were also developed to ‘humanize’ MIDI track which makes it difficult for ordinary people to differentiate it from live recording. Bottom line is: at the time of this writing, we already have all the tools at our disposal. What we need to focus on is creating the music, not addicted to trying the latest tools (like myself, bad example, sigh!). Now let me guide you through the simple process to create the basic MIDI tracks for your recording. Read on….