Article by: Terry Wilhite

What's the difference in MIDI and digital audio?
You can produce two types of digital information using your computer or a digital workstation. The first is MIDI. The other is digital audio. You can use both independently and with the right software, use both simultaneously to create some really neat music. MIDI reminds me of the piano rolls that scroll on vintage player pianos. MIDI is nothing more than a series of commands that tell a digital instrument what to play and how to play it. It is not audio. That means that MIDI file sizes for even lengthy pieces of music are small. Digital audio is another story. When you input sound into your computer and it is converted to digital audio, large amounts of hard drive space are required. What does this mean? General MIDI ensures the assigned instruments play. But just as my piano at home sounds a little different than the one at the church, the MIDI file recorded on your keyboard may sound a little different when it is played back on my synthesizer. Digital audio, in contrast, is just like a CD. It sounds the same. With digital audio, if you want an oboe to play a part, instead of a flute, you have to re-record the entire track. With MIDI, you can re-assign instruments to the appropriate MIDI channel and not have to record anything new.

Can you turn digital audio into MIDI?
Software is available that takes sound from an acoustical instrument or your voice and turns that into a MIDI file which can then be played on a MIDI instrument. You can have a flute, for example, play the part you hummed into the microphone and computer. But you can’t hear your voice played back with MIDI. That’s a job for digital audio. With MIDI, software can turn the information into musical notation so you can print sheet music. You can’t do that with multiple digital audio tracks. So, you ask, can you turn MIDI into digital audio? In a basic set up, you can take the audio outputs (sound played by a MIDI file) from your keyboard and run them into the inputs of your computer or audio workstation and record what you hear as digital audio. (Some keyboards like Yamaha’s Motif series, records MIDI as digital audio in a single step.)

What kind of software do I need to record?
You can find sequencing software that only records MIDI information or software that does both MIDI and digital audio. Musical information that is recorded via MIDI is called a sequence and the recording software is called a sequencer. Many synthesizers have built-in sequencers. When you use a computer for sequencing, however, you have the advantage of seeing what you’ve played as digital information on screen. Editing is much easier. You can also buy software, such as Cubase, that records MIDIand digital audio. You can control the volume and other parameters of MIDI using the on-screen information. It’s also easy to pick which MIDI tracks you display as musical notation on screen or print. You can easily record different instruments for each of your MIDI channels and easily change instrumentation in real time.

Is digital audio easier than tape?
Once you’ve used digital recording software, you’ll wonder how you ever recorded with a tape recorder. You can do tight edits and precision placements of sound effects because you see sounds as waves on screen. You edit the wave drawings on the screen and consequently the sound that accompanies it. If you’re looking for very good software to record tracks for pageant sound effects or accompaniment tapes, digital audio recording software such as Cubase will providing an amazing solution.

What does it take to have a home studio?
You can either purchase a stand alone recording setup, like Yamaha’s AW16G or have your computer as the “hub” for your recording studio. In fact, you can add a controller to your computer-based set up, so that you’re not trapped into using your mouse to affect the one screen sliders and buttons. If you have a fairly speedy computer processor, you already have the most important part of a home or office recording setup. You can find recording software priced from $30 to $400, depending on what you want to accomplish. A device such as Yamaha’s O1X combines a controller and a mixer so that multiple audio sources are connected to the O1X, then the signals are shipped, still in their individual state, to the computer via Firewire.

Of course, you could use a traditional audio mixer to combine sound sources and pump the mixed sound into the computer, but that eliminates the chance of being able to edit each sound source later.

Additionally, you need a good set of speakers (studio monitors). If you don’t buy amplified speakers (powered monitors), you’ll need an amplifier to power them. By the way, when you’re planning your purchases, don’t forget to budget for good high-gauge cables.

How difficult is it to use these tools?
Using MIDI and digital audio is not all that difficult. As with all software, there is a learning curve. However, software manufacturers are releasing very intuitive programs and many have DVD tutorials, which are always an advantage! You can always find support on the Internet too.