Hi guys,

I've been using a tracker in the old days. Then I used reason and Live!
Now...if I want to do something I use automation in both programs. I understand that each parameter can be automated. I get/understand routing cables in Reason (more or less). What I don't get is where midi actually comes in.

What can midi do for me? Other than using a midi keyboard to play in the notes and use the pitch bend wheel. What 'fx' stuff can I use? Where do midi commands fit in? What are available? Can I program them without using a midi controller? For example: can I automate this stuff programmatically? And what commands are available....

For example: when I record the pitch bend wheel, I don't see the automation for it in Live!. I do see it in Reason and can edit it. But it goes only so far as the pitch wheel goes. Is that the limitation of midi pitch bend? In the tracker, I could pitch bend to extremes....

Now I don't want to focus on the pitch bend..it's just that I feel like I'm missing out on a whole world of technology :p How do I get a grasp on this?

:)

Wikipedia : midi - go forth and read and then learn.

hmm good idea :)

Midi is a rather old protocol for musical instruments and devices such as sequencers to control each other. The concepts inside a host are not that different, but as long as the control messages remain inside the host it's not actual midi messages but an internal format. Only when communicating with devices outside the host it becomes midi.

See for example http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181528

Usually it's the patch of the instrument that defines the pitch bend range itself. By sending a specific Registered Parameter you can tell the instrument the pitch bend range you'd like.
http://www.midi.org/techspecs/midimessages.php#3a
But since this is not always implemented you should look at the GUI of the instrument for defining this in the patch/program itself.

Yes, much can be done with midi note on/off/parameter lists simply by selecting the function and moving the pointer over note displays.

For example:
increment note-values within the overall scale, or note-times within the
stored set of on-times playing, or from other stored contents.
Slowly morph the playing contents to sound like the other contents,
and so-on.

Lots of methods to create arps or add-on midi too...

A midi cable is actually a very tiny pipe. When you hit a note on your keyboard it pumps a tiny gnome through the pipe at ridiculously fast speeds in to your sound card. The gnome then gets inside your computer and hits a note on the instrument you are playing. What really amazes me is how many different tiny instruments your computer can actually fit in there.

Okay, smarty-pants, now explain magnets! Here's a palette of juggalo/juggalette makeup.

exactly what I was thinking when I saw the thread title

You have to use the drop down menu on the track in the Arrangement View to select the pitch bend, or whatever parameter you've automated, before you can see it.

buffer gnomes

Ah :) thanks it's much clearer now.
Still a lot to learn though... :)



Gnomes....so thaaats it. Midi is just a communication protocol that deploys gnomes hehe. Reminds me of the http communication protocol via the use of Pigeons.

Ive been terrfied of Gnomes for longer than i can remember! there so vile and shit

whooaah - gonna get the chucky from Child's Play nightmares again!

The obligatory South Park reference:

collect MIDI messages --> ? --> Profit